How Corporate Culture Influence Multi-National Enterprises’ Global Operations?

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.

In this essay, I am going to discuss how practices of managing culture have been used to develop the management of Globalization in the post-bureaucratic era. Globalization has led to the increasing number of global business relationships, the emergence of new global work structures and work environments. To address this I will discuss Cultural globalization, the practices of Frederick Taylor (Carol Carlson Dean, (1997)) that have led to the social dominance, as corporations around the world have started to adopt these practices to increase bureaucracy for interest and welfare of the companies. Proceeding on to the second point on Global leaders in a heterogeneous vs. homogeneous world. Where (Rego, A., Clegg, S. & Cunha, M. 2011) describe the heterogeneous view “We live in an increasingly borderless world that is nonetheless still filled with linguistic, cultural, political, temporal, economic, and social borders." compared to (Osifo.S, Eromosele. O December 2011) who says that globalisation has allowed “Organizations have an innate tendency to develop homogeneity, in the sense of shared beliefs and shared values. And finally triple bottom line approach in multinationals. Where pressures from stakeholders, have given companies incentive to focus on triple bottom line (Carol M. Sánchez, Alexandra S. Schmid, 2013)

For any international organization, understanding cultural differences is very significant in the global context. The article analyzes the role and impact of the cultural perspective when dealing with conflict in the global context. “What seems like a perfectly reasonable approach in one culture may seem ridiculous, disrespectful, inefficient, or unfair to managers from other cultures. Japanese and German managers may be uneasy with conflict resolution preferences that differ from their own.” (Adams, p.110.) The understanding that organizational and global cultures vary results in the connected research supported in several businesses in diverse fields.

Every country differs in culture which has been there for centuries. The international market is growing rapidly, with more and more multinational organisations entering new markets each day. In this assignment I will evaluate how the difference in cultures affects the performance of international businesses.

There are many cultural and ethical differences between countries and it is important for mutual trust and respect that no organization try to strong-arm another into their way of thinking or take a position that their culture is more valuable than the other. According to Pitta, Fung, and Isberg (1999), it is vital for success to have a basic understanding of the culture and the expectations within cultures as they affect all business transactions. Failing to understand and consider the cultural differences will likely result in failure.

Cross Cultural management explains the behaviour of people in organizations worldwide, helping managers and firms to understand how to act in business matters dealing with the different cultures. (Adler, 2008)

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

Culture is one of the terms that have been becoming more familiar in the 21st century among the multinational companies all around the world. The world has been shrunken by the fasting travelling and communicating technologies which has brought down the barriers for the organisations having business in international market. But still then there are few barriers that make the international business critical and hard for everyone to succeed in it. This is due to the factor that the businesses have direct influence over the culture that is followed in the respective country where the business is carried out. So it would be interesting to

     Cultures are varying among different parts of the globe. People with different cultures have different characteristics and viewpoints on the subjects due to diverse understanding and method of learning. During the past few decades, the international trade grows in a very rapid rate due to the advantages that it provides; “increased sales, operational efficiencies, exposure to new technologies and broader consumer choices” (Heslin). Therefore, when considering the culture aspect to current business world, it is crucial for business to understand the culture aspect because of the tremendous growth of international business as well as utilize the international market to its maximum

Economic development is defined by the ability to succeed internationally. It is important to understand the dynamic role that culture plays in this development as well as in a business setting. This can be done by realizing that every society has its own set of cultural themes or attributes. These themes have a substantial impact on how that culture does business. Upon doing business cross-culturally a strong management structure is essential. Cross-cultural management is the ability to have successful interactions between clients, customers, suppliers, etc. across cultures and around the world. This management style is important to understand because the work behaviors within this style directly affect the organizations’ successful international ventures and projects. This is why understanding organizational culture in Brazil is the main focus of being successful there.

Culture can influence the business in different ways such as language problem, pricing difficulties and culture collisions, especially in the beginning so for these reasons the companies which are planning to go up to international level must be prepared to handle all these difficulties in a way that can be favorable for both the parties. Any mistake can destroy the entire operation and also might shows disrespect to foreign culture.

With the regionalization of the world economy, the trend of integration is increasing, the economic exchanges between countries are becoming increasingly close, and multinational enterprises have developed rapidly. Due to the different national cultures of different countries, the corporate culture of national culture is not the same, the objective existence of cultural differences is bound to be.

“The factors that are most important in the creation of an organization’s culture include founders’ values, preferences, and industry demands.” - (Carpenter, M., Taylor, B., Erdogan, B. (2009))

Management researchers have shown their interest in culture (dating back from 1960’s) as it is believed that culture has an influence on managerial behavior and performance (Sekaran, 1983 p: 67). Along with the present problems, an increasing demand for necessity to innovate cultural solutions to organization problems in a business which has resemble the world to a global village (Doktor, Tung, and Von Glinow, 1991 a P: 259).

According to the works of Chaney & Martin (2011) and Harris & Moran (2000), they agree that international management skills are in need for the increasing scope of international trades and investments. A large number of multinational companies have expanded their businesses through both developed and developing countries. Some of the business invest directly and others are partnership arrangements and strategic alliances with domestic operations. Their studies show that independent entrepreneurs and small businesses have started investing and competing in the world marketplace. Thus, to acquire corporations’ objectives, there is exceedingly a necessity for the development of strategic framework for cross-cultural management and communication in the current competitive global market. Chaney & Martin (2011) also noted that, cultural awareness and cultural differences are strongly important to the multinational corporations’ success. A good understanding of the culture where business is implemented can make international managers productive and effective.