Effective Intercultural Management: Strategies for Globalized Operations

The article highlights the importance of intercultural management in today's globalized business environment. It emphasizes that understanding different cultures is crucial to coordinate and communicate effectively with people from diverse backgrounds. The report concludes that values play a significant role in shaping an individual's behavior at work, and companies need to recruit skilled workforce who can work effectively across cultures.

INTERCULTURAL
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
Concept of cultural identity and its relation with national, ethnic and regional identity.......3
Types of cultural identity.......................................................................................................3
Impact of values and beliefs in influencing behaviour..........................................................4
Effects of culture in workplace..............................................................................................7
Development of intercultural management............................................................................8
Intercultural communication..................................................................................................9
Theories related to intercultural communication...................................................................9
Methods for managing intercultural communication...........................................................10
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
The Culture refers to the knowledge, belief, values, attitudes and experiences that are
adopted by a group of persons in a particular society. The culture can be related with the
nation and ethnicity or a specific tradition. The importance of culture is also apparent in the
workplace as it defines the nature of behaviour that will be implied among various employees
working within workplace (French, 2010). The present report has made a discussion over the
intercultural management where a special reference has been made on different identities
related to culture. Besides this, the report has reflected the significance of values and beliefs
that has a vital role in shaping the behaviour of an individual. Apart from this, the report has
talked about the methods that are helpful in managing the intercultural communication in an
appropriate way. In addition to this, the there has been a discussion over the diversity
management as well.
Concept of cultural identity and its relation with national, ethnic and regional identity
The cultural identity can be termed as a sentiment of belonging to a specific group.
This also forms a part of self perception because of which it is closely related with
nationality, religion and the ethnicity. This reflects that the cultural identity is related with a
group who use to share an identical cluster of members having similar identities (Robinson-
Easley, 2014). This shows that the cultural identity has a close relation with ethnicity,
nationality and regional identities. There are a number of groups in an organisation which use
to posses certain essential characteristics. These characteristics are related with ethnicity,
religion and nationality. The impression of culture has been used for what it is appealing in
home distinctiveness politics, leading in several cases to divisive policies of multiculturalism,
where persons have been gifted with particular rights in harmony in the midst of their ethnic
genesis. It is evident that there is a large impression of a cultural identity on behaviour and
nature of a person. Similarly, the cultural identity relates with a person’s nationality and
ethnicity.
Types of cultural identity
The cultural identity has several types and each one have a different meaning and
perceptions according to which they are applied on various individuals (Pikhart, 2012). Some
of the major cultural identities can be defined in below section which is as follows:
Monoculture: As the name suggests, the monoculturalism favours to a single culture by
excuding all other cultures. This type of culture usually takes place as a result of racial

behaviours and isolations on the basis of geographical location and political conditions. The
countries who favour monoculture at a large level are China, North and South Korea etc. In a
monocultural society, society has a one common belief, heritage, language, culture and
perceptions. As a result, they use to follow similar practices and share a common belief and
thought process. It may seem to be a somewhat rigid culture most often in different societies
as they usually like to stick from their original culture and assumptions (Salvi, 2011).
Bi-culturism: The Bicultural identity can be defined as the existence of two diverse cultures
at same place or a country. As mentioned earlier the culture includes a belief and assumptions
of any social and ethnic group, the culture have a great impact on individuals because of
which, there are shared assumptions and behaviours that results into a specific custom. In
context of biculturism, there are great possibilities that a person faces many issues in
incorporating two different cultures at the same time. Besides this, there are many situations
where he may face a challenge in finding the balance between both types of cultures. Apart
from above stated difficulties, there are several merits as well which are offered by the
biculturism. As the bicultural individual has familiarity with two different cultures, they gain
more knowledge about the two diverse cultures. Besides this, persons belonging to bicultural
identities may possess the ability of knowing two different languages as well. Thus, cultural
identity shapes a man’s behaviour and attitude as well (Caganova and et.al., 2012).
Multicultural: The multicultural identity can also be understood as a factor of globalisation as
it takes place as a result of exchange in various cultures. This concept has risen as a result of
globalisation where activities like immigration, travelling etc. has gone. Due to this, a number
of people use top come in contact with different cultured people easily. Thus, this concept
lays down large influence on people and on their perceptions. The study of multicultural
identities has stimulating inferences for the discipline of psychology as well as for social and
behaviour psychology as the matter of how folks build up an intellect of national, cultural,
and ethnic group membership turns into predominantly meaningful in state of cultural
conflicts and integration. Thus, the multiculturism is a situation in which the individual has a
respect for different cultures and strength attachments as well which results into their
loyalties (Gourvès-Hayward and Morace, 2010).
Impact of values and beliefs in influencing behaviour
Before understanding about the influences which are rendered by values and beliefs, it
is essential to become familiar with meaning of both terms. Values are those principles and

