Managing Across Cultures: Enhancing Cultural Understanding and Sensitivity

This report focuses on managing across cultures, enhancing cultural understanding and sensitivity, imperative of cross-cultural management, forming multicultural teams, and managing virtual teams. It discusses challenges presented by multicultural teams and decision-making norms.

Managing Across cultures

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................4
Managing across cultures.......................................................................................................4
Enhancing cultural understanding and sensitivity..................................................................6
Imperative of Cross-cultural management: Workplace Diversity.........................................6
Forming multicultural teams..................................................................................................7
Manage Virtual Teams...........................................................................................................8
Challenges presented by multicultural teams.........................................................................8
Hierarchy and authority challenges........................................................................................9
Decision making norms........................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................11
REFERNCES...........................................................................................................................11
Books and Journal................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Managing a cross culture include the capabilities to recognise and identify the
similarities as well as also helps them to identify differences between the nations and cultures
and then it tells them to approach key organisational strategy problems with them curies
mind-set as well as with an open mind set. Cross-cultural management is really important
because it supports the individual to interact and understand and a deal with the individual
who belongs to other cultures (Gallitano and Berson, 2018). Cross culture management is
very important for the international organisation because in order to improve their capabilities
it helps them to manage their across cultures. This report is going to focusing on the Different
aspects late how to enhance cultural understanding and sensitivity. Apart from those this
report also going to focusing on that different kind of activities and challenges that
represented by multicultural teams like communication, hierarchy and decision-making
norms and many more.
MAIN BODY
Managing across cultures
The management of a company enterprise that spans multiple cultures has a variety of
obstacles. In order for a manager to properly manage such a business, he must be well-versed
in the many cultures and traditions of the various personnel. The type of behaviour displayed
by employees is determined by their culture and customs. Ethnic background not only
promotes workplace togetherness, but it also influences how people react in the workplace.
Traditions encompass characteristics such as culture, education, family concerns, aesthetics,
and manners, and are so important in deciding worker well-being and performance. First of
all and importantly, any sort of issues of race, cultural preference, or cultural diversity must
be eliminated anytime a business employs its employees. Cross-cultural communications as
well as a comprehensive awareness of various cultural features are required for the company
to compete effectively. Customer and staff loyalty will both be boosted when successful
intercultural links are established. Making people aware has been the first part of managing
cross-cultural interactions. Monsieur Liataud must assess the group's capacity to create a
workplace where people, people of different cultural inclination, feel included within the
group's setup. The greatest managers must take advantage of the employees' various strengths
and abilities. By taking into account how people dress, resolving conflicts processes, and how

challenging topics are addressed. Employees' responses to some workplace situations are
influenced by their cultural differences. Institutional diversity is also essential since it
influences how the outside world views the organisation and its workers (Vomberg,
Homburg, and Gwinner, 2020). Many business blunders can be prevented by recognising the
cultural orientations of individuals in an organisation. Avoiding contact, for example, is
considered a sign of reverence sometimes in cultures and as a signal of weirdness in others.
While nodding is a show of cooperation in many civilizations, Asians perceive this as a sign
of disapproval. Recognizing these distinctions allows upper executives to exploit existing
variances to their advantage.
Cross-cultural management assists a company in dealing with individuals from
diverse diverse cultures. It's a requirement that has arisen as a result of workplace diversity.
The composition of the workplace is becoming widely diversified as a result of the rise of
knowledge amongst some of the working class, globalisation, and the easing of international
borders. Individuals from diverse classes, castes, genders, religions, and nationalities make up
the organisation. Cross-cultural administration aids us in comprehending visitors from
various cultures. It's crucial because today's businesses are becoming more global. Today's
managers must communicate with people from all over the world, many of whom have
cultures that are significantly different from their own. Organizations face a significant
difficulty in managing worker diversity. It will be useless if the management treats everybody
the same without first learning about their aspirations, wants, ambitions, and motivational
drive. To handle a varied workplace, a manager must conduct an in-depth investigation into
each individual's objectives and wants, resulting in a satisfied workforce. Creating family-
friendly rules like as flexible schedules and commuting, as well as giving multicultural
training and mentorship initiatives to staff, are some ways of managing diversity at work.
People in any organisation reflect a variety of cultural experiences, different
languages they know how to speak, the profession they practise, or the nation to which they
come, among other factors. People's perceptions, understandings, and communication of
ideas are all influenced by culture. Individual and organisational transactions may suffer as a
result of this. Circumstances can often be seen in very diverse ways by two individuals from
diverse cultures/countries. Laughter, for example, is associated with enjoyment in most
nations, while it is associated with perplexity, insecurity, and humiliation in Japan. When
speaking with an elder in India, staring at the floor or staring at the earth is also a gesture of
respect. In order to identify the dimensions that create impact on the leadership style of the

