The starting point for Holden's (2002) reformulation of cross-cultural management as a form of knowledge management was a dissatisfaction with the Hofstedian grip and the stubborn adherence to out-of-date ideas and assumptions that still permeates so much of the writing on issues of culture with specific reference to international dimensions. He felt that the new economy, with its global reach, instantaneous communications and complex multinational and multicultural involvements, required a new way of looking at things. This he tries to achieve by developing the notion of culture as an object of knowledge management to illustrate how culture can be understood as an organisational resource instead of being presented as colliding zones of adversarial oppositions.

Culture is defined as "varieties of common knowledge; infinitely overlapping and perpetually redistributable habitats of common knowledge and shared meanings." Common knowledge, in turn, is described as

Knowledge which is available in one location in an internationally distributed organization and which through interactive translation can be diffused to other locations within the organization in an appropriately intelligible form. Common knowledge is useful because there are different kinds of it, but it is dispersed messily both through organizations and the wider networks which encompass their stakeholders." (p. 315)

The new conceptual framework for cultures conceived in this way is provided by knowledge management, but Holden does not exclude other possibilities. However, as far as cross-cultural management is concerned, it makes it much easier to write about networks, learning and knowledge management as organisational processes. The transfer and sharing of knowledge and experience is conceived primarily in terms of collaborative learning where participants can draw from pools of common knowledge.

Furthermore, atmosphere is considered a major influence on these processes, both as a precondition for, and valuable product of, cross-cultural interactions.

Atmosphere is the balm which allows cultures to intersect smoothly, and allows pools of knowledge to overlap freely. (p. 285)
His analysis of the case studies has generated two new concepts: interactive translation and participative competence. The former is seen as a form of cross-cultural work in which participants engage in (multicultural) groups to negotiate common meanings and common understandings. Interactive translation calls for participative competence, i.e. adeptness in cross-cultural communication, for facilitating and modulating the intra- and inter-organisational transfer of knowledge, values and experience.

Holden stresses that his new approach to cross-cultural management is basically derived from empirical research. Rather than test hypotheses, he has tried to answer questions which emerged in the course of his investigations and observations in global companies. His work offers new concepts and models, as well as valuable insights, which have implications not only for the management domain, but for other fields as well.