norms which are embraced by individual in high regard. Hence, the person has a very high
consideration with these values which helps in giving a shape to behaviour of a particular
person. The importance of these values is very apparent at workplace as well where an
individual’s behaviour with his peers and subordinates will be based on perceived values. The
values are acquired by a person through family, workplace, friends, culture, external
environment etc. On other hand there is another term belief. The belief is related with
occurrences of our daily life. The experiences which are possessed by an individual, helps in
forming a particular belief of a person because of which they use to have a faith on different
happenings. As a result their behaviours also have an impact of beliefs on them (Ni and
Wang, 2011). As per the stated meanings of both terms, it is clear that belief and values have
a high significance in different individual’s life. Both have an impact on behaviour of folks
because of which their quality of work also gets affected to a high degree.
Impact of values on behaviour
The relevance of values in context of behaviour can be understood well by
understanding the impact at workplace. As stated earlier, values are important as it helps a
person in deciding about the priorities of life. As a result, an individual use to behave in a
manner which helps in gaining all these important priorities of life. Each person have
different values and also various degree of importance of these values in their life. On this
basis, they use to reflect different types of behaviour at workplace. The relevance of values in
determining behaviour of individuals at workplace can be understood from below mentioned
points:
 More energetic: If a person’s values are well aligned with the goal and objectives of
an organisation, than its impact will be clearly seen in his work (Campbell, 2012).
The values support different goals of a particular company because of which an
employee will feel more energetic at workplace. Besides this, such kind of positivity
and energetic behaviour of an individual may have a good impact on other colleagues
as well. Thus, good values which are aligned with organisational aims can aid in
creation of a very friendly and positive environment.
 Less conflictive behaviour: If the positive values of a person are strong, there are
more possibilities that there will be less number of conflicting situations at workplace.
It is apparent that in present times the corporate world is moving very faster towards
growth and development. Hence, it is essential that the individuals make efforts to
develop the values which can be in line with the requirements of present era. This will
help in handling the adverse situations in better way (Zhu, 2011).

 Development of relationships: It is a fact that an individual would always like to be
around persons who have similar thoughts and ideas with him. Therefore, on the basis
of various values, a person will show a particular behaviour in practical life. On this
basis, various other persons of workplace will also be attracted towards him. On the
basis of negative and positive behaviour of an individual which are determined by
values, a person will attract similar persons to develop a relationship with them.
 Leadership style: The leadership style of an individual will highly dependent on
values which are embraced by him. If a person has a more preference towards the
open views and relationships, the leadership style will be participative (Bird and et.al.,
2010). Thus, on this basis, a person’s personal value will define his behaviour style
with others at workplace.
Impact of belief on behaviour
There are certain ways through which belief of an individual are determined at
workplace. The role of belief in affecting the behaviour can be explained in below mentioned
list:
 Limiting belief limit individuals’ potentials: If there is a belief about something in a
person, it will help in taking decision to an individual regarding what to do and what
not. If a person will have a strong belief towards himself that he is not able to do a
particular work, he will not be able to do it. Thus, the belief of an individual helps in
expressing a positive or negative outcome which may give a large potential to do a
work.
 Information filtering: The belief of a person may make him either biased or unbiased
based on his certain beliefs (Hinds, Liu and Lyon, 2011). It is apparent that a person
use to accept that information only which is similar to his belief. Therefore, person
may become biased as he will make a filtration of acquired information. As a result, it
is very hard for a person to make someone believe on any notion which is not similar
to his belief.
 Shapes reality: The belief has a very significant role in shaping the reality as well. For
instance, if an individual has a strong belief that he will not be able to get a good
position in a particular organisation, he will not put his hard efforts as per his belief.
As a result he will not get a good position in the company. Thus, on the basis of
negative belief, his behaviour will be ascertained and he will get the results
accordingly (French, 2010).