company and also create impact on the communication factors, decision making and many
more are below mentioned:
Hofstede’s 6 and Trompenaars’ 7 Cultural Dimensions
Hofstede cultural dimensions:
Power Distance Index: The degree of disparity between persons in positions of authority
and those who do not.
Individualism versus collectivism: The strength of person's bonds to their communities.
Masculinity versus femininity: Masculinity is defined as a standard for accomplishment,
bravery, aggressiveness, and accomplishment in society. Femininity, on the other hand,
represents a propensity for relationships, humility, care for the weak, and a high quality of
life.
Uncertainty Avoidance Index: How well people can manage with anxiety on a daily basis
and in their lives as a whole.
Long- versus short-term orientation: People in a culture have a different time horizon. The
word "long-term orientation" alludes to a more realistic approach to objectives, whereas
"short-term direction" emphasises immediate outcomes.
Indulgence versus restraint: The importance of having fun and enjoying life against
repressing satisfaction and regulating behaviour, i.e. looser versus stricter social norms.
Trompenaars’ 7 Cultural Dimensions
Universalism versus particularism: Putting a value on a set of established rules to decide
outcomes rather than selecting actions based on current circumstances.
Individualism versus communitarianism: Personal vs. communal accomplishments are
valued differently.
Specific versus diffuse: How people segregate their work and personal lives, and whether
inter-work interactions are seen as important to achieving work goals.
Neutral versus emotional: People's emotional expressions.
Achievement versus ascription: The value attached to one's employment status.

Sequential time versus synchronous time: Whether sequential occurrences are valued
(focusing on one project at the same time in sequence of deadline) or overlapped time
intervals are valued (working on several projects at once).
Internal direction versus outer direction: How humans interact with their surroundings
(i.e. does the environment control them or do they control their environment).
Low power distance culture has a decentralised leadership style with performance-
based rewards and compensation. Personal freedom and cohesive in-groups are measured
using the individualist-collectivist dimension. Identification, power, gender, ambiguity, and
time, as per Hofstede, are the five major aspects. Cultural importance dimension can be
thought of as a spectrum or a continuity, with one element of importance on one side and the
opposite extremity on the other (Warner, 2020)
Enhancing cultural understanding and sensitivity
In order to develop a cultural competence workplace, it is critical that the corporate
policy recognises that culture plays an important role in guaranteeing that the firm's activities
are coordinated consistently. As a result, chances must be created for workers to understand
about the perspectives and ethnic heritage of their co-workers. Monsieur Liataud can help to
generate and develop shared understanding with reference to the cultural identities that exist
in the firm by adding training programmes or organising perspectives for personnel.
Employees should be advised on the importance of learning and appreciating diverse cultural
variations present in the organisation by recognizing that cultural diversity are a valuable
feature of the organisation. Makes the employees feel at ease while speaking with their
coworkers, regardless of background backgrounds, is a big step in realizing employee
satisfaction. Monsieur Liataud must provide the essential equipment to his staff, such as
integration and awareness, so that they might understand the differences in culture in their
workplace and improve cooperation. Motivating people by training new abilities like as
communications, leadership, and teamwork is critical since it improves organisational
effectiveness and employee quality.

Imperative of Cross-cultural management: Workplace Diversity
Cross-cultural management helps an organisation deal with the occurrence of
individuals from one cultural upbringing engage and commerce with individuals from
different cultural background. Because of employee engagement, cross-cultural leadership
has become a need. During the industrial revolution, and for a long time afterward, it was
highly typical to have proprietors from the upper socioeconomic backgrounds and employees
who were entirely from the lower social backgrounds (Lippert and Dulewicz, 2018) The
population was once relatively similar in appearance and so culturally similar. The status of
the working population is becoming highly varied and inhomogeneous as a result of the
introduction of education among the working class, the dispersion of representative
democracy polities around the world, and the loosening of boundaries between countries and
regions. People from various socioeconomic groupings, classes, castes, genders, religions,
language groups, and nationalities currently work for the organisation. Companies face a
significant challenge in managing workplace, partially because it is critical to funnel precious
human resource into an unified group, and partially due to the growing recognition that a
varied workforce may be a competitive edge if properly exploited. Successful companies in
today's competitive environment must be able to successfully resolve issues, rapidly adjust to
changes circumstances, recognise new possibilities, and promptly capitalise on them. The
diversity of talent, expertise, and knowledge accessible in their labor forces can be used to
assess this capability. Successful firms acknowledge conformance to the existing norm as a
distinct disadvantage when hiring staff.
Due to the general effective and high nature of The business environment Objectives'
activities, cooperation is essential for this company. As a result, good management is needed.
There are a number of issues in terms of team member performance because they have
various perspectives on how duties should be completed. Fixing the time range under which a
certain activity will be accomplished is one of the most common arguments likely to occur in
team management. Such discrepancies have an impact on productivity levels, since certain
team members may be hesitant to provide information about the component's progress,
reducing effectiveness and competitiveness (Scott-Stevens, 2019). The cultural disparities
among the personnel play a significant role in the communication gaps. To prevent this issue,
Monsieur Liataud should make certain that all group members, importance of ethnic
inclination, receive detailed operational instructions from the project leaders or the CEO.
Diverse teams sometimes face unpleasant management challenges and conflicts, which, if not

