Cross-Cultural Management in Global Business

This assignment delves into the complexities of cross-cultural management within a globalized business environment. It emphasizes understanding how national cultures influence leadership styles, organizational structures, and communication practices. The analysis draws upon various academic sources to explore the challenges and opportunities presented by cultural diversity in international business operations.

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Executive Summary
Globalization has increased foreign investment that has led to business opening subsidiaries in
different part of the globe. The integration of the world economically and socially has led to
emerge of need to effectively and efficiently manage human resource to achieve maximum
output. Human beings different form machines, are difference in terms of perception, values,
norms, practices and beliefs. The human culture affects how they perceive work, communicate,
get motivate or even be managed. Therefore there is need to understand different national
cultures for global mangers to better manage employees behavior.
The following essay reviews how to understand national culture and it influence to organizations
behavior. It also discusses the how national culture influences individuals in their workplaces.
Contents

Introduction.................................................................................................................................................1
Background of the Study.............................................................................................................................2
Significance of national culture to Behavior management..........................................................................4
Communication.......................................................................................................................................4
Style of leadership...................................................................................................................................5
Organizational structure..........................................................................................................................5
Turnover and Absenteeism......................................................................................................................6
Motivation...............................................................................................................................................6
Organizational culture.............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................7
References...................................................................................................................................................8

National Culture and Behavior
management
Introduction
National culture refers to general acceptable behavior of a society based on beliefs and values
that are developed over a long duration of time. They include values, beliefs, common
knowledge, perception, and norms of behavior of a population within a sovereign nation
(Branine, and Pollard, 2010). They define individuals of the same society and distinguish them
from other societies. Behavior management refers to applied behavior analysis that involves
application of psychological organizational behavior principles to organizations to enable
improvement of group or individual performance in the work place. National culture influences
behavior management. An individual or group behavior is determined by the country that they
belong to. National culture is important for understanding and predicting individuals or group
behavior when directing them towards a common goal. Organizational behavior management is
important for managing organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Globalization has led to
integration of economies and societies around the world that has brought individuals from
different countries to work together. Globalization has removed boundaries and given rise to
multinational companies’ that operates in different countries. Societies are not the same in terms
of what normal or not normal to what is considered unacceptable or unacceptable. The difference
in values, beliefs, practices are evident from one country to another. The differences in
individual behaviors as a result of national culture necessitate different approaches to manage
different groups. Employees in countries behave differently and therefore opt to be managed
different to attain the same predetermined goods. Sensitivity of national differences by a
manager can increase chances of success of a business. Therefore it is important to understand
the concept of national cultures in organizations for management to shape and direct employees
behavior towards achievement of specific goals.
The following essay will discuss national culture and behavior management. This will involve a
background study, discussion, significance, and recommendation of the topic under study.

Background of the Study
The significance of studying and understanding national culture was as a result of increasing
international businesses. International businesses have a challenge to successfully adapt to
diverse cultures and manage it impact on their daily operations. In order for business to adapt,
they require to understand cultural values, stereotypes, values, views and cultural diversity. The
study of national culture has in the recent decades attracted researchers’ interests especially in
cultural dimensions and attitude. The research has been aimed at improving business
performance in different societies. Hodgetts, luthans and Doh (2006) defined national culture as
shared beliefs and values that enables members of their society to determine what is right or
wrong. Shachaf (2008), described culture as consisting of implicit and explicit patterns and
behavior acquired and is transmitted through symbols that form characteristics of achievements
of a group or population. Hickson and Pugh (2014) established cultures are common, symbolic,
generational, and adaptive, integrated, and learned not inherited. There are different cultures that
exist in the world and understanding their impact on human behavior is critical for international
business. Zheng,Yang, and McLean, (2010) pointed out that if multinational managers do not
understand the country culture that they operate in can lead to extremely negative business
performance.
Hofstede (2010) defined cultural values as desirable beliefs and concepts that provide
standards for evaluating certain actions, behaviors, and goals to ascertain what is bad or good,
acceptable or unacceptable. Limsila, and Ogunlana, (2008), also defined cultural values as
fundamental beliefs of people in a society regarding notions of evil and good, important and
unimportant, right and wrong. Poole (2013) defined Cultural diversity as ways that cultures
differ from one society to another. It shows the impact of how people behave and think within a
society. Diversity exists between and within cultures.
There are three models of cultural dimensions that can be used to study a national culture. They
include; (1) GLOBE’s model, (2) Hofstedeov model, (3) Trompenaarsov model. Hofstede model
hold that national cultures have a lot of influence on work values. Hofstede dimension model
was from a study of 53 countries. Hofstede found that managers and employees of different
countries varied as a result of the following dimensions of their national culture; individualism vs
collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, masculinity vs femininity, short term vs

