Operating Foreign Companies: Cultural Issues in Australia

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of cultural aspects relevant to international business, focusing on a comparison between Australia (host country) and Singapore (home country). It explores the rationale for choosing Australia, delves into its cultural values including respect for equality, freedom of speech, and unique flora and fauna. The report contrasts the business cultures of Australia and Singapore, highlighting differences in communication styles, gift-giving practices, working hours, and decision-making processes. Using Hofstede's cultural dimensions, the report examines the appropriateness of foreign companies operating in Australia, considering factors such as individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence. It concludes that understanding cultural values is crucial for multinational companies to succeed in different countries, emphasizing the importance of adapting business strategies to align with local cultural norms.

Running Head: ISSUES IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
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Issues in International Business
11/24/2018

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Rationale for the chosen host country (Australia)..................................................................................3
Cultural analysis of Australia................................................................................................................3
Business Culture of Australia and Singapore.........................................................................................4
Appropriate functioning of foreign companies in Australia (host country)...........................................6
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................7
References.............................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The report brings about the discussion on the cultural aspects of the markets of the
host country and the related aspects. Each country has different cultural activities and cultural
rituals. The term culture includes many aspects, such as material goods, the things people use,
and produce. Culture also defines about how people think and behave, and perceive the
world, and understand their own lives. Culture of any country is composed of several
elements, such as customs, laws, dress, architectural style, social standards, religious beliefs,
and the traditions (Huang & Rundle-Thiele, 2014). Australia has been chosen as the host
country, and the home country as Singapore. Thus, the report will use information from the
Hofstede cultural dimensions for a company to operate in the chosen host country.
Rationale for the chosen host country (Australia)
Australia has been taken as the host country, for analysing the cultural background,
and comparing it with the home country as Singapore. The rationale or the reason behind
choosing the host country as Australia is to get the best job opportunities in accordance to the
skills and qualities. Working abroad is the best decision in terms of both personal and
professional development, and is one of the greatest challenging experiences. Work
experience in Australia i.e. outside the home nation, provides insight to the world and
broadens the horizons of an individual, and facilitates in continuation of career development
in the future.
Cultural analysis of Australia
The host country, Australia practices western culture which has been primarily
obtained from Britain, but it has been also influenced by some other factors within the
country. These factors include geographical characteristics of the country, cultural inputs of
certain other groups of people which consist of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and other
Australian people. Culture includes the beliefs, behaviour of people, objects and other
characteristics common to the people, or members of a particular group or society. In
addition, each country has some unique societal aspects of their culture, which describes

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about the language, customs, values, norms, organisations, and institutions operating within
country (Sassen, 2016).
Unique cultural values or components which are prevalent in Australia are mentioned below:
 Respect for the equality for the worth, dignity and respect to be given to every
individual.
 Freedom of speech and association, between people.
 Freedom of religion
 Equality under the law
 Equality under the law, and between the men and women irrespective of their
background.
Flora and Fauna are native to the continent which includes kangaroo, Koala, emu, and
wattle symbolise the national ethos, especially in context to the national and international
aspects of the country. The language English is spoken in the country, and some other
common languages Chinese, Vietnamese, and Italian. Thus, 50 indigenous languages, and
Australian Creoles is also spoken by the population of Australia. Christianity is the major
religion in the country for around 52% of the citizens (Baker, Robards & Buttigieg, 2016).
Talking about the significant cultural components, it is known that arts in Australia- dance,
music, theatre, and craft, have achieved international recognition. Beaches in Australia are
considered as the notable symbol of aspects of national culture (Petrakis, Kostis & Valsamis,
2015).
Food customs in Australia indicates about the tradition ‘fusion cuisine’, a blend of the
European cooking practice with Asian flavours, and products. Australia has been the world
leaders in terms of the fast food consumption. For an example, burger and chicken stores are
potent stores in the suburbs, and coffee & wine has been becoming increasing popular in the
country.
Business Culture of Australia and Singapore
Business culture of a country refers to the beliefs, values, and behaviour which
determine the way through which a company’s management and employees communicate
with each other and deal with the outside business operations. The discussion will now state

