Cross Cultural Management

Comprehension Check

Answer the questions about what you read.
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CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT
Cultural Management
A Dutch researcher, Fons Trompenaars, and his associates, have asked nearly 15,000 business people in over 50 countries a number of questions which reveal different cultural beliefs and attitudes to work. Here are three of them, adapted from the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business. They concern on: ways of working, individuals and groups, rules and personal friendships, and so on.
What are your answers to these questions?
1. If you had to choose, would you say that a company is (a) system designed to perform functions and tasks in an efficient way using machines and people or (b) a group of people whose functioning depends on social relations and the way people work together?
2. What is the main reason for having an organizational structure in a company?
(a) so that everyone knows who has authority over whom, or (b) so that everyone knows how functions are allocated and coordinated
3. ;A defect is discovered in a production facility. It was caused by negligence by one of the members of a team. Would you say that (a) the person causing the defect by negligence is the one responsible, or (b)b because he or she is working in a team the responsibility should be carried by the whole group?
What nationalities could the managers below typically be?
1. “I want to get this contract signed fast and get the plane home.”
2. “He looks much too young to be doing a major deal like this!”
3. “There’s no hurry! Tonight you come to eat at my house and tomorrow
we will play golf”
4. “If I go on selling like this, I’ll earn more than the boss. I can’t let that
happen.”
5. “What an awful idea reporting to two boss”
CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT
Managing a truly global multi-national company would obviously be much simpler if it required only one set of corporate objectives, goals, policies, practices, products, and services. But local differences often make this impossible. The conflict between globalization and localization has led to the invention of the word ‘localization”.
Companies that want to be successful in foreign markets have to be aware of the local cultural characteristics that affect the way business is done.
Some Business Culture Tips
North America and north-west Europe have management techniques based on analysis, rationality, logic and systems.
In Latin cultures of Southern Europe and South America, the personal relations, intuition, emotion and sensitivity are much of greater importance.
North Atlantic like Canada, the USA, Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia) are essentially individualists. In such cultures, status has to be achieved. You don’t automatically respect people just because they’ve been in a company for 30 years. A young dynamic manager can rise quickly if he has MBA.
Latin and Asian Cultures have the policy of promotion by seniority.
Northern Culture has the principle of pay- for -performance motivates sales people which is not effective in Latin and Asian countries, which have collective cultures.
The American idea of matrix management does not apply to Latin countries like France. French managers would rather see an organization die than tolerate system in which a few subordinates have to report to two bosses.