Cross-Cultural Communication at Walmart - Case Study Example

Cross Cultural Communication at Walmart Culture provides a pattern for living, since it constitutes norms of communication and social behavior whichare learnt at a pre-verbal stage (Hall 1989) and individuals grow up in an atmosphere where they are surrounded by people who share the same cultural patterns, which provides a sense of stability. However, in today’s global context, individuals can no longer depend upon their learning of their own culture to provide an accurate interpretation of what other people are going to do next. Norms of communication learnt according to one’s own culture become so embedded into individual behavior that one becomes aware of the control system only when “things do not follow the hidden program” (Hall, 1989:44), as a result of which there may be a breakdown in communication. When individuals are faced with the prospect of communicating with other people who have originated from a different cultural context, there may be a challenge to their “delusion that all communication patterns are basically the same and that differences do not matter.” (Hall, 1989:63). As a result, miscommunication occurs because of the differences in rules that govern individual cultures. In order to overcome such barriers in communication, lectures about cultural differences may accomplish little by way of really promoting understanding among cultures, rather individuals are likely to derive the maximum benefits from interacting with people of other cultures on a daily basis.(Hall, 1989). Effective communication can occur only when individuals are able to learn the rules of another culture, which takes a great deal of time to successfully master. Cultural patterns are embedded in behavior and this also creates subtle social behavioral expectations from others which are difficult for a person of one culture to successfully articulate to another. Inherent cultural elements of deep seated biases as well as built in blinders get in the way of effective communication among people of different cultures.(Hall, 1989). Cross cultural communication at workplaces: In today’s rapidly globalizing environment, where firms need to tap into foreign markets, they generally utilize multicultural teams, consisting of people from different national cultures. Such teams promise the flexibility, responsiveness and improved resource utilization to meets the challenges of a complex global environment (Snow et al, 1996). However, such teams are also faced with the challenges of effective cross cultural communication to achieve organizational goals. According to Hofstede, who explains that a systems approach needs to be utilized in the case of cross cultural studies, national culture may include all relevant elements such as “individuals, groups, organizations, or society as a whole” all of which may be relevant in examining the concept of what constitutes national culture. (Hofstede, 1980:32). On this basis, national culture may be said to include all those elements that are characteristic of a particular country including working practices, belief systems, religion, educational systems, Government regulations and financial benchmarks, to mention only a few of the factors. Hofstede has defined culture as the “collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another. (Hofstete, 2001:9). Four dimensions to cultural communication have been proposed by Hofstede (1980): (a) uncertainty avoidance: the extent to which people are accepting of or defend against uncertainties inherent in future possibilities, (b) power distance – the degree of distance that exists between workers at a lower level and those persons who are at a higher level in the work hierarchy (c) individualism – the degree of importance ascribed to the achievement of individual goals vis a vis collective goals and (d) masculinity – the extent to which the goals of men tend to dominate those of women at the workplace. Applying Hofstede’s framework, the American workplace is characterized by low uncertainty avoidance, where organizations are kept together through ad hoc negotiations, where there may be a need for higher degrees of tolerance of uncertainties from everyone in the workplace. American cultures perceive the organization as a village market, where the focus is on negotiations rather than rules. Similarly, Where individualism is concerned, western cultures, such as American and European tend to be centered around the achievement of individual goals and ascribe more importance to it, while eastern cultures may be characterized by a framework where there are greater elements of sacrifice of individual goals required, since collective goals are considered more important and individuals are expected to subordinate themselves to such goals. The case of Walmart: Walmart has been praised for achieving lower prices for customers and its supply chain inefficiencies that have allowed it to gain a strong competitive advantage in the market (Hughes et al, 2006: 4). Since Wal-mart has gained such a degree of dominance in the world marketplace, it is in a position to demand cost cuts from its suppliers which translates into cost efficiency. Most of Wal-Mart’s suppliers are located in China, which supplied about $18 billion worth of goods in 2004. Caribbean and Latin operations comprise more than 20% of the Company revenues form outside the United States. The Company has been increasingly hiring Hispanic talent, in order to utilize their bilingualism and knowledge of Latin culture in order to improve the efficacy of its operations in South America, since these Hispanics are able to understand and interact well with the local people, thereby enhancing WalMart’s strength and organizational efficiency.