Cross Cultural Communication in Human Resource Management

This essay discusses the importance of cross cultural communication in human resource management and compares different leadership styles in various countries. It also analyzes a case study of Olivier Chalon and the effect of different cultures on leadership.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management: Cross Cultural Communication
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Introduction
Cross cultural communication refers to the type of communication within individuals,
who possess dissimilarities in one or more factors like age, ethnicity, gender, nationality,
language, working style and many more (Bolman and Deal 2017). This kind of
communication even refers to those attempts, which are being made to mediate, negotiate and
exchange the cultural differences in respect to language, body language and gestures. Issues
related to cross cultural communication is majorly faced due to the different leadership styles.
Every country has their own leadership style and it should be maintained effectively (Yukl
2013). This essay will be providing a detailed comparison and contrast between the
leadership styles in the various countries like the United States of America and Europe after
considering the case study of Olivier Chalon in the popular case study of Leading across
Cultures at Michelin. The effect of different cultures getting affected by different leadership
will also be demonstrated here.
Discussion
Analysis and Comparison of Leadership Styles in Various Countries
Each and every country comprises of their unique culture and leadership style. This is
majorly because the people and education system is different in every country (Goleman,
Boyatzis and McKee 2013). There are a wide variety of leadership styles and each individual
region possesses its own idiosyncrasies culturally and naturally it is being reflected within a
method, where the individuals could lead as well as manage any team. Due to such difference
in leadership styles, cross cultural communication takes place in the specific organization.
This cross cultural communication majorly deals with the understanding of communication
strategies, beliefs and business customs (Tannenbaum and Schmidt 2017). The power
distance, lower context versus higher context culture, language differences and non verbal

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differences are the most significant factors, which affect this type of communication. This
cross cultural communication endeavours for bringing together the relatively established
communication areas. As the core cross cultural communication includes understanding the
methods, where culturally distinctive individuals are communicating with one another.
It is also termed as the part of that organization’s human resource management and it
is the responsibility of every organization’s human resource management to manage the
various leadership styles effectively and efficiently (Fairhurst and Connaughton 2014). This
human resource management is eventually designed for the purpose of maximizing the
employee performances within service of the strategic objectives of an employer. It is quite
vital for all the companies, which comprise of diversified work forces and plans to conduct a
globalized business. The technology required for an efficient and effective management
makes it quite simpler for managing any international team (Černe, Jaklič and Škerlavaj
2013). There are some of the most basic and important styles of leadership management that
are eventually followed by these organizations. These different leadership styles in different
countries are given below:
i) Autocratic Leadership: The first and the most important type of leadership style is
the autocratic leadership. It is completely centred on the leader or the boss. Within this
leadership, the respective leader eventually holds each and every responsibility and authority.
They even take decisions on their own without consulting with his subordinates. Moreover,
the autocratic leaders often reach out to decisions, communicate with the subordinates and
even expecting prompt deployment (Tourish 2014). This type of work environment usually
consists of lack of flexibility. Autocratic leadership style is quite popular in European
countries like France and Netherlands. The French managers have the tendency of being
autocratic as well as authoritarian.

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ii) Democratic Leadership: The second popular type of leadership style is the
democratic leadership. Within this particular leadership style, the sub ordinates are majorly
involved to make decisions. This is completely opposite to the democratic leadership style.
Here, the leadership is being centred over the contributions of sub ordinates. Finally, the final
decision is undertaken by the democratic leader; however he or she is known to eventually
delegate major authority to his team members, who are determined to work for projects (Daft
2014). The major and an important characteristic of this type of leadership is that the
communication is bi directional and thus is quite popular for both the leader and his team
members. Democratic leadership style is popular in Norway. Here the employees could enjoy
easier access to the manager, who not provides productivity and policy, but also listens to the
issues that are being raised.
iii) Strategic Leadership: Strategic leadership major includes a leader, who is the
head of that organization. The strategic leader is not restricted to the top managerial level, it
even considers the wider audience at every level for creating higher performance in teams
and organizations (Clarke 2013). The requirement of the new possibilities as well as
requirement of practicality gaps are fulfilled by this leadership style. Japan is quite popular
for its strategic leadership style and thus the work environment is more focused on the
leadership, innovativeness and company expansion. In Japan, this type of leadership is
termed as ringi sho consensus leadership style.
iv) Transformational Leadership: Another important and significant style of
leadership within various countries is transformational leadership. This particular leadership
is quite different from the other leadership styles, where change is being initiated within
companies and teams. The transformational leaders eventually motivate the team members
for doing more than they are originally intended and even more than they thought to be
possible in the country (Aydin, Sarier and Uysal 2013). These transformational leaders set

