Cross Cultural Management - Essay Example

Running Head: Cross-Cultural Management Cross-Cultural Management [Institute’s Cross-Cultural Management Establishing a retailoutlet in Singapore implies that the expatriates need to be aware of the external and cultural forces that influence business management and the labor market of Singapore. The following paper will highlight all such forces, which may guide expatriates towards an effective cross-cultural management away from Australia. The shortage of skilled labor in the country due to an ever-increasing demand for industry and service has lead to the labor in Singapore to demand higher wages as well as better working conditions including those that allow labor to grow and develop their work related skills (Kusluvan, 2011).

The expatriates will need to adjust to this need of the host country workers and provide them with an appropriate work related environment to help them grow. This means of handling human resource is going to be different from that of handling the labor force of Australia, which did not have such a requirement. The HR manager must therefore consider this requirement. “Singapore also has a different set of minimum work wages, working conditions and work hours. According to the Singapore law, workers are not required to work for more than 9 hours (44 hours per week), unless there is a genuine emergency” (Kusluvan, 2011).

Moreover, overtime for more than 72 hours is not allowed. There also needs to be at least one rest day for the employees, which may or may not be that of Sunday. Note that compared to Australia, which has not more than 38 work hours, this is a better average but this also implies that the expatriates would need to be trained to work for more than the usual amount of time they normally work in Australia. Other rules and regulations make it a binding for the employer to pay overtime rates, which are going to be 1.

5 times the usual rate (Kusluvan, 2011). This must be another added clause to the contract with the Singaporean clients, which normally is not a common practice in Australia. In addition to this, the cross-cultural management team must also bear in mind that strict rules and regulations form an essential part of the business practice in Singapore. The notion of collectivism as opposed to individualism (Kusluvan, 2011) along with a strict hierarchy and chain of command practiced at work implies that the expatriates from Australia must receive training to adjust to this work environment of Singapore.

This may be in a sharp contrast to the notion of individualism and the non-hierarchical culture of Australia (Kusluvan, 2011). All of this implies that a boss or the head usually is given a higher regard in Singapore than perhaps in Australia. In a number of cases, decisions of the boss often do not confront any questions or arguments. Thus, the expatriates need to receive training to ensure that their subordinates repetitively receive inquiries about their personal opinions to any decision made for the company.

The need to obtain consensus may also be very important in order to ensure subordinates motivation to work for the organization. At the same time, one should not forget that in Singapore, the notion of obtaining and giving feedbacks might not be as straight forward as it happens to be in the case of Australia. The expatriates may receive training to use more non-verbal communication, for instance, facial expression to give as well as to receive feedbacks, a practice not very common in Australia.

Actions like reprimanding or sarcasm at work may not be treated as lightly as they would have been treated in Australia. Not only this, but there also needs to be a formalized cross cultural training for both the expatriates as well as the newly hired Singaporeans in order to avoid any form of a cultural shock or ethnocentrism from either sides. This cross-cultural training would also enable the expatriates to gain a broader knowledge of the group dynamics of Singapore, thereby making working together easier for both the parties.

In addition to this, cross-cultural managers should also take into consideration the risk adverse attitude commonly held in Singapore that leads to a low to medium level of tolerance for change and innovation (Pan and Zhang, 2004). Thus, any attempt by the company managers to bring about changes in for instance supply chain management may not be highly welcomed by the Singaporean labor force. As mentioned above, Singaporeans are collectivists, and prefer to work together as a group rather than working individually (Ballow, 2004).

This need may imply that the cross-cultural management should possibly allocate and assign work teams at the new branch opening at Singapore to ensure a higher quality work and the comfort of the newly hired Singaporean employees. However, it should come under notice that the risk-averse attitude of the Singaporeans make them more likely to conform to traditional ideas and regulations as opposed to new ones. In a number of cases, the fact that most of them conform to group related ideas often leads to groupthink, where the group refuses to looks for a different creative set of solution because they fear that the group will disagree, which may disrupt its cohesiveness and unity.

Thus, cross-cultural management must bear into account this tendency of confirming which is very often present in Singaporeans and should change work practices accordingly. For instance by ensuring that there are strict guidelines mentioned on the forefront about the need to be innovative and about the potential harms of groupthink (Sosik & Dong, 2002). References Ballow, D. G. (2004). Globalization and Cross-Cultural Issues in Project Management. Springer. Kusluvan S. (2011). Industry the Human Dimension.

Wiley & Sons. Pan F. K., Zhang, Z. (2004). “Cross-cultural challenges when doing business in China.” Singapore Management Review. Volume 26, Issue 1. Sosik, J., and Dong, J. (2002). "Work-group characteristics and performance in collectivistic and individualistic cultures." The Journal of Social Psychology. Washington, pp 5-23.