Cross Cultural Management: Case Study of Tanzania

This report discusses the problems faced by Hydro Generation in Tanzania due to cross cultural issues and the role of Brett Jones. It includes a podcast and personal reflection.

CROSS CULTURAL
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PODCAST AND SCRIPT...............................................................................................................1
REFLECTIVE REPORT ................................................................................................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Cross Cultural management is an imperative activity that is related towards appropriate
planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling the individuals belonging to different
cultures in order to appropriately and effectively achieve organisational objectives in various
different countries effectively (Tran, 2016). Hence, in this relation, the report below is based on
the case study of Tanzania, where Hydro Generation is a company that has been working
towards a dam project. The report would be upon the problems that the firm is facing due to
Brett Jones, who was the project liaison specialist that was responsible for a range of operations
and a linkage between the individuals of the firm and the local people. For this purpose, the
assignment would be including a podcast, as well as a personal reflection in an appropriate
manner.
PODCAST AND SCRIPT
As per the case study, it was realised that there were several problems that were
associated with the management of Brett Jones that are causing several issues to the senior
managers and individuals of the company. Two of these particular problems are Nepotism, as
well as Harmful Communal Practices that are hampering the project, as well as mindset of
individuals working within the firm (Stahl and et. al., 2017).
Hence, Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions is one framework that is being implemented
within this case. This model has several cultural dimensions that reflect the differences between
cultures and which could be used as key essentials to solve the problems within the company.
Hence, as for the case of Hydro Generation, this framework is applied below: Individualism vs. Collectivism: It contains the extent up to which the societies are
appropriately integrated into several groups and have dependency towards the same.
Tanzania seems to have several collective communities, which could give rise to the
problem of Nepotism, whereas the US based employees have a highly individualistic
society. Hence, in this context, it is necessary for Brett Jones to ensure that
individualistic approach is to be adopted in hiring individuals on the basis of talent which
would be beneficial for the company (Pudelko, Tenzer and Harzing, 2015).
 Indulgence vs. Restraint: Within this dimension, the extent of a society towards
fulfilment of its desires is measured. The communal groups within Tanzania have
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indulgent society which contributes their practices related to animal cruelty and slaughter.
Whereas, individuals within HG follows restraint cultures where it regulates through
certain social norms. In order to enhance the performance, Brett Jones is required to work
in a restrained manner so that appropriate control could be exercised within the firm and
better output could be generated from its operations (Mahadevan, 2017).
REFLECTIVE REPORT
Working with this case study has been an effective experience for me in relation to
enhancing my knowledge with respect to cross cultural management. Moreover, it also allowed
me to work with several individuals that was very contributing and productive in context of
acquiring several meaningful insights and information about the case and cross cultural
management.
During the podcast, there were several arguments that were presented as per the case
study. For instance, one particular argument which was presented as an issue was that the biggest
problem which the company was having in Tanzania were due to the Nepotism that was
promoted by Brett Jones. The reason for this is because it was against the norms and ethics
which were imposed on the company by the US governments. In addition to this, another
appropriate argument that is related to the podcast was that the management within Tanzania was
not as per the ethical and social norms as it should have been at the first place. This was because
there are several inappropriate practices that were being undertaken by the communities of which
Brett Jones was part of. These practices in the name of religion required him to sacrifice several
animals in order to appease the spirits. Both these arguments were quite severe and important to
be considered in order to determine all the problems associated with the case study.
In order to support these arguments, there were several sources that were used. For
instance, examples from the case study were given in context of elaborating the argument and
enhancing an understanding of the same. In addition to this, appropriate and effective references
has also been used within the podcast to deliver a rationale of making the argument and
supporting the same.
With regards to the case study, there have been application of a model related to the
national culture of countries, which allowed me to provide an insight within the different
dimensions that are related to cultures of different countries. These dimensions were provided by
Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions which is a framework that is related towards identifying the
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differences between different cultures that could be used in context of cross cultural
management. Therefore, the same was applied towards the argument in order to determine the
impact and influence which these dimensions have on the current management of the company,
along with presenting prominent solutions within the same. There were two appropriate
dimensions that were presented towards the argument, which was individualism vs. collectivism,
along with indulgence vs. restraint. All these dimensions were applied towards the problems in
order to find out an appropriate manner to deal with these effectively.
