ABSTRACT
Having talked about culture and cultural competence in the context of ends, means and meanings (the language connection), and in the context of clashing civilizations (the global connection), let us now look at culture and cultural competence from the perspective of increasingly networked and co-ordinated, organized and planned, co-operation and interaction among individuals and groups. Since most of the complex networks in which individuals regularly interact are composed of formally defined organizations (banks and restaurants, schools and hospitals, churches and discos, clubs and associations, but also and increasingly virtual platforms, chatrooms and online communities), and since formal organizations are usually co-ordinated by managers (even the most democratic and non-hierarchic organizations usually distinguish managerial functions and allocate them selectively), we may call this point of view and this angle of approaching the problems of culture the management connection. In designing organizational cultures we try to account for understanding and communicating (the language connection), for networking and co-operating (the global connection), and for motivating and leading (the management connection).
