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Cross Culture Management

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Introduction

The existence of different cultures in a business influences a great deal in the

management sector. The styles and approaches one uses to manage a company with employees

from one region or culture is completely different with the approach a manager of a company

consisting of employees from different cultures. A lot of cross cultural management theories,

international theories, business theories and international human resources theories have been

made to this effect. These is to ensure that Companies with a cross culture are managed in the

right ways and all employees are fairly treated.

Different countries have come up with their own styles of leadership to make sure that

all employees are equally treated regardless of their cultural affiliations. These theories have

also assisted various businesses in their processes of expansion. For instance, in a situation

where all employees are equally treated and no one is there to oversee what they are doing all

the time, employees tend to be very innovative and creative making the business grow.

Question One: How national cultural differences might influence the management

of people at its foreign subsidiaries

How national cultural differences have influenced management of people in

Germany

Germany consists of people from various cultures and this has greatly influenced the

management styles in various companies (Nahavandi, 2016, pg. 57). G-Tec h has a total of

51% stake of the G-Tech in Germany. It has several employees both in Germany and other
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countries including India, Russia, Brazil and UK foreign nationals. The existence of these

employees from different cultures has greatly influenced the way G-Tech manages itself.

The company has come up with various strategies of governing these people. These

styles has enhances G-Tech to have a strong organizational culture and a workforce with high

cultural and gender diversity. In this company authority is given depending on the expertise and

in many instances high status is given to the engineers especially those who joined the

company the apprentice system. This style of earning authority and status has a heathy

competition in the company whereby every employee struggles to gain all the experience and

expertise in his line of duty in order to earn the authority (Thomas. and Peterson, 2017,

pg.399).

The G-Tech company has also come up some leadership styles which be used to

adequately govern the business regardless of the existence of different cultures. Leadership

styles are based on the democratic cultural values and the managers must possess all the

required competence to govern the company. In this style of leadership, employee participation,

motivating them, orienting new employees to the team and delegation of duties are some of the

highly valued values (Tata and Prasad 2015, pg. 289). As a result of this working employer

and the employee atmosphere, the relationship can be best described as harmonious, advice-

giving and productive.

How national cultural differences have influenced management of people in

Florida

The headquarters of the G-Tech MNC is in Florida in which G-Tech has engaged in

strategy, development and sales activities especially in the information technology area s. The
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IT areas have employed more than two thousand employees in which more 250 of these

employees come from India. These have made these companies to come up with a number of

strategies to manage their companies effectively. These strategies have not always worked to

the fullest as they have always encountered various challenges. However, the strategies have

also come with some advantages to these companies which has always kept them growing

despite the flouts they have been facing.

Florida has always used distributed leadership as a strategy to empower its workforce.

This is to ensure that employees work freely without feeling that they being monitored by any

particular individual. Despite the numerous challenges this strategy has always faced, the

policy has played a major role in the growth of various companies since it has led to any

innovations by the employees (Luo, 2016, Pg.39). The strategy was brought in to cover to the

cross cultural existence in the businesses since the Indians would feel discriminated being led

by non-Indians.

The strategy used in Florida has led to the G-Tech there being referred to as ‘flat

Company’. This is because of the existence of less number of managers in the middle and only

a few upper leaders who can be easily accessed by the employees at any time. The existence of

this short hierarchy has given the employees the freedom to openly make inquiries regarding

their working environment and also express their ideas to the company’s top management.

In Florida this strategy has been use to earn fearless office culture hereby employees are

always willing to take risks since they are not afraid of the repercussions resulting from the

management. In these companies every individual is identified his big or small initiatives and

any mistakes committed are often used as opportunities to learn and no one is sacrificed for
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them (Nguyen et.al 2015, pg. 61). The managers often insist on moving forward by looking to

it that there is open communication and holding meetings regularly where issues are discussed

and employs can air out their views regarding management.

How national cultural differences have influenced management of people in India

Indian companies have also had employees from different parts of the world with

different cultures especially after liberalization in 1991. The presence of these employees with

cross culture has also made the management of different businesses quite a challenge. The G-

Tech company for instance had a stake of 70% in India while the remaining 30% was owned by

the state. The company was committed to both manufacturing and developmental activities in

the information technology area.

The style of leadership used by the G-Tech in India was completely different from the

leadership approach that was used in other areas like Europe and other parts in the western

world. Whereas in other parts the managers were exempted from the workforce and was fully

committed to the managerial duties; in India, the manager was also expected to participate in

working just like other workers (Chhokar et.al 2013, pg. 34). This means that holding a

leadership position meant having more responsibilities hence someone with a lot of hard work

was often picked for the position.

