of the 1990s includes a growing tendency to develop alliances between business organizations from different countries, as opposed to simply locating facilities in a host country (Harrison, 1990, p. 72). In such an environment, ethnocentrism and cultural imperialism are simply not tolerated. An intercultural approach is demanded, if success is to be attained.
Robert Reich (1990, p. 12), the Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration, stated that corporations are defined by their workers, not by their country of origin. Thus, he can argue that Zenith is not the only American producer of television sets, as that company claims. He goes further, he claims that Zenith is not even the largest American television set producer. He cites the Thompson Company of France, which employs 6,500 in six American plants manufacturing television sets (American Zenith employs 5,000 people in two American plants manufacturing television sets). The point of this information (in the context of this research) is that non American multinationals operating on ever larger scales in the United States must also be prepared to function in a multicultural environment (Herr and Spiro, 1990, pp. 80 81), just as their American counterparts must do in countries outside the United States (Stewart, 1990, pp. 58 59). In the emerging global economy, the successful multinational firm will be the organization that learns to live effectively in a wide variety of cultural environments. The organizations that fail to develop effective intercultural relations will eventually become also rans. To assure success in global operations, one essential is for corporations to assure that they have effective expatriate managers (Foxman and Polsky, 1991, p. 38). Failed expatriate managerial assignments cost multinational firms between $150,000 and $1 million per failed assignment (Caudron, 1991, p. 27; Thompson, 1992, p. 60).
An essential component of any organizatio...