ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some of the essential ways in which the empirical reality of managing cross-culturally and the theoretical approaches to understanding such activity, have evolved over time. The role of the cross-cultural manager involved understanding the nature and extent of the cultural difference between the headquarters of the firm and any given the subsidiary location, so that, depending on firm strategy and what it needed out of operating in a given country site, the necessary adjustments could be made. The cross-cultural manager as a corporate actor was tasked with implementing control, transferring knowledge, ensuring integration, with the cultural differences as a possible obstacle and challenge that may get in the way. Recognizing the socio-political actorhood of the cross-cultural manager therefore promises to contribute to our understanding not merely of the contemporary world of business, but indeed of the zeitgeist.
