ARTICLE CRITIQUE: THE GROWING NEEDS OF CROSS-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT

AND ETHICS IN BUSINESS

JOLITA GREBLIKAITE, RASA DAUGELIENE
Institute Of Europe, Kaunas University Of Technology

Summary
The research article was published in year 2010. The literature review has been done
critically and the researchers have been selective in screening the references related to their
topic. The research articles referred, ranged from year 1992 to 2007 in which a higher
percentage of the articles referred are from the year 2002 and above.
The article aims to discuss questions of the growing need of cross-cultural management and
ethics in business that is due to the phenomenon of globalization. It is a qualitative research
as the authors had interviewed one small bicultural enterprise in Lithuania. The problem was
clearly defined to emphasize the growing need of cross-cultural management and ethics in
business that is generally caused by globalization and also the migration practice of
Lithuanias competent citizen for better living and working conditions in foreign countries.
Discussions though the article are on the cross-cultural problems of multicultural enterprise,
the role of cross-cultural management, the importance of cross-cultural ethics and possible
solutions. Although the article mentioned that the country does not face many cross-cultural
issues because it is rather closed and not mixed by living nations, it is quite a challenge when
people with high competence leave Lithuania and often do not go back to their country due to
the effects of globalization and the ethical values that comes with it.

Strength of the article

The problem was clearly defined
The problem was clearly defined to emphasize the growing need of cross-cultural
management and ethics in business that is generally caused by globalization and also the
migration practice of Lithuanias competent citizen for better living and working conditions in
foreign countries which is supported by a research done on labor mobility and migration within
the European Union (EU) countries (John, 2009).
The Literature Review was adequate and up-to-date
The literature review was adequate and up-to-date. The article was published in 2010 and the
research articles referred, ranged from year 1992 to 2007 in which a higher percentage of the
articles referred are from the year 2002 and above.
The background of the study was stated in brief but sufficient. In the introduction, the
researchers had stated briefly an overview of the growing need of cross-cultural management
and ethics in multicultural companies due to globalization, in which rapid changes are a must
for these companies to cope with such as economic alliances, work environment, trade and
investment, technologies advancements and also the international business players. The
risks of having unused resources are said to be also apparent and it forces people to migrate
for better living and work conditions. With people migrating, international businesses are
easily expanded and leads to the growing number of multinational companies. The authors
had revealed this as a scientific problem and relates to the article objective of distinguishing
the main cross-cultural problems and its barriers in multicultural environment.
The article had also highlighted the cross-cultural management role and the importance of
cross-cultural ethics to further emphasized the problem statement and proved that the issue
was well supported by a number of other published literatures. Though brief, it is sufficient to
understand the concept.
The conclusions are consistent with the obtained results
Yes, the conclusions were consistent and in-line with the results obtained. The empirical
research results show the most important cross-cultural barriers in Lithuanian enterprises are
believes and stereotypes, verbal language, tradition values, nonverbal languages and social
rules.
The article had also managed to distinguish the barriers in multicultural business environment
as stated above and the main cross-cultural problems such as standards, practice, ethics,
laws, culture, customs, management systems and socioeconomic system. This is inline with
the task of the article as mentioned at the introduction.

Other than that, the article had also pointed out theoretical possible solutions on cross-cultural
problems and had also obtained the appropriate solutions on the issue through the empirical
research results that was obtained by interviewing employees of the small bicultural
enterprise in Lithuania
Weaknesses of the article
Contradicting issues
Although the article had highlighted the issue, proving that it is supported by a number of
other literatures, had provided solutions and obtained research results that are suitable for the
small company in Lithuania, the authors had contradicted themselves in the earlier part of the
article by stating that Lithuanian enterprises face not so many cross-cultural problems as the
country is rather closed and not very mixed by living nations which is supported by a recent
journal (Bartkeviciene & Raudeliunaite, 2013).
Furthermore, the company that was interviewed was one small company, which the findings
may not be suitable to be generalized nor be useful to be adopted throughout other
multicultural companies that were currently present in Lithuania. According to research, there
were 76,187 small-sized enterprises consisting of less than 50 employees in Lithuania (Rta
& Ilona, 2010).
Research design/methodology/approach
The article mentioned that the methods used for data collections were through interview of a
small company in Lithuania. However, the article did not mention the type of business that the
company is currently doing nor the industry it is in. As supported by (Bindu, 2011), there are
significant differences in the strategy and culture of organizations belonging to different
industry segments.
Conclusion
This paper focuses on the growing need of cross-cultural management and ethics in business
that is due to the phenomenon of globalization. Being a part of the European Union (EU),
Lithuanian citizens are free to migrate to other countries, and others from different countries
are free to migrate into Lithuania either to work or to set up businesses although the latter
percentage is definitely of a smaller scale. With the issues in hand, the authors were able to
clearly define the problem, provide recent journal articles to support the problems and came
up with solutions that cater to the specific small bicultural enterprise in Lithuania. However,
since there were smaller enterprises in Lithuania, it may be useful for the authors to obtained
insights from representatives of employees from other industry (Jonathon N. Cummings,
2005) to achieve more comprehensive findings that can be adapted to most organizations
within Lithuania the least.

Reference:
1. Bartkeviciene, A., & Raudeliunaite, R. (2013). Social Support Strategies for
Immigrants: The Context of Social Work Practice in Lithuania. Journal of Arts and
Humanities, 2(3), 90-97.
2. Bindu, G. (2011). A comparative study of organizational strategy and culture across
industry.

Benchmarking:

An

International

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doi:

10.1108/14635771111147614
3. John, R. D. (2009). Labour mobility and migration within the EU following the 2004
Central and East European enlargement. Employee Relations, 31(2), 121-138. doi:
10.1108/01425450910925283
4. Jonathon N. Cummings, S. K. (2005). Collaborative Research Across Disciplinary and
Organizational Boundaries History & Philosophy Of Science (SCI) 2 out of 56.
5. Rta, K., & Ilona, B. (2010). HR function developments in Lithuania. Baltic Journal of
Management, 5(2), 218-241. doi: 10.1108/17465261011045133