Cross-Cultural Management - Essay Example

Cross-Cultural Management Introduction Thomas Friedman in his book ‘The World Is Flat’ (2005) says that the milestones of civilization such as the invention of the printing press, or the industrial revolution initially affected a small part of the globe and spread through gradually. On the other hand, globalization that started a decade and half ago, is quite different in its quality, the way it reaches almost everybody at a high speed thus effecting the flattening of the world which is taking place too fast and resulting in the potential of disruption. He thus warns of the problems of the flattening world and compares this to the earlier civilization hallmarks when the new power acquired by the west was passed on to the other parts of the world in a smooth gradual manner. In today’s world that has become a flat small village as a result of a number of forces, including the technological advances in IT, telecommunications and travel as the most important one, the world of business is faced with more new problems. “ ......the experiences of the high-tech companies in the last few decades who failed to navigate the rapid changes brought about in their marketplace by these types of forces may be a warning to all the businesses, institutions, and nation-states that are now facing these inevitable, even predictable, changes but lack the leadership, flexibility, and imagination to adapt- not because they are not smart or aware, but because the speed of change is simply overwhelming them” (Friedman, 2005: 46). One of the managerial adaptation problems is cross-cultural management which refers to the management of the behaviours of individuals and organizations across cultures and countries in order to achieve the desirable effective interaction of all the parties involved in a business or a field of business throughout the world (Anonymous, 2003). Already there are hundreds of incidents where misunderstandings and lack of cultural knowledge caused great losses and resulted in hostile attitudes. Indeed: “With the increasing amount of international trade, there is a need to understand the way that other nations operate their businesses. Often, there is also a need to understand more about the other nations themselves. Once there is an understanding of the way business operates in other nations, the benefits and problems of working with them can be understood. As a result decisions can be made regarding whether to work with other nations and whether any special conditions or approaches are required” (Anonymous, 2003) However, cross cultural management is not a simple accumulation of data of the different cultures in the world neither is it achievable by visiting different countries or attaching employees to the international branches. It is rather a new branch of management which has been established by empirical researches (e.g. Elashmani, 1993; Harris & Moran, 1991; Hofstede, 1980; Laurent, 1986; Trompennars, 1993 as cited in Bures & Vloeberghs, 2001). Yet the practice of cross-cultural management needs the application of theoretical findings in actual performance of managers, leaders, executives and even junior staff sometimes. In this paper I am going to investigate cross-cultural training in order to recommend a ‘cross-cultural training needs identification under the following headings: 1. Cross-cultural Knowledge and Skills Required for Effective Performance 2. Traditional Soft Management Training Enhanced by Cross-cultural Needs 3. Identifying Cross-cultural Training Needs 1. Cross-cultural Knowledge and Skills Required for Effective Performance In order for a person to deal with a counterpart in another culture, one needs to have the knowledge and skills of cross-cultural nature that will enable him to read the other person accurately and respond appropriately. The knowledge needed here is the cultural awareness. Scholars believe that this awareness in order to be developed must be based on the awareness of own culture. Indeed, “Cultural awareness becomes central when we have to interact with people from other cultures. People see, interpret and evaluate things in different ways. What is considered an appropriate behaviour in one culture is frequently inappropriate in another one. Misunderstandings arise when I use my meanings to make sense of your reality” (Quappe and Cantatore, 2003). Unfortunately cultural awareness is not the type of knowledge that can be picked up by reading a manual or a reference book. Although cultural behaviours can be very obvious in some instances they are also ‘quite subtle’ sometimes (Schomer, 2000). The concept of cross-cultural knowledge cannot be covered here as the complexity of the topic is beyond the scope of this paper. It is enough to summarize it with the following quote “The human centered view emphasises a vision of cross-cultural networking in which shared communication and shared knowledge drive valorization of diversity and the valorization generates shared communication and shared knowledge” (Gill, 1996). As for skills the ones identified by Schomer (2000) should be sufficient, yet for the purposes of this paper. The list of 10 skills identified by Schomer are meant for managers, though one can see them applicable for other executives including negotiators, marketing officers, seconded supervisors etc. The list includes: self-knowledge, global thinking, cultural curiosity, flexibility, inclusivity, managing diversity, interpersonal communication, motivational leadership, credibility and patience (Schomer, 2000). This list implies that the first step in cross-cultural awareness is to understand your own culture and develop awareness of how this culture affects your behaviours and attitudes. The next skill to develop is to keep yourself aware of the global trends and events and correlate them to your own business or the business of the organization. Other skills are related to making people of diverse backgrounds and cultures interact and work in harmony thus eliminating misunderstandings, conflicts, false expectations etc. 2. Traditional Soft Management