5BUS1054-0206 Cross-Cultural Management Assignment Sample
Module code and Title: 5BUS1054-0206 Cross-Cultural Management Assignment Sample
1. Introduction
Cross-cultural management is a study that depends on the cross-culture context in the management of the company or business. The study influenced the people to understand the societal culture as well as the cultural orientation of the managers and the management of the organization. Individualism is an essential element of MNC companies, especially small American companies. It helps the companies to focus on each employee of the company to understand their strengths and talents. The MNC companies mainly focus on Individualism over collectivism.
However, collectivism is a culture taken by the companies and organizations to focus on the talents of the teams of the company. Uncertainty avoidance is the situation where the employees of the company know how to react to uncertain situations when they face issues from society as well as cultural experiences. The aim of the essay is to compare cross-cultural management in MNCs. Cross cultural management plays an important role in advancing oversea business opportunities for multinational companies by reducing the
2. Explanation of similarities and differences of Individualism Versus Collectivism using Hofstede’s model
The similarities between Individualism and Collectivism are principles, practices, political theories, and cultural patterns. These are contrasted with each other, and collectivism focus on the teamwork of the companies. These help the companies to aim the long-term relationships along with the group goals of the team of the companies (Clark et al. 2000). The main difference between Individualism and collectivism is that collectivism is mainly contrasted with individual cultures. Collectivism focuses on the importance of the community, and Individualism is focused on the rights and concerns of each person. As an example, the company coca-cola has expanded its business in many cultures of the world, and the company influenced many people to adopt several cultures (Chia-Hao and Hsin-Hong, 2020). That is why the company lives all over the world, so it has already seen its influences in the movies along with television programs.
Cross-cultural management helps the companies and the organizations train the employees of the MNCs. This also helps the employees of the MNC companies to behave and communicate with other employees in the office (Jayasundera and George, 2017). There are five elements in Hofstede’s model, and those are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, Individualism, masculinity/femininity, and long-term orientation. This essay will state the Individualism, collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance of the MNC companies, and here I take two companies Coca Cola and Unilever, as examples. Individualism in China is addressed by the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members, and it has the self-image that is explained by ‘I or me’. In an Individualist culture, the people of society focus on themselves and the after then their family members only, whereas Collectivist cultures focus on the group of the people of society (Iwashita, 2019). The company Unilever states that the employees of the company expected that they would be self-sufficient and take the initiative in the projects of the company. The employees value their confidence and increase their independence to improve the work culture.
Furthermore, the employees of the company Unilever think that they have strong work trends as well as ethics to focus on individual achievement and they have individual goals. Therefore, Unilever focuses on Individualism over collectivism for its employees (Kwon et al., 2021). However, the employees of the company considered themselves self-sufficient, independent, and confident. The score of China in Individualism is 20, and it adopts collectivist culture highly the people. The people of China believe that group or teamwork is best for achieving any goals of the company. The score of the UK is 89 in Individualism (Hofstede-insights.com, 2022). Therefore, the nation believes in the people it has and its talents. The people of the UK think that happiness happens when the personal requirement is fulfilled. The comparison between the two countries, it has cleared that China focuses on collectivism, and the UK focuses on Individualism. Therefore, the people of the UK believe in themselves, and they think that they are self-sufficient to do any job without a help of a team or a group.
Figure 1: The comparison between China and the UK using Hofstede’s Model (Source: Hofstede-insights.com, 2022)
3. Explanation of similarities and differences of Uncertainty Avoidance using Hofstede’s model
Uncertainty avoidance is the situation where the people of the company or society know the response to any kind of uncertain situation. The dimension of uncertainty avoidance has started the way that helps the people of society to handle the fact that the future will never know. People face anxiety, and with the help of different cultures, people can learn the way to control their anxiety (Leonavičienė and Burinskienė, 2022). The members of the company or the business feel threatened when they do not know the uncertain condition. The employees of the company create the beliefs to avoid the condition. The score of uncertainty avoidance in China is 30, and this is a low score (Hofstede-insights.com, 2022). The people of China are comfortable with ambiguity, and the Chinese language is ambiguous.
The score of uncertainty avoidance in the UK is 35, and this is a low score. Therefore, it has clear that the people of the UK are quite happy not to know the future situation in their lives. The country is low UAI, and the people of the nation are quite comfortable with the ambiguous condition (Hofstede-insights.com, 2022). The UK is focused on Individualism so that the people are creative, and this helps the projects to get more value and profit. The country is known for its innovative products and highly creative industries (Liu, 2019). On the other hand, the company Unilever shows that it gives a chance to the employees to share their innovative ideas and opinions. The employees of the company did not take stress when they faced uncertain situations. However, they take challenges for the projects and do the work in a better way (Qin et al. 2017). Furthermore, the employees of the company Unilever set their own interesting and creative ideas for the business operations.
