Operational Conflicts in an International Context due to Time and Individualism - Example

INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT Code + Course Name Professor Date International Management Workshop 3- Role of Culture Interaction of Culture and the Internet: The World Wide Web, as well as the Internet are transforming the way in which individuals interact and live. The influence of the Internet generates numerous reactions from diverse cultures across the world. This ranges from cynicism to idealism. The internet is responsible for spreading different cultures in different platforms like social media. This has profound effects on other people who seek to adopt such cultures1. In addition, the Internet has drastically changed interpersonal interaction affecting different cultures and the use of language. For example, the culture of work has increasingly changed in different work environments by having tasks undertaken outside of the common work centres such as a factory or an office2. Operational Conflicts in an International Context due to Time and Individualism: Time can be identified along two dimensions. These are synchronic versus sequential and outer versus inner time. On the other side, individualism is considered against collectivism. These refer to the way in which individuals are expected to care for themselves or persist within integrated groups at work. Long-term against short-term alignment considers the extent that the program of a given culture towards its members poses delayed indulgence of their emotional, material, and social needs3. For instance, the long-term orientation for East Asian countries like Hong Kong, Japan, and China is highest. On the other end, Western countries score low on this, while developing countries such as Zimbabwe and Nigeria score the lowest. Business people within cultures that are long-term oriented are used to working towards establishing strong stations within their markets without necessarily expecting immediate results4. Stereotypes about Australians and Three Cultural Stereotypes about Foreign Cultures: There are certain stereotypes that the Australian community in entirety has a natural willingness to assist other people. Another stereotype is that Australians are obese, unrefined, and offensive. These reasons come about due to the nature of information posted in different media about Australians. For instance, these are derived from caricatures displayed online by artists. Additionally, the stereotypes against Australian are founded on generalisations of some few Australians that were prejudiced, and the manner of dressing of the Australians5. Foreign cultures comprise the Chinese who are considered as hardworking, easily oriented and peaceful people. The Chinese respect their elders and are tolerantto other people. The Italians are stereotyped as exhibiting great styles in fashion, whereas the Japanese are thought as being hard workers6. Workshop 4: Communicating across Cultures The Role of Social Media in Worldwide Business Communication: Digital communication and social media are transfiguring the manner in which individuals across the globe are communicating with each other. Mobile gadgets are accessible and people engage with one another through social media from where they can also conduct their respective businesses. Successful businesses use social media by creating portfolios and mini-media empires in line with cultural needs of their clients. Worldwide businesses can tailor or custom their market strategies and communicate with their customers on a one-on-one basis through social media7. The relationship of Culture and Language, and Miscommunication of Language within Cultures: It is widely affirmed that culture and language are related closely. Language is considered as a verbal representation of culture and is used to convey and maintain cultural ties and culture8. Language offers different categories for expressing thoughts, values, and customs of a cultural group. On the other hand, the language spoken by a group identifies culture. Miscommunication may be experienced within a culture whereby an individual may be more educated or more intelligent than another person may. There are expressions and verbal cues that may connote different meanings to people speaking a similar language. Examples of Cultural Variances in Body Language Interpretation: Different body sign languages may mean different things in different cultures. For instance, eye contact in Canada and USA, recurrent eye contact is very significant in conveying attention and interest. In most Middle Eastern cultures, extreme eye contact between similar genders is usually a sign of sincerity and trust. Nevertheless, in Muslim cultures, eye contact more than a brief between opposite genders is regarded inappropriate9. Given that businesses entail frequent human interaction, comprehending traits of nonverbal communication is beneficial in working with clients, colleagues, and potential competitors10. (348). Workshop 5: Cross-cultural Decision-making and Negotiation The Use of Nonverbal Behaviours by People from Various Cultural Backgrounds: Cultural variances in styles of negotiation can be important, but they can also result to problems in negotiations by international businesses. Nevertheless, these challenges can be addressed by seeking an interpreter or adopting a common third language. Silent periods, facial gazing, touching, and interruptions by individuals from different cultural backgrounds is important in comparing different linguistic traits of language that are essential in negotiations11. These signs portray behaviours of such cultures and they offer indications of satisfaction in communication across different cultures12. Differences in Risk Tolerance Worldwide and the Roles of Risk Propensity in Making Decisions: Managers have to contend