Tomasz Lenartowicz

Bio: Tomasz Lenartowicz is an academic researcher from Florida Atlantic University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Rokeach Value Survey & Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory. The author has an hindex of 19, co-authored 32 publications receiving 2794 citations. Previous affiliations of Tomasz Lenartowicz include University of Texas at Austin.

Cross-cultural competence in international business: toward a definition and a model

Abstract: Many international business failures have been ascribed to a lack of cross-cultural competence (CC) on the part of business practitioners. However, the international business literature appears to lack an adequate conceptualization and definition of the term ‘CC’, focusing instead on the knowledge, skills and attributes that appear to be its antecedents. In this conceptual study, we propose a definition of CC as it applies to international business and develop a model for understanding how CC is nurtured in individuals, linking our definition to the concept of cultural intelligence. We discuss the components of the model and suggest that there are environmental and contextual impediments to the effective application of the requisite skills, knowledge and attributes that have been identified as necessary for CC, resulting in a gap between ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’. We conclude by discussing the implications of the model for practitioners, and by suggesting appropriate directions for further research.

Measuring Hofstede's Five Dimensions of Cultural Values at the Individual Level: Development and Validation of CVSCALE

Abstract: Hofstede's (1980 and 2001) renowned five-dimensional measure of cultural values is the overwhelmingly dominant metric of culture. His measure has been used as a contextual variable, but it is often required to directly measure cultural values for individual consumers or managers. The purpose of this research is to respond to the call for developing a psychometrically sound measure of Hofstede's culture at the individual level. Past research in this area has developed a scale for only one of Hofstede's dimensions, a highly work-oriented scale, or a scale with poor reliability. By overcoming every major weakness of past studies, this research offers CVSCALE, a 26-item five-dimensional scale of individual cultural values that assesses Hofstede's cultural dimensions at the individual level. The scale shows adequate reliability, validity, and across-sample and across-national generalizability.

Does Subculture Within a Country Matter? A Cross-Cultural Study of Motivational Domains and Business Performance in Brazil

Abstract: This study examines the effects of within-country subcultures on business outcomes. We first argue that individuals' values vary across subcultures. We then suggest that values, as expressed through motivational domains, influence business performance. Finally, joining these two propositions, we posit that business performance will vary by subculture. Based on data from four regional subcultures in Brazil, a subculture effect was found for both motivational domains and business performance. The results suggest that it is important to consider the cultural variation within a country when examining business outcomes.

A Framework for Culture Assessment

Abstract: Understanding the nature and influences of culture is central to international business. Such inquiry presupposes knowing that the cultural grouping(s) of a study is a valid unit of analysis, which is critical in that the estimation of culture effects can vary based on the unit definition. Unfortunately, perhaps out of convenience, international studies often simply use a country-based definition of culture. In a desire to facilitate further development in understanding culture effects, in this paper, we propose a framework by which valid cultural groupings may be assessed.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

Abstract: How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company

Abstract: How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy

Abstract: The Study of Man. By Michael Polanyi. Price, $1.75. Pp. 102. University of Chicago Press, 5750 Ellis Ave., Chicago 37, 1959. One subtitle to Polanyi's challenging and fascinating book might be The Evolution and Natural History of Error , for Polanyi is at pains to expunge what he believes to be the false notion contained in the contemporary view of science which treats it as an object and basically impersonal discipline. According to Polanyi not only is this a radical and important error, but it is harmful to the objectives of science itself. Another subtitle could be Farewell to Detachment , for in place of cold objectivity he develops the idea that science is necessarily intensely personal. It is a human endeavor and human point of view which cannot be divorced from nor uprooted out of the human matrix from which it arises and in which it works. For a good while

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Abstract: What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.