A Cross-cultural Comparison of Business Ethics - Case Study Example

?Challenges and Recommendations: Cross Cultural Work in Telecommunications (Making Internationalisation Work) I. Introduction Suppose we are a cross-cultural analyst for a large telecommunications company based in the UK; the organisation is fairly large and is about to undertake an expansion plan in the next two years---what recommendations can we make? Because we have a large organisation, what is implied is that we have a relatively large volume of resources at our disposal. This implies funds to address cross-cultural problems. However, at the same time, this can also imply a large labour force in which the problem of cross-cultural management issues can be prominent. Globalisation has been accelerating because of fast technological changes and the globalisation has increased by several folds the need to address problems related to cross cultural management (Bird & Fang 2009). Lack of talents is one of the top ten risks of the telecommunications sector and companies usually address the problem through labour import, emphasising further the need for cross-cultural management skills (Ernst & Young 2010). II. The UK Telecommunication Sector and the Challenges The United Kingdom telecommunications sector, just like any telecommunications sector in the whole world is a sunrise industry, meaning it is at a stage of continuous growth. As the world interconnects through innovations in the telecommunications and internet technology, it is unavoidable for networks to be integrated and becomes capable to interoperate with other networks worldwide. It becomes imperative to recruit people form other nationalities to ensure that a telecommunication network based in one country can interoperate with the other telecommunication networks based in other countries. The problem becomes a bit more complicated if the telecommunications network seeks to be a global leader and acquires an ambition to operate globally. Recruitment of foreign nationals becomes imperative just as it is imperative to organise units and groups internationally. Cross cultural challenges are unavoidable and are likely to emerge. Chevrier (2003) correctly predicted that transnational groups are bound to flourish as firms globalise or as firms attempt to ensure that a nation is able to link up with the rest of the world. III. Recommendations In view of the foregoing, the way forward is to take strategic and pro-active measures to address cross-cultural challenges. It is imperative that a telecommunications company hires cross-cultural management consultants that shall act proactively on cross-cultural concerns. One pro-active measure that the company consultants can take on is to identify precisely what cross-cultural problems can likely emerge given the changing cultural-origin profile of the workforce. For instance, there may be differences across cultures with regard to understanding one’s responsibility or accountability pertaining to work. There can also be differences as to how various cultures understand certain words or terminologies and the consultant can work proactively by identifying precisely where the cross-cultural problem can emerge. Based on the action and/or recommendation of the consultant, the corporate leadership can act by issuing the appropriate guidelines. Some problems can be relatively complicated such as traditions of antagonisms between cultures and guidelines on these can be adopted by the company based on consultant’s recommendations. In addition, at least three strategic and pro-active recommendations can be forwarded or advanced. First, we must continually and regularly identify cross-cultural issues through regular problem identification and solution formulation workshops as our organisation enlarge. Second, the company must create a culture of work to ensure that in work and in doing work, the company’s culture is singular rather than plural. Members of the company may belong to different cultures and may speak different mother tongue but working in the company implies a monolithic corporate that each is expected to live by. The corporate culture, however, must be compatible with the national cultures of individuals in the company. Finally or third, we must establish a set of corporate work ethics and protocols to strengthen corporate culture, ensure that we have a common understanding of expectations from each pertaining to our work and ensure our common basic response to certain issues and situations in our work. With regard to the first or on the matter of regularly identifying cross cultural problems, the company or office leadership at the site or plant level must include a discussion during their monthly meetings on the possible cross-cultural problems that have emerged at the plant or at the work site and the solutions to the problem. The solution to the problem can involve the sponsorship of lectures that can promote mutual understanding among cultures present at the work site or plant level. Another solution that may be developed by the leadership at the company plant or site level is for the leadership to design group dynamics and other activities that can promote mutual understanding and solidarity across cultures. The other activities can include cultural presentations prepared by cultural groups from each nationality or social groups that have been covered by the company. With regard to the second or on the matter of creating a culture of work, the company must create a set of values on how to view work within the company. Work is the means through which one can support himself, bring good things to his family and uplift the situation of his nation or people. This is one starting point on how we can promote a common culture in the company despite the presence of multiple cultures. From the basic notion on work, we can develop other notions that can create a culture of working in the company. For instance, from the notion of how one can view work, we can develop a notion of why it is important to be punctual. We can also develop the notion of why it is important to put the highest priorities to our work and we can also develop the notion of why it is important to make our work excellent. A lot of other things can be developed from these notions. From the basic notions, we can inculcate the