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Gregory Allen attempts to highlight ontological paradoxes and examples of the absurd in cross cultural management (CCM) studies.

Image courtesy of interviewee. January 15, 2024

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The speaker discusses their academic journey, particularly their collaboration with Professor Rob Campbell, a philosopher and expert on Samuel Beckett. They express a long-standing interest in Beckett's work, specifically the novel "Molloy," which they found to resonate with their critique of cross-cultural management methodologies.

The speaker's PhD focused on cross-cultural management in Central and Eastern Europe, where they criticized existing paradigms. They draw connections between the absurdity depicted in "Molloy" and the futility of relying on quantitative methods in cross-cultural studies, which they argue yield trivial results despite considerable effort in data collection and analysis.

The speaker critiques the foundational work of Gert Hofstede in cross-cultural management, suggesting that his methodology is based on the flawed assumption that culture is immutable, ignoring the significant changes cultures undergo over time. They conclude that while statistical analysis can be thorough, the outputs often reinforce stereotypes rather than providing meaningful insights.

The speaker also reflects on their future research interests, including the portrayal of work in science fiction and how it engages with societal fears about technology and the future. They believe that these fears are often exaggerated and aim to explore these themes further.

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It was working with my former PhD, supervisor,

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professor Rob Campbell, who's a, a philosopher

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and, a a a Beckett, expert, Semial Beckett expert,

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miles away from my subject area, really.

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But, but I, I love reading Beckett, and I always have,

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and I've always been a bit of a,

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so I've got a background in quantitative methods.

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I've always been a bit of a, a, a geeky amateur,

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math, aficionado.

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Uh, and, and I, I was just speaking

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with him one day about a Beckett play craps slash tape,

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and it got me reinterested

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and I reread the novel Molloy dearly out of, for pleasure,

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nothing to do with my academic work.

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And, and I just thought back to my PhD dissertation,

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which had been around, cross-cultural management.

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And in particular, I was looking at cross-cultural

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management in central and Eastern Europe,

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and being very critical of the predominant, methodology,

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or paradigm used in cross-cultural management studies.

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And I thought that that, that, that the sort

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of absurdity highlighted in this

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by Beckett very beautifully in this novel, Molo, sort

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of encapsulated what I was trying to say about the,

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this predominant paradigm in, in, in the field.

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So I, I am a very much a believer that, that, that,

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literature and films can often be very useful metaphors for,

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academic concepts.

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So I, I, it sparked the idea,

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and this was the most fun I've ever had writing any article,

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even, professor Rob Campbell, my, my colleague,

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would be able to summarize it nicely.

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I I don't think anyone

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who knows the story can really summarize, what,

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what Mulloy is actually about.

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Uh, it, it, it, it, it's, it's, it's one of three,

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novels, a trilogy.

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Uh, but let, let me focus on the relevant part of the,

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of, of the novel, which will make my life easier.

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Uh, there is a section in the, in, in, in the novel

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where Mulloy, the sort of anti-hero who's, sort

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of a, a elderly homeless, individual is,

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is, is walking along the beach.

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And as I recall, I think this passage,

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it takes place over about three

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or four pages of the novel,

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which are all written in a single paragraph.

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And, it's, it's worth stating beforehand that,

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that Beckett was quite a good mathematician himself and,

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and, and quite interested in, in, in maths and philosophy.

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And so, Molo is walking a pebbled beach,

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and he has four pockets, and he, he picks up stones

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and puts, I believe it's five stones in each pocket.

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And he, he, he's sucking on them

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and sucks the, the salt,

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the salt from the sea off of these stones.

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And he, he, he, he, he sucks one for a bit

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and then puts it back in a pocket and takes another one.

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And he starts to wonder is, is there a way

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that he can rotate these stones in his four pockets in such

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a way that ensures that he never sucks the same stone twice

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until he's sucked all other 19 stones, yet at the same time,

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you know, he, he can't put too many in one individual pocket

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because it's simply not, not big enough.

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So he goes through all the different mathemat,

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mathematical permutations,

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and finally concludes that, that no, it's, it's, it's, it's,

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it's, it's, it's not possible actually.

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It's, it's, it's, it's, it's quite impossible.

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But, but then he, he thinks on this a bit further,

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and I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll quote from

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the, from from the book here.

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He, he, he decides at the end

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that he doesn't even like sucking stones

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and that he'll throw them all away, apart from one.

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Uh, and, and then he says, which, which,

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which he kept now in one pocket, now in another,

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and which of course, I soon lost or threw away,

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or gave away, away or swallowed.

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So it's sort of making the point that

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after all this great deliberation af

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after this incredible sort of thought experiment, that,

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that actually, it, it, it doesn't matter.