In India, the strategy used was meant to keep leaders close to their subordinates hence

all the issues which were likely to arise were first gotten by the leaders themselves straight in

the ground. In this strategy the leader is considered more than just an authority but should also

possess some benevolence where their subordinates can seek refuge whenever they feel like

they are overwhelmed by any issue.

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Question Two: How can managers overcome barriers to effective communication

in multicultural forms

How G-Tech managers overcame barriers to effective communications in

multicultural forms in Germany, Florida and India

The style g-tech used in holding successful business negotiations and intercultural

communication in Germany is different from the style used in Florida and India. First, in

Germany they considered first impression carried a lot of cultural significance. According to

them the dress code was very essential as parties present in the negotiation must feel

comfortable with the environment throughout the communication process. Secondly, they

highly valued protocols and any meeting was supposed to start with the introduction of all the

leaders from both parties. In addition, the Germans knew the essence of separating their private

lives from the business world and at no time would any member ask anyone a personal question

during a negotiation (Stahl and Tung, 2015, pg. 401).

The negotiation and communication of g-tech in Florida was American where every

member was very competitive as every member was supposed to be up to date of the agendas

of the meeting before turning up in the meeting (Neal, 2016, pg. 83). The strategy used to

counter barriers of effective communication in multicultural forms included the mangers being

given short assignments of travelling overseas and learning cultures of the party they were

expecting to seat in a negotiation table with. This as to make them prepared on how to behave

and approach them during the communication process. The g-tech also came up with

multicultural taskforce which was meant to lessen communication barriers.

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The intercultural communication that existed in India was a bit complex compared to

other parts of the world. The g-tech in India considered communication and negotiation with

non-Indians as personal affair and one was required to establish a personal relationship. This

was meant to make sure that a business negation atmosphere was very friendly however formal

the meeting is. According to the Indian managers, facts were less important compared to the

feelings in a meeting. To them, they preferred getting out of the table having established a

relationship than winning a negotiation (Jain, 2015 Pg.127).

Basing on the strategies applied by the g-tech in various countries above, managers can

apply various strategies to condense the barriers that often exist to effective communication in a

multicultural form. One can use the strategy used in Florida where one visits and learn the

culture of the other party before communicating with him. The German strategy of nailing it in

the first contact can also be very effective and providing a comfortable atmosphere during the

communication (Reiche, et.al 2016, pg. 46). For negotiations which are more likely to last

longer, using the Indian strategy would be more appropriate where establishing a personal

relationship is very significant.

Conclusion

Management in businesses with a cross culture is quite challenging since one has to be

conversant the different cultures in order to manage them effectively. The leadership in

companies with these various cultures as the leaders has had to apply different strategies and

styles in order to manage them adequately. Effective communication is also hard to achieve

companies with multicultural forms. This has also forced the managers apply various strategies

such as the ones used by g-tech in different parts of the world.

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References

Chhokar, J.S., Brodbeck, F.C. and House, R.J. eds., 2013. Culture and leadership across the

world: The GLOBE book of in-depth studies of 25 societies. Routledge. pp. 18-37

Jain, A.K., 2015. Volunteerism and organisational culture: Relationship to organizational

commitment and citizenship behaviors in India. Cross Cultural Management, 22(1),

pp.116-144.

Luo, Y., 2016. Toward a reverse adaptation view in cross-cultural management. Cross Cultural

& Strategic Management, 23(1), pp.29-41.

Nahavandi, A., 2016. The Art and Science of Leadership -Global Edition. Pearson. pp. 54-65

Neal, M., 2016. The culture factor: Cross-national management and the foreign venture.

Springer, pp. 77-89

Nguyen, L.D., Kass, D., Mujtaba, B.G. and Tran, Q.H., 2015. Cross culture management: An

examination on task, relationship and work overload stress orientations of German and

Japanese working adults. American International Journal of Social Science, 4(1), pp.51-

63.

Reiche, B.S., Mendenhall, M.E. and Stahl, G.K. eds., 2016. Readings and cases in

international human resource management. Taylor & Francis. pp 45-57

Stahl, G.K. and Tung, R.L., 2015. Towards a more balanced treatment of culture in

international business studies: The need for positive cross-cultural scholarship. Journal

of International Business Studies, 46(4), pp.391-414.

Tata, J. and Prasad, S., 2015. National cultural values, sustainability beliefs, and organizational

initiatives. Cross Cultural Management, 22(2), pp.278-296.

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Thomas, D.C. and Peterson, M.F., 2017. Cross-cultural management: Essential concepts. Sage

Publications. pp. 389-410

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