Management Style Comparisons Among Five European Nations

Abstract

Abstract Economic integration appears to be continuing as the foreign policy paradigm of choice for nations seeking to lower trade barriers and encourage synergy of resource allocation among two or more sovereign nations. When analyzing the impact on both foreign and domestic firms, the phenomenon is typically evaluated using economic variables such as balances of trade, taxes and perhaps administrative restrictions. Although the concept of economic compatibility and gains from integration can be traced all the way back to David Ricardo, little has been done to evaluate the psychological aspects of integrating management personnel from varied cultural backgrounds and their associated management styles into eclectic decision-making teams. Executives from a diverse collection of EU member nations were assessed in terms of their management style to determine if substantive cultural differences exist in the way decision making is made. The findings indicate that substantive differences indeed do exist between managers from different cultural backgrounds and that further investigation into this aspect of economic integration is warranted. Key Words: Management styleEuropean union countriesdecision makingeconomic integration