Evaluation of Two Different Cross-Cultural Management Journal Articles - Essay Example

Introduction

Cross Culture Management has evolved as a critically important area of concern for the managers of the contemporary business world where the organizations are widely engaged in global projects by employing cross cultural teams. Cross cultural management refers to the management practice of such diversified cultural teams by providing them a working environment that assures understanding of their cultural issues and provides them comfortable working environment to interact, work and grow with other members of the global team belonging to varied cultures (Puck, Kittler & Wright, 2008). The following essay evaluates two different journal articles focusing upon the issue of cross cultural management and also point out the key issues that an expatriate has to consider at the initial level of his working in the host country. In addition, the essay also substantiates the importance of cross cultural management by formulating some recommendations that can assist cross cultural management studies in improving the international management practice.

Evaluation of two different cross cultural management journal articles

Rodrigues & Sbragia (2011) in their article "The Cultural Challenges of Managing Global Project Teams: a Study of Brazilian Multinationals" talk about the challenges of cross cultural management that the Brazilian companies' managers are widely facing due to the rapid trend of internationalization of Brazilian companies. The researchers adopted a qualitative approach and present six cases of Brazilian multinational companies to examine the managerial issues they have been combating in global teams. The researcher found that the cross cultural management needs adequate understanding and awareness about the cross cultural management issues so that the global teams could be managed effectively. They however, observed from the case studies that the Brazilian managers are lacking adequate awareness about cross cultural issues and they often fail to community effectively with the members of their global team while addressing their specific cultural concerns. Eventually, the overall productivity and success rate of the global project is affected and failed to attain the desired outcomes. In the light of these findings, the researchers propose that Brazilian managers need to develop a global mind-set and have to implement cross culture incentives to manage global teams in better ways. by doing this, they believe that the Brazilian companies would become able to experience better level of productivity knowledge transfer, innovation and creativity within their organizations and the success rate of their global project will also be increased.

Eberlein (2008) in his article "Culture as a Critical Success Factor for Successful Global Project Management in Multi-National It Service Projects" regards culture as the major driving force behind the successful global projects. the researchers adopts a qualitative research approach and after building the theoretical foundation for the research using relevant literature, the researcher authenticated it with the help of evidences collected from the interviews of global project management professionals belonging to varied nationalities. With the help of secondary and primary research, the author put forward a model for international project management in which culture in placed in the central position whereas the tool of communication has been identified at the core of cultural sphere to effectively interact with the diverse teams. The article shows that cross cultural management must be practiced in systematic manner to assure the success of the global projects and regardless of the location of the host country, communication plays vial role in keeping all the business segments together and in logical flow.

The comparative analysis of these articles show that the researchers have focused on different locations to study the dynamics of cross cultural communication however, these qualitative approach based studies commonly affirm that cross cultural management is the key to the successful global projects. They commonly believe that the global project managers have the key responsibility to formulate plans and strategies that can address the varied concerns of the diversified teams and provide them opportunity to positively contribute towards the project. These articles also confirm that communication plays vital role in cross cultural management and the global project managers must take effective measures to assure smooth flow of communication across their global team.

Cross Culture Issues that expatriate has to consider in host country before embarking on assignment

The recent trend of globalization has provided limitless workforce mobility opportunities across various sectors due to which it has become common practice of multinationals to employ expatriates at various positions within their organization. The expatriates however, have the core challenge in front of them to adjust in the host country because they usually have to face different culture and working environment. The failure to adjust in the new environment could also affect their performance and thus, it is critically important that before embarking an assignment the expatriate must prepare to handle some major cross cultural issues as described below:

• Language: Since communication is the core of cultural understands practice, it is very important that the expat must get some basic know how about the language of the host country (Javidan et al, 2006). It not only includes verbal communication but also the routine customs of interaction and greetings because getting familiar with this practice would help expatriates in penetrating in to the new society easily.
• Religious Views: Religion is an important driving force that determines the cultural dimensions of the nation (Shuper & Sorrentino, 2004). Before embarking an international assignment, the expat must study the religious regime of the host country and assure before moving that there is acceptance for them in the new culture or they could face any extreme reaction or rejection due to the religious differences.
• Living Conditions: Before moving to the host country, the expat must review the overall cultural landscape of the host country to find if there are any extreme opposition or dislike for any specific cultural group because if the host country will not welcome them on cultural bias they would be facing severe difficulties in adjustment and working at the new place (Brandl & Neyer, 2009).
• Understand the investment regime: The tax structure, investment plan and inheritance issues vary from country to country and it is important that the expatriate must understand these issues to avoid any confusion or disappointment in managing its financial issues and investment plans in host country (Dinsmore & Benitez Codas, 2006)
• Political structures and trend: Every culture has acceptance for some specific political structures and the expatriates must gather information about the political structure of the host country to make them familiar with it (Shim & Paprock, 2002). This is important because the difference in the political structure affects the daily discussions and interaction of people and lack of awareness of the socio-political structure might create problem for the expats.

Recommendations - How cross cultural studies can improve international management

Cross cultural studies widely spread awareness and understanding about various issues related with global business. These studies from varied perspective guide the managers of the global project to manage their team effectively to expect desired outcomes from their projects. There is ample literature available so far focusing upon the issue of cross cultural management however, the real business examples show that global projects still face failure due to various issues and among these issues, lack of cross cultural understanding is found to be the basic issue. It implies that the cross cultural studies need to further investigate certain dimensions of cross cultural management practice and explain certain issues and concepts in explicit manner to increase cross cultural understanding (Matsumoto & Hee Yoo, 2006). This is important because the international management of the project heavily depends upon cross cultural understanding and with better awareness of these issues, the managers would be able to handle their global projects more effectively.

• In order significantly contribute towards the improvement of international managerial practice, the cross cultural management studies should expand their horizon while looking for the areas within this discipline that need further exploration and explanation (Matsumoto & Hee Yoo, 2006.)
• There should be more empirical investigations required around this subject matter to provide solution for various and varied situations commonly faced by the international managers.
• The studies should focus more towards the solution of the problem rather explaining the problems in details so that the managers can acquire useful guidelines from these studies to manage their projects.
• These studies also need to explain the cultural differences in the understanding of cross cultural management (Miyamoto, Nisbett & Masuda, 2006) so that the managers can adopt appropriate strategy for each country to propagate their views about the global team creation and can manage team effectively.

Conclusion

It has been revealed from the review of the journal articles and other relevant literature that the cross cultural management is the core factor that determines the success of the global projects. This issue has been gaining importance in the modern day business world because the trend of commencing global projects with global team has become an important feature of the corporate world now days. It is also revealed that adequate understand of the concepts and principles of cross cultural management can significantly help the organizations in successfully managing their global team and motivating them towards the direction of attainment of their global objectives. Furthermore the cross cultural management studies are significantly contributing towards spreading awareness about cross cultural understand and it is justified to predict that the future of international management seems bright and prosperous due to the awareness created by the cross cultural studies.