Managing across culture - Essay Example

The aspect of culture can also be used towards supervising locally recruited employees. Samovar, Porter & McDaniel (2009) posit to the effect that understanding the mode of communication within a business culture is an asset for proper and peaceful interaction of business people and the locals. In order to excel in business, it is important to have the right cultural facts about the citizens living in a particular society. This helps business to design its strategies so that they are able to absorb the cultural shocks that may emerge in the course of their activities.

Cultural shock is a concept which entails that “any move from one country to another will create a certain amount of confusion, disorientation and emotional upheaval and this is called culture shock,” (Robbins, 1993, p. 78). . This reflective report will try to provide detailed information regarding hierarchy, gender roles, communication and relationship, greetings, and social interactions in US which can affect a business venture I intend to set in this country. A conclusion based on the findings of secondary research will be given at the end of the report.

Business Culture of United States United States is the third largest country in the world and it is one of the best performing economies across the whole world. It borders with Canada, Mexico, pacific, Atlantic oceans, and Caribbean Sea and its population in the year 2007 was estimated to be 301,139,947 (Moran, Harris & Moran, 2010). There are many ethnic groups in the US and it is believed that the whites occupy the largest percentage of about 81.7% while other groups such as black occupy 12.

9%, Amerindian and Alaska 1%, Asian 4.2%, and Hawaii and Pacific Islander 0.2% (Moran, Harris & Moran, 2010). Research has shown that United States has a wide range of cultures hence most people who stay in America have their ancestral connections that belong to another culture. In most cases, their ancestral cultures are in Scotland, Germany and Ireland. A comprehensive analysis of cultural diversity has been done by Geert Hofstede who found that national culture has a major impact on employees’ work related values and attitudes (Robbins, 1993).

He found that managers and employees vary on five dimensions of national culture namely individualism versus collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, quantity versus quality of life as well as long term orientation. According to studies, rich countries like the US are very