When Cross Border Mergers or Acquisitions happen the participating organizations need to understand the issue of differences in national cultural issues very well in order to set up a successful Joint Venture (JV). Each country has a different national culture and this needs to be recognized and addressed because it will ultimately impact upon the work culture of the fusion organization they are newly going to form. Geert Hofstede developed a model which seeks to understand how values in the work place are influenced by culture. He started this study by looking at IBM operations between 1967 and 1973. Data was culled out from 50 different countries which were then extrapolated to 74 nations (the original 50 plus an additional 24). …show more content…
Firstly it is bad if manufacturing would happen in India. No doubt Indians are known for group orientation and not for individualism. Theoretically this should give us an advantage in labour intensive industries. However experience shows that despite team power which group outlook can provide we are known for poor productivity and not so much for cost saving compared to China and other emerging Asian countries. Secondly our IDV scores do not matter if we are looking at a sales team made of Indians. Naturally the Vodafone sales team in India should have Indian salesmen since they understand the market better. Indians rather than foreign nationals would also mean lower HR costs. And in the present situation the telecom market is buoyant and demand in any case exceeds supply. Not much of concept selling needs to be done. An Indian sales team would work fine. Thirdly if it is R&D probably foreign nationals would serve better with their individualism and drive. With low IDV score an Indian based in India while one may be very intelligent may not show much drive or willingness to rock the boat since he respects tradition and traditional values too much.
Masculinity (MAS):- India 's score is 56 versus (Global 51 and UK 61). Male chauvinism is lower in India compared to UK. In overall terms this is good news for recruiters in Vodafone but it needs to be taken with reference to the social context in India. However certain social issues like sex ratio and
I have decided to compare the United States to Canada. The reason for this choice is due to Canada sharing our borders. I felt it would be interesting to see how another country so close to the United States may compare and differ to the culture of our country. Based on Professor Geert Hofstede’s comprehensive study of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture, the United States and Canada rank closely in almost all values surveyed.
Our case study deals with Mass Merger. Since the 90s, together with the globalization of business, Mergers and Acquisitions have developed at an incredible pace. Thus, companies from all over the world can be lead to work together as one single corporation. Moreover, the world has become interdependent not only economically, but also culturally, that is to say one culture may influence another one or different cultures can be mixed. It is then obvious that intercultural issues have to be solved.
It is hypothesized that cultural differences in behaviour will mean differences in HRM practices within different cultures but those within the same cultural cluster will be similar whereas those in different clusters will be dissimilar. Employees and managers from different cultures take decisions in different ways – the processes, behaviours and values are not the same. People have different value orientations as a result of individual psychology, life-stage and generation and assumptions about behaviour determined by cultures are linked to a variety of organisational behaviours.
The IBM study of employees from the 70 countries was the basis for the dimensions and has been critized since there was only one company in the data set however, Hofstede’s belief was that using just one company would better reveal the national differences. According to the authors Phatak, Bhagat, and Kashalk (2009), he believed this because the IBM employees were the same in other respects like type of work, job descriptions, and education. This study has been stated to be the most comprehensive study of how values are influenced in the workplace (Itim International, 2012). Itim International, (2012) noted that Hofstede’s work established a paradigm in international economics, communication, and cooperation, from which Hofstede developed the first emphirical model of “dimensions” for national organizational culutre.
Due to the diversity of the cultures in the merged organizations, the management team has to facilitate a working culture in the new organization. Each organization
the success of the joint venture depends upon the compatibility of the partners and this compatibility involves culture as well. Culpan (2002) suggests that each partner in the joint venture brings its own culture and if these cultures are not
Hofstede defined the culture as “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group from that another”. His five types of cultural dimensions are the most popular in many cultural area studies, include: (1) power distance; (2) individualism vs. collectivism; (3) uncertainty avoidance; (4) masculinity vs. femininity; and (5) long-term vs. short-term orientation. These dimensions offer an insight towards behaviors and standards in the cultural context which are useful for many motivators to explore the people in different culture. The text suggested that countries with high uncertainty avoidance will lead to more job security, whereas people with low uncertainty avoidance (for example, U.S.) are motivated by new ideas and innovation. People with high power distance are motivated by relationships between subordinates and their boss, while people with low power distance are motivated by team work and relationships with their peers. On the other hand, individuals from high individualism are motivated by opportunities and autonomy; collectivism (for example, Japan) suggests that motivation should be done with group goals and support. Individuals from high masculine culture are comfortable with the tradition and division of works and roles; in a feminine culture, the motivators help people through flexible roles and work
It is crucial for today's business personnel to understand the impact of cross cultural differences on business, trade and internal company organization. The success or failure of a company, venture, merger or acquisition is essentially in the hands of people. If these people are not cross culturally aware then misunderstandings, offence and a breakdown in communication can occur.
