Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges
Added on 2020-06-03
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Cross CultureManagement
Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3PART A...........................................................................................................................................3Contrast between UK and South Africa culture and issues related to cross culture interactionin business...................................................................................................................................3PART B ...........................................................................................................................................7Evaluation of barriers that are encountered by teams and Overweight opportunities...............7CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
INTRODUCTIONCulture can be defined as characteristic which people possess based on certain norms,values and social behaviour. Culture can be seen as a collective program of mind thatdifferentiates between one category of people from another. Cross culture management ispractice that helps firm to study and understand the behaviour of people and culture adopted bythem in an geographical region. It is very crucial because today companies across the world areoperating their functions in different countries through mergers, joint ventures and strategicalliances. Thus, having an understanding of cross culture management along with various modelsand frameworks that are result of cross culture analysis aid an enterprise to function moreeffectively with regions and people belonging to varies cultures (Caligiuri and Tarique, 2012).This assignment will focus upon comparing two countries which are having very divergentcultures, problems faced by organization operating in these nations while managing cross cultureworkforce in an organisation. Moreover it will also take into consideration the ways in whichstereotyping can act as a obstacle or aid for an effective communication between multi cultureworkforce. PART A Contrast between UK and South Africa culture and issues related to cross culture interaction inbusinessCulture can be described as the values, behaviour and concepts which a person inheritsfrom its family background and from people of same social group. As today world is happen tobe converting into global village, people from different culture, regions and background areworking together in an organization. Thus, it becomes the prime area of concern for a business toprovide an environment of social cohesion at work place. It is because of the fact that unless theemployees are working together in cooperation by keeping aside their cultural discrepancies itbecomes difficult for firm to achieve its goals and to grow in business (Chen, Zhang and Lee,2013). Barclays plc is a multinational investment bank and financial services with itsheadquarters in London, UK. It was established in 1690 and currently manages its operations inmore than 40 countries. Barclays plc has a dedicated analytical team that deals with issuesrelated with ethics and moral values, living standards and multiple cultures which assist thecompany in formulating important policies, procedures and schemes related to recruitment and
selection, training and development, performance management etc. Following its expansionpolicy Barclays plc have planned to extend their banking an d investment services to SouthAfrica as it is one of the fastest growing country which is capturing larger market worldwide.Initially the operations were smooth to handle but with span of time there happens to be severalissues arising due to cross cultural gap between these two countries. For efficiently handling andovercome these issues company conducted a cross culture analysis by applying the mostappropriate Hofstede's culture dimension theory. Mentioned below are the contrast between thecultures of UK and South Africa (Chung, 2015). This theory provides a systematic structure for analysing difference between multi culture andcross culture psychology on the basis of six cultural dimensions.The first dimension is power-distance which is defined as the extent to which peoplehaving less authority accept and expect that unequal distribution of power. The British society ismarked low among this dimension as they believe that people in certain way should be treated asequal. The society of South Africa on the other hand believe the existence of hierarchy inorganization is justifies and they expect that subordinates should receive instruction from theirboss (Engelen, Brettel and Wiest, 2012). The Individualism- collectivism is second dimension defines the degree to which anindividual is accepted and integrated into group. UK is amongst the few highest individualistnations who believes in the theory of self fulfilment. In comparison to UK the people of SouthAfrica is less individualistic or to an extent collective as the society believes that a personshould at least take care of their immediate family members and dear ones. Uncertainty-avoidance is the third dimension measures manner in which a society tacklesunexpected events and uncertain situation sand sudden changes. UK secures low in thisdimension as they know their end objective but are unclear about the ways to achieve them. Theyare very creative and innovative people who keep on changing plans as soon as they comesacross some new information that needs to be add on. South Africa is quiet close UK as they toocarry the same attitude of flexible schedules and believes that no more rules should beformulated than are necessary and must. Masculinity- femininity forms fourth dimension which defines tendency of society toplace masculine values like assertiveness, ambition, money etc. high and femininity traits likevaluing human relationship, care and love at lower level. Both the countries score high on
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