| The aim of this thesis is to investigate how, nowadays, an international company (MNC) deals with Cross-Cultural management issues and, in particular, if cultural distance and cultural specificity can affect a MNC's operations and the relationships inside its network. In order to narrow the wide panorama of the research, the author decided to focus the study on two cultures only:the Chinese and the Italian ones, being China the hosting country of the research and Italy the home country of the author. Therefore, an analysis of the model of the Chinese and the Italian management practices would be elaborated, in order to compare the two managerial styles and to understand their possible interaction within a foreign owned MNC in China.The research thereof would be developed on a solid theoretical background. Firstly, explaining the theories about culture at national and corporate level developed since 1970s by Hofstede, Hall, Schein and Trompenaars. And secondly, exposing the theories related to the organizational management and knowledge transfer within an international organization, developed since year 2000 by Perlmutter and Bartlett/Ghoshal. Furthermore, a study on the field is conducted through the direct observation of and the surveys submission to some Italian and Chinese managers, working for a foreign owned MNC in China. The focus of the research is Safilo Eyewear (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd, one of the branches of Safilo Group S.p.A. (an Italian MNC). A detailed description of the group organizational structure would also be provided.The results of this practical study would be analyzed on the basis of the theoretical background previously exposed, in order to understand if the theories developed in the past decades are still applicable to the modern international companies. Moreover, these findings allowed the author to develop a new description of the Italian and Chinese managerial practices within MNCs and provided an answer to the question about cultural influence in MNCs. |
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