The Issue in Cross-Culture Policies - Assignment Example

SECTION A When operating on a wide-scale business set-up involving large markets in a number of countries, it is very important that you have good people to handle offshore sites that are fully capable of ensuring that organizational policies and rules are followed. In addition to that, head managers of offshore sites must also be aware of foreign constitutional policies in terms of employment. Knowing about these laws is very important to avoid problems with labour and other employment and work technicalities. In addition to that, proper work responsibilities and load may be accordingly incorporated in the job offers and contracts. This is also one strategy or way to let the new hires know or have an idea of what their scope of work will be. The scopes and all responsibilities that will be stated in the contract will be for the benefit of the organization’s operation. However, employment, in terms of laws and legalities offshore will have a difference from one country to another. This is why we need to employ a team of experts that will serve and handle the organization’s recruitment process and other legal matters that need to have attention. It is also essential to be very detailed on regulations on a particular site or country. Policies and regulations are being implemented by the company in accordance to its goals and mission. Its main purpose is to guide employees and to remind them that everybody is working to achieve one goal. In addition to that, these policies are also being implemented in order to have a systematic approach towards organizational processes, employee interaction and work ethics. In previous researches, there have been two arguments and points of view that cross cultural aspects may be connected to. One of the two aspects is that policies and procedures that may be applicable to one culture may not be to others. Having the fact that one culture has different beliefs and point of views from the other, policies that were develop under certain beliefs and tradition of one culture may be inapplicable to another culture. On the other hand, technology can be the key to identify individual work patterns. On a case to case basis, the only variable that might be similar across cultures is an individual work pattern (J. Rabin 2003). Having these facts on hand answers the issue in cross-culture policies. There can be no standard policy which can be applicable in setting up a company overseas and dealing with cross cultural management. Thus, the recommendation highlights the importance the need to study the current employment policies, rules and regulations such as employee rights and other employment legalities that a country may have. After doing so, there is a need for a review of the existing organizational policies which are currently being implemented in the organization. After gathering information and facts on both aspects, existing policies can now be adjusted depending on the employment policies and legalities a specific country or region has. The effect of cultural values on an individual’s work pattern and organizational commitment should also be taken into consideration (Tjosvold and Leung 2003). Therefore, recruitment of individuals should be done in rigor. There should be diversity in the members that will be recruited and these individuals should be prepared to handle the tasks specified. The existing organizational work policy was developed for the interest of both the employees and the organization. In cross-culture management, existing organizational policies can be retained but policies must be adjusted depending on the employment laws and regulations a specific country has in order to avoid technicalities in employment work scope, duties and the requirements of organizational work environment. SECTION B The Role of Communication Communication is very important in an organization. This is a fact and is well-known to all that without proper communication, a process in operation will not be effective, and eventually, may turn out to be a liability for an organization. In addition to that, communication is the key to solve existing organizational issues and concerns. Resolving matters like this would require proper communication. Communication factors that need to be given high consideration in cross culture organization set-up There two ways on how to perceive communication in an organizational set-up: interactive communication and directive communication. Communication always involves an addressor and addressee (Gannon and Newman 2002). Depending on the nature of information, interactive communication is an act that involves all the people concerned in the issue. This may be in a form of brainstorming a problem or gathering information that is required for a study. The directive communication is absolute. This is a form of communication in which a directive is being passed on. In this case, the addressee would just have to acknowledge the directive and have it implemented. Miscommunication often happens in a cross-culture organizational set-up. The reason behind this communication issue is the traditional communication system and process that every culture have. A very good example of this is the context interpretation. In most cases, especially dealing with the English language, other cultures tend to interpret things in their own language before they can process the information. There are some words that the English language has that do not have a counterpart or may not be easily interpreted in another language. One good example for this is the outsource business. There have been a lot of outsourcing business that has been going on, and the capital of these outsourcing businesses in terms of voice support or customer service is India, Philippines and Singapore. In the early years of the outsourcing business, organizations and companies experienced communication problems. This is because of cultural differences and the way they other culture comprehend and process information (E. Friginal 2009). This goes for all the different types of industries who outsources in another country. Communication errors within an organization and servicing clients can be fatal to the business, these situations can also cost a fortune in damages and liabilities and loss. However, over the years, intercultural communication in a business point of view has improved drastically. Ways on how to minimize and if possible eliminate errors have been developed and structured. One practice is the confirmation of comprehension. Paraphrasing is one good example that is found to be effective in eliminating communication misunderstanding in a cross-cultural interaction. Another is the practice of isolation. This is when the receiver would have to get more information to get a clearer picture of the problem or what the addresser is trying to explain (Friginal 2009). Another cultural difference that may cause problems in communicating is how each culture reacts to one another. For instance, some cultures would rely on silence when communicating. For some cultures this is a sign that they understand the situation and that they are trying to resolve matter in their heads as they process the information that is given to them or provided. And for others, silence is a sign of being at a loss or not being able to understand the situation given and this will truly cause problems in many situations (Usunier 1998). These differences might also cause problems in inter-employee relationships. The reason behind this is that some cultural traditions and ways clash. As an example, there are particular cultures that have strong religious beliefs that may seem strange to other cultures. Ways of how they do things and look and react on situations might be funny or sometimes offensive to other cultures. When working with a different culture, having English as the international business language, using one’s own language still cannot be avoided since it is the native tongue and perception of the receiver. This can have a great bearing of effect for other employees of different culture. This situation may result to confusion that may lead to doubts. This can also make the individual or a group of individuals which do not belong to that culture uncomfortable which also sometimes result to poor quality in work (Fagan 1998). All aspects of an organization operation process can be greatly affected by culture and other government policies. These cultural differences may include the scope of