Inter-cultural Management in Business

This report explores the mechanism of inter-cultural management in business, evaluating the impact of individualism and collectivism on the workforce. Strategies for effective management and reducing cultural differences are also provided.

Inter-cultural
Management in
Business

Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
EXECUTIBVE..............................................................................................................................10

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report has been drawn on mechanism of inter-cultural management in business which
involves diversity in workforce working in an organisation. Theories, concepts and opinions of
different authors on this topic has been provided to evaluate impact of individualism and
collectivism on work. Furthermore, this has been explained in international context followed by
some strategies to have effective management and reduce cultural differences.

INTRODUCTION
The term intercultural refers to various cultures at one place having deep understanding of each
other. In the context of a business organisation, it is the exchange of ideas and cultural norms on
mutual basis for developing long lasting relationships (Barmeyer and Franklin, eds., 2016). The
management of groups belonging to different cultures become imperative in an anti so as to
reduce any differences between them. The report covers explanation and evaluation of different
views on individualism and collectivism and its impact on the workforce working in an
organisation. Further, strategies along with ethical considerations have been provided to
overcome the issues between intercultural communities.
MAIN BODY
A workplace comprises of many types of concept that are followed by the people working in
an organisation. It depends on number of factors and the environment at the place of entity. One
of these being individualism which refers to the unique personality and set of skills of the
employee. This provides every member to have their own space, make decisions, ant it perform
best in Hindi responsibilities assigned to them. Some of the features of organisational
individualism are people tend to have strong opinions and superiors appraise the achievements or
accomplishments made by them.
In addition to this, organisations following individual values know the worth of their employees
and skills put in by them. According to Weber, individualism can be defined in many terms.
However the scope is limited to one particular concept where in the social practices are done by
a single person (Taylor and Wilson, 2012). On the other hand, Luhmann has described it is an
outcome of growing social differentiation that leads to increasing the generalized symbolic
framework, which make it increasingly necessary to respectively situations, roles and activities,
which results in increasing the individual human beings. On critically evaluating, it has been
observed that the concept of individualism is not just limited to organization but extends to social
activities also. A single person may have different ways of doing a particular thing however, in
this concept an individual puts this self interest and desires at the top and above the
organizational requirements. The second definition emphasizes on development of this concept
because of evolution of different practices in this society.

Large as well as growing organisations usually appoint people belonging to different
backgrounds reflecting their own culture leading to intercultural workforce. If the individualism
concept is followed in any organisation, then there could be greater issues and conflicts. Since,
this concept appreciate the sole skills due to which the competencies of other employees can
clash leading to disputes. It becomes difficult to maintain a coordination and balance between the
people working in the company. This can for the lead to reduced efficiency, greater employee
turnover and decline in profitability (Watling and et. al., 2013).
On the contrary, corporation collectivism is the one in which individuals see themselves as
members of particular groups. There is enhanced cooperation between each personnel without
putting self in the priority. The entire team in a company work towards achieving the common
goals and objectives. There is no discrimination or individuality between the staff members. The
underlying factor of this concept is to focus on greater good of the whole team and less on
employees individual skills and achievements. The management in an organisation wish to see
members working as a cohesive group. In this type of organisational culture, every employee
gets equal opportunities helping in bringing more stability and consistency within the team.
Along with this, every person share equal rights and responsibilities together with the ideas
followed by making decisions in a collective manner.
According to Hofstede, in collective culture people are supposed to be loyal to the group to
which they belong and, the group will defend their interest. collectivism indicates that there is
greater importance on the goals and wellbeing of the group. A person’s self image in this
category is defined as “we”. Whereas, Triandis has focused on power relations that exist in
collectivism culture. The emphasizes is on equal opportunities and rights. Individuals see
themselves in a group and there is not a single element of individual choices or activities.
The sculpture can have positive impact on work of the organisation in many ways. Some of these
are, there is enhanced collaboration and coordination to achieve the one specific goal which is set
by the organisation. In addition to this, equal opportunities to each member reduces the occurring
of conflicts or issues. It promotes friendliness which leads to positivity at the workplace. Every
subordinate is treated equally and the rights are also shared with each other due to which burden
on a particular individual is minimised (Van Hoorn, 2015). Therefore, profitability, participation
and quick decision making are some of the characteristics and advantages of collective culture.
The outcomes gained from critically evaluating are that a group is more useful in achieving the

