Cross-Cultural Negotiation & Management, Euro Disneyland - Case Study Example

Cross Cultural Negotiation & Management. Name Course Instructor Institution Date GSBS6483: Cross Cultural Negotiation & Management. The first part of this paper brings out different cultures that are portrayed in different countries. The second discusses the main difference between the two cultures. Mistakes that companies make when investing in a new culture as well the recommendations on what companies must do to make them incorporate well with other cultures are also discussed in the third part of the paper. Euro Disneyland is vividly described in the case to be a bottleneck in France. Disneyland is believed to be an American theme park as initially it was introduced in California. It was later opened in Florida and Tokyo having had great success. This success inspired them so much such that Walt Disney Company was introduced in Europe and Disneyland was also introduced in France. There was much anticipation that the golden run will persist and after a lot of planning and other development, it was launched in Paris. Due to new cultures in place, Disney encountered new challenges that made it not to operate smoothly. Using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions as a point of references, there are main cultural differences that are portrayed between France and United States. One of the main challenges was the power distance. The power distance index computes, the extent whereby lower class agrees the offer given by the society leader (Feldman, 2008). In the United States, the index of power is relatively lower than in France. This means that, equality at the societal level is different such that, French people have always felt like foreigners even in their own soil and the supervisors for most jobs were Americans. Avoidance of Uncertainty: This is the extent whereby most people always feel threatened by the ambiguous situations. UAI is quite lower in America as opposed to France. Euro Disneyland is known to be American in its theme. According to the people who made a stopover at the euro Disney, French people were seen to be more ambiguous as opposed to the Americans. Individualism: This is the tendency where people simply take care of themselves and their immediate family without caring about the others. This aspect is seen to be common and very high in both the countries (Welch, 2004). According to the Hofstede analysis, the Central American countries had a much lower level of individualism more than other countries. In the analysis of Hofstede, countries such as Malaysia have a closed-door meeting where few selected powerful leaders are chosen. Masculinity: Societies that have a higher masculinity has more value on their money and their success. In America, there is a higher masculinity as opposed to France. France was never seen to be a priority for Disney during the time when Euro Disney was introduced. Japan from the analysis has highly masculine that has a masculine where Sweden had the lowest measured value. From the analysis of Hofstede’s analysis, if one opens an organization in Japan, there might be more success if a male is selected to manage the organization. Trompenaar has contributed a lot in the culture differences between the United States and France. Cultures are believed to be aped by a given group of individuals depending on the way they were brought up. According to Trompenaar, cultural disparities exist in three ways. Particularism vs. universalism: Universalistic countries have a lot of emphasis on the formal rules more than the relationships. This is a belief concept and practices may be implemented at any area without really much modification. United States is more universalistic as they often assume different cultures from different countries. They even sometimes assume their own culture and poses that they do not have any culture. Particularistic on the other hand puts more pressure on the relationships. Such countries believe that, situations dictate the application of various ideas and practices. If one is Universalist, he follows work rules and rules of the life. In Particularistic life, one is ever concerned with the needs of the people that are around him before moving to distant people. Neutral vs. Emotional: Neutral cultures are those that emotions are actually held in test. Under the neutral culture, people never show their feelings and the composure is always maintained. In emotional culture, people’s feelings are always expressed openly and more freely. In this case study, both France and America are countries that have emotional culture. They share this culture equally and none of them can be assumed to be lower than the other. Specific vs. Diffuse: A specific culture is that where most individual poses wider public spaces and thus people are allowed to use the space. Diffuse culture on the other hand has both private and public space. The public space however is seized and the space is highly protected. France often uses a diffuse culture and United States uses specific culture (Welch, 2004). Friendships are normally instrumental in that workplace with specific relationships. This makes it much easier for the attaining of their goals. In relationships where diffuse relationships are much more common, there is always a clearer acquaintanceships. These norms mostly take long time to develop and in some cases, they may not even develop. Time Orientation: Difference in culture occurs due to the way that people operates in terms of time. In the United States culture, all activities are done according to time. Issues like appointments