National culture is depicted as playing a fundamental role in forming cultural values. In turn, these values interact with the needs, attitudes and norms of individuals and groups and result in behaviours which contribute to organizational effectiveness, or lack thereof. Additional influences are the values derived from the corporate culture and the individual's professional culture; thus individuals and groups within an organization can be expected to share some values, but they can also be expected to differ with respect to others.

The organization's effectiveness will increase to the extent that the factors influencing behaviour are understood by managers. An international firm's performance is likely to be enhanced when systems are in place that are congruent with the various influences that determine behaviours. While it is clearly impossible to understand all of the factors influencing behaviour, national cultures and attendant values appear to be an important starting point.

A focus on national culture has been questioned by some scholars. Their concern is that the idea that nations and cultures may be coterminous is incorrect and, thus, thinking in these terms is misleading. It is certainly the case that nations and cultures are not the same; nevertheless, it seems appropriate from an international organization's viewpoint to consider national cultures, as the following illustrates.

An organization's activities are legally constrained by national requirements, rather than cultural ones. This results in international firms identifying with national boundaries. Human resource considerations encourage firms to take a national perspective. The workforce in a particular location is predominantly a national workforce - labour mobility within a country is often greater than between countries. This means that management systems need to be designed with the national character of the workforce in mind. Governments encourage this through legislation; usually, laws and regulations regarding employees encompass all citizens of a country and do not apply differentially to different cultural groups. In contrast, laws and regulations may differ quite dramatically from country to country. The firm has to function within this system; therefore, it is appropriate to begin its cultural analysis at the national culture level.

Betty Jane Punnett