Developing Crosscultural Capabilities

DEVELOPING CROSS-
CULTURAL CAPABILITIES

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the selected organisation and chosen country for business expansion..............3
Appropriate model to analyse the cultural differences in UK and Ethiopia ..........................4
Literature review on cultural analysis of Crockett & Jones in Ethiopia................................6
HR elements which need to be considered by the managers .................................................7
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................9
Books and Journals ................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Cross culture is a concept which helps an individual in recognising the distinction
between people of different backgrounds, nations, races and ethnicities. Due to emergence of
globalisation and liberalisation, information about cross culture is important so that business
firms can perform their work in a systematic manner. Understanding cross culture and associated
aspects will benefits a company in internationalising their business in advantageous manner
(Bekker, Tobi, and Fischer, 2017). This report is based on Crockett & Jones which is a
Northampton based shoe manufacturer, situated in England, UK. This assignment report is going
to discuss about theories that will helps in analysing the culture of different nations in a proper
manner. Other than this, information about HR functions and elements in a company will be
discussed in brief.
MAIN BODY
Overview of the selected organisation and chosen country for business expansion
Crockett & Jones is a Britain based Shoe manufacturing organisation which specialises in
offering Goodyear welted footwear to their customers (Soldatenko and Backer, 2019). This
organisation is headquartered in Northampton, England and it is established in 1897. This
company is successfully managing 11 retail shops within UK and other regions like Brussels,
Paris, New York etc. Main products which are offered by company are driving accessories,
shoes, velvet slippers, casual footwear etc. To expand their business in international market,
manager in Crockett & Jones has decided to expand their business in Ethiopia (Gracia,
Ariño,and Blasco, 2015). This country is also known as Federal democratic Republic of
Ethiopia. This is a land locked country in the Horn of Africa. Reason for selecting this country is
it fast growing economy due to which Crockett & Jones has high scope of operating their there.
Also, government of this country is very supportive towards international businesses and FDI
which will help the concerned company in establishing itself without any issue or problem
(Gracia, Ariño and Blasco, 2015). This will allow Crockett & Jones to operate their business in
Ethiopian market in a productive manner so that high revenues and profits can be earned
efficiently without any compromise.

Manager of Crockett & Jones could have selected China or Vietnam for business
expansion but main reason of selecting Ethiopia is that this country is not well developed
(Hamren, Chungkham, and Hyde, 2015). Due to which it can be inferred that limited large scale
businesses are operating in market of Ethiopia. This is a good opportunity for Crockett & Jones
to sustain a strong position in the Ethiopian market. As population of country is high in number,
without any high efforts, concerned company can achieve high sales and revenues. This will
help the firm to earn expected results in international market. In case of other countries like
China and Vietnam, these countries are advanced and large number of MNC's are operating in it.
In this high competition, there were changes if Crockett & Jones will be able to sustain strong
position or not. To avoid this risk, Crockett & Jones have decided to operate in Ethiopia.
Appropriate model to analyse the cultural differences in UK and Ethiopia
There are different models and frameworks which can be adopted by the manager in
Crockett & Jones so that they can acknowledge the cultural differences between their domestic
country and another nation in which they are expanding their work. By this, company will be
able to carry-out required modifications in their existing work and strategies so that desired
outcomes from international market can be attained efficiently. In this context manager in
Crockett & Jones can use Hofstede cultural dimension model. Elements of this model are stated
below: Masculinity Vs Femininity: It is said that this is the dimension which is also known as
“tough vs tender” as well as consider the preference of overall society for the
accomplishment, behaviour, attitude of individuals towards the equality of sexuality
(Han, Huang, and Macbeth, 2018). In the present context of UK marketplace, it has
been said that masculine score high which shows that the overall society driven by the
success, competition as well as achievement. On the other hand, Ethiopia is a country
which is a female dominating country where females needs to follow all the rules and
regulations developed by the male society. Individualism Vs Collectivism: It has been said that it is the dimension which is
considered as the degree where individual as well as collectivism are two factors. In
context of individualism, it has been said that main focus of this factor is to accomplish
the personal goals and objectives. Whereas, in case of collectivism main focus is to attain
the goals of group rather than on individuals goal. In the present context of UK market,