BUMGT 5920 - International Management: Challenges & Opportunities

This essay examines the challenges and opportunities faced by managers in a global business environment, particularly within a multicultural context. The author, a management student, discusses the importance of leadership styles, communication, and decision-making in navigating the complexities of globalization. Drawing upon Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory, the essay emphasizes the need for managers to understand and adapt to diverse cultural norms within organizations. Key strategies for effective multicultural management are outlined, including considering cultural diversity, improving communication, encouraging acceptance, and providing training. The essay concludes by highlighting how managers can promote open communication, respect, and equal opportunity, ultimately fostering a more inclusive and successful global business environment. References from academic resources like Drucker and Wilton are included to support the arguments.

Running head: GLOBAL BUSINESS
GLOBAL BUSINESS
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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The aim of this paper is to discuss the position I belong currently and where I aim to
reach in the future. I am currently pursuing the management courses in a reputed university
and trying to push my limits to align my strengths with the opportunities given by this
particular course. I aim to belong to be in the management position in a renowned
international company. As I possess all the necessary skills and capabilities in order to serve
any type of manufacturing company in the manufacturing industry of the world. Now with
this knowledge of managing people effectively I can serve all my responsibilities but need
more scope to practice in hand. The managers who take responsibilities to manage people
from multicultural places have both the academics knowledge of the factors affecting this
type of business scenario. From the course I have found out that the managers are the persons
who stand out in the crowd by the virtue of their leadership styles and unique features. They
possess excellent communication style and decision making capabilities (Drucker, 2005).
Globalization is in the business trends therefore more business organizations are
trying to enter the international business through operating in the most affluent markets of the
world. To be an outstanding manager in the multicultural environment, there are various
factors that need to be incorporated in my features. These are the exceptional talents like in
depth understanding of the needs of a multicultural organisation and strategize accordingly to
meet those needs. According to the theory of cultural dimensions by Hofstede, the national
culture of a country directly relates to the culture of the organizations as many of the local
employees take part in the workplace as well as the local suppliers. The more the company
enters into different markets the more multicultural the organisation becomes.
In order to manage this type of organisations in an effective way, it is mandatory that
the managers need to have efficiency and skills meeting all the needs of the stakeholders like
the employees, customers, shareholders, communities, supplier, the governments of the
markets and other people associated with the business. In order to reduce the chances of

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conflicts and other problems within the internal as well as external environment, the manger
take steps like considering cultural diversity, improve communication, encourage acceptance
and train all the levels of employees to develop skills and knowledge of the different cultures
where the company has been working effectively (Wilton, 2017).
Firstly the consideration of diversity helps to create a positive and dynamic working
culture but also presents language barrier and discomfort among the minority groups. This is
the reason why the managers tend to gather information about the ethnic and cultural make
up for their organisations (Winter, 2015). With their proactive and creative approach, these
issues are properly managed.
Secondly, the improvement of communication mitigate the problems like verbal and
non-verbal communication gap among the local and expatriate employees. The respect of the
native tongue by the expatriate managers can motivate the local employees as well as
suppliers which support the growth of the organizations. The effective managers
communicate the company policies and other rules like safety and human resource properly
so that there is no scope for misunderstanding of confusion regarding information.
Thirdly, the effective multicultural managers encourage acceptance within the
workforce. They themselves practice support for diversity and train the lower level
employees to cope up with the challenges of multicultural organisation setting (Vora et al.,
2019). Starting from the recruitment of the local staff to maintaining responsive attitude
towards the employees from other culture, these managers can make the minority group feel
motivated and important. Thus the risk of discrimination in the workplace can pose problem
in the company hence the effective managers develop their skills to remain patient before the
minority employees and cater all their needs in the organisation (McElhinny, 2016). They

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treat all the employees equally recognising all the language barriers and never patronise about
any particular group of employees.
Finally, as an efficient manager in a multicultural employee base, the process of
keeping everything simple is a talent. They use many resources available which help them to
develop, manage and promote the multiethnic as well as multicultural workforce. This really
comes down to promote open and honest communication within the company among the
employees and the management level, encouragement of the process of respecting and
accepting all the employees and establishing commitment from the top management for
promoting and supporting diversity along with equal opportunity as the core value of the
organostions (Modood, 2015). Thus, the managers become outstanding in their performance
and balance the commitment of diversity and the threat of discrimination in a proper manner.
The process of multiculturalism therefore give the opportunities to the mangers to grow
professionally and contribute directly to the firm.

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References:
Drucker, P. F. (2005). Managing oneself (HBR classic). Harvard Business Review, 100,
0017-8012.
McElhinny, B. (2016). Reparations and racism, discourse and diversity: Neoliberal
multiculturalism and the Canadian age of apologies. Language & Communication, 51,
50-68.
Modood, T. (2015). Multiculturalism. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity,
and Nationalism, 1-6.
Vora, D., Martin, L., Fitzsimmons, S. R., Pekerti, A. A., Lakshman, C., & Raheem, S. (2019).
Multiculturalism within individuals: A review, critique, and agenda for future
research. Journal of International Business Studies, 50(4), 499-524.
Wilton, J. (2017). Identity, racism, and multiculturalism: Chinese-Australian responses.
In Migration and identity (pp. 85-100). Routledge.
Winter, E. (2015). Rethinking Multiculturalism After its “Retreat” Lessons From
Canada. American Behavioral Scientist, 59(6), 637-657.