Cross Cultural Management in the Context of Business Objects - Essay Example

 Cross Cultural Management in the Context of Business Objects Introduction Often it is found that experts are critically analyzing the performance of an organisation and giving their precious comments. However they rarely analyze those factors that have influenced that performance. Usually there are several factors, inside and outside of an organisation, that influence the organizational performance. Organizational culture is one of the most important one among them. It is a difficult task to define organizational culture. Different opinions have been provided by different experts. According to Stephen Robbins and Timothy Judge, organizational culture is referred to the system of shared values and meaning that are held by the members of the organisation and distinguishes it from other organisations. Every organisation has a unique culture that gives it a special identity. Historically the word, ‘culture’, has been used differently in different subjects. Sometimes it is used to describe the sophistication of a person, whereas sometimes it is used by the anthropologists while they are describing the rituals and customs that different societies have developed over the passage of time. However over the past few decades the word is more used in organizational context. Experts and researchers have used the term in order to describe the practices and climate that have developed in the process of managing and handling the people in the organization (Schein, 2004). In today’s competitive business environment organizational culture is considered one of the most important factors that influence the individual performance and hence organizational performance. Management of culture becomes critical when there are people from different culture work together in the organisation. This paper is all about the management of organizational culture and various issues related to it in an organisation named Business Objects. The report includes a brief overview of the organisation and different problem regarding its culture. It also includes a detail overview of the policy that should be implemented in the organisation in order to solve and manage cross cultural issues. Culture greatly influences the team performance especially when the team consists of people from different cultural background. This report contains some possible solutions of problems regarding multicultural teams in the context of Business Objects. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=xhmezDokfnYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=organizational+culture&as_brr=3&cd=2#v=onepage&q=&f=false Business Objects Business Objects was established by Bernard Liautaud and one of his colleagues in 1990. The company started with software development. They avoided the traditional form of business development and adopted the Silicon Valley model. They intentionally gave an English name so that developing a global identity becomes easy and marketing becomes easier. They did not want to make it a ‘French Company’. Offices were set up in US, UK, Singapore and Germany. People from different country and different cultural background were recruited. It was the first French to be listed on Nasdaq. In 2007 it was acquired by the German software giant SAP. Today it provides various software applications and tools that enable organisations to maximize their performance. These tools help organisations to connect information, business processes and people across the business network (SAP, n.d.). Since the organisation is operating in different country and there are people from different background, various cultural issues are likely to develop within the organisation. As a result there is high requirement of a proper policy that would address all these issues. Moreover, the company deals with high end sophisticated technology products. Development of these products requires excellent team work. However teams in the company include people from different cultural background. As a result it is very likely that there will be certain problems. So it is crucial to identify and address all those factors that might create various cultural problems within the teams. Section A In today’s business environment it is crucial to have global presence in order to gain competitive advantage. Business Objects, being one of the most successful companies in its industry, has its presence in various countries like US, UK, Singapore, Germany and France. The company employs people from all these countries. As a result it is quite natural that employees of the company are from different cultural background. Managing cross cultures properly, as a result, is very important for the success of the company, but in order to manage people from different cultures there must be a proper policy in the organisation. Being the CEO, Monsieur Liataud needs to play an important role to developing this policy. However advice can be given to him regarding this policy. Liataud should take the policy of developing a positive organizational culture. A positive organizational culture can be defined as the culture that is built on employee strengths, individual growth and vitality. It focuses on rewards rather than on punishments. Each of these are explained below. In a positive organizational culture employees are shown the way of capitalizing on their strengths. However this does not mean that weaknesses of employees are ignored. According to management guru Peter Drucker "Most Americans do not know what their strengths are. When you ask them, they look at you with a blank stare, or they respond in terms of subject knowledge, which is the wrong answer." (Drucker, n.d.). If employees can capitalize on their individual strengths then their individual performance is bound to improve. This concept is more relevant in case of an organisation where employees are from different countries and different cultures. People from different culture are likely to have different kind of weaknesses. If the company starts to identify all these weaknesses and make decisions accordingly, then it will find itself in a complicated situation. Valuable resources like time and money will go in waste. However, instead focusing on weaknesses if strengths of each of the employees are identified then that will boost the employees’ confidence and hence organization’s confidence. Moreover, people from different culture are likely to have different strengths. A proper coordination of all these strengths will certainly improve organizational performance. As far as Business Objects is concerned, there are people from different culture and hence each of them is likely to have different type of strengths. Lautaud should give more attention on these strengths in order to create a positive culture that will enhance the morale as well as motivation of the employees. Another strategy that Lautaud should adopt is to reward employees. Rewarding employees is very important for having positive culture in the organisation. Rewards in terms of pay, promotions are common in nature as every organization gives these, but there is another reward which is always neglected by most of the organizations, that is ‘praise’. Employees always look to be praised by the management. Generally managers avoid praising their employees because they believe that it has no value in the real world. However it can work as ‘silent killer’ as employees usually do not directly ask for praise and managers do not realize the cost of failing to praise. In organizations like Business Objects where multiple cultures exist among the employees, praising will play an important role to motivate them and improve their confidence level. Moreover ‘praise’ can be considered as a common reward for all. Rule should be simple, “you perform well, you will be praised”. Lautaud, being the CEO of the company should take the initiative to incorporate this culture. He should praise his subordinates. Once this