Jeremy Comfort founded York Associates, UK, nearly thirty years ago. He has trained and coached hundreds of teams and individuals about the challenges of working internationally.

Peter Franklin is a professor of intercultural business and management communication at HTWG Konstanz University of Applied Sciences in Germany. He also teaches at MBA programs in Germany, Britain, China and Switzerland.

Acknowledgements
Foreword by Craig Storti

Introduction

01 Managing internationally
Core competence
Surfacing expectations
Understanding your own cultures
Profiling your own cultures
Best practice: Focused on goals, flexible on approaches
Case study 1: Nora Lundquist

02 Cultures
Competing values?
Power and status in national and organizational cultures
Time in national and organizational cultures
Communication style in national and organizational cultures
Individualism and group-orientation in national and organizational cultures
Performance orientation in national and organizational cultures
Taking the outsider's perspective on your own culture
Profiling other cultures
Best practice: Building a common culture

03 Individuals
Stereotypes
Personality and behaviour - at work and at home
Personality
Connecting the individual and culture
Personality and your international profi le combined
Best practice: Get to know your colleagues
Best practice: The role of leadership
Case study 2: Laurence Berger

04 Situations
Situations
Situational judgement
Culture, personality and situation
Shared values and decision-making skills
Scenarios

05 Direction
The relationship between setting direction and uncertainty
Direction and vision
Results and relationships
Communication styles
Communicating direction: Big picture or detail? Push or pull?
Long- and short-term orientation
Past, present and future
Best practice: Top-down or bottom-up or something else?
Case study 3: Phil Carey

06 Organization and change
Attitudes towards change
Making change happen
Changing organizational structure
Change and cross-cultural mergers and acquisitions
Working in international projects
Working without a leader
Best practice: The four Ps
Case study 4: Pierre Menton

07 Roles
Management roles and styles
Supportive and directive styles
International roles and local roles
The role of the expert and the role of the manager
The role of the influencer
The role of the connecter
The role of the facilitator
Best practice: Defining roles
Case study 5: Sun Mei Ling

08 Support
Why support is so important
Ways of developing yourself
Ways of supporting your colleagues
Ways of developing your team
Case study 6: Nguyen Binh

09 Feedback
Formal and informal feedback
Culture and feedback
Face and feedback
Personality and feedback
Building a feedback culture
Types of feedback
Best practice: Balancing transparency and harmony
Case study 7: Claudia Borges

10 Representing
The importance of representing
The skills of representing
Factors that influence representing
Representing internationally
Tuning into body language
Representing through socialising and building relationships
Best practice: Representing yourself, your team, your company
Case study 8: Talal Hamieh

11 Conflict
Causes of conflict
Attitudes towards conflict
Culturally influenced attitudes towards conflict
Preventing conflict through effective and appropriate communication
Preventing conflict through understanding the context
Resolving conflict: Some options
Best practice: Yourself, the others and trust
Case study 9: Gisela Schaefer

12 Cooperation
The basis for cooperation
Regulating cooperation
Building a common culture to leverage diversity
Best practice: Cooperating in virtual teams
Best practice: Cooperating in international teams
Case study 10: Bracken International

13 Leading
Managers and leaders - managing and leading
Power as the basis for leadership
The heart of leadership
'Doing' leadership
Being a leader
How leadership may differ from culture to culture
What leaders have in common across cultures
Case study 11: Leila Mehmet

Case-study answers
Situational judgement commentaries
Profiles of the managers quoted
Glossary
References
Index