A Detailed Report on Managing Across Cultures in the Workplace

This report delves into the critical role of culture in organizational management. It examines how cultural backgrounds shape working styles, highlighting differences in quality management practices across countries such as China, the USA, and India. The report explores the influence of cultural dimensions like power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and individualism on organizational outcomes and management styles. Furthermore, it discusses the convergence and divergence hypotheses in management practices and the importance of training managers to become inter-culturally competent. The report emphasizes how cultural understanding can enhance organizational performance, promote effective global supply chain management, and facilitate the transfer of quality management practices across different cultural contexts, concluding that cultural inclusivity is essential for organizational success.

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Managing Across Cultures
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Introduction
Culture is closely linked with values and attitudes which are learned and subsequently
manifested by members of a particular group. Therefore, adapting to people from different
cultures in an organization is a challenging issue that employees face from time to time.
However, learning to appreciate the difference in culture can be instrumental to organizations
since culture influences different functions in organizations. In this report, various aspects will
be highlighted. One, we have how cultures influences working styles. Two, types of management
styles and lastly, the importance of training managers to become inter-culturally competent.
How cultures influence working styles
The human workforce consists of individuals from different backgrounds and cultures,
and therefore, organizations use the term workforce diversity to explain how organizations are
evolving into units varied in terms of gender, sexual orientation, race, age, and ethnic
background. However, managers from different cultures can learn various aspects of culture
hence adopting the same efficient management practices (Vecchi & Brennan, 2009, pg. 149).
This has allowed organizations to realize that although various people are from various ethnic
backgrounds, people may be more willing to work in multicultural environments.
In the field of quality management, culture influences the working styles of individuals.
For instance, when comparing quality management practices in different countries such as China,
USA, and India, significant differences in quality practices tend to be present. According to the
differences in India and China, the issue of quality awareness is particularly new and therefore,
quality standards are low as compared to the United States (Vecchi & Brennan, 2009, pg. 150).
In relation to the culture-specific argument, cultural factors also influence how managers respond

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to the need for change as well as their approach to quality. Hofstede proposes various cultural
dimensions that affect specific organizational outcomes. They include; power distance,
uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and individualism.
National culture plays a huge role in organizational outcomes/working styles since the
differences in leadership, style, and management systems within the national cultures of various
types of organizations may give varied results. Culture also affects the use of information within
organizations in regards to masculinity. For instance, in masculine national cultures, the type of
information applied in support decision-making is contingent on the expected effectiveness in
overcoming competitors (Vecchi & Brennan, 2009, pg. 151). On the other hand, the type of
information employed in feminine national cultures is used only for the purpose of decision
making.
Secondly, countries distinguished by high power distance usually have a centralized
power system and decision making which influences the working style. In cases where the
uncertainty avoidance in specific countries is high, emotional need for rules is present. Likewise,
instances of low uncertainty avoidance for national cultures prompts low emotional need for
rules due to the dislike of formal rules. Lastly, individualism also influences working styles. For
instance, individuals from individualistic countries are confident, autonomous and highly depend
on their ideas when handling various projects (Vecchi & Brennan, 2009, pg. 151). Collectivist
countries, on the other hand, depend on information provided by other countries so as formulate
their opinions effectively.
Different management styles.

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Organizations can adopt various management styles in the form of various hypotheses.
To begin with, we have the convergence hypothesis. This form of hypothesis argues that top
managers from various cultures can learn to embrace similar efficient management practices
(Vecchi & Brennan, 2009, pg. 149). Therefore, competitive pressures may disqualify individuals
resisting the convergence. Besides, due the extended dispersal of information regarding the best
quality practices across the world, people may expect various similarities across countries since
the respondents of these countries may be able to incorporate the same approach when it comes
to their overseas counterparts.
Studies in the field of quality management attempting to establish evidence for
convergence have been conducted. For instance, in developing countries such as Mexico, India,
and China, the quality management style/practices of these countries are different as compared
with the management practices from developing countries. A high number of the manufacturers
based on the developing nations understand the recent quality management practices. Therefore,
their quality improvement efforts are high compared to the efforts from developed countries.
In addition, by comparing the quality practices in UK’s and Malaysia’s manufacturing
industry, inspection is highly relied on as well as the low use of programs that promote quality
management (Vecchi & Brennan, 2009, pg. 150). The country’s governments also play a
considerable role in portraying distinctions in the type of quality management styles practiced in
the countries. Lastly, various critical factors of TQM affect the type of management
performance, practices, and styles across different countries. The factors include; human
resource management, supplier management, employee involvement, strategic planning,
leadership, training, quality information analysis, process management, customer focus, and
teamwork.

