Samsung's Cross-Cultural Environment: An Individual Analysis Report

This individual assignment report examines Samsung's cross-cultural environment, focusing on its organizational culture, leadership style, and communication practices. The report begins with an introduction to Samsung, its background, leadership team, management style, and organizational culture. It then explores the conceptual framework, including organizational culture, leadership styles (transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire), and communication practices. The analysis delves into the relationships between organizational culture and leadership style, organizational culture and communication practices, and the influence of leadership and culture on communication in a cross-cultural environment. The report also evaluates the effectiveness of Samsung's culture and communication. Finally, it concludes with recommendations for improving communication practices within the company. The study highlights how Samsung's corporate culture, which is a blend of Japanese and American management styles, influences its operations in a global context.

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TECHNOLOGY PARK MALAYSIA
BM007-3-M-ICB
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
CROSS CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT AT SAMSUNG
MBA 1st SEMESTER
NAME : SABITA KUNWAR
STUDENT NUMBER : NPB000173
INTAKE CODE : NPSMF2001MBA
MODULE LEADER : PATHIVENDRA UPADHYAYA
HAND IN DATE : 10 JULY 2020

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Abstract
Samsung is a global pioneer in electronics. The operations concentrate on
innovative product innovations that add to the lives of people and create meaningful
change through social mobility. Samsung's successful and popular items include
smartphones, various smart TVs, fridges, washing machines and so on. The success story
behind Samsung's was its corporate community. Employers and staff have specific
responsibilities in fulfilling the purpose of the organization and in addressing cross-
cultural problems. The aim of this study is to learn the culture, leadership style and
communication activities of Samsung organization. This study focuses on the management
of cross-cultural business in the global economy. This will involve how Samsung
organizational culture, leadership style and communication practices are interrelated in
context of cross cultural environment. The finding also includes the evaluation of Samsung
culture and communication practices effectiveness which has played an ultimate role in the
success of Samsung organization.

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Table of Contents
List of Tables .............................................................................................................................. v
List of figures ............................................................................................................................ vi
CHAPTER 1 ............................................................................................................................... 1
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Samsung ................................................................................................................ 1
1.2 Background .......................................................................................................... 1
1.2.1 Leadership Team ........................................................................................... 2
1.2.2 Management Style ......................................................................................... 3
1.2.3 Organization Culture ..................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................................... 5
Conceptual Framework ............................................................................................................... 5
2.1 Organizational culture ......................................................................................... 5
2.2 Leadership Style ................................................................................................... 5
2.3 Communication Practices ..................................................................................... 6
2.4 Conceptual Map ................................................................................................... 8
2.5 Research Question ................................................................................................ 8
CHAPTER 3 ............................................................................................................................. 10
Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 10
3.1 Relationship between organizational culture and leadership style ........................ 10
3.2 Relationship between Organizational culture and Communication practices ......... 11
3.3 Influence of Samsung leadership style and organizational culture on communication
practices in context of cross cultural environment......................................................... 12
3.4 Improvement in communication practices ........................................................... 13
CHAPTER 4 ............................................................................................................................. 14
Evaluation of organizational culture and communication effectiveness ..................................... 14

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CHAPTER 5 ............................................................................................................................. 16
Recommendation and Conclusion ............................................................................................. 16
5.1 Recommendation ................................................................................................ 16
5.2 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 16
References ................................................................................................................................ 18

v
List of Tables
Table 1; Name of Samsung leadership team ....................................................................... 2

vi
List of figures
Figure 1; Relationship between Organization culture, Leadership style, Communication
practices in context of cross cultural environment. ...................................................................... 8

