Uses and Benefits of Qualitative Approaches to Culture in Intercultural Collaboration Research

Cross-cultural research is mainly based upon the measurement of cross-cultural dimensions popularized by Hofstede (1980, 2001), Trompenaars (1993) or Schwartz (1994). These dimensions stemming from attitude scales are useful to compare national cultural differences on a general level but cannot adequately account for what happens when people actually meet and interact with each other. For over twenty years, researchers have proposed alternative approaches drawing upon interpretive methods (d'Iribarne, 1989; Sackmann & Philipps, 2004). Beyond comparative studies, investigations were conducted into two types of cases: situations where management tools are used in another cultural context than the one from which they originated (D'Iribarne & Henry, 2007; Barmeyer & Davoine, 2011) and work interactions within multicultural organizations (Brannen & Salk, 2000; Chevrier, 2003; Moore, 2005).In both kinds of situations, the objective is to see reality from the eyes of the actor and to grasp the meaning of their action; "it is to unravel and understand the world from the perspective of the acting persons situated in their own local context and therefore, understanding the society in which they live" (Romani, Sackmann & Primecz, 2011, p. 4).