Cross Cultural Management Report: Case Study of Jones in Tanzania

This report analyzes a cross-cultural management case study involving Brett Jones, a manager working on a dam project in Tanzania for US-based Hydro Generation (HG). The report examines several key issues, including organizational culture, communication and negotiation, and ethics/CSR. The ...Read More

Cross Cultural
Management

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Podcast & Script.................................................................................................................1
2. Reflective Report................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
In the simplest terms culture is defined as a collective program where several minds are
distinguished under one category. This particular categorization of individual includes into a
whole Nation where an ethical group, a family, any other unit or an organization is based.
Cultural differentiation is a very common as well as the most compared terms while setting up
businesses in different nations. The concept of cross culture needs to be perfectly analyzed and
should be compared in five dimensions which is actually the distance, uncertainty avoidance,
individualism coma long-term orientations and masculinity. So basically address about managing
people and several things which are deeply involved in various cultures and their background
this Management studies and teachers how to perfectly handle conflicts in such conditions with
the very effective management. The aim of the study is usually to create a proper structuration
and steps to adopt different culture as well as to take up resources and potential value from them.
This file comprises of several of such issue and a comparison of cross cultural between US and
Tanzania in South Africa.
1. Podcast & Script
Issue 1- Organisational culture
The very first issue which has been identified in this case is about nepotism. In this, Jones
has made some hiring based on the concept of nepotism. There were few employees who were
working at higher level in this project and Jones appointed few of the individuals who were
relatives of the higher authorities. It is a common practice in Africa in order to make things
easier for foreign companies as well as locals. Unemployment in the country present in high rate
therefore, the locals prefer to forget their family members into the same job as they are.
Nepotism is a concept which may create negativity among other employees who are
working really hard to achieve goals and objectives. Jones was too comfortable in the African
culture which made him appoint individuals and relatives referred by them in the same job in
order to accelerate the completion of whole project. It is a part of national culture which
comprises of customs and traditions made by the local people living in that particular area or
country. However, there is always a difference between the organisational culture and natural
culture (Jackson and Primecz, 2019).
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It is the organisational culture of all the companies working in Africa. In the first
instance, it can be treated as a negative or an healthy element within the corporate world. But,
ultimately the entities operating in African environment considered nepotism as a base for
having stability in the activities. It helps in carrying the operation without any difficulties or
hurdles.
According to the perception of the people living in Africa, the organisations whether
local or international. The managers working in this country main implement and exercise some
form of centralised and authoritarian leadership but are bound by African values of groupism,
familyism and communalism. The reason behind this is that, national culture of Africa treats the
organisation as an extended family member (Bouranta and et. al.,2019).
Since, it involves cross culture of Africa and America, there is high chance that conflicts
can arise. It can be reduced by combining nepotism and favouritism and using these for the
benefit of HG. Many nations consider nepotism as an unethical or unfair practice but from the
perspective of African social structure as well as cultural values in the organisation provides that
nepotism is a good thing. It helps in keeping the employees Royal towards their employees and
the job which ultimately enhance job satisfaction at the workplace. It is also useful in dividing
the power so that each employee can have sufficient amount of authority for running the
business.
Thus, in order to work in Africa, the practice of nepotism followed by Jones is
appropriate according to the organisational culture of the above-mentioned country. However,
USA does not follow any such concept or practice in the entities operating in that country.
Issue 2- Communication and negotiation
The second issue is about changing the lifestyle of Jones according to the local people of
Africa. This made Steinberg worried about Jones not being within the organisational capacity
and values. Jones was earning this much amount that he could have afforded a good place to live
at with all comfort and leisure. However, he chose to who live in the neighbourhood of Tanzania
which is not that upscale. Also, hi stop going to the gatherings of all the managers who have
come from USA. The USA Expatriates conduct meetings and gatherings for all the people who
have come to Tanzania so that they can be with them in an alien neighbourhood.
Communication is the way of interacting with the people living in a particular location. It
assists in sharing of ideas and views which can be used for achieving better results. It is the best
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way to get to know about the cultures and lifestyles of Tanzanian people. It is useful in making
connection with the locals as it can help Jones to convince the local people to stay out of the
construction and help in carrying the work without much hurdle (Caligiuri, P. and et. al., 2019).
Meeting with the local people, getting them to no each other etc. To make a collaborative
effort in in building something which can help the people of Tanzania. Furthermore, it is the best
way to get the local people involved in the construction of dam by providing them the jobs. They
can earn income as well as contribute to the establishment of the dam.
With use of leadership skills, Jones did great by convincing the locals living in the village
as they had belief that this construction is going to damage their environment and hamper the life
they are living. Furthermore, this has helped in accelerating all the work such as receiving
materials from ports and delivering them to location of dam, clearance in the obstacles caused by
formalities etc.
