With the deepening of internationalization of education and the internationalization of members, cultural differences and conflicts often occur in schools. Then, how to promote the cultural integration among members will become an urgent management problem. However, some experts have found that cultural factors are not only necessary but also key factors in educational management research, but many educational management studies ignore cultural factors and do not consider macro society at all. They also pointed out that it is necessary to study the coordination and integration of cross-cultural management in schools at present, and pay attention to how to integrate the excellent characteristics of different cultures into our teaching, scientific research and services under the concept of international school-running, and how to solve problems with a positive attitude from the perspective of cultural integration and cultural differences when groups with different cultural backgrounds have contradictions and conflicts in interaction; On the basis of understanding and accommodating different cultures, we should carry out cultural innovation and optimize school management mode and school culture.

What is cross-cultural management?

Cross-cultural management is the product of the development of the times. The arrival of the global economy makes people from different cultures work together and conduct various business activities. Some people have given this definition: Cross-cultural management is to manage people with different cultural backgrounds when an enterprise conducts transnational operations.

American anthropologist Edward? Hall is regarded as the first person to systematically study cross-cultural communication activities. In a series of works such as Silent Language, Potential Dimension, Beyond Culture and Understanding Cultural Differences, he has made outstanding contributions to solving cross-cultural conflicts. He defined culture as "a huge area that has not been surveyed in human actions, and it exists outside people's perception". He also believed that culture is bound by potential rules, which include both words and actions. Through research, it is confirmed that culture will affect everything, especially the relative importance between tasks and relationships.

According to relevant data, domestic management scholars agree that "cross-cultural management" is a new discipline emerging in Europe, America and other western countries at the end of the 20th century to meet the needs of international business activities. This paper mainly studies and compares organizational behaviors in different countries and cultures, and discusses how to improve managers' management performance in different cultures. However, the so-called "cross-culture" refers to the interaction between two groups with different cultural backgrounds.

As we all know, "cross-cultural management", also known as "comparative management", is a theory and method to study management in different cultural backgrounds. In transnational operations, we should adopt inclusive management methods for the cultures of the countries where the subsidiaries are located with different races, different cultural types and different stages of development, thus creating the management process of the company's unique culture.

It can be seen that "cross-cultural management" only refers to "cross-cultural enterprise management" at first, that is, when different cultural groups related to enterprises have contradictions and conflicts in the process of interaction, corresponding cultural integration measures are added to various functions and links of enterprise management to effectively solve such contradictions and conflicts and thus realize management efficiently.

Practical enlightenment of cross-cultural management in enterprises

In the process of internationalization of education, cross-cultural management makes managers have to face international cultural differences in the process of school culture construction. If we ignore this objective existence, it will inevitably bring difficulties to the management and development of the school, and even eventually lead to failure.

At present, there are few studies on cross-cultural management strategies of schools in China; Therefore, the following are some strategies for cross-cultural management of enterprises for school administrators' reference:

Multicultural compatibility strategy: The premise of implementing this strategy is to allow multiculturalism to coexist, which can be subdivided into the following two different levels according to the compatibility of different cultures:

(1) Cultural Parallel Compatibility Strategy. This is the highest form of cultural compatibility, which is customarily called "cultural complementarity". Although there are great differences between different cultures, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but complement each other. Both of them run in management and operation at the same time, which can give full play to cross-cultural advantages. The great success of McDonald's and KFC in China can be described as a model of successful cross-cultural management by taking advantage of cross-cultural advantages.

(2) Peaceful and compatible cultural strategy. There are two or more huge cultural differences in an enterprise, which can easily lead to "cultural friction" in daily operation and management, but managers deliberately blur this cultural difference in business activities, hide the main culture that is most likely to lead to the conflict between the two cultures, and keep the relatively dull and irrelevant parts of the two cultures.

Management of common values: Some enterprise management researchers point out that when two or more cultures coexist in an enterprise, managers should pay attention to respecting and understanding each other's cultures and communicate with each other in an equal manner. On this basis, find the combination of the two cultures, give full play to the advantages of the two cultures, and gradually establish unified values within the enterprise. American management scientists Peters and wortmann pointed out: "All the excellent companies we have observed are very clear about what they stand for, and have seriously established and formed the company's value standards. In fact, if a company lacks clear values, it may be difficult to succeed. "

Strengthen cross-cultural training: Cross-cultural training is an effective way to prevent and eliminate cultural conflicts. If possible, choose people with experience in multicultural environment and people who understand the other language as trainers of the company. Cross-cultural training is the most basic and effective means to solve cultural differences and do cross-cultural management well.