long term orientation. He stated that individual’s behaviors were shaped by the dimension of
their national culture (De Mooij and Hofstede, 2010). The second model of Trompenaars was
based on two rounds survey that involved over 45000 managers. The research found the there
were seven bipolar dimensions. They were as follows; individualism and communitarians,
universalism and particularism, neutral cultures and emotional cultures, specific cultures and
diffuse cultures, job status or person status, internal guidance and external guidance and lastly
the sequential access and synchronously notion. This model showed that individual or group
behaviors in an organization reflected the national culture dimension. Lastly is the GLOBE’s
model that was as result of 170 scientists working together with management students. The
research was undertaken in 61 countries. The research aimed at studying the relationship
between organizational culture, culture of the society, and organizational leadership (Brock et al.,
2008). The model dimensions were as follows; focus on the future, sexual differentiation,
uncertainty avoidance, assertiveness, power distance, institutional collectivism, within group
collectivism, humanistic orientation, and focus on results. The GLOBE’s model is viewed as the
most comprehensive compared to two models.
From the background study, national culture determines an individual or group behavior.
Therefore, understanding national culture can enable global managers in behavioral management
of employees in the organization.
Significance of national culture to Behavior management
National culture dominant and shapes organizational cultures and influence how they function.
The national culture determines organizational culture of an organization and influences some
practices that become part of the organization. The national culture shapes how people act,
behave, perceive, hold values, and contribute towards the achievement of the organizational
goals. An employee behavior is significant to achieving organizational goals through efficiency
and effectiveness. The following are the significance of national culture to behavior
management;
Communication
Communication is the process of sending messages through a language that a receiver can
understand. Communication can either be verbal or non verbal. Verbal communication refers to

sending of message though spoken language. Non verbal communication refers to body or
symbol cues of sending a message that can be understood by the receiver. Communication is a
cultural framework that enables decoding of a message from a correspondent to recipient.
According to Ke and Wei (2008), the interpretation and the extent of understanding of a message
from a correspondent to a receiver is highly influenced by culture. This entails that an individual
ability to understand a message is based on the number of cultures one has lived in or familiar
with. Communication builds relationship and determines how management interacts with the
employees. The national culture determines acceptable or preferred methods of communicating
in a business. National culture determines how people dress and how it is perceived. Some
national cultures are more formal than other. Global businesses are therefore required to adhere
to national communication cultures in order to create best impression to the local business
partners or employees. For instance, business communication etiquette in Japan starts with
handing of business cards. The Japanese culture is very formal and requires business cards to
start a meeting. In addition, communication in a country or organization is determined by the
national culture dimension. For example, in countries where there is high power distance,
addressing employees should include their titles before their names of which not adhered can
cause disappointment in the work place. Therefore, national culture is significant to
understanding communication in the society that can enhance effectiveness of the
communication in the organization.
Style of leadership
The style of leadership to be adopted in an organization in a particular country is influenced by
the nation culture. The style of leadership refers to manager’s style of implementing plans,
motivating employees and providing direction. These are participatory, autocratic, and laissez-
faire. The style of leadership determines the flow of power, responsibilities, and decision making
in the organization. A participatory or democratic style of leadership is found in organization
where the national culture dimension has low power distance, low masculine, and collectivism.
These national culture dimensions encourage leaders to include employees in the management of
the organization. The autocratic style of leadership is organizations that their national culture
dimensions have high power distance, individualism, and masculine. The leader in an
organization decides what has to be done and the employees are expected to follow instructions.
Therefore, the culture influences the role and functions of employees and management in an

