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Impact Of National Cultures On Global Team And Organization Design

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In the context of globalization, companies are interconnected around the world. The outbreak of joint-ventures, mergers and acquisitions has created a very complex environment in particular through the management of global teams and networks. The production process is “more functionally fragmented and geographically disperses” (Dicken, 2011).
According to Berry and Pootinga (2006), “culture is a shared way of life of a group of socially interacting people, transmitted from one generation to the next via acculturation and socialization processes that distinguish one group’s members from others”. Thus, a multinational company is a set of different backgrounds and cultures.
This essay is split into three parts. The first part will approach …show more content…

This follows a series of investment in protection equipment. China considers that these investments are not cost efficient and useless. This divergence of interests might be also explained by the uncertainty avoidance dimension. Indeed, Germany has a high uncertainty avoidance rate. Thus, it can be argued that Germany gives importance to the respect of health standard and avoid all possible working risks. China can be seen as a country which accept easier risks and see useless the use of standard procedure (geert-hofstede website). Moreover, Higgs (1996) concurs that Germany is characterized as an individualist country at the extent of fostering a high degree of flexibility instead of China which is a collectivist country: values are linked to the engagement on the long-run. Compared to Germany, China may not be inclined to make concessions and thus, they are not willing to give in to German demands.
This conflict shed light about the complexity of national cultures and its impacts on business relationships. It can be assumed that the trust is a key element of success. The confrontation of Chinese and German cultures creates a mistrust which can compromise the pursuit of commercial relations. Trust creates a virtuous circle improving the competitiveness in terms of fostering the flow of information and innovation, saving cost and time, sharing of knowledge and collaboration.

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