MAR038-6 Intercultural Business Competencies Assignment Sample
Module code and Title: MAR038-6 Intercultural Business Competencies Assignment Sample
Introduction
In an international market, some employees present within an organization are going to have different opinions from one another. The business has to find the right way of making all the employees able to achieve the targets and objectives of the company. There are a lot of opportunities that an organization can have when they have the right employees as that gets in the right balance of working and positioning for the overall achievement to take place.
Working in an international team is the situation selected for this report, which includes four employees from France, the USA, Japan and India. The prior understanding of these vastly different is that there has to be a common ground on which they are working. The report would include a lot of theories and methods through which there is a good discussion on responsibilities, roles, conflicts, meetings, tasks and team working. These four employee teams need to work as one to achieve the roles assigned to them.
Working in international team
For a business to operate effectively in the market, the organization must ensure they have the correct understanding between the team members. Working as per appearance, behaviour, and responsibilities will not be the right way of carrying out the work style. There is a standard that the business will have in the international market, and if the team is not going to work as one, then the business’s reputation will be at stake. Problems and conflicts may arise when the four employees work together, but they need to solve it as a team and not damage the business’s work (Pikhart, 2018).
The Indian employees would be ready to work for more hours; therefore, giving him the work of a technician would be the right decision, but they need to have a path which needs to be provided to them to fulfil their take. Technicians have a specific path on which they work and giving this role to the Indian employee would be a great factor for the firm.
Whereas in this case, the Japanese employee would have the proper knowledge, there can be a conflict due to the language, which the employees and management must overcome. Japanese employee will have a lot of contacts and equipments that are required by the business would be got in effectively as well.
Quality and compromises on the brand image cannot be made, and this aspect needs to be understood by the employees of the company so that they can make the right decision overall. Finding a solution to the problems the team is having is vital so that they would be able to have the correct working, and there is not going to be a lot of pressure on only one member.
The English language will be a joint ground base that the company would have hired; otherwise, the business will not be able to work as one. Otherwise, the company will have to provide translators to inform the employees of their roles and responsibilities and have a conversation (Cathro, 2021). Building strong and healthy communication is crucial as this gets in a good understanding and help that they need from the experience of others. The further report will discuss the theories of the team working and the issues resolving which the team is having so that the working and processing of the business is not at stake.
Culture shock theory
A lot of difference is present between the company employees, and there must be standard ground rules and policies that have to be set. Any employee must not feel that they are being judged according to their appearance or behaviour that they are having. The employees must feel that they are being evaluated on the bases of the work that they are doing for the company. It is imperative for the staff members to feel that.
An Indian does take a lot of time to adjust to a different country as their way of living, cultural environment, and eating habits are going to be different. Focus of the technicians has to be in the company and if they will take more time to adjust then the business will not be able to take out the best from them. There are a lot of cultural values in India, and the Indian employee will not be able to find the right way of performing in a different country as they will not understand that aspect (McCluskey, 2020).
The cultures which were present for the Indian in India have to be present here as well even if they are on a low scale so that the value is built for the company in the employee. With the help of a theory, there is a good understanding of the Indian employee coming in an international set-up.
Theory
In the beginning, the Indian employee will be very excited to be working in an international business, and they would be very flexible as well, and this stage is known as the honeymoon phase. Employees will be very attentive and interested in all the information being passed on to them, but the culture they belong to will not be the same in the international market. It is slowly that they become anxious about the way of working and also because of the behaviour that they have been having for a long time, and this stage is the anxiety phase. The employee will lose interest and be unable to complete the responsibilities to the fullest, making the working environment negative (Lim et. al. 2019).
As they mentally prepare for this stage and ensure they are meeting the requirements of the business, the third stage, known as the adjustment phase, comes into play. And the last stage is the acceptance phase, when they realise that things are not the same, but they also need to adapt to the other country’s culture. France, USA and Japan have a very open mind towards the international marketing environment; therefore, the Indian staff who needs to be able to find a suitable base for itself (Čuhlová, 2019).
Observation which was being done by me had to be done effectively so that the management can have the right image of this aspect. I made sure that I understood their thinking and way of processing so that the management of the company would make the decisions accordingly. The above analysis through the mode of cultural shock theory was that I felt that Indian and Japanese employee would require more time to adapt to the working in a foreign land. The management could give more responsibilities to USA and France employee as they are very adaptable to the environment.