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It's, it's all just absurd philosophical absurdism.

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Uh, quite simply is the idea that nothing matters.

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That, that it's, it's all futile.

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That, that, that, that we, we strive

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to find inherent meaning in, in, in things,

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but we're doomed to failure because there is no meaning.

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And it, it, it, it almost implies that,

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that we shouldn't bother.

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Although, although the key proponents

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of philosophical absurdism, kiir God and,

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and Kaus, sort of turned it around

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and said, whilst everything seems absurd actually, that the,

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the, the there is reason, the, the,

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the working definition really adopted,

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for this paper is simply, is more around,

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methodological, in quantitative studies.

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Now, remember as I said that, that I have a background in,

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in, in, in quantitative methods.

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Uh, I, I've, a lot of my research has been quantitative,

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A lot has been qualitative,

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but I am, I, I sort of have a bit of a history

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of being critical of the misuse of quantitative methods.

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And, and this is what brought me to,

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cross-cultural management,

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because I think in, in something as, as as, sorry,

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I should perhaps back up a little bit.

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Brass cultural management is the, the study of, of,

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of national cultures

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and how the differences in national cultures,

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impact on, on managerial, systems and,

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and managerial behavior.

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But the basis of it is very much national cultures.

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And, and it's always been my feeling that, that, that the

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attempt to quantify national cultures is, is, is, is one

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that, that, that, that doesn't bring

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meaningful results.

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I think national culture is, is, is a fascinating topic.

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I think it's it's very worthy of study, but,

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but not in this, in this quantitative fashion.

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So, so that, that, that, that's it really is, is,

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is is this idea that the, that that absurdism is the idea

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that you put so much effort into collecting data,

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analyzing data, incredibly complex processes,

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huge data sets, yet the outputs that you get from it are,

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are trivial and meaningless.

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Uh, that, that's sort of what the, the,

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the way I came about it from the, the philosophical,

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sorry, the, the absurdist perspective

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to cross-cultural management studies.

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The key, the key proponent of, or, or,

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or, guru

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of cross-cultural management studies was a, a a, a Dutch,

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individual named Gert Hofstetter who, who,

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who passed away a, a few years ago,

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but he was hugely successful.

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He began a study in the 1970s, I believe it was, with IBM,

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and it went this, his questionnaire went to IBM,

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employees across the world.

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So he amassed this huge data set in which he looked at the

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differences between, between cultures

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and how they, they responded to these questions.

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And it's sort of just without, without, question a lot

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of the time been adopted as, as, as gospel really in,

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in business and management studies.

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And I, I make the case in this, this paper that business

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and management studies is perhaps an area that hasn't had

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to stand up to the same level of academic rigor

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as other areas in the, in the, the social sciences.

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Uh, so in terms of examples, well, when,

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when you read the work of Hofstetter, he,

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he describes the, the, the, the, the data sets that,

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that he was working with.

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He describes in great detail the, statistical,

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analysis of the data.

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And none of that, I have any problems with, it's a very

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thorough, statistic from, from a, a,

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a methodological perspective.

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The, the study itself and the analysis of the data is, is,

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is, is, is sound.

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Uh, it, it, it's, it's about the, the outputs.

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It's about what you get from this and,

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and the, a lot of the publications, a lot of the books

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of Hofsteder really just, just try it, it seems to me,

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in my opinion, seem to use this, this methodology

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to support just quite stereo, standard, stereotypical sort

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of portrayals about, you know, Germans being punctual,

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Italians being less so.

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And, I put a, a an example in the paper of, of

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how he describes the British, that,

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I live in the UK by the way.

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I live and work in, in, in, in the uk.

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Uh, but I'm originally Canadian.

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Uh, but, but his, I, his, his summary

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of the British is includes things like they wake up in the

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morning not really knowing what the day will bring,

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and that's fine with them, and they don't care,

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and things like this.

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It just seems really, to be, oddly

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Connected to, to, to this, you know, very thorough,

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statistical methodology that, that I described earlier.

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I think that this method is exhausted simply, it, it, it,

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it hasn't stood the test of time very well.

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That, that there, there, I think there,

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there were some legitimate uses for it,

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but, it, it, it's, it's, it, it's,

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it's, it's time to move on.

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Uh, one of the key fundamental flaws in, in Hofstadter's,

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approach, which I didn't get into in this paper, is that

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methodologically for his system to work, he needs to work

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with the assumption that culture, is immutable.

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That culture doesn't change,

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or at least culture remains static over decades

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and centuries, that it takes a incredibly long

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periods of time to change.

