s, and have attempted, usually with limited success, to impose an American ethnocentric mandate on host country nationals and organizations.
The practice of ethnocentrism creates an environment of cultural imperialism. The mechanics of cultural imperialism involve attempts to assimilate non Americans into an American or, at least, an American style organization. This arrogance of power is demonstrated in multinational organizational efforts to free host country nationals from the influences of parents, kin, community, and tradition. Assimilation in American multinational corporations has never accorded a great deal of significance to the culture and ethos of the people being assimilated. It has typically been a situation wherein host cultures were expected to adopt the American culture and ethos during assimilation. In such multinational organizational environments, host country nationals are typically considered to be assimilated at that point where they have mastered the English language sufficiently, have learned American behavioral customs sufficiently, and have sublimated their own behavioral customs sufficiently to permit them to function within a mini American society with a minimum of difficulty.
Ethnocentrism remains a powerful force in contemporary American society, and in the conduct of American organizations in other countries. In the 1990s, however, American corporations are discovering that ethnocentric conduct does not generate the best results (Egan, 1990). In the 1990s, a growing number of American multinational corporations are seeking managers who can communicate effectively in a multicultural environment (Tully, 1990).
In the 1990s, the trend is increasingly toward the development of international markets (Blank, 1988). Accordingly, it is incumbent on multinational corporations to acquire the knowledge, and develop the expertise which will permit them to develop marketing strategies for functioning i...