International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 3 No. 6; [Special Issue -March 2012] 105 Cross-cultural Differences in Management Tagreed Issa Kawar Princess Sumaya University for Technology P. O. Box: 1438 Al-Jubaiha 11941 Amman – Jordan Abstract This research aims at studying cross-cultural differences in management. There are areas in management whereby differences towards attitudes, behaviours, functioning, communication issues and cultural implications can be seen. Cross-cultural differences stem from the different backgrounds of each culture. Cultural varieties may be witnessed in the workplace, and there are other factors introduced such as reaching sales targets, meeting deadlines, working on tight budgets, which may cause conflict. Because of the differences in cultures, there might be some kind of misunderstanding among people working in the same organization due to their different values, beliefs, backgrounds, etc. For a successful management, any person should be able to work with people from different cultural backgrounds no matter what their cultural orientation is.An evidence on this is the successful management of many western companies operating in different parts of the world such as the Middle East and they come up with good managerial results. Keywords: Cross-cultural Differences, Management, Culture. 1. Introduction To start with, there has to be a good definition of the expression “culture” which can be defined as the inherited values, concepts, and ways of living which are shared by people of the same social group. To make the definition clearer, culture is divided into two kinds; the first is generic culture which is a shared culture of all humans living on this planet. The second is local culturewhich refers to symbols and schemas shared by a particular social group. As is known, the world is becoming nowadays a global village, in the sense that the technological achievements of this modern time have brought people closer together. This also means that people from different parts of the world and with different cultural backgrounds are working and communicating together. This fact is in a way interesting, but dealing with people from different cultures requires knowing the cultural diversities; for instance the way we deal with them, what we say and what we should avoid saying, how to communicate and to be aware of the cultural taboos because what is accepted in one culture might not be accepted in another. What applies to every day communication among cultures applies to communication in the workplace. Working with people in an organization requires dealing with certain issues such as motivating employees, structuring policies and developing strategies. In this case, there has to be a kind of understanding of the cultural diversities in order to apply the afore-mentioned issues in the workplace. To give a broader definition of the word culture, the word comes in two meanings. The first meaning is “civilization” which entails arts and crafts, education and manners. While the second meaning refers to the way people think, feel and act in accordance with the values and norms dominant in their society. According toHofstede Geert, culture is defined as “the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from another.” In simple words, culture refers to the values known to a certain ethnic group of the same social background. Most of one’s culture is acquired during childhood, before puberty. Humans at an early age have the ability to absorb cultural norms from their cultural surroundings, from parents, siblings, playmates…. etc. Therefore, culture helps people to function smoothly within a specific society. There are certain levels at which a culture can work: 1.1 National level: It is well known that national cultures differ at the level of unconscious values which are acquired during childhood and these national cultures are stable, the afterward changes that occur are practices whereby the underlying values are left untouched.