Within the overall group task, there were several positive, as well as negative things that
were associated with the group task (Demuijnck, 2015). As for positive, one of the most
appropriate and effective aspect related to the same is that the team formation was at par with the
requirements of the group projects. All the roles were appropriately and effectively segregated,
which was according to the skills and expertise, that contributed effectively towards
effectiveness of the project. Moreover, another positive aspect that was related to the same is that
proper coordination and communication was established amongst each of the team members
which allowed the task to be competed within the stipulated time frame. In relation to the case
study, one appropriate element that was in place was related to the information about all the
management practices that was applied by Brett Jones and what all challenges it presented to the
current employees working with the company. Moreover, the information that was gathered by
the team members also appropriately and effectively provided a deep insight onto the current
cultural differences between the two countries and how the same has been providing challenges
to the US workforce of the company.
However, in relation to the ineffective aspects, one of the same was related to
inappropriate research of the overall case study. Throughout acquisition of knowledge related to
the subject matter, there were times where I faced certain challenges in relation to finding out the
authenticated and relevant sources which could be used by me to ensure the relevance of this
task. However, due to this limitation, I failed to procure appropriate information before, which
contributed towards more time to complete the project. Another negative aspect that I
experienced while working on this task was that I couldn't plan the activities that were required
to complete the task. However, I failed to assess and prioritise the tasks related to complete the
this assignment, which further provided me with challenges in relation to presenting accurate and
effective information associated with the same.
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Hence, there are things which I would be improving in context of enhancing my
performance if I got involved in a similar group task in future. The very first aspect would be
information gathering techniques. For this purpose, I would be undertaking appropriate training
in context of learning and using different methods from which relevant and accurate information
could be acquired. Through this, I would be learning the essentials for gathering of information
and implement the same within any task or activity. Another aspect that would appropriately be
adopted by me would be feedbacks from my assessors and tutors. The reason for the same is that
it would allow me to analyse the positive and negative attributes that are influencing my
performance. Moreover, this would allow me to channelise different strategies and my mindset
towards improvising the same appropriately and effectively. All these aspects would be
appropriately applied by me in order to ensure that I have acquired all my skills and
competencies that are needed for the project in a required and desirable manner. Moreover, these
would also be enhancing the scope of success within my performance towards satisfying the
criteria of this task (Thomas and Peterson, 2016).
CONCLUSION
Thus, it could be concluded from the report that cross cultural management is very
necessary for companies to expand their scope of success within its different market places.
Moreover, it is necessary to develop podcasts in a manner that could link the problems with
several aspects to reduce the favour of the same. Moreover, it is also necessary for individuals to
adopt methods like personal reflection, to effectively evaluate the past experiences in an
appropriate manner using a range of different approaches related to the same.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Demuijnck, G., 2015. Universal values and virtues in management versus cross-cultural moral
relativism: An educational strategy to clear the ground for business ethics. Journal of
Business Ethics. 128(4). pp.817-835.
Mahadevan, J., 2017. A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about cross-
cultural management. Sage.
Pudelko, M., Tenzer, H. and Harzing, A.W., 2015. Cross-cultural management and language
studies within international business research: past and present paradigms and
suggestions for future research.
Stahl, G.K. and et. al., 2017. The upside of cultural differences. Cross Cultural & Strategic
Management.
Thomas, D.C. and Peterson, M.F., 2016. Cross-cultural management: Essential concepts. Sage
Publications.
Thomas, D.C., 2015. Cultural intelligence. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, pp.1-3.
Tran, B., 2016. Communication (intercultural and multicultural) at play for cross cultural
management within multinational corporations (MNCs). In Handbook of research on
impacts of international business and political affairs on the global economy (pp. 62-
92). IGI Global.
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