Cross-cultural management strategy of school culture construction

Statistics show that more than 400 of the world's top 500 multinational companies have invested or set up factories in China; At the same time, a fact that can't be ignored is that most multinational companies entering China are caught in a management dilemma due to cross-cultural differences.

Statistics further show that about 65,438+05% of Sino-foreign joint ventures established in China have their scheduled life terminated ahead of schedule, among which the unstable factors caused by cultural differences are the primary reasons. So how to implement "cross-cultural management" for an international school?

From the outside to the inside, resolutely remove the obstacles of cross-cultural management.

American scholar Mam once pointed out when analyzing the case of cultural differences in joint ventures: China and the United States found that cultural differences were greater than either party expected before the joint venture started. Indeed, most joint ventures have made considerable differences in cultural construction. The following will draw lessons from the experience of cross-cultural management of enterprises and summarize some main measures for school administrators to refer to in the process of promoting internationalization:

1. Surface harmony is the bottom line ―― Solving material and cultural differences: As a physical form, material is shared by teachers and students at home and abroad in an international campus and is an indispensable foundation for the survival of international schools. It is an important external factor for international schools to build school culture to construct a school material shell that conforms to their own cultural characteristics.

2. The key is to unify the inner layer-to solve the behavioral and cultural differences: the organizational structure, management mode and relevant rules and regulations of international schools should take into account the existence of multicultural individuals. It should not only conform to the characteristics of China culture, but also consider the integration of international culture.

3. Deep integration is the core-solving spiritual and cultural differences: school spirit is the cultural wealth created by the school through practice, the spiritual pillar for the survival of international schools, and the organic combination of cohesion and centripetal force within the school. Managers of international schools should devote themselves to shaping the common values of school members. The shaping of common values can slow down the cultural conflict, refine the school spirit that is more in line with the actual situation of the school, and make Qi Xin, the two sides of the cooperative school, work together and act in unison.

It can be seen that in order to realize the healthy development of international schools, both parties to a cooperative school must attach importance to their respective cultural differences and take practical measures to solve them.

At the same time, it is necessary to remind the administrators of international schools that practice shows that it is relatively easy to integrate the superficial and shallow cultures of international schools, while the deep cultural integration is relatively difficult, which requires long-term efforts among management members. Therefore, when promoting cross-cultural management, we should pay more attention to the communication and integration of deep-seated cultural factors such as decision-making objectives and common values.

Team building, comprehensively improving cross-cultural management ability

Some media vividly describe the plight of managers of multinational companies: "Foreign managers all over the world, without exception, find themselves in a dilemma, sandwiched between the head office and the local office."

Yes, for these multinational managers, the game between local culture and local culture will always be accompanied by their management choices. The media also pointed out that some enterprises have done well in transnational operations, while others have not. The gap is mainly reflected in the "cross-cultural management ability" of enterprises.

The so-called cross-cultural management ability of enterprises actually refers to the ability of managers to effectively coordinate the influence of different cultures on organizational behavior in different cultures and communicate effectively with people from different countries and different cultural backgrounds. Then, I think this is what we lack, especially for school administrators who have just started the internationalization of education.

Some experts believe that communication is particularly important in order to improve cross-cultural management ability. From a certain point of view, communication is the most important link in the process of management and leadership in the same culture. When there are members of different cultures in the team, this communication process becomes particularly complicated, and all kinds of prejudices, attitudes, knowledge and habits may become the "noise" of effective communication. To eliminate such "noise", we must learn to cultivate the awareness of accepting and respecting different cultures; Learn more about the differences between your own culture and other cultures, and quickly improve the effectiveness of cultural exchanges; In behavior, I constantly train myself to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds and improve my listening ability.

Mr. Huang Weijie, a famous expert in cross-cultural management, believes that it is the key to establish a cross-cultural team to deal with the differences in vision. Establishing a relatively harmonious, efficient, international and cross-cultural management team is the main means for some western multinational companies to realize their internationalization strategy. For those "going out" schools in China, to become truly international schools, the most important thing is to solve the constraints of cultural conflicts on school management, set up cross-cultural management teams, and complete school culture that is suitable for the international development of schools, has its own characteristics and transcends national and ethnic characteristics as soon as possible.

In a word, cross-cultural management is another challenge and test for school administrators in the era of educational internationalization. When more and more excellent schools in China "go out" with China's unique educational beliefs, we may be left with more than joy. After all, the unpredictable and competitive international environment is not a hotbed of roses, and opportunities and challenges coexist forever; On the road of school culture construction, we must find a stable and efficient way of "internationalization of education".

(Editor: Baishui)