ABSTRACT
This is a time in which unprecedented international exchanges are taking place, making the world into a global village much faster than ever before. While Western multinational corporations, international trade, and TV are bringing strong Western influences in consumption and lifestyles in India, Siberia, and other parts of the world (Hochschild, 1998), an increasing number of people in the West are using Indian yogic traditions, meditation practices, and other Asian spiritual traditions for spiritual development. The balance still seems to be tilted in favor of Western influence on the other parts of the world, but today as Indians and other Asians are learning from Western management theories and working on reducing power distances, centralization and hierarchy-based reward systems to empower people at all levels in organizations, Americans are exploring the need and ways to bring soul into the business life (Haessly, 1995), researching Indian spiritual traditions (Brooks, 1997), and comparing concepts of quantum theory with concepts from the spiritual texts of India (Jaworski, 1996). I think the inevitable effects of globalization and liberalization make it more important than ever that applied behavioral scientists identify, create, and find ways of applying knowledge across cultures and not be hesitant or sceptical of cultural influences in the process. The flow of knowledge and ideas needs to be for mutual learning. To quote Hochschild: "This flow of culture across borders would be something to celebrate, rather than mourn, if ideas and images flowed both ways, instead of almost entirely from the United States and Europe to the rest of the world. It would also be something to celebrate if what crossed national boundaries most easily was the best of each culture and not the worst" (Hochschild, 1998, p. 1236).