goals of the organization in an efficient manner. Equal sharing of responsibilities help in
attaining the objectives without any hurdles. Furthermore, accountability is one of the factors
which can be seen in collectivism. There is no blame game on each other and every person is
ready to take the responsibilities of their own share while working in group. There is no ego or
self interests beyond organizational objectives. In other words, the prime concern of every
subordinate is to achieve the common goals. This helps in promoting good balance between the
individuals working together. There is no separation or sole desires which bring stability within
the organization.
Individualism and collectivism are two aspects of organisational culture which exist in
companies operating at international level since there is greater chance of having diverse
workforce. However, there can still be some situation in which gap between the intercultural can
expand and become worse with the time. So, strategies can be formulated for mitigating such
differences and remove all the hurdles from the achievement of goals. This strategies can be
diversity training to make things people walking in the organization about different cultures,
languages, beliefs and background followed by encouragement in teamwork and leadership. It is
useful in creating a healthy environment in which employees can understand and embrace the
differences between all the cultures followed by workforce. Another strategy can be sharing of
knowledge which allows workforce to share cultural knowledge. This often leads to bring out
more creativity in groups which have some connection with each other. It is useful in bringing
innovative ideas to the business operations for enhancing the profitability, and desirable
outcomes with collective work .
Apart from these, there can be e policies providing guidelines and directions to achieve a
common base for understanding the differences between cultures. Leaders should motivate every
employee to respect religious customs or encouraging cultural celebrations. Besides this, there
are many models or frameworks provided by prominent authors who have done research for
several years. Hofstede's model of individualism versus collectivism is one of them which can be
applied in organisations for better understanding of the two cultures.
This model can be applied to understand the individual needs such as privacy and freedom
which can be achieved through individual accomplishments. challenges and expectation of
individual rewards can be achieved through to maintaining a difference between work and social
life. These are the characteristics for high score index. Whereas, some of the low IDV are

building skills and excelling in that is possible through wisdom. Intrinsic rewards which may
suppress feelings and emotions.
Ethical consideration refers to collection of values and principles which form the basis and
guide the good or bad activities of a human. It is often made a part of the HR policy, which
provides that none of the culture in an organisation should be discriminated or disrespected. This
promotes harmony within the organisation and motivate people to work in groups and with
collaboration (Luck and et. Al.,2012).
CONCLUSION
From the matter analysed above, it can be concluded that cultural differences quite genuine
and may occur in any organization appointing diverse workforce. There are different types of
cultures such as individualism and collectivism. Each of them has their own advantages and
disadvantages and can impact the work in both positive as well as negative ways. This should be
critically evaluated for making strategies in order to mitigate differences between cultures and
promote corporation. Also, adequate training should be provided to all the subordinates to
understand and respect different cultures. Ethical consideration should also be made a part of the
policies to be implemented in the organization.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals:
Barmeyer, C. and Franklin, P. eds., 2016. Intercultural management: a case-based approach to
achieving complementarity and synergy. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Taylor, M.Z. and Wilson, S., 2012. Does culture still matter?: The effects of individualism on
national innovation rates. Journal of Business Venturing. 27(2). pp.234-247.
Watling, C., and et. al., 2013. Beyond individualism: professional culture and its influence on
feedback. Medical education. 47(6). pp.585-594.
Van Hoorn, A., 2015. Individualist–collectivist culture and trust radius: A multilevel
approach. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 46(2). pp.269-276.
Akkawanitcha, C., and et. Al., 2015. Frontline employees’ cognitive appraisals and well-being in
the face of customer aggression in an Eastern, collectivist culture. Journal of Services Marketing.
29(4). pp.268-279.
Luck, G.W and et. Al.,2012. Ethical considerations in on-ground applications of the ecosystem
services concept. BioScience. 62(12). pp.1020-1029.

EXECUTIBVE
11