addressed properly, can create significant barriers to teamwork. Team squeezes are
notoriously hard to spot due to their subtlety. As a result, recognising the fundamental
cultural characteristics that drive the clashes is a huge difficulty when leading ethnic teams.
Forming multicultural teams
Multicultural teams are very unique in the marketplace in context of personality
differences. In the multicultural teams the professionals as well as the cultural identity
support the organisation to identify the success or failure of the team. There are different kind
of organisation that is choosing as well as selecting The individuals in order to incorporate
and participate in the team. It is very essential for the individual as well as for the
organisation to consider their emotional intelligence and also consider and provide sufficient
assistance system. The team leaders of the organisation are required to possess global
competency especially in the context of cross cultural knowledge so that they can become
capable to acquire a high performing team. Since the team members of the organisation is
composed of individuals that acquired from different cultures then it has become very
important for the company to analyse and understand call business of the team and also
analyse the main reason of existence of the particular theme that is unifying factor. Apart
from this it is also very important for them to identify their individual personality because it
is very important for the team members that considered individual personality differences
because when the organisation doesn’t analysed in this kind of Differences results to in
flexibility as well as deficiency of understanding window tackling the team affairs. Apart
from this, and intellectual structure are required to put in the please so that they can become
gay people to explain the different management activities and styles that are available and
better usually in widely influence to my different kind of Culture and identify the
effectiveness of the particular team (Hollebeek and Rather, 2019).
Manage Virtual Teams
Establish work systems. Different people approach activities and tasks ways. Establishing
guidelines can help cut down on the time it takes to get a desired result. By setting guidelines
and establishing predictable work methods, the team will have less inquiries and will have a
better idea of how long specific jobs should take. These work methods must be both
standardised and personalised to provide for optimal efficiency and the flexibility to do the
task better as per their capacity.
Establish multiple communication equipment: It is very important for the individual as
well as for the organisation to develop and establish different kind of multiple

communication tools because it helps the team members to communicate with the other
members and communicate something which is very important to the right person. Secondly
it also helps them to communicate and convey message by using conference calls, screen
recordings in mini moon. It helps them to contribute towards creating that Internet is feeling
of togetherness saw that the individual can easily convey and share information in an
appropriate manner.
Make regular meetings a priority: Routine can be established by arranging meetings at the
very same time on the very same day. Routines establish a comfortable and familiar
environment for the team (Chatzipanagiotou, Christodoulides and Veloutsou, 2019). As a
result, the team is more relaxed and less stressed. Video calls are one of the most efficient
ways to increase productivity since they simulate the familiar office atmosphere that virtual
workers miss out on.
Make sure the deliverables are clear and precise: Typically, ordering others to do
something is not the preferred method of team management. Micromanaging isn't either,
however some bosses refuse to give detailed directions.
Make sure your working hours do not conflict: It is recommended to have at least 3 or 4
hours where every day the majority of the staff is available at the same time, irrespective of
just what time zone they are all in. Although some group members are unlikely to generate
each other's assistance in completing their jobs, staying available at the same time puts the
group back united and is the fastest way to solve a problem.
Establish a professional working atmosphere: Any company culture requires professional
clothes and a diversionary tactic workplace environment. Establishing performance ethics
also helps people be more productive and puts them in the correct attitude.
Choose the proper people to collaborate with: Not everyone is made out for working
remotely, and not everybody's character fits in with the team's. There are a variety of expert
personality tests available, and they're a useful tool in determining whether somebody is the
appropriate fit for someone. However, the best approach to evaluate whether somebody is the
right fit for you would be to ask oneself whether you will be certain about them.
Create a meritocracy system: Meritocracy encourages employees to work quicker and
improve by compensating and recognising them based on their abilities. Set up reward