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And, and I just don't think that anybody living in the uk,

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for example, in the last 30 to 40 years, can really argue

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that, that that British culture hasn't changed.

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And I use British culture only as one example.

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I think anybody listening

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to this from anywhere in the world can think about their own

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culture over the last generation and,

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and the huge changes that have taken place.

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Now, that assumption is, is the,

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the entire methodology rests on that assumption.

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And if you can undermine one

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of the key assumptions on which any, methodology is, is,

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is constructed, then, then the whole methodology sort

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of comes, comes tumbling down.

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Moving on from this paper, I did really enjoy,

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and it's the first time I've really done this

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using literature.

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Uh, it,

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and certainly parts of literature is a, is a metaphor for,

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more, deeper sort of academic points that that,

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that I, I'm trying to make.

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And, at the moment I'm looking at the future of work

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and there's certainly a lot of fearmongering going about

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around AI and, and is it going to end the world

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and will we have any jobs?

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And I think a lot of that fear-mongering is, is unjustified.

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I, I'm, I'm very interested in looking at science fiction

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and the portrayal of, of the future

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of work in science fiction.

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Uh, blade Runner Dune are good examples, but, but,

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but there are many,

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because I think that these, that these works highlight,

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societies' fears about the future.

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And, and, and through doing so we can, we can show perhaps

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that a lot of those fears, are fiction and, and,

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and are not justified.

Exploring Absurdity Through Beckett's Work

00:00:00 - It was working with my former PhD, supervisor, professor Rob Campbell, who's a, a philosopher and, a a a Beckett, expert, Semial Beckett expert, miles away from my subject area, really. But, but I, I love reading Beckett, and I always have, and I've always been a bit of a, so I've got a background in quantitative methods. I've always been a bit of a, a, a geeky amateur, math, aficionado. and, and I, I was just speaking with him one day about a Beckett play craps slash tape,
00:00:33 - and I reread the novel Molloy dearly out of, for pleasure, nothing to do with my academic work. And, and I just thought back to my PhD dissertation, which had been around, cross-cultural management. And in particular, I was looking at cross-cultural management in central and Eastern Europe, and being very critical of the predominant, methodology, or paradigm used in cross-cultural management studies. And I thought that that, that, that the sort of absurdity highlighted in this
00:01:08 - of encapsulated what I was trying to say about the, this predominant paradigm in, in, in the field. So I, I am a very much a believer that, that, that, literature and films can often be very useful metaphors for, academic concepts. So I, I, it sparked the idea, and this was the most fun I've ever had writing any article, even, professor Rob Campbell, my, my colleague,
00:01:37 - I I don't think anyone who knows the story can really summarize, what, what Mulloy is actually about. it, it, it, it, it's, it's, it's one of three, novels, a trilogy. but let, let me focus on the relevant part of the, of, of the novel, which will make my life easier. there is a section in the, in, in, in the novel where Mulloy, the sort of anti-hero who's, sort
00:02:11 - is, is walking along the beach. And as I recall, I think this passage, it takes place over about three or four pages of the novel, which are all written in a single paragraph. And, it's, it's worth stating beforehand that, that Beckett was quite a good mathematician himself and, and, and quite interested in, in, in maths and philosophy. And so, Molo is walking a pebbled beach, and he has four pockets, and he, he picks up stones
00:02:41 - And he, he, he's sucking on them and sucks the, the salt, the salt from the sea off of these stones. And he, he, he, he, he sucks one for a bit and then puts it back in a pocket and takes another one. And he starts to wonder is, is there a way that he can rotate these stones in his four pockets in such a way that ensures that he never sucks the same stone twice until he's sucked all other 19 stones, yet at the same time,

