ABSTRACT
Globalization is one of the central themes of the 21st century, Goods, information, and people move across countries and continents at unprecedented speed. For instance, the volume of trade between the United States and other countries has increased exponentially over the past few years. In 2000, U.S.exports equaled $1,068,741 million whereas imports totaled $1,437,606 million (Bureau of the Census, Foreign Trade Division, 2001). Regarding the exchange of information, hundreds of millions of individuals can now communicate instantly across continents using the Internet. In addition to the international transfer of goods and information, immigration movements in Europe (e.g., from the former Soviet bloc and Northern Africa to Western European countries), the Americas (e.g., from South and Central America to the United States), and Asia (e.g., from mainland China to Hong Kong) show that people are also moving across national boundaries. Finally, the formation of economic blocs has made it even easier to transfer goods, information, and people within these blocs. Examples of these economic blocs include North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR), European Union (EU), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Andean Pact, and Central American Common Market. In short, globalization is no longer an abstract concept and it affects the daily lives of millions of people around the world. The field of organizational behavior (OB) must adapt to this new reality and place greater emphasis on cross-cultural issues or it risks becoming a parochial dinosaur with the level of curiosity of a “mid-twentiethcentury fossil” (Boyacigiller & Adler, 1991, p. 263). The fact that this chapter is included in the second edition of Organizational Behavior: The State of the
Science is a good indication that cross-cultural OB is becoming a mainstream topic.
