UNDERSTANDING GLOBAL CULTURES Metaphorical Journeys Through 17 Countries

With a unique perspective on global multiculturalism and diversity, this book introduces a new method, the cultural metaphor, for understanding easily and quickly the cultural mindset of a nation and comparing it to other nations. Martin J Gannon identifies a key aspect of a nation′s culture that most exemplifies the essence of that country. The characteristics of that metaphor become the basis for describing and understanding the cultural mindset of a society, the manner in which its members think, feel and behave, simply because they are members of that culture. 17 nations are examined in this manner.

Understanding Global Cultures is challenging, provocative, and essential reading for scholars, students and international business and policy professionals who must come to grips with today′s global environment.

Martin J. Gannon (Ph.D., Graduate School of Business, Columbia University) is Professor Emeritus of Strategy and International Management at both the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland at College Park and the College of Business Administration, California State University San Marcos.  He is a three-time recipient of the Fulbright Professorship Award (West Germany, 1981-82; Thailand, 1987; and Austria, 2017-18). 

His other awards include: 1) The Outstanding Educator Award, International Division, 2014, Academy of Management, the largest and best known management and teaching organization in the world; 2) the University of Maryland’s International Landmark Award for his contributions in the global area, 2003; and 3) the Lifetime Achievement Award, Who’s Who in America, 2018.  See below for additional awards.

Professor Gannon has been a Senior Research Fulbright Fellow in West Germany; the John F. Kennedy Foundation/Fulbright Professor at Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand; and the Fulbright Professor, Johannes Kepler University, Austria.  He has also been a visiting professor at the London Business School, Bocconi University (Italy), University College - Dublin, the University of Lodz (Poland), Wuhan University, Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok), and the University of Kassel and Tubingen University in Germany, and has lectured at many other universities in the world. 

 

At the Smith School of Business he served as the Acting Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Founding Director of the Center for Global Business, Chairperson of the Faculty of Management and Organization, Co-founder and Co-director of the Small Business Development Center, and the Founding Director of the College Park Scholars Program in Business, Society, and the Economy (an undergraduate living-learning community).  He is the author of over 100 articles and papers as well as 13 books, some in multiple editions and translations (Korean, Spanish, and Italian).  He recently completed a draft of his 20^th book.  See below.

 

Professor Gannon has emphasized three overlapping areas of programmatic or in-depth research: International management and behavior; business strategy; and the contingent workforce, particularly studies of temporary help employment. Much of his work in international management and behavior is described in depth in the book, Understanding Global Cultures: Metaphorical Journeys Through 31Nations, Clusters of Nations, Continents, and Diversity, 5^th Edition (Sage, May, 2012, c. 2013, 639 pages; Korean translation, Myung In Publishers, 2013). Rajnandini Pillai joined him as co-author after the 3^rd edition. The 6^th edition was published in 2016 and includes 34 national cultures and their corresponding 34 cultural metaphors.  Although the publisher wanted a 7^th edition, Professor Gannon decided to pursue other writing opportunities.

 

In this book Gannon introduced the concept of the cultural metaphor to describe the culture of a specific nation.  He defines a cultural metaphor as any institution, phenomenon or activity with which a nation’s citizens identify emotionally and/or cognitively, for example, the Swedish stuga or unadorned summer and weekend home. He then uses these metaphors and their distinctive features as frameworks to describe in depth the values and the associated business activities in each nation. The 6th and latest edition is divided into a fourteen-part framework to classify these 34 nations and their respective cultural metaphors, clusters of nations, continents, and diversity within nations into different types, e.g., authority ranking and market pricing national cultures as separate parts. 

 

In 2018 he was the senior author of a unique study of 28 cross-cultural experts.  The goal was the analysis of the relative advantages and disadvantages of the three most popular methods of comparing and contrasting national cultures: The dimensional perspective as represented by Geert Hofstede and other cross-cultural analysts; the cultural metaphor; and the cultural paradoxical approach.  See the publications below for this and other references. 

 

He recently completed a draft of his 20^th book, A Memoir of Management Insights: The Strategic Realistic Method for Life and Career Success.  It combines three separate perspectives: A memoir; the management insights that the author has achieved through his many and varied activities; and a career or self-help book.  As in the case of his other books, this one is unique.  It is currently with an agent, who plans to submit it to 12 major publishers.

 

In the area of contingent employment, he has written many articles that have appeared in such journals as The Academy of Management Review, the Journal of Applied Psychology, and Industrial Relations.  He is also the senior co-author of  "Managing Without A Complete, Full-Time Workforce," that appeared in Flood, Gannon, Pauuwe, and Associates, Managing Without Traditional Methods: International Innovations in Human Resource Management (Addison-Wesley, 1996). 

 

In the area of business strategy, he is the co-author of the  Dynamics of Competitive Strategy (Sage, 1992), in which the authors develop a unique communication-information model of competitive interaction among firms in an industry, describe new methods for analyzing competitive moves and responses, and test hypotheses about such competitive interactions in four major industries.  Mr. Gannon is also the co-author of Strategic Management Skills (Addison-Wesley, 1986), which was a pioneering effort to train MBA students and managers in strategic case analysis and written and oral presentation skills.  In 2008 Ofer Meilich and Martin Gannon published an article, “Redefining Value: Comparative Video Case Studies of Charles Shaw Winery and Thomas Kincade,” in the Journal of Strategic Management Education.

 

As indicated above, Mr. Gannon’s research and writing have appeared in over 100 articles and papers.  Journals in which he has published include the Academy of Management Journal, The Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Industrial Relations, Monthly Labor Review, California Management Review, Business Horizons, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Business Venturing, International Journal of Management, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Business & the Contemporary World, and the Journal of Accountancy.

 

Further, Professor Gannon has published several textbooks, including Management: Managing for Results (Allyn and Bacon, 1988, Spanish translation, 1996); Management: an Organizational Framework (Little, Brown and Co., 1977, and reprinted in a special edition of 10,000 copies by the Life Insurance Institute of America; second edition of this book, 1982); and Organizational Behavior (Little, Brown and Co., 1979).  His organizational framework of management was incorporated into the Introduction to Management course at the Army War College for many years.

 

Professor Gannon has taught a range of courses over a 50-year period for managers, MBA students, EMBA students, undergraduates, and doctoral students.  Currently he enjoys teaching Managing in Different Cultures; Cross-Cultural Negotiations; and Strategic Management. 

 

Professor Gannon has served as a consultant and trainer to a large number of organizations, including Chemical Bank of New York, the U.S. General Accounting Office, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the Upjohn Company, the American Federation of Government Employees, ARINC, Northrop-Grumman and GEICO Insurance.  At GEICO he was the only external consultant on the design and presentation of the annual week-long Senior Management Training Program for ten years from which those promoted to Director and above were selected.. At Northrop-Grumman he served as the University of Maryland Academic Director of the IMPACT Training Program (International Management Program and Compliance Training), an internal certificate program required for advancement to international management positions. In 2008 he received a Career Contribution Award from GEICO.   Professor Gannon has served on and chaired numerous committees in universities and professional/academic associations.  He has lived and lectured in over 30 nations for various periods of time extending from one week to a year or more.