Exploring and Successfully Dealing with Cultural Differences

Exploring and Successfully Dealing with Cultural Differences

Introduction

            The fast increase in the number of emerging enterprises going global has forced both established and emerging organization to embrace cultural diversity. Globalization and the fast growth of internet and social media have enabled organizations to expand their customer base by reaching many people across the world. This has forced the companies to haves a diverse workplace so as to attract people/customers from various cultures as well as increase the capacity of the employees to address various issues raised by clients from various parts of the world.  According to the Ely & Thomas (2001), organization that exhibit cultural diversity, have strong competitive advantage over those that present a single culture. Having good understanding of different cultures is one of the best strategies that organization can use to create cultural diverse work teams in the organization. Understanding people with different background is also a good strategy that leaders can use to enhance their leaderships skills to international levels. This essay examines the Dimensions of Cross-Cultural Understanding and the impact of having cultural diversity in an organization and its impact on the stakeholders.

Dimensions of Cross-Cultural Understanding

First is important to understand that cultural diversity in the workplace goes beyond, color, race and religion affiliation to other upcoming cultural groups such as LGB. Having employees from different cultural backgrounds is one of the methods for increase the competitive advantage of an organization. First and foremost, cultural diversity in the workplace gives an organization a new image to the society; that the company is not only an equal employer but also has respect to all cultures. This is an advantage especially if the company is a multinational corporation as it helps the company to attract and retain new talents and customers. When people with diverse cultural practices work together, they are more able to come up with effective solutions to problems as experiences enhanced communication skills and strong team spirit. Generally, this means having a workplace that presents diversity is advantageous to an organization in attaining its visions and objectives.

Due to various reasons such as economic development, traditional practices and upbringing, people in different countries will exhibit different cultural practices. According to Hofsteped countries of Africa such as Nigeria, the national cultural practice in geared towards collectivism where the people still feels be a large family. However, in France, people are centered towards individualism where people value personal space and adhere to strict hierarchical orders. In Nigeria score high in power distance index, which means that there is a tendency for them to feel as less powerful members in an organization thus push for equity. On the other hand, an employee from France will not feel as less powerful member in the society.  Both Nigeria and France have almost equal score in masculinity vs. femininity dimension. In both countries the national cultures are geared toward male dominance. This is clearly depicted in Nigeria through the relatively low number of women in leadership position, which has greatly been influenced by the taboos that women’s place is household chores. Whereas in France, the number of women in top positions in organizations is relatively low, and the open promiscuity exercised even by top managers means that the society is still a male dominated.   Long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation (LTO) dimension is relatively highly scored in France than in Nigeria. In France, people believe they have to link past event in order to get solutions for current challenges however, in Nigeria, the past will rarely be put into perspective.

The essence of Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions is that it helps the management to train their subordinates for international roles. Communication, as one of the key skills for success in of an organization, understanding the skills helps strengthen corporations within the organization. By understanding various cultures, employees become more able to adapt and relate with employees from various regions. According to Hofstede, all the levels and methods of communications are directly influenced by communication.   The other aspect is international marketing. In order to effectively market in other regions, there is a great need for understanding the culture of the people. Customer behaviors, among other factors, are greatly influenced by the national culture of the place. The five cultural dimensions can be used as a marketing guide. It can also guide during advertising, branding and other marketing strategies. For instance, when branding a products, advertising agencies create ads that will resonate with target customer’s culture so as to leave a lasting impact. When marking a product like a Smartphone in Nigeria, the best strategy is to show the customer how the phone will help them make a step ahead. However, in France, the phone should advertised highlighting on the usefulness of the phone for various activities such as sourcing for information.

Hofstede & Globe research provides a good framework that entities can use to help employees gain skills to help them become international leaders. Key among the techniques is effective communication skills for adaptability and good relations in the workplace. Having good understanding of cultural difference helps global leaders to acquire good managerial and sales and marketing skills.

The General electric is an American multinational conglomerate Company that deals in wide array of operations including from oil, gas, aviation appliances, software development and medical devices.  The company was founded in 1892 and its headquarters are based in Fairfield in Connecticut. In addition to having strong management team and competent employees, the company has been in the forefront in establishing a strong culture that accommodates people from diverse background in order to enhance its global presences. According to the CEO, Jeffrey R. Immelt, the company believes that diversity and performance go together and that embrace cultural diversity helps companies to attract talents that are vital for global success. Despite having more than 300, 000 global employees, GE ensure that all the employees in the organization are treated with utmost respect and given equal opportunity for growth.

Global leadership

In order to become effective global leaders, one of the most effective strategies is to embrace in diversity in business operations. Currently, as more companies continue to take their operations to global markets, the management has been compelled establish various strategies to ensure that the companies are able to compete favorably with other players in the industry. One of the strategies that companies are using is overhauled their organizational culture so as to align with the changes in the global market. Corporations are enacting new values and policies to create workplace environment that is conducive for people from different backgrounds. The leaders are not necessary required to physically engage with the community in the target market, because they can use the internet. Understanding the culture of a community helps to make informed decision in the organization in regard to the type of product to produce, price and the best method of approaching the market (Shi and Wang, 2011).

