Effective Management of Cross-Cultural Dimensions in Australian Firms

This report provides an overview of cross-cultural management in Australian organizations, focusing on the application of Hofstede's Cultural Dimension Model. It examines the impact of cultural differences on organizational performance, particularly in relation to power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long-term orientation. The report analyzes how these dimensions affect workplace dynamics, employee behavior, and the ability of firms to expand internationally. It highlights potential challenges such as communication gaps, misunderstandings, and gender discrimination, while also offering strategic recommendations for managers to mitigate these issues. The report emphasizes the importance of training programs, equitable policies, and fostering a respectful work environment to enhance organizational success and facilitate effective cross-cultural collaboration. The conclusion reinforces the significance of understanding cultural nuances for Australian organizations operating in a globalized business landscape.

Running head: MANAGING CROSS-CULTURAL DIMENSION IN ORGANIZATION
MANAGING CROSS-CULTURAL DIMENSION IN ORGANIZATION
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Executive Summary
This report aims to provide a general idea about Australian Cross-Cultural problems. This
paper also states the effectiveness of Hofstede’s Cross -Culture Dimension model to
recognize the background and culture of Australia. It provides a brief idea of the adverse
impact of cross-culture on organizational performance and how they restrict the firm to
expand its business with foreign countries.

2MANAGING CROSS- CULTURAL DIMENSION IN ORGANIZATION
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension Outline in Australia:............................................................4
Strategies To Manage Cultural Differences In Organization...............................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
Reference....................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The purpose of this report is to determine importance of Hofstede’s Cultural
Dimension Model for the managers in recognizing and solving the cross- cultural issues of
any organization in Australia. Hofstede’ Cultural Dimension Model is used to determine the
cultural differences of individuals present in any particular organization present in Australia
(Browaeys & Price, 2008).Human culture differs from one another every individual has their
unique background and culture and that has a great impact on both the organizational
operations profit margin. Australia is a unique combination of traditions and culture. This
country has a remarkable economic position among other countries across the globe.
Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension has six parameters (Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance,
Individualism, Masculinity, and Long Term Orientation) (Hofstede, 2001).
Discussion
Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension is considered an essential tool to determine the
cultural background of any country (Hofstede, 2006). It also helps any organizational
managers to determine the cross- cultural problems that restrict their employees while dealing
with any foreign business organization. Australia is well-known for its cultural dimension
and prominent economic standard. As per the statistics, Australia has more than 21million
people including different cultures, religions, and backgrounds. This cultural variation has an
immense impact on business, education, art organizational structure, and its growth (Javidan
et al.,2006). In order to expand business, any firm has the chance of collaborating with other
foreign organization or company may have to send its specific group of employees to another
country for business purpose. For this reason, employees may suffer from different problems
related to cultural difference like communication gap, misunderstanding among employees
may hamper the team’s performance level, behavioral pattern and others. To avoid these

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issue company needs to develop a training program to make their employees prepare for
visiting another nation. Hence, Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension Model has been used to
recognize and analyze organizational issues that arise due to the cultural diversity in
Australia.
Employees may suffer from problems related to cultural difference, issues related to
different business environment, food culture and different social culture and backgrounds of
different nations.
Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension Outline in Australia:
Power distance
Power distance aims to generate the concept of maintaining equality of power among
all the smaller and higher organizations. Power distance is defined as the level of inequality
among members of higher power groups and lower power within a particular nation except
and they accept that power is unequally distributed (Minkov & Hofstede, 2011). In a higher
power distance nation, there is a high chance to demotivate or disrespect subordinates (Khan,
2014). Subordinates have blamed for irrelevant issues and bad impact on the relationship
between the organization and its employees. Class division and politics are prone in the
workplace This will endanger the organization’s performance and its profit level. It will also
raise a major problem for any employee while visiting another nation of different cultural
background. Employees may face difficulties to adopt and cope up with different
organizational culture of any foreign nations. On the other hand, in the lower power distance
country subordinates are considered as the most valuable assets for any company. Employees
have treated with respect and this indulges them in a good relationship with the organization.
This will help the organization to reach its success.

5MANAGING CROSS- CULTURAL DIMENSION IN ORGANIZATION
In Australia, power distance is low 36% and thus it helps to generate a good
relationship between the organization and its employees and provide job satisfaction to
employees present in the firm (Hauff & Richter, 2015).Hence, Hofstede’s Model helps the
organization to identify the mentioned cross-cultural problem in firms and frame effective
strategies to solve those problems. Thus, it can state that Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension
model helps the organization to develop strategies to make its employees attached to the firm.
Individualism/ Collectivism
Individualism refers to the culture of caring or looking for himself and herself or only
care for his family. In an individualistic society, the bond among different people is less and
individuals use to look for their interests. The citizens of an individualistic society have their
main focus towards attaining their personal interest to enrich their resources. On the other
hand, Collectivism states that employees should work along with their teams to promote
organizational welfare.
In Australia, the individualism as raised its top level of 90%, this individualistic
culture has given birth to serious organizational issues like employees become more concern
about the fulfillment of their own goals and became less responsible towards the firm.
Another, problem that individualistic organization has faced like:
Employees have seemed to refuse to work in a team of other nation or any other
organization and affect the team as well as the organizational performance badly (Duran et
al.,2016).
Due to the individualistic nature employees use to disobey manager’s advice and
follow their own strategy. Thus, employees may face problems while working in different
nation.

