5T5Z0026 Managing Across Cultures Assignment Sample
Here’s the best sample of 5T5Z0026 Managing Across Cultures Assignment, written by the expert.
Introduction:
In the present task, being a part of the team of management consultants, the focus would be put on the issue like ‘Differences in cultural values’. This could create potential challenges within cross-cultural working during the process of internationalisation of a large telecommunication organisation operating solely within the UK. Part one would conduct a literature review regarding this challenge and part two would provide detailed recommendations.
Part One:
Due to the high business competition, the companies are growing constantly and also expanding international business operations. During going international, the companies have to face major challenges. Among various obstacles, the differences in cultural value are one of the crucial challenges which affect the entire business organisation through different ways. According to Calori et al. (2010), foreign culture is consisted of various ways for doing business. The culture can create both the negative and positive influence during cross-cultural working. Many firms are struggling due to different in the cultural values both in the new and foreign environment. In this regard professor Geert Hofstede has conducted detailed studies regarding how the values in any workplace are largely influenced by the culture. Thus, the culture has been defined as the combined programming of mind which distinguishes the team members of any specific category or group of people from others. Thus, Hofstede identified six different dimensions of the national culture which are entirely based on the extensive research.
Six dimensions of Hofstede’s cultural model:
According to Hofstede model, the national culture is consisted of six different dimensions. Caves (2013) stated that each cultural dimension depicts independent preferences for specific state of affairs over other which distinguishes countries from each other. The scores of any country based on such dimensions are relative because everyone is human and consequently all are unique. On the other hand, the culture can be only used by comparison meaningfully.
Power distance index (PDI)
This particular dimension usually expresses that degree at which less powerful members of any society expect and accept that the power is unequally distributed. Here the fundamental issue is the way by which society can handle inequalities among various people. Cavusgil (2014) addressed that people exhibits the large amount of power distance within societies and accept the hierarchical order where everyone has a specific place and also requires no additional justification. People in the societies having low power distance strive for equalising the power distribution and also demand justification for power inequalities.
Individualism versus collectivism (IDV)
The high side of Hofstede’s cultural model is known to be individualism. It is also renowned as the preference for specific social framework where individuals are desired for taking care of own and immediate families. On the other hand, Chatman and Jehn (2011) argued that collectivism demonstrates the preference for that framework of society where individuals expect that members of any particular group look after those in return to unquestioning loyalty.
Uncertainty avoidance index (UAI)
This specific dimension demonstrates that degree at which any member of the society feels to be uncomfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty. Hence, the primary issue is the process by which society deals with any fact that future is not known ever. The countries, which exhibit the strong UAI also maintain the rigid code of behaviour and belief and are of unorthodox ideas and behaviour. On the other hand, weak UAI societies can maintain the large relaxed attitude where practice is more relevant than the principles.
Masculinity versus femininity (MAS)
Masculinity side of cultural dimensions indicates the preference is the society for the assertiveness, heroism, achievement and owing material reward due to success. Oppositely, femininity mainly stands for the preference to achieve cooperation, quality of life and caring for weak (Chatman et al. 2008). The society on largely basis is highly consensus-oriented. In the context of business, femininity versus masculinity is related to the tender versus tough cultures.
Long term versus short term orientation (LTO)
Long term orientation indicates to that degree at which people require for explaining those inexplicable and also related strongly to nationalism and religiosity. The countries which highly scores at LTO becomes more modest, pragmatic, thrifty and long-term oriented. On the other hand, the people become more nationalistic and religious in the low-scoring countries. Here, self-enhancement is also crucial.
Indulgence versus restraint (IVR)
The countries which have the high IVR score encourage or allow comparatively free gratification of own emotions and drives of the people like having fun and enjoying life. On the other hand, Child (2007) mentioned that in those societies having low IVR score has more emphasis over more regulation about people’s behaviour and conduct and suppressing gratification. Thus, there is comparatively stricter amount of social norms.
Thus, the culture is that integrated summation of the learned behavioural traits which are entirely shared by the members of any society. Hoftsede’s cultural model plays the crucial part to maintain the interpersonal relationship in the workplace (Hofstede, 2011). During stepping the business into any foreign culture, these six cultural dimensions help as the starting point to evaluate the decisions, actions and approach.