Embracing Absurdism in Quantitative Analysis

00:03:11 - because it's simply not, not big enough. So he goes through all the different mathemat, mathematical permutations, and finally concludes that, that no, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's not possible actually. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's quite impossible. But, but then he, he thinks on this a bit further, and I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll quote from the, from from the book here. He, he, he decides at the end that he doesn't even like sucking stones and that he'll throw them all away, apart from one. and, and then he says, which, which,
00:03:45 - and which of course, I soon lost or threw away, or gave away, away or swallowed. So it's sort of making the point that after all this great deliberation af after this incredible sort of thought experiment, that, that actually, it, it, it doesn't matter. It's, it's all just absurd philosophical absurdism. quite simply is the idea that nothing matters. That, that it's, it's all futile. That, that, that, that we, we strive
00:04:15 - but we're doomed to failure because there is no meaning. And it, it, it, it almost implies that, that we shouldn't bother. Although, although the key proponents of philosophical absurdism, kiir God and, and Kaus, sort of turned it around and said, whilst everything seems absurd actually, that the, the, the there is reason, the, the, the working definition really adopted, for this paper is simply, is more around,
00:04:47 - Now, remember as I said that, that I have a background in, in, in, in quantitative methods. I, I've, a lot of my research has been quantitative, A lot has been qualitative, but I am, I, I sort of have a bit of a history of being critical of the misuse of quantitative methods. And, and this is what brought me to, cross-cultural management, because I think in, in something as, as as, sorry, I should perhaps back up a little bit.
00:05:17 - of national cultures and how the differences in national cultures, impact on, on managerial, systems and, and managerial behavior. But the basis of it is very much national cultures. And, and it's always been my feeling that, that, that the attempt to quantify national cultures is, is, is, is one that, that, that, that doesn't bring
00:05:49 - I think national culture is, is, is a fascinating topic. I think it's it's very worthy of study, but, but not in this, in this quantitative fashion. So, so that, that, that, that's it really is, is, is is this idea that the, that that absurdism is the idea that you put so much effort into collecting data, analyzing data, incredibly complex processes, huge data sets, yet the outputs that you get from it are,

Critique of Hofstede's Cross-Cultural Management Methods

00:06:19 - that, that's sort of what the, the, the way I came about it from the, the philosophical, sorry, the, the absurdist perspective to cross-cultural management studies. The key, the key proponent of, or, or, or, guru of cross-cultural management studies was a, a a, a Dutch, individual named Gert Hofstetter who, who, who passed away a, a few years ago, but he was hugely successful. He began a study in the 1970s, I believe it was, with IBM,
00:06:53 - employees across the world. So he amassed this huge data set in which he looked at the differences between, between cultures and how they, they responded to these questions. And it's sort of just without, without, question a lot of the time been adopted as, as, as gospel really in, in business and management studies. And I, I make the case in this, this paper that business and management studies is perhaps an area that hasn't had
00:07:23 - as other areas in the, in the, the social sciences. so in terms of examples, well, when, when you read the work of Hofstetter, he, he describes the, the, the, the, the data sets that, that he was working with. He describes in great detail the, statistical, analysis of the data. And none of that, I have any problems with, it's a very thorough, statistic from, from a, a,
00:07:54 - The, the study itself and the analysis of the data is, is, is, is, is sound. it, it, it's, it's about the, the outputs. It's about what you get from this and, and the, a lot of the publications, a lot of the books of Hofsteder really just, just try it, it seems to me, in my opinion, seem to use this, this methodology to support just quite stereo, standard, stereotypical sort of portrayals about, you know, Germans being punctual,
00:08:26 - And, I put a, a an example in the paper of, of how he describes the British, that, I live in the UK by the way. I live and work in, in, in, in the uk. but I'm originally Canadian. but, but his, I, his, his summary of the British is includes things like they wake up in the morning not really knowing what the day will bring, and that's fine with them, and they don't care, and things like this. It just seems really, to be, oddly
00:09:00 - statistical methodology that, that I described earlier. I think that this method is exhausted simply, it, it, it, it hasn't stood the test of time very well. That, that there, there, I think there, there were some legitimate uses for it, but, it, it, it's, it's, it, it's, it's, it's time to move on. one of the key fundamental flaws in, in Hofstadter's, approach, which I didn't get into in this paper, is that

Challenging Cultural Change Assumptions in Methodology

00:09:32 - with the assumption that culture, is immutable. That culture doesn't change, or at least culture remains static over decades and centuries, that it takes a incredibly long periods of time to change. And, and I just don't think that anybody living in the uk, for example, in the last 30 to 40 years, can really argue that, that that British culture hasn't changed. And I use British culture only as one example. I think anybody listening to this from anywhere in the world can think about their own
00:10:02 - and the huge changes that have taken place. Now, that assumption is, is the, the entire methodology rests on that assumption. And if you can undermine one of the key assumptions on which any, methodology is, is, is constructed, then, then the whole methodology sort of comes, comes tumbling down. Moving on from this paper, I did really enjoy, and it's the first time I've really done this using literature. it, and certainly parts of literature is a, is a metaphor for, more, deeper sort of academic points that that,
00:10:35 - And, at the moment I'm looking at the future of work and there's certainly a lot of fearmongering going about around AI and, and is it going to end the world and will we have any jobs? And I think a lot of that fear-mongering is, is unjustified. I, I'm, I'm very interested in looking at science fiction and the portrayal of, of the future of work in science fiction. blade Runner Dune are good examples, but, but, but there are many, because I think that these, that these works highlight, societies' fears about the future.
00:11:11 - that a lot of those fears, are fiction and, and, and are not justified.

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