Line, line, everywhere a line: Cultural considerations for waiting-line managers🇺🇸 🇬🇧

Given the trend of increasing business globalization, management teams of multinational companies have taken steps to better understand consumers, local business partners, and local governments. Local queueing preferences present man- agers with additional challenges and opportunities in international markets. The world may be ‘flat,’ but it is foolish to believe that all cultures perceive lines and waiting through the same lens. As discussed herein, perceptions regarding waiting and management of queues vary greatly; therefore, managers should adopt different policies and procedures when managing waiting lines across natural and cultural borders. Considering queue management in a global context offers benefits. Thinking globally– —and acting locally– —can prioritize and clarify important decisions any wait- ing-line manager has to make. # 2014 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University . Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author E-mail addresses: gilliamg14@darden.virginia.edu (G. Gillam), simmonsk14@darden.virginia.edu (K. Simmons), don@gistlearning.com (D. Stevenson), weisse@darden.virginia.edu (E. Weiss) 1 MBA Candidate, 2014 2 MBA Candidate, 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor .2014.03.004 0007-6813/# 2014 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University . Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. To be fair , seeking an understanding of perceptual nuance can be considerably more challenging to quantify and justify than the efficient allocation of resources. Cultures are constantly interacting and evolving, so even the most rigorously obtained cultural data can quickly become outdated and irrelevant. And the technological advances that have made globalization more tangible arrived only relatively recently . Ye t these factors...