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specifically about the business culture of the host country, i.e. Australia and how does it
differ from that of home country, i.e. Singapore.
Discussing about the business culture of Australia, it has been analysed that the
country has been through an unprecedented era of quarter upon quarter growth of GDP,
fuelled by the growing economy of China and the strong relation between Australia and
China. This has been supportive in structuring the service sector of the country leading to
higher success (Anicich, Swaab & Galinsky, 2015). The structure of business organisations in
Australia is mainly hierarchical, and the two factors contributing to the organisations to be
fairly hierarchical, includes less attention paid to the titles, and rankings within Australian
organisation (Moran, Harris & Moran, 2014).
Australians are direct and clear in their communications, and rarely intimated by the
status and growth of others. Thus, Australian organisations practices ‘authoritarian’ style of
management in their operations. However, it has been analysed that consultative management
would be more suitable to the organisations in the country (Hickman & Silva, 2018). As it
will consider the opinions of every employee working leading to healthy relations within
organisations; signifying committed professional approach of the businesses (Takeda &
Melby, 2017).
Australians are punctual in conducting their meetings, and the appointment is to be
taken in advance to the actual date of meeting. Business cards are exchanged during
introductions in their business meetings (Australia Government, 2018). Taking the hold of
their business responsibilities, managers at businesses in the country often believe that it is
not necessary to build personal relationships with their team members or colleagues before
doing business (Johnson, 2016).
Singapore has been found that the business is usually conducted in English in the
country. Both Singapore, and Australia are the best places to conduct business activities, but
they have few distinct differences in their corporate culture. The culture of Australia differs
from that of Singapore in a way, that giving and receiving gifts is not expected in the
Australian organisations, whereas Gift giving in Singapore is treated as a common way of
expressing thanks; small gifts exchanged include pen and company logo (Besley, 2015). One
major difference in the business culture of the home country from the host country is the
working hours, Singapore has longer working hours than Australia; business hours in
Australia is from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday i.e. 5 days a week (Yeo & Pang, 2017).

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Australia has no official business language, and English is spoken by the most
population whereas in Singapore as there English is considered as the main language both at
work, and homes. Setting up a business firm in the host country will require 3 steps, whereas
in Singapore it takes only 2 steps. Discussing about the meals during business meetings or
causal meetings, it has been found that Australians focus more on fast food and wines,
whereas Singaporeans give preferences to food rather wine, as there food is better and
cheaper. Decision-making in Singapore is better and quick whereas the decision-making in
Australia is slow, as the organisations follow collaborative work environment (Li, 2018).
Appropriate functioning of foreign companies in Australia (host country)
The corporate culture of Australia and Singapore has been analysed from the above
discussion which will further determine the appropriateness of the companies to operate in
the host country (Australia). This will be based and analysed through the use of the
components of Hofstede cultural dimensions (Triandis, 2018).
Hofstede cultural dimension is a framework which describes about the cross-cultural
communication within a society. It mentions about the effect of a society’s culture on the
values of people and how those values relate to the behaviour of individuals in the society.
The differences in national cultures will be based on four dimensions of this aspect, which
include power distance (PDI), individualism (IDV), uncertainty avoidance (UAI), and
masculinity (MAS) (Cleaver, Jo & Muller, 2015).
Australia is considered to have the score of 90; on this dimension is a highly
individualist culture which infers about the loosely-knit societies. They state that the people
need to look after themselves and their family members. Moreover, in business world,
employees are often expected to become self-reliant and take initiative for their growth and
development (Khlif, 2016). Thus, a company entering into running a business in Australia
must focus on the individualistic dimension, and make their employees self-sufficient and
hard-working to attain their goals, which would lead to effective functioning of their
businesses (Sheridan, Scott & Roberts,2016).
Australia scores 61 on the dimension of masculinity and is to be known as
‘masculine’ society. The values shared amongst individuals in Australia, is that they must
strive to become their best versions, which determines their behaviour at school, play and
work, and forms the basis of their success. Thus, a company operating their business in

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Australia need to incorporate features of masculinity, i.e. men employees need to become
tough, assertive, and focused on material success, than women to enhance their effectiveness
(Turner, Fiske & Hodge, 2016).
Discussing about the dimension of uncertainty avoidance in the host country, which
score on 51, it can be stated that Australians are intermediate on their outlook towards the
unknown or ambiguous situations. They believe that the future is uncertain, and it leads to
anxiety and employees from different cultures need to deal with this in different ways. Thus,
a foreign company which needs to operate their businesses in Australia must consider this
fact and strategies their goals with necessary preventive measures and effective plans. The
other two factors or dimensions include long-term orientation, and indulgence where
Australia is a highly indulgent country. Thus business organisations must enable their
employees towards possessing positive attitude and becoming optimistic towards attaining
their aims and goals in the organisation.
Conclusion
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that the study of cultural values
play an important role in the society or within countries. The values, norms, and the belief
system defined by the culture of any country, determines the performance of any company
contributing to the growth of overall country. The report has discussed well the cultural
values of the host country, Australia and home country (Singapore), and ways or facts to be
considered for a company to operate effectively in Australia. Hence, the persistent difference
in cultural values is relevant for the multinational companies which operate in more than
one country.

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