that persuasive strategies will be distinct in every nation. In decision-making researches risk tolerance is usually perceived as a utility of the unpredictability of the likelihood of outcomes as well as the perceived value of every likely outcome. Differences occur because decisions of businesses are inherently multidimensional in nature, and they hypothetically entail some risk combinations and high ambiguity levels in operational, marketing, and financial or even social features13. Therefore, risk propensity is important as a factor in making decisions. Negotiating With Germans: Germans are known to have a higher likelihood of engaging with other people in negotiations upon proving their trustworthiness. Furthermore, Germans have a culture that treasures directness in discussions and they always expect to be given definite and clear response to proposals and questions14. The German’s culture tends to affirm that relationships amongst humans cannot uphold without continuous reinforcement to enable them progress towards more intimacy. In negotiations with the Germans, one has to visualize his or her arguments. This means that one has to make claims with solid foundations and keeping their ideas clear and in steps that are easy to follow15. Furthermore, when conversing with the Germans, one has to talk less, remain patient and waiting for their responses. Work shop 6: Formulating Strategy Reasons Why Lands’ End and Yahoo! Expanded Internationally: Land’s End opted to increase their global presence because they intended to augment their volume of sales. Lands’ End decided to go worldwide for international expansion in order to improve their value as a firm and to gain authority to their brand16. On the other end, Yahoo! went worldwide in order to increase their research in the market and to control the worldwide internet industry by gaining access to resources, principally marketing and human resources. In addition, they intended to provide amenities for international users and consumers whenever they went online. They saw the possibility of providing a platform for the psychologically and geographical access of all people17. How Lands’ End succeeded in launching itself in Japan and the United Kingdom:Land’s End success resulted from the firm ‘thinking globally,’and administering changes to fit the values, cultures, and norms of all countries within the UK. Lands’ End experienced a unique test that turned out to be their learning curve18. This firm was against the language gap. Even though both nations had proficiency in English, UK used the Queen’s English. Some terms were considered as unsuitable and so they were compelled to adjust their catalogs as individuals were avoiding the purchase of their products for this reason. In Japan, they marketed their products in a different way i.e. they advertised their commodities on full colored newspaper together with the information. The advertisement by Lands’ End was different. Their method of payment was different as they obtained their products prior to paying for them and therefore, Lands’ End constrained their method of payment to familiarise to the Japanese manner19. How Yahoo! succeed in China and France: Yahoo! was assertive in its product ranges. The firm was able to provide personalization, customization, and content features. The firm offered discounts in these new areas in order to promote their services as well as on the premium Yahoo! Services. Compared to other providers, Yahoo was able to convert its user fields to broadband in a hasty manner while still ensuring that the users in France and China embraced the Yahoo! Brand20. Workshop 7: Global Alliances Reasons for A Rise in the Number of Mergers with Firms in Different States: There is a rise in the number of mergers between firms operating in different industries because many firms consider that they can derive benefits from coming together to establish bigger companies. These firms regard that by merging with other companies, they can complement one another. This will most likely assist in cost reductions and attainment of more economies of sales by offering products that appeal to their clients21. For example, a bank can merge with an insurance firm to cater to a similar client base. Additionally, firm that merge can gain from being associated with the popular firm even if they operate in dissimilar industries. An example, of the merger is the Broadcom’s acquisition of Mobilink Telecom Inc. Broadcom deals with manufacturing personal area network for Bluetooth hardware systems while Mobilink Telecom Inc. manufactures product designs for handsets22. Common Incompatibility Sources in Cross-Border Alliances and Minimizing Them: Incompatibility sources in cross-border alliances are founded in strategic objectives and goals. They are also pegged on the cultural disputes and clashes within the management and control systems23. Cross-border alliances can be minimized if extra care is taken in the preparation, development, and execution processes. These processes should clearly define the meaning of success. Firms have to use organized approaches as the means of eliminating cross-border incompatibility. Patience and time are necessities in designing, structuring and implementing proper cross-border alliances24. How National Culture Influences Strategic Implementation: The effects of the nationality of partners affect strategic implementation. This is because each state has its own economic motivation and organizational dissimilarity, and economic motivation Cultural distance has an influence on the dissolution of such ventures. In the case of the Mittal Steel firm, the prior relationships the companies had was faced with complexities that arose from cultural inconsistencies. In this case, there was rivalry and an opportunistic threat, which led to the dissolution of the venture25. Workshop 