Chinese individuals are less interested in facing uncertain situations, and they always try to work in a group or a team. They also do not want to make the changes in the organizations and try to stay with the consistent norms of the companies and the cultures (Sageder and Feldbauer-Durstmüller, 2019). On the other hand, in the nations of the world, American companies deal with uncertain factors and situations. It is noted that uncertainty avoidance is not related to risk avoidance. The company Coca-cola is also open about taking new ideas and thoughts from the employees (Swoboda and Hirschmann, 2017). This is a high tolerance for going against the consistent norms and regulations of the workplace. Company Coca-cola defines that the employees of the company do not take the stress when uncertain situations come. It helps the company to take the challenges as well as opportunities to do better work (Zhang et al. 2017). Furthermore, the company creates new ideas and thoughts for the growth of the company, and the creative ideas of the employees are welcomed for business opportunities.
4. Conclusion/Recommendation
It has been concluded that collectivism is adopted by China, whereas Individualism is adopted by the UK. The company Unilever support Individualism; furthermore, Coca-cola supports collectivism. Individualism helps the people or the employees of the company to believe in them and think that they are self-sufficient for the work. The score of Individualism in China is 20 and in the UK are 89. The score of uncertainty avoidance in China is 30 and in the UK are 35. Therefore, the nations should adopt other skills to break the consistency of the norms of the company.
Recommendation:
To increase self efficiency in workplace: Each task will be completed within a strict deadline. Lack of errors will be observed while reviewing the tasks. It is achievable by increasing knowledge and hard work to produce better impact within workplace. It is realistic as the recommendation will help in achieving high productivity in professional life. The changes will be achievable within six months
To avoid Uncertainty avoidance in the nations and the companies: Acceptance among diverse culture will be witnessed. It is achievable by adopting cross cultural management theory at workplace. It is a realistic one as it can help in regulating uncertain conflicts between nations. It can be achieved within six months by adopting other skills.
Reference Lists
Chia-Hao, M. And Hsin-Hong, K., 2020. Validation Of The Mediation Effect Between Cross-Cultural Management And Employee Identification. Psychology Research And Behavior Management, 13, Pp. 169-183.
Hofstede-insights.com, 2022, COUNTRY COMPARISON, Available at: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/china,the-uk/ [Retrieved on: 27.04.2022]
Iwashita, H., 2019. Transferring Family Logic Within A Multinational Corporation: Japanese Subsidiaries In The Usa And Thailand. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, 26(4), Pp. 639-663.
Jayasundera, A. And George, B., 2017. Cross-Cultural Issues In Employee Performance And Talent Management In The Middle East. Palermo Business Review, (16), Pp. 11-36.
Kwon, H., Bae, J. And Kim, S., 2021. Introduction: Emerging Mncs And Socioeconomic Dynamics In Asia. Journal Of Asian Sociology, 50(1), Pp. 1-8.
Leonavičienė, E. And Burinskienė, A., 2022. Accelerating Cultural Dimensions At International Companies In The Evidence Of Internationalisation. Sustainability, 14(3), Pp. 1524.
Liu, Y., 2019. Promoting Cross-Border Knowledge Transfer For New Product Development In Mncs: A Process View. Journal Of Technology Transfer, 44(3), Pp. 802-821.
Qin, C., Wang, Y. And Ramburuth, P., 2017. The Impact Of Knowledge Transfer On Mnc Subsidiary Performance: Does Cultural Distance Matter? Knowledge Management Research & Practice, 15(1), Pp. 78-89.
Sageder, M. And Feldbauer-Durstmüller, B., 2019. Management Control In Multinational Companies: A Systematic Literature Review. Review Of Managerial Science, 13(5), Pp. 875-918.
Swoboda, B. And Hirschmann, J., 2017. Perceptions And Effects Of Cross-National Corporate Reputation: The Role Of Hofstede’s Cultural Value Approach. International Marketing Review, 34(6), Pp. 909-944.
Zhang, Y., Wei, X. And Zhou, W., 2017. An Asymmetric Cross-Cultural Perspective On The Mediating Role Of Conflict Management Styles In Expatriation. International Journal Of Conflict Management, 28(5), Pp. 592-616.
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