Page 24 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

source language into another for information exchange, a specific problem occurs as a result of a mismatch between the vocabularies (Peltokorpi & Vaara, 2012). When socio- cultural and language contexts are unfamiliar to both involved participants, it is a challenge to both knowledge transmitters and receivers to avoid confusion and the genesis of distortion (Armstrong, Cools & Sadler-Smith, 2012; Kuznetsov & Kuznetsova, 2014).
1.2 Management consultancy in Central Europe and Russia
Management consultancy on an international level, originated from the 19th century when the founding pioneers appearing in England and the United States. Consultancy firms and individual consultants with names like Samuel Price, George Touch and William Deloitte, directed to auditing. Another group (well known Edwin Booz, James McKinsey, Tom Kearnes, Eydon Urwick and Charles Bedeaux), as a first generation, directed themselves to advisory services for businesses (Gross, Poor & Roberson, 2004). From 1910, many of the pioneering consultancy firms appeared in Central Europe and work until the outbreak of the 2nd World War. These firms were mainly focused on topics like work processes, the connections between workers and mechanisation and productivity issues. They were largely welcomed by manufacturers and industrialists, eager to improve the output of their processes. According to their understanding of motivation processes the respectful, human approach of their workforce was a key factor in motivational measures.
From the 1920’s West European consultancy firms, mainly German, appeared in Central Europe as well. Among them a Dutch consultancy firm, named INDURAG, was active in advisory, especially in re-engineering of business processes for larger companies in manufacturing and services areas. INDURAG was a rare example with their direction to Central Europe since most of the Dutch consultancy firms, at that time, were directed to the Dutch colonies in Asia and the West Indies.
Regarding Russia, it should be noted that until the Bolshevist Revolution (1917) some consultancy firms were invited to assist in the improvement of manufacturing processes in the developing industries. After the Bolshevist regime was established, all connections with foreign consultancy firms were abandoned. Only after the implosion of the Soviet Union (1991) Western consultancy firms, in the “slipstream” of the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and in 1992, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD, 1992) returned to Russia (and the CEE
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