Cross-Cultural Communication and Management - ImseVimse - Essay Example

Cross-Cultural Communication and Management: A Case of ImseVimse Cross-cultural communication remains as one of the critical tasks for most of the organizations that are opting for internationalization. It will not be incorrect to state that economic development in the global economy has resulted in undertaking successful cross-cultural communication. The purpose of this research paper is to conduct an in-depth assessment of cross-cultural communication practices in an existing organization. The company chosen for this assessment is a small medium enterprise (SME) company named that operates in Sweden. The fact to be noted is that there are researches and case study analyses regarding cross-culture in abundance conducted over the years to understand the changing prospects of cross-culture communication. Past researches conducted so far regarding the subject of cross-cultural communication have been able to understand and assess the ways in which so. The chosen strategy for this research paper aims to undertake a case study analysis of the Swedish organization to understand the prospects of cross-cultural communication and its impact on the organizational operations. Section 1- Introduction Background to the Context: The subject of cross-culture management and issues arising in the international business economy is critical because it pertains to interconnected fields of study. For instance, cross cultural communication undertakes major inspirations for study from communication, psychology and other fields of social sciences. Therefore, it is extremely important to evaluate differing aspects of cross cultural communication. It is due to this reason that in order to conduct the assessment of cross cultural communication within an existing organization, different disciplines and aspects will be taken into consideration. Understanding Cross-Cultural Management: It is imperative to elaborate regarding cross-culture communication and management before understanding the aspects or factors that affect cross-cultural communication in accordance to the case study of ImseVimse. Andrews in his research entitled “Cross-Cultural Management” (2009) marked that cross cultural communication is a very critical area of management. It is because employees, international vendors or suppliers etc. are considered as major assets for organizations. Globalization has made organizations to hire employees from different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds. In the similar fashion, Haghirian (2012) also noted and explained cross-culture communication and its management as an integral part of service for managers. It is merely because it has everything to do with different employees and their behaviors at work (Haghirian 2012). He further mentioned that sometimes miscommunication between employees and employers can become a reason of complications or critical consequences. Cross-cultures can be stated as the reason behind miscommunication because tasks and responses at work can differ depending upon cultural background. It is merely due to the above noted reasons that many researchers have been conducted on the subject of miscommunication and the factors that cause it within an organizational setting. Many organizational issues pertaining to communication errors are reported every day where an employee or employees tend to question the action of management because the order or action may be inadequate as per the understanding of the individual following entirely different cultural notions. Thus, it can be well stated that by understanding the aspects and factors affecting communication among different employees belonging to different cultures can actually help organizations such as ImseVimse to get away with trouble of managing their employees. Objective: The objective of this paper is to propose solution and recommendations after careful understanding of different aspects affecting cross-culture management due to cultural differences. Aim: The aim of this paper is to assess ImseVimse, a Swedish company that began its global operations. The company will be assessed on the basis of its cross-cultural management and communication methods. This will help in evaluating the possible factors that can affect operations of an organization in a global market. Hereby, it can be stated that with the analysis of cross-cultural management process, companies can manage their workforce from diverse cultural backgrounds. Essay Mapping: The paper has been divided into four different sections. First section of the paper clearly indicates the aims and objective of the paper as well as background to the context highlight significance of the study. The second section of the paper would provide an in-depth assessment of the past researches and investigations conducted so far regarding cross-cultural communication while the third section of the research is a thorough analysis of case study selected for this paper involving ImseVimse’s cross-cultural communication and management. In addition, case study section will incorporate past researches and theoretical framework to back up the recommendation for conducting effective and better cross-cultural management. Finally, a recommendation section has also been added in the paper to understand the possible solutions to cross-cultural barriers for management of organizations. Section-2 Literature Review: The cultural aspects have been researched by Greet Hofstede these aspects and dimensions are known worldwide, though these are criticized by others as well. Further, it has been used in many cross-cultural studies. Studies about national cultural differences deeply analyzed by Hofstede, and then cross-cultural comparisons were made by him. He analyzed some dimensions after conducting surveys among IBM employees across the world. The first four dimensions of national culture are gender differences, power distance, individual or group culture and uncertainty of avoidance. These cultural dimensions thoroughly describe the tendency that a cultural grouping is in relative terms instead in absolute terms. In order to understand the contextual cross-culture aspects, it is appropriate to study the approach of Geert Hofstede. As these surveys also have been carried out by other researchers, so, Hofstede added one more dimension to the model about cultural dimensions. Herein, it should be marked that majority of the researchers have undertaken their respective studies regarding organizational culture and communication by focusing cultural backgrounds. Talking about the contribution of Fons Trompenaars in understanding organizational culture and cross-culture management, it can be well-asserted that employees from communist countries are prone to show individualistic personalities at work (Haghirian 2012). Dimension 1: Power Distance It is to display the cultural anticipation and acceptability in an unequal distribution of society with power. In those countries where high power distances occur there are those organizations which have a proper hierarchy (Giudice, Carayannis & Della. 