Cross Cultural Management: Strategies for Managing Cultural Tensions

This report explores cross cultural management and strategies for managing cultural tensions. It discusses the organizational culture of Apple Inc. and the possible tensions faced when operating in Germany. It also proposes cross-cultural and HR strategies for integration.

Cross cultural management

INTRODUCTION
Cross cultural management refers to the study of different culture in which one
organization operates their business. It is very important to analyze the culture so that enterprise
easily manages the cultural of different country in a easy way. this report is based on the Apple
Inc. that is a multinational company headquartered in California, United states. It has 500+ retail
stores globally. This project is based on the organizational culture of a company that is followed
according to the demand of the country specification. It also shows the possible tensions that are
faced by the firm when they operate their business in Germany for this what type of strategy they
follow that is based on the diversity management. At last propose a HR strategy and also the
concrete program of executing for integration of both countries cultures so that business will
enhance their profits and sales and also the lob=ng term survival of business enterprise(Nguyen
and et. al., 2015).
Description of organizational cultural of one globally operating company
Apple is one of the multinational company, headquartered in California, United States.
They follow an American culture, values, beliefs and behavior related to employees. In the
organization company adopts the innovation, creativity, secrecy, moderate combative. As
America is one of the innovation oriented company. They only hire a top-notch labor in their
working place that gives the innovative ideas and best returns in future. Here, employees are
working more than 50 hours in a week and they follow in a strict consultant. As they establish in
California because of this they follow the innovation and top-notch culture. In America they
offer 20 years of paid vacation for experienced person and 15 paid vacation for average worker.
Due to this Apple follows this in their California location. They work under pressure and also
they work for long hours and they also adapt the high level of secrecy. Due to secrecy employees
reduce their morale. Employees in Apple have an option to adopt the work from home if they
want to be and they also offers a multiple training opportunities for staff. In this employee enjoy
the discount up to 25% on gadgets including iPod, laptop etc. they generally offers a male
employees as compare to women’s(Han, Huang and Macbeth, 2018).
Indication of possible cultural tensions affiliated to Germany and headquartered of the concern
Culture tensions- It refers to that tensions that occurs at a time of different culture
values and clash in the belief. In context of the Apple Inc. that is based on the America wants to

open a business outlet in Germany. When they open than they face the cultural issue because of
this its affects the productivity and proficiency of the employees and the profits of the company.
There are several cultural tension that is followed by the Apple at the time of establishing their
outlet in Germany are as follows(Neal, 2016).
 Difference of working culture – when apple wants to open their outlet in the Germany
than they examine the whole market in Germany and their culture that was follows in
their organization. In Germany, employees are working for 30-40 hours week only and
not more than that and they do not work from home as they value their free time and also
they driven by the order and efficiency. But in the Apple they follows a culture of
working for 40-50 hours per week and they also provide work from home to their staff
members because they are addicted towards their work. They follow a macho culture in
their working style.
 Team work- In Germany , employees in organization works in team and evaluate the
performance on a team basis. They cannot work under pressure and work equally and
also they protected by the unions. But in the American society where Apple established
in these employees works under pressure and evaluate the performance on an individual
basis. They adopts the culture of easy to fire the employees if they cannot work properly
and gives the productive results to the company(Caprar and et. al., 2015).
 Debt cultural tension – Here, Germany have a more cash society than any other
countries. In this they basically follow a liquidity process and all people have credit and
debit cards and they adopt the high risk as compared to America. In Apple if they want to
open their store in Germany than they face the problem relating to cash because they
invest money for earning more money and they are adventures in nature.
Proposition of cross cultural strategy for whole company based on diversity management
There are some strategies that could follow by the Apple when they operate their business
in different culture country like Germany. For this they could explain the cross – cultural
strategies to overcome the cultural tensions that can be explained below(Stahl and Tung, 2015).

