| Abstract: | This paper argues that cross-cultural management research is dominated by a restricted structural-functionalist orthodoxy, which is a consequence of Western culture. Such research is trapped by favoured ways of thinking, metaphorically shackled within 'Plato's cave' to the wall of a realist rationalism by the webs of its own imagination. Plato's cave and other metaphors are employed to explore the limits of cross-cultural research with particular reference to understanding Chinese culture and management and to examine possible routes to a less restrictive and more pluralistic direction for future study. In particular, the dialectical change conception is identified as promising in furthering understanding of Chinese culture and management because of its consonance with Taoist philosophy. This enables exposing contradiction and paradox as legitimate in examining culture and promotes a metaphorical 'binocular' vision aimed at transcending the current monocled myopia pervasive and dominant in objectivist studies of culture and management. |