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CHAPTER 1
Introduction
1.1 Samsung
Samsung is a global South Korean conglomerate based in Samsung city,
Seoul, South Korea. It was founded by Lee Byung - chul in 1938 as a trading firm. In the
late 1960s, Samsung entered the electronics industry, which is now the world's largest IT
company (slideshare, 2015 ). Samsung covers many fields including information and
communication systems, manufacturing, culture, and advertisements (Aslan, 2019).
Samsung produces electronic products such as TVS, printers, laptops, washing machines,
microwaves, handheld USB devices and LCDs. Other categories are produced in building,
such as real estate(UKEssays, 2018b).
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is Samsung Group's sole company, and Asia's
biggest electronics manufacturer. The Samsung electronics stands for stability, reliability
and warmth (UKEssays, 2018b). Samsung Electronics specializes in the manufacture and
sale of electronics and portable computers. Samsung is a multinational corporation working
in 213 places around the globe. It hires 320,000 workers in 84 countries, where 70 per cent
of staff operate outside Korea (KNÖPFLE, 2016). Asia has been primary target for
Samsung’s direct investment. Since 2013 , the company has three main divisions,
Consumer Electronics, Device Solutions and IT & Mobile Communications(KNÖPFLE,
2016).
1.2 Background

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1.2.1 Leadership Team
The Board of Directors of Samsung Electronics comprises five Executive
Directors and six Independent Directors. Independent directors constitute a majority of the
board, pursuant to Article 542-8 of the Commercial Act. The Board leverages its
experience and competencies in diverse fields to ensure successful and strategic decision-
making. Directors are chosen by resolutions of a shareholder assembly. The executive
directors are elected from candidates approved by the board, and the Independent Director
Selection Committee recommends independent directors. Every members of the board shall
have a three-year term in office and shall be entitled to be re-elected at a shareholders'
general meeting at the conclusion in their tenure (global, 2020).
Table 1; Name of Samsung leadership team
Name Title
Committee participation
Manag
ement
Audit Independ
ent
Director
Recomme
ndation
Related
Party
Transacti
ons
Compensati
on
Governan
ce
Jae-Wan
Bah
Chairman of the
Board &
Independent
Director
● ○ ○ ●
Ki-Nam
Kim
Vice Chairman
& CEO(DS) ●
Hyun-Suk
Kim
President & CEO
(CE) ○
Dong-Jin
Kohl
President & CEO
(IM) ○
Jong-He
Han
President &
Head of Visual
Display
○
Yoon-Ho
Choi President & CFO ○
Sun-Uk
Kim
Independent
Director ○ ● ○
Byung-
Gook Park
Independent
Director ○ ● ○
Jeong Kim Independent
Director ● ○ ○
Curie Ahn Independent
Director ○ ○
Han-Jo Independent ○ ○ ○

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Name Title
Committee participation
Manag
ement
Audit Independ
ent
Director
Recomme
ndation
Related
Party
Transacti
ons
Compensati
on
Governan
ce
Kim Director
●※ : Head of Committee ○: Member
Source: https://www.samsung.com/global/ir/governance-csr/board-of-directors/
1.2.2 Management Style
Samsung's management style is a combination between the best from the
Japanese and American management styles. Until the 1980s, Samsung used mainly
Japanese-style management system. But in 1990s, after the popularity of semiconductor
industry, Samsung embraced an American-type approach and HR (chul Jung, 2014). In
1993, Samsung announced "New Management" unveiling. Since then Samsung has turned
itself into a world-class player with a high brand image and quality goods following the
latest Management Plan from a marginal supplier focused on low-cost advantages. (chul
Jung, 2014).
Samsung is committed to supporting value-based leadership practices.
Leadership based on values helps to respect the ethical principles established. Value-based
leaders encourage the fostering of self-management of worker (freeessays.club (2016)).
Samsung's leadership model is typically a cooperative form and integrated into their
business ethos. Although leaders often need to take decisions and guide their company by
mandate acts, Samsung promotes innovation, teamwork through its employee challenges
(edwardjknapp, 2017). Samsung also follow transformative leadership that focused on
group processes, personality and their effects, compliance inducing arts, influence exercise,
structure initiation (IvyPanda. 2020).

