Cross-Cultural Management: Individual Reflection Report on Group Work

This report is a reflection on a cross-cultural management group presentation, focusing on a case study in Tanzania. It examines the challenges faced by Brett Jones in a hydro generation project, including issues of motivation, diversity, communication, and national culture. The reflection utilizes the Gibbs model to analyze the group work process, individual feelings, and the evaluation of leadership styles and organizational culture. It also explores the impact of Hofstede's cultural dimensions, leadership approaches, and negotiation strategies. The report highlights the importance of understanding cross-cultural dynamics for effective leadership and organizational success, as well as the significance of communication and motivation within a diverse team. Furthermore, the report delves into the ethical considerations and the influence of national culture on business practices and operational efficiency.

REPORT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
Reflection.........................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Cross cultural management is the study related to the influence of various societal culture
on the people at the particular location as well as on the managerial practice and behaviour of the
managers. This makes the cultural orientation crucial for the individuals within the organisation
and the managers (Herzberg, 2017). With the help of this concept the adverse impact of the
diversity within the organisation can be managed that come with people from different
backgrounds and this is important for the organisation to mange expansion and growth so that
they can ensure accomplishment of their aims goals and objectives. In this report a reflection is
written on the group presentation as individual work. Along with this a reflective piece is
included within the report in context of the misconduct done while submission of the report.
MAIN BODY
As part of the academic course I had to undertake a activity on the cross cultural with the
group that was assigned to us. In the group work we identified various issues and problems that
were faced by the organisation that are covered in the case study of Tanzania. I worked on the
case with my group on the basis of which the issues faced by Brett Jones are identified in
Tanzania while undertaking the project hydro generation. Various issues and problems that we
taken into consideration in the study includes motivation and diversity, communication and
negotiation, national culture etc. on the basis of the study I could analyse within the group that
Brett Jones has taken various steps with the help of which he had overcome various issues that
they faced (González-Rodríguez, 2019) .
This reflection is based upon the group work and for developing better understanding of
how the entire project was completed and what was my role, how did I completed it etc. with the
help of Gibbs model of reflection as it facilitate evaluation of situation with the help of various
steps so that each and every aspect related to the situation be considered. Various steps that are
included in the model are description, feelings, evaluation, conclusions and action. The reflection
with the help of this model is given below.
At the description stage, it is discussed that how the things went while the activity was
undertaken. In the podcast I identified various issues related to organisation culture which has
direct impact on the overall performance of the organisation. For this I develop a better
understanding of the topic so that the situation can easily be understood along with its impact on

the overall culture of the organisation. For this I have to go through various sources as it
facilitated me in identifying various concepts and models which are directly related to them in
such as the principles, attitude of the people of the organisation so that they better performing
and organising strategies can be formulated. Also I taken into consideration various
characteristic of the culture such as training, mission, vision, enrolment, technological skills,
rewarding system, motivation and many more because with the help of this I could easily
understand the impact of the culture prevailing within the organisation (Driskill, 2018).
On the basis of the ranking provided by the Hofstede, it can be identified that the
uncertainty avoidance index of Tanzania is high. It was identified that the interest of the people
was in religion and was not in politics due to which the unethical practices were high by the
politicians. This leads to adoption of various unethical practices by Jones such as to speeding up
of the process by way of corruption, recruitment of the people on the basis of nepotism etc. We
further identified that the bribery and the corruption was the major issue that is faced in Tanzania
in their hydro generation plant but the bribery is acceptable in the culture of Tanzania. Also the
employees are recruited on the basis of their participation in the national culture practices. For
efficiently understanding the impact of this factors on the overall performance of the
organisation I had to gather the knowledge about various aspects related to the impact of national
culture which is related with the understanding of the metal programming on the collective level
so that same mindset can be developed among the people working together even after belonging
to the different backgrounds (Henning, Külske and Rozikov, 2019).
In HG another issue which was found out was related with the leadership style that has
been incorporated which is more of individualistic power ignoring the considering of the
employees needs and expectations, inspite of this the organisation was able to develop the hydro
generation dam in a successful manner. While undertaking this research on the case study I
realised that the culture of the organisation has significant impact on the achievement of the
operational objectives and for this I considered Hofstede culture dimension theory, as per this
model there are five factors on the basis of which the culture of the organisation can be
understood.
Along with this another issue which I identified along with my group is related with
diversity and motivation within the HG. From the case study I identified that the Brett Jones was
a better supervisor but the dealing with local employees was not efficient due to which I could

