Abstract
This article draws on the author's experience as a UK aid worker operating in a business support agency in former Yugoslavia and, through empirical work at employee level, seeks to understand the ways in which national cultural differences impinge on development work in economies undergoing transformation. Yugoslavia was the only Eastern block country included in Hofstede's major analysis of national cultural differences. A small-scale replication of his study, based on four comparable business support organizations, two in the United Kingdom and two in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, first examines the extent to which the fundamental differences which he identified still hold true and then looks at the ways in which the Macedonian findings can be interpreted as a legacy of empires. The implications of the cultural gap in the sphere of cross-national development assistance are then explored through a management log.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.