Training Enhanced by Cross-cultural Needs Over the last few years there has been a lot of emphasis on soft skills such as interpersonal communication, presentation, negotiation, meeting skills etc. The meaning of skills can be much broader to include customer care, motivation, stress management and enthusiasm in addition to the key skills (i.e. technical professional ones) of each profession (Payne, 1999). This recent emphasis of soft skills is attributed to the increase in the activities of the service sector where sometimes the employee is part of the service provided and also to the changing nature of work (Grugulis & Vincent, 2003). Nevertheless today at the era of globalization 3, according to Friedman, 2005, prioritizing soft skills is not enough. The cross-cultural training needs necessitate that these soft skills training are designed with these needs incorporated in the theoretical input of the training and the practical activities. One important point emphasised here is the expectations of a training course participants on the basis of cultural variations (Weech 2001). These variations are categorized by Weech as: egalitarianism versus hierarchy, individualism versus collectivism, achievement versus relationship orientation, and Loose versus tight structure. In egalitarian culture there is a positive attitude of minimising inequalities as it is the case in North America and Northern European Countries. On the other hand in the hierarchical culture rank and status are emphasised which is common in Asia, Latin America and Middle East countries. When the dimension is individualism versus collectivism trainees or course participants are expected to be either preferring autonomy or working in groups. Weech illustrates this: “Individualist cultures value autonomy and seek self-actualization; collectivist cultures value belonging and seek group harmony. Northern European and English-speaking countries are generally individualist; the United State is the most individualist country in the world. Most Latin, Asian, and African countries are collectivist” (Weech, 2001). Achievement-oriented cultures members approach their goals aggressively with assertiveness, tough attitude and determination to win. Relationship-oriented cultures, however, are compassionate, tender and sympathetic to failure. While North American cultures are achievement oriented, Scandinavian cultures are relationship oriented (Weech, 2001) Loose versus tight structure dimension is sometimes called ‘uncertainty avoidance’. In cultures of loose structure innovation is encouraged and problem solving is open to a number of solutions. Intellectual disagreement is expected and sought as long as it is not personalized. Tight-structure cultures are of course the opposite. “In tight-structure cultures, trainees expect to learn the single best way to solve a problem, and they value accurate answers. Participants prefer precise learning objectives and a clear program structure. Any intellectual disagreement implies that someone must be wrong, so trainees work hard to achieve consensus. Instructors are expected to be experts who freely use the jargon of their field, even if the participants don't fully understand it” (Weech, 2001). Therefore, the traditional soft management courses being considered for participants of cross-cultural differences should be modified and adapted to serve the cross-cultural training needs. However, it is only stating the obvious to say that identifying training needs as accurate as possible is the key to the success of any training. 3. Identifying Cross-cultural Training Needs A training need is normally the gap in skills or knowledge between the actual abilities of the person and the desired performance defined by the employer. However, in the case of cross-cultural training needs the gap will be the knowledge and skills of an individual in dealing with individuals or groups from another culture and the desirable knowledge and skills that he should develop in order to deal with people from another culture effectively. However, there is already a claim that training needs analysis lacks the necessary theoretical support to make it a science rather than an art. “In summary, it is interesting to note that whereas most training researchers believe and espouse that training-needs analysis is the most important phase in training; this phase remains largely an art rather than a science. We need more research that would enable us to develop a systematic methodology to determine the training needs of organizations” (Cannon-Bowers and Salas, 2001). Yet when the training needs to be identified are the cross-cultural management training needs, there are a number of levels for identifying these needs. The global level is where all the cultural differences that may cause conflict or disruption should be identified. Then the cultural needs for two or a small group of countries engaged in an economical, political, social, humanitarian activities. The next smaller level is to identify the cultural training needs at the level of a certain profession or industry. The more specific cultural training needs to be identified are those of an individual who is required to deal with another individual or group in a different culture. This point of levels of training needs is discussed briefly here and could have been elaborated further if not for the scope of this paper. How can we identify cultural training needs at these levels? a- Global level Considering global differences is a recent development in training as it may also be in business in general. In the world of business thinking globally is inevitable today. When cheap labour markets of Asia are being considered by the American organizations, and the globe is explored as a market for a product, minimising the cross-cultural gaps and its consequences is of course a must. “The study of global differences, once the province of social scientists and anthropologists, has made increasing inroads into the business community. According to the 2001 Global Relocation Trends Survey by GMAC Global Relocation Services, National