ABSTRACT
Cross-cultural organizational psychology is concerned with two basic questions: First, do organizations located in different countries differ with respect to organizational characteristics, behavior of members or the interrelationship between these two, and, second, can these differences be explained in terms of culture? Increasing globalization and internationalization characterize today and tomorrow in the industrial world. An intriguing question in cross-cultural organizational psychology is whether this internationalization leads to a more common organizational culture world wide, in other words, to increased convergence? The position argued here is that although organizational structures and strategies may converge, organizational practices and the way these are worked out, perceived, and appreciated across countries, are still quite dissimilar. Research from the GLOBE study on leadership is described as an example. This research shows that although attributes associated with charismatic leadership are universally valued, this does not imply similar enactment of such characteristics across cultures. In general terms, internationalization does induce convergence of certain organizational characteristics. However, looking more specifically at behavior and processes reveals many cultural specific qualities and ways of enactment of such characteristics.