methods to keep the motivation high and to help the individual to analyse and identify team
members who can take on extra responsibilities.
Make use of project management software: Project management software can help the
individual stay on top of commitments. They also offer deadline notifications and
notifications, as well as a daily, monthly, or yearly summary of what has to be completed, by
whom, and when . Google Docs, for example, could still be a valuable tool or equipment and
the same for time-tracking software.
Challenges presented by multicultural teams
Communication: In any kind of business Set up there are two kinds of
communication exist that is formal and informal. In most of the western countries as well as
western culture the communication General which are used by other person is formal.
Because interaction in most Western cultures is generally straightforward and clear, the
audience is not forced to the job of interpreting the significance of specific information. In
other cultures, the level of perception is determined by how an information is delivered. As a
result, when it comes to identifying requirements and preferences, cross-cultural discussions
may evoke multiple implications. When working with cross-cultural team members,
communication might be difficult. Some cultures, such as Japan's, emphasise discussion and
debating with the rest of the organisation and its stakeholders in order to ensure that the
resolution chosen is harmonised . as the japan country is following the dimensions and they
are required to focus on the multicultural competence. Apart from this they are required to
focusing on the collectivism and individualisms so that they can concentrate on the rights and
concerns of each person and stresses the significance of the community. As a result, reaching
a firm choice takes time. When group members have diverse ethnic orientations, some prefer
direct interaction while others prefer informal approach, substantial relationship harm occurs
(Johnson Saunders and Thayer, 2019). Trying to uncover and discussing unsolved difficulties
and arguments is prohibited in some cultures, thus finding an equitable settlement at this time
may be challenging. Significant information exchange is missed when communications
barriers exist within a team, and emotional disputes may arise. In these situations, isolating
the norm offender becomes the best option, which exacerbates communication. Pronunciation
and fluidity are important components of effective communication. Apart from this in order
to overcome the communication barrier the leaders or the individual can also concentrate on
the low text communication as well as on high text communication. Information is

continuously communicated by all members of the group in a high context culture attitude.
This communication style permits information to accumulate and be adjusted over time,
allowing for a high level of context to be maintained without the need of literal utterances.
While English is the global business languages, cultures have different tones, which can
make it difficult to understand what is being said. For example, a member of the team of
Latin American origin may become crippled throughout group talks because he lacks the
necessary terminology and words to effectively convey their opinions due to lack of
communication skills. As a result, even if one has a lot of good ideas to share with the team, a
communication barriers can make exchanging information difficult. As a result, the non-
fluent individuals' knowledge may not be utilised due to their incapacity to express it.
Frustration and impatience with members who refuse to come up with new ideas might lead
to personal problems. In most cases, a multinational team's performance suffers as
individuals who aren't proficient lose motivation and become increasingly concerned about
their careers.
Hierarchy and authority challenges
A team's structure is common, with no individual assuming any sort of authority.
Multicultural organizations are confronted with the problem of some societies attaching
particular treatment based on their position in the organisation. When other team members do
not give them special privileges, such members' performance suffers. When dealing with
high-status teams that include individuals from collectivistic cultures, such individuals'
behaviour may be judged acceptable, however when the majority of the citizens are from an
egalitarian culture, such behaviour may be considered unacceptable. For example, in Mexican
culture, everyone emphasises humility, so answers to the questions are usually offered in the
form of a question. The team members whose orientation calls for a much more encourages
people to follow may mistake such a strategy as disregarding the problems under
consideration. As a result, hierarchical issues may be misinterpreted as disrespect, reducing
the team's production efficiency. Because Korean societies are based on authority,
disturbances are inevitable if the standard procedure is not followed (Gautheron, Rochat and
Cristia, 2022).
Decision making norms
Every culture has different kind of norms and policies that helps them to take this
season in the country. It is very important for the every country as well as every members to
allow minor concessions as well as adjust in the different kind of decision-making process so

