Report: Cross-Cultural Challenges Faced by International Managers

This report delves into the cross-cultural challenges faced by international managers, examining issues in recruitment, team management, and communication within diverse global teams. It highlights the difficulties recruiters encounter when assessing candidates from different cultural backgrounds, including variations in resume formats, soft skills, and behavioral norms. The report discusses the challenges expatriate managers face, such as communication barriers and cultural misunderstandings, and references the Hofstede and Lewis models for understanding cultural differences. It further explores the skills and abilities necessary for successful international managers, the use of multivariate analysis in recruitment, and acculturation issues related to expatriation and repatriation. The report emphasizes the importance of understanding cultural values and norms to effectively manage and lead cross-cultural teams, ultimately aiming to provide insights into navigating the complexities of global business environments.

Running head: CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO INTERNATIONAL MANAGERS
Cross Cultural Teams: People Issues in Global Business
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1CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO INTERNATIONAL MANAGERS
Management summary
Recruiters and managers are tested for their assigned job related responsibilities. Recruiters are
tested at the time of recruitment due to ample of factors such as cultural norms and values.
Cultural values and norms are different in different countries. The difference can be observed in
resume formats. Chinese people for example describe very limited information in their resume
and are not overstated as well. On the other hand, Americans are very expressive and overstated
as well. Additionally, soft skills and behaviours are also different in different cultures. Therefore,
it is very challenging and difficult to judge the best match for the vacant positions. Recruiters,
therefore, must have skills to understand the diverse behaviour and make the justified decision
which is ethical as well. Managers, on the other hand, face the challenge in variety of other types
such as communication barriers, training challenges and discrimination issues. Expatriate
managers are likely to face the communication barriers or those who prefer working for either
short-term or long-term depending on their personal needs and desires in abroad locations. The
expatriate managers can even struggle to understand the cultural values and norms of local
employees. If countries are geographically closer and have a very minimal or probably no
significant difference in cultures, the expatriate managers in such case will not face the
challenge. However, if two locations are geographically separated and have different cultures
such as America and the Asian countries, the expatriate managers are likely to face the ample list
of challenges in managing the cross-cultural teams.
The Hofstede and the Lewis model of cross-cultural behaviours present a very good
understanding of the variety of cultures which exist in different parts of world. However,
Hofstede may not be universally true and valid in the contemporary world. For example,
Australia is a country where ethnic groups, indigenous people and people from other parts of
world exist. They have different cultural backgrounds than the locals in Australia. The Hofstede
model covers the cross-cultural behaviours based on an organisational setting. However,
individuals can have different set of cultural values and norms. Hofstede does not cover all such
factors. It is specifically based upon the countries, not on people. Hence, it is very unsafe to
consider the Hofstede model to understand the cultural diversity that exists at the workplace.

2CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO INTERNATIONAL MANAGERS
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Body.............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Challenges in recruiting and effectively managing the cross cultural teams.........................4
2.1.1 General background........................................................................................................4
2.1.2 Outlining the plan of the rest of the essay......................................................................5
2.2 Likely issues for expatriate managers from the perspectives of Hofstede and others...........5
2.3 Skills and abilities for successful international managers.....................................................7
2.4 Use of multivariate analysis in the recruitment of international managers...........................8
2.5 Acculturation issues in expatriation and repatriation of international managers..................8
3. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

3CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO INTERNATIONAL MANAGERS
1. Introduction
Cultural diversity is a common phenomenon at the organizational level. There are hardly
any restrictions in any country for foreigner workers. The globalization effect, personal needs,
passions to work in abroad locations and much other have all compelled people to move to
global locations. There has been a good drift of people moving to find the employability
solution. They are getting the jobs as well. However, such things have created worries for the
global management (Thomas and Peterson 2017). Managers, in particular, are tested for their
patience and leadership behaviour. The highly competitive scenario at the global level provides a
very less time to make a decision. Managers are often surrounded by numerous other challenges
and they normally expect a cooperative workforce. However, this is indeed challenging and
hardly realistic. Managers in such circumstances are not even sure of whether any decision of
theirs will be acknowledged or else. They are bound to get the conflicting beliefs of the diverse
workforce (Bird and Mendenhall 2016).
Considering the fact stated above, it is understandable that organizations with better
control on their diverse cultures have the good chances of performing well. A plan never works
until and unless it is implemented in the system. The implementation will happen once each of
the employees has agreed to the fact. The agreement to a plan brings back the learning process
which is basically required for implementing the single of the thought process. The learning
process means the flow of knowledge from one level to another (Binder 2016). For example, the
implementation of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) will require the support of
trained workforce and also the technical experts from the service providers. The trained
workforce is attained with the help of giving training to the selected members. Technical experts
do take care of the implementation process whereas the trained workforce is responsible for
taking care of the post-implementation operation to avoid any unnecessary expenses. These all
processes just state that implementation of any thought process is a systemized process which
requires the utter supports from the required members (Adekola and Sergi 2016).
Therefore, the study is aimed at understanding the challenges of managing the cross-
cultural teams in the global organizations. The study also inspects the challenges to the global
managers.

4CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO INTERNATIONAL MANAGERS
2. Body
2.1 Challenges in recruiting and effectively managing the cross cultural teams
2.1.1 General background
Cross cultural teams create the problems for managers and the recruiters. People
belonging to one nation have a different set of cultural practices which differ from that of the
people from other cultures. The role of the recruiter is not just confined to asking a few sets of
questions to the aspirants. It is rather extended to a wider dimension. Recruiters are also required
to judge the body language which expresses the hidden things within the aspirants. However,
such skills of recruiters may be extremely tested while recruiting a cross-cultural team. For
example, those who are not a proficient speaker of English language they may be delivering a
few of their cultural terms. This may be problematic for the recruiters as they might not be
versed with such phrases or they do not have the sufficient resources to understand it from
elsewhere. If such situation happens the recruiters will then have no clues on how to overcome
the circumstances (Moran, Abramson and Moran 2014).
Soft skills and behaviour is another issue that generally arises while dealing with the
cross cultural teams. Aspirants in most Asian countries are not very open for revealing their
achievements while the Americans will generally speak of their achievements. They have their
tendency to prove their potentials. Americans can also overstate their achievement just to grab
the opportunity while most Asian people would stick around their potentials only. Americans can
be found as showing their utmost interest for the job they are applying for. They may be
dishonest to their participation and might give an attempt to prove them as the fittest person for
the position (French 2015). In all such circumstances, recruiters will be tested for their capability
to read the body language, understanding the unrevealed facts and more.
Managing the cross cultural team is even more challenging than recruiting them.
Recruitment is a onetime process whereas managers have to deal with such team on a routine
basis. The diverse cultures that exist in the workplace have different values and norms (Dragoni
et al. 2014). People have the tendency built up in them for not to go against their values and
norms. They work in foreign companies to serve their distinguished purposes and hence, few of
them are just confined to fulfilling their purposes. The rest others also have the tendency to hang

5CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO INTERNATIONAL MANAGERS
around their norms and values. For example, the Asian people are more or less famous for their
hard-works whereas the Australians believe in working intelligently. They are not the hard-
workers. They are rather the smart workers (Neal 2016). These are just a few differences in
values and norms in between the two cultures; however, there are the lists of other differences as
well. Considering the fact as stated about the values and norms in the Asian and the Australian
employees, it is understandable that managers need to work separately on how to utilize their
diverse workforce. They are not just supposed to work on making the strategic plans for
performance improvement. They also need to deal with the diverse cultures and get the best work
done from them. The management expertise is tested the most when the diverse people work as a
team for a project. The managers might face the challenge on how to effectively lead the project.
Such projects normally have the coordination issue between the people and people with the
managers (Lisak and Erez 2015).
2.1.2 Outlining the plan of the rest of the essay
The essay progresses with identifying the issues which the expatriate managers can face
at the global organizations. It also covers the skill sets and the persona abilities which is
mandatory for the international managers. It further focuses on recruiting the international
managers for which it covers the multivariate analysis. Moreover, the essay also finds the
acculturation issues in repatriation and expatriation of the international managers.
2.2 Likely issues for expatriate managers from the perspectives of Hofstede and others
Geert Hofstede had presented a framework to understand the cross-cultural behavior.
The framework is known as Hofstede’s cultural dimensions which have extensively explained
the cultural differences across the borders. The dimensions of Hofstede are of six types such as
power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity vs. femininity, individualism vs.
Collectivism, indulgence vs. Restraint and long-term vs. Short-term orientation. Hofstede with
the help of these dimensions has given a measurable approach to judging the cultural differences
in different countries. The model speaks of many a thing like a manager & people relationship,
and the goal setting priorities of people whether they are long-term oriented or else (Beugelsdijk,
Kostova and Roth 2017).

6CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO INTERNATIONAL MANAGERS
The Lewis Model is now a widely recognized model. Lewis with his experience of
visiting 135 countries and working in 20 of them has been able to identify the basis of
differences in humans. According to Lewis, people can be divided based on their behavior, not
the religion or their nationality. Lewis had divided the behaviors into three segments like Linear-
Active, Multi-Active and Reactive. The Linear-Active group is accordingly the English speaking
world. The Multi-Active group is widely diverse. It includes Southern Europe, South America,
Mediterranean countries, sub—Saharan Africa, India, the Middle East, Pakistan and most part of
the Slavs. The Reactive group includes the all major countries in Asia except the Indian sub-
continent (Eller 2016).
Both of the models are close to each other in identifying the cultural variance based on
the different countries. The Hofstede cultural dimension helps to compare the two countries
based on the different behaviours. The Lewis Model also considers the behavioural differences;
however, it considers the behaviours as being influenced form a proficiency in English
Language.
The expatriate managers are likely to face the challenge to handle the cross-cultural
people if the global operations are in a two culturally different countries such as the one
identified from the Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension and the Lewis Model. Following are the list
of challenges that expatriate managers can face:
Attitude of people: People representing the diverse culture may also have the
distinguished attitude. Like the Asian people in most cases are the hard-workers. They also have
the desire to grab their dream job at any cost. Americans, on the other hand, are also the hard-
worker but, they also portray a false behaviour sometimes to convince or to make things happen
in their favour. Australians believe in setting short-term goals while the people living in the
Middle East regions have the desire for long-term goals (Thomas and Peterson 2017). It is
therefore imperative that the expatriate managers are well versed with such differences. It is also
necessary that they have the correct set of skills to exist with such circumstances.
Religious beliefs: Managers may also be tested for their patience on religious beliefs.
People with different religious beliefs have the custom to follow the ritual practices. Asian
people, in particular, the South-East Asian countries have a long list of ritual beliefs. They have

7CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO INTERNATIONAL MANAGERS
the tendency to carry such thing at the workplace also. Hence, it is important for managers that
they understand such practices and maintain their work schedules accordingly (De Mooij 2015).
Generational differences: This is perhaps the biggest challenge that the expatriate
managers face. The global workplace is shared by different generations such as the Generation
X, Generation Y, Veterans and the Boomers (Bird and Mendenhall 2016). All generations have
diverse behaviours for work. Generation Y, in particular, are highly respected because of their
concentration level at work. They are highly dedicated and least bothered about mobile phone
uses & other meaningless activities. Generation X is energetic and equipped with technical skills;
however, they are not as serious as the Baby Boomers. Moreover, there is a list of factors which
hampers their concentration level at work. However, Millennials are the workforce of future with
Boomers nearing the age of retirement. Hence, this is important for the expatriate managers that
they know how to utilize such a diverse workforce in the global organizations (Bird and
Mendenhall 2016).
2.3 Skills and abilities for successful international managers
The international managers need to have the set of skills as listed below to effectively
utilize the workforce (Whittaker and Chee 2015):
Communication skills: Managers need to have the communication skills which mean that
there should be the respects for varied cultures. Employees need to believe that they have the
expected regards for their beliefs and behaviors. Managers need to appreciate the cultural
differences by collaborating with each of the organizational members.
Networking abilities: Managers need to have a good networking capability. They must
consider forming a global network. This will really assist them on several occasions. This will
also help them to understand the ways to tackle the cultural differences.
Collaboration: It is necessary that managers do not only have the networks but, they also
have a good collaboration within the network. Collaboration opens up opportunities to know the
different cultures and the perspectives. The most successful managers are those who are capable
of forming good collaboration.

8CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO INTERNATIONAL MANAGERS
Adaptive thinking: The global managers must have the adaptive thinking. It helps to
collaborate with others representing the diverse cultures. Nevertheless, collaboration is utterly
required to form an effective global networking of people.
2.4 Use of multivariate analysis in the recruitment of international managers
The recruitment for international managers must be done strategically, so that, best skills
are found. Considering the challenges which the international managers have at the global level,
there must be a strategic way to identify the best possible talent for the position. A Multivariate
Analysis (MVA) can effectively help to find skilled international managers. Multivariate analysis
is a statistical based analysis of multiple variables which are necessary to identify the best
feasible international managers. Multivariate analysis can be used in numerous ways to recruit
the international managers (Moran, Abramson and Moran 2014). It can be used for a capability-
based design. It means that the recruitment process must have variables to judge the managers on
the basis of capabilities. There can be many variables to judge the capabilities that also include
manager’s capability to tackle the cross-cultural challenges. MVA can also help in an inverse
design which means every variable will be represented as independent variables. It also can be
used for Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) meaning the ability to select a variety of skills to fulfill
the customer needs or tackle the cultural challenges. MVA also can be utilized for inspecting the
applicants on their capabilities to understand the different concepts of change circumstances. It is
also useful in identifying the critical drivers of design and coordination across the hierarchical
levels (Moran, Abramson and Moran 2014).
2.5 Acculturation issues in expatriation and repatriation of international managers
Acculturation issues can be defined as the state of difficulties that people face while
expatriation and repatriation. For example, Japanese people dressing the western clothing denote
the acculturation issue. In a similar note, French people working in Asian countries like China or
Japan expresses the state of acculturation. Acculturation issue in broader term signifies having
difficulties to adjust to a new environment or a culture (Holden, Michailova and Tietze 2015).
Expatriation means going to a country other than the home country. Repatriation is the state
when expatriates return to its home country. Both of the states can have the lasting difference in
someone’s work practices and other cultures (Holden, Michailova and Tietze 2015).

9CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO INTERNATIONAL MANAGERS
Acculturation issue can be the work environment, cross-cultural people, and the
workplace cultures. There are evident differences in the workplace environment in China and
Australia. People use to work harder and have the least opportunity for the work-life balance.
People living in Australia work casually and have ample of opportunities for a work-life balance.
In a similar note, managers are expected to find a very different workforce in America and Japan.
The power distance between the managers and the employees is quite low. Hence, they love to
be casual. Power distance between the managers and the employees is comparatively bigger.
Hence, they tend to be quite formal. The workplace culture is also different at the different global
places. People working in France are supposed to work for very fewer hours of time. On contrary
to this, people working in Japan are supposed to work for long hours (Tjosvold 2017).
Considering the stated facts, expatriate managers will be in trouble in acquainting with the
foreign culture. They will need to work hard to get used to the workplace behavior in the global
organizations. Repatriate managers, after being accustomed to the foreign culture, will find the
workplace cultures in their home countries as challenging. They will need to have the adaptive
capability, so that, things could become adjustable. They will also find decision making as
difficult (Tjosvold 2017).
3. Conclusion
Therefore, the cross-cultural people are a serious challenge for the global managers.
Global managers are expected to face the cultural differences in the global organizations. They
need to have skills needed to effectively understand the ways to work with diverse culture. They
should have the effective skills required for developing the collaborative networks. They must
have the adaptive nature needed to collaborate with the global workforce. Most importantly, they
must have a good knowledge of cultural differences which will be required while being in the
global organisations. Such knowledge will help the international managers to manage the cross-
cultural differences in the global workplace. This is important also for attaining the competency
needed for an effective global business. Expatriate managers will face the number of
acculturation issue while being in the global organizations. They will require working hard to be
adaptive to the cross-cultural differences at the global workplace. Repatriate managers will also
find things difficult as they are accustomed to foreign cultures and are adaptive to that workplace
culture. They will again need to work hard to adapt the cross-cultures in their home countries.

10CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO INTERNATIONAL MANAGERS
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11CROSS CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO INTERNATIONAL MANAGERS
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