Managing Across Cultures: Challenges and Solutions

This document discusses the challenges faced by global managers and multicultural work groups in managing across cultures. It explores the case study of American Biotechnology, Inc. (ABI) and provides solutions to overcome these challenges. Topics covered include cultural competency, organizational culture, communication, evaluation, leading, deciding, disagreeing, persuading, scheduling, and trusting.

Running head: MANAGING ACROSS CULTURES
MANAGING ACROSS CULTURES
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note:

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Task 2- Reflection
In order to develop the cultural competency through education, I have found out that
people amalgamation of the institutional culture and personal culture is very much necessary. In
this course I have come across different layers of national culture that directly gets involved with
the culture of the organization. Developing cultural competency helps to understand the set of
behavior, beliefs and attitudes of the people having different cultural background (Hsu, Feng and
Hsu 2016). I think this development process needs to be started from the elementary level. In
order to share my experience of developing cultural competency I would like to follow the
Kolb’s experiential learning style (Tomkins and Ulus 2016).
During this course I have developed perfect knowledge of the differences in cultural
values, beliefs and norms in different cultures of the world. I have communicated with the other
students coming to my home country for studies and other reasons. Through this personal
contract, I have gained concrete experience about their style of thinking. Moreover, I have
worked with the team where some of my team members had other cultural background.
Therefore, I have directly experienced their way of thinking and decision making. This process
of reflective observation has helped me to think more deeply about my experience in the course
and how I have managed myself more effectively when exposed in a multicultural state.
Moreover, I have reflected on the course work that detailed theories of cultures of different
countries and how these affect the work culture of an organization.
Through abstract conceptualization, I have gained knowledge about the skills one need to
acquire for operating in a multinational company successfully. I have understood there are some
parameters based on which the effeminacy of the employees is determined in the era of
globalization. In addition to this, I have also understood that the national culture of the countries

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determine how they will be attracting the cross-cultural institutions for doing business in their
land. I have gained knowledge about the requirement of skills I need to develop for attaining
cultural competency is the interest to know about the positive sides of the cultures and respect
those. Though knowing the language, values and norms of those cultures will help me to observe
a successful understanding of those cultures and I will be able to gain trust of my peers with
other cultures.
Finally, the active experimentation process of applying my skills like trying to reach
people with different ethnicity through their preferences, proper communication and self-
monitoring. These skills have helped me a lot in this course and helped me to build relationship
with other peers irrespective of their cultural background. Through these measures I have
developed my cultural competency in this course.
Task 3- Case study analysis
1. Challenges and responsibilities of global managers
The company referred, in this particular case, namely American Biotechnology, Inc.
(ABI) mainly operates in the international market. This company has chosen the biotechnology
industry which is one of the fastest growing one in the entire world of business. ABI already has
operated successfully in the markets of England, Germany, Argentina, and Japan. Therefore, it
knows all the functionalities and requirements of the international firms and copes up challenges
related to cross cultural management successfully. However, the company has aimed to capture
of the biotechnology market of Korea so that along with Japan, another important market of Asia
can be seized.

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In this regard, the company has entered the market of Korea through joint venture with
Hangul Business Group or HBG which is a reputed enterprise based in Seoul. This partner
company is headed by a Korean entrepreneur named Lee Seung-Ho who has strong political
connections and huge experience in conducting the business in the market of the country. ABI
therefore, initiated this Korean-American business cooperation with the name Am Kor
Technologies. Unlike other international corporations, this company also has a proper structure
which records equal positioning of the managers and bureaucrats according to their experience
and requirements of this venture.
Perfect structuring of a new company is always essential when it has been working in a
completely new market. In this regard the global managers face the issues like different culture,
values, understating, style of decision making and maintain of relationship. All the international
companies therefore, aim to mix up with the culture of the host market through giving
advantages to the local employees so that it gains proper idea how to survive the competition in
the market or how to reach a greater number of customers (Van Vliet 2017). On the contrary, it
also aims to maintain its individuality so that the quality of the products and services do not lose
their uniqueness, otherwise the joint venture will fail and the company will gradually become
native without any difference from a local company. Therefore, the company structure bears both
the native as well as expatriate staffs mainly to balance the sales and marketing in one hand and
production on the other. The position of the president of AmKor is hold by the eldest son of the
founder of HBG, namely Lee Sanghoon who has proper degree of business from an American
University and working experience in the Korean market. As he had a little experience in the
biotechnology industry, the operation of the company is mainly managed by an American
manager named Mathew Davenport. In addition to this there are five Korean Senior Managing

