Cultural Behavior And Its Effect On A Business 's Performance

International marketing or business is uniquely different from the local market because the product price, place and promotion is vastly different from what is been offered to local customers (Johansson, 2000) With the emergence of the information technology, cross border marketing has never been a distant dream. However, it has never been easier even for giant multinational companies to face challenges that come in international business. The biggest challenge comes from the culture which varies from country to country.

All Organisations posses a distinct form of culture with some having more than a single culture. This culture is usually very difficult to measure, change and most especially change.

In the 1980’s business experts began to realize the root to organizational success or failure is through its culture. The culture of an organization is the belief that guides each employee in knowing what to do and what not to do and it also affect the public perception of the organization’s brand. Therefore culture is the shared social knowledge within an organization regarding the rules, norms and values (Colquitt, Lepine, & Wesson, 2012). Although, no two cultures are alike, there are components and characteristics that help business experts to define an organization’s culture.

The continuous growth in global business interactions and partnerships constitute the necessity for business partners to understand the cultural differences in society. This growth has led to increased competition and customer expectations which drives the need for innovation from a variety of human resources (Saray, Patache, Ceran (2017). The importance of understanding the international business culture and how to properly communicate is extremely crucial to form a strong relationship. The driving force behind human behavior is culture (Moran, Abramson, and Moran, 2014, pp.11). Behaviors, attitudes, productivity, and morals are all driven by culture (Moran, Abramson, and Moran, 2014, pp.11). The ability to recognize the cultural differences, emphasize employees’ roles, drive empowerment and make the necessary accommodations is a key measure to achieving strategic goals (Saray, Patace, Ceran (2017).

Culture is an observable, powerful force in any organization. “Made up of its members’ shared values, beliefs, symbols, and behaviors, culture guides individual decisions and actions at the unconscious level. As a result, it can have a potent effect on a company’s well-being and success” (One Page, n.d.).

The risk factors when dealing with corporate culture are numerous and should not be understated. If ignored a festering corporate culture can be detrimental to the health and longevity of a company, a prospering culture can have an equal and opposite effect. While management might be limited in quickly changing a company’s underlying corporate culture, especially in the aspect of underlying assumptions as previously discussed, there are some cases where a change, even a slow one, might be required. It is important during these culture changes to use outside personnel to fully identify the current company culture and be cognizant of the results the change will have, consult personnel about the change and solicit feedback, and implement the

The culture of a company develops over time through shared experience (Schein, 2004, p. 17) or management attempts to dictate the culture, but the employees must embrace the culture for it to be effective. Interestingly, when describing a culture there are many ways to define how things feel within the company, however, this is not an objective evaluation but instead subjective. “Culture is not primarily ‘inside’ people’s heads, but somewhere ‘between’ the heads of a group of people where symbols and meanings are publicly expressed (Alvesson, 2002, p. 4).” Some might describe the company’s climate, philosophy, values, or habits, although no hard and fast method of evaluation pins down a company’s culture by impartial means (Robbins & Judge, 2009, p. 554). Just as companies grow, so can their culture; what began, as an innovative, individualist, growth driven environment, may become a team based, highly skilled, ritualized environment as changes in the company dictate shifts in management and employees.

1. A growing number of Americans work for foreign-owned firms in the United States. Do you think that these American employees are being influenced by the foreign owner's approach to management and the culture of the country of the owner?

1) ________ consists of specific learned norms based on attitudes, values, and beliefs of a group of people.

The United States, a nation founded on a fundamental belief in equality, is today a multicultural mosaic of over 315 million people of varying race and cultural heritage.

An organization’s culture governs day to day behavior. This type of power may be seen as a control mechanism, which businesses use to manipulate internal and external perception. Every organization has a set of assumed understandings that must be adopted and implemented by new employees in order for them to be accepted. Conformity to the culture becomes the primary basis for reward by the organization. “The role of culture in influencing employee behavior appears to be increasingly important in today’s workplace, as organizations have widened spans of control, flattened structures, introduced teams, reduced

The classic Phrase by Mckinsey organisation, “the culture is how we do things around here” is taken as reference by many great people. It’s true that culture exist in an organisation which influences the work being done and also affects the success or failure of the project.

Peter Anthony (1994) asserts that the pursuit of change in a cultural sense has been considered synonymous with the pursuit of excellence for organisations. It is true that a wide variety of management practitioners view the control of organisational culture as something both possible and necessary for organisational success (Brown 1993). A survey of organisational practices of a range of firms revealed that 94% of the firms had engaged in ‘culture management’ of some sort (IRS 1997). However, despite the apparent popularity of these practices and the strong level of importance placed upon these activities, it can

According to the text, each national culture constrains and guides the development of business culture. In any society, business is closely interwoven with the values, norms and beliefs of a culture as a whole. The impact of national culture influences all aspects of work and organizational life including how managers select and promote employees, lead and motivate their subordinates, structure their organizations, select and formulate their strategies and negotiate with other business people (Cullen & Parboteeah p 47).

Despite its ordered and steady foundation, organisational culture can be changed if it is guided by a comprehensive strategy. An organisations culture is founded by relatively stable characteristics, based deeply on values that are enforced by organisational practices. However, an organisational culture can be changed. This essay will aim to establish this and explain the measures which are involved in changing an organisational culture. In order to explore this, the notion of organisation culture will be defined. In addition, the reasons and situational factors that bring about the need for cultural change will be explored, in line with the effectiveness of strategies for