Analyzing the Cultural Environment of the Renault-Nissan Alliance

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the cultural environment within the Renault-Nissan strategic alliance, focusing on the cross-cultural issues that arise between French and Japanese employees, managers, and directors. It explores the impact of differing communication styles, management approaches, and cultural values on the alliance's operations. The report examines specific challenges such as communication barriers due to high-context vs. low-context language use, individualistic versus collectivist work styles, and varying perspectives on power distance and management hierarchies. Furthermore, it investigates how cultural differences influence the roles and responsibilities of managers and directors, and the potential for misunderstanding and conflict. The report concludes with a series of recommendations aimed at mitigating these cross-cultural issues, including promoting language training, encouraging a balance between individual and group decision-making, fostering open communication channels, and promoting equality and skills-based appointments. By implementing these strategies, the Renault-Nissan alliance can strengthen its operations and capitalize on the strengths of both cultures, enhancing its success and future opportunities in the global market.

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Cultural Environment of Renault-Nissan strategic alliance
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Cultural Environment of Renault-Nissan strategic alliance
Renault-Nissan alliance involves French and Japan nationalities. These two countries
have different cultures that affects the operations of the alliance. Given that Japanese and French
people working in this organization have different system of beliefs, values, norms, and
worldviews, there is a lot of misunderstandings that arise among the staff. Cultural differences
usually arise between employees, managers, directors, and senior and junior staff.
a) Cross-cultural issue of employee
Renault-Nissan alliance has over 450, 000 employees from the two nationalities. Since
these employees have different cultural backgrounds, there is a high possibility of intercultural
misunderstandings among the workers (Weiss, 2011). This arises mostly due to communication
barrier. Japan people use high-context language compared to French who use low-context
language. As such, Japanese tend to use non-verbal and implicit mode of communication.
Misinterpretations of information will affect smooth operations of the business. Additionally,
they may lead to tension and disunity among the workers hence jeopardizing employees’
cooperation. The individualistic nature of French people also affects the working relationship
among the workers (Barmeyer & Mayrhofer, 2016). This is because while the Japanese prefer
working as a group, the French counterparts prefer working individually. This may create
wrangles, misunderstandings, and division among the employees.
b) Cross-cultural issue of managers
Managers play a crucial role in the success of the organization. In organization involving
different cultures, the managers have a hard time to manage the employees due to diverse
cultural differences. Both French and Japan have high power distance although in Japanese its

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little bit lower (Braud, Frederick, Harvey, Leong, & Lane, 2017). As such, managers make the
most crucial decisions regarding the company and the subordinates are expected to follow them
without questioning. Upwards communication from juniors to managers is not easy in Japanese
companies while it is encouraged in French. Therefore, managers need to be careful to
accommodate all the workers so that they do not feel left out. Age and status of managers is
another cross-cultural issue. Japanese culture, for instance, does not encourage or respect young
managers. On the other hand, French culture is concerned with the skills, experience, and
qualifications of an individual and not age (Barmeyer & Mayrhofer, 2015). A young French
manager, therefore, in Japan, is expected to receive hatred, oppression, and disloyalty from
Japanese workers.
c) Cross-cultural issue of directors
Directors of multinational organizations, are highly faced with numerous cross-cultural
issues. They need to understand the cultural environment of the host nation so that they can run
the operations of the company smoothly. Japanese culture is a masculine society whereby males
are given the top most positions such as directors (Braud et al., 2017). On the other hand, French
culture promotes equality between male and female workers. As such, it is hard for Japanese to
accept women directors to lead them and in case of such a scenario, they will face hostility.
Additionally, given that Japanese usually set long-term goals while French people are short-term
oriented, the directors will have a difficult time to balance between the two and make the best
decisions for the organization. Handling people of different cultural background is difficult since
they all hold certain beliefs, values, and norms different from others (Neal, 2016). Directors,
therefore, usually have the most challenging time in understanding their employees and uniting
them to work peacefully for the success of the company.

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d) Recommendations for the above issues
To overcome cross-cultural difference in the Renault-Nissan alliance, it is important to
synergize the best practices from the two companies and put them into practice. To overcome
language barrier, both partners should undergo training so that they can understand the language
usage of the other party. For instance, French should learn the meaning of the non-verbal cues
used by Japanese. The alliance also should encourage Japanese workers to embrace
individualistic act of decision-making and of doing things as opposed to collectivism
(Benetasse, Bernard, De Salins, & Rais, 2014). The company also should encourage
upwards communication between the subordinate and senior managers so that the flow of
information can run smoothly. Equality and appointment based on skills and qualifications
should be encouraged so that biasness on women and young managers is eliminated. The
company also should balance between long-term and short-term decision-making process. In
instances where fast and quick decisions are needed, they should be in a position to do so.
Similarly, when long-term decisions are necessary, then the French employees should adjust and
make the right resolutions (Braud et al., 2017). Through this, the Renault-Nissan strategic
alliance will be strengthened, increase their success rate, and future opportunities.

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References
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Barmeyer, C., & Mayrhofer, U. (2016). Strategic Alliances and Intercultural Organizational
Change: The Renault–Nissan Case.
Benetasse, M., Bernard, J., De Salins, B., & Rais, M. (2014). Renault-Nissan
Strategic Partnership: A Multicultural Analysis Summary : The context of the Strategic
alliance.
Braud, V., Frederick, T., Harvey, N., Leong, C., & Lane, S. (2017). France, Japan, Mexico, &
The Usa: Cultural Differences & Strategic Planning. Copyright 2017 by Institute for
Global Business Research, Nashville, TN, USA, 126.
Neal, M. (2016). The culture factor: Cross-national management and the foreign venture.
Springer.
Weiss, S. E. (2011). Negotiating 17 the Renault-Nissan Alliance: Insights from Renault’s
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