Cross-Cultural Management and Communication in Global Leadership

This report examines the intricate relationship between cross-cultural management and communication within the framework of global leadership. It begins by defining culture and its influence on business, tracing the historical evolution of global leadership approaches, and highlighting the shift towards employee-centered strategies. The report delves into cross-cultural management, differentiating between unicultural, comparative, and intercultural studies, and emphasizing the importance of effective communication in bridging cultural gaps. It explores how cross-cultural management facilitates the establishment of global leadership, discussing adjustment stages (work, interaction, and general) and the significance of communication styles (high and low context). The report also reviews current research on global leadership, including factors like cultural intelligence and organizational behavior, and concludes with a discussion of research gaps and potential avenues for future study.

Running head: CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION
Cross Culture Management and Communication
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
Introduction to culture and business.............................................................................2
Brief history of global leadership..................................................................................2
Cross cultural management..........................................................................................3
Cross cultural management in establishment of global leadership..............................4
Current research on global leadership.........................................................................6
Search criteria for the literature review.........................................................................6
Research gaps and scope of future study....................................................................7
Conclusion....................................................................................................................7
References...................................................................................................................8

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Introduction to culture and business
The culture of an organization plays a huge role in influencing the business
pattern of an organization. Within a multidimensional organization people come from
different geographical barriers. All these people speak in different languages,
possess different beliefs and attitudes. The disparity in view or ideals often leads to
friction within organizations. Some of these organizational frictions have been seen
to affect the overall productivity of the organization. The lack of cooperation also
affects the systems and processes of the organization, which could be attributed to
ineffective communication.
The organizational differences are often settled by adopting a suitable
leadership approach. An effective leadership approach helps in implementing an
employee centred approach. Thus, adopting and employee centred approach helps
in providing sufficient growth opportunities to the workers. One of the most effective
approaches which could be taken over here is adopting a suitable communication
style and approach. In the current assignment, the different approaches of global
leadership have been taken into consideration and evaluated with respect to cross
cultural management.
Thesis statement: The cross cultural management and communication patterns
affect the global leadership aspect considerably
Brief history of global leadership
With the advent of globalization more and more companies have been seen to
tap the overseas market for a steady availability of human resources along with well
developed physical technologies and resources. Initially, under the global leadership
approaches dominant organizational structuring had been observed w which gave
little or no freedom to the employees. As mentioned by Rosa and Karimov (2018),
under such dominant organizational conditions growth prospects of individuals are
limited. Some of these approaches later came to be questioned in the form of
modern day slavery. Under the foreign subsidiary approaches of global leadership
expatriate managers were sent from the headquarters or the home country of the
organization to the host country. The thrust was on emphasizing upon the local

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culture and practices which had upset some of the workforce at large. The
knowledge transfer had been unidirectional in approach from headquarters to
subsidiary and from home country to host country. As mentioned by Bird and
Mendenhall (2016) unidirectional transfer of knowledge followed a certain hierarchy
which helped in the effective dissemination of knowledge. However as argued by
Binder (2016), the knowledge had to pass through multiple layers before reaching
the end receiver, which could considerably affect the quality and the amount of the
message disseminated. The expatriate leaders sent from headquarters often suffer
from difficulties in adjusting to the local culture and beliefs of people. Some of these
often lead to organizational frictions and the situation was made much worse with
little help from the government. As mentioned by Islam (2017), the establishment of
a global leader depends upon the adoption of cross cultural etiquettes which are
guided by sufficient amount of exposures to different business environments.
Since 2000, there had been a considerable shift within the organizational
culture with more focus upon the culture and beliefs. As mentioned by Tran and Tran
(2016), implementing cultural sensitivity in organizations can enhance peace and
harmony in the workplace by promoting maximum inclusion of the workers. However,
as argued by Ray (2014), promoting one particular culture above the other can also
trigger riots based upon communal lines. The success of practising cultural
sensitivity within organizations resided much in the power of the expatriate managers
to communicate effectively with the host subordinate nations (Bird and Mendenhall
2016). In comparison to the present day leadership, anyone, anywhere and anytime
could be called on to lead. This supports the idea of the creation of global leaders
which is based upon spanning boundaries. In order to emerge, as a global leader
one needs to develop enhanced understanding of contextualisation of in cultural
systems.
Cross cultural management
The aspect of cross cultural management could be discussed with the help of
a number of examples from actual business setting and scenario. The cross cultural
management research studies have been divided into a number of different forms
which are–uncultured, comparative and multicultural. The unicultural studies helps in
understanding organizational management within a single country. The comparative

