Media Report: Challenges and Strategies in Cross-Cultural Management

This media report examines the challenges faced by multinational enterprises in cross-cultural management. It begins with an introduction to cross-cultural management, highlighting its importance in the global environment. The main body of the report provides an overview of a relevant media article, illustrating theoretical principles such as Trompenaars' Cultural Dimensions and Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions, and their application to management. It discusses the challenges that arise in managing multinational enterprises, including communication barriers, motivational differences, and organizational structure issues. The report then offers recommendations to address these challenges, such as adopting effective communication methods, understanding employee needs, and implementing flexible organizational structures. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and emphasizes the significance of cross-cultural management for business success. The report references various academic sources to support its analysis and recommendations.

MEDIA REPORT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Article overview..........................................................................................................................1
Article illustration of theoretical principles of cross- cultural management...............................1
Challenges arises in management of multinational enterprises in the global market..................3
Recommendations to address such challenges............................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REREFENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Cross- cultural management is a kind of management study that helps an organization to
manage, understand and deal with people who are from different cultures. It helps organizations
to sustain in global environment and enhance their business at global level (Heyman, 2017).
Effective cross- culture management helps an organization to gain competitive advantage and
enhance satisfaction level of their culturally diverse employees. This assignment will lay
emphasis on a media article “The challenges of cross- cultural management” that helps in
explaining challenges faced by organizations in terms of cross- cultural management. This
assignment also focusses on overview of the article, theoretical principles of cross- cultural
management, Challenges arises in management of multinational enterprises in the global market
and recommendations through which such challenges can overcome.
MAIN BODY
Article overview
Topic: The challenges of cross- cultural management
This article says that as technology is accelerating, a greater number of companies are
focusing on doing business globally. If an organization wants to sustain in a global environment,
they need to learn to manage employees from different nations or cultures. Adoption of cross
culture is not easy for organizations to adopt and cannot be leant overnight. It requires
experience, knowledge and commitment towards success (The challenges of cross culture
management, 2020). As per the view of writer if an organization wants to adopt cross culture
management they need to face various kinds of challenges which can further make it difficult for
the organizations to enter into the global market and more importantly it can make it difficult for
organizations to sustain within the competitive global market as they might require to face
challenges in terms of management of different teams, employees from different cultural
background. Employees from different background does not respond in the similar manner as
western culture employees might respond.
Article illustration of theoretical principles of cross- cultural management
Cross- culture management is one of the most important factors which is required to be
focused on by multinational organizations in order to sustain within the global environment in
order to run a successful business. One of the major theoretical principle focused on in the article
is Trompenaars’ Cultural Dimensions & Management Implications. It is a kind of framework of
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cross- culture communication which is applied to business and management as per this theory
national culture difference has seven dimensions. Individualism vs collectivism is one of the
dimensions that has been illustrated in the article ( Managing Cross-cultural Diversity: Issues and
Challenges in Global Organizations, 2020). According to the writer American employees focus
on seeking opportunities for personal development whereas Indian employees focuses on
concept of loyalty and prestige of the company. As per the writer most of the western employees
focuses on individualism i.e. such employees focus on personal achievement whereas Indian
employees focuses on collectivism i.e., they focus on group achievement. This article says that in
order to understand other culture it is important for organizations to understand their motivation
management styles adopted by them in order to motivate their employees. Each employee has
their own needs and motivational factors that can motivate them to work with more dedication
within the organization. It can be linked to two factor theory which says that each job
environment consists of hygiene and maintenance factors. Personal development, job security,
job satisfaction factors comes under hygiene factors whereas promotion, responsibility etc.
comes under motivational factors. Each employee from different culture has their own set of
hygienic factors that motivate them (Thomas and Peterson, 2016) . Western culture employees
get motivated by all the opportunities that lead them towards personal development whereas
Indian employees get motivated by job satisfaction factors i.e. company’s prestige and loyalty of
company motivate them. As per the writer it is important for a manager to have excellent skill
sets so that they can motivate their employees which can further result in cross culture
competence. It is important for them to understand factors that would motivate employees to
enhance their performance and enhance overall productivity of the organization and enhance
their profitability.
