I n today’s global eco nomy, it is increas ingly dif fi cult to fi nd a com pany whose busi ness activ it ies do not cross national bor ders. For instance, Jeep, iden ti fi ed in a recent poll as the quint es sen tial American brand, is now mar ket ing a Grand Cherokee SUV built on a chassis shared with Italian auto man u fac turer Fiat. Among a rank ing of cars and trucks deemed “most American” on the basis of domestic parts con tent and assembly, Japanese man u facturer Toyota’s Camry ranks num ber two and Honda’s Odyssey is num ber four. American soft drink man u fac turer PepsiCo is a major player in snack food mar kets in Ukraine, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan. European air craft man u fac turer Airbus assembles its A320 jet liner in a plant loc ated in Brookley, Alabama. More than half of British con sumer products giant Unilever’s sales are in emer ging mar kets, includ ing Indonesia, Brazil, and India. In these examples and many oth ers, to refer to a com pany as “American,” “Japanese,” or “English” does not yield an accur ate pic ture of the fi rm’s mul tina tional reach. 1

With mul tina tion al iz a tion and glob al iz a tion come dif fer ences in nation al ity and cul ture within organ iz a tions that can have sig ni fi c ant effects on micro, meso, and macro organ iz ational beha vior. These dif fer ences can com plic ate the jobs of con tem por ary man agers because they require that man age ment prac tices developed in one cul tural region be mod i fi ed for use in oth ers. Managers in these cir cum stances must take inter na tional dif fer ences into con sid era tion if they expect to gain com pet it ive advant age from cul tural diversity and suc ceed in global mar kets.