Cross-cultural Management and Its Importance in the ASEAN Region

“Cross-cultural” management involves offering a comparison between two or more different cultures or cultural regions. Managing cross-cultural diversity in the workplace requires an ability to carry out a comparison between cultures that exist in a typical multicultural workplace both efficiently and effectively.

Cross-cultural management involves dealing effectively with interacting individuals’ socially constructed cultural backgrounds, so as to reduce differences and develop synergy. This skill is thus essential for executives, managers, project managers and leaders.

Knowledge of cross-cultural diversity is particularly important in the ASEAN region, as competitive multinational companies seeking to expand their businesses have opened their business units or developed partnerships in the ASEAN region, where they can effectively exploit reduced labour and production costs. Thus, in today’s emerging ASEAN, local executives and workers are working alongside their international counterparts, making cross-cultural management a vital necessity.