The Influence of cross-cultural management practices on organizational performance: a study of multinational corporations in Nairobi

Abstract

Cross-cultural management has turned out to be an issue of concern and in need of urgent addressing especially for multinational corporations that want to succeed in the global market. The dynamics of this phenomenon are different in the developed economies in contrast to developing economies. This study had the objective of exploring the influence of cross-cultural management practices on organization performance among multinational companies operating in developing economies the case being Nairobi, Kenya. The specific objective of the study was to firstly identify the type cross-cultural management practices used by multinational corporations in Kenya and secondly to determine how these practices influence the organization performance. Primary data was collected using questionnaires. The target population were 43 the multinational corporations which had their Africa regional headquarters in Nairobi County. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to analyse the data. Recruitment and selection, training and development and employee participation were examined against organization performance specifically employee satisfaction. The findings from the results showed that recruitment and selection, and training and development were significant in influencing employee satisfaction. Employee participation was however found to be insignificant. The study concluded that the adoption of cross-cultural management practices was critical in improving organization performance of multinational corporations. This study recommended that multinational corporations need to adopt recruitment and selection, and training and development which will ensure that they manage cultural diversity and have high levels of organization performance. The limitation of this study was that the study considered only the multinational corporations in Nairobi County. This research suggested that future research should explore a longitudinal research design so as to provide an assessment of the influence of cross-cultural management practices on organization performance over a period of time.