Importance of Cross-Cultural Communication in International Business

The article discusses the importance of cross-cultural communication in the international business and the need to understand the culture and language of the country where the business is expanding.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
International Human Resource Management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Assessment 1:.............................................................................................................................2
Assignment 2:.............................................................................................................................5
Assignment 3:.............................................................................................................................9
Assignment 4:.............................................................................................................................9
References:...............................................................................................................................13

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Assessment 1:
1.
Labour productivity represents the amount of output that each employee produces
depending on their talent, time and energy. In this context, work culture of Google can be
described, as the company has increased its labour productivity by providing various facilities
to their employees for simplifying their unnecessary parts of life. Google has its offices all
over the world though for some particular offices, such as, USA, South America, Asia and
Europe, the work culture can be seen as more attractive compare to others. The headquarters
of Google is situated in Mountain View, California in the United States (Google.org. 2018).
The office perks provide almost everything that can influence workers to work positively and
verities of food are one of them. Google has different types of restaurants that provide
different foods, such as, ethnic foods of Asia and South America. Moreover, the company has
18 cafes that serve three time meals, which are, breakfast, lunch and dinner without charging
any price. In Cafe 150, Google serves locally grown organic foods. The company also
provides four gyms that are completely loaded. Free gyms with personal trainers have helped
the company to make healthier and happier employees. In addition to this, Google provides
sleeping pods, where employees can take nap with some relaxing music. California office
also provides free medical facilities to their employees for taking care of employees’ health.
Some other facilities like on-site Laundromats to clear cloths of employees and free car
service for errands have also influenced employees to work in Google with positive energy.
In China, Google provides facility to its customers for taking nap so that they can reduce their
stress and can work for long works with positive energy. Moreover, friendly and comfortable
environment for the meeting can help employees to take decisions more accurately within
short time. In addition to this, ten micro-kitchens with indoor game equipment help people to
reduce their stress of work. Google also creates a positive environment for their workers in

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Switzerland, where almost 400 employees work together happily. For this, the company takes
help from a psychologist to understand the gratification that can help Googlers to work more
efficiently and fast. As a result, Google makes houses containing exotic fish in an aquarium
for making the employee’s mind calm. To change the working environment and scenario, the
company also creates the Victorian library, where employees can feel that they are out of
office premises during their coffee break (Oswald, Proto and Sgroi 2015). Furthermore, the
office in Switzerland also provides pods with different shapes, where employees can spend
their privacy. For fun-loving employees, the Google building has the slid with the help of
which employees can go from one floor to other.
Thus, after discussing office structure of Google in different countries, it can be said
that Google chiefly focuses on the enjoyment, relaxation including food and health of
employees to motivate them positively and this in turn help them to work more efficiently.
2.
Zappos has created a positive corporate culture that has attracted employees to work
with them. The company always analyse about the corporate culture and continuously
reinforce and assist this through its management and Human Resources work systems
(Zappos.com. 2018). This corporate culture has ten chief values that the HR and management
systems always try to develop. Moreover, the hiring process of this company along with job
description to employees, day-to-day work environment and on-the-job training reinforce and
remind these values with the company’s visitors, employees, partners and customers. These
values of Zappos are to bring excellent work through service, make fun with a little
weirdness, hold and lead change and to pursue learning along with growth. In addition this,
making an honest and open relationship with employees through communicating with
creative, adventurous and open-minded attitude, making positive team based on the family

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spirit with humbleness, determination and passion has helped this company to achieve an
effective work culture.
This corporate work culture can influence any other company. For doing this, HR of
other company needs to take initiatives for implementing similar values to her own company.
To execute this, the HR needs to make team for providing training to their employees related
to each core value (Fauver, McDonald and Taboada 2018). Thus, every employee needs to
hear some messages to learn values and behaviour related to everyday work. Moreover, the
hiring process needs to be attractive rather than the process of traditional recruitment. For
instance, to make any deal with any team, the company can arrange a meeting with the party
outside the office to attract them for working with the company. However, to hire an
employee, the company cannot follow this step. In this context, the applicant can meet with
other employees before joining the company through attending some department or company
event to understand about the work culture of this company. This can help applicants to know
about the company and this in turn can attract those applicants to work over there. Moreover,
the company focuses on cultural fit during the process of hiring. To recruit a potential
employee, this interview process can take an important role, as failure of this interview can
reject the employee. In addition to this, the interviewer can set some questions related to
behaviour that can help a candidate to resemblance with every chief values of the company.
In addition to this, the HR can provide feedback about applicants to select candidates based
on the opinion of interviewers and vote of other employees. Through understanding about the
capabilities and building skills, the company can hire candidates so that they can adopt
corporate culture properly. In addition to this, HR support needs to be important when
managers hire or fire employees. Managers also need to do cultural assessments instead of
performance evaluations and consequently can provide feedback contribution within the
culture for improving the activity (Dale 2014). Moreover, the company can provide cultural

