Managing across Culture

This essay examines the challenges and opportunities of managing across cultures in international business. It analyzes the impact of cultural differences on global virtual teams, leadership styles, motivation strategies, communication methods, negotiation processes, and decision-making practices. The essay utilizes frameworks like EPRG, Hofstede's cultural dimensions, and Hall's theory to provide insights into cultural nuances and their implications for effective management. It concludes with recommendations for fostering a successful cross-cultural work environment.

Managing across Culture

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Global virtual teams...............................................................................................................1
Globalization..........................................................................................................................2
Culture in international Management.....................................................................................3
EPRG Framework..................................................................................................................3
Hofstede framework...............................................................................................................4
Halls Theory...........................................................................................................................6
Leadership in Cultural differences.........................................................................................8
Motivation in Cultural differences.........................................................................................8
Communication in Cultural differences.................................................................................9
Negotiation in Cultural differences......................................................................................10
Decision making in cultural differences...............................................................................11
Recommendations................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Globalization in the recent modern era has been more influential on the economies of a
country and that is why the managers needs to be keep up with changes regarding to
technological and cultural factors. Cross cultural Management involves managing the work of
team in such a way which consider the differences in cultures, practices and preferences of the
consumers in an international context. The report main aim is to understanding the cross cultural
differences by using theories.
This report will describe the relevance and importance of understanding national culture
for an international business management. Further it also assesses the implication of managers in
order to managing the global virtual teams in an international environmental context. Further,
report will also explore implication of national cross culture for global managers in the terms of
communication, motivation, negotiation and decision making and then provide solutions as well.
Global virtual teams
Global virtual team is the broad concept which means that to a group of those individuals
who work together and come from different geographical locations and they also rely on
communication technologies. Their main aim is to work for the welfare of the company and
attain the goal.
Types:
 Network team: This team frequently creates and dissolved and it is usually formed to
discuss some specific topics from the area of members expertise. It is geographically
distributed and not necessarily for same organization (Abdelzaher, Fernandez and
Schneper, 2019).
 Pros: Global virtual team helps in retention of employees and reduce the cost and
Provides new opportunities and raise profit as well.
 Cons: Not possible for all organization to manage internationally.
 Parallel team: This team is highly task oriented and also have special professionals as
well and this is also required for shorter period. Even after completion of task, the team is
not dissolved.
 Pros: help to complete the task as early as possible.
 Cons: Creates conflict and due to less physical interaction, the team are sometimes delay
in achieving the goals,
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 Project development team: The team is geographically distributed and also operate
from various time zone. The quoted team is mainly focused on creating new products and
provide ways for better customer experience. Therefore, this is run for longer period as
compared to others.
 Pros: Increases productivity and access to multiple market as well (Pros and Cons of
Virtual team, 2017).
 Cons: Creates conflicts, lack of trust and collaboration.
 Service team: This is located in different timezone and company hire the team for
services such as customer support, data maintenance etc.
 Pros: It provides new opportunities and raise profit as well.
 Cons: Team members are adversely affected by lack of physical interaction
Challenges:
 Poor communication: this is the major challenge faced by the global virtual netwrok
team and it is considered the main factor that hinder innovation, effectiveness and
decision making (Ahlawat and et.al., 2016).
 Diverse Multicultural teams: Global virtual team constitute people from various ethnic
group with different cultures and as a result, the team members have conflict customs and
work habits and it is a major challenge of Project development team.
 Timezone difference: As member reside in different location, so time zone difference is
consider another challenge and it also creates lack of trust as well and it is the major
challenge of service team.
Globalization
Globalization is that process in which the people, companies and government are
interacted and it also helps in leading to increases interconnectedness of national economies.
From the past 30 years, it has been analyses that globalization is increases due to development in
Information Communication Technology, transport and communication. Further due to increase
in social media which mean that national boundaries become irrelevant due to use of new forms
of communication and marketing.
Culture in international Management
International Management: it refers to understanding the international economies,
leading changes in corporation who operates at international level and then creating global
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strategies as well. Further it also used when the firm operates its unit in more than one country
and requires to be familiar with business regulations and in this, the managers of the company
also have the ability to carry out transaction which may also involves multiple currencies as well
(Ang, 2019).