Foreign Trade Council and SHRM Global Forum, 69 percent of the 150 companies that responded offered cultural training for their outbound employees, up 10 percent in one year and almost 50 percent in 20 years” (Lang, 2004). The tools and methods I recommend for identifying the cross-cultural training needs at this level are: (i) Literature review: this is meant to accumulate all the cultural problems that have been noted in the experiences of individuals, organizations, countries up to date. A huge number of incidents and observations have been reported about the communication failures, misunderstandings and the false interpretation of messages or non-verbal messages. In addition, further data may be obtained from the literature of sociology and anthropology. (ii) Questionnaires to the employees of two to three international companies where the sample to complete the questionnaires should be decided by the HRM of different subsidiaries. b- Countries Level At this level one or more pairs of countries should be selected in order to identify the cultural differences that have to be considered for training the individuals ad groups involved in performing their duties in both countries. The tools and methods I recommend for identifying the cross-cultural training needs at this level are: (i) Questionnaires designed to identify the expectations of individuals from both countries when they do business. The questionnaire designer should identify activities and type of business relationship carefully in order to identify as many as possible potential problem areas. (ii) Interviews with department heads to explore the areas that may be a source of problems and misunderstandings. (iii) A review of companies’ literature in both countries to accumulate the previous experiences of misunderstandings and conflicts. c- Industry or Profession Level Certain industries and professions experience cultural problems that may not happen to others involved in different industries or professions. Here it is important to identify these cross-cultural problems in order to consider standard profession-specific training. The tools and methods I recommend for identifying the cross-cultural training needs at this level are: (i) A comprehensive survey of business communication activities typical to the profession or the industry which involve individuals or groups from different cultures. Examples of these are meetings whether they are face-to-face or through telecommunication facilities, telephone calls, letters, faxes etc. (ii) Questionnaires or interviews with experienced employees in dealing with people from other cultures. This is meant to identify the problems from the point of view of employees. d- Individual level The needs identified here are very important for the training designer as he will consider tailoring the practical activities of his training course to the specific needs of participants. The tools and methods I recommend for identifying the cross-cultural training needs at this level are: (i) Preparation of a profile for the individual including his abilities and skills which when compared to the desired skills can give the gap to be bridged by training. This can be done by a number of methods and tools: a- Language and communication skills assessment tests b- Observation questionnaires to be completed by immediate superior c- List of Qualifications and previous training attended d- A questionnaire completed by the individual himself to explore what he thinks are his strengths or weaknesses (ii) A job description analysis; this should not be his standard job description in the records of HR department but one prepared by his manager consider his mission with the people of the other culture. As you may appreciate all this will provide the data for needs analysis which will then be scrutinized by the training specialist in order to prepare a list of cross-cultural training needs and incorporate it in the different soft management skills needed in the profession of the individual. References 1. Anonymous, (2003) – ‘Introduction to Cross-cultural Management’ available at: http://home.skif.net/~todorov/011.htm accessed on 10 March 2007 2. Freidman, Thomas L. (2005) The World Is Flat – A brief history of the twenty-first century – Farrar, Straus and Giroux – New York 3. Bures, Allen L. & Vloeberghs, Daniel (2001) – ‘Cross Cultural Patterns of Internationalization and Human Resource Management Issue’ – CR Vol. 11(2), 2001 4. Quappe, Stephanie & Cantatore, Giovanna (2003) ‘What is Cultural Awareness, anyway? How do I build it?’ – available at: http://www.culturosity.com/articles/whatisculturalawareness.htm accessed on 10 March 2007 5. Schomer, Karine (2000) ‘Ten Key Cross-Cultural Management Skills’ -Siliconindia, January 2000 available at: http://www.cmct.net/articles_ten_key_skills_print.html accessed on 10 March 2007 6. Gill, K. S. (1996) Knowledge networking and social cohesion in the Information Society, a study for the European Commission, July 1996 7. Payne, Joan (1991). Women, Training and the Skills Shortage, London: Policy Studies Institute 8. Grugulis, Irena & Vincent, Steven (2003) ‘Customer service and the changing nature of work: social and technical skills in conflict’ Abstract submitted to ‘A Critical Turn on HRD’ for the Third Critical Management Studies Conference - Contact information: Dr Irena Grugulis, Reader in Employment Studies, School of Management, University of Salford, Greater Manchester M5 4WT e-mail: Irena.Grugulis@salford.ac.uk Tel: 0161-295 5804 9. Weech, William A. "Training Across Cultures: What to Expect." Training & Development 55.1 (Jan 2001): 62. Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale. Toronto Reference Library. 11 Mar. 2007 . 10. Cannon-Bowers, Janis A. and Salas, Eduardo (2001) - The Science Of Training: A Decade of Progress - Annual Review of Psychology - Page Number: 471+ 11. Lang, Gretchen (2004) ‘Cross-cultural training: How much difference does it really make?’ available at: http://www.fsa.ulaval.ca/personnel/VernaG/EH/F/manif/lectures/Cross-cultural%20training.htm accessed on 11 March 2007 Read More