Cross-cultural Management - Essay Example

CROSS-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT CROSS-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT Insert name Insert grade course Insert instructor’s name April 28, 2011. Cross-cultural management Whenever and organization employs people from different geographical regions, there arise the issue of cross-cultural management. Cross-cultural management is al about respecting traditions and culture by implementing new approaches to humane resource management which integrates and valorizes the diversity of workforce. Diversity management is a modern approach to the management off diversities or different cultures through which it is likely to build an organizational atmosphere of incorporation, in which people feel themselves incorporated and appreciated for their individuality. The organizational culture plays a fundamental function in diversity management implementation. If the organizational culture is not integration-oriented and if it does not have integration values, as it is the case in EZ-ABC, every attempt of diversity management fails. The main problems or cross-cultural barriers of multicultural enterprises are standards, practice, ethics, laws, culture, customs, management system, and socioeconomic system. Thus, it is essential to recognize what inspires overseas employees, what attitude they have towards work and which style and tools of administration they are used to and look forward to of an executive. Mr. Lee is an old military man who is the owner of the local branch of EZ-ABC franchise school in the Kingman district in South Korea. To run the school, he employs Sandy, an Australian woman with a doctorate in educational leadership to be school principal. We find out that Sandy, with a doctorate degree in educational leadership is very effective in her leadership skills and even spend most of her time working on a new study program that once implemented would bring a lot of changes in the EZ-ABC school. Though she is professional, she seems to somehow rough and authoritative. Her professionalism is a key aspect in a male dominated organization, where both the boss and employees are all male. Many are the times when women are not able to run an organization where only males are employed. But as for her, she has managed to be in this school and has managed every detail of the school and the other teachers. Her leadership qualities are effective, bearing in mind that nineteen of the twenty teachers are new members. It is also evident that she is more or less a dictator since there is no where we find her discussing or even welcoming the other employees’ suggestions. She has even prepared plans which they are going to use when teaching. The fact that she was following Mr. Lee’s commands leaves her tied to follow his instructions. We note that she could have been an effective leader if she was allowed to exercise her freedom and professionalism. Thus Mr. Lee is a hindrance to Sandy’s leadership effectiveness (Fitzsimmons & Shantz, 2010). Mr. Lee is another leader who is not integration-oriented and managed the whole institution through Sandy. He only mans the payroll but deals with all other issues through his closest employee; Sandy. According to Bert, “Mr. Lee put a lot of pressure on Sandy to run her school the way he wanted; for instance, he did not like that she offered unconventional classes such as interview preparation classes”. Though the structure of the curriculum was good, the leadership styles of MR. Lee were not all that effective. The two are not able to motivate their employees in work. The fact that it is only one teacher out of the twenty who has been there for the second year, it is very clear that they are not able to retain their employees. Mr. Lee’s poor motivational skills are evident from the way he cuts down his employees’ salaries by imposing ambiguous taxes that are not in existence. This is one of the factors that greatly demoralize Bert and other teachers in the school. The fact that this tax is not calculated equally among the teachers crates more doubts on how the salary is calculated. Thus these two leaders have very ineffective leadership qualities. As the teachers are being welcomed, they are told that they are on permanent probation and can be sacked anytime with no second chances. This is a very cold welcome which de-motivates the teachers (Fitzsimmons & Shantz, 2010). The cultural backgrounds of these two leaders greatly impact their leadership styles. Sandy is an Australian woman who is a dictator and like following her own thoughts and ideas. Her behavior is too often connected to her personal features instead of outside influences or cultural norms. Hence, her staff is exposed to the pressure twice, adapting to foreign cultural rules within the school and thus conflicting with one another even through competition to retain the job. Mr. Lee on the other hand is an old military Korean who forces thing to be done in his own way. This is seen when he forces Sandy to run the school his own way and even rejects the curriculum that Sandy had prepared despite Sandy claiming that it would have made the school to be popular and hence increase the enrollment. The fact that the Korean law is in their favor makes them mistreat the employees and especially those from oversees. The visa and apartment lease are tied to the employer such that you do not have the freedom to search for a new job either. The only option left is to “keep your head down, keep your ratings high and don’t stand out”. In Korea, “if you try to take a stand and change things, you will be fired and you cannot do anything about it.” This notion greatly influenced the leadership styles on Sandy and Mr. Lee in a negative way. Mr. Lee and Sandy were not able to honor the contracts of their employees since the legal precedent was in their favor. This made their leadership style to be very ineffective and discriminative. Thus culture has greatly influences the effectiveness on the leadership style in EZ-ABC school (Fitzsimmons & Shantz, 2010). Effective solutions are needed for EZ-ABC to survive and increase enrollment. If cross-cultural management and ethics are introduced in the school, they can assist to create preventive measures and solve the current predicaments. The fact that the school has employed teachers from other countries makes the school a global organization and Sandy can be termed as a global manager. She should be concerned with legal and political characteristics of countries from which the teachers have come from. The key role of cross-cultural management and ethics in the school would be to suggest helpful and regularly tailored to circumstances resolutions of the predicaments. If cross-cultural management is applied in the school, it would assist in solving predicaments rising between members of the school in internal environment. Cross-cultural management is a new approach to management that factors and deals with cultural variations between staff and management in general. This is because culture shapes the context of managerial work, which further influences managerial roles (Greblikaite, & Daugeliene, 2010). From the case study, it is clear that even though Bert could attend the tribunal, the legal fees were very expensive in Korea just as it is in Canada. Furthermore, even if he was to attend, the case would not be in his favor due to cultural backgrounds and would loose in the case. Although his contract was not honored, I can only advise him not to quit the job before he has accumulated enough money for his flight. It would be much better for him to be patient with things and accumulate enough money. Although he is not like other teachers who have kept quiet and swallowed the bitterness, the best thing for him to do now is first to tolerate the menace. Culturally, he is discriminated together with other ESL teachers since Korea feel that these ESL teachers took jobs away from Koreans and hence the courts are reluctant to side with them. His values are not respected and also the work standards are poor. The Korean law is not in his favor and his embassy cannot help since this is how ‘things are done in Korea’. The management system is as well so poor that the management and staff communicate only through orders. In Korea, we have a community in which the connections between persons are loose or individualistic. Each person is expected to take care of his or her own affairs as well as just his or her immediate relatives. In other words, the main concerns of members of individualistic cultures are individual welfare and ambitions. This is why Mr. Lee and Sandy are only concerned with their own affairs without minding the welfare of the staff. Also in Korea, there is high power distance. This is the degree to which less influential members of establishments and associations within a country anticipate and admit that power is disseminated unevenly. Power distance also refers to the degree to which workers acknowledge that executives have more authority than they have. In nations with towering power distance, workers are fearful of expressing their uncertainties and differences with their despotic and paternalistic superiors. EZ-ABC is just an example of how other institutions are in South Korea and thus finding another job in the same country would not solve the problem. The wisest decision would be to finish his contract and fly back to his country where he can enjoy his freedom rather than fighting a battle that he is doomed to lose. References: Fitzsimmons S.R. & Shantz P. 2010. An English Teacher in South Korea. Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation, The University of Western Ontario. Greblikaite, J. & Daugeliene R. 2010. The Growing Need of Cross -cultural Management and Ethics in Business. Institute of Europe, Kaunas University of Technology. Pp. 148-151. Read More