Culture: it is the social behavior and some norms that is found in human societies only.
Further it is a characteristics and knowledge of the particular group of people that also cover
language, religion, social habits, music and arts. In the global world, there are different cultures
and it is also varied from one state to another such that Western culture that is followed by
European, Eastern Culture that is followed by country of East Asia and many more.
National Culture: It is the set of norms, beliefs and customs which is existed in a
population of sovereign nation. In the same way, there are many international company that also
develop the management and other practices in accordance with the national culture.
EPRG Framework
EPRG is a framework which mentions various ways of managing relationship between
headquarters and its subsidiaries and it is also consisted of :
Ethnocentric: In this, a firm basically employs at home market strategies to reach at
international market and to adjust with the culture of that country as well. Such that promotional
activities, distribution strategies and personnel are also adopted in home country only
(Bogatyreva and et.al., 2019). Further, all the major plans for overseas a market are also
developed in company's headquarter only.
Polycentric: It has been analyzed that the firm adopt the marketing strategies from their
home country but many decisions are also altered as per the situation such as economic and
political instability etc and this affect the culture as well. This also provides a firm to manages
their operations independently and without any interference from their headquarters. Therefore,
it has been analyzed that each company has their unique business and marketing strategies in
order to be successful in a market.
Regio Centric: In this approach, the firm also treat the groups of countries with similar
characteristics as a single market and then decide the marketing strategy as well. If any
organization follow this then they first see the similarities and differences in the world and there
are some major differences between countries and to adjust with the culture of that country as
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well. For instance, Both Norway and Spain are in Europe but they have different climate, culture
and transport etc.
Geocentric: Geocentric companies are considered the best players and they view the
world as a potential market and also serve in effective manner and to adjust with the culture of
that country as well. These type of countries are clearly recognize similarities and difference
between the home country and international markets and then develops those approach which
helps to maintain a balance between home country and host market (Doney, Cannon and Mullen,
2018). Apart from this, different marketing strategies are not influence by the the host country's
preferences. That is why the firm is mainly adopt globalized marketing and then formulates an
integrated marketing strategy at global level in order to enjoy the economies of scale
Purpose: This theory help to manage the relationship with the headquarter and
subsidiaries such that if the company's headquarter in UK and it operates in different countries
then this theory help to manage the culture of the company with different countries.
Hofstede framework
The another cultural theory is stated by Hofstede in which he defined culture as a
collective programming of a mind that clearly differentiate the members of one group or a
category of a people from others. This also consist of many dimensions and this represent
independent preferences of one state over another that clearly distinguishes countries from each
other. These dimensions are as follows:
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Individualism versus Collectivism: it is the first dimension and the high side of this
dimension is actually called an individualism and it is also defined for a broadly knit framework
where the individuals are only take care of themselves and their families also with their own
culture (Hofestede Framework, 2017). But it does not mean they egoism which means that their
choice and decisions are expected, while on the other side, Collectivism means closeness. Such
that they represent the preferences for a tightly knit framework in a society where the individuals
are expect their relatives and member of an in-group in order to look after them in an exchange
of implicit loyalty with their culture as well. Moreover, in this situation, the society's position
also directly reflected in which the people's self- image is defined in the terms of their own.
Power Distance: this type of dimension is generally expressed the degree to which the
less powerful members of a society are accept or expected that a power is distributed unequally
(Hofstede, 2018). But the main issue in this dimension is such that how the society are basically
handled the issue of inequalities among peoples with the culture. Further, the people in a society
showing a large degree of Power Distance and they also accept a hierarchical order in which
everyone has a place and needs, where no further justification is required. On the other side, in
the societies where low power distance, people try to equalize the distribution of power and
further demand for justification for inequalities of a power as well.
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Long term orientation versus Short term Orientation: it is another importance
dimension that states that every society has to maintain some links from their own past when it
deal with a challenge of the present as well as future. That is why the society also make priority
of these two aspects i.e. long and short term orientation. In the context of a business, if the firm,
score low on a dimension then they take normative approach while deal with a change of a
cuture. On the other side, when they are deal with long term orientation, it follows pragmatic
approach and also encourages the system as well to lead a business for higher success.
