Cross Cultural Management: Reflective Report on Leadership and Culture

This report presents a reflective analysis of a cross-cultural management case study involving Hydro Generation (HG) in Tanzania. The report examines various aspects, including national culture, leadership styles, communication challenges, and HRM practices. It highlights the importance of understanding Tanzanian culture, with a focus on Christian and Muslim demographics, and the use of Swahili. The case study explores the challenges faced by HG, such as nepotism, tribal rituals, and the displacement of villagers due to dam construction. The reflective section discusses the difficulties encountered during group work, including communication barriers, unclear goals, and lack of trust. The report emphasizes the significance of effective leadership, motivation, and HRM practices to improve organizational efficiency and individual performance. The author reflects on personal growth, improved critical thinking, and the development of essential skills like teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving. The report concludes with a discussion of challenges, such as uncertainty of roles, and the importance of clear goals and effective communication within a team.

Cross Cultural
Management

Table of Contents
PODCAST.......................................................................................................................................3
REFLECTIVE REPORT.................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................7

PODCAST
In Hydro Generation, Graham Steinberg is the vice president of the company where they
follow national culture of Tanzania. In the organization, most of the people related to Christian
religious, so company provide national prayer breakfast to their employees that is yearly event
which held in Washington, D.C. Bertelet who is the CEO of HG company believed that business
activities should be secular and substantiate Christian values. Employees of the organization
should be more responsible as well as accountable for their work and it believes by the managers
to make their organizational culture more effective by evaluating national culture.
In Tanzania, around 55.5 million population speak Swahili that is official language but
most of the people speak English. About More than 61% of citizens are Tanzanians who are
Christian and around 35 % are Muslims. Leadership is the most essential aspect which every
organization have to implement because effective leadership skills in the company's leaders will
helps in improving individual productivity as well as profitability. Steinberg is not satisfied with
Jones’s hiring practices, so they need to done some modification to attract talent which helps in
improving workplace efficiency as well as effectiveness. In this case study, Swahili is the local
language which is used in the organization as a mode of communication. In the Tanzanian
country, most of the people follow Christian religion and rest of the majority Muslim. HG does
not provide any formal guidelines for managers lifestyle but they encourage standard of living
with consistent value of comfortable international firm.
In the HG company, there are huge requirement of jobs in business operations and HG
has specialised power plant across 16 countries but in Tanzanian, it was the first African venture.
In addition, dam construction required various resources at large level such as capital, human
force, some expertise etc. Company required diversity in the different field or operation to make
minimise complexity. In order to improve their employees performance, GR managers should
motivate their workers and implement range of HRM practices to improve individual as well as
organizational efficiency or effectiveness.
REFLECTIVE REPORT
At the time of preparing group assignment, it was very difficult to gather information and
communicate with each other regarding common goal. I was afford that, we are able to complete
this task before deadline or not. In the above mention podcast, there are various issues identifies

such as national culture, leadership, communication, diversity, motivation, HRM etc. these are
the issues find in this case study. Before this coursework, we all group members does not have
such knowledge regarding Tanzania country and its culture or values. But, now we all are aware
about this such as local language is Swahili and about 61 % people are Christian and 35 % are
Muslim.
I also analysed that, CEO of HG company does not satisfy with the Johns hiring practices
because nepotism comes with risks and an employees had close relation with government official
which encourage the extortion process. According to my personal point of view, it will
demotivate other employees and their productivity or performance because they know that some
selected people get all the benefits without giving any extra efforts.
Issues which Hydro Generation faces is was tribal ritual because construction of Dam
displace around 700 villagers. Before transfer of Jones in Tanzania, HG offer resettlement
package which included refurbishment of schools and health centres in new location. This
resettlement package worth is a million dollars which was acceptable by the affected people.
Such kind of issues companies face but at the time of collecting information from various
sources, we also face lot of difficulties such as, lack of knowledge will cause difficulty and it
become difficult to complete research and complete task.
This group work teach me lot of things such as how to act or perform in a group activity
because managing more people was such as difficult task. It was improving my knowledge and
ability to learn which helps me in my future as well. Every group has different type of people
who has different point of view or thinking which were causing issues or many times it was
almost converting into group conflicts. But it was not happen because of smartness of few people
just like me. Every team or group should have a leader who manage each person and listen them.
Leaders can follow leadership or motivational theories to perform effectively in group
task or able to achieve their goals & objectives. If in future, we all are working in the same team
than we all ensure not to repeat same mistakes which I was doing that time. This coursework
helps me to improve my critical thinking analysis and it helps me to improve my ability to ask
“why” and after that find solutions with myself. I challenged my self to complete this course
anyhow before deadline. At the time of performing my task, it was difficult to identify gap
between what I have to do and what I actually found to complete this coursework. It is also