Jones head quickly learn to handle the business in the way which can speed up things.
But in order to complete all the task within the time was difficult for HG as Jones had to pay for
each and everything which can help it complete the construction of dam as soon as possible
(Salin, and et. al.,2019).
The cost work get increased with the time and the demand of the local people also
increasing which caused a problem with the companies name in the market. It was the matter of
the Goodwill which it has created in USA.
Although, there were no formal guidelines for governing the lifestyle of expatriates going
to Africa from America. But, the internal bye laws and values do not let the employees of HG get
involved so much with the local people that it can be a major problem for the company at a
future date. Also, it is not beneficial to conduct such activities for a short period of time.
Issue 3 – Ethics and CSR
The third issue which has been discovered in this case study is about out paying bribes to
the local authorities and people for the completion of construction of dam. Jones paid hefty
amount in order to to have good relations with the Tanzanian people so that it no major problems
come across the construction. Since Africa has the problem of poverty, paying bribe is a
common practice and a source by which the people on income and fulfil their needs and
requirements. Also, the foreign nationals who come to work in that country has to deal with such
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kind of people and make large last payment for their demands. This is the only way to prevent
hinder to the operation of the project.
It is related to the ethics and CSR practice of an organisation. Ethics is the study of right
and wrong of a particular action. A person should be aware about the consequences of the
decision. Difference between rightness and wrongness of the outcome can help people choose
that alternative which can provide greater benefit to the society and is correct morally (Koch, and
et. al., 2019). CSR is a part of ethics which put a compulsion on the entities earning huge profit
to contribute a certain percentage for the benefit of the society. Corporate social responsibility
helps in improving the conditions of a society by contributing in infrastructure, education, etc.
This is a way by which organisation written the favour of operating in the society and using the
resources available to them (Zhu and et. al., 2019).
In American culture, bribing a person to get the things done is absolutely unethical and
against the law. This type of practices are not appreciated by the American people. Also, the
percentage of such activities are very low in USA. On the contrary, African people strongly rely
on such practices in which they ask the foreign organisation to pay them bribe.
All such activities are legal in Tanzania as well as ethical due to which nobody stand
against such thing. It is a common practice which is adopted by locals as well as the people
coming from other countries to expand their business. Jones had to bribe for having all the task
achieved in the time limit provided for the same. But Steinberg did not like this approach
followed by Jones as it is absolutely against the code of conduct HG. According to him, the word
could have been done without paying money to the locals. It was Johns responsibility to take
care of all the matters within the legal limits and by considering the brand image HG has in USA
and other Nations. Therefore, it is a major issue from the perspective of USA and its work
culture (Feldman, 2019).
2. Reflective Report
Reflection
The following is based upon Gibbs model which is actually bifurcated in size factors
including first description feelings, evaluation, conclusion and action. It is mentioned below with
the issues faced In Tanzania.
Description
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I have always believe that working in a organization which is expanding to the contrast of
working in a completely different culture will always be very difficult for me migrating on
mitigating from a US based hydro generation to setting it up in in the major dam project in
Tanzania was one of the most difficult and challenging projects I have ever done. There were
several issues which was faced by me as working with their some of them can be comprised in
the term of organizational culture in which the issues which was related to creating such kind of
River dam in a place where did Rita teach other and those things as a belief for cultural unit and
then making them understand the need of a dam in such place needed me to actually become one
of them and understand what mentality they look up to after having such kind of thoughts. the
second issue I thought was about the way I had to lead in this Nation as I have to change my
whole life style and had to adjust as per their requirement and their believes and culture. This
literally help me out in properly assessing their mindsets that hurts learning their languages to
actually become more closer towards them and then slowly entering my leadership requirements
with them. The third one was the most difficult part to manage as it was related to the ethics and
the CSR values in such place the issue here was bribe and its culture. Everything which was to
be done as per the requirement of the project could only get possible underline unless I was
driving people to support and complete the work. This actually affected even on the budgeting
and the costing plus took a lot of time to negotiate as per their requirement and understanding
things in their own personal perspective.
Feelings
I faced many issues and problems while setting up this business structure of creating a
dam in Tanzania as it hindered me in several places the assignment and the construction phase
project was a very important project and had to be properly constructively satisfied with the
proper amount of budget and time limit. This particularly needed me too to be one of the people
in that environment to understand their mentality, mindset, methods of doing things, tactics they
apply while doing business and several other factors which was affecting the companies issues.
