Cross Cultural Management And Communication In A Globalized Business Environment, Essay.

Importance of Cross Cultural Management and Communication

Discuss about the Existing Literature Related To The Cross Cultural Management.

Cross cultural management is an essential part of global business strategy, which helps to deal with different types of working people with diverse range of working skills, originating from diverse cultural background. Essential study of cross cultural management involves analyzing influence of different social groups in business workplace. Cross cultural communication is an important part of cultural Management Studies, which focuses on the ways advanced form of intercultural communication. The study of cross cultural management and intercultural communication is highly needed to shape up the Global leadership in business.

The current study will discuss the existing literature related to cross cultural management and communication, which is highly relevant in the context of globalised business environment. The leadership quality of the modern days is also highly dependent upon the ability to manipulate and implement effective cross cultural communication at workplace environment.

Effect of changes in cross cultural management on global leadership

According to Bird and Mendenhall (2016), one of the major changes in business environment of the past 50 years is high level of awareness growth among the stakeholders about elements of cross cultural management and communication. As the influence of Global Business is getting popular, more number of multinational corporations are encouraging the practice of cross cultural management at workplace. This can not only help them to expand the marketing capability, but can also help in the matters of increasing the talent diversity at workplace. The leadership style at the Global scale has also evolved in order to deal with the challenges of high cultural diversity at workplace. 

As the multinational corporations started to recruit more number of people from diverse cultural background, it had a significant impact on the organizational behavior. However, as mentioned by Ott and Michailova (2018), with the introduction of diverse culture at workplace, the risk of conflict and complexities increased due to the business communication issues. Hence, during the period of 1960 to 1980 the cross cultural management of multinational corporations in the developed regions of America mainly focused on improving and reshaping organizational structure. In the given context as mentioned by Moran et al. (2014), advanced form of leadership was introduced, which mainly motivated the workers to improve upon their cultural awareness level.

During the later stage, as companies were encouraging to modify the organizational structure, the managers mostly in the Human Resource Department had to incorporate new business communication skills. Miao et al. (2018), has argued that one of the negative sides of increasing cultural awareness among employees is that the managers were forced to lose control over the activities of employees as they were given higher level of freedom.

In the modern days, the Global leadership capability of an individual is highly dependent upon their ability to manipulate the understanding of cross cultural management. They can also implement their own strategy to incorporate cultural awareness among employees, which is considered to be an essential part of innovative leadership (Mach and Baruch 2015). The element of intercultural communication is an essential element which decides upon the success rate of cross cultural management study in multinational organizations. It is therefore essential duty of the Global leader to incorporate innovative organizational behavior and workplace culture that will encourage cross cultural empathy among the employees. This will help them to better interact with workers from different cultural background mostly using their individual cognitive and emotional understanding skills. The skill of cognitive flexibility is therefore highly crucial in the context of improving individual cultural awareness (Calvin et al. 2017).

Historical Overview of Cross Cultural Management in Multinational Corporations

It is important to focus upon the present challenges of cross cultural leadership that is needed to understand the complexities of the globalised business environment communication. As mentioned by Fernando and Yang (2006), one of the important characteristics of effective cross cultural leadership is the ability to predict dynamic changes in the Global Business Environment and therefore prepare intervention strategies in advance. The Global leaders also need to have the capability to identify the similarities and dissimilarities across people belonging from diverse culture. This will help them in the process of implementing International working standard as a part of organizational behavior.

De Mooij (2015), has mentioned about the importance of transformational leadership that is believed to be the best suited for the given situation of multiple culture. It is also important to note that that the elements of the transformational leadership can help to identify the changes in the behavior within the organization that is common among the culturally diverse groups. Frequent changes can also be identified in the given context that will help to identify the strengths and weakness of the given situation. One of the important characters of the transformational leaders is the ability to understand the cultural values of each employee at the workplace. It is also possible to generate higher level of awareness among the stakeholders of business as they are able to make use of new form of business ideas. Few of the basic characters of the transformational leadership can help to deal with the issues related with that of the intellectual changes in a multicultural environment (Bird and Mendenhall 2016). Determining the behavior of the cultural outcomes is one of the main elements of the transformational leadership that helps to determine the working capability of every individual. It is also important to determine the strength of the individual characters at the workplace that is needed to make use of the diverse potential at the workplace.

The theory of mass communication is one of the latest ideas that are generated with the study of cross cultural management study. According to this concept the elements of new culture within an organization is perceived in the forms of advanced forms of communication. This will help to ensure that the most advanced forms of business communication are incorporated as part of the cultural workforce. This will help to ensure that most of the important cultural elements got proper reorganization as the employees are better able to interact with the all other workers (Stahl and Tung 2015).