The another cultural theory is stated by Hofstede in which he defined culture as a
collective programming of a mind that clearly differentiate the members of one group or a
category of a people from others. This theory is used to understand the differences in culture
across different countries and it is applied bu using different dimension such as Individualism
versus Collectivism, Power Distance, long term orientation versus Short term Orientation and
masculinity- versus femininity and uncertainty avoidance.
Advantages:
 This model is basically used in practical application.
 It also helps to determine the importance of cultural difference awareness (Huang and
Crotts, 2019).
 This is also used for international marketing as it defines the national values not for
business but for general as well.
Disadvantages:
 It is based upon inconclusive research that is consider the weakness.
 The theory is also not applicable in some company who operates at different country.
Halls Theory
This theory is developed by Hall in which the author presented different concepts which
arguing that human perception of space is patterned by a culture and this theory is for defining
and organizing space, which are further attribute in all people at an unconscious level. The main
idea of this theory is as mentioned below:
Context: It is further divided into two dimension, in high context culture, there are many
elements which help the people in order to understand the rules and it shows that it is taken for
granted. As it may be creates confusion for those peoples who are not able to understand the
unwritten rules of a culture. For example, the culture of France, Spain, Italy. On the other side
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another is Low context culture that is taken for granted very little and it also means that there is a
less chance of misunderstanding only when the visitors are presents (Jones, 2017). For example,
the culture with low context are Germany, Switzerland, USA.
Time: This is another dimension of hall theory in which the time is also divided into two
such that Mono-chronic time, in which Hall states that doing one thing at one time and it also
assumes a careful planning and scheduling. This is also familiar with Western approach that is
also appears in disciplines. If people follows this, then they face difficulties at initial level and
Germany, Switzerland is such countries who follows this culture. Apart from this, another is
Polychronous culture in which the human interaction is valued over the time and it also leading
to lesser concern for get the things done. Such that if people follows this, then they pay huge
attention to human relation and such culture are followed by America and Middle East.
Space: Business are also concern about the space in many situations such that space in
parking, space at home. It also refers to personal space. Such that the business also wants to
establish its unit at different countries and that is why they need space for developing a strategy
for complete the needs.
Similarities between Hall and Hofstede Theory: Both Hall and Hofestde theory are
based upon the culture which is followed by the company or a country. These theory helps to
understand the national culture for the context of international management. Another similarity is
such that Hall theory's context dimension is relied on individualism of Hofestede and both the
theory main aim is to understand the people and culture and how they work in different company
who follow diverse working culture (Lee, Howe and Kreiser, 2019).
Differences between Hall and Hofstede Theory: Both the theories are different from
each other because Hall theory is basically based upon the context, time and space while on the
other side Hofestde theory is based upon different dimension such as Individualism versus
collectivism, Power distance index and long term versus short term orientation. These all
dimension are based upon culture theory but they are also focused upon different criteria and
between both, Hofestede theory of culture is more popular and followed by the big as well as
small firm to make positive culture as compared to other. On the other side, Hall theory is more
complex to understand as compared to Hofestede and that is the main reason of not adopting Hall
theory in working area.
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Leadership in Cultural differences
Effective leaders of the company are basically recognized due to choosing the right style
for right situation in order to improve the success of a business. Moreover, the cultural tradition
and values are also plays an effective role in leadership. Apart from this, people who act in order
to maximize their personal gain then they behave as an individualist and by acknowledging those
differences, leaders are also improved the ability to function at the time of conducting business at
global level (Matsumoto and Juang, 2016). Therefore, leaders of a company must have the
knowledge or skills in order to remove culture differences at work place. This also helps to
improve the ability to function and take better decision for the company as well. For instance,
Marks and Spencer which is one of the leading retail company in UK and the leaders of the
company follow Bureaucratic style such that the leaders are set up their rules and they also keep
distance from the employees. But instead of this, they have to nurture employee and also accept
the mistakes. So that in this, individualist culture, leaders prefer to maintain professional
relationship.
It has been further analyses that leaders are the only who make the strategies successful
in a company and this is possible only through having a diverse workforce. Further, there are
many companies whose perception regarding the Cultural differences is wrong and it can be
corrected by leaders only if they are not bias.