is starts from the upper level; it is bound to spread into the middle and lower level. Another crucial factor that needs to be considered while creating positive culture is individual’s growth. If employees think themselves as just a part of organization, they will never be able to give their best performance. In a positive organizational culture there is huge difference between career and job. Moreover, in a positive culture importance is given not only to the employees’ contribution in organizational performance, but also to organizations’ contribution in the employees’ performance and career growth. In a multi-cultural organization like Business Objects, if individuals’ career growth is given enough importance then it is much very much possible that they will forget all the cultural differences. Employees will be more concerned about their performance and career growth rather than all those cultural issues. Monsieur Liataud should make his employees feel that they are not just parts of Business Objects, but they are the heart of this organization and the organization is more concerned about their career rather than their job. Moreover, Business Objects deals with technology, as a result it is crucial to keep employees satisfied about their career and position. So, it is quite clear from the above discussion that Monsieur Lautaud should focus on creating a positive culture in Business Objects with the purpose of minimizing the possibilities of emergence of various cultural issues. Section B Forming multi-cultural teams from various countries In simple words a team is consisted of small number of people who are working achieve a common target (Katzenbach, Smith, 1993) These people are likely to have different thoughts, different attitude and different behavior. Most importantly they are likely to be from different culture. As a result it is inevitable to have conflicts among the members in the team. It is found that conflicts can encourage team members in exploring new ideas. Conflicts can stretch problem solving efforts of the team. However, these happen in very few cases, usually it is found that team performance is deteriorated due to conflicts. As a result it is crucial to manage conflicts effectively. Conflicts will be more when the team includes people from different countries and different culture. As far as business Objects is concerned, it has its presence in US, UK, Singapore, Germany and France. Employees are recruited in all these countries. Teams are generally multi-cultural in nature. As a result various issues may arise that would affect the individual as well as team performance. There are several factors that need to be kept in mind while forming a multi cultural team. Being the CEO of the company, Monsieur Liataud should focus on creating an environment where team members will be free to share any information. Such an environment would increase members’ willingness to accept the feedback from others. Top management should make the team members understand various reasons of conflicts and convince them that various differences among them can actually enhance their productivity. Furthermore top management should help team members to realize that different individual perceives works, motives, situations and actions differently and as a result it is inevitable to have differences in the team. Management should realize the fact that different teams have different working styles as different teams are formed with different cultured people. As a result co-ordination among teams might not be always as smooth as it is expected. Management should make decisions in accordance to these facts. Another crucial aspect is to make decision regarding interference. Management must have clear idea when to intervene when not. Generally when conflicts take place among more than two team members, top management should not intervene immediately. They should be allowed to solve out the problem by their own, although they need to be closely monitored by the management. However, management should intervene when it is found that team members have clear deficiency in skills to solve conflicts (Department of Children and Families, n.d.). Third party can also be made involved as a mediator. Impartial mediator is likely to understand the problem of each member more closely. Their thoughts are likely to be given more importance by the members. Management of Business Objects should focus on all these above mentioned factors while making a multi-cultured team. However, proper management of a multi-cultural team depends on the leadership and motivating skills of the leaders. Performance of team depends on how leader of that team handle the members. The process of solving conflicts among the team members also depends on the leadership and motivating skills of the team leader. Since there people from different countries are working in Business Objects, it is very likely that there will be certain problems among the team members in a particular team. These problems can be regarding communication, attitudes and decision making (Brett, Behfar, Kern, 2006). First of all the way of communication vary with the countries and cultures. An American will communicate differently as compared to a German. Moreover people from different countries have different accents and fluency. Americans are more comfortable in English language as compared to Germans who are usually do not like to speak in any language other than German. Those Germans who can speak in English are found to be having a unique accent and fluency. Now, since the official language in Business Objects is English, Americans might feel more confident. On the other hand French and Germans might feel ignored. This will further result to communication gap between the employees and top management. Team leaders are likely to face problems at the time of decision making as they will have to deal with members from different cultural background. Conclusion Culture is one of the most important aspects in today’s business scenario. It has become more significant as most of the organizations are expanding their business in different places in the world. Business Objects has its presence in various countries in the world. Since there are people from different cultural background it is inevitable to have major conflicts among the employees. CEO, Lautaud can address all the problems by creating a positive culture in the organization. Building a multicultural team is a challenging job for the management of Business Objects. There are several factors that need to be considered by the management while building such a team. References Department of Children and Families, No Date, Top Ten Multicultural Team Conflict Management Tips, [Online] Available at: http://www.ct.gov/dcf/cwp/view.asp?a=2546&q=314462 [Accessed on March 10, 2010] Brett, J. Behfar, K. Kern, M. C. 2006, Managing Multicultural Teams, Harvard Business Review Article, [Online] Available at: http://hbr.org/product/managing-multicultural-teams/an/R0611D-PDF-ENG [Accessed on March 10, 2010] Drucker, P. No Date, Gallup Management Journal, [Online] Available at: http://gmj.gallup.com/content/1147/now-discover-your-strengths-book-center.aspx [Accessed on March 10, 2010] Katzenbach, J. R. Smith, D. K. 1993, The wisdom of teams: creating the high-performance organization, Harvard Business Press SAP, No Date, SAP BusinessObjects Portfolio, [Online] Available at: http://www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/index.epx [Accessed on March 10, 2010] Schein, E. H. 2004, Organizational culture and leadership, John Wiley and Sons Bibliography Bertrand, B. No Date, Transformation Within Organizational Culture: The Gap Between Paper and Reality, [Online] Available at: http://www.leadingtoday.org/weleadinlearning/bb-oct02.htm Halverson, C. B. Tirmizi, S. A. 2008, Effective Multicultural Teams: Theory and Practice, Springer Schneider, S. C. Barsoux, J. L. 2003, Managing across cultures, Financial Times Prentice Hall Read More