Greek Management

This paper addresses the basic characteristics of management in Greece and comments on the main forces of change facing Greek managers. It begins by presenting some basic characteristics of the management context in Greece and then looks at three recent empirical studies conducted in Greece by the authors and their associates. The analysis of these studies represents an effort to diagnose Greek management at a general level, by discussing the management culture typologies of Greek companies, and at the level of specific managerial practices, by presenting their leadership and strategic decision-making styles. In order to identify the unique characteristics of Greek management, we contrast the management cultures and decision-making styles of Greek-owned companies with those of subsidiaries of multinationals operating in the same national context. We also compare the results of the three studies with those of previous studies on Greece. Our prognosis, based on facts as well as on our own personal experiences, suggests that Greek management is in a state of transition, leading toward modernization-professionalism mainly influenced by the U.S. and U.K. models with which it tends to converge. We draft a model of environmental and other influences on Greek management and argue that this change supports the culturefree or convergence hypothesis. We finally discuss the implications for research on Greek management and offer guidelines for future research.