Organizational Culture and National Culture in Multinational Companies

Throughout this essay organisational culture will be examined, including the two approaches mainstream and critical. What managers can do to shape culture and also an example of when culture has in fact been changed.

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.

The organization culture as a leadership concept has been identified as one of the many components that leaders can use to grow a dynamic organization. Leadership in organizations starts the culture formation process by imposing their assumptions and expectations on their followers. Once culture is established and accepted, they become a strong leadership tool to communicate the leader 's beliefs and values to organizational members, and especially new comers. When leaders promote ethical culture, they become successful in maintaining organizational growth, the good services demanded by the society, the ability to address problems before they become disasters and consequently are competitive against rivals. The leader 's success will depend to a large extent, on his knowledge and understanding of the organizational culture. The leader who understands his organizational culture and takes it seriously is capable of predicting the outcome of his decisions in preventing any anticipated consequences. What then is organizational culture? The concept of organizational culture has been defined from many perspectives in the literature. There is no one single definition for organizational culture. The topic of organizational culture has been studied from many perspectives and disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, organizational behavior, and organizational leadership to name a few. Deal defines organizational culture as values,

In multinational workplaces understanding how important the significance of cultural differences is larger than we might think. Organizations that are diverse have to work together because their functionality impacts the productivity of the workplace. It is vital to have an understanding the different cultures to develop a strong organization. Certain principles will help you acknowledge that different cultures exist within the organization. As a manager, you have to analyze the reasons for the development of the differences and

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

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

Not long ago my sister recommended me to read Richard Steers’ book “Management across Cultures: Challenges and Strategies”. It was a great book with many interesting insights but one particular chapter called “Culture, Values, and Worldviews” opened my eyes a little bit and helped me to understand why exactly I have never fully fit into any of the new countries I lived in. I understood that the problem was not in me but it is more of a cultural thing. According to Steers, there are five core cultural dimensions that all countries and their cultures can be analysed by – how the power and authority are distributed among the society, whether people are more individualistic or collectivistic, how they perceive the environment, their time and work patterns and the way societies try to reduce uncertainties.

With the unstoppable trend of globalisation, it becomes extremely significant for international businesses to have a thorough understanding of different cultures. Hofstede (1980, pp. 21-23) defines culture as ‘the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from another’. This essay examines Hofstede’s cultural framework and suggests that Hofstede’s cultural framework is an outstanding and authoritative tool to analyze culture differences. In this essay, cultural frameworks will be discussed firstly, following by a discussion of my cultural scores and background. Finally, recommendations on cross-cultural management between China and Australia will be provided.

Firstly, we have to understand what is culture? Culture can be describe as collective programming of the mind, which distinguishes the members of one human group from another. Culture in this sense includes systems of values. (Hofstede, 1984) Culture in a simpler way is the "pervasive and shared beliefs, norms, and values that guide the everyday life of a group." (Cullen, 2010) National, Business, Occupational and Organisational are the different levels of cultures that are encountered by firms regardless of dealing and trading in their own country or expanding into another. Business culture though, is the most relevant out of the four as it pertains to all aspects of doing business in a culture. It 's important to note of this culture as it teaches individuals the appropriate and acceptable manner of conducting business in a society. Understanding business cultures and its importance establishes the argumentative case for the need of firms to behave in accordance to those of their host countries.

Managing a diverse workforce assists in creating a vivacious and assorted business team with opportunities and challenges for people of all aptitudes and experiences, besides host country nationals. In addition, by managing a diverse workforce assists in the facilitation of change in a country’s normal operating business practices. According to Hofstede’s dimensions of culture model, one could better understand the challenges faced by multinational managers in regards to human resource management, leadership style, motivational assumptions, decision-making, organizational design, and how culture can affect strategy implementation (Cullen & Parboteeah, 2014, p. 52). Furthermore, one can imagine how important manger actions and behavior are in educating future business leaders on how important it is to have a global mindset (“Social,” 2014). Lastly, although some consider the challenges mentioned obstacles, one could also consider finding opportunities in learning and progressing as a manager by being flexible and knowledgeable about different business possibilities and styles.

For the successful business, it is must to be aware of the culture of international country with we are doing business or trading. Cultural difference in business can aid in building international competencies as well as enabling to get a competitive benefit. It is difficult to be aware of every aspect of the other country’s organisational culture.

According to The Oxford Dictionary, culture is defined as “the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people or other social group (Oxford, 2016).” With the rise of multiculturalism and diversity across many nations, understanding and practicing cultural etiquette within the business arena has never been of greater importance. Geert Hofstede, a well known leader in intercultural research and studies, conducted a comprehensive study in which he analyzed how culture influenced the values rooted within the workplace (The Hofstede Centre, 2016). Hofstede focused on evaluating nations based on the following dimensions in order to be better equipped culturally, socially and professionally: Power Distance Index (PDI), Individualism versus Collectivism (IDV), Masculinity versus Femininity (MAS), Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI), Long Term Orientation versus Short Term Normative Orientation (LTO) and Indulgence versus Restraint (IND). For the purposes of this research paper, a brief country profile of China, Ethiopia and Germany is provided along with an analysis of the six cultural dimensions of Hofstede at work in these countries in comparison to the United States of America.

Social media has had a significant impact on society in the past few years. It provides free communication to family members, old college friends and networking opportunities. Social media is constantly improving, constantly changing, and adapting to what the consumer wants. Social is a medium that business can also tap into free advertising, brand awareness and a customer service platform. Social media plans for a company needs to have a goal that can be measured. The fast pace of change and frequent emergence of new social platforms and tactics means you need to define your priorities and stay disciplined in pursuit of those priorities (Funk, 2013).

In times of rapid globalisation and economic development growth, the environment of business has become more and more complicated as a huge number of firms want to globally expand their businesses. Subsequently, the managerial implications of cross-cultural management is the challenge of this development. As Abbe (2007) states, cross-cultural leadership has developed as a way to understand leaders who work in the global markets. Culture is the “software of mind” that can influence people’s patterns of thinking and behaving.