MGT211 Cross-Cultural Management Report: Woolworths in the USA

This report provides an analysis of Woolworths' cross-cultural management strategies, specifically focusing on its potential expansion into the United States. The report begins with an executive summary and an introduction that sets the context for the study. It identifies the challenges Woolworths might encounter due to cultural differences between Australia and the USA, including behavioral differences, communication gaps, and the dynamic nature of cross-cultural management. The report then delves into the application of Hofstede's cultural dimensions, comparing Australia and the USA across power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence. A conclusion summarizes the key findings, highlighting the importance of managing these cultural differences for successful international business. The report concludes with recommendations for Woolworths, such as maintaining a diverse staff, understanding team members, and establishing a proper business structure to navigate cross-cultural complexities.

Running Head: Cross Culture 0
Woolworths
Cross-cultural Management
8/1/2019

Cross Culture 1
Executive summary
The report includes the information about the Woolworths Company in Australia that
needs to expand in the United States for the betterment and increment in the business. By
expanding in the United States, the organization can increase its profit and attract more
customers towards the organization. The report consists the study of the cultural differences in
Australia and the United States as the company located in Australia and should expand in the
United States for the better growth of the company. This report gives the information about the
various challenges faced by the business in the process of expanding. The report defines the
various cultural dimensions mentioned in Hofstede's theories.

Cross Culture 2
Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Findings.......................................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................10
Appendix...................................................................................................................................................11

Cross Culture 3
Introduction
This report will based on the management of the cross-cultural business. As cross-
cultural business is a difficult task to manage properly because of the different culture of
different countries affect the overall business growth. The company needs to manage the culture
to expand the business in other countries. Woolworths selected to understand cross-cultural
management in the business. The company is one of the largest supermarkets in Australia. This
company is specialized in selling groceries and several other products. The report will discussed
about the various management challenges faced by the company in managing the cross-cultural
business, as this company should expand its business in the United States. There is better growth
in the United States as that is a developed country and has a large scope. The Hofstede theories
related to the cross-culture business will described in this report. The cross-cultural business
signifies the efforts made by the company to expand its business in a different country and
manage their cultural challenges effectively (Stahl and Tung, 2015). The report will be included
in the challenges occurred in the management of business due to cross-culture.

Cross Culture 4
Findings
The cross-cultural business is used to increase the growth and ability of the business and
maintain cooperation among the colleagues belongs to different backgrounds. The cross-cultural
business is a vital issue in the business market as this process is used in expanding the business
in different countries, which is very essential for the proper growth of the business. As all know
that every country culture is different and business needs to manage the process as per the culture
of the country in which the business is expanded (Thomas, 2015).In the cross-culture business,
various management challenges can occur. These challenges can directly affect the profit and
growth of the business. The several challenges can occur in the business due to the crosses
culture method. These challenges will described below in detail:
 Differences in behavior
The differences in the behavior of employees and other management member's affect the
overall business and this is one of the biggest challenges occurred in the cross-cultural business.
As the people of different backgrounds have, a different point of view and it cannot be managed
in the cross-cultural business so this can create many negative effects on the business (Holden,
et. al., 2015). The conflicts may occur in the people have different thoughts, different
background, and these conflicts directly hamper the work life. The organization needs to face
these challenges while expanding the business in different countries like the United States.
 Gap of Communication
The communication gap is the biggest challenge occurred in the business of cross-culture.
Communication barrier is very common in the process of business having different cultures. The
communication gap is common in the business having different cultures in the business expand
their business in a different country. It occurs not due to the difference of languages but it occurs
due to different thoughts. Woolworths also face this challenge due to the expanding of the
business as the United States follows the different culture and Australia has different. The point
of view of the people of Australia and the United States are very different.

Cross Culture 5
 Dynamic nature of cross-cultural management
The management of cross-culture in business is very dynamic as the culture has different in
different countries. When one business expanding in other country needs to manage, their
cultural differences as the people from other countries have different thoughts and it creates the
conflicts among the employees of the same country but different culture (Cayusqil, et. al., 2014).
 Process of partiality
The managers of the company also affect the cross-culture business as the managers
sometimes support the employees that belong to their community and culture. So this creates the
partiality in the business which affects the growth of the company and declines the production
rate of the company. The managers need to become open-minded and flexible in all cultures to
maintain the profit and growth of the business.
 Diversified habits
The people of different culture have different habits and their corporate etiquettes are
different. This can create conflicts among the employees related to the working process. This
difference ultimately affects the high growth of the company (Femando and Moore, 2015). The
growth and profit of the company decrease due to the different culture.
The cultural dimensions based on the different theories and concepts like Hofstede cultural
dimensions and many more other dimensions of cross-culture. The Hofstede cultural dimensions
theory is one of the famous theory used in the cross-cultural process of business as different
culture in business creates many conflicts in the business. This theory describes the several
effects of culture in society and these effects directly affect the behavior of the employees. This
theory manages the differences among the people of the business. The various cultural values
can be defined in this particular theory. This theory includes various united dimensions related to
culture (Demuijnck, 2015). The dimensions related to the culture of Australia and the United
States defines the theory related to Woolworths because this company needs to expand its
business in the United States. The Hofstede model is described below-

