Franco-German cross-cultural relations in firms : the influence of American management : the case study of Franco-German management at Total
type: Dataset
description: Franco-German cross-cultural relations in business cannot be dissociated from the world economic context in which the United States play a dominant role. We have used Total, the leader in the French petroleum industry, specifically through its German subsidiary in Berlin, as a case in point for our investigation of the influence of US business methods on a joint Franco-German top management team. We conducted 35 extensive interviews, 12 of which were held with French nationals, 11 of them top company officials at the Berlin office and one at corporate headquarters in Paris; 18 of the tête-à-têtes took place with German top executives in Berlin. In addition, we consulted one Dutch, one British and three Belgian directors of the petroleum group.Part One of the report is an inventory and review of the literature devoted at this day to cross-culture in the area of corporate management, a subject that began to attract the interest of researchers in the 1980's. We here correlate theory and practice in dealing with the impact of national cultures on corporate behavior. This leads us to reconsider the functioning modes of French, German and US companies and thus, working on the typology of their respective business structures, to classify them according to their specific management styles and corporate cultures. We thus, of course, create mere models, significant but abstract. The distance between theory and actual practice is bridged in Part Two of the report.In Part Two, we concentrate on the cross-cultural ambiguities and misunderstandings that have attended Franco-German business relations as these have evolved since the inception of the Common Market to the present day. The misfortunes of the A380 at Airbus in 2006, consultant Jacques Pateau's reasearch and conclusions on the importance of Franco-German cooperation in business ventures, the solutions offered for the recurrent cross-cultural conflicts by J. P. B. Consulting, and the close working relationship of French …
identifier: NNT: 2013BOR30018
issued: 2026-05-06T00:31:10.277353
language: fr
modified: 2026-05-06T00:31:10.277358
contact point: Organization
  fn: CCSD
keyword: civilisation
keyword: civilization
keyword: communication
keyword: competence
keyword: cross-cultural
keyword: entreprise
keyword: firm
keyword: franco-allemand
keyword: franco-german
keyword: infoeu-reposemanticsdoctoralthesis
keyword: interaction
keyword: interculturel
keyword: management
keyword: shsgestionhumanities-and-social-sciencesbusiness-administration
keyword: skill
keyword: theses
landing page: https://theses.hal.science/tel-00960149

Franco-German cross-cultural relations in firms : the influence of American management : the case study of Franco-German management at Total
type: Distribution
format: HTML
issued: 2026-05-06T00:31:10.311701
modified: 2026-05-06T00:31:10.259185
access URL: https://theses.hal.science/tel-00960149

test_moissonnage_selune
type: Agent