Cultural Obstacles in MNCs? Yes, but... "Back to Basics" Guidelines for Success in HRM in Central Europe

There is a long tradition in international business which considers that national cultures play a major role in management and that „multicultural management” is needed. It is true that communication channels, concept of authority and decision processes vary from one place to another. Multinational Companies (MNCs) witness the possible confrontation of different beliefs and representations about what is power, what is long-term, even what is a customer, etc. (Laurent, 1983; Chevrier, 2003; Meier, 2006). But at the same time, it is possible to observe that there are strong tendencies towards homogenization and normalization of management throughout the world. Therefore, does national culture matter to such an extent? We would like, in this article, to implement this question in the case of Central European countries, and extend the debate that we proposed already (Livian, in Mayrhofer, 2013) about the role of cultures in alliances of MNCs.