Cross-Cultural Management: Expatriation Challenges in Brazil

This essay provides an analysis of cross-cultural management in the context of expatriation to Brazil, focusing on social adjustment and business practices. It highlights the similarities and differences between Brazilian and Dutch business cultures, emphasizing Brazil's sophisticated yet relaxed approach, the hierarchical decision-making process, and the importance of building positive relationships. The essay also touches on the social norms and practices of Brazil, including openness, inclusivity, and the influence of Catholic culture, while acknowledging the increasing diversity due to globalization. Ultimately, the analysis concludes that Brazilian business and societal cultures are approachable and prioritize positive relationships in the work environment.

Running head: CROSS-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT
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The process of managing work adaptability and work teams in the scenario of
different culture, performances and practices in international or global business context is
known as cross-cultural management. The purpose of the paper is to present an analysis of
the expatriation to Brazil. The analysis will be facilitated based on the aspects like, social
adjustment and business practices.
The fundamental principles of Brazil can be easily accepted as it reflects few
similarities in the factors like openness towards new business opportunities and strategic
implication. Brazilian business culture is considered to be sophisticated and relaxed.
Brazilian prefers being patient and in control (Adekola & Sergi, 2016). The differences lies
between the hierarchical structures of decision making, as in Brazil the decision making is
solely practiced by the higher-ranking manager or official, which leads to long waiting period
(Vom Brocke & Mendling, 2018). The system is different from Netherlands business
practice, the decision-making period takes longer but due to the involvement of employees
from all levels of organizations for deducing a fair benefit (Crane et al., 2019). The business
culture in Brazil includes the practices of building positive relationship by giving priorities to
discussion about music and sports unlike the scenario in Netherlands.
The social activities includes usage of hand gestures for facilitating informal
communication for expressing oneself. Social norms and practices includes openness and
inclusivity, which leads to warm personalities in the community structure (Green, Langland
& Schwarcz, 2018). The societal frame of Brazil is concentrated on the Catholic culture with
around 65 percent population (Green, Langland & Schwarcz, 2018). However, with
increasing globalization and internationalization of business, diversity has become the
integral part of the societal structure of Brazil.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the Brazilian business and societal culture reflect
openness and approachable with the sense of importance for the factor of building positive

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relationship in the work environment. The societal culture of Brazil reflects openness as the
business culture with the factor of inclusivity.

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References:
Adekola, A., & Sergi, B. S. (2016). Global business management: A cross-cultural
perspective. Routledge.
Crane, A., Matten, D., Glozer, S., & Spence, L. (2019). Business ethics: Managing corporate
citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Green, J. N., Langland, V., & Schwarcz, L. M. (Eds.). (2018). The Brazil Reader: History,
Culture, Politics. Duke University Press.
Vom Brocke, J., & Mendling, J. (2018). Business process management cases. Digital
Innovation and Business Transformation in Practice. Berlin et al.: Springer.