responsibilities, family leaves, emergency leaves, work hours and overtimes which will have a great difference from country to another (Silverthrone 2005). This will have an impact especially in most important factors in organizational processes in operations. Some of these aspects may be control on some working conditions, poor pay, and insufficient social and emotional support. This situation will have a physiological effect on employees in the long run. In result this will create a negative outlook from employees on the organization. These are just some of the communication problems that organizations may encounter in a cross-culture management. Communication is the process of relaying information accurately to avoid confusion and further misunderstanding between a cross-cultured organization and company. However, communication becomes more difficult when you have people with different cultures in your management and in the company as a whole (Guffy 2008). Recommendations on how structure an effective communication system Having this information at hand, a more diverse set of policies and processes can be developed to be established in a cross-cultural organization. This is needed to avoid and to minimize communication problems. In a multicultural organization, having different cultures in the lower, middle and higher management can be very difficult to handle. One of the problems that research show is the problem in communicating matters and issues. Communication hierarchy processes can be even more effective if we apply lesser people in the middle management. This is to avoid multiple information interpretation that might change the original context of the message or information. This is also known as the flatter management strategy. In this kind of management set-up, the risk of having multi-information interpretation or second-hand information can be avoided, but it is a must that all conveyers and information processors of this kind of management are good communicators (Guffy 2008). Reporting formats are also important in order to avoid confusion, at the same time, speed up processing for immediate response. There are two types of report formats: information reports and analytical reports format (Guffy and Almonte 2009). The report format is a way to forward information that shows or presents all the necessary data and information needed in a study or situation. All data that is collected will be arranged in a manner of urgency, category and division. The analytic report format, on the other hand, is a way of forwarding data and its interpretation. In this type of communication, it is better to provide the impact of the situation analyzed together with a recommendation or an action plan to avoid or resolve issues and matters within the organization and its processes. It is also given that there are multi-departments in an organizational business set-up. Departments range from sales to marketing to human resources to payroll to security and to operations. It is better to have a point person in every department where lower management can deliver or communicate information and situations to. After the point person receives the information, he can now process the data, and after doing so, the point person of that department can now forward the report with an analysis of the information and situation together with a recommendation. When the site head receives the information he can take a look at the situation. At this point he can also check other concerning factors that may be affected in other departments. This time the site heads analyze the situation in a wider point of view, and after doing so will forward the report together with the recommendation of the department’s point person or manager. He, then, includes his study of the situation which is more in depth together with an action plan to resolve the matter or issue to the Business Objects CEO Monsieur Liataud which is situated in the head quarters. In this, process information is kept intact and closes to its original content. The recommendation and action plan provided based on the analysis of the manager and site head can be a great help to speed up the process, in addition to that, this will also make the response time faster. In order to outline an efficient and effective communication process, the organization has to outline a specific format which can be used in internal organizational communication. The key components of an effective reporting should be considered in outlining the format of how information is to be communicated within the organization. Winstanley (2005) describes these key components as basics of forwarding or communicating information and data. These are as follows: Title of the report – will provide the information on what the report is all about, in this way we are also giving the receiver a heads up on what’s covered in the report. Data or information gathered – this is where all data regarding the concern is broken down which happened first. This is the hierarchy of events. Body of the report – this is the part of the report in which the analysis or interpretation of the information or situation is included Conclusion – this is where employees or managers provide explanations on how it happened and what possible effects in may result to. Recommendation – based on the information gathered and the ongoing situation this is where employees or managers provide their recommendation or action plan to resolve the matter or issue. In addition, further actions are devised to avoid the situation from happening in the future. Key components are the basics of forwarding or communication information and data (Winstanley 2005). We have also learned about these kinds of format in school. We also adopt and use it when we tell stories to our family and friends. But this format of delivering information must be developed and efficiently used in an organizational set-up. Informal communication comes with every organization. This is why we also have to consider that both formal and informal communication is good especially when we are operating in a multicultural organization. The formal organization follows the communication pattern that is structured and follows line of hierarchy within the company. This is where reports, case analysis and other standard reports are needed and utilized by the organization. On the other hand, informal communication is what we usually see in the same level of employees, disregarding position (Marquis and Huston 2008). These informal conversations may also be useful in getting immediate response or information from a person of the same level. This is a form of informal communication, communication that requires information that is off the records. It is also important to consider the role of technology to create communication processes and patterns that will improve the management of businesses that spans the world. The use of centralized database, the internet, emails and internal software messengers allow quick and timely response. With this, the company enables itself to be fully aware of what is happening within all the sites and offices of the company. A structured communication line is also important in keeping each site from crossing over boundaries and creating miscommunication. References Fagan, B. (1998). Clash of cultures, 2nd ed. Rowman Altamira. Friginal, E. (2009). The language of outsourced call centers: a corpus-based study of cross-cultural interaction. Studies in corpus linguistics, vol.34. NY: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Gannon, M. and Newman, K. (2002). The Blackwell handbook of cross-cultural management. NY: Wiley-Blackwell. Guffy, M. (2008). Business communication: process and product, 6th ed. CA: Cengage Learning. Guffy, M. and Almonte R. (2009). Essential of business communication, 6th ed. CA: Cengage Learning. Marquis, B. And Huston, C. (2008). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: theory and application. Lippincott Williams and Williams. Rabin, J. (2003). Encyclopedia of public administration and public policy, vol.2. NY: Marcel Dekker. Silverthorne, C. (2005). Organizational psychology in cross-cultural perspective. NY: NYU Press. Tjosvold, D. and Leung, K. (2003). Cross-cultural management: foundations and future. UK: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Usunier, Jean-Claude. (1998). International and cross-cultural management research. UK: Sage Publications Ltd. Winstanley, D. (2005). Personal effectiveness: a guide to action. UK: CIPD Publishing. Read More