realise that the relationship with their employees was not efficient as well as among the co-
workers (Kanfer, Frese and Johnson, 2017) . The focus of the organisation must be on the
theories of the motivation with the help of which they can ensure that the needs of the employees
are satisfied in such a manner that they could efficiently consider the professional development
of the employees along with their personal development. Further within the case study the
problem of operations within the organisation was identified which was due to inefficiencies in
the management structure of the organisation as most of people were not satisfied with it. For
gathering the details on this issues the lifestyles of the people were analysed through different
secondary sources in context of situations given in the case study. Within the study the
communication and negotiation issues which were faced by the organisation and I with my group
analysed various impact of it on them. To undertake this different approaches regarding
communication and negotiation are discussed in such a manner that the understanding of such
topic will facilitate in future so that the overall development can be ensured.
From the case study I analysed that the Jones has better understanding of the need to
communication but even then he could not manage the belies of the people regarding the same
due to which the interest of the people along with their productivity was influenced and this leads
to criticism against him. I realised the the communication must be in both the direction in such a
manner that they could easily understand the perception of all so that they can manage the impact
of different people and their level of satisfaction can be managed (Priest and Gass, 2017) . Also I
realised that with the help of better capability of negotiation a manager can efficiently convince
as per various impact of factors affecting the business such as political risks, different laws,
regulations etc. so that operational efficiency can be ensured.
With the feeling phase of the Gibbs model of reflection I could reflect what did I feel
while undertaking the activity. The study enabled me to understand various concepts which are
crucial to understand various situation so that both the employees as well as the operations can
be managed well. The problems which were faced were related with the understanding among
the team members due to which the conflicts arise in context of the presentation of the report.
Initially the case study activity created difficulty as because of this I has to work within the team
and I had no understanding of the same but gradually we divided the work for completing the
project in such a manner that it could be completed within the time limit assigned to us. But at
some time when the roles and responsibilities were not clear I realised the possible issues that we

could face while working profession with such problems. Additionally the other people in team
were not comfortable with their roles because of lack of understanding with the concept. On the
basis of all these I tends to formulate my assumptions regarding the performance on professional
grounds in context of what can be the impact of various such issues on the overall performance
of the organisation as well as on the accomplishment of the individual targets if the
understanding among the individuals within the team is not significant (Chung, 2019) .
The stage of evaluation enables to understand and analyse the impact of the work so
performed and on the basis of which I analysed that the leadership plays crucial role managing
the culture within the organisation as well as in managing the operations. The actions that are
taken by the Jones's are not as per the values of the company as they are contrary to it because he
considered the prevailing culture of Tanzania for accomplishing the objectives of the company
rather than considering various models related to the culture of the organisation. But due to such
actions of the Jones brand image of the organisation got impacted which can affect the
profitability of the company in the long run.
With the help of the theory of hofstede culture I analysed that the power within the
organisation must be given to the people as per the authority rather than the individual aspects as
it was in HG due to which Jones utilised his powers as per the culture prevailing in Tanzania as
well as for taking the advantages for the benefits as per his decisions rather than changing it and
making comfortable for all (Rheinberg and Engeser, 2018) . Apart from this the collectivism
within the employees and in the entire organisation can enables them to contribute to the overall
completion of the project on time. Also this model enables me to understand that if they will
adopt significant practise within the organisation which is related with the culture than they can
efficiently manager the performance of the employees, profitability ratio as well as they need to
encourage their employees to understand the impact and factors of cross culture so that they can
reduce the chances of conflicts and adverse impact of it on their understanding. With the help of
the knowledge I developed regarding the national culture I could analysed that with the help of
implementation of the national culture the organisation can process their operation on the basis
of common beliefs, expectations of the customers, values of the organisation etc. This will
enables them to efficiently expand the operations of the organisation in the international level as
they can manage the behaviour of all the people with different background.

Further it can identified that the authority provided to the Jones is effective from the
perspective of leadership as the leaders within the organisation plays crucial role in managing the
interest of the people by managing them and motivating them to perform better by taking into
consideration various aspects. Also I analysed that the leaders can efficiently manage the impact
of both the internal and external environment in such a manner that they can consider the
influences on the operations as well as on the behaviour of the employees so that they can make
them adapt such changes so that the objectives can be accomplished (Bolman and Deal, 2017).
On the basis of the level of motivation I analysed that by efficiently taking into
consideration various motivational theories need hierarchy theory proposed by the Maslow and
equity theory the quality of the results that would have been produced by them are better and
efficient as with the help of these theories they can manage the needs of the employees in
different segments as well as their need of rewards so that they can efficiently manage the
diversity among the staff. In addition to this another issue which I identified with them is related
with operations that was because of the improper structure of the organisation for management
which was due to the problem of unidentified need of the local villagers and thus affected their
satisfaction level. This affected them to successfully encourage their employees for the crucial
problem. On the basis of the communication and negotiation section of the case study I could
analysed that for improving the efficiency of the organisation it is crucial for the organisation to
define the roles and responsibilities of each and every person on the basis of theory of Belbin
model of defining the team roles as with the help of this they can ensure the better delegation of
the roles and responsibilities of the people along with guidance to them (Rosenbach, 2018) .
With the conclusion phase of the Gibbs model I could reflect on various aspect that I
have analysed from the case such as it is crucial for the organisation to take into consideration
their organisational culture in such manner that they can easily combine the individual goals with
the organizational goals so that the efficiency within the organisation can be ensured. I analysed
that being a leaders it is crucial to manage the needs and expectation of the employees in such a
manner that they could easily manage their behaviours with the help of various theories such as
need hierarchy theory as well as equity theory. Further I could develop understanding of various
concepts that can affect the overall performance such as complexity of task without significant
level of guidance, better motivation as per the expectations of the employees as well as their