Cross Culture 6
 Power Distance
This point describes that not all individuals are equal in the respective society. The score of
Australia is low in this dimension as this dimension defines the less powerful members of
organizations and the power is distributed unequally. As this dimension is related to the leaders
and managers of the organization. The United States scores a little high as compared to
Australia. The score of this dimension in the United States is 40.
 Individualism
This dimension gives the degree of interdependence which maintained by the society among
the members. There are two types of societies individualist and collectivist and these societies
are different (Shafritz, et. al., 2015). The score of this dimension in Australia is 90, which show
that this country follows individualist culture. The score of this dimension in the United State is
also high which shows 91.
 Masculinity
This is a major issue which is used in motivation which is related to the best (Masculine) and
liking what you do (feminine). The score of Australia in this dimension is 61and it shows the
society is all about Masculine and the United State score is also on the same dimension, which
are 62. There is no cultural issue occurred between these two countries as there most of the
dimensions are same.
 Uncertainty Avoidance
This dimension is related to the uncertainty process in the future and the business needs to
control the future. The fear of unexpected situations is related to this dimension (Ngai, et. al.,
2015). The score of Australia related to this dimension is 51 and the score of the United States is
low which is 46 so some consequences can arise in this dimension among these two cultures.
 Long Term Orientation
This dimension defines that society needs to relate to the past while working with the present
and future. Therefore, the past is also important for the proper working in the present and future

Cross Culture 7
(Taras, e.t al., 2012). This dimension score in Australia is 21 and score of the United State is 26,
which is a little greater as compared to Australia.
 Indulgence
This dimension is related to the controlling of desires and impulses. Therefore, the weak
control on desires is called Indulgence and a strong control on desires is called Restraint
(Obeidat, et. al., 2012). Australia has a high score in this dimension which is 71 which shows
less control on the desires and the score of the United States is 68 which is low as compared with
Australia.

Cross Culture 8
Conclusion
This report has been described the several management challenges occurred in the cross-
cultural business. The Woolworths is greatly affected by the cultural dimension, as the company
should expand in Australia. The several challenges like communication gap, partiality, diversity
inhabits have been discussed in this report. The cross-cultural process can occur various
difficulties in the organization but by managing them properly, it can be good for the
organization itself. The report defines about the various dimensions of the Hofstede cross-
cultural theory, which defines the various dimensions related to the cross-cultural process. The
Woolworths need to expand their business in the US so there is no as much difference in the
process of US and Australia so it has been determined that their process can be goes easily and
organization achieves better growth in the market.

Cross Culture 9
Recommendations
For managing the proper cross-cultural management, the several recommendations are
needed. By these recommendations, the overall process of Woolworths can be managed
properly. Some of the main recommendations regarding the process of Woolworths will be
described below-
 Maintain the diverse staff
To make proper management regarding the cultural activities in the business it is important to
maintain the diversity in the staff so they can comfortable in working with the people of different
backgrounds (Chidlow, et. al., 2014). The various opportunities are provided to the staff while
working with diversity.
 Know each team member properly
For the proper cross-cultural management, the management must know each team member
properly. By knowing each member then only the conflicts can be reduced and the work goes
easily in the business process.
 Makes a proper structure
While making a proper structure of the business process then the cross-cultural management
goes properly and the people with other backgrounds can easily work in the same company
(Ahmed, et. al., 2014). Woolworths need to adopt these recommendations to make high business
growth.
 Understand the cultural differences
The employees need to understand the cultural differences properly so they can co-relate
with each other and work properly with each other.

Cross Culture 10
References
Ahmed, R. R., Hanif, M., Abid Alvi, H., Vveinhardt, J., & Adil, M. S. (2014). Impact of
organizational culture on organizational commitment and job satisfaction. European
journal of business and management, 2014, Vol. 6, no. 27, p. 30-38.
Bruin, L.D., Marques, M.,Kanani, P., & Roekel, M.V. (2017). Business to You [Online]. Retrieve
from https://www.business-to-you.com/
Cavusgil, S. T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J. R., Rammal, H. G., & Rose, E. L.
(2014). International business. New Zealand: Pearson Australia.
Chidlow, A., Plakoyiannaki, E., & Welch, C. (2014). Translation in cross-language international
business research: Beyond equivalence. Journal of International Business Studies, 45(5),
562-582.
Demuijnck, G. (2015). Universal values and virtues in management versus cross-cultural moral
relativism: An educational strategy to clear the ground for business ethics. Journal of
Business Ethics, 128(4), 817-835.
Fernando, M., & Moore, G. (2015). MacIntyrean virtue ethics in business: A cross-cultural
comparison. Journal of Business Ethics, 132(1), 185-202.
Holden, N., Michailova, S., & Tietze, S. (Eds.). (2015). The Routledge companion to cross-
cultural management. London: Routledge.
Ngai, E. W., Tao, S. S., & Moon, K. K. (2015). Social media research: Theories, constructs, and
conceptual frameworks. International journal of information management, 35(1), 33-44.
Obeidat, B. Y., Shannak, R. O., Masa'deh, R. E. M. D. T., & Al-Jarrah, I. (2012). Toward a
better understanding of Arabian culture: Implications based on Hofstede's cultural model.
European Journal of Social Sciences, 28(4), 512-522.
Squareviews. (2016). Squareviews[Online]. Retrieve from
https://4squareviews.com/2012/12/19/six-sigma-green-belt-define-team-dynamics-and-
hofstedes-cultural-dimensions/
Shafritz, J. M., Ott, J. S., & Jang, Y. S. (2015). Classics of organization theory. Boston: Cengage
Learning.
Stahl, G. K., & Tung, R. L. (2015). Towards a more balanced treatment of culture in
international business studies: The need for a positive cross-cultural scholarship. Journal
of International Business Studies, 46(4), 391-414.

Cross Culture 11
Taras, V., Steel, P., & Kirkman, B. L. (2012). Improving national cultural indices using a
longitudinal meta-analysis of Hofstede's dimensions. Journal of World Business, 47(3),
329-341.
Thomas, D. C. (2015). Cultural intelligence. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 1-3.