ABSTRACT
This chapter examines cross-national and intra-national diversity in international firms. Firms are sometimes reluctant to send women and minorities to certain countries because of local biases. On a broader level, the most functional approach for managing cultural diversity issues is synergistic multiculturalism, which involves being open to the positive aspects of all cultures and leveraging cultural differences in ways that benefit the firm. Diversity and other differences in strategic direction and firm-level issues are also important to understand, again through the lens of cultural differences. Formal and informal mechanisms can be used by international firms to make key decisions and diffuse information across their far-flung corporate empires. Multinationals must realize that if fair processes are used to make strategic decisions, managers worldwide are more likely to behave accordingly and follow through to support them. The chapter discusses the methods to instill fairness when developing their international strategies.
