Skewed Integration: the Negative Representation of Poles by Expatriate Managers

This paper provides a critique of a cross-cultural management (CCM) framework in understanding the interaction between Western expatriate managers in Poland and their Polish colleagues/subordinates based on data from 32 semi-structured interviews with British expatriate managers working in Poland. By critically analyzing the discourse of the expatriate managers, this paper argues that an interpretive approach highlights two dynamic elements crucial to such interactions which quantitative approaches fail to capture. These two dynamic factors provide a perspective from which the expatriate managers’ representation of Poles as managerially and culturally inferior can be better understood. By implication, it is proposed that similar representation on the part of expatriate managers can be observed in any scenario of Western expatriation to countries they perceive as being less economically developed.