SOM professor to chair roundtable
The Centre for Organizational Studies (COS), Escuela de Alta Dirección y Administración (EADA), Barcelona,
is organizing the 12th 2006 COS Roundtable from 3 to 5 November 2006 in Ashridge, one of the world's foremost business schools located in the United KingdomUK. The theme for the Round Table is: 'Creating Culturally Competent Firms - Strategies for Gaining from Cultural Pluralism.' Experts from industry and academic institutions from USA, Europe and Asia will participate.
Prof. Lalit Johri of AIT's School of Management has been invited to chair the roundtable. Prof. Johri teaches International Business and is a consultant to several international companies. He is known for his thoughtful and personal approach to cultural competence. He has expertise in the fields of East-West joint ventures and alliances and internationalization of firms particularly in the context of Asian markets.
Some of the fundamental issues to be addressed at the roundtable are: Is cultural pluralism a real phenomenon? Why do some organizations consciously promote cultural diversity whereas others like to preserve their 'pure' monoculture? What are the gains of culturally diverse firms as against the losses of the culturally limited firms? What does it take to create a culturally competent firm? What does it take to sustain a culturally competent firm?
Executives, consultants, academics or students who have a particular interest in creating culturally competent organizations are invited to attend. It will likely attract participants with differing cultural backgrounds; the last roundtable attracted 17 nationalities. For enhanced debates the number of participants is limited to 35.
To achieve a measure of depth in the discussions and to take advantage of new technologies, some of the new features will be added at the event: A community chat-board for pre roundtable discussions; focus on issues faced by organizations in their journey for internationalization and cultural pluralism; senior executives, consultants and experts from Asia; interactions with managers with hands-on experience in raising and managing culturally competent firms; Socratic debate on 'developing a culturally competent firm'; experience 'village life' in the vicinity of Ashridge.
During the roundtable, several themes that form the core of cultural pluralism will be addressed. Amongst these are: cultural pluralism as a source of competitive advantage; impact of cultural differences on organizational learning; cultural differences and the art of value creation; cultural diversity and organizational innovations; influence of cultural differences on decision making, ethnic communities and work ethos; creating and sustaining a culturally competent firm; transition from cultural divergence to convergence; and economic value creation in a multicultural organization.
For more information, contact Prof. Johri, Ext. 5622.