2011). It has also been explained by Pugh and Hickson in 1995 that high power distance is required to provide everyone a place in their own spaces it is also known as acceptance of inequality. There must be a clear status of high management level individuals, where, they should get respect by their employees. They can give respect by following rules and their instructions. It has also been noticed that in high power distance countries the managers are the dictator and they use their powers and enjoy it by sometimes misusing it. However, there are some managers in low power distance countries, who believe that there must be equally among all employees. The democratic management style is mostly practiced by lower power distance countries in which, while decision-making process each employee’s opinion matters and respected (Primecz, Romani & Sackmann 2011). Limitations of the Hofstede’s Model: A number of critics have marked that the model proposed by Hofstede is undoubtedly a comprehensive model for understanding cross-culture differences between the countries. However, the fact remains that there are negative acclaimed received by model. It is stated that Hofstede could not provide judgment or assertions for all the workplace settings. It is estimated that the cultural aspects might be applicable to few or some of the industries but it cannot be solely considered as a wholesome model because of its methodological standing. The methodology that was followed by Hofstede to understand the dimension of cross-cultural management incorporates participants from very less organizations that are not from diverse business settings. It becomes easier to note that such a methodology does not cover all the different business settings. Section 3- Case Study and its Analysis: An overview and analysis will be conducted in this part of the research to understand the possible effects that can be noted by any organizations when it comes to cross-cultural communication among employees or management. It should be noted that the analysis of the organization will be conducted by evaluating past researches. This will help in creating a theoretical and conceptual framework in order to understand cross-cultural communication and factors that affect its management in major corporations. The Case of ImseVimse: Company Profile: ImseVimse is a Swedish corporation which was founded by Marie Walleberg. The headquarters of the organization is in Visby. The foundation of the company dates back to 1988. The company was formed with a mission of producing baby diapers that are environmentally friendly. Later on, the company profited to the level where it started producing textiles for females and children. Initially, the company was operating in its home-country. Later on, as the demand of products rose, it was necessary for ImseVimse to reach global markets. Case Summary: It should be noted that the demand for their products rose to a greater extent. It was estimated that the increase in the demand of environmentally free products was the major reason in increase of sales. It was imperative for the company to undertake internationalization. Consequently, it was noted that the company started dealing with the international retailers and distributors. The process of undertaking international dealings resulted in a number of complications. The major difficulty that the company had to face was to communicate with people from different cultures. In other words, it can be stated that different regions brought different challenges for ImseVimse. As per the reports submitted by the company, it was marked that the managers who had to deal with retailers and distributors were facing different issues at the time of going global in nature. For instance, the operations in France were quiet smooth because they were happy the way ImseVimse was trying to get the feedback from distributors. It was merely because French distributors were never asked for their opinion before. On the other hand, the distributors and retailers from Spain were not happy with the way ImseVimse was operating. They completely disliked the manner in which ImseVimse tried to take a feedback from them. It was because Spanish retailers were more inclined towards taking orders right away with proper instructions. Also, Spanish retailers were not habitual in giving feedback and often claimed that managers of ImseVimse are confused because they are unable to decide the final products. These are some of the examples that show the barriers of cross-culture that were faced by ImseVimse. Herein, it should also be noted that suppliers and retailers from Netherland also tried to undertake a critical agreement with ImseVimse. It was marked that the supplier wanted ImseVimse to sign up agreements that would have made the company liable to work with his company for next five years. Swedish working schema does not follow the procedure of strict agreements for which the deal between the supplier of Netherland and ImseVimse could not become successful. However, according to the supplier from Netherland, it was an ordinary way of building relationship between business enterprises. This indicates the readers that there were critical cross-cultural barriers noted by the company in dealing with international suppliers and retailers. In addition, barriers were not just limited to behavior associated with cultural notions but also language. There were a number of cases associated with ImseVimse that were found pertaining to language barrier. Most of the suppliers who were from European countries tried to communicate with the managers of ImseVimse by using English. This was the same case from the side of managers of ImseVimse who were communicating in English. In both the cases, the managers and suppliers were not using their mother tongue to communicate to each other. A number of miscommunication such as quotation of prices was marked because of language barriers. In similar fashion, it was noticed that technological barriers were greatly associated with cultural notion as well. As for examples, Japanese and Korean