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books to their employees each year. This book needs to mention about the working culture of
the company to develop and reinforce it every day. Hence, the chief motive of the HR is to
implement work initiatives effectively so that employees can work effectively.
Assignment 2:
Culture of U.A.E :
In the U.A.E, cultural diversity can be observed. Initially, tribal community lived in
this UAE, though the nationality was started to change after the arrival of people with
different nationlities, such as Iranians, Indians and Pakistanis. Consequently, Islamic,
Arabian and Persian cultures have influenced music, architecture, cuisine, attire and lifestyle
of the U.A.E, prominently (Kassem, Ajmal and Khan 2017). Most of the Emirati people
prefer to wear traditional Emirati clothes, for instance, men wear woollen or cotton shirts
along with kandura while women wear burkha. Etiquette is a vital part of UAE tradition and
culture, which visitors can be shown.
School curriculum available for the kids:
The UAE follows various international curriculums in schools, such as, the American,
the British, the French and the Australian curriculum.
Background of school:
In Abu Dhabi, various public and international schools can be observed. These
schools offer quality education to their students. These schools receive huge investment and
consequently, these are expanding rapidly. This further changes educational system towards a
new and developed direction (Al-Qirim et al. 2018). In addition to this, Arabian Emiratis
control local schools. The demand for popular schools is very high. Hence, it is important to
negotiate school fees with the expat package that the employer is offering to her.

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Employment visa
To work in Abu Dhabi, a person needs to get a UAE residence visa that the employer
of company sponsors to their employees. According to this visa, a person can live and work
anywhere in U.A.E. Moreover, the person can work in various emirates. The validity of this
visa is for two years though to work in some free zones or the public sector, the validity of
visa becomes three years (Damir-Geilsdorf and Pelican 2018). A person with a residence visa
and a minimum salary of Dhs 4000 per month along with accommodation allowance can
sponsor her family member including husband and children to stay with her as long as she is
there. The application process for residence visa is same as an employment visa.
Religion
The chief religion of the UAE is Islam. Most of the people are member of the Sunni
sect. The Islamic law controls various religious matters like marriage, divorce, economics,
inheritance and politics and so on (Al-Alfi 2017). However, the government adopts a
tolerance policy towards other religions by interfering less in other religions. Except for
Islam, other religions, such as, Christianity, Hindu, Buddhists and others can be observed
over there.
Language
The national language of the UAE is Arabic. As, the British ruled these emirates until
1971, English becomes the chief language to communicate with people, who do not know
Arabic or come from foreign countries (Piller 2017).
Food
In Abu Dhabi, various local cuisines coming from the Middle Eastern cooking
traditions can be found. These spicy and flavourful dishes are harees, machboos, salona,
madrooba and luqaimat. Harees is referred to as a traditional dish made by wheat, salt and
chicken (Limchoowong et al. 2017). During Ramadan and wedding, people of Emirates use

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this food. Machboos is made with rice and meat. Madrooba is fresh seafood made with
various types of fishes. On the other side, luqaimat is a sweet dish that people even take it in
their breakfast.
Transportation
The Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport (DMAT) offers residents and
tourists of Abu Dhabi safe and modern transport facilities. The Abu Dhabi emirates have
various types of taxi services like the silver taxi and the pink taxis along with bus and car (Al-
Ruzouq, Hamad and Shanableh 2017). Moreover, flights are available from Abu Dhabi
International Airport.
Places to visit
Some well-known places to visit in Abu Dhabi are Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi
Corniche, Ferrari World, Al Ain Zoo, Arabian Wildlife Park and Marina Eye and so on.
Do’s and don’ts
Do’s:
 People can travel alone, as it is safe and normal
 eat street foods, which are delicious and hygienic
 Visit mosques to know about the culture and local religion
 People in UAE love to greet when they meet with each other. To greet someone, a
person can talk in either English or Arabic language
Don’t:
 Avoid public display regarding affection with a partner to show respect to the local
culture
 Do not drink alcohol too much in public place for the social and legal purpose
 Try to avoid a handshake with the opposite gender at the time of meeting
 Avoid to wear short dresses

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Driving license
To make a driving license in the UAE, a person needs to open a driving file with the
Emirates Driving Company. This file will allow the person to register for a course in driving
theory. For this, the person needs to bring her passport along with Emirates ID, visa page and
two passport size photos (Mokdad et al. 2018). The only well-known driving school in Abu
Dhabi is the EDC, located in the Musaffah Industrial Area.
Places to live
People can live in flats or villas in some local residential areas, which are Al Khalidiya, Golf
gardens, Al Reef, Al karamah and mangrove Village and so on.
safety/security
The crime rate in the UAE, especially in Abu Dhabi, is very low. This is one of the
chief reasons to attract tourists across the world. The UAE has many strict rules. Moreover,
the UAE has anti-discrimination laws for its open and multicultural society. This law helps to
reduce the discrimination related to ethnicity, race, nationality and religion.
Political environment
The UAE follows federal government structure that has seven bases, which are, the
president, the Supreme Council, the Federal National Council, the cabinet and the
independent judiciary along with a federal supreme court.
Initiative from the government supporting music:
The Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foudations (ADMAF) is established as a non-
government organisation for classical music, education, arts and culture. The government
also supports music.

