The thematic area of the article is to indicate selected aspects of the application of outsourcing in the management of multicultural organizations. Considering cultural aspects in organizations definitely determines the process of globalization. Stoner defines the concept of globalization as a phenomenon that includes three interrelated factors – proximity (resulting, among other things, from modern communication technologies and logistics systems), location (among other things, through the use of the international division of labor and the location of energy resources), and attitude (through the desire to develop skills to participate in the global economy).
Together, these three aspects of globalization highlight the unprecedented arrangement and complexity of mutual relations that a manager conducting business on a global scale faces. Due to the three aspects defined by the authors, the phenomenon of globalization progresses independently of other conditions, for example, social, political, and others. An aspect that, among other things, implies the factors presented above (proximity, location, attitudes) is culture. The importance of culture in the effective functioning of an organization is growing dynamically, both in a positive and negative aspect. We owe one of the definitions to the Dutch culture researcher Geert Hofstede. It reads as follows: Culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others. Hofstede argues that every person’s mind is programmed and this programming is partly shared with groups of people and partly unique – specific to a particular person. He distinguishes three main ways of programming:
1. Universal level. It includes needs for security, social needs, recognition, and self-actualization, and is identical for all people; these needs are transmitted genetically,
2. Collective level. Common to social groups, nations, inhabitants of a specific region, representatives of a specific profession or organization; it is learned, acquired; it is a program transmitted by “old” participants to “new” ones from generation to generation; it fosters identification with the group, ensuring its cohesion; it is what “accounts” for the distinctiveness of the group in relation to its environment,
3. Individual level. It is characteristic of a given human individual, includes their personality, partly genetically conditioned, and partly acquired – shaped by the influence of collective programming.
1. Universal level. It includes needs for security, social needs, recognition, and self-actualization, and is identical for all people; these needs are transmitted genetically,
2. Collective level. Common to social groups, nations, inhabitants of a specific region, representatives of a specific profession or organization; it is learned, acquired; it is a program transmitted by “old” participants to “new” ones from generation to generation; it fosters identification with the group, ensuring its cohesion; it is what “accounts” for the distinctiveness of the group in relation to its environment,
3. Individual level. It is characteristic of a given human individual, includes their personality, partly genetically conditioned, and partly acquired – shaped by the influence of collective programming.
The article comes from the journal “Logistyka” 2009/3.