Workshop Invitation

Asia Research Center and Department of International Economics and Management:

Workshop Invitation  

"Power in Knowledge: Taking Cross-cultural Management Knowledge through a Critical Turn"  

by Can-Seng Ooi

ABSTRACT: In the cross-cultural management industry, countries around the world are categorized and described along cultural dimensions. The knowledge of the Other has been transmitted to business students and practitioners to help them operate in other societies. Does the cross-cultural knowledge offered to these people present a particular ideological and geopolitical imagination? By considering views of Hofstede, Hall, Trompenaars and other popular cross-cultural knowledge experts, this presentation takes cross-cultural knowledge through a critical turn. I will demonstrate how this body of (in)famous cross-cultural knowledge, which is largely inappropriate for use in social interaction, has become an insidious method to control the Other. We have to consider alternatives. As this is a new endeavor, your comments and suggestions would be much appreciated.