possible that, I am mistakenly not consider many aspects which I had to include but this is the
actual part of learning which I need to learn or improve my performance.
There are some common challenges we faces in our group task such as uncertainty of role
that means, when individual perform separately then they have play different roles and
responsivity in comparison to when people perform in group task. It is quite difficult for me to
work with other people because before any action we all have to discussed with each other and it
will take lot of time to reached at any point or make decisions. It is quit complex because every
individual have different perspective. In order to resolve this issues, every team should make a
team leader who make such decisions with the help of everyone's participation.
Another challenge was lack of trust which I was facing among my team members, so it
was the major factor who require in the team members to make their work perfectly complete.
Most of the time it happen that people done mistake unintentionally but it become difficult for
other members to trust them again regarding any decision. Another difficulty which I was
observed that unclear goals, it is very important factor which makes a team effective because
every members of team should know about their goals because after that they perform or make
decisions. But it is a responsibility of a team leaders to make their team members aware about
gaols which they has to achieve.
In my group, there was no team leader which create issues and mostly at the time of
making decisions because everyone think that they are write. Goals should be according to their
team members because they are the essential part of it and they have to performed, so it should
be according to their ability. Most of the conflicts arises due to unclear goals and individual
perform as per their understanding. Another but most common issues, that is disengagement of
team mates which create distance and in results they are unable to share their thoughts or point of
view.
Above discussed issues face in my group assignment which become challenging for us
because we all are first time working as a team and we do not have any prior experience. Due to
this reason we are facing these diffusivities but it provide us such a valuable experience which
helps in my future activities or professional life as well. There are some skills which I have to
improve such as communication, management, problem solving etc. But there are skills which I
learn by doing group assignment such as team work, listing, leadership, why motivate is so
important etc.

Similarly, there are various factors which discussed in the case study and it is essential
for organization to consider these aspects for better performance. Business should follow the
culture according to people who working in the organization. In addition, they need to use
various HRM practices such as leadership, motivation and other aspects in order to achieve
business goals & objectives. In order to improve individual performance, they need to encourage
improve their efficiency as well as effectiveness. In addition, communication and negotiation
are most essential aspect which make internal process more smoother. Overall experience of
preparing this report was good, it was helping me to experience such positive as well as negative
aspects which helps me in my future or make me able to face different challenges and resolve it
with effective solutions.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Allan, E. G. and Driscoll, D. L., 2014. The three-fold benefit of reflective writing: Improving
program assessment, student learning, and faculty professional development. Assessing
Writing. 21. pp.37-55.
Braun, U. K. and et.al., 2013. The utility of reflective writing after a palliative care experience:
can we assess medical students' professionalism?. Journal of palliative medicine.
16(11). pp.1342-1349.
Brown, M., 2012. Restorying priests as entrepreneurs: A reflective essay on entrepreneurial
leadership in the Scottish Episcopal Church. Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization
Inquiry. 10(1-2).
Hosein, A. and Rao, N., 2017. Students’ reflective essays as insights into student centred-
pedagogies within the undergraduate research methods curriculum. Teaching in Higher
Education. 22(1). pp.109-125.
Johnson, C. E., 2017. Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership: Casting light or shadow.
Sage Publications.
Latham, J. R., 2014. Leadership for quality and innovation: Challenges, theories, and a
framework for future research. Quality Management Journal. 21(1). pp.11-15.