organization. For instance, in countries with low power distance, the lower level employees are
able to directly communicate to the manager which is opposite of cultures with high power
distance.
The style of leadership influences the behavior of the employees in the organization. This
determines their contribution and engagement in the activities of an organization. This indicates
that employees of different counties will have different expected style of leadership from their
management. Therefore, adopting a style of leadership that does not align with the national
culture can lead to employees protesting or have low morale at their work places.
Organizational structure
Organizational structure refers to organization framework that defines the way activities are
coordinated, allocated, and supervised (Han et al., 2010). Organizational structure ensures all
responsibilities in the organization are defined and who reports to who is indicated. The choice
of an organizational structure is influenced by the type of culture that the management wants to
introduce in the organization. The organizational structure establishes the organizational culture
and need to change the culture requires the organizational to change the organizational structure.
The organizational structure establishes norms and practices that have to be adhered to by the
employees. The organizational culture also establishes communication channels in the
organization. In addition, organizational structure defines power in the position in the
organization that managers in different levels have. This determines how the organization is
managed.
The organizational structure of an organization should reflect the national culture in order to
facilitate smooth functioning of the organization. For instance, the organizational structure
should define the power sharing to avoid conflicts in high power distance societies.
Organizations should also consider the relationship of the management and the employees
because it influences employees’ motivation in the work place. Lastly, the organizational
structure influences the organizational culture and therefore should ensure it reflects the society
norms, beliefs, and values.

Turnover and Absenteeism
Turnover is the rate of employees quitting their jobs within a specific period of time.
Absenteeism is a practice of an employee staying out of work. Turnover and absenteeism have
adverse effect to the organization’s performance. The inconsistency behaviors experienced in
organizations are as a result of acceptance of the organizational culture and the national culture.
The organization culture and national culture can allow and tolerate employees to stay away
from work or even quit any time they feel like. This is different to other cultures that do not
allow employees or managers to stay absent from their work.
The national and organizational culture therefore dictates the values, norms, and acceptable
practices in an organization. The national culture influences how people in the society values
their job and the willingness to work without staying away from work or quitting.
Motivation
Employee motivation refers to commitment, creativity, and level of energy that an organization’s
employee brings in their workplace. Motivation determines the level of performance of the
organizations (Tung, 2008). Motivated employees meet and exceed their targets while enabling
the organization to attain competitive edge through innovations and inventions. Employees who
are not motivated underperform in their workplace and they are a liability to the company. It is
the responsibility of the management to manage their employees. People don’t get motivated the
same and it highly depends with the national culture to which a person belongs to. People in
different countries value different things differently and therefore cannot be subjected in an equal
measure for motivation. Motivation also depends on the organizational culture. For instance,
organizations operating in collective cultures should ensure they respect their norms to
individuals to feel motivated to work in the organization. People in collective society value to see
their norms respected in their workplace and doing so makes them feel as part of the company
and motivated to work. People in collective cultures also do not recognize personal motivation.
On the other side, individuals from high power distance national countries value motivation
based on personal interests. They associate motivation to how best it solves their problems and
rather than job satisfaction.
Motivation is therefore based on national culture and failure to understand what motivates an
employee in the workplace can lead to adverse organizational performance.

Organizational culture
Organizational culture refers to shared values, assumptions, and beliefs that govern how
employees behave in an organization. Organization culture has influence on how individuals act,
dress, and perform their duties (Shimoni, 2011). The organizational culture differentiates one
organization from one another. A good organizational culture gives an organization a
competitive advantage. For example an organization culture that is innovation oriented enabled
an organization to stay in the lead in the industry. The organizational culture is highly influenced
by national culture. For instance, high power distance culture, organizations have centralized and
bureaucratic organizational structures. On the other side, organizations in low power distance
cultures, the organizational structure are flexible, flatter and encourage personnel participations.
In another account, societies with high masculinity have women discriminated with few women
in high ranks or even being given priority. This is different in low masculinity cultures as all
genders are given equal opportunities in their workplace.
Conclusion
From the discussion in this report, national culture highly influences people behavior in the
country. People living in the same society live under the same norms, values and beliefs that
enable them determine what is right or wrong and therefore what to accept or not accept. The
national culture can be analyzed and determined using three models of national culture. The
models outline the drivers of the behavior in the society. The relationship between the national
culture and individual behavior is based on the learned over time, symbols, beliefs and values.
The national culture influences how organizations are formed and managed in a country. The
national culture dictates how the people in the society communicate, get motivated, and
consistency in their jobs. National culture also influences the most appropriate style of leadership
and organizational structure to be applied in the organization. Lastly, the organizational culture
has to align with the national culture to avoid internal and conflict in the organization.
Understanding national culture is significant for global managers in the process of managing
employees’ behavior. It is therefore recommended for global managers to familiarize themselves
with the national culture before starting working in a difference country. This will enable the
organization to perform and meet it predetermined objectives in a foreign country.

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