In the most particular way sends book was actually worried that actions performed by the
company can have several unforeseen repercussions in the project of creating the damp in
Tanzania which had to be solved by following several philosophy values and the founders of this
but let had to properly shape when HG culture and a mission. I properly wanted to stay in
Tanzania and HD as it actually made me to think about a professional training for myself and a
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greater experience with having a family variety of being the cost for the country. The local
development and the issues which were in the power plant which I thought was the most
important concept was first lead to actually gain a proper support from the local people and the
government authorities over there. second issue was to actually higher the resources from the
local we will itself which will even help me in having proper income in goods and customs plus
it would save a lot of money in the immigration process of permitting other foreigners in a
different country and stuff like that. This is also in fishes about the logistic materials and the
things which can be properly hampered if I did not have a proper support from the local ministry
and local villages next to the project.
Evaluation
I had to properly evaluate each and every comfortable zone for the living person or the
one working in Tanzania as I was solely held responsible for the operating structure and several
managers and their startup activities of obtaining proper license getting telephonic
communication and several other utilities were also under my supervision. I had to make the
project perfectly fine as well as workable in the environment so no such hindrances will be
caused while facing issues and domestic support will always be there in case of any troubles.
Does dam construction needed a huge amount of capital and the issues which are faced by this
project of continuous bribing and all of this had to be given a chance to get salt which got me the
idea to get involved with the people get to know their procedure BA part of them and learn the
local language is to have a proper communication with them which actually sorted most of the
issues while creating this dam.
Conclusion
From the above passage I can conclude that one had to be very precise about choosing
where to expand the organization or create or take up projects since they have to firstly
understand the cultural background and the beliefs of people belonging from such area so that
such problems cannot be faced again and again. This can also rectify the fact that one needs to be
properly understandable of the concepts and follow several philosophies which are directly
implemented over the working of such place it can be obtained carefully that issues like such
cannot be just solved by accepting the culture one has 2 inbuilt their own performance as per
their requirement. Issues which were related to having a proper budget set for everything and the
issues which came from the country such as the tax issues for taking general resources from the
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home country and most probably the immigration issue which actually made the costing and the
pricing of 16 in this project within a limited period of time and the budget given by the company.
Action
the only action that can be taken up or I chose to implement in such place was to
understand each and every aspect of the organization I didn't actually want to go back to the
home country as I started to acknowledge their language their ways of working and their leaves
and culture in the country. This was impossible until and unless I understood all factors and
discriminate all the cultural differentiation which were causing huge problems in fulfilling this
whole project.
The ways in which one needs to understand and properly create a issue which had to be
discussed and until and unless such discoveries are made one cannot set up a business or create
the opportunity to have a business in such place. The only action plan which would work in such
organization setup of a different country can be workable mindset and creating better
opportunities for them to accept search opportunities and avoiding The tribe culture and issues
related to their ethics have to be understood by the organization to actually reciprocate as per the
requirement and the needs of both sides.
CONCLUSION
From the report mentioned above one can perfectly analyze all the difference of cross
culture between Tanzania and US. The differences which were created or were faced by the
organization due to the variance and difference in the culture, believes and all other social factors
which bifurcated and became a task for setting up proper organization and working in such place.
the report precisely focus on the fact that to accept or to provide some new change in a different
culture one has to accept them before trying to change things as per personal requirement. One
can actually realize the importance of understanding the roots of any organizational or Nation to
discover it more properly.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals:
Jackson, T. and Primecz, H., 2019. Cross-cultural management studies and the Englishization of
scholarly communication: A paradox.
Bouranta, N and et. al.,2019. The key factors of total quality management in the service sector: a
cross-cultural study. Benchmarking: An International Journal. 26(3). pp.893-921.
Caligiuri, P., Mencin, A., Jayne, B. and Traylor, A., 2019. Developing cross-cultural
competencies through international corporate volunteerism. Journal of World Business. 54(1).
pp.14-23.
Salin, D., and et. al.,2019. Workplace bullying across the globe: A cross-cultural
comparison. Personnel Review. 48(1). pp.204-219.
Zhu, W and et. al., 2019. Ethical leadership with both “moral person” and “moral manager”
aspects: Scale development and cross-cultural validation. Journal of Business Ethics. 158(2).
pp.547-565.
Feldman, S., 2019. CROSS-CULTURAL LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE: A SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE. International Journal of Social Sciences
Management and Entrepreneurship (IJSSME). 3(2).
Koch, A.D., Dlouhy, K., Koch-Bayram, I. and Biemann, T., 2019, July. Close but Overlooked:
The Role of Geographical Distance in Cross-Cultural Leadership Research. In Academy of
Management Proceedings (Vol. 2019, No. 1, p. 12849). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy
of Management.
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