needs, better communication activity so that the efficiency within the decision making can be
ensured (Al-Jubouri and Al-Jubouri, 2019).
When I took the responsibility of the managing the team as well as coordinating the
work of all the employees I realised the requirement of defined roles for each and every members
within the team so that it can ensured that they know the level of work that they have to perform
along with the level of authority that they have. For ensuring the efficiency in the contribution of
all the employees I took feedbacks from them in such a manner that I could easily resolve their
issues. The lessons which I learnt from this activity is related to the inefficiency in the structure
of the project due to which the overall performance can get influenced. Along with this I will
explicitly defined the importance of the activities and their contribution of each and every
member so that collaboration among the employees of the organisation can be ensured.
Reflection
I performed a group activity in which we had to undertake the case study of Tanzania in
which various issues were given for HG such issues related to the leadership, organisational
culture, national culture, motivation level of the employees in relation to their expectation and
the needs etc. On the basis of this report I had to submit the reflection on the activity which I did
within the group assigned to me by the tutor. I misunderstood the issues due to which the
problem that arise was related to self plagiarism. Such a problem was arise due to that fact that I
submitted my similar work report which I had already submitted to the tutor as individual report
by mistake due to which misconduct happened in term of self plagiarism (Spohn, 2019). This
affected my performance during the course as I could not score better matter because of the self
plagiarism.
When I was given the letter of misconduct by the tutor and the management of the
university I felt guilty of the mistake which I did unintentionally. Due to this I had to attend a
meeting in which I had to prove that the requirement of the project in context of the individual
report was not clear to me due to which I submitted the same report. Also this happened because
of the fact that I had to complete the project within the given timeline and as the conditions of
the project was not clear I could not completed it efficiently on time. In the meeting the panel
members asked me that the same question and I agreed to all of them in context of wrong
submission rather submission of the group report instead of the individual reflection.

On the basis of all the information and discussion among the members my conduct was
declared the conduct of self plagiarism as both the report were similar to the degree of 98%. As it
was my first attempt due to this I was asked for the resit in the assignment which is related with
the retake of the assessment module. But this affected me severely in context of confidence and
self respect. I could not face my group members and my other classmates as everybody came to
know about it and this leads to various issues to me. I could not attend the class for few day as I
had a feeling of that fact that I am capable enough of understand the brief and the assignment.
To cope up with this I consider that the I will pay attention in the class and will put extra
efforts to make sure that things are clear to me so that I can efficiently undertake my assignment
with other in such a manner that better marks can be ensured in the next semester and for the
further project to be undertaken for completion of the course.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that an individual must reflect on their activities as
with the help of this they can determine the issues that they faced and can managed such issues
efficiently. In addition to this such reflection enables them to develop understanding the
application of various models and theories in different situation so that the student can use it
further in their profession. This reflection report facilitated to develop an efficient understanding
of various topics such as leadership, motivation, communication etc.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Al-Jubouri, A.H.H. and Al-Jubouri, M.H.M., 2019. The Effectiveness of Teaching in the Gibbs
Model in the Decision-Making to Solve the Environmental Problems among Students
of College of Education Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development.
10(1). pp.732-736.
Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership.
John Wiley & Sons.
Chung, M., 2019. A Gibbs sampling algorithm that estimates the Q-matrix for the DINA
model. Journal of Mathematical Psychology. 93. p.102275.
Driskill, G.W., 2018. Organizational culture in action: A cultural analysis workbook. Routledge.
González-Rodríguez, M.R., and et. al., 2019. Hotels’ corporate social responsibility practices,
organizational culture, firm reputation, and performance. Journal of Sustainable
Tourism. 27(3). pp.398-419.
Henning, F., Külske, C. and Rozikov, U.A., 2019. Gradient Gibbs measures for the SOS model
with countable values on a Cayley tree. Electronic Journal of Probability. 24.
Herzberg, F., 2017. Motivation to work. Routledge.
Kanfer, R., Frese, M. and Johnson, R.E., 2017. Motivation related to work: A century of
progress. Journal of Applied Psychology. 102(3). p.338.
Priest, S. and Gass, M., 2017. Effective leadership in adventure programming, 3E. Human
Kinetics.
Rheinberg, F. and Engeser, S., 2018. Intrinsic motivation and flow. In Motivation and action
(pp. 579-622). Springer, Cham.
Rosenbach, W.E., 2018. Contemporary issues in leadership. Routledge.
Spohn, H., 2019. Generalized Gibbs ensembles of the classical Toda chain. Journal of Statistical
Physics, pp.1-19.
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