Management Policies / Managerial Attitudes and Task Environmental Agents: A Cross-Cultural Empirical Examination

• Published in: Management International Review 1981-01, Vol.21 (2), p.67-77
• Main Authors: Beenman, Don R., Simonetti, Jack L., Simonetti, Frank L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attitudes; Comparative studies; Creditors; Differences; Employees; Environmental management; Expatriate employees; Host country; Labor unions; Management; Management philosophies; Management policies; Managers; Middle management; National government; Policy; Questionnaires; Subsidiary companies
• ISSN: 0025-181X; 0938-8249; 1861-8901

Interest in the influence of the environment on all aspects of human endeavor has intensified in recent years. Of particular interest to organization researchers has been the policy of management toward its task environment. This research was designed to develop and apply an instrument for measuring management policy such that the results were (1) reproducible and (2) effective in differentiating between the policies of management and the attitudes of managers in different organizations and different cultures. This research developed, tested and utilized such an instrument. The results of this study demonstrated that there were substantial and significant differences between American expatriate and Italian domestic managerial attitudes and between the management policies of U.S. companies and domestic companies operating in Italy. Differences were found along the following task environment dimensions: government, consumers, creditors, stockholders, and suppliers. When the variable of organization size was included, all of the differences remained for small Italian firms. For large Italian firms, all except a strongly positive attitude toward the Italian government remained unchanged.