Cognition, Culture and Management Research


Mark Peterson, Florida Atlantic University

Professor Peterson will give a presentation about cognition and culture that focuses on one of the chapters of the Handbook of Cross Cultural Management Research that he is writing himself.
The handbook orientation:
The first three chapters offer perspectives on basic theoretical and methodological issues originating mainly within psychology, sociology, and anthropology, which find their way into research that is covered in many of the more focused chapters that follow. Following these introductory chapters, Section 2 centers on the psychological characteristics and processes that link individuals to their organizations and nations. A recurring theme in these chapters is the psychological dynamic that arises as people try to reconcile their motivations, commitments, and identities with the organizational and national contexts that they inhabit. In Section 3, discussion turns to social psychological and sociological approaches to the complexity that cultural considerations add to the various interpersonal and group process issues that occur in organizations. Whereas chapters in the preceding sections include both comparative and intercultural topics, the chapters in the final section deal specifically with intercultural issues in managing multinational organizations. The topics selected for each section are those that are currently represented by substantial bodies of international management research.
The chapters not only represent different topics, but also entail the authors’ different viewpoints on national culture, social science theory and research methods. In the four chapters that comprise the present section, we seek to complement this diversity of views and topics by providing a framework which gives coherence both to the present arrangement of chapters and to the broader field of contemporary cross-cultural management research


About the speaker
Dr. Mark F. Peterson is the Internet Coast Adams Professor of Management and International Business Florida Atlantic University. His principal interest is in how culture and international relations affect the way organizations should be managed. He has published over 80 articles and chapters, a similar number of conference papers, and several books. The articles have appeared in major management and international management journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of International Business Studies, Leadership Quarterly, Human Relations, and Organization Science. He has also contributed international management themes to the basic social science literature through chapters in the Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, the Annual Review of Psychology, the Communication Yearbook, and Research in the Sociology of Organizations. Specific topics in his writings include the role different parties play in decision making in organizations throughout the world, the effects that culture has on the role stresses that managers experience, the way immigrant entrepreneur communities operate, and the way that intercultural relationships in multicultural teams and across hierarchical levels should function. He was John R. Galvin Visiting Professor of International Leadership and Organization Management, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, 2002. He received Florida Atlantic University College of Business annual research awards at Full Professor level, in 1999, 2001 and 2003. His edited Handbook of Organizational Culture and Climate was named as “Outstanding Academic Title” by Choice, American Library Association in 2001. He has been Consulting Editorto the Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2001 to present and Department Editor, Journal of International Business Studies, 2004 to present. He was Associate Editor, Group and Organization Management.

Venue: Keizer Karelplein 19, Maastricht

Date: 30 May 2007

Time: 15:00  CET


UNU-MERIT