 Self confidence: The high confidence in a person can be understood as a set of belief
which a person has about himself. If those set of beliefs are positive, than, the person
will have a high confidence giving optimistic results as well. While on other hand, if
these sets of belief in a person are negative, that person will have less confidence. As
a result, the outcomes which that particular person will get, would be pessimistic.
Effects of culture in workplace
Nowadays, the workplace is a mixture where companies recruit a number of people
who belong from diverse cultures, ethnicity and nationalities. Thus, it implies that in all
organisations, in present times there is a trend of maintaining cultural diversity at workplace.
In modern times, the companies want to have skilled workforce who are able to work in
effectual manner. For fulfilling this need, the enterprises use to recruit people from diverse
cultures and ethnicities. Therefore, it is obvious that people belonging to different cultures
will exhibit different behaviours as well (Sharifian and Jamarani, 2013). These behaviours
may render great impact on organisation as it demonstrates the diversity at a greater level. It
is apparent that as there will be greater diversities at a single palace, there will be various
opportunities as well as challenges.
The cultural diversity at workplace has various influences on business in each and
every areas related to recruitment, decision making process and relationship between various
employees and peer of the company. The cultural diversity existing at workplace offers a
number of opportunities to gain experiences and learn a lot of new things. The business firm
which is able to understand right meaning of cultural diversity will efficiently manage the
diversities at workplace. As a consequence, there will be large benefits to the company from
this. Different workers having different cultures have various backgrounds. Thus, they have
assorted skills and talents in them (Gao, Ballantyne and Knight, 2010). These talent and skills
at workplace have a lot of importance which is utilised by business enterprises in an
appropriate way. The organisations also respect these diversities of culture at workplace so as
to encourage workers.
On other hand, it is manifested that if these diversities are not managed properly by a
company, it can cost heavily to firm. There can be the situations of in efficient
communication at workplace because of which it may result into confusions, less motivation
among employees, inefficient team work and less productivity of workers. Besides this, there
are many instances where it has been found that the workers do not easily accept the

diversities at workplace. The colleagues who belong to different cultures and backgrounds
are not acceptable for them. As a result, there are greater possibilities of occurring any type of
discrimination at workplace (Morley and Cerdin, 2010). This may act as a barrier in intended
progress of organisation in an appropriate way. Thus, maintaining diversity at workplace is a
complex task for which the managers of concerned entity must make additional steps. In
addition to this, the whole firm should take the diversity at workplace as a good opportunity
instead of a tough challenge. There should be appropriate steps and planning that can help in
acquiring competitive advantages for enterprise. This can help organisation in minimising the
cost of operations as well because the entity will have a team of efficient and skilled
employees. Apart from this, the company will likely to attract skilled and talented pool of
workers towards it. Therefore, it is recommended to manage the diversity at workplace
efficiently so as to gain more advantages.
Development of intercultural management
The concept intercultural management is simply maintaining the cultural diversities at
workplace which is a top priority for present time (Murillo, 2012). The development of
intercultural management did not take place suddenly. The need of having diversities at
workplace and its management was felt by many business organisations gradually. The faster
pace of development that took place in recent years necessitated firms to have a large pool of
talent in company so as to sustain in competition effectively. Therefore, it was necessary to
have skilled workforce which is able to work with greater dedication and commitment within
enterprise. This need could not be fulfilled by recruiting various employees from a single
source where each person belongs to a similar field and backgrounds. Besides this,
emergence of globalisation lately in last decade also induced the large business corporations
to adopt the practices of recruiting required talent and skills from various sources. Therefore,
it was essential to manage the diversity at workplace and provide a right environment of work
by managing intercultural arrangements (Isern, 2014). Thus, the development of intercultural
management took place. It has been found that the intercultural environment existing at
workplace provides a better opportunity to learn something new everyday. As there are
different cultures, there are lot of things for all workers to learn new things, languages,
culture etc. from each other. Thus, this may also help in flourishing the business through
better outlook.

Intercultural communication
The diversities of culture that has to be maintained at workplace cannot be supported
in right way without effective communication. When workers in company meet people of
different cultures and co-cultures come across from the similar point in same direction, they
regularly see different things, and these diverse perceptions shape their communication.
When different types of people having diverse hobbies, interests, perceptions etc. meet, it is
obvious to have a communication gap. This also results into less coordination among them
due to which firm can suffer to a great extent (Robinson-Easley, 2014). Therefore, it has
become necessary to understand and develop the techniques which can help in coordinating
and communicating with people of different cultures effectively. There may be some barriers
related to verbal and non verbal communication where messages are conveyed without using
words as well. Thus, in diverse cultures, they may have different meaning because of which
there can be various issues. Thus, the individuals at workplace who have different languages
may offer a major challenge before the business venture. There are several theorists who have
given different approaches related with intercultural communication that has been discussed
in further section.
Theories related to intercultural communication
Ethnographic approach
The Ethnography includes the study that is done on people and cultures. The approach
of ethnography stretches from differences to inequalities that are residing in the society
(Pikhart, 2012). In a society, people have different approaches and shifts from time to time.
In present time, the shift of society is more towards nationality, ethnicity, age, culture etc. In
previous time, this shift was more towards status, position, inequalities etc. as per the
situations and ethnicities, there is a large difference at various place in context of way of
communication taking place. In this concept, there are some relevance to the globalisation as
well. With increased globalisation, it is apparent that there are more opportunities where
different persons meet with each other and exchange their cultures. At this time, a level of
communication is established between persons belonging to different ethnicities. It is also
obvious in such situations that there will be different languages. All these things are rooted in
a range that makes a fixation of a particular way of speaking and control is exercised by
persons who are involved in interactions.
Crossing language and ethnicity boundaries
The ethnographic communication styles usually differ from each other as per the role
and operations of a person who are addressed for communicating (Salvi, 2011). There are