Motivation in Cultural differences
Motivation is the positive key aspect that helps a business to raise its productivity and it
is also affected by differences in cultures. Working in cross cultural differences means that
generating more ideas that helps to lead a business towards success. In the same way, in this
modern era, the company also provide different training session to motivate their employees to
raise their productivity and there are many countries who uses variety of schemes in order to
provide motivation to their employees. Such that in Japan, they provide incentives to their
employees which is based upon the employee's qualification and record of services while on the
other side, in United States there is a specific pattern of incentives which is further depended
upon the company's structure and the industry characteristics (Triandis, 2018). These are some
examples, that helps to provide motivation to their employees on the basis of cross cultural
differences.
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In addition to this, big companies who operate a global level are also keep motivated their
worker and this is not based upon the beliefs and norms but it is mainly based to raise the
employees' performance that further help to attain the aim of a company at short period.
Therefore, organization also work or set up new ideas to organize training sessions in order to
raise their performance and It has been analyses that without discrimination, the company set
different schemes that assist to lead a business towards a success.
Communication in Cultural differences
Communication in business basically promote goodwill and also informs the employees,
customers about a company. It can be verbal or non- verbal and it has been analyses that sender
can only accomplishes successful communication if they posses a right attitude, it does not vary
from culture to culture. Further, it is also realized that through effective communication the
receiver can understand the exact need of sender and in the same way, in an organization, higher
authority also uses SMS or e-mails in order to convey their messages to the employees and it
also analyses the thought process of a firm.
Styles:
 Attitude: in an organization, wrong attitude communication generally fails to express
their feelings or needs and this also leads to misunderstanding but on the other side, it is
quite safe to speak when there is a conflict arises and this helps to avoid the challenge
(Williamson, 2015). This communication style express when the speaker speaks in loud
and maintain intense eye contact and this shows negative attitude. Apart from this, it
leads to make difference between employee and employer.
 Social Organization: this organization are generally provide the best communication to
their employees so that the right task is achieved in right time.
 Thought process: every manager and employees should follow the ethics of
communication. It is the notion that an individual' behavior are governed by the moral
that affect communication. Moreover, the communication in the working area may also
be affected by the though process as well.
 Role: if the leaders of the firm analyses their role and then communicate them so that it
directly show their roles and responsibilities in better way. The role also shows the exact
responsibilities of the employee in the working area.
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 Language: A good language commanding helps to present the message in right direction
with right person. Such that if the senders have good language then they delivered the
best communication to the receiver and they also complete the task as well.
 Non verbal Communication: This is an open communication link in which the sender
can express their own needs, desire as well as ideas by writing. Its main aim is to win in
situation and also balancing the rights over others.
Ethics: In working area, every manager and employees should follow the ethics of
communication. It is the notion that an individual' behavior are governed by the moral that affect
communication. Moreover, the communication in the working area should not affect the ethics
such that there should not be any talk related to religion, gender. Thus, the ethics of a
communication also states that there should be transparency in a communication and on the other
side, with unethical communication process, harm the environment and break laws as well.
Negotiation in Cultural differences
Negotiation in Cultural differences means that various activity in different cultures. Such
that if the company have diverse workforce that means there are employees who belongs to
different country and at that time they all faces some issues such that difficulties in languages.
Such that peoples belongs to different culture speaks different language and at that time, they are
so confused and they tend to struggle in order to understand. It has been analyses that there are
some countries who faces negotiation in cultural differences as a problem at that time, the
company who operates in those, should have active listening skills and at initial level they should
opt one common language for communication as well (Abdelzaher, Fernandez and Schneper,
2019).
In addition to this, cross cultural negotiation will also result in poor outcomes as
compared to intracultural negotiation, and different peoples negotiate in different way. On the
basis of international negotiation that says how one culture also look at a negotiation process that
is totally differ from another but as a result, it creates conflict in the process as well. Thus, a
formal and informal attitude, preference to win negotiating, desire to long term relationship or
just one time deal also creates difference during the negotiation due to cultural differences.