Article also focusses on cross- cultural communication. It says that most of the
multinational organizations faces difficulties in terms of communication. It lay emphasis on
cross- culture communication principles that says that culture is a pat of decoding
communication. One of the principles of cross- culture communication says that mis-
communication mostly happens because of significant cultural difference between the
communicators (Bird and Mendenhall, 2016). As per the writer most of the multi- national
organizations focuses on adopting English as one of the most common communication methods
through which multi- national companies communicate with the employees from different
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nations. There are various kinds of communication methods that can be used by multi- national
organizations for communication. Most common method of communication used for
communicating with employees of different culture is oral communication and non- verbal
communication. Oral communication is maintaining with the help of English language but non-
verbal communication is maintained by body language. This article focuses on Hofstede’s
Cultural Dimensions which is a framework of cross- culture communication. This theory helps in
explaining effect of society’s culture on values of its own people. As it has already been
explained in the article that cultural background of people impacts their way communication. In
order to main effective communication in different nation they need to understand cultural
dimensions of that country. This framework has six dimensions (d'Iribarne and et. al., 2020).
Dimensions of each country differs in many ways which directly/ indirectly impact their overall
communication. Focusing on these factors can help the organizations to understand and build a
mode of communication with their employees. For example American employees highly focus
on their time and privacy and enjoys challenges whereas Indian employees focuses on individual
accomplishments and do not like to mix their personal and professional lives.
Challenges arises in management of multinational enterprises in the global market
From the article it has been analysed that there are various kinds of challenges that arises
in management of multinational enterprises in the global market. These challenges impact
employee management and helps them to maintain effective communication of organization with
their employees. One of the main and biggest challenge faced by multi-national organizations is
in blending their employees from different cultural background. When employees from two or
more culture interact or work together, they need to bring changes within their communication
pattern, leadership style that fits according to the cultural dimension of host country (Brewster,
2017). in order to overcome these challenges most of the organizations focus on adopting
English as a mode of communication as it is one of the mostly commonly spoken and known
language which is spoken by people of different nations. It helps an organization reduce this
communication challenge barrier. It further helps an organization managing culturally diverse
workforce in an appropriate manner. Even in this many organizations do face a challenge i.e.
some of the people are only good in writing English and are not good in speaking or listening
English language because of which it can become difficult for a manager to manage their
employees from culturally diverse people (Richter and et. al., 2016). It is important for
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organization to focus on these communication challenges because employees from different
culture do not respond in the similar manner. If these language barriers are not focused on and
improved then it can result in failure of the business. If communication among employees is not
established in an appropriate manner then it can impact relationship between employee and
employer and can lead to mis- communication which can become one of the main reason
because of which mistakes within business operations can occur.
Another challenge faced by organizations in terms of incentives and guarantees. This
means the need and satisfaction of all the employees from different culture is not similar. It
becomes difficult for multi- national organizations to satisfy needs and requirements of the
employees (Johnson and Cullen, 2017). In order to enhance satisfaction of culturally diverse
employees it is important for organizations to focus on their needs and requirements which will
help the organization to enhance their employee’s satisfaction and motivational level. Cross
culture is one of the most important and essential part of an organization which can lead the
business towards success in international market.
Another challenge faced by multi- national organizations in terms of cross- culture
management is in organizational structure. Organizational face major challenge in terms of
designing of organizational structure in such a manner that employees and managers from
culturally diverse places can work together without any issues. But it is one of the major
challenges for organizations because difference in organizational structure can reduce job
satisfaction of employees (Dietz and et. al., 2017). It is important for organizations to have a
flexible structure so that cross- culture management can be employed in an appropriate manner.