8: Global Structure The Need for MNCs to “Be Global and Act Locally:”MNCs have to develop suitable ways of managing individuals coming from different cultures while providing their international brands. By acting locally, they have to take into account the effects of their policies towards the different set of cultures, values, and traditions26. They should be consistent with the inherent challenges faced by the local country. These companies should preserve the environment and promote the social economic status of the residents of the country in which they operate. Organizations have to prescribe and implement their business tactics in different and suitable ways depending on the traditions of the host nation. The managers of MNC should understand cross-cultural communications27. Restructuring an MNC and Other Direct and Indirect Means of Monitoring Systems: In restructuring an MNC, the management can integrate departments then appoint various departmental managers. The regional or country managers can assist in aligning the organization in line with the needs of the clients within a given cultural context. Conversely, a functional structure can be adopted whereby the different managers will oversee the doings of certain functions like marketing, manufacturing, or technology28. Similarly, the structure can be made in such a way that the operations of the business are reinforced by a given service group. In addressing the monitoring, coordination, and integration concerns, new organizational models like the virtual and modular systems can be adopted. The modular system will assist in monitoring the core and non-core operations of the firm for it to focus on important functions. For the virtual model, groups of departments from diverse firms can make an alliance, which will assist in overseeing the resources and complementary skills of the workers in order to attain common strategic goal29. A Transnational Organization: A transnational organization is referred to as an international organization, which surpasses the nation-state notion. By disregarding variances between states, it runs on a worldwide level30. At some point, I could be working within this structure. The structure is good because it enables a business to commence operations across international boundaries, and in the process widening its client base. This will enable the business to be integrated globally and continue being responsive to local issues at the same time. By operating across borders, the business will attain systematic variances between functions across different geographical areas31. (486). Workshop 9: International HRM Why the HRM role is more complex, and significant in the international context: In the current globalisation era, there are numerous mergers and acquisitions, which shape interactions amongst states. In such contexts, international human resource management has emerged as a critical factor given that people operate organizations32. The problems start because of the diversity in people’s cultural aspirations and mental programs. Furthermore, the psychological and socio-cultural aspects make international HRM an important topic. IHRM becomes complex because of the psychological and socio-cultural challenges. Organizations that intend to conduct businesses internationally must establish the skills and knowledge that will enable them to govern themselves33. Common Reasons of Expatriate Failure: Expatriate failure normally happens when an expatriate is compelled to go back to their home organisation before the end of their foreign exercises is finalized34. Expatriation can occur when selection is founded on the criteria of their headquarters instead of the assignment needs. This can be due to insufficient preparation or orientation before they have been assigned tasks. Another reason could be due to lack of sustenance from their headquarters. This can make it hard for the expatriate to adapt to the culture of the local area or his or her working environment. This can be aggravated by insufficient financial support and compensation. An expatriate can also return when they experience challenges with their children or spouses35. My Strengths and Aspects that Need Improvement as an Expatriate: I can make a good expatriate because I am culturally sensitive. This means that I have the ability to comprehend different culture from different parts of the world36. I have the ability to fit and integrate into any culture and still have great interest in new cultures. Additionally, my open mindedness has given me the ability to perceive at new environments and with the desires of learning and understanding different attributes of the environment37. My willingness to attempting new ways and acknowledging failure is a way for learning and improving my response to different challenges. I am constantly stimulating myself to attempting new things. One area that I need to improve greatly is my coping abilities or adaptation. As much I am open-minded, I have a problem of coping in new environments that experience extreme weather and climatic conditions. This sometimes makes me develop some sickness before adapting to such environments. Such environments include very high humidity and extremely warm temperature conditions. Bibliography Allen, Franklin, Forrest Capie, Caroline Fohlin, Hideaki Miyajima, Richard Sylla, Geoffrey Wood, and YishayYafeh. "How important historically were financial systems for growth in the UK, US, Germany, and Japan?." University of Pennsylvania Financial institutions center working paper (2010): 10-27. Amis, John, and Michael L. Silk. "Transnational organization and symbolic production: Creating and managing a global brand." Consumption, Markets and Culture 13, no. 2 (2010): 159-179. Asheim, Bjørn T., Bernd Ebersberger, and Sverre J. Herstad. 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