Managing an increasingly diverse IT population requires cross-cultural competencies. A global, agile, virtual, matrixed, e-business on demand organization should be able to build effectiveness across national, organizational, team, and interpersonal barriers. Successful cross-cultural IT managers typically are flexible and possess a broad behavioral repertoire.
Culture is the complex pattern of ideas, emotions and observable behaviors that tend to be expected, reinforced, and rewarded by and within a particular group. You can most easily understand and observe culture at four levels:
National
Individual
Team
Organizational
Culture is not an inherited characteristic. It is shaped by what we learn in the context of our social group or category. Culture goes beyond narrow nationalistic definitions.
