Cross-Cultural Management: Personal Experiences and Analysis

This report provides a reflective analysis of cross-cultural management, drawing on the author's personal experiences with individuals from Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The report explores cultural differences, particularly focusing on individualism versus collectivism, hierarchical structures, and attitudes towards uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and indulgence, using Hofstede's cultural dimensions as a framework. The author, hailing from Iran, contrasts their cultural background with those of their international peers, highlighting differences in communication styles, work ethics, and approaches to problem-solving. The report details the challenges and insights gained from these interactions, emphasizing the importance of understanding cultural nuances for effective management and communication in a globalized environment. The author concludes by identifying areas for personal development, such as enhancing individualism and managing stress, to improve cross-cultural intelligence and navigate future international interactions more effectively.

Running head: MANAGEMENT ACROSS CULTURES
Management Across Cultures
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................6
References:.................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction:
The significance of managing the cross cultural differences in an efficient manner is
substantially high for the modern individuals and that is prominent with the increasing urge
of the individuals in improving their cross cultural differences (De Choudhury et al. 2017).
With impacts of globalization, the constraints of the cross cultural interactions is observed to
be notably reduced and the individuals are observed to be more inclined towards interacting
with the individuals of different cultures for the purpose of business management, societal
management and study (Bijaoui 2017). Having said that, Lim (2016) claimed that the
interaction of the individuals with the citizens of other nationality or culture, has the
possibility of creating the scope for the cultural difference and the negative side of the
cultural differences has tremendous potential of affecting the bond between the individuals.
As a result, it becomes important for the individuals to have a clear understanding of the
cultural differences so that it be easy for them to operate with the individuals who belong to
different cultures. The study discusses regarding the experiences that I had during my study.
In the previous semesters, I interacted with individuals of three different nations which are
Singapore, United Kingdom and Australia.
Discussion:
I belong to the middle- eastern culture and I am a citizen of the great nation of Iran.
Considering the middle- eastern culture, I feel that my culture has a certain preferences
towards accepting the unequal distribution of power. The society of Iran prefers the
hierarchical formation of organizational structure (Banakar 2015). The centralization is pretty
popular amongst our culture and along with that, the operational activities of the subordinates
are observed to be largely dependent on the orders of the senior employees. Considering the
individualism aspect it is understandable that we are a collectivistic society. The sense of

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collectivism is pretty prominent in me as well and that is evident with my preferences
towards working in the group setting. Considering the masculinity aspect of our culture, it is
visible that we are a relatively feminine society where our references is much more on liking
what we do, rather than becoming best in whatever we do. As a result, we have larger
preferences towards equality, striving for consensus, quality and solidarity. I feel that the
main focus of our culture and individuals is on the well- being of others and similar to the
other members of my society, I prefer to manage the conflicts with negotiation and
compromise. Considering the uncertainty avoidance aspect of our culture, our society reflects
higher preferences towards avoiding the uncertainties and that is visible with the rigid codes
of behaviour and belief along with intolerant mindset towards the unorthodox ideas and
behaviour (Hamidi et al. 2017). I feel that we follow normative thinking which makes our
culture normative in nature. Being a part of the society, I have great respect towards the
formed traditions. Other than this, our culture is also restrained in nature. Our culture have
the tendency to pessimism and cynicism and I feel that we are restrained by social norms.
As mentioned earlier, I faced a great share of cultural differences in the previous
semester as I had to frequently team up with the individuals that belonged to different cultural
and social backgrounds. With a detailed consideration towards my experiences, I can say that
I was bit shocked to see the outrageous nature of my friends from United Kingdom and
Australia. They were observed to ignore the hierarchical structure of the institutions and were
more inclined towards participating in the informal communication (Hofstede-insights.com
2020). Having said that, the friend who belonged to Singapore, was much like me when it
comes to accept the hierarchical structure. As a result, I had certain issues when it comes to
coordinate with the friends of United Kingdom and Australia. Apart from this, one of their
tendency that left me and my Singaporean friend shocked is their sense of individualism
(Hofstede-insights.com 2020). I and my Singaporean friend were more inclined towards an

