He is now Professor in International Affairs at ESSCA School of Management in France.
He focuses his research on culture and the internationalization of firms.
His work on various aspects of international and cross-cultural human resource management has been published in leading scholarly outlets.
He has recently co-edited the Oxford Handbook on Contextual Approaches to Human Resource Management (OUP, 2021).
Their article “Perlmutter revisited: Revealing the anomic mindset” has been published in the Journal of International Business Studies (Rank 1 / FT / Q1)
Presentation of the article
Building on some of the earliest discussions on cosmopolitanism stretching back to the 1950’s, a significant stream of research has grown up around the importance of managers acquiring a global mindset. However, while there is agreement on its importance as an attribute of overall global leadership effectiveness, and as part of the organizational armory necessary for successful overseas expansion, much less is established about what might be learned from situations where managers do not acquire such a mindset. Against this backdrop, we focus on the identification of factors that seem to inhibit the development of a global mindset among international managers.
In a detailed field study among managers in a major multinational that has been doing business around the globe for more than 100 years, we unearth a series of detours that these managers undertook on the pathway toward the development of a global mindset. Through an abductive process, we identify the presence of what we coin as an ‘anomic mindset’ among these managers. We define this mindset as a stock of knowledge, cognitive and psychological attributes that results in them returning to and entrenching themselves in an outdated, most probably idealized, worldview of business in opposition to a changing socio-economic context.
Our research, which involved observing managers engaged in their daily routines over a protracted period of time captures these managers′ intersubjective meanings, values and tacit knowledge and reveals the gap between the demands of their complex operating environment in this multinational and their prevailing mindsets. Most importantly, our evidence suggests that unlike the ethnocentric mindset which describes ex-ante managerial thinking in organizations moving toward internationalization, the anomic mindset results from the ex-post responses of managers following a protracted period of involvement in international business. In other words, many senior managers with substantial business experience abroad displayed elements of the anomic mindset.
The identification of the construct which sees managers contesting rather than more fully adapting to the globalization that surrounds them moves us closer to understanding some of the complex processes that surround the development of a global mindset. The presence of the anomic mindset among managers opens up a significant debate on progress in, and the prospects for, the development of global mindsets, along with their preservation. In the context of rising populism and ongoing debates about the escalation of deglobalization and trade and investment barriers, it is imperative that we understand such mindsets, given that they may be more widespread than previously thought.
There is a considerable body of research showing the positive impact of a global mindset on company performance, yet research suggests that there is a shortfall of leaders with a global mindset which in turn undermines the capacity to implement global strategies.
Our research provides insights on what lies beneath this shortfall. We suggest that the anomic mindset, which has emerged with globalization, is unlikely to atrophy and fade with the passing of time. Managers with anomic mindsets may not only attract those with a similar one but marginalize those who do not share one, increasing the likelihood of organizational homophily. The anomic mindset also has implications for the likely efficacy of cross-cultural training. Many executive training programs ranging from ‘pre-departure cultural orientation’ to ‘in-the-moment cultural mentoring’ have been developed to help managers cope with cross-cultural challenges. Emphasis has also been placed on reflection, especially self-reflection to help managers recognize and capture the benefits of cross-cultural experiences. Our study casts doubt on whether cross-cultural training programs in their current format can sufficiently equip managers for the challenges of operating globally.
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