Teaching Applied Psychology to American and British Managers

The cultural differences between British and American managers observed while teaching applied psychology to classes of both ationalities are discussed. Each group was taught materials with a dominant cognitive and affective focus in university and management development courses. Two categories of differences are identified: personal perspectives and educational philosophy. Under personal perspectives, the influence of the future orientation of the Americans and the past orientation of the British are considered. These differences may account for the desire of subjective learning experiences on the part of the Americans and objective experiences for the British. The past and future orientation may also account for the interest in Freudian theories applied to management education in Britain and the humanistic school in America. It is concluded that the educational philosophies are very different, with the Americans having a very utilitarian view of education, dating back to the Land Grant colleges and the acceptance of part‐time students.