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Secondly, we have the divergence hypothesis. This hypothesis argues on the ubiquitous
relevance of regulated business practices. According to this hypothesis, organizational practices
should be aligned to the national context so as to ensure maximum effectiveness (Vecchi &
Brennan, 2009, pg. 150). This means that the extent of adaptation to national context through
various organizational practices may result in the perceived divergence of organizational
practices in the world. Divergence also plays an essential responsibility in the field of quality
management when it comes to management styles and practices. For instance, by comparing the
quality management operations of India, USA, and China, the three countries portray a
significant difference in quality practices. According to the results, in India and China, the rate of
quality awareness is low as compared to USA and therefore, their quality standards are lower as
compared to USA.
In another study analyzing quality performance and practices in Mexico, India, and
China, it was discovered that the top management support played a huge role in influencing
quality practices. Besides, information analysis and quality assurance practices were affected by
the length of quality experience within companies in the countries (Vecchi & Brennan, 2009, pg.
150). Lastly, a survey consisting of 599 managers from 5 Asian countries was conducted to
determine how similar business practices and performance indicated various results. The results
indicated that the countries shared similar practices but the performance was different. For
instance, Hong Kong-based firms had differences with quality costs due to the high levels of
inspection.
In conclusion, according to culture-specific argument, managers from different cultures
undergo similar insistent need for change and therefore various cultural factors may affect how
the managers respond to the need for change or their approach quality (Vecchi & Brennan, 2009,

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pg. 151). The cultural dimensions include; power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity,
and individualism. Besides, as seen before, national culture plays a huge role in organizational
outcomes/ working styles since the differences in leadership, style, and management systems in
the national cultures of various types of organizations may give varied results. For instance, in
masculine national cultures, the kind of information applied in support decision-making is
contingent on expected efficiency in taking the lead over competitors (Vecchi & Brennan, 2009,
pg. 151). On the other hand, the type of information employed in feminine national cultures is
used only for the purpose of decision making. Therefore, it is crucial that total quality
management takes into account the variated characteristics of national cultures.
The importance of training managers to become inter-culturally competent
Cultural dimensions among employees are crucial since they attribute to quality
priorities, individual quality practices, and quality performance. Therefore, it is essential for
managers to become inter-culturally competent so as to understand how culture can be
instrumental in approaching quality or changes. Besides, by training the managers, they can
become aware of what and how dimensions of national culture may influence operation
decisions (Vecchi and Brennan, 2009, pg. 158). This kind of understanding is essential since it
helps the supply chain of global firms to be managed more effectively and efficiently. National
culture is instrumental in explaining quality management since quality elements and
relationships stem out from cultural and national boundaries.
In addition, various cultures are deemed more appropriate in implementing particular
quality programs than other cultures since various aspects of national culture inhibit specific
repercussions on the adoption of quality management (Vecchi and Brennan, 2009, pg. 158).
Therefore, if managers are trained on how to leverage the difference in cultures among

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employees, both high performance and high quality are attainable in an organization. For
instance, individualism affects quality performance in a positive manner. In addition, collectivist
countries perform much better than their counterparts in terms of product quality, manufacturing
conformance and reliability (Vecchi and Brennan, 2009, pg. 157). Therefore, managers can
understand how to incorporate cultures from collectivist countries for the purpose of using their
skills in promoting organizational efficiency.
Lastly, by training managers in becoming inter-culturally competent, managers can be
able to understand much better on how to transfer the excellent quality management practices in-
between countries (Vecchi and Brennan, 2009, pg. 158). In addition, it becomes easy in
identifying elements in terms of performance, priority, and practices which should undergo
modification in-between the transfer process so as to maximize the chances of achieving the
expected quality performance.
Conclusion.
Culture plays a considerable role in organizations and therefore, organizations should
leverage on this thereby increasing their performance or quality of products and service.
Managers should have a broad perspective in terms of culture inclusivity in organizations. In
addition, they should evaluate how adopting cultures from various parts of the world can
improve operations or performance. Training should therefore be a primary concern for all
managers so that they can be inter-culturally competent thereby improving on management of
employees in their organizations.

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References
Vecchi, A. and Brennan, L., 2009. Quality management: a cross-cultural perspective. Cross
Cultural Management: An International Journal, 16(2), pp.149-164.