Levels of culture:
Considering the opinion of Child (2013), for understanding the differences in the cultural values, it is also needed to understand the cultural symbols, such as religious rituals, art and language which share the meanings from different society. Therefore, the cultural factors also have crucial impact on the overall flow of business. Every society is consisted of own cultural elements. Such cultural elements are again manifested through the language (verbal or nonverbal), religion, manners and customs, values and attitudes, education, aesthetics and social institutions. For any international company, the adaptation of such elements is dependent on the level of the market participation. Thus, for any international company during expansion of business operation in foreign country, it is highly important to opt for cultural analysis. This includes the information which helps the staff of the company for taking planning decisions for working in cross-cultural situation. Such information can be interpreted proper way for coping with challenge like difference in value due to culture. On the other, Child et al. (2010) focused on another significant issue regarding culture which is the level that has been manifested through values, underlying assumptions and artefacts. The visible organizational process and structures include the visible products like manner of address, clothing, work practices which also shows the different in cultural values. On the other hand, the strategies, philosophies and goals include the avoidance and attributions. Furthermore, unconscious cultural differences consider the granted perceptions, beliefs, feelings and thoughts.
Business Culture:
Through the below mentioned model, the difference of cultural influence in every country is mentioned. According to the view of Clifford and Marcus (2007), in every country, culture is mediated through three different factors, such as cultural messages, cultural factors and the consumer decision making process. The cultural forces are presented through the education, national identity and family. Cultural messages are roles and behaviour, morality and ethics and design influence. However, culture often also impacted from different universal wants and needs in consumer trends and society. For example, the cultural differences for country A and B are different. Thus, any foreign company must assess and cope with such cultural differences during harnessing business expansion in these countries. Through synthesizing and combining the cultural differences, the foreign company should integrate various cultural perspectives and put the dynamic resolutions of several challenges which might arise.
Foreign culture versus home culture:
The decision of a company to be involved with international business actually depends on the factors like domestic market of the company, production capacity and financial resources which the foreign market needs. Thus, the companies can be placed over the internationalization scale which ranges from the domestic nation to globalised nation. The national culture of any company becomes relevant up to a certain extent. Cohen and Levinthal (2006) stated that any company’s home country culture becomes of high relevance although often the employees and managers are not aware about the same. On the other hand, the significance of the culture of other people becomes larges for a company when it spread the business activities across national boundaries for reaching to foreigners with different tastes and value systems.
There are also few aspects of any culture which manifest in the negotiation situation. The foreign partners not only speak in different language but also the thinking approach is also different for putting priorities in business due to the cultural reasons. Thus, being a part of the of the management consultants in the present telecommunication organization, this kind of differences in cultural values can be illustrated which could be faced during expanding business internationally. It is also needed for the persons who are interested to be involved in the international business, to first generate the closer and personal relationship and establish the trust and fidelity before starting the business contracts including activities in different culture (Collins, 2008). For lowering the cultural differences four strategies can be followed to manage the cultural differences. These are building the strong corporate culture internationally, development of common technical or the professional culture worldwide, relying on the strong financial or the planning system and leaving every culture alone. Moreover, to become successful for doing business in another culture, each foreign company is needed to be aware about the rule which could make the business activity to be more compatible. There are six rules in this regard, such as be prepared, establishing trust, slow down, understanding the importance of language, understanding the components about culture and respecting other culture.
Part Two:
Cross-cultural working is becoming highly important and it has great effect over the success of the international business operations. The appropriate handling of the cross-cultural workforce is the significant source of the competitive advantage for any organisation. The managers not only required to develop the tolerance and empathy towards the cultural differences, but also gain appropriate degree of knowledge about the values and beliefs of the foreign counterparts. Contractor et al. (2013) reported that the traditional strategies which are generally used by the management to overcome the problem of the cross-cultural working are proving to be inadequate. This might not be capable for solving the issue of cross cultural diversity due to internationalisation of business in the edge of globalisation. The cross-cultural proficiency assists the managers to be well connected with the foreign counterparts.
