The author of the paper, presented at a Savoy Place meeting of the Management and Design Division, received and presented on the 25th January 1983 at a joint divisional lecture with the Computing and Control Division, makes a detailed and discerning analysis of the factors implicit in ‘management style’, with particular reference to his own experience in an international group of technological companies. Some 50 subsidiaries are each headed by a local national. The group applies world-wide ethical standards, and expects each manager at all levels to understand both his own culture in depth, and also the culture he may be moving into when joining a foreign affilicate. Rather than try to impose the management style of the parent company on foreign affiliates, it is far better to attempt to draw the greatest benefits from the unique style of each culture: some European examples of this are quoted.