that they can adapt the modification and adapt decision-making norms in order to work on
that particular country. Apart from this it also helps them to avoid possible confrontations and
helps them to enhance their Capabilities so that they can easily overcome the problems that
are facing by them. When it comes to the decision-making procedure, every culture has its
own set of rules. There are common differences in the quantity of discussion needed to
effectively make a choice, as well as the time limit necessary to reach a decision. Some
cultures, such as the United States, are famous for creating snap decisions with little
consideration or collaboration with other team members. Even on previously discussed
issues, some members may require more consultation. This raises disagreements among the
members, particularly if they would have previously agreed on the course of action to be
taken. Some group members might fail to communicate critical information until they have
fully synthesised it and have a thorough picture of the entire projects to work on due to
different cultures. As a result, members of the team must make slight sacrifices and
accommodate to members' differing decision-making procedures. Short, regular updates
might help a restless member of the team stay concerned with issues at hand by giving him
the idea that things are improving. Other societies that engage in ongoing conversations
before reaching a choice should state so explicitly to minimise potential conflicts.
Many businesses, such as Business Objects, have expanded and consolidated their
operations across multiple nations as a result of the global economic revolution, making
cross-cultural hiring necessary. Though diverse workplace relationships bring a number of
obstacles, such as a lack of comprehension of values and traditions, it is critical that
multicultural instruction be implemented at such organizations in order to increase resources
of the firm. Employees can gain intercultural competence through education, allowing them
to adjust peacefully across cultural divides and avoiding stereotypes that could stifle the
global market's efficacy(Banerjee and Chiu, 2018). As a result, cross-cultural management
should strive to bridge the communication gap that exists between employees' cultural
dimensions, particularly when working in groups. In order to overcome the problems and
challenges it has become very important for the organisation to hire and work on expatriate
because it is very important and expect it’s learn to recognise and analyse the diversity of the
local market situation in different territories and helps the organisation to double of the
leadership and interpersonal skills in order to manage and collaborate with multicultural
teams. Apart from this there are few recommendation in order to avoid problems for
expatriates that are below mention:

 It is very important for the company to find appropriate employees with the rights of
the skills and choosing an employee with a supportive family.
 It is also recommended to the organisation to have comprehensive global health
insurers and insure a supportive environment in the company in order to create
positive environment and achieve their goals and objectives.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report it has been analysed that Managing a cross culture
is very important for the individual as well as for the country because it helps their individual
to analyse and deal with people who belongs to the other culture. It is also very important for
the Organisation and for every individual because there are different kind of organisation
who are operating in the international level so it is very important for the for the boys to
analyse of all the different cultures or not they can improve their connections with another
people in work effectively and with collaboration In order to achieve their goals and
objectives. There are different kind of a strategy is that Adopted by the individual children
they can become gay people to manage different cultures like overcome language and culture
be viewers, allow appropriate time whenever their team requires it, consider different kind of
cultural communication styles, organise a cross-cultural training and many more. Apart from
this they’re different kind of challenges that are fixing my other individual in context of this
isn’t making norms, in context of authority challenges, communication and many more.

REFERNCES
Books and Journal
Gallitano, S.M. and Berson, D.S., 2018. How acne bumps cause the blues: the influence of
acne vulgaris on self-esteem. International journal of women's dermatology, 4(1),
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Vomberg, A., Homburg, C. and Gwinner, O., 2020. Tolerating and managing failure: An
organizational perspective on customer reacquisition management. Journal of
Marketing, 84(5), pp.117-136.
Warner, M. ed., 2020. Human resource management in China revisited. Routledge.
Hagy, J., 2021. Managing global property portfolios, transactions and teams: A primer for
corporate real estate executives—Part 2: Communications. Corporate Real Estate
Journal.
Lippert, H. and Dulewicz, V., 2018. A profile of high-performing global virtual teams. Team
Performance Management: An International Journal.
Scott-Stevens, S., 2019. Foreign consultants and counterparts: Problems in technology
transfer. Routledge.
Kumara, R.D.R., 2018. The Impact of Costume Color of Women’s Sports on Men’s
Attraction: Managing Color of Costume in Marketing Management
Perspective. IJASSH.
Chatzipanagiotou, K., Christodoulides, G. and Veloutsou, C., 2019. Managing the consumer-
based brand equity process: A cross-cultural perspective. International Business
Review, 28(2), pp.328-343.
Hacker, J.V., Johnson, M., Saunders, C. and Thayer, A.L., 2019. Trust in virtual teams: A
multidisciplinary review and integration. Australasian Journal of Information
Systems, 23.
Hollebeek, L. and Rather, R.A., 2019. Service innovativeness and tourism customer
outcomes. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

Banerjee, P.M. and Chiu, C.Y., 2018. Professional biculturalism enculturation training: A
new perspective on managing the r&d and marketing interface. In Current topics in
management (pp. 145-160). Routledge.
Gautheron, L., Rochat, N. and Cristia, A., 2022. Managing, storing, and sharing long-form
recordings and their annotations. Language Resources and Evaluation, pp.1-33.