Three strategies which can be recommended as the member of the team of management consultant for how the organisation would minimise the likelihood of the cross-cultural difficulties are:
- i) Acquiring proper knowledge about other culture:
The managers of the organisation which is attempting to expand its operation in international location are required to acquire the interpretive and factual knowledge regarding other culture. The experienced managers also try for speaking that specific international language also during interacting with the foreign cultures. The organisation becomes successful to deal with such cultural differences when the managers gain the base of knowledge regarding attitude, lifestyle and values of other culture. Furthermore, the managers should also be well known about the economic and political background of the target countries, history, present national affairs and few perceptions about that culture. These kinds of knowledge facilities help the organisation to understand other organisation’s objectives and mindset. It is become substantially easier for interpreting the decision of the foreign organisation. According to Deal and Kennedy (2014), sincere interest about target culture also helps to establish respect and trust by laying the basic foundation for productive and open relationships. The attempt for speaking the local language is also welcome in this regard. However, the larger level of the language proficiency always paves the way to obtain competitive advantage. Thus, in the long run, the managers who converse through multiple languages have the more chances for negotiating successfully and having positive business interactions. Adding to this, the managers must be aware regarding own cultural practices including the bias, stereotyping and prejudices. The understanding about various cultural factors which mainly contribute to the cultural differences provides more value to prevent the occurring of issues in the cross-cultural setting. On the other hand, having the good skill and knowledge regarding the foreign culture can prevent the occurrence of the cross-cultural conflicts.
Treating the people as the individuals instead of culture is often acted as the key for resolving the communication problem in foreign culture. Few generalisations regarding other culture often create conflict in communication in multicultural setting. It cannot be expected that all people of the particular international organisation would react in the same way as those are from different culture. However, Deal and Kennedy (2012) argued that it’s totally true that the cultural backgrounds might affect on the acting, behaving and communicating of people. But it does not at all mean that people from certain culture would react to the events similarly. Thus, respecting people from different culture can also minimise the likelihood of the occurring of cross-cultural issues.
- ii) Avoiding cultural bias:
Perhaps the crucial reason of the issues in cross-cultural working during international expansion is ethnocentric assumptions which the managers may hold unconsciously. Considering the opinion of Dunning (2013), the ethnocentric assumptions may lead to the poor business strategies in both execution and planning. Thus, the communication becomes distorted with the foreigners. The managers who are new for any international business often find it difficult to explain the behaviour of a foreigner. There is the perception like other’s behaviour is odd and also improper. This situation might depict the manager’s inability for interacting appropriately with the foreigner. It can also lead to communication breakdown. In the same way the cultural bias also act as the crucial barrier for the effective interpersonal communication. Hence, it is highly recommended to overcome such cultural bias during reacting towards different behaviour, systems or values. Enculturation indicates to that fact which means own culture of anyone is engrained deeply in the subconscious and conscious mind of any individual (Hoecklin, 2010). Thus, it affects a person’s thinking, saying and other actions also. Due to the strength of the enculturation, the people often make comparison with the new cultural ways to own ways and conclude that own ways as the best. Recognising the self-reference criterion is the first vital step for avoiding cultural bias and also ethnocentric reactions.
On the other hand, Rugman (2009) addressed that the critical incident nalysis indicates to the analytical method to assess awkward situations during cross-cultural interactions through generating empathy for others’ point of view. It is the significant approach for avoiding the main trap of the self-reference criterion with cross-cultural encounters. However, the critical incident analyse also encourages larger objective reaction to the cultural difference through helping the managers to create empathy for others. Tayeb (2011) identified that the problem of stereotyping has also have high potentials for causing the conflict situations in multicultural workplace. The best way for avoiding the problem of stereotyping is making the effort to approach all people to be the human beings. This choice helps the people in any organisation to become more aware about the similarities among all people even who are from foreign culture irrespective of the race or the skin colour. It is also helpful for developing positive attitude towards the people from foreign culture. Clifford and Marcus (2007) mentioned that the similarities or continuities among the cultures are largely intriguing than differences.
iii) Development of cross-cultural skills:
For working effectively in a cross-cultural international workplace, it is highly required for an organisation to develop the cross-cultural skills for both managers and the employees. This requires a huge investment for the professional development. Cohen and Levinthal (2006) identified that every culture is comprised of own ways for carrying out the business transactions, dispute resolution and negotiations. However, the cross-cultural proficiency is suggested to be developed through the improvement of four major personality traits. These are tolerance for ambiguity, perceptiveness, valuing the personal relationships and adaptability and flexibility. According to Contractor et al. (2013), the tolerance for ambiguity refers to that ability for tolerating the apparent lack of the clarity and uncertainty in the actions and thinking of others. On the other hand, the perceptiveness is the efficiency for observing closely and appreciating subtle information through the behaviour and speech of others. Furthermore, valuing the personal relationships is the capability for recognising the significance of the interpersonal relationships which are more vital than the achievement of one-time goals. Adding to this, the flexibility and adaptability is that trait which helps to become creative through devising innovative solutions, becoming open-minded regarding outcomes and showing grace under any pressure. Particularly focussing on the listening skill is also suggested which would help to resolve the cross-cultural communication issues. Deal and Kennedy (2012) stated that paying more closer attention to the words which are used in the conversation with foreign organisation or he different form of communication could assist to resolve these issues. It is also significant for paying attention to main context of the discussion including tone of communication in cross-cultural working. to hinder the occurring of the cross-cultural difficulties, the people in the organisations are required to become good ‘learner’ in the foreign culture. Thus, becoming an appropriate learner would imply the concept about new ideas which can be explored and shared.