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Directors who take care of the functional areas such as local manufacturing, finance and sales in
the market of Korea. Along with the Korean staffs there are some American employees also who
mainly operate in the production department and possess all the required understanding of the
Korean organizational culture.
As mentioned before, particular understanding of the organizational culture of the host
country is much needed for a company to flourish. This is the reason why AmKor has engaged
Alan Bird who is well accused with the socio-cultural aspect of Korean market. Hence, he is
especially important for the perfect operation of AmKor in the market of Korea. However, this
particular manager of the company has a special regard for the culture, society and religious
practices of Korea which in one hand benefitting the operation of the company but one the other
hand creating barriers for implementing needed policies or terminating any local staffs in lieu of
incapability. This has become one chief problem for the company as it cannot directly handle the
situation especially when Bird is so much engrossed with his Korean identity and family, nor it
can lose its prized employee like Bird. Therefore, the operational manager has decided to transfer
Bird in the head quarter which is situated in the US so that he can revive himself in his own
culture and end being the representative of Korean staffs in this joint venture. This will also let
the company to operate in the market without paying much heed to the local staffs.
Therefore, it can be stated that as a global manager Davenport is facing numerous
problems all related to the operation of the company and not getting support from his fellow
manager Alan Bird. The main problem that the global managers face is related to the culture of
the partner company with which Bird has so much absorbed that whatever, Davenport is
deciding, he is opposing. Initially the company did not have any problem with the attitude and
actions of Bird as he was successfully performing his responsibilities which included the

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problem solving of major local customers, negotiating with the Korean government officials,
attending the trade meetings and conducting all the marketing research projects (Fombad 2015).
He also helped Davenport with regular administration of AmKor. Gradually he started to use the
local language more, stop taking leave to visit his homeland and married a Korean woman to
maintain close social tie with the Koreans. Being a global manager, Davenport therefore, losing
popularity as Bird seems to support the Korean work culture to be prevailed in AmKor rather
than balancing it.
Being a global leader therefore, Davenport facing the challenges like gap in
communication, improper evaluation of the position, lack in employee performance and
increasing employee satisfaction (Betancourt et al. 2016). As the issue is closely tied to the
socio-cultural ground based on which the managerial conflicts are gaining size, introduction of
innovation and new ideas for facilitating economic development are not taking place. Davenport
is also not getting any support from the president of AmKor as he is a Korean hence has different
point of view from that of an American. Therefore, unlike other global manager, Davenport is
also not being able to try new things as he lacks power to make a final decision and eliminate the
threats for Amkor’s future development (Wang et al. 2015). This disorganized conflict resolution
method and conflicting corporate culture has affected the capability of Davenport who never
faced such issues while working in the similar position in the company’s venture in Argentina.
Similar problem is also faced by Bird as he has operated in both the organizational culture and
have experience of performing his responsibilities successfully in both the cases. From the point
of view of Alan Bird, his own work culture that is American seems to be authoritative therefore,
he needs to mitigate them so that these never impact on his hard-built relationship with the local
staffs as well as customers (Bartel-Radic and Giannelloni 2017). These challenges if not