Recommendations to address such challenges
In order to overcome such challenges, there are various ways through which
organizations through which multinational organizations can overcomes all the challenges
associated with cross- culture management. Some of the recommended ways through which
these challenges can overcome are as follows:
In order to overcome communication challenges faced by managers in management of
employees from culturally diverse places is to adopt a communication method through which
proper communication can be maintained in an enhanced manner. Maintaining a proper
communication method will help in reducing miscommunication chances. Organization can use
most commonly used language which is known by the most of the organization. Within meetings
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they should Paraphrase and repeat themselves so that all the employees can understand what the
meeting is about and message which is being communicated to them (Dietz and et. al., 2017).
Not only this, managers should also focus on sending a follow up email which will include all
the details of meetings. This will help in reducing changes of errors. This will also help the
organization to bring improvement within their business operations and gain competitive
advantage.
In order to overcome motivational and employee satisfaction, organizations can focus on
understand needs and requirements of the culturally diverse employees. They can focus on
providing greater and exciting opportunities to the employees so that their motivational and
satisfaction level can be enhanced. Multinational organizations can focus on paying extra,
providing fringe benefits to compensate for the problems that they might experience. Employees
should also provide better position to the employees within their home country this will help
them to relieve their job insecurities. They should also provide recognition to employees for their
achievement and if any employee is offered any international project and they should be
provided with all the details of the host country, benefits they will be provided with (Dietz and
et. al., 2017). This will help the organization to motivate and enhance their overall satisfaction
despite of their culture.
In order to overcome structural challenge, organizations should have a flexible structure that
supports cross-culture management. This flexible structure enables managers of an organization
from different culture to work synergistically with each other. It helps in allowing employees on
lower level to make decisions and helps them to make them adaptable so that they can accept or
adopt any kind of change which is required to allow business growth.
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment it has been summarized that one of the main issues faced by
multi- national organizations is in terms of cross- culture management. There are various kinds
of challenges faced by organizations in terms of cross- culture management. It has been analysed
that communication is one of the most common challenge which is faced by organizations
because of culturally diverse people. This communication challenge can lead to mis
communication and sometimes lead to failure of business operations. It has also been analysed
that in order resolve these challenges it is important for organization to bring changes within
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their organizational culture in order to strengthen communication within the employees and
employer and enhance satisfaction of employees.
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REREFENCES
Books and journals
Bird, A. and Mendenhall, M.E., 2016. From cross-cultural management to global leadership:
Evolution and adaptation. Journal of World Business. 51(1). pp.115-126.
Brewster, C., 2017. Human resource practices in multinational companies. The Blackwell
Handbook of Cross‐Cultural Management, pp.126-141.
Dietz, J., and et. al., 2017. Cross-cultural management education rebooted. Cross Cultural &
Strategic Management.
d'Iribarne, P., and et. al., 2020. Cross-Cultural Management Revisited: A Qualitative Approach.
Oxford University Press.
Heyman, M., 2017. Management and multiculturalism in companies.
Johnson, J.L. and Cullen, J.B., 2017. Trust in cross‐cultural relationships. The Blackwell
Handbook of Cross‐Cultural Management, pp.335-360.
Richter, N.F., and et. al., 2016. Using cultural archetypes in cross-cultural management
studies. Journal of International Management. 22(1). pp.63-83.
Thomas, D.C. and Peterson, M.F., 2016. Cross-cultural management: Essential concepts. Sage
Publications.
Online
Managing Cross-cultural Diversity: Issues and Challenges in Global Organizations. 2020.
[Online]. Available through:
<http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jmce/papers/ICRTEM/ME/Volume-3/IOSRMG002.pdf?
id=7622>
The challenges of cross culture management. 2020. [Online]. Available through: <
https://www.michiganstateuniversityonline.com/resources/leadership/the-challenges-of-
cross-cultural-management/>
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