Beyond a ‘paradigm cold war’, or: How to explore the new in cross-cultural management research

Cross-cultural management seeks to develop new and alternative perspectives on management studies. The multi-paradigm approach has proven to be an important and necessary step in this direction. It is particularly important in overcoming a purely positivist perspective. In a broader perspective, however, paradigm-based thinking may also be a hindrance in the search for the new, especially when real-world issues are paramount and an open view of practice would be more important. Post qualitative inquiry argues that the coherence of an academic study is ensured by an internal coherence of epistemology, ontology and method, which is often lacking even within paradigms. Certainly, post qualitative inquiry can also be described as a paradigm, but it primarily aims to achieve radical openness while maintaining its internal coherence. Using Anna Tsing’s study ‘The Mushroom at the End of the World’ as an example, this paper shows how the field of cross-cultural management can generate even more radically different insights into its research object. As a result, this paper explores ways of thinking about cross-cultural management that go beyond paradigms.