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more challenging expectations and usually achieve high performance. Moreover, this type of
leadership has the tendency of having more satisfied and committed followers.
Transformational leadership is majorly and effectively being followed in the United States of
America. The Americans eventually tends to follow this type of leadership style and thus the
team members get empowerment from their leaders.
v) Cross Cultural Leadership: Cross cultural leadership is yet another popular and
important style of leadership. This particular leadership style usually exists in which there are
several different cultures within the society. The cross cultural leadership has even
industrialized as the method for recognizing front runners, who are working within the
contemporary globalized market (Du et al. 2013). The organizations need leaders, who could
efficiently adjust to the leadership towards work within different environments. This type of
leadership is popular in the United States of America since various individuals from different
cultures reside there.
vi) Transactional Leadership: The next distinctive type of leadership style is the
transactional leadership. This type of leadership, which effectively maintains as well as
continues the status quo (Clarke 2013). This type of leadership includes an exchange process,
in which the followers are getting tangible and immediate rewards to carry out the orders of
his leaders. Transactional leadership is popular in China and other Asian countries.
Analysis of Olivier Chalon Case Study with Hofstede Framework
Olivier Chalon, being a French by birth consists of autocratic leadership. He does not
communicate with his sub ordinates very often and taken decisions without consulting them.
He is an excellent leader and has worked for several years in various European countries. He
had never faced any issue; until he went to the United States of America, for joining
Michelin. USA employees are not comfortable with autocratic leadership and they have

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always been a part of cross cultural and transformational leaderships. Although, the
transformational leaders set high challenging tasks for getting better performance, they
consist of friendly gesture and hence the team members are comfortable while working with
them.
When any expatriate is working in some country, it is the responsibility of that
particular organization to create a friendly environment for him or her, so that he or she does
not come across any cross cultural communication issue (Giltinane 2013). According to the
framework of Hofstede cultural dimensions theory, six specific dimensions are being
considered while analysing cases like Chalon. The power and inequality is being perceived
from the low level. The high degree of this index indicates that the hierarchy is established as
well as executed clearly in society. The low degree of index denotes that the people are
questioning authority and attempting in distributing power. Thus, these six dimensions of
Hofstede framework, clearly define that due to the difference in leadership styles, Chalon has
undergone such issues.
Conclusion
Therefore, from this discussion, it is concluded that there are several approaches to
deal with cross cultural differences in the countries. These types of issues majorly arise due to
the involvement of various types of leadership styles in several countries. The most popular
or distinctive leadership styles that are being adopted by the world are autocratic leadership,
democratic leadership, transformational leadership, cross cultural leadership, Laissez faire
leadership and many more. Each country in the world has acquired each of these leadership
styles and thus this is the cause of cross cultural communication in the world. These types of
leadership styles are also considered to be quite effective and efficient for any organization
for dealing with all types of complexities effectively. However, issues also can occur for
different leadership styles. Olivier Chalon is a French, who has experiences in various types

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of leadership styles across the world. However, when he went to America, he found out that
his sub ordinates were not happy with his leadership style. The above essay has clearly
analysed and compared the various types of leadership styles in several countries and how
Olivier Chalon has faced when went to Australia in respect to Hofstede framework.

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