Why managers may face difficulties when managing employees in a cross-cultural context - Essay Example

factory manager who moved to Mexico in order to raise the productivity of his firm factory in the State of Mexico. He apparently was not able to understand main cultural points and his management was a complete failure which led to a 500.000 $ loss for his company. The culture in which each of us lives influences and shapes our feelings, attitudes, and responses to our experiences and interactions with others. Because of our culture, each of us has knowledge, beliefs, values, views, and behaviors that we share with others who have the same cultural heritage.

These past experiences, handed down from generation to generation, influence our values of what is attractive and what is ugly, what is acceptable behavior and what is not, and what is right and what is wrong. Our culture also teaches us how to interpret the world. From our culture we learn such things as how close to stand to strangers, when to speak and when to be silent, how to greet friends and strangers, and how to display anger appropriately. Because each culture has a unique way of approaching these situations, we find great diversity in cultural behaviors throughout the world.

According to this definition, culture is made of all that defines our background and this is exactly why, as it is stated, we find great diversity in cultural behaviors throughout the world and this is the exact reason why managers may face cross-cultural p. As they have different cultural i.e. different knowledge, beliefs, values, views and behaviors, they will not have the same approach regarding a work, a problem, a situation. According to DuPraw and Axner3 (1997) there are six fundamental patterns of Cultural Difference: Communication Styles, Attitude towards conflict, Approaches to completing tasks, Attitudes towards disclosure, Approaches to knowing.

From a culture to another, even if they share the same language, the meaning of words change and doesn't convey the same ideas and the importance of non-verbal communication is not the same. Conflict, depending on the culture, can be seen as a bad or good thing. Western countries often consider conflicts as being undesirable and often do all that is possible to tackle the issues immediately, whereas some other cultures don't have the same considerations on conflicts and believe that it is profitable for both parts.

Another aspect of the conflict is the way to tackle it. Some cultures are accustomed to settle a conflict by a written exchange, contrary to the western face-to-face confrontation which can be embarrassing for them. How to complete task also differs from a culture to another because they will consider the same approach to complete it and also the way to work in teams are not the same. The process to make a decision in the working process is also submitted to variation depending on the cultural background.

In some countries there is only one decision maker for the entire working process whereas in others the there must be a common agreement on what to do. Expressing feelings can also be an issue because it may be considered rude in some