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approach which requires the effective participation of all the members in managing our
studies and on the other hand, their approach towards the management of their studies was
individualistic in nature. The British and the Australian friends were seen to source the study
materials on their own and at the same time, they were self- reliant when it comes to gather
important information regarding their studies. On the other hand, I and the Singaporean
friend were more inclined towards applying a collectivist approach for the management of
information sourcing activities.
Other than this, one thing of them which was striking for me was their urge for being
best in whatever they do. During my time of studies, I observed that they tried their level best
to achieve the first place in sports. At the same time, they are dedicated in improving their
performances in relation to their study which is visible with the extensive amount of research
conducted by them for sourcing information. Other than this, my friends of United Kingdom
and Australia were observed to have considerable amount of interest in the cultural activities
and that was visible with their participation in the cultural activities (Hofstede-insights.com
2020). They were good in drama, singing and dancing which certainly highlights their urge in
becoming best in whatever they do. On the other, I and my Singaporean friend were primarily
good in sports and our area of expertise was considerably limited. We were more inclined
towards liking what we do rather than wanting to be best in whatever we do. On the other
hand, one of the surprising factor for me with the interaction with my Singaporean friend was
that he had considerably limited amount of fear of unknown situations and that was
prominent with his outrageous mentality (Hofstede-insights.com 2020). He was more
inclined towards the practice of unorthodox thinking and that was visible with his out of the
box ideas. However, I felt a lot of constraint in thinking out of the box and that was also an
important characteristics of my Australian friend. As a result, this was one of the aspects
where I and the Australian friend were on the same page. On the other hand, I was bit

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surprised with my Singaporean and British friends as both of them were observed to portray
considerably limited amount of efforts in portraying the respect towards the traditions.
Having said that, I was pretty happy to see the alignment of the activities of my Australian
friend with the normative culture and his capability of practicing the normative thinking
(Hofstede-insights.com 2020). As mentioned earlier, I belong to a culture that scores low in
the aspect of the indulgence and signifies the restrained nature of it. Having said that, my
Australian and British friend were observed to belong to such cultural orientations which sore
notably high in the aspect of indulgence. Those individuals were fun lover and had the
willingness to have a perfect realization of their impulses (Hofstede-insights.com 2020).
They have the tendency of enjoying their life through fun and comic activities. On the other
hand, I and my Singaporean friend were observed to be pretty serious in nature. We were
more focused with the studies and that might be one of the prime reason for our low
participation in the extra- curricular activities along with the cultural and sporting activities.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it is understandable that I faced a number of different cultural
experiences during my studies. The time of my study was considerably crucial for me to gain
sufficient understanding of the cultural differences and at the same time, it helped me in
improving my cross cultural intelligence. Having said that, I need to improve some of my
activities for better management of the culture. One of the important suggestion will be to
enhance my sense of individualism as that will help me in improving my own research
capability. Along with that, I need to be bit relaxed with my life and studies as that is crucial
to ensure that I do not get affected with the detrimental impact of the stress. This will require
the enhancement of my capability in being indulgent.

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References:
Banakar, R., 2015. Driving culture in Iran: Law and society on the roads of the Islamic
Republic. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Bijaoui, I., 2017. SMEs in an Era of Globalization. International Business and Market
Strategies. https://doi. org/10.1057/978-1-137-56473-3.
De Choudhury, M., Sharma, S.S., Logar, T., Eekhout, W. and Nielsen, R.C., 2017, February.
Gender and cross-cultural differences in social media disclosures of mental illness. In
Proceedings of the 2017 ACM conference on computer supported cooperative work and
social computing (pp. 353-369).
Hamidi, Y., Mohammadibakhsh, R., Soltanian, A. and Behzadifar, M., 2017. Relationship
between organizational culture and commitment of employees in health care centers in west
of Iran. Electronic physician, 9(1), p.3646.
Hofstede-insights.com 2020. [online] Available at:
https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/australia,iran,singapore,the-uk/
Lim, N., 2016. Cultural differences in emotion: differences in emotional arousal level
between the East and the West. Integrative medicine research, 5(2), pp.105-109.