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1.2.3 Organization Culture
Samsung's corporate culture has historically been a seniority-oriented
expression of the South Korean home country's national culture. Good outcomes of such a
culture can include higher workplace satisfaction rates and quicker decision-making.
However, on the other side, seniority-oriented corporate culture does not allow junior
workers to express their proposals to their managers and to suggest action (Dudovskiy,
2017). Samsung's organizational culture centers on pursuing a high degree of technical
advancement that includes approaches for the growth of human capital. Samsung provides
a corporate ethos that is focused on creativity. This corporate culture is part of an
organizational strategy that emphasizes the expertise, talents and abilities of workers to
reinvent the technological goods of the business, such as smartphones and laptops.
Samsung's corporate purpose and vision statements are accompanied by the organizational
cultural characteristics, which concentrate on superior goods that enhance life and
community (Evans, 2019b).

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CHAPTER 2
Conceptual Framework
2.1 Organizational culture
The notion of "culture" often relates to exotic, distant peoples And sites,
stories, rituals, cultures and traditions international. Investigators have observed that
members of organizations are similar within our own society participate in rituals, pass
through corporate myths and stories, and use arcane jargon, and that these informal
activities may encourage or hinder the organization's objective of management {Baker,
1980;(Lund, 2003)}.
In the organizational behavior literature, a number of definitions for
organizational culture have been proposed. For example, Mangkunegara (2013) defines
organizational culture as a collection of principles or belief structures, beliefs and
expectations established in organizations that serve as guidance for their members' conduct
to address external adaptation and internal integration (Patra and Aima, 2018). According
to Hofstede (1980), organizational culture relates to common mind conditioning that
separates participants from one group. This involves mutual views, principles and activities
that differentiate one entity from another (Abu-Jarad et al., 2010).
Organizational culture is a collection of common ideals, opinions, and
standards that affect organizational thought, feeling, and acting by employees. Corporate
culture has four functions: to offer participants a sense of belonging, to enhance their
engagement, to reinforce organizational principles and to act as a behavioral management
system (Rehman, 2012).
2.2 Leadership Style
Leadership style is the manner and approach to provide direction, plan
implementation and people motivation. (Newstrom et al., 1993). The analysis is based on

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Bass's (1985) Full Range Leadership Model. Bass has identified preferred leadership styles
as transformative, transactional and laissez-faire)(Yahaya and Ebrahim, 2016).
Burns (1978) defined transformational leadership as a process in which
“leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of morality and
motivation”(UKEssays, 2018a).. Transformational leadership serves as a means to “create
and sustain a context for building human capacity by identifying and developing core
values and unifying purpose, liberating human potential and generating increased capacity,
developing leadership and effective followership, utilizing interaction-focused
organizational design, and building interconnectedness” {Hickman, 1997; (Givens, 2008)}.
The concept of transactional leadership builds on an economic contract, the
concept of economic exchange or cost-benefit performed in the short term. It is based on
the contingent incentive method and management-by-exception (Ismail et al., 2010).
Transactional leadership focuses on results, conforms to an organization’s current structure,
and evaluates success according to the scheme of incentives and punishments within that
entity(StuOnline, 2014). Laissez-faire 's leader is said to be relinquishing responsibility,
giving no feedback, delaying decision-making and not interested in helping followers meet
needs there {Northouse,2010;(Long and Thean, 2011)}.
2.3 Communication Practices
Communication is characterized as a transformation or transfer and
interpretation of knowledge using symbols together from one individual or community to
another, and these signals can be verbal or nonverbal(Sadiartha and Sitorus, 2018). The
word contact (or its counterpart in some other languages) is used to refer to a variety of
activities communication practices including talking and hearing, writing and reading,
conducting and watching, or, more broadly, doing something that includes "messages" in
any context or circumstance (Craig, 2006).
Judge (S. Robbins & Judge, 2009) redefined contact as a friendship or a
partnership interaction between superiors and subordinates (downward communication) or
between subordinates and superiors (upward communication) or between employees