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research takes into consideration organizational management in two or more
countries. The intercultural aspect focuses upon the communication gateways
between organizational members of two or more countries (Amster and Böhm 2016).
The unicultural studies focuses upon country specific and culture specific
leadership approaches. This is much in line with the working of the expatriate
leaders stationed outside their native land. As mentioned by Bird and Mendenhall
(2016), adopting culture specific leadership approaches can help in resolving
conflicts. However, as argued by Islam (2017), the adoption of country or culture
specific approaches is not in line with global leadership practices; which places more
importance upon adoption of a unified leadership approach rather than tailoring the
leadership approaches as per individual nations.
The comparative leadership approaches helps one in understanding the
different psychologies or attitudes guiding the behaviour of employees within an
organization based upon the different management types. As mentioned by Maranga
et al. (2017), viewing the organization from multiple lenses can also help in removing
certain biases of working within a multicultural and multilingual organization.
The intercultural management approaches are based upon the different types
of communication approaches adopted within an organization. It places emphasis
upon the adoption of a structured form of communication which could help in easy
transfer of messages across organizations and hierarchies (Merkin et al. 2014). As
argued by Ray (2014), there are a number of hindrances to such managerial
approaches. For example, the difference in languages often restricts the process of
effective exchange of messages between employees, employee and management
and two different organizations. Some of the aspects to global leadership which
could be implemented in order to promote effective inter-organizational
communication are–mindfulness, cognitive flexibility, behavioural flexibility,
tolerance of ambiguity and cross cultural empathy. As mentioned by Skendall and
Ostick (2017), the aspect of empathy along with behavioural flexibility can help in
coping with the pressure within a multilingual organization.

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Cross cultural management in establishment of global leadership
The various aspects of cross culture management in the establishment of
global leadership have been supported over here with the help of a number of
theoretical perspectives.
One of the concepts which had recently emerged with respect to global
leadership is adjustment. The adjustment had been further divided into three
different forms which are –work adjustment, interaction adjustment and general
adjustment. The work adjustments refer to getting comfortable or used to the new
roles and responsibilities imposed upon an expatriate manager. As mentioned by
Islam (2017), support and cooperation from the management as well as the
employees are required at this a stage. It is during this stage that an understanding
develops between the changed or newly employed management as well as old
staffs. The general adjustment refers to broader aspects of living and working in
another country. As argued by Romano and Platania (2014), the general adjustment
has got much to do with the intrinsic capabilities for adjustment within an individual.
The interaction mode on the other hand, refers to adjustment with the different
cultural norms. As mentioned by Lick and Hooa (2016), some of the specific issues,
which are faced at this juncture owing the language barriers which makes
communicating and understanding difficult.
The adjustment stages are further by a stage of anticipatory judgement. As
mentioned by Bird and Mendenhall (2016), the anticipatory judgement is further
governed by a number of external and internal factors. The external factors are in the
form of the support or encouragement received from family and peers to embrace
the change, whereas the internal judgement is dominated by an anticipation
regarding the future course of action. The future course of action covers the
prospects of success and failure, which either encourage or withdraw an individual
from being part of a change. The cross cultural management is further dependent
upon switching between business policies and objectives. As commented by Islam
(2017), the ability to modulate oneself based upon work roles and responsibilities
help in implementing a successful cross –cultural management.
The aspect of communication is very important within an international
business organization. The communication parameter could be divided into two