Some businesses in America transfer into bi-cultured after starting out as monoculture. This typically happens when one company buys out the other or they join each other and sub-merge. Every now and then this happens globally. Companies face changes when a merger takes place such as how the business will operate, wages, and or if there will be interference from the government. Once the merger has begun the rules are changed to better serve the company whether people are with it or against it. Company success stories are sent over to a list which is created called the Globe Project list. This list gives pointers and advice for globalized managers to practice based on several key items and characteristics required during a successful merger. Daft states, “Some of the characteristics are assertiveness, performance, and human orientation” (Daft, 2013 ).
Dr. Hofstede performed a comprehensive study of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture. In the 1970’s, as a Dutch researcher Dr. Geert Hofstede, collected and analyzed data from 116,000 surveys taken from IBM employees in forty different countries around the world. From those results, Hofstede developed a model that identifies four primary dimensions of differentiate cultures. These include: Uncertainty Avoidance (UA), Masculinity-Femininity (MAS), Individualism-Collectivism (IND), Power and Distance (PD). After a further study of the Asian culture by researcher Michael Bond in 1991, Hofstede added a fifth dimension in his theory, Long- and Short-term time orientation (LTO), also referred to as the Confucian Dynamism. His research has framed how cultural differences can be used in professional business transactions. Geert Hofstede 's dimensions analysis can assist the business person in better understanding the intercultural differences within regions and between countries.
Geert Hofstede is an influential Dutch researcher in the fields of organizational studies and more concretely organizational culture, also cultural economics and management. He is a well-known pioneer in his research of cross-cultural groups and organizations and played a major role in developing a systematic framework for assessing and differentiating national cultures and organizational cultures. His studies demonstrated that there are national and regional cultural groups that influence behavior of societies and organizations.
When a business decides to venture internationally into different countries with its products, services, and operations, it is very important that the company gains an understanding of how the culture of the different societies affects the values found in those societies. Geert Hofstede conducted one of the most famous and most used studies on how culture relates to values. Hofstede study enabled him to compare dimensions of culture across 40 countries. He originally isolated four dimensions of what he claimed summarized different cultures — power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus collectivism, and masculinity versus femininity (Hill, 2013, p.110). To cover aspects of values not discussed in the original paradigm Hofstede has since added two more dimensions — Confucianism or long-term orientation and indulgence versus self-restraint (Hofstede, n.d.). Because of the way Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are given an index score from 0-100, it is easy for a company to get a general comparison between the cultures they are expanding into and the culture they are already in.
Hofstede, G. (1980) Culture 's consequences: international differences in work-related values, Sage Publications, Beverly Hills
Understanding the influence of culture in business practices and managerial decision-making requires explaining the differences between cultures. This is why, Hofstede (appendix 1) presents a well-known model based on four dimensions of culture:
There are challenges that come with IT outsourcing in India and the biggest one being there are competitive revivals that exists due to low switching costs. The biggest competitor currently to India is China. China has been investing a lot of money into its country to grow this industry since it has seen the positive impacts on India. One of the ways China is attracting companies to move to China is that its government is offering significant tax incentives (KPMG, 2016). Some of the other countries that are competing with India are Ireland, The Philippines, Poland and Malaysia. There are improvements that India needs to focus on and two of these improvements are making sure they have good infrastructure; and keeping costs low for companies who are looking to move to China where it might be cheaper to have established their business processing. Though there are challenges and competitors for India, the future for India looks strong as well as room for growth. One of the areas that India is focusing on is domestic growth and making it a priority to increase the