Figure 1: Cultural shock (Source: Broussard, 2020)
Recommendations
Indian employees will have to be focused on when they come in; having a good understanding of them and training them as per the policies is important so they cannot have the cultural shock. There is a lot of transparency they will have to provide to gain the right working environment. The other team employees can also be affected by one opposing member of the team (Yu and Moskal, 2019).
All the employees need to have the proper communication and understanding so that the issues and sharing of experience will be vital to gain the proper working. Japanese employee will have to be given the right connections to get in the equipments that are required in order to gain the right value. I had to inform the management to be able to make this issue be solved as per them which can be by providing him a proper translator or giving time for coaching of the language.
Reminding the employees of the everyday environment that they are in and making them have their own space so that they find it easy to adapt to the changes that they have come into. Keeping an open mind and exploring the Indian staff has to be provided to the employee so they can take the best out of the employee.
Belbin theory
Team working is essential for an international market as that helps the business have the exemplary reputation the company expects. There are a lot of ideas and knowledge present in the employees as well, and this team of four employees can also have a different perspective from one another, which might benefit the company (Gomez-Trujillo and Gonzalez-Perez, 2020). The confidence level would be there, but common understanding and working would ensure that they all are on the same page.
The solutions for all the problems must be taken out so they can work correctly. I have to report back to the management that there is no team work which would be present with different background of the people. They have to be given the right time to interact and get to know each other. An imbalance of working comes in when the employees are not valuing one another and are trying to prove themselves right (Indeed Editorial Team, 2022).
For the appropriate processing to take place and to be advantageous to the company, there must be an understanding of and respect for the knowledge of others. Belbin team working helps a business make the proper recommendations for the working to be more vital.
Theory
The factors which are present in this theory are going to be discussed in the further report.
Implementer- Employees need to be aware of the work, and one team member must be unbiased for the workplace to implement the changes.
Completer- Delivery on time can be expected from Japanese and Indian employees in the team, but the others will find a shortcut to finding stable work (Kyurova and Kiryakova-Dineva, 2019). While reporting back I would be able to highlight the work of these two staff members the most.
Plant- Since all the employees are from different backgrounds, they all will be creative in their fields and make the task done well with quality.
Shaper- France and USA employees will be laid back per their working culture, but the Japanese and Indian employees will be the shapers for their fields’ performance and tasks to be completed on time.
Coordinator- Maturity and confidence are present in the France employee, which is why having this responsibility with that person will be helpful.
Monitor evaluation- Japan candidate, is going to be coordinating the work that is taking place in the company so that the person would be able to inform the management of the progress from time to time. For a technician to understand the demands of the company and staff members is important only then they would be able to get in the equipments that are necessary.
Specialist- Indian employees will be more experienced and specialized in the respective field, which makes the skills and knowledge much more (Srivastava et. al. 2020). Sharing that is very important with the other employees so they can have stable working. I will have to report back that the Indian employee has to be given the confidence to be able to share and motivate him enough to make the communication within the firm.
Teamwork- Working will be lacking because of the employees’ different backgrounds, and finding a suitable base is very important for them to have.
Resource investigator- Limited resources and working with them is present in an Indian employee, and that can be good for the company as they will not have to invest a lot in the processing.
Figure 2: Belbin’s team roles (Source: Mind tools, 2022)
Recommendations
The company will have to set ground rules for all the employees so that they can have a suitable base for the overall achievement to take place. The responsibilities and roles of each employee will have to be provided by the management as per their behaviour and understanding so that they would be able to work as per that (Wang et. al. 2020). According to me it is important that the management does consider my observations and report seriously in order to gain the right value for the business.
This way the company can gain a good advantage for themselves and make the performance level be higher. The business will have to understand the background of the staff member so that they would be able to ensure that they have the proper responsibilities and make the overall achievement higher than the candidates that are present in the organization.
Inter-culture theory
There is a better sense of communication and working when there is a good understanding of one’s cultural background that they are coming from. Communication and motivation level of working will be stable when they can find common ground on which they are working. Identifying the individuals on the cultural platform is not going to be suitable for the overall achievement to be made (Verluyten, 2020). Interpersonal relationships of the four employees have to be strong to motivate one another and make the overall achievement present as per the objectives and expectations of the international business.
France employee belongs from a very free environment and this aspect has to be given to him in order to make the performance level be higher. All these factors have to be reported back to the management so that they can make the right creation of the environment in which they are working. The following report discusses the theory for intercultural values and beliefs that employees can implement to work as a team.
Theory
Four elements must be considered while being able to have a cultural value in the workplace are as follows.
- Language, culture, linguistic culture– Even if the language is going to be English which would be the base for the international market, the accent also makes a lot of difference for the work to take place. There can be biased actions or pulling the leg of an employee who is not pronouncing it well. Indian staff would lose their confidence level in this stage, making the communication gap come up. Language for the Japanese employee can be a task as they are going to be responsible for the equipments but business will be able to have a better path. I will have to make the management be aware of this aspect as the actions have to be taken immediately.
- Intercultural Mediation– Mediators will have to be got in from time to time to find solutions if the four employees cannot work with one another. This way, there is going to be a much stronger hostile environment in the workplace that would come up.
- Channels of communication– Japanese employees will know how to find that channel of communication so that they will be able to find a suitable base of work. Indian staff has to be confident enough to value the decisions of others and make a good working environment overall (Vareikis, 2022).
- Subconscious elements in communicative behaviour– It is challenging to value and understand the point of view of other employees, and this behaviour will be subconscious. This aspect must be improved so that they are all in the right place. USA and France subconscious elements of communicative behaviour would not leave them and that is going to create problems for the effective working. I will make a report on their behaviour as well so that the management will be aware of the working environment.
Recommendations
Belief has to be more substantial in the employees working together so that they would be able to make the working environment positive. The employees must find balance in working to gain respect and value. USA and France have to support the working of the Indian and Japanese employees and not try to boss them over as that will damage the working environment. The support which is expected is being received by the other employees or not is going to be observed and informed about further so that there are better actions which can be considered.
Hofstede’s theory
Employees of the USA and France will feel superior over the other employees, and the business needs to make sure they have the proper communication. A hostile environment can be created when they cannot know and acknowledge one another’s power in the company (Adler et. al. 2021). Roles and responsibilities must be well distributed in the business so that there is a better achievement that they all could have.
Theory
- Individualism vs. collectivism (IDV): Teamwork is essential for an international business; therefore, individual employees will be given roles and responsibilities, but they need to work as a team to reduce the pressure.
- Power distance index (PDI): All the employees should have the power to make the right decisions for the business so that they would be able to find value for themselves in the firm.
- Indulgence vs. restraint (IND): Indian employees would not be able to give in their best as they belonged to a restricted environment, but they would be able to do well when adapting to global market changes.
- Uncertainty avoidance (UAI):All the employees will be daring and make the uncertain working be a positive and overall achievement which the business would be able to have from their work (Petrovskaya and Shaposhnikov, 2020).
- Long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation (LTO): Challenges are going to be calculative from Japanese, France, and Indian employees so that they would be able to make the business benefit from it. Japanese employees will give a long term commitment to the business and that way the equipments are going to be right in the overall functioning.
- Masculinity vs. femininity (MAS): Opportunities have to be given to all genders to work for the company’s benefit. Desired outcomes have to be gained, and rewards are not going to be on this base so that the positivity of the business does not fall.
Figure 3: Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (Source: Rheenen, 2020)
Recommendations
Employees must create a mature understanding of the roles and responsibilities they have in the firm. This way, they would be able to decide and make the positioning of the business higher for the best working to take place. The degree of working would not have a lot of pressure as they would make the working higher and uncertainty of positioning in the international can be overcome.
Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that the businesses in the market must ensure that they understand their employees well and distribute the work accordingly. The company must know the individuals’ advantages and disadvantages to track the work accordingly. They must adjust to the new culture and processing they are working within so that the quality of work and performance level of the business is not falling in the competitive market. Theories must be implemented from time to gain the proper advantage from employees from different countries.
This way, the business would be able to have the right benefits and also be able to achieve the goals and objectives that they have set for themselves. All employees have different ways of working; therefore, the firm needs to provide them with standard ground rules and policies to find a balance in the workplace. A positive working environment has to be created, and that is going to be done when the employees are valued and appreciated for the efforts that they are putting in for the firm.
References
Adler, N.J., Alon, I., Aycan, Z., Bhawuk, D., Christopher, E., Diedrich, A., Fan, S.X., Galperin, B.L., Gowan, S., Harzing, A.W. and Ilie, I.A., (2021). Intercultural Management in Practice.
Cathro, V.I., (2021). A comparative examination of virtual and intercultural competence in the context of global virtual teams (Doctoral dissertation, University of Otago).
Čuhlová, R., (2019). Intercultural adaptation process and its determinants. International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences, 7(6), pp.215-221.
Gomez-Trujillo, A.M. and Gonzalez-Perez, M.A., (2020). What do we know about organizational sustainability and international business?. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal.
Kyurova, V. and Kiryakova-Dineva, T., (2019), September. Sustainability in the business environment through intercultural dialogue. In CBU International Conference Proceedings (Vol. 7, pp. 360-369).
Lim, M., Chua, J., VLAD, C., TAJIRI, F. and DAMASCHIN, A., (2019). CULTRAL INTELLIGENCE (CQ): FROM NEW IDEA TO CONCEPTUAL MODEL. WHAT IS IT, AND WHY IS IT A CRUCIAL FACTOR IN TODAY’S INTERCULTURAL BUSINESS NEGOTIATIONS?. ANALELE UNIVERSITĂŢII DIN ORADEA, p.121.
Petrovskaya, I. and Shaposhnikov, S., (2020). Enhancing intercultural effectiveness in international virtual student teams: an exploratory study. Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 19(3), pp.345-361.
Pikhart, M., (2018, September). Multilingual and intercultural competence for ICT: accessing and assessing electronic information in the global world. In International Conference on Multimedia and Network Information System (pp. 273-278). Springer, Cham.
Srivastava, S., Singh, S. and Dhir, S., (2020). Culture and International business research: A review and research agenda. International Business Review, 29(4), p.101709.
Vareikis, Ž., (2022). Challenges of Climate Change from an Intercultural Perspective. Dialogue and Universalism, 32(2), pp.211-218.
Verluyten, S.P., (2020). Cultural biases in intercultural business communication courses and how to avoid them. In Exploring the Rhetoric of International Professional Communication (pp. 191-209). Routledge.
Wang, J., Chen, C.I., Liu, Y., Barkley, D. and Wu, C.C., (2020). Intercultural competences and job satisfaction of expatriates: the mediating effect of positive psychological well-being. International Journal of Organizational Innovation (Online), 12(3), pp.140-155.
Yu, Y. and Moskal, M., (2019). Missing intercultural engagements in the university experiences of Chinese international students in the UK. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 49(4), pp.654-671.
Broussard, J., (2020). Cultural shock. [Online]. Available through: <https://vertoeducation.org/blog/psychology-of-culture-shock/>.
Indeed Editorial Team, (2022). The 9 Belbin team roles. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/belbin-team-roles>.
McCluskey, L., (2020). Culture shock stages: Everything you need to know. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.now-health.com/en/blog/culture-shock-stages/>.
Mind tools, (2022). Belbin’s team roles. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_83.htm#:~:text=Belbin%20suggests%20that%2C%20by%20understanding,help%20create%20more%2Dbalanced%20teams.>.
Rheenen, L.V., (2020). Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.trainerslibrary.org/hofstedes-cultural-dimensions/>.
Article 1
Introduction
Quality management oversees all the tasks and activities that are being decided by the management so that they are done with excellence (Barone, 2022). The companies in the market are taking a lot of actions for the management of quality as well as that would satisfy the requirements of the clients and make the company have a better value for itself. Policies, processes and procedures which a business has must be followed to gain the right value for themselves.
Main body
Employees have to be trained and made aware of the internal working of the business to have a good possibility for overall achievement. Cross-cultural perspectives are good for an organization, but they must be monitored and controlled continuously. There are a lot of ideas and new learning which come with it, but a lot of conflicts and misunderstandings as well.
Businesses have to ensure they have the right value for themselves in the market. For that, the business’s competitive edge must be maintained so that a relationship is maintained (Puyod and Charoensukmongkol, 2019). TQM has to be maintained by the businesses in the market to have good testing and working, which makes the quality working stronger.
Relationships have to be maintained by the company so that there is a good improvement which would be present and that makes the understanding stronger. Defining all the sections and segments of the company has to be gained by the management and leaders of the business so that there are good operations and working that would be there. Quality management is very important as that makes the argument lesser and makes the components stronger.
Continuous improvement within an organization is present all the time, but it is important for the organization to make certain that they have the right business. Approaches are also present, and theories are being developed so that an effective solution can be taken out from this aspect (Bourantaet. al. 2019). Historical working needs to be gained so that the research is being done well and make the law-like relationship for the cross-cultural aspect to be accepted.
Conflicts must be resolved, but the business needs to make certain that there is a good association with the employees to understand. The employees have to work for the business to have good quality, but if that is not achieved, then the right actions must be taken to find a good balance of work. Developing a positive and healthy environment will be good for the overall processing to take place effectively and benefit the firms.
Conclusion
It can be observed that there is a good understanding of cross-cultural factors to gain the right value. Organizations have to make the right orientations and training for the employees to be on the same page. Reasonable actions have to be said to the employees, and supervising all the actions is a must so that they are being able to have the right performance level. New ideas and creativity are important for firms to gain a unique identity.
Articles 2
Introduction
Groupthink is a must as that makes the communication present, making it easier for the overall tragedy to be maintained (Cherry, 2020). NASA also used this method to have the right responsible working and make the working present. NASA did the challenger launch so they could have a bad decision making which will be good for the overall achievement. Groups can be evaluated on these bases to find the right research working and make the processing effective.
Main body
Concerns present for NASA are being solved effectively after groupthink as they can direct the engineers for the actions and the following achievements they need to develop. There are a lot of doubts that they are having about the safety and cancellations, which can also be done when there is a good involvement. Policy making can be done effectively to find a better capture of work. A conviction for activities is present, so there is better processing, and being stuck with old ideas will not be present.
A presidential commission on the space shuttle challenger disaster can be saved by having groupthink so that a good vision of processing would be included. The achievement has to be there so that the operations taken for the rockets and other factors would be higher (Janis, 2020).Kennedy, Johnson, and Marshall Space centre directors also implemented groupthink so that they could have a better testimony of the processing that would be followed.Superglue working is present when there is a discussion on activities that are being considered, and others point of view would also make the ideas generate effectively.
Groupthink is a good factor in making the illusion of working invulnerable and making the space program highly valued. Overall achievement experience is effective and improves the experience, which can also help in further growth. There are a lot of benefits that a program can have when they are using the right methods to be able to gain the right value and make the mind guards have an effective booster seal for rockets.
The direct pressure on dissenters will be recommended to NASA as well so that they can look into the factor and make better outcomes which can be gained for the overall achievement to be present (Polet. al. 2020). A lot of investment is at risk by NASA for their actions, and they need to ensure that better development is being followed.Out group, the stereotype is that NASA does not look upon Thiokol engineers, but they too would have a good recommendation for NASA; therefore, they need to be included in the groupthink so that there is a better direction in which the operations in NASA would be having.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above article that there is a need for groupthink, which makes the engineers and the overall business process highly effective. Businesses have to think about integrated work and take the norms to be taken into consideration so that the procedures are followed effectively. There is better communication that leads to lesser risks which would be included. Opportunities have to be right for the performance level so that a better financial record can be developed easily.
References
Bouranta, N., Psomas, E., Suárez-Barraza, M.F. and Jaca, C., (2019). The key factors of total quality management in the service sector: a cross-cultural study. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
Janis, I.L., (2020). Groupthink. In Shared Experiences In Human Communication (pp. 177-186). Routledge.
Pol, O., Bridgman, T. and Cummings, S., (2020). Whyte-Out: How the Creator of Groupthink Became Unseen by Management’s History. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2020, No. 1, p. 11410). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.
Puyod, J.V. and Charoensukmongkol, P., (2019). The contribution of cultural intelligence to the interaction involvement and performance of call center agents in cross-cultural communication: The moderating role of work experience. Management Research Review.
Online
Barone, A., (2022). Quality management. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.investopedia.com/terms/q/quality-management.asp>.
Cherry, K., (2020). What is Groupthink? [Online]. Available through: <https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-groupthink-2795213>.
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