Is offshore outsourcing destined to be the device that precipitates the next historically inevitable shift of economic power? Unless America's leaders take a step back and look at the bigger picture — yes. As the line between international and local business blurs, it's becoming increasingly important to understand the various ways in which cultural differences affect business practices. In 1980, Geert Hofstede, a Swedish industrial organizational psychologist, studied cross-cultural business practices. He identified two elements that can now be related to the recent explosion of outsourcing. One element concerns patterns of individualism vs. collectivism in business thinking. The other involves short-term vs. long-term perspectives in decision making.
