Future of Management
Principles of Management Table of Contents
iii. Executive Summary iv. Introduction iv. The Contemporary Perspective
v. Issues and Challenges vii. Recommendations based on Management Perspective vii. Summary viii. Bibliography
Executive Summary
This paper is a report on cross-cultural management, with the issues related to cross-cultural management being discussed in the paper. Additionally, the report has produced the future way of cross-cultural management, including how it can be improved in offices relying much on this strategic approach.
Diversity of Cross-Cultural Management
Introduction
In the beginning of globalization, organizations have started redefining their approaches of management.
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Managers were concerned about knowing and understanding each and every perspective of their employee’s cultures. As they know that without studying or knowing the culture, coordination cannot be built between the employees. It is the existing perspective of managers dealing with cross-cultural management (Sultana, 2013).
Issues and Challenges
The most recent studies in cross-cultural management reveal that the culture is a very expansive subject for organizations to study, especially for organizations, which hire the most diverse workforce. One definition of a diverse workforce could be as the one, which comes from different ethnic and demographic backgrounds (Plessis, 2011). For studying culture of the diverse workforce, there are two parts to study, the implicit and the explicit culture. The explicit culture includes behavior while the implicit part involves norms and values of individuals (Guang & Trotter, 2012). The explicit culture is already known when workers stay and work in a firm for a length of time, but the most difficult is to understand the implicit culture which is obscured in form of norms and values of the workers. Due to the differences of cultures, workers hold a great potential of variance, variety in terms of their explicit and implicit parts of the culture. The
Globalization and technological advancement have dictated the need for managers to deal with multiple ethnic groups with different culture in their day to day interactions. According to Kulkarni (2012), cultures play critical roles in individuals, including values, beliefs, humor, worries, fears, hopes, opinions, attachments, and anxieties.
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
Mismanaging cultural differences can render otherwise successful managers and organisations ineffective when working across cultures. As stated byOsland (1990, p. 4) ``The single greatest barrier to business success is the one erected by culture''. Hofstede (1983) defines culture as "the mental programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another" (Hofstede 1983 p. 25). Through the comparison of Chinese culture and Australian culture using Hofstedes five cross-cultural dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, and long-term orientation an insightful view into the differences and similarities of the cultures can be obtained (Chong & Park 2003). Human Resource Management
Some of the many cultural issues faced by human resource managers are communication- including communicating company culture, language barriers, understanding the business etiquette in other countries, the concept of ‘face’ that is recognized in many cultures, and that employees may have some amount of fear when they are immersed in the new culture. Geert Hofstede created a cultural framework based on five dimensions of psychology to offer some understanding of different cultural issues (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2010, p. 47).
From the research it is evident that the western best practice of management is not universally adopted. Several national cultures hold a differing opinion to the west in several areas, however it is the West of the world that provides the majority of research on management (Bealer, D. and Bhanugopan, R., 2014). Hofstede (1983) identified six dimensions of national culture independent of each other that distinguish countries from one another. Nationality is an important factor for management because it has a psychological effect on employees.
In this era of Globalisation, cross cultural management is the biggest challenge that is faced by the organisations. Within the business context, cross culture refers to interaction between different cultures. Cross cultural management refers to managing the employees from different cultural background in one environment (Adler, 2008). Cross culture management is a significant issue within the organisations as the success of an organisation depends upon the smooth interaction of the employees. This paper is aimed at providing insight on the cross cultural management and the main issues and challenges relating to cross cultural management. For the purpose of this paper, two articles, “Cross-cultural Differences in Management”, by Amman & Jordan
Reflecting upon the lectures of Cross-Cultural management was very useful in linking the theory I learned with the experience I had, especially, it provided the opportunity to ‘step back’ from the decisions I made and helped to identify the reasons of my behaviour in different cross-cultural situations. Moreover, commenting upon past experience brought the chance to further develop social and communication skills, strengthen cultural sensitivity and open-mindedness which are of a paramount significance in today’s globalizing world.
Emerald Article: Managing Relationship Marketing: A cross-cultural perspective of a Chinese Market Len Tiu Wright
Effective cross-cultural management has to be grounded in a detailed knowledge of individual cultures. Discuss using examples from two multinational companies.
In this real world paper, I researched a case study of Swedish company and its subsidiary in China. In this case study, there are different management styles, employee behaviors and communication ways found between Swedish and Chinese. Both Sweden and China are trying to manage different ways of thinking and behavior while they are communicating with each other. Therefore, both side of the company are having a hard time with cross cultural challenges.
For an organizational culture to be successfully implemented and practiced in this new era of globalization effects, especially in multi-racial environment and unpredictive economic situations, it has to be extremely adaptable in all aspects for the organization, its employees and eagerly welcomed by the customers. Both companies have prioritized their employees as their most valuable asset to create sustainable competitive advantage, as evident
This case is based on a failed business deal between two important economies: Germany and China. Although the relationship between the two managers seemed to go well in the beginning, it quickly turned around over their business dinner. It is in the Chinese culture to give a gift to their guest; the Chinese director politely offered to eat a turtle to the German manager to show his respect. The German manager refused it, as this seemed weird and unusual to him. This is where the problem happened. The reaction of both parties was wrong. The German manager asked for chicken instead but the Chinese director ignored his request as he did not understand his denial and ordered the turtle. When the dishes were served, the German manager was taken by surprise and expressed his resentment in a rude way. The Chinese director did not understand his reaction and felt offended by him not accepting his expensive gift. In just a moment the deal was broken and they separated. Both companies suffered from this failed deal, the German company endured the worst consequences.
In today’s globalized environment, business culture is becoming more and more complex. It is because of the amalgamation of various cultures from all over the world. The business encompasses heterogeneous human resource. The employees working in the same organization come from different countries and they belong to different traditions and customers. In multinational companies especially, the employees coming from the different parts of the world come together to attain the common organizational goals. Moreover, having the status of being multinational, the company has its set up in different countries. To establish business, the company also has to deal with so many people from different countries. In such situation, the company needs the
Abstract: As human resources management and organizational culture are closely related, it is very meaningful to study human resource management from the cultural and cross-cultural perspective. Effective management of cross cultural human resources is the guarantee of Chinese enterprises running successfully under cross cultural background and region. The article concerns that the following aspects should be understanding of the cross-cultural human resources management.
In 21st century, we are seeing a big leap in the globalization of business and with this, the ability of management of an organization to work effectively across the cultural and national borders is playing a critical role in business success. Staffing management of multinational companies is a complex issue to the international human resource management (IHRM). With this stated, the statement, “Culture is a major variable for international management” is true in every sense.