importance of honesty, teamwork, the importance of living up to a set of work ethics, and a set of prescribed behaviour towards colleagues and customers. As mentioned, building a corporate culture is a key task to address cross-cultural challenges. Following the concepts articulated by several authors, Sadri and Lees (2001) defined corporate culture as consisting of attitudes, values, norms, and expectations. For Sadri and Lees (2001), it is also a set of collective habits, attitudes and feelings and patterns of behaviour. In addition, Sadri and Lees (2001) consider corporate culture as also a key to competitive advantage. Corporate culture can be promoted by manuals, informal lectures, company leaflets, company websites, and posters in the company premises as well as other formal and informal means. Meanwhile, Deshpande and Webster (1989, p. 3) had defined organisational culture as a “shared set of beliefs and values” within an organisation. Without establishing corporate culture that can stand as THE culture of the workplace, cultural clashes can exacerbate as what have been observed by Tahir and Ismail (2007) when Malaysia opened itself to foreign workers. Finally, with regard to the third or on the matter of creating a set of work ethics and protocols, it is important to see to it that the values that the company is promoting through its corporate culture be translated into a set of work ethics and protocols. Ethics can be defined as a set of standards on behaviour or rules of conduct (Pitta et al. 1999). They do not arise out of the void and they obviously arise from a set of values. The corporate culture identifies the values of the company while the code of ethics prescribes a set of behaviour upholding the company’s values. Protocols, on the other hand, pertain to a set of procedures such as how certain issues or situations should be resolved or handled. Protocols are also called policies (Rahimi & Noruzi 2011). Ethics involve the individual (or the company as a corporate individual) while protocols involve a group, department or the whole or a part of the organisation. By establishing corporate ethics or a set of behaviour prescribed or imposed on all individuals in the organisation and protocols, we eliminate a huge margin of variance on how members of an organisation would respond differentially (based on their variability of exposure to various cultural orientations) to organisational situations. We note, however, that Stevens (2009, p. 14) described corporate ethical codes as documents that “state the major philosophical principles and values in organisations and function as policy documents which define the responsibilities of organisations to stakeholders.” Stevens added (2009, p. 14) that corporate ethics or ethical codes “must be communicated well and become part of the culture of the organisation.” Building a set of corporate ethics is important because as indicated by the study of Hisrich et al. (2003), business ethics across countries vary and can cause confusion in the work force. Related to the three key tasks that we have identified to address cross-cultural issues, it is important that the company human resource department continue to monitor the following in the company’s labour force: the language spoken by the workforce during their childhood, the, the country or countries to which each member of the work force has been exposed, the nationality and/or citizenship of the work workforce, statistics on these at the company and office levels, as well as other data pertaining to religious affiliations and ethnicity. It is important that data on these are monitored on the workforce just as it is equally important that the human resource department of the company collect data on these among the new recruits and even potential recruits of the company. Based on the company or office level, for example, the company can formulate programs to promote cross-cultural understanding even as the company works on a common corporate culture. For example, the company under the office of the department of human resources can sponsor seminars or lectures on Islamic work ethic and practices to understand better the Muslim believers in the company or perhaps understand better our Koreans and Japanese co-workers through lectures or seminars on Korean and Japanese work ethics. IV. Conclusion and Summary In summary, it is important to anticipate the cross-cultural problems that will be opened up by a telecommunication firm that seeks to be a global leader in the world’s telecommunication industry. Among the three key proactive measures that can be taken to address the cross-cultural problems are to continuously monitor the emergence of the problem and formulate appropriate solutions, adopt a set of corporate culture and a set of corporate ethics. References Bird, A. & Fang, T., 2009. Cross cultural management in the age of globalisation. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 9 (2), 139-143. Chevrier, S., 2003. Cross-cultural management in multinational project groups. Journal of World Business, 38, 141-149. Deshpande, R. & Webster, F., 1989. Organizational culture and marketing: Defining the research agenda. The Journal of Marketing, 53 (1), 3-15. Ernst & Young, 2010. Top 10 risks in telecommunications 2010. London: EYGM Limited. Hisrich, R., Bucar, B & Oztark, S., 2003. A cross-cultural comparison of business ethics: Cases of Russia, Slovenia, Turkey and United States. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 10 (1), 3-28. Stevens, B., 2009. Corporate ethical codes as strategic documents: An analysis of success and failure. Journal of Business Ethics and Organisation Studies, 14 (2), 14-20. Pitta, D., Fung, H. & Isberg, S., 1999. Ethical issues across cultures: managing the differing perspectives of China and the USA. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 16 (3), 240-256. Rahimi, G. & Noruzi, R., 2011. A brief look on policy, typology of policy, and its related affairs. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2 (11), 173-176. Sadri, G. & Lees, B., 2001. Developing corporate culture as a competitive advantage. Journal of Management Development, 20 (10), 853-859. Tahir, A. & Ismail, M., 2007. Cross cultural challenges and adjustment of expatriates: A case study of Malaysia. Alternatives, 6 (3&4), 72-99. Read More