 Listen – It is the best strategy that is used by the Apple manager to overcome the
problems related to the working culture within the organization. listening is the best mode
to resolve the problem. In this manager of a company can listen their problem of
employees and if they cannot understand than ask repeatedly. This will resolve the
problem relating to their relations. In this apple workers are work under pressure but it is
not the German culture at this time they make a team and divides the whole task so the
pressure can also be divided(Nguyen and et. al., 2015).
 Effectively communicate – It is another cross culture strategy that is followed by the
Apple manager when they operate their business in Germany. In this they effectively
communicate their working culture to the German employees so that they easily
understand and if they face any problem convey it too the top level manager so that it will
increases the productivity and if they work effectively than they offers some rebates and
bonus that will also motivates them for good working.
 Avoid ambiguity – As America is one of the Adventurous countries in the world and
Apple can operate their business in Germany for this they avoid the ambiguity because of
understanding the issues and problems that is faced by the employees and companies. In
this they take feedback from their employees to understand the company culture because
it is different form American culture(Ali and Park, 2016).
Propose HR strategy and concrete program for implementation of deeper integration
Human resource strategy- It refers to a framework of planning long term strategies that
is made to achieve the objectives in the field of human resource managers. It includes the
recruitment and selection process, learning and development, reward system, employee relations
and a employee well being. It is a process of integrating the culture of organization its working
staff and system by integrating the set of actions to get the company goals on a desired times.
With the reference of Apple company they open their business outlet in Germany to reduce the
tensions related to culture firm follows a HR strategy to overcome this issues. It can be described
below(de Carvalho, Patah and de Souza Bido, 2015).
 Recruitment and selection of employees- It is the best strategy that a company can
follows. Recruitment and selection is the process of attracting, identifying the number of

candidates and hires the suitable one for the vacant jobs. In context of Apple, headquarter
in California, USA they want to open their business in Germany and because of this they
recruit and select the new candidates who can do a productive work with innovation. In
this manager hires a skillful candidate who can face the challenge and pressure in a
difficult situation. At this time they can provide the set guidelines and rules that they
follow in their company. As they follow the American culture in the German country
where employees can work for 40-50 hours a week and in German they only work for 30-
40 hours a week. All this policies are show in front of the candidate who hire for the job
role and for this. at this time they offers a number of benefits to stay within the company
and do their best(Ruiz, Colbert and Hinna, 2017).
 Training and development – It is an attempt that id done by the company to improve the
ability and capability of the current and new employees who are working within the
organization. they usually adopted by the firm when they change the attitude of
employees and improves the skills and knowledge about the working in the working
place so that they give the productive results to the business enterprise. Manager of a
Apple can provide timely training and development session to educate the employees for
productive working and they also train to accept the change easily as per the demand of
the company. In Germany people are conscious about liquidity but in America people
invest more to adopt new and innovative things. This is because they train their
employees so that they efficiently work in the working place and gives the effective and
efficient results. it helps in integration the employee and company relation so that they
will earn more and more profits in that store also(Rahimi and Gunlu, 2016).
 Motivation and recognition – This are the two important sources to improve the
employee performance and encourage them to work effectively and efficiently. In this
company motivate and encourage their staff members so that they work with passion and
complete the task on time. In context of Apple, they want to open a store in the Germany
for this they motivate the employees of Germany to work in the American culture. They
provide various types of benefits as they provide the power of taking decision at their
own level and also give the right to participate in decision making process. This helps in
managing the relation of the employees with the company culture and they give the
productive results that will increases the proficiency of the company in the Germany also.

In this they recognize that employee who gives their best and complete the task on
desired time by promoting them on a higher level or giving a extra paid leave to improve
their performance and capability of doing a work. In this manager can also listen the
employees and resolve them by giving the innovative solutions. It motivates them to
improve the performance and do their best in the working place(Rahimi, 2017).
 Performance appraisal – It refers to the framework which is used to review the
performance of an employees and their contribution towards the company. It is very
important to appraise the staff members so that they give the productive results to the
company. in context of Apple they give the good appraisal for the best performance and
due to which employee improves their performance. If the manager of Apple reviews
their employee performance on a timely manner it will reduces the employee retention
but increase their employee relations that gives the effective and efficient results in the
company. In Germany it is very important to appraise the employee performance because
they work in the American culture. It helps in giving the innovation and creative results
which is very important for the company in their longer survival and enhances their
profits and revenues. It also helps in improving the relation between the employees and
employer due to this staff members can easily communicate their problems and this
provides the best outcomes to the company benefits(Liu and Li, 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above scenario of report it is to be concluded that managing the cross culture
problem of a company helps in maintaining their growth, market share, profits and longer
sustainability. It explains the culture of a company in a origin country and also shows the
tensions they face when they operate their business in Germany, it explains the cultural tensions
that is faced by the company because it reduces the productivity and performance of an
individual employees. It also described the cross-cultural strategy for a whole company that
helps in understanding the diversity of culture and their management. At last it shows the HR
strategy plans that help in maintaining and organizing the cultural programs in the firm and
enhances their profits and revenues in the long term sustainability.

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