various ways in which the ethnic styles can be applied by using several strategies. As per ....
for getting the desired results and effects, a range of activities can be utilised for addressing a
useful communication. The culture incepted by the youngsters supply as a combined and
sharable unit of resources, division of which is managed 'automatically'. It has been proposed
by various theorists that, it is not crucial for cultures to be traditional. Besides this, the
traditions are able to be changed and manipulated at the same situations. It is necessary for
the intercultural communication to be successful by accessing required information which is
related with all those factors through which this type of communication developed. As a
result of this, Caganova and et.al., (2012) propose an influential confront against
conventional views of remarkable ethno-linguistic belonging. It is proposed that ethnicity and
cultures are closely related on the basis of which intercultural communication are developed.
There may be some of the barriers due to languages and cultures. But they are manageable if
taken in right way and dealt with proper manner. Besides this, it also provides the opportunity
for giving a productive interaction. Further, it has been said that intercultural communication
is not necessarily mean to understand the languages but also to have knowledge of meaning
and intention behind that. Thus, all these essential elements help in completing the entire
intercultural communication by removing different types of barriers related to ethnicity and
languages as well.
Methods for managing intercultural communication
In the present time of globalisation, it is necessary for business organisations to have
knowledge of different cultures as all the involved parties have to exchange information
frequently (Gourvès-Hayward and Morace, 2010). Therefore, it is essential to have
understanding of different cultures as well failing to which there can be different errors and
mistakes that can lead to embarrassments and confusions. Hence, the intercultural
communication must be managed for which there are some of the methods which are as
follows:
Entail benefits: For managing the intercultural communication, the foremost requirement is
to entail its benefits to the workers. There are various benefits like, to solve any issue, there
may be the requirement of any special skill which may be possessed by people belonging to
different cultures. Therefore, by making a team of employees who have various skills will be
very helpful. Organisation of people who belong to different ethnicities and cultures may
exchange their views and ideas that will also help in respecting them (Ni and Wang, 2011).

Acknowledge differences: The managers of company should take the responsibility for
discouraging behaviour within workplace that can pose situation where employees make
discrimination among each other and preventing stereotypes as well. An effective leadership
will help to recognise the differences among persons belonging to different cultures. Thus,
the workers will also be able to understand the differences and make the most of it. The
leaders and managers may contribute for managing the diversity at workplace (Campbell,
2012).
Developing intercultural sensitivity: By organising the team in which the workers involved
belong to different cultures can be helpful in reducing differences between people. They can
be encouraged to accept these differences as a good opportunity to learn new things and
respect the differences. They can be made understand that these differences are not
threatening but a good opportunity to understand various differences. This will help workers
to gain knowledge and understand various differences. Besides this, it will also give them an
opportunity for sharing new ideas and experiences with each other. Thus, by adapting the
differences present within the workplace, they make a new way towards enriching their own
cultural identities and resolving complex situations (Zhu, 2011).
Focussing on behaviour: The process of managing the intercultural communication is
complex, which requires the involvement of all concerned persons. To create a productive
environment, the employees and other staff use to lay emphasis on behaviours rather than
attitudes. To deal with workers who belong to different cultures, managers encourage the
workers to use their words carefully and also not to judge them. Besides this, managers can
make use of different online surveys for the workers through which they can make an
investigation about their own strength and weaknesses. In addition to this, there is an
arrangement of conducting the seminars and simulation games that can help all the workers to
understand difference that lies in working in a new environment with different rules and
regulations (Hinds, Liu and Lyon, 2011). Thus, all these efforts help all employees to
understand the differences and behaviour at workplace which originates from the differences
existing among people belonging to different backgrounds.
CONCLUSION
The intercultural management is a recent need that is felt at each and every sector of
business specially that are involved in globalised operations. The report concludes that
importance of values is very apparent at workplace where an individual’s behaviour with his

peers and subordinates will be based on perceived values. On other hand the belief is related
with occurrences of our daily life. The experiences which are possessed by an individual,
helps in forming a particular belief of a person because of which they use to have a faith on
different happenings. In modern times, the companies want to have skilled workforce who
are able to work in effectual manner. For fulfilling this need, the enterprises use to recruit
people from diverse cultures and ethnicities. It has become necessary to understand and
develop the techniques which can help in coordinating and communicating with people of
different cultures effectively. Besides this, it has been articulated that it is essential to have
understanding of different cultures as well failing to which there can be different errors and
mistakes that can lead to embarrassments and confusions.

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