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different forms over here which are high context communication (HCC) and low
context communication (LCC). The high context communication is used when
receiver had already developed sufficient amount of knowledge or idea regarding a
phenomenon so that fewer and much structured or coherent information are
transmitted through the messages. On the other hand, in low text communication
mode the receiver has little knowledge upon the subject matter. Therefore, the
speaker has to speak in a much detailed manner so that message in received in the
right format (Kittler et al. 2011). In a cross cultural environment, the expatriate
manages generally has to use the low context communication which helps him in
explaining the subject as well as bond effectively with the employees (Holmes 2017).
Current research on global leadership
The aspect of global leadership has been further studied in order to
understand the factors, which contributes towards the development of a global
leader within an international or cross cultural organization. The need for cognition,
cultural intelligence as well as readiness to travel is some of the factors which govern
successful making of a global leader (Romano and Platania 2014).
The cultural intelligence is measured on a four point scale which consists of
strategy, knowledge, motivation and behaviour. The strategy consists of processes
individual use to gain knowledge regarding different cultures. The knowledge is used
to understand the similarities and differences associated with different cultures. The
motivation refers to energy and attention employed by an individual to learn
regarding different cultures. The last stage is the behaviour, which refers to an
individual’s ability to adapt to different languages and cultures in multilingual
organization (Romano and Platania 2014).
Global leadership and organizational behavioural effectiveness (GLOBE)
have linked cultural dimensions with organizational styles and business leadership.
As mentioned under the GLOBE perspective, the dimensions of culture and cross
cultural communications determine the differences in communication styles and
interaction goals (Lick and Hooa 2016).

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Search criteria for the literature review
For the literature review, a number of secondary databases have been used
such as PUBMED, NCBI, ELSEVIER, CINNAHL etc. A number of keywords have
been used for making the search such as cross-cultural communication, global
leadership, leadership and cross culture etc. Though search a number of articles and
journals had been shortlisted. The articles or journals in languages other than
English have been excluded. Additionally, only the articles printed within the last 10
years have been taken into consideration. The articles printed prior to that have been
excluded. Additionally, built around the same keywords or providing the same
message has been excluded from the study criteria.
Research gaps and scope of future study
A number of research gaps have been found while doing the literature review.
For example, some of the studies have been limited to specific territories or regions.
Therefore, the aspect of global leadership had not been correctly presented over
there. Some of the articles discussed cross cultural communication but no global
leadership, whereas the rest discussed regarding only global leadership and not
cross cultural communication. Additionally, the small sample size used in some of
the studies further limited the findings of the research.
Conclusion
The current study focuses on the concept of cross cultural management and
communication approaches on global leadership. The current decade has seen a
change within the management styles where the thrust has been upon adoption of
cultural intelligence for working within a multicultural and multilingual setup.
The cultural intelligence helps one in understanding the different cultural and
behavioural norms amidst different environmental settings. The change in behaviour
further helps development of apathy towards individual of different social races,
which harbours a feeling of positivity within the organization. The article here rightly
evaluates the different contributory factors towards global leadership. However, it
fails to emphasize upon the role of intercultural communication effectively as the
communication approaches are extensively correlated to the leadership styles used.

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References
Amster, R. and Böhm, C., 2016. Improving intercultural competency in global IT
projects through recognition of culture-based behaviors. IJISPM-International Journal
of Information Systems and Project Management, 4(2), pp.5-20.
Binder, J., 2016. Global project management: communication, collaboration and
management across borders. Abingdon:Routledge,pp.56-85.
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.
Holmes, P., 2017. Intercultural Communication in the Global Workplace, Critical
Approaches. The International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication, pp.215-
302.
Islam, T., 2017. Practices of Cross-Cultural Etiquette and Communication in Global
Business - A Conceptual Analysis on Managing Corporate Expansion. A Review
Study. pp.102-22.
Kittler, M.G., Rygl, D. and Mackinnon, A., 2011. Special Review Article: Beyond
culture or beyond control? Reviewing the use of Hall’s high-/low-context
concept. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 11(1), pp.63-82.
Lick, P. and Hooa, S., 2016. Cross-cultural Communication Model in International
Business, pp.126-216.
Maranga, D., Kennedy, M., Madison, D. and Denise, R., 2017. Globalization and Its
Implications for Global Leadership, pp. 45-58.

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Merkin, R., Taras, V. and Steel, P., 2014. State of the art themes in cross-cultural
communication research: A systematic and meta-analytic review. International
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