Cross Cultural Management and Global Leadership Practices Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of cross-cultural management within the context of multinational corporations (MNCs). It begins by defining global leadership and its evolution, emphasizing the need for adaptability in an increasingly internationalized business environment. The report explores the conflicts faced by global leaders, stemming from cultural diversity and communication barriers within MNCs. It then delves into the impact of culture on MNCs, discussing uni-cultural, intercultural, and comparative cultural perspectives, with a focus on expatriate experiences and adjustment. The report highlights Hofstede's intercultural communication model, outlining its six cultural dimensions and their relevance to global business. The analysis underscores the importance of understanding and navigating cultural differences for effective leadership and organizational success in the global arena, offering insights into the challenges and opportunities presented by cross-cultural interactions within MNCs.

Running head: CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT
Cross Cultural Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................2
Concept of global leadership.............................................................................................2
Conflicts faced by the global leaders.................................................................................3
Culture in MNCs................................................................................................................4
Hofstede’s intercultural communication model..................................................................6
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................7
References.........................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The current advancements brought to the internationalized business scenario
have been influencing the cross cultural communication. It has been observed that the
international business scenario has been experiencing the drastic changes in the
growing awareness related to the context of cross cultural management. In fact, in
keeping pace with such challenges, the ever growing awareness of the cross cultural
management is also increasing more specifically. According to Hur, Kang and Kim
(2015), the cross cultural communication process generally refers to the maintenance of
the cultural diversity during the establishment of the operational process in foreign
countries. The article, From Cross-Cultural Management to Global Leadership:
Evolution and Adaption provides the insightful ideas about the observable impacts of
the cross cultural communication on MNCs. The thesis observed in this study describes
the effective practices of cross cultural communication, which has the remarkable
essence on the multinational firms. The study would describe the conceptualized
elaboration of the context with the special references of multinational corporations and
the global leadership practices.
Concept of global leadership
In the past fifty years, the internationalized businesses have experienced the
remarkable evolution in terms of developing the conceptual ideas about cross cultural
management. The nature of the global leadership practices has changed in keeping
pace with the growing consciousness of the underlying challenges. The article is
selected to explore the contextual ideas about cross cultural communication and the
practices undertaken by multinational companies to deal with such cultural diversity in a
larger context. The article defines the historical background of the cross-cultural
management that is viewed from a global perspective based on leadership attributes.
According to Bird and Mendenhall (2016), global leaders are the emerging professionals
who have been operating in either multicultural or international context. It can be implied
that the global leaders always have an urge to explore the innovative methods
associated with the global organisational scenario. Therefore they tend to deal with the

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various people from diverse corner of the world and develop the intercultural
communication to gain broader perspectives (Caligiuri and Bonache 2016). They
generally lead people from multiple regions and engage the diverse group of
stakeholders. The global leaders often utilize their potentiality to lead people across the
distance, time-zone, culture, and complex structure of the organisation. It is essential for
them to develop the broader perspectives and greater understanding regarding the
business operation in both domestic and internationalized environment. Eisenbeiß and
Brodbeck (2014) suggested that the leaders at the multinational level need to adopt the
flexible approaches to identify the futuristic value and achieve success. The global
leaders even concentrate on the futuristic values that have the observable impact on the
multinational setting. The intercultural factor, on the other hand, determines the
interactive approaches between one or more organisational members who belong to
different countries all across the world. The leaders of the multinational corporations
look beyond such cultural differences and develop the diversity among these members.
The obtained idea from the article develops the complete understanding related to the
historical evidence on the global leadership that influence the practices of the cross
cultural communication (Lisak and Erez 2015). While operating in the multinational
level, the global leaders often need to promote the innovative working approaches by
engaging people from diverse cultural background.
Conflicts faced by the global leaders
Muenjohn and Armstrong (2015) pointed out that incorporating the globalised
business environment may sometimes create the considerable challenges for the global
leaders. In fact, the historical evidence developed in this article suggests that the
cultural diversity creates the greater competitive edge for the multinational corporations,
which is one of the most significant factors for the globalised business. Hence, along
with the identification of the innovative business practices, the global leaders need to
identify the underlying conflicts as well. At the multinational level, these conflicts
emerged through the cross cultural environment is much severe than the expectation
level (Osland, Bird and Oddou 2013). It has been observed that the multinational
corporations structure their business functionalities by formulating teams by engaging

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people from diverse cultural and lingual background. The conflicts may arise where
there is the emergence of the barriers in cultural and lingual perspectives. The global
leaders have to take the responsibilities of mitigating such merging challenges.
Furthermore, the article also elaborates the scenario of the considerable obstructions
that are faced in the multinational businesses due to the emergence of the cross cultural
scenario.
On the contrary, Zander, Mockaitis and Butler (2012) argued that emergence of
the cross cultural communication in the multinational businesses provide the
considerable benefits to the global leaders. It is observable that the global leaders avail
the opportunities to work with the diverse cultural background. Wood and St. Peters
(2014) defined that cross cultural communication is the core practices within the
multinational corporation, which enables the process of exchanging, negotiating, and
mediating the cultural differences through several non-verbal attributes. The global
business scenario keeps the wider views on the establishment of the cross cultural
communication practices that helps in identifying more innovative business
functionalities. The engagement of the various people from diverse cultural background
creates the different perceptions, which may affect the internal atmosphere as a whole.
It is true that during the negotiation and the information exchange, the higher level of the
communication efficiency is necessary. However, when the people from diverse
background are engaged within a team, there is the high possibility of the cultural
conflicts. However, the global leaders need to concentrate widely on such situation and
develop the cultural diversity to mitigate such conflicts.
Culture in MNCs
The obtained idea from the article defines the three categories of the culture,
such as uni-cultural, intercultural, and comparative culture. As explained by
Wanasika et al. (2011), uni-cultural perspective is developed when the management
operates within the single country. On the contrary, the comparative culture is
concerned with the comparison between the cultural perspectives of two different
countries. The intercultural factor, on the other hand, determines the interactive

