The Organizational Culture and Local Culture in the Internationalization Process: An Analysis Through Fuzzy Logic

Abstract

The internationalization process of production has marked the world scenarios since the last decades and has influenced the complex interrelationships between the local culture and organizational culture. The culture shock was a recurring phenomenon and made the internationalization started to absorb elements of local culture as determining factors in expansion strategies. The aim of this paper is to analyze the favorable conditions of the organizational culture to manage the local culture. This is a preliminary study that aimed to integrate qualitative and quantitative factors with a fuzzy logic system. To achieve this goal, three elements were analyzed and interrelated: values, organizational structure, and management practices of human resources. A fuzzy mathematical model that considers the different weights to the elements analyzed leading to the identification of the favorability of the organizational culture in managing the local culture was developed. Petrobras, a transnational corporation with unity in Bolivia, whose major shareholder is the Brazilian government, was studied to empirically identify how the elements interact and are incorporated into internationalization strategies.