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Assignment 3:
1. As per the International HR strategies, it can be seen that Chrysler and Mazda has
taken starkly different approach to deal with the bankruptcy. As the method of saving the
firm, Mazda has chosen the wage deduction and a loss of bonuses for the consecutive four
years depicting that Mazda management has considered the compensation and benefits
techniques in order to deal with the crisis (Heller and Fujimoto 2017). On the other hand, it
can be seen that, with firing of the employees, Chrysler tried to reduce the workforce while
retaining the managers and reducing the numbers of the blue-collar workers. Both the HR
policies used by the said organisation are proven effective; however, they have showcased
difference in their choice of strategy.
2. One of the main sources of the difference, it can be seen that Japan and America
have different culture and working condition. Japan has low number of workforce compared
to the American market and the price of the goods and services are high as well. Under this
situation, reducing the number of labours will increase the unemployment status in the market
and poor image of the firm in front of the world market (McKevitt 2017). On the other hand,
the American market has good amount of labour force and they act as human capital that
allows the firms to reduce the workforce while keeping the unemployment level unaltered.
Thus, the \Japanese and American market has displayed different HR policies in the market
and has effectively safeguarded the respective firms from the bankruptcy.
Assignment 4:
Etisalat is a world famous telecom group whose headquarter is located in Abu Dhabi
and the first service provider in the country. It has a customer base of around 167 million and
also ranks 14th in terms of mobile network operator. The telecommunication operator Etisalat
will stop its operations due to the scandal of the telecom industry in India. The management
of human resource plays a key role in kind of company. The most important work of the

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human resource management is recruiting and selecting employees. Increasing the skills of
the employees and motivating them to perform well are the prime role and responsibility of
the management of the human resource(Samontaray and Al-Aali 2016). One of the main
reasons for outsourcing of Etisalat is that it will give the company such choices of technology
without worrying about the expenditure.
The management of the human resource performs many functions in the company. Its
task is increasing the performance of the employees to the highest level. When customer
services are outsourced, it saves a lot of money. Outsourcing the customer service in Egypt,
Etisalat will save a lot of money(Letica 2016). When certain organizations invest their
functions of business to the external vendors it is known as the outsourcing where the most
important benefit is the cost savings. Another important function of the human resource
management is providing such working conditions for the employees which will make them
motivated to do work. As workers are the prime assets of any organization, therefore it is the
main duty of the human resource management to check the workers and the organization
maintains a good relation. Etisalat has closed down its operations at the joint venture of India
and had signed an outsourcing deal of US$2 billion that will help the company in saving cost.
The third function of human resource unction is educating employees and increasing the
knowledge of them. Therefore, it can be said that one of the key roles of the department of
human resource is to train the workers according to the requirements of the organizations or
the employers. According to the chief information officer of Etisalat, it had mainly
outsourced the IT infrastructure in Egypt. The low-cost advantage is also one of the key
factors in outsourcing. As a result of outsourcing, there is also a possibility of getting
enhanced expertise. The management of a company, which deals with recruitment and
providing guidelines to the workers, is referred to human resource management. The
management of the human resource also deals in providing compensation to the employees.

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Some of the managerial functions of the human resource include is to develop the structure of
the company. The HRM function is also to plan the policies of the organization along with
deciding the recruitment process. It also plays a major role in helping the employees to
achieve the goals made by the organizations (Letica 2016). The manager of the company also
needs to look after the satisfaction of the workers working in the company. Another crucial
role of the HR manager is look after the policies related to the working hours, allowances of
tax, minimum wage laws or the working conditions of the employees along with providing
compensations to the workers. The bee benefits of the HR of Etisalat includes competitive
cost and skills in Egypt. As price competitiveness plays a big role in the customer service
outsourcing, the cost of the business process outsourcing is quite low compared to the other
countries. The company will also enjoy cost benefit in Egypt. There is also a presence of
geographical benefit in away that most of the telecommunication cables are passed along the
cost of Egypt. In this way, it shows that the cost of doing business in Egypt is quite
favourable. Outsourcing will make them more competitive in global markets. One of the key
benefits of outsourcing the customer service in Egypt by Etisalat is that there is a huge
presence of large amount of cheap skilled labour in the market( Lutilsky, Dragija, and
Krnjic 2015)..The recruitment process can also be minimized to great extent. Outsourcing is a
kind of strategy in business that moves some of the functions of the organizations
responsibility to outside providers. Another benefit of outsourcing in Europe is that
infrastructure investments are cheap comparatively. Some of the systems of IT, helpdesks
which are technical require huge capital investments. Therefore, when these are outsourced to
the less developing countries their costs can be reduced. By outsourcing customer service
new technologies can also be used for increasing productivity at a much lower cost.
Etisalat has very recently outsourced the operations of customer service in Egypt. The
outsourcing has lots of benefits in a way that there is a presence of cost savings. The

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telecommunication operator Etisalat outsourced in Egypt to cut down costs so there is an
increase in profits( Samontaray and Al-Aali 2016). In order to reduce the cost of operations,
it has therefore benefitted by outsourcing in Egypt. Therefore, it can be concluded by saying
that Etisalat while outsourcing in Egypt will gain huge profits.

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