In this regard, the organisations may also organise cross-cultural training programme before expanding the business operations in foreign cultures and sending the employees for the assignments. Offering such training prior to actual assignment includes the orientation regarding customs, geography, political environment and culture about the foreign organisation. The meaning more regarding foreign culture and lifestyles assist the people for avoiding conflict in the communication especially in the multicultural settings. This is also helpful to make adjustment with the new country. The information regarding cultural awareness can also be opted through such training session. Cohen and Levinthal (2006) stated that often the organisation can encourage the honest and open discussion regarding the cultural differences with the colleagues and friends which is quite helpful. This type of learning through training regarding the cultural differences assist to avoid the jumping to wrong assumptions regarding a person’s communication efforts. There are also several methods which can be undertaken by the organisations for preventing the cultural shock and minimising the impact of the issues in cross-cultural working.
Conclusion:
From the discussion, it can be inferred that the difference in cultural values create potential amount of problems in the cross-cultural working especially during international expansion of business. However, there are also some strategies which can be implemented the organisation to reduce the likelihood of such cross-cultural difficulties occurring.
References:
Calori, R., Melin, L., Atamer, T. and Gustavsson, P. (2010). “Innovative international strategies,” Journal of World Business, 35(4), pp.333-354.
Caves, R. (2013). Multinational enterprise and economic analysis. Cambridge, University Press.
Cavusgil, T. (2014). “On the internationalization process of firms,” European Research 8(6), pp.273-281.
Chatman, J. and K. Jehn (2011). “Assessing the relationship between industry characteristics and organizational culture: how different can you be?” Academy of Management Journal, 37(3), pp.522-553.
Chatman, J., Polzer, J., Barsade, S. and Neale, M. (2008). “Being different yet feeling similar: the influence of demographic composition and organizational culture on work processes and outcomes,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 43(4), pp.749-780.
Child, J. (2007). “Organizational design and performance: contingency theory and beyond.” Organization and Administrative Science, 8(2), pp.169-183.
Child, J. (2013). “Managerial and organizational factors associated with company performance, part 2: a contingency analysis,” Journal of Management Studies, 12(1), pp. 12-27.
Child, J., Ganter, H. and Kieser, A. (2010). Technological innovation and organizational conservatism. New Technology as organizational innovation: Cambridge, Ballinger
Clifford, J. and Marcus, G. (2007). Writing culture: the poetics and politics of ethnography. Berkeley, University of California Press.
Cohen, W. and Levinthal, D. (2006). “Absorptive capacity: a new perspective on learning and innvoation,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 35(1), pp.128-153.
Collins, J. (2008). “A market performance comparison of U.S. firms active in domestic, developed and developing countries,” Journal of International Business Studies, 2, pp.271-287.
Contractor, F., Kundu, S. and Hsu, C. (2013) “Multinationality and performance: a three-stage theory of international expansion and evidence from the service sector,” Journal of International Business Studies, 34(1), pp.5-18.
Dawson, P. (2009). Organizational change. Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann.
Deal, T. and Kennedy, A. (2014). Corporate cultures – the rites and rituals of corporate life. Reading, Addison-Wesley.
Deal, T. and Kennedy, A. (2012) “Culture: a new look through old lenses,” Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 19(4), pp.498-505.
Dunning, J. (2013). The globalisation of business, United Kingdom. Routledge
Hoecklin,L. (2010). Managing Cultural Differences, United Kingdom: Addison-Wesley
Hofstede, G. (2011). Culture’s Negation-Comparing values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organization Across Nation, USA: Sage Publication
Rugman, A. (2009). International Business- A strategy management approach, England: Prentice Hall.
Tayeb, M. (2011). The Management of a Multicultural Workforce, England: John Wiley & Sons.
________________________________________________________________________________
Know more about UniqueSubmission’s other writing services:
