Businesses and business communication could be greatly impacted by cultural differences, especially when conducting business internationally or with people of various cultures. Understanding cultural differences is a key to succeed at communicating or conducting businesses since culture influences how people think, communicate and behave (Salacuse, 2005). Having a deep comprehension and adapting to a new culture become more significant when someone is traveling overseas to re-locate him or herself and work at a different country.
Kelly was born and raised in Alberta, Canada, where during her school years, she was able to learn how to speak and write Japanese. At 15, Kelly became an exchange student and was able to spend four enjoyable
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They even offered training sessions about life in Japan and potential problems that might arise. Kelly happened to be a little over confident with her prior experience living in Japan during her four months as exchange student and she believed that her understanding of the Japanese culture was enough for her to go work in Japan without attending any of the training sessions.
What Kelly didn’t know is that the city where she was sent to was completely different from the city where she was an exchange student. Osaka was a large city full of life and plenty of night activities; on the other hand, Soto was a small city on a remote island called Shikoku, with barely anything to do. However, Kelly planned to use all of her vacation time and holidays to travel around Japan and see those places that she might never have a chance to see again. Regardless of not having much to do at Soto, she knew this was going to be a great place to improve her Japanese since not many people spoke English and she was forced to practice Japanese.
This was going to be the first time Kelly was working at a Japanese office and she was soon to realize that her lack of understanding of the local culture was going to bring up some problems in the workplace. Kelly was given an easy schedule to work Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM until 5:00 PM. The contract given to her by CLAIR stipulated her working hours,
A third characteristic of Japanese human-resource management is the use of a generalist career path. That is, Japanese workers and managers are trained in one area of specialization when they join the firm, then rotated among assignments and specializations during their careers so that everyone learns several job skills. Someone hired as a financial analyst may be shifted into the personnel department after four or five years, and then into government-business relations after that. A worker who spends all or most of his time on an assembly line may be moved into repair work and subsequently into another type of assembly-line activity. This policy enhances the flexibility of the firm, because people can be shifted from job to job. It also enables the firm to operate more efficiently by imparting more skills to managers and workers. Thus, no one becomes overspecialized, and everyone spends some time in areas outside of the initial area of specialization, although a worker or manager may return to a preferred specialty after spending time working in other areas.
“To become a true global citizen, one must abandon all notions of 'otherness' and instead embrace 'togetherness” – Suzy Kassem. Cultural differences in organizations are important because they help build relationships between members regardless of their origin and background. Culture is the “Shared set of beliefs, values, knowledge, and patterns of behavior common to a group of people” (Kinicki & Williams, 2013, p.117). It is very important for companies to understand the culture they are working with, because it improves the efficiency of the organization. Members of different cultures share experiences and innovation thinking to achieve the goals of the organization. However, cultural differences may interfere with global business projects due to misunderstandings and miscommunication on both sides. There are many cultural variations affecting international business relationships such as language, interpersonal space, communication, time orientation, and
Cross cultural awareness can enhance the potential of the international business person's trip considerably. Let us look at a brief example:
Moshe Dayan, an Israeli military leader and politician, once exclaimed that “Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.” Humans need to have freedom in order to live happily, similar to how the body needs oxygen to survive. Without liberation, one will start to break down mentally and physically. In the novel, Princess Masako, written by Ben Hills, Masako Owada is a commoner that was very studious, outspoken, and she enjoyed playing softball as well as tennis; she experiences the feeling of having no freedom. This story uncovers the harsh reality of Masako’s journey before and after marrying the prince of the Chrysanthemum throne, Naruhito Hironomiya, which includes her moving to many places with her family, her efforts in getting a job, and her
It is critical to organizations because the employees are from different cultural backgrounds. These distinctions have to be considered when making decisions because they have an impact on formal work relationships and performance. This understanding is more paramount to multinational organizations because they have business operations right at the heart of different cultures in the various countries. The success of global firms depends on how well the management handles the cultural differences and uses them to the advantage of the
Cultural differences between countries have strong effects on individual personality and behavior, as well as on organizational culture (Hofstede 2001). These differences can be a significant barrier for an international business leader. Failure to understand and adapt to these differences may
The Japanese work culture has always been very unique, and one of the reasons for
In this case “Kelly’s Assignment in Japan”, we have an example of expatriation poorly managed and unprepared. Different cultures, customs seem very important between Japanese and Westerners. Added to this barrier, we also not that there
Culture within the society helps to develop values, norms, languages and protocol that influence behavioural pattern of the people living in the same society. It has been assessed that culture is among the prime factors that can have major impact on the effectiveness of the communicational process. Many studies have highlighted the fact that culture influences the way of thinking of an individual that can have major impact on the communication pattern of the strategies (Mazanec et al. 2015). For that reason, organizations often try to develop effective strategies to utilize cultural diversity for capturing different perspectives to a particular decision. Specifically, globalization has made proper management of cultural diversity is necessary within organizational structure. In this study, the focus will be on different perspectives of cultural diversity in order to provide an in-depth analysis regarding effective cross-cultural communication. The study will also focus on highlighting the kind of strategies that the management of different organizations will utilize in order to develop appropriate cross-cultural communication. It will also provide an idea regarding the effective management of cross-cultural communication can have on the effectiveness of the operational process of organization. Furthermore, the study will provide an idea regarding the impact of
Culture is described as a set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that set apart itself from the others. When a company establishes a business in another country, they must keep in mind the different cultures. There might be a difference in communication, religion, ethics, and values that a company shall adapt too in order to be successful. If the local culture is ignored, it could result in an unsuccessful business, protests, or boycott of the company’s goods and services. Companies that are interested growing internationally have to spend the time and money researching and gathering data about the different cultures before establishing their business. Not only does the company have the responsibility of having to respect the different cultures but also their own when conducting business internationally. One of the biggest struggles of
As businesses grow to the point that they operate globally, it becomes important for the personnel within the company to understand the cultural differences between the home office and the overseas operations. Every region of the world has its unique cultural idiosyncrasies. These idiosyncrasies can prove to be challenging if a manager is not prepared to deal with the cultural differences in a respectful, appropriate way. Some of the specific ways that cultural differences can affect international business relations are group mechanics, employee behavior, and norms.
In today’s business environment and specially in Multinational Organizations, we have diversity of cultures and nationalities working together despite all cultural differences.
When a company is conducting business internationally, understanding the culture of the country or region, it is doing business with, as well as making sure the business fits the culture where it is doing business, is extremely important. Not understanding the culture could mean that the product or service affects the competitiveness, marketing, and could even have some political ramifications. An understanding of the country’s language, attitudes and beliefs, religion, material culture, social education, legal characteristics, and political structures can have a positive impact on the success of an overseas business venture. In order to run a successful international business, a business manager must also become a student of culture and diversity.
When dealing with intercultural business a person should be well aware of the characteristics of the culture he is to be in contact with. He should be well prepared to face attitudes not common in his home country.
A challenge that is commonly faced today by businesses working on a global scale is cultural sensitivity. “Cultural sensitivity is being aware that cultural differences and similarities between people exist without assigning them a value – positive or negative, better or worse, right or wrong.” (Mariela Dabbah, n.d.) This can be a huge challenge and an important one to maintain for businesses, especially those companies that have gone international, for the reasons that, they will often employ people from the foreign country to work for them and use foreign companies for goods and services. Not adapting to a country’s culture can cause harm to the business as it can offend important customers and clients. Due to offended customers, this can impact on the production of the good or service and cause a reduction in their sales. Companies that have been successful on