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approaches between one or more organisational members who belong to different
countries all across the world (Rallapalli and Montgomery 2015). The leaders of the
multinational corporations look beyond such cultural differences and develop the
diversity among these members. Takahashi, Ishikawa and Kanai (2012) observed that
the global leaders have the multi-faceted view on the diverse streams associated with
the internationalized business scenario. One of these streams is expatriate, which
refers to the employees who are sent to different countries to work for an extended
period. The expatriates are generally selected based on the technical competency level,
previous performance level, and the willingness to accept the offered project. Zhou and
Pilcher (2018) developed the understanding regarding the fruitful transformation of
these expatriates. It is stated that when the expatriates start working in a country with
diverse cultural background, they receive the opportunity to strengthen their cultural
competency as well. They gain the potentiality to work in a diverse situation and
structure their career path for the long term basis.
Another main attributes identified in expatriates is the power of adjustment. The
expatriates try to adopt the diverse cultural values while working between the people
from different cultures. However, Rallapalli and Montgomery (2015) argued that the
expatriate sometimes face the greater psychological barriers in surviving in a different
country with the different cultural and lingual values. Their homesickness also creates
the significant barriers that affect their mental state. The theoretical argument present in
this article provides the insights about the “anticipatory adjustment”, which is a former
technique of expatriation and later modified by a number of individuals. This division
was characterized by different segments, such as organisational culture, individual
job, non-work, and organisation socialization. The effectiveness of the expatriate is
measured through the adjustment superiority. According to Ojala (2015), the expatriates
often face the challenges to survive in a complex context that usually includes the
competing demands and the maintenance of the high level of coordination over time
and space.
The third stream of the intercultural context is the comparative leadership, which
establishing conclusion that the culture has the considerable effects on the behaviour of

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the leaders. In presenting the conceptual ideas about such leadership attributes, Dr.
Geert Hofstede developed the theoretical framework concerned with the cultural
attributes of different nation. The theoretical based analysis of cross cultural
communication is presented further:
Hofstede’s intercultural communication model
In representing the ideas of the intercultural communication, Dr. Geert Hofstede
developed the considerable ideas about the cultural dimensions. He segregated the
cultural aspects into six dimensions, such as power distance, individualism versus
collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertainty avoidance, pragmatic
versus normative, and indulgence versus restraints. The first dimension is power
distance, which represents the degree to which people accepts the unequal distribution
of power among the leader and the employees (Nathan 2015). The higher score in PDI
(power distance index) indicates that the employees tend to accept the power of the
leader in terms of making any specific decisions. The employees even accept the
unequal distribution of power by understanding the position in the system. For example,
employees from Malaysia prefer to depend on their leaders instead of undertaking the
individual decisions at the workplace. The second dimension is individualism versus
collectivism, which indicates the extent of cooperating with each other (Kim 2017). The
higher score in this segment refers to the tendency of self-orientation instead of
developing team work. In Central America, such individualistic tendency is observed
among the employees.
The next dimension is masculinity versus femininity, which differs the mental
attributes of the associated people, either towards assertive or modesty. The male
dominating perceptions tend to view the assertive mentality whereas females are
considered as modest (Hur, Kang and Kim 2015). The differences and gaps between
such masculine and feminine perceptions are much highlighted in the organisations of
Austria and Japan. The next dimension is uncertainty avoidance that measures the
extent to which people deal with the anxiety. Country like Greece represents this
dimension as people have the tendency to make their life as predictable or controllable

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as possible. The lower score in this index ensures the open-minded and inclusive
mentality (Rallapalli and Montgomery 2015). The next dimension is pragmatic versus
normative, which determines the long-term orientation. The extent is measured through
the level of explaining the stronger aspects of religiosity or nationalism. The higher
score in this factor ensures the urge to develop quick response and short-term goals for
instant result. The final dimension is indulgence versus restraints, which refers to the
degree of higher encouragement (Wanasika et al. 2011). The lower score in this index
indicates the detachment from gratifications. These cultural dimensions provide the
considerable attributes observed in diverse countries, especially among the diverse
cultural background that have the clear impact on multinational business scenario.
Conclusion
The study develops the enriched ideas about the cross-cultural management that
is primarily focusing on the concept of Multinational Corporation setting. The study
develops the ideas about the global leaders that have been accepting the drastic
changes occurring in the current global business scenario. It is noticeable that the
nature of the global leadership practices has changed in keeping pace with the growing
consciousness of the underlying challenges. The exploration of the historical evidence
present in the article defines that the leaders at the multinational level need to adopt the
flexible approaches to identify the futuristic value and achieve success. The cross
cultural communication in MNC not only delivers the considerable benefits, it creates
conflicts between the management and employees as well. It is noticeable that cross
cultural communication is the core practices within the multinational corporation. It is
even enabling the process of exchanging, negotiating, and mediating the cultural
differences through several non-verbal attributes. The concept of expatriate is
highlighted in this study to define the effectiveness of the cross-cultural association. It is
stated that the interactive approaches between one or more organisational members
who belong to different countries all across the world. The development of the
theoretical explanation by Dr. Geert Hofstede, the cultural attributes in the MNCs all
across the world.

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References
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