companies do not communicate through electronic mails (Emails) until or unless the addresses of the recipient and sender are approved. This was completely different from the point of view of Swedish company. It is merely because Swedish culture considers electronic mail to be a continuous way of communicating with each other without being approved by computer assisted means. This has also resulted in slow communication because data did not transfer to the recipient on the correct time. Case Analysis: Before understanding the cultures of different retailers from Spain, Netherland, France, Korea, Japan etc. it is suggested that the culture of Sweden which is a home-culture must be studied in-depth at the first place. It will not be incorrect to state that Sweden remains as one of those countries of the world that are extremely low power distance culture. It is because of their historical origination. There has always been low control over the hierarchy which is evident from the working of most of the companies in Sweden. This indicates that it was evident or predicted that ImseVimse had to undergo a number of cross-culture barriers when coming in contact with international retailers and suppliers. In addition, the countries where ImseVimse was dealing for the purpose of supply and retail had different power distance cultures. Hofstede Dimension 1: As noted above, Sweden is a country where power distance culture is low, managers of ImseVimse wanted to involve the retailers in undertaking the decisions. Noting the above case summary, one of the suppliers from Spain considered the approach to be confusing, it can be stated that the power distance culture in Spain is very high. They consider that the decision must be taken by the top management on every cost instead of asking all the team members who may not have the skills and expertise to undertake decision-making. Herein, the application of Hofstede is possible where his first dimension of analysis of cross-culture communication notes that countries where the power hierarchy is high would find it inadequet to involve all team members. The study conducted by Hofstede completely marked that the management style is heavily affected by the cultural background. It is due to the power distance that the relationship between the two companies was not that smooth as they should have. Hofstede Dimension 2: As per the analysis of Hofstede, cultures of different countries in the world are directly related to their adjustments with stress level at work. In simpler words, it can be said that the stress is kept to minimal. This falls in the second dimension of Hofstede i.e. uncertainty avoidance. It is considered that cultures such as Eastern Europe or Netherland are those countries where the uncertainty avoidance measure remains very high. This can be noted from the barrier faced by ImseVimse from the suppliers and retailers form Netherland. The incident mentioned in the case summary notes that the suppliers from Netherlands wanted ImseVimse to sign up a strict contract because of high uncertainty avoidance. Noting the fact that Sweden is a country that is low in terms of uncertainty avoidance could not adjust to the clauses of contract for five years. It ended up in dissolution of the relationship between two companies. However, from the end of Netherland supplier’s, an expectation was indicated for a longer business relationship. Hofstede Dimension 3: Section: 4 Recommendations: This research was aimed towards assessing the Swedish Company named ImseVimse that underwent internationalization. There were a number of researches that were taken under consideration to understand the cross-cultural communication practices and management in different settings and their implications. It was noted that ImseVimse had a lot of barriers at the time of undergoing internationalization where different suppliers and retailers were not able to understand the language, information structure, procedures and management practices of ImseVimse because of Sweden being low in power distance, low in uncertainty avoidance. Among objectives that were directed towards understanding the communication pattern of ImseVimse and its suppliers across the globe, one was to provide a solution to the companies so that they can easily get away with the trouble they face when in communication with international businesses and diversified cultures. Based upon the case study and analysis methods, it was found out that Hofstede method or model clearly explains the ways in which the barriers were experienced by ImseVimse. The major dimensions that have been studied in the paper include uncertainty avoidance and power distance. The dimensions clearly marked that cross-cultural barriers have everything to do with the cultural barriers of management and employees or management and suppliers. Context of communication, high and low, also plays a very significant role in understanding the cross-cultural management when it comes to international dealings. In addition, it should also be noted that there are many other models that can easily be applied or implemented when it comes to assessment of cross-cultural List of References Andrews, TG 2009, Cross-Cultural Management, Routledge, New York. Cole, RE, R., D & Deskins, J 1988, Racial Factors in the Employment Patterns of Japanese Auto Firms in America, California Management Review, vol 31, pp. 9-22. Earley, CP 1980, Social loafing and collectivism: A comparison of the United States and the People’s Republic , Administrative Science Quarterly, vol 34, pp. 565-581. Earley, CP 2006, Leading cultural research in the future, a matter of paradigms and taste, Journal of , vol 37, pp. 922-931. Giudice, MD, Carayannis, EG & Della., PMR 2011, Cross-Cultural Knowledge Management: Fostering Innovation and Collaboration Inside the Multicultural Enterprise, Springer, California. Haghirian, P 2012, Successful Cross-Cultural Management: A Guide for International Managers, Business Expert Press, New York. Jackson, T 2011, International Management Ethics: A Critical, Cross-cultural Perspective, Cambridge University Press, New York. Maude, B 2011, Managing Cross-Cultural Communication: Principles and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan, San Francisco. Primecz, H, Romani, L & Sackmann, S 2011, Cross-Cultural Management in Practice: Culture and Negotiated Meanings, Edward Elgar Publishing, New York. Singh, NK 2012, Eastern and Cross Cultural Management, Springer, California. Velo, V 2011, Cross-Cultural Management, Business Expert Press, New York. 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