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managed immediately can affect the operation of the company and it will lose ground in the
Korean market in no time.
2. Challenges of multicultural work groups and teams
As the cultural dimension theory of Hofstede opines, the national culture of the countries
affects the organizational cultures also. From this point of view, the organizational culture of
Korea is in many ways different from that of the US (Bird and Mendenhall 2016). As the
company is amalgamating the operations of two parent companies with completely different
work culture, faces numerous issues and all of them are associated with the multicultural work
groups and teams. Unlike the US, Korea is hierarchical society and follows the confusion theory
of honoring the seniority than capabilities of the people (Stahl and Tung 2015). Therefore, when
Davenport wanted to implement the western style promotion policy, the call Korean employees
opposed him. The local teams went against the new demands of global competition for high
performance corporation (Bird and Mendenhall 2016). This conflict has created barrier in
ensuring a highly performing, motivated and competitive human resource in the firm.
Along with this, the firm has also faced the issues related to communication, evaluation,
leading, deciding, disagreeing, persuading, scheduling and trusting (Wang et al. 2015). The
communication of the Korean team members is implicit. This is why they do not directly share
their views to Davenport but let Bird to understand their perceptions as he is well acquainted
with the norms, values, and management practices of Korean teams. The challenges of
multicultural teams regarding rigidity in introducing new changes in the organization is also seen
in AmKor. Davenport aimed to promote women in the traditionally male managerial ranks but
sharply opposed by the traditional thinking process and rigidity of the organiostioanl culture of
Korea. The indulgence factor which can be found in the American workplaces, is absent and it

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does not support any revolutionary change in the company (Ang and Van Dyne 2015).
Therefore, any progressive American company can become a local one losing its international
identity.
Finally, the persuasion process in a multicultural team is quite critical. As different
members have different cultural background, values and understanding, pursuing all of them into
one decision is difficult (Bird and Mendenhall 2016). Therefore, when Davenport initiated to
terminate one of the Korean managers for his lack of leadership and competency, he faced
contradiction from Bird who stopped the process by defending that accused manager. From the
analysis it can be understood that Bird as have special regard for the culture, society and religion
of Korea, can pose serious problem for the company. He has been taking initiative in support of
the Korean employees rather than remaining neutral in every process and perform his duty to
maintain healthy relationship among the staffs of both the cultures. Davenport has already found
out that the traditional outlook of the Korean people is gradually changing and the rigidity
regarding the organizational culture is shifting to positive changes. Therefore, without showing
sympathy towards the Korean employees, the company needs to empower them so that they can
be more competitive and capable.
Solution
As there is a dilemma regarding the transfer of Alan Bird, the both the heads of the parent
companies need to have serious discussion on the mater. This is due to the fact that Bird has
successfully become the representative of the Korean staffs in AmKor therefore, if he leaves the
American managers can face big issues like employee unrest which will affect the internal
operation of the company and competitors will get an advantage which will affect the external
condition of AmKor. Despite the fact that this progressive American company can become a

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local one losing its international identity, Bird must not leave the company. In order to find
solution, Davenport can follow some very important policies.
Firstly, he takes care of the day to day operations of AmKor therefore, he must show a
willingness to communicate with the ground level employees who mainly are the locals
(Adekola and Sergi 2016). He must not depend upon the person like Bird who can falsely
represent the expectations of the locals to the higher authority this create false impression of the
locals to higher authority and vice versa.
Secondly, Davenport must initiate a training process through which the American staffs
will get to know the organizational culture of Korea and locals will know their American counter
parts. The management will be able to form relationships with the ground staffs (Adekola and
Sergi 2016). This will make them understand why the company aims to being changes in
different aspects of operation. With good cross‐cultural communication and language skills, the
management will mingle with their local colleges and dependency on Bird will be reduced.
Finally, through the cultural counselling, Davenport and other managers both local and
expatiates can develop flexibility and open‐mindedness about other cultures. This will enable the
company to impose new policies without much oppose from the cross-cultural teams and
develop ability to cope with the pressure of new conditions. Thus, the company will be able to
amalgamate both the culture truly and enhance diversity in the workforce. AmKor’s native as
well as expatriate staffs will be able to balance the sales and marketing in one hand and
production on the other as they will share knowledge and healthy professional relationship.

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