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Thus, Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension model helps the organizational managers of
Australia to identify cross-cultural problems present in their firm.
Uncertainty Avoidance Index:
Uncertainty avoidance index deals with the society’s tolerance level regarding
unusual, sudden and unknown threats that may affect the organizational culture and
performance. This index helps the organization to deal with sudden threats by opposing them
with strict rules and policies. In Australia, Uncertainty Avoidance is 51% and states that the
country tends to deal with sudden unknown threats and thus lead them to suffer from anxiety
(Chang & Lin, 2015). Considering this fact, Australian employees may face difficulties to
adopt different culture of other countries because the uncertainty avoidance index is
different from their country.
Masculinity / Femininity:
Masculinity determines the extent that determines the level of achievement, success,
and competition of the society (Schein, 1992). The concept of masculinity states that the
success has identified by the winner or someone who is best in their designated field. The
core features of this concept are positivity and hard work for reaching the success level.
Masculinity promotes the concept of acquiring materialistic success and wealth. Femininity is
the concept opposite to masculinity. Femininity promotes the concept of generous behavior
and modesty. The main goal of this concept to attain best quality of life rather to gain
materialistic success. As per the report, masculinity rate in Australia is more than 58% that
provides the idea of male domination in their society. Females are posted for the household
purpose. In organization gender-discrimination prevails and female employees face trouble to
achieve promotion in the workplace. This culture often restricts the growth of the society as
well as the country’s economy. It raises the problem for any female employees to work freely

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in any organization and restrict them to collaborate with any international organization where
the role of women plays a vital role. Thus, Australian male employees have the tendency to
oppose their female colleagues and this attitude may raise a major problem for them while
dealing with any international firms because they often ignore or disobey the orders given by
the boss of another firm.
Long Term Orientation:
Long-term orientation is the dimension that describes how the society maintains its
connection with its own primitive traditions and culture while adopting present changes to
create a great future. The long-term dimension of Australia is 21 percent (Jiang, Gollan &
Brooks, 2017). This rate provides a brief an idea that people of Australian society use to
embrace new changes. They use to respect their culture and have a sense of protecting the
reputation of their ethics and culture. Australian citizen uses to put more focus on their
present condition than to gain future uncertain things. The long- term success of the firm is at
risk and employees may feel insecure at their organization. It will also raise problems for
employees if they join any other organization of different country because often struggle to
adopt new traditions and of different nations. Thus Hoftstede’s Cultural Dimension model
helps the managers to identify different problems of adopting new cultures by their
employees and formulate solutions to deal crisis accordingly.
Indulgence:
This level helps to determine how citizens of any society fulfill their desires in
accessing their needs and live an enjoyable life. Indulgence level in Australia is 71 percent
and thus helps to provide a general idea that they believe in leading a happy and joyful life
instead of restricting their desires and gratification by different social norms. This culture has

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several drawbacks and creates certain restrictions for any organization in attaining its success.
Employees often seem casual about their job and may delay in reaching the target. Thus, it
refrains the organization to extend its business in different foreign countries and affect the
organization’s performance badly. Thus, Hofstede’s Model helps the managers to focus on
the problems of employees and help them to work in a happy and health work environment.
Strategies to Manage Cultural Differences In Organization
 Managers should maintain a good relationship with their subordinates to boost
organizational performance and collaborate with international firms.
 Managers should frame strict policies to ensure equity among every staff associated
with the organization to solve the problem of power distance.
 A manager should help his subordinates to adopt dynamic organizational changes and
help them to solve sudden threats emerge in the organization.
 Manager should judge their female employees based on their talents and skills to
reduce gender discrimination in the organization. This helps to enhance the economic
status of the company and expand the organizational business.
 Managers should reduce the communication gap by maintaining a good connection
with all staff associated with the organization.
 Managers should promote a culture of showing respect for every staff present in the
workplace.
Conclusion
Thus, it can conclude that Hofstede's Cross-Cultural Dimension model helps to
identify the cultural problems present in any Australian organization. Australians have their
specific culture related to power, societal tolerance, economy and business ethics that differ
from other nations. Thus, Australian employees may fall in trouble while collaborating with
any international firms for enhancing organizational profit. To avoid these issues managers

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need to train their employees before sending them to another country for business purpose,
and help them to adopt the culture of that nation. This report provides a detailed suggestion
for the managers to overcome all the organizational problems and helps the company to
develop business with foreign organizations.

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