Cultural Difference between Romania and Brunei

This document explores the cultural differences between Romania and Brunei in terms of management, value systems, negotiation, and historic socio-political events. It discusses the management culture and motivation factors in Romania, as well as the hierarchical working culture in Brunei. It also examines the value systems and religious beliefs in both countries, and the negotiation styles and approaches. Additionally, it highlights the historic socio-political events that have influenced cross-cultural relationships in Romania and Brunei.

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Cross Cultural Management
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Cultural Difference between Romania and Brunei
1) Managing Team and motivate them-
Romania, which is now a member of EU, has long been a society where the
management authority is dependent on the hands of few people who could wield their
authorities in arbitrary ways (Lutz and Kranke 2014). However, with the change in
time, and with the coming of foreign managers, things started changing. It is to state
that the Romanian organisations’ management culture values the things such as
overcoming barriers of status in between levels and grades, empowering the staffs
with more authority, making experiments with the new styles of consulting in
facilitating the “knowledge workers’ team” and building communication systems that
are highly flexible. Furthermore, it is to mention that the main thing that motivates
Romanian is to be able of ensuring a better life that translates into some financial
rewards that the individuals feel are equitable and fair with the standards of EU
(Zaman and Meunier 2017). With the same, individuals in Romania also value the
work place that creates high opportunities of growth for them and provides better
international exposure. Finally, the Romanians are also motivated by the support that
they get for developing professionally at international standard. On the other hand, it
is to note that Brunei is an Islamic monarchy and it is this cultural factor that
influences the employment and business of Brunei to a notable level (Haji-Othman
and McLellan 2014). Hierarchy is revered in the Bruneian culture and the ones in the
managerial and senior positions are accorded utmost deference and respect at all
times. Also, the working culture of teams in Brunei organisations is polite and views
of every team members are listened to and are taken into consideration as it is the
responsibility of the senior teams to take the final decisions within the business
settings. Like, the Romanian employees, employees in Brunei workplaces are also

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motivated through fair benefits and pay and the most important motivational aspect of
work for these people are money.
2) Value systems (Tradition, beliefs and culture)
It is to mention that majority of the Romanians are the members of the
Romanian Orthodox church and they are regarded as the world’s 2nd largest
population of Orthodox Christians after Russia (Simut and Buitendag 2015). There
are several traditions in Romania right from welcoming spring season with symbolic
martisor to painting eggs for the festival of Easter. They are highly religious people
and 70percent of them are Romanian Orthodox, 5percent are Roman Catholic,
7percent are protestant and the rest 18percent professes no religious affiliation. They
believe in church and religious dogma. Furthermore, the culture of Romania is the
product of its historical and the geographical evolution. It is often speculated that the
Vlachs and the Romanians are the combination of the descendants of the indigenous
and the Roman colonists. Its Dracula legend and the Dacian history are unique to this
nation. On the other hands, unlike Romanians, the culture of Brunei is very strongly
influenced by the Malay cultures and the Islamic religion, which is completely in
contrast with that of the Romanians, who follow Christianity. About two-thirds of the
Brunei population comprise of Malay and the remaining includes the Indians, Chinese
and the indigenous groups like Kedazans, Dayaks and Dusuns. It is to mention that
the culture of Brunei is basically derived from Old Malay World, which is the
territory that covered Malay Archipelago. They have highly captivated the
imagination of the travellers and explorers for centuries with alluring mixture of the
untamed rainforest and the indigenous culture. Furthermore, according to Begawan,
Malaysia and Malaysia (2018), Bruneians highly believe in ghosts and there are

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several ghost myths and remnants of the old animist beliefs that are shaped by the
Hindu-Buddhist cosmology and the later influences of Muslims.
3) Negotiation- According to Muresan, Chiripuci and Nistoreanu (2017), the Romanian
business men pay high attention to the details about organising business meetings and
they base their interest in the process of negotiation on the professionalism that are shown
in the arrangements. Venue of the meetings are appropriate to the total number of
expected attendees of the meeting and they allow enough spaces for moving freely around
the room. However, it is mention that the characteristics and the psychology of the
Romanian negotiators do differ from the others in Brunei. On one hand, the process of
negotiation in Romania, negotiation process is dependent on the skills of negotiators, the
importance of the result, the limitations of negotiations and the subject. Also, negotiations
are basically made with the managers who have the power of decision making and
majority of them are males (Cristina, Karam and Andreea 2017). Often a mandate letter is
requested for certifying the involvement of the persons in the process. On the other hand,
in Brunei, the business men tend to be long-term focused and are highly of collective
interests. They even can sacrifice some current benefits for long term advantages.
However, in Brunei too, females are seen very less in the business related matters,
particularly in the process of negotiation. They tend to build consensus within the factions
that have some deep organisational and historical ties and they even bridge the
organisations gap.
4) Historic socio-political events that can influence the cross-cultural relationships- It is to
note that there are some historical problems with fake and fraud investment deals in
Romania during the 1990’s and the partners on both the sides of negotiations are
therefore, expected of performing their own due diligence for ensuring about the
authenticity of partnership arrangements (Drahokoupil et al. 2017). In 1938, in a bid for

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the political unity against the Iron Guard (fascist movement) that was gaining huge
popularity, Carol II dismissed the government that is headed by the Octavian Goga.
Activities of Romanian Parliament as well as the other political parties was suspended
and the nation was governed by the royal decree. On the other hand, in Brunei, in 2004,
two notable events occurred- the Crown Prince of 30years age, Al-Muhtadee Billah
Bolkiah married Sarah Salleh, a girl of 17years and at the same time, Sultan Hassanal
Bolkiah reopened the parliament of Brunei with minimal powers, just twenty years later
when it was suspended (Palgrave Macmillan 2015).

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