Decision making in cultural differences
Cultural differences also affect the decision making process for the company and creates
both positive as well as negative impact. Such that companies who are operating in USA is a
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culture of usually have flat structure while the company in German tend to have steeper
hierarchies. This also shows that people belongs to different culture have different ability to take
a decision such that as per Hofstede theory, individualism and collectivism are main factor that
affect the decision making process. It has been analyses that team attain goals of the company in
better and effective way as compared to individualism. Even it has been analyzed that if the
people possess good knowledge related to their own area and culture then it will help to take
better decision (Ahlawat and et.al., 2016). But on the other side, there is an area of difference in
the attitude towards status. Such that if the company have diverse workforce then they generate
different ideas for lead a business towards further level of success. For instance, TESCO who has
global presence and at the time of recruiting, HR does not discriminate the people because they
know cross cultural management will be helpful to take better decision for the company and the
leaders of the firm also have skills in order to tackle any complex situations.
Recommendations
From the above, it has been clear that cross culture creates both positive and negative
impact upon the business success. Therefore, it is recommended to every business to have
diverse workforce so that they will generate better ideas for the welfare of a company and also
helps in decision making process. Apart from this, it is also recommended that follow Hofsetde
and Hall theory in their working area so that there should be positive working culture and helps
in better decision making process. Further, the organization should make global virtual team so
that it will be help to attain the aim of a firm in better way as compared to work individually
because as per Hofstede individual and collectivism dimension it is already cleared.
In addition to this, it is also recommended that leaders ignore the culture difference and
must possess the good knowledge of foreign culture. Further, the leaders should also create clear
norms and also maintain them then it is the duty of the leaders to creates a successful cross
cultural team in order to clear the differences or conflicts among them. Beside this, to manage
cross culture in a firm, the managers or a leader should take steps to retain a culturally diverse
staff. Such that id management provides an opportunity for every individual in order to receive
recognize for their multicultural skills then they can avoid the outcomes as well.
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report it has concluded that cross cultural management plays an
effective role in every organization. Such that it has been cleared from the study that global
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virtual team are come from different geographical locations and they also rely on communication
technologies and by using different theory such that Hofstede and Hall theory, the managers are
successfully managing the global virtual teams for a particular international environment.
Further, study also concludes the notion of cultural difference with relation to leadership,
motivation, communication, negotiation and decision making.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abdelzaher, D., Fernandez, W. D. and Schneper, W. D., 2019. Legal rights, national culture and
social networks: Exploring the uneven adoption of United Nations Global
Compact. International Business Review. 28(1). pp.12-24.
Ahlawat, R. and et.al., 2016. Culture and HRM-application of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in
hospitality HRM. International Journal of Advanced Research in Management and Social
Sciences.5(12). pp.130-139.
Ang, J. B., 2019. Culture, Legal Origins, and Financial Development. Economic Inquiry. 57(2).
pp.1016-1037.
Bogatyreva, K. and et.al., 2019. When do entrepreneurial intentions lead to actions? The role of
national culture. Journal of Business Research.96. pp.309-321.
Doney, P. M., Cannon, J. P. and Mullen, M. R., 2018. Understanding the influence of national
culture on the development of trust. Academy of management review.23(3). pp.601-620.
Hofstede, G., 2018. Culture and organizations. International Studies of Management &
Organization. 10(4). pp.15-41.
Huang, S. S. and Crotts, J., 2019. Relationships between Hofstede's cultural dimensions and
tourist satisfaction: A cross-country cross-sample examination. Tourism Management. 72.
pp.232-241.
Jones, M. L., 2017. Hofstede-culturally questionable?.
Lee, Y., Howe, M. and Kreiser, P. M., 2019. Organisational culture and entrepreneurial
orientation: An orthogonal perspective of individualism and collectivism. International
Small Business Journal.37(2). pp.125-152.
Matsumoto, D. and Juang, L., 2016. Culture and psychology. Nelson Education.
Triandis, H. C., 2018. The many dimensions of culture. Academy of Management
Perspectives.18(1). pp.88-93.
Williamson, D., 2015. Forward from a critique of Hofstede’s model of national culture. Human
relations.55(11). pp.1373-1395.
Online
Pros and Cons of Virtual team. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.managementstudyguide.com/virtual-teams-advantages-and-
disadvantages.htm>.
Hofestede Framework. 2017. [Online]. Available through:<https://www.hofstede-
insights.com/models/national-culture/>.
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