ABSTRACT
This final chapter continues the discussion of concerns regarding both managing diversity and how groups operate across cultures. Working with small multicultural teams is tough enough, as shown in earlier chapters. But when larger labor forces are involved, management challenges cut across entire companies, industries, or countries. The field of labor relations deals with these larger employee-firm relationships. These relations are complex to manage, partly because of many differences in laws and agreements across nations, even for those countries so close that they share a border (e.g., France and Spain; the United States and Mexico). They are also tough to manage because the relationship between management and workers has not been altogether smooth. Indeed, in some countries, those relations have been combative, resulting in frequent protests, strikes, and lockouts, as described in the opening quote. Thus, having knowledge about cross-national labor relations can be a valuable asset for international managers.
