Nóra Obermayer-Kovács

Investigation of National Culture's Impact on Competitiveness and Knowledge-Sharing Competences

The twenty-first century offers new challenges for the global economy. Globalization is reflected in the cross-border trade in goods and services, international financial flows, and increasing flows of labor. On the score of the last one, for international business, culture is an important factor. The importance of national culture ensues from three points. Firstly, the nations are political units rooted in their history; secondly, the nationality has a symbolic value to people, and thirdly, the human thinking is conditioned by national cultural factors (Hofstede 1983). The aim of the research carried out by the Strategic Management Research Group was to study the characteristics and influences of national culture in different respects. The first idea was to identify the impact between cultural dimensions—measured by Fons Trompenaars—and national competitiveness of a country measured by International Institute for Management Development (IMD). Out of the cultural features, achieved status and neutral orientation are those that favorably influence competitiveness. The next purpose was to reveal that specific knowledge-sharing type and those competence groups achieved status and neutral orientation, as dominant dimensions of the national culture profile related to competitiveness. Based on these results, the Research Group has been interested on whether differences can be revealed on the individual level within these competence groups. By selecting middle managers as a target group, an empirical survey has been conducted, during which 400 middle managers working at medium- and large-sized enterprises in Hungary were investigated. The examined individual characteristics of middle managers were functional area, working years, and age. The results have shown that three competence groups (methodological competences needed for thinking, methodological competences used for work method and style, and social competences connected with communication skills) differ regarding these individual characteristics.