CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH TEAMS IN A GLOBAL ENTERPRISE

Corporate survival requires more than innovative products and the proper price points. It takes coordination and integration on a global scale. The North American operations of Rhone-Poulene SA. bring together research teams based in France, the U.S. and other nations to discover new and better processes and products. However, American and French researchers tend to have different attitudes about their work. Americans are generally pragmatic, oriented to creating something that will be used, something the market will accept. The French, on the other hand, seem more interested in the pure science, deriving satisfaction from solving knotty technical problems with less concern about immediate marketability. There is less difference among U.S. and British researchers, and a range of similarities and differences are observed among scientists from other parts of the world Managers need to acquire a global mindset if they are to balance and resolve the tensions inherent in such diverse value systems. Consequently, Rhone-Poulene makes this a part of its formal personnel planning and succession processes.