are done depending on time and plan (Hoppe, 1990). In synchronous cultures mostly found in France, people tend to do several activities at a time. Appointments are mostly not fixed time but approximated and are subject to change. In order to ensure good management and operations of Euro Dosneyland, the company did some mistakes while in its operations. There was lack of management in the company was one of the main mistakes done by the company that led to its failure. There was incorrect self-assessment that led to wrong decision making in the company (Trompenaars, 1993). The fact that Walt Disney was had high stake in Euro Disneyland, there was major decisions that were done by American Executives, yet they had no knowledge on the French culture. Appropriate Staff: There was poor staff management in the company making it to fail as a whole. The company management did not calculate well the pick hours and the off pick hours. This led to some employees to be over worked (Desiree, 2004). Disney Company required that some staff puts on a certain dressing code. This destroyed the union among the employees making them to have a poor relationship among themselves. Any companies that do not have a good relationship with its employees always have a hard time to realize sales or increase production. Cultural Errors: There were so many errors made that had a negative impact on the French culture. According to French culture, employees are allowed to take wine during their lunch hour. In this organization, employees are never allowed to take wine (Hoppe, 1990). This has destroyed the relationship between employees and the customers and production was interfered with. The policy of retrieving alcohol brought about rebellion and other astonishment among the employees. The restaurants never had the French culture and most foods were never prepared according to the French culture. From this experience, there are other lessons that the company should have learned on how to deal with diversity. In any given culture, there is a need to put in mind some important aspects. Symbolic dimensions are whereby we are always making meanings and enact identities. Understand the Euro culture better: Euro Disneyland management need to understand much more better their environment, and their culture involving their eating habits, lifestyle, and other preferences. The company needs to act globally in order to expand its business but at the same time, they need to think locally. By the company trying to think globally while working locally they are simply trying to see how they can penetrate in international markets and remain in those markets through knowing different cultures (Hoppe, 1990). If in a given area a culture is ignored there are high chances of loosing the local customers yet they are these customers who are to refer other customers and thus the company will attain international customers. Managing workforce: Disney Company needs to manage their personnel department in a much better way. The highest positions in this company are managed by the American. As much as this may go well in domestic cultures, it may not work in the European culture. There is a need to allow some top management positions to be managed by the local employees for the realization of better results. The local employees are also in a better position to understand their culture in details and thus they can be used to advise the top management team (Desiree, 2004). The company also needs to increase the number of staffs so as they can be able to work efficiently even when it comes to the peak time. The company can introduce shifts if they need to cut on the cost on the employees’ salaries. The shift can work in such a manner that, some employees should just work on contracts when the company s facing the peak time. If the off peak comes, their contracts can be terminated. This will ensure low operational cost in the company and thus growth in profitability. Develop more realistic planning: Euro Disney does not have any previous experience in the European markets. The company took a risky step by moving to the second phase on assumptions that the first phase will probably meet their expectations (Hofstede, 1980). This is just a gambling step and it may not work as they are assuming. Having no experience on the European culture and their market may lead to future problems and its operations may be difficult. There is need to rectify the problems on the first phase first before handling those on the second phase. There need to be more conscious on the growth expectations and this is the only thing that will make the company to improve. The company needs to set a strategic plan that will give them a road plan on their operations. This will even make the company to be in a better position to plan. References: Desiree, Q. (2004). Globalization: culture and education in the new millennium. California: University of California press. Feldman, M. (2008). New perspectives in international business research. Harvard: Emerald Group Publishing. Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work- Related Values. Newbury Park. Chicago: Sage Publications. Hoppe, M. H. (1990). A Comparative Study of Countries Elites: International Differences in Work- Related Values and Learning and Their Implications for Management Training and Development. California: University of North Carolina. Trompenaars, F. (1993). Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business. London: The Economist Press. Welch, C. (2004). Handbook of qualitative research methods for international business. Oxford: Edward Elgar publishing. Read More