Corporate Culture Practices in Ghanaian and Chinese Companies

Term Paper for International Students of IMIB
NAME OF STUDENT: AURELIA ASANTE
STUDENT ID: 31840133
NATIONALITY: GHANAIAN
SCHOOL: INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND ECONOMICS
DEGREE: MASTERS IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS -IMIB
SUBJECT: BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
LECTURER: YE WEIHUA
DATE: 01/03/2019

INTRODUCTION
Over the years companies worldwide have encountered difficult and dynamic business
environment mostly caused as result of insurgency in the area of technology, Influx of foreign
companies and competitions and unreliable market conditions etc. Aspridis et al., (2013) have
opined that the success of many organizations is chiefly among several factors due to the
emergence of a particular culture within the organization. This involves encouraging behavioral
flexibility, that is responsive and dynamic in nature and also look for actions and values which
seems to be optimistic and well structured, thereby promoting the optimum capacity usage of
human resources in an organisation (Belias and Koustelios, 2013).
Denison, (1990) defined the culture of an organizations to be “an underlying values, beliefs and
principles that serve as a foundation for an organization’s management system as well as the set
of management practices and behaviors that both exemplify and reinforce those basic
principles”.
Whereas culture can be seen in more than a few ways, the viewpoint taken here treats
organizational culture as a manageable internal variable. Therefore, organizational culture refers
to the set of norms, attitudes, values, and behavior patterns that form the core identity of an
organization or an operating unit within an organization. The theory of corporate culture implies
the values, norms and belief systems, that are fundamentally practiced in the corporate
environment (Denison, 1990).
Bakacsi, (2004) postulates that, in the day to day operation of small and medium sized
companies, most managers do not appear to find time to deal with corporate culture issues,

although it is believed to exist. Corporate culture grows from the foundation of a company and it
is influenced by external factors like national culture, industrial sector and technology and by
certain internal situations such as company size, management strategies, and decisions etc. It is a
continuously varying aspect of an organization, in which managers can make changes to better
suit their business strategy.
The culture that is often practice in a company to a large extent becomes an essential possession
to the company so as to reach an utmost potential (Chan et al., 2004). It is obvious that corporate
culture that is effectively managed will improve and contribute to the success of a company no
matter how long it takes and in effect brings out the variances that exist amid the achievement
and the disappointments in this modern competitive and challenging corporate environment.
Scholars like Denison et al., (2000) argued that an investigation be made into the procedures in
relation to the corporate culture in the setting of a diverse cultural background. However, the
practice of corporate culture primarily was learned by certain group since it has aided in
unravelling its external adaptation together with the internal integration which principally
considered to be valid and hence recommended to be learned by other members with the believe
that it remains the accurate ways and means to have perception, thinking and have a feeling with
regards to such problems (Aspridis et al., 2012). Delving into studies in the area of cross-culture
remain important since it assists, as a guide for companies with respects to what is been
considered to be the rightful decision that will assist the employees to know the correct way of
behaving in the organization and finding the proper way of communicating with others within
the organization; defines work group and team work; determines the speed and efficiency with
which things get done; and determines the organization’s capacity for and receptiveness to
change (Yilmaz and Ergun, 2008). Therefore, the purpose of this term paper, is to focused on the

corporate cultures in Ghanaian and Chinese companies. The Ghanaian company used was
Enterprise Group Limited and the Chinese company used was Zhen Ru Enterprise. This paper is
structured and put into four categories. The first category talks about the general introduction to
the study, followed by the review of the extant literatures on organisational culture, then the next
category deals with the thorough discussion on the corporate culture practices of the two selected
companies. And lastly the conclusion and recommendations of this paper is highlighted.
LITERATURE REVIEW
WHAT IS CULTURE?
According to Forehand and Gilmer, (1964) cultures essentially consider the real arrangement of
numerous forms of attributes which gives expression to companies and mostly differentiate the
companies from each other. Besides, culture of a specific company fundamentally deals with the
collectivity of thinking of minds that give a clear difference between persons of a certain group
from the other (Hofstede, 1980). Culture can also be termed as a gathering of different values,
attitudes and behaviour which can be viewed in controlling a set of organizations to a fruitful
accomplishment of a task (Shurbagi and Zahari, 2012).
LEVELS OF CULTURE
Mansoor and Tayib, (2010) explain that organizational culture comprises three diverse levels.
They describe the first level as the most noticeable which to them is predominantly characterized
by our conduct and the artifacts that are seen around us. Therefore, this level of culture consists
of the physical laying of the working environment; how employees and management dress at