The other methods used to prepare individual to be global leaders is to equip them with inter-cultural conflict resolution skills. As global leaders, individuals need to have skills on how to deal with various conflicts that may ensue due to cultural difference of the employees. However, in order to prevent and manage workplace cultural differences, it is imperative for one to learn how to establish good relations between employees through good communication and also the establishment of strong corporate values.

Most cultural difference in an organization emanates from weak communication in the organization. This is the main reason why employees are being taught good communication skills that address horizontal and vertical communication. Good communication between the employees and the management helps to reduce the conflicts and also enhance teamwork in an organization. It is important for companies to have well established communication channels for forwarding any complaint. On the other hand, there should be a good communication culture that allows for honest communications and good relations among the staffs. According to Hofstede and Globe, good communication is influenced by good understanding of the cultural difference between employees.

GE has an established communication channel that gives all the employees in the organization opportunity to participate in the decision making.  In addition, the company has good communication channels that allow employees to reports any issues facing them to their direct managers.  This has not only prevented the company from experience relative lower issues related to the employees, but has also enhanced team spirit in the organizations.

The core values of the organization which includes working together as a team and establishment of long-term with both clients and staffs. This is one of the reasons why the GE company y has highly been rated as the company with the best leaders in the industry. In order to boost the efficiency and effectiveness of the employees, the organization offer training programs as well as engage employees in various development programs. In addition, the company has a powerful organization culture that offers employees an opportunity to enhance their skills. As a player in the global market, the company also transfers its staffs to different parts of the world to give then a taste of different cultures.

GE Company has various policies that ensure that all people from across the world are represented in the organization. The organization gives employees responsibility in the execution of their duties. This is important as it gives the employees a sense of identity thus become more effective in their functions. The GE is less formal and provides employees with an opportunity to provide their opinions are well as criticize the decisions made. The company achieves this by holding informal meetings with employees and holding informal gets-together. By allowing employees to participate in the decision making, GE helps employees to earn managerial skills as well as enhance communication in the organization.

According to the CEO, the kind of leadership exercised in GE prevents bureaucracies and strict formality to open doors for equal participation of employees. The employees are presented with a good platform to enhance their careers and be equipped with skills that will help them to become international leaders. Since GE is a multinational entity, it also puts into perspective the dimensions of cultures to gain an understanding of different cultures for effectiveness and future growth of the company (Henderson and Evans, 2000).

In order for an organization to favorably compete in the global market, it is very important to establish workplace diversity and programs that will helps employees to relate with their workmates. This means, global organizations should establish values that uphold diversity in the workplace so as to encourage cultural integrations in the workplace. Although various organizations hire employees from different races and ethnicity and other cultures, they fails to help employees to adapt and integrate with other employees. This therefore only portrays the organization as diverse but it does not achieve the required achievement. To avoid this, organization should establish programs that will guide employees to relate and corporate with other fellow employees. In addition, this is a good strategy that can be used to prevent and manage cultural related conflicts in the organization (Tung and Verbeke, 2010).

Conclusion

Cultural diversity in an organization has increasing becomes a necessity for enterprises going global. Diversity in the workplace helps to increase productivity, creativity in problems solutions as well as increase the customer experiences. However, it is important to understanding that having people from different cultures is not a direct guarantee for success because of the problems that arise before integrations. It is therefore very important for management to establish programs that will help employees to have good understanding of different cultures in order to increase corporations, team work as well as avoid cultures related conflicts. Understanding national cultures of different countries helps global leaders to gain skills that are essential for international management and marketing. In addition, good communication equips employees with skills to help them adapt in a diverse workplace. The five dimensions presented by Hof stede gives an effective approach to equipping employees with cross-cultural understanding.

Although dimensions of cross-cultural understanding provided by Hofstede and Globe can help improve cultural understanding of employees and promote relations, they however have some shortcomings. For instance the classification of countries into one culture is practically incorrect as most countries experience multiculturalism especially the multi-lingual countries. On the other hand, cultures are ever changing and vary from one individual to the other. This there for means the organizations, including to using the five dimensions, should have inbuilt mechanisms to identify employees behaviors. In addition, organizations should establish strong culture that will ensure favorable environment for employees. Organizations should also be in a good position to adjust with the changes in the world.

Bibliography

Ely, R. J., & Thomas, D. A. 2001. Cultural diversity at work: The effects of diversity perspectives on work group processes and outcomes. Administrative science quarterly, 46(2), 229-273.

Henderson, K.M. and Evans, J.R., 2000. Successful implementation of six sigma: benchmarking General Electric Company. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 7(4), pp.260-282.

Shi, X. and Wang, J., 2011. Interpreting hofstede model and globe model: which way to go for cross-cultural research?. International journal of business and management, 6(5), p.93.

Tung, R.L. and Verbeke, A., 2010. Beyond Hofstede and GLOBE: Improving the quality of cross-cultural research. Journal of International Business Studies, 41(8), pp.1259-1274.