(Artze, 2000). Cross cultural communication plays a very important role at Walmart, where the atmosphere is characterized by diversity, since there is a wide pool of employees of various cultural backgrounds. Western executives have to work effectively with their counterparts in Eastern and Latin countries. Since the organizational culture is different in American and eastern cultures, characterized by more flexibility and negotiation in the former, while in eastern cultures, collective goals are more important, effective cross cultural communication requires an understanding of different cultures and the difference sin their integral behavioral patterns and the manner in which they interact. The atmosphere of diversity within WalMart also presents some challenges in cross cultural communication. For instance, diverse groups including members of various cultures consider a greater range of perspectives and generate more high-quality solutions (Watson, Kumar, & Michaelson, 1993). As others have also argued, Cox (1993) contends that organizations which develop a climate which encourages and supports all employees and in which all employees have equal opportunities will be better positioned than competitors, and that their employees will be more motivated and creative. In the case of Walmart, pay schemes for its top executive is very generous and a strongly motivational factor in the performance of employees in the top bracket. Walmart’s compensation policies are currently the subject of debate and the Company has been accused of unnecessarily undermining compensation for workers, most of whom are individuals from minority groups (Bernstein and Bivens, 2006). Cultural differences between employees at lower levels from minority cultures and top American executives thus pose a further challenge for the Company, and mandate an understanding of social behavior practices among different cultural, ethnic and racial groups. Moreover, the existing multi cultural teams at WalMart, which have been set up in order to enhance organizational efficiency and in entering and coping with the foreign markets where Wal Mart has its stores, requires greater levels of understanding among different cultures in order to promote more effective interaction. In China for example, WalMart has to deal with the Government and unions in China, where the inputs provided by Chinese employees on its teams is likely to be effective in promoting cultural understanding of the different cultural values and behavioral patterns in the Asian countries. While it is easier for individuals belonging to the same culture to interact more effectively due to the fact that they originate from the same culture and share the same understanding of subtle behavioral patterns, this is not necessarily the case where individuals from different cultures are concerned. In order to function effectively in a global environment where organizations such as Wal-Mart must deal with multiple foreign markets, multi cultural teams are being increasingly employed and diversity in workplaces is becoming more common. As a result, an indepth understanding of other cultures is vital and such an understanding cannot be gleaned by superficial talks and lectures about different cultures, rather they can be acquired only by day to day interactions among people of different cultures. References: * Artze, Isis, 2000. “Career” Latinos help U.S. corporations reach out to Latin America; bilingual skills and knowledge of culture make a difference”, Hispanic, June 2000:56 * Bernstein, Jared and Biven, Josh L, 2006. “The Walmart debate: A false choice between prices and wages.” EPI Issue Brief #223, June 15, 2006. [online] available at: http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/ib223 * Cox, T.H., Jr, 1993. “Cultural Diversity in organizations: Theory, research and Practice.” San Francisco: Berrett Koehler * Hall, E.T., 1989. “Beyond Culture” New York: Anchor Books. * Hofstede, G.H, 1980. “Culture Consequences: International Differences in Work-related Values” London: Sage. * Hofstede, Geert, 2001. “Culture’s consequences” (2nd edn) Beverly Hills: Sage * Hughes, Susan B, Caldwell, Craig B, Paulson-Gjerde, Kathy A, 2006. “Promoting Investments in intangible Organizational assets through aligned incentive Compensations Plans.” Management Accounting Quarterly, 7(4) Summer 2006. * Snow, C.C., Snell, S.A., Davison, S.C. and Hambrick, D.C, 1996. “Use Transnational Teams to Globalize your Company”, Organizational Dynamics, 32(4): 20-32. * Watson, W. E., Kumar, K., & Michaelson, L. K. (1993). Cultural diversity’s impact on interaction process and performance: Comparing homogeneous and diverse task groups. 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