Bird and Mendenhall, (2016), have highlighted about the importance of the behavioral analysis theory that is needed to understand the importance cultural background of an individual. In the given context, the theory of top of the iceberg can be implemented, where the character of the people are analyzed by small and insignificant changes in the behavior. The basic idea of the iceberg theory is based on the fact that cultural belief and background of an individual is reflected in small changes within the behavior. This theory also emphasizes on the fact that political changes within a region can have significant changes in the cultural belief of individual. The hidden talent within an individual can therefore be highlighted as they are able to reflect n their cultural background and beliefs

Role of Global Leaders in Cross Cultural Management

There is also the theory of Hofstede’s cultural dimension that can help to deal with the business opportunities that is associated with the cultural background of each social community.  This theory was generated by Dr Geert Hofstede in the year 1970, who suggested certain elements of cultural belief after doing analysis of 50 employees of IBM. As suggested by Moore Moore (2015), one of the important elements of the Hofstede’s cultural dimension is the ability to compare the cultural difference between two nations and community that are reflected in the business strategies. This will help to identify the strengths and weakness of every culture that are needed to overcome in implementing effective business communication plan. It is also possible to highlight on the past, present and future changes in the cultural elements that are relevant to the changes in the internal business environment of an organization. The important character of the model includes the ability to determine the power center of the society with the element of power capital index. There is also the element of masculinity that helps to determine the levels of female domination in the society. The power of individual member in the society is also determined with the elements of individualism. It can also help on determining the strength of individual leadership styles that are needed to deal with the relevant issues under every circumstance (Stedham and Bell 2014). The individualism element can also help to understand the elements of individual skills that can help to generate higher levels of potential as a part of the economic growth.

On the other hand, Mach and Baruch (2015) few of the major limitations of the Hofstede’s cultural dimension include the elements of dealing with the issues related with the fact the dimensions of the model may not be effective in dealing with the future issues of cultural diversity. Moreover, the cultural elements of a society is judged on based on few limited fixed parameters, which may not be enough to understand their potential of the society based on their cultural beliefs. It is also important to note that the cultural elements of this model do not encounter elements of globalization that can have significant impact on the workplace culture of an organization. The change that occurs within a global culture is also not included with the measurement elements (Demuijnck 2015).

Stahl and Tung (2015), have mentioned that the importance of the organizational culture in a nation that highly reflects the unique ability in generating new potential at the work force. This is needed in incorporation of change management practices in the multinational business environment. The modern day cultural elements mainly focus on the short term changes in the business environment that are needed to maintain sustainability in the existing global business culture. The modern and innovative theories related to the cross cultural communication focuses on the ethical issues that are raised in the modern day business environment (Demuijnck 2015).

As communication is the primary elements of the modern cross cultural theories, it is possible to ensure that the MNCs to provide better quality of customer service. Hence, the elements of cross cultural communication can help to provide better competitive advantage strategies. Moreover, the level of success of in terms of competitive rivals is determined by the ability of an organization to enhance their cultural growth (Bird and Mendenhall 2016).

Conclusion

The existing literature has described the positive and negative aspects of implementing high level of cultural diversity within an organization. Various authors have discussed about the importance of the incorporating essentaial leadership styles to overcome the issuses of high cultural diversity at the workplaces. The innovative leadership styles as a part of the cultural management that is agrreable under the context of constant change of the global business environment. The theory of behavorial analysis and Hofstede’s cultural dimension is important to measure  the influence of the cultural elements in the working potential of the employees across different sectors within in an  organization.    

The major gap in the existing literature is lack of innovativeness in the modern theories that can help to overcome the future challenges. The authors of the existing literature have not discussed about the importance of predicting the future changes of cultural dimensions. The future research work therefore needs to focus on the importances on the core fundamental issues that is related to the business communication gaps across different cultures. 

References

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.

Calvin, J.R., Beale, R.L. and Moore, K., 2017. acculturation and allied contributing factors that further advance cross-cultural management learning and education: a conceptual approach. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, 21(2), pp.1-11.

De Mooij, M., 2015. Cross-cultural research in international marketing: clearing up some of the confusion. International Marketing Review, 32(6), pp.646-662.

Demuijnck, G., 2015. Universal values and virtues in management versus cross-cultural moral relativism: An educational strategy to clear the ground for business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(4), pp.817-835.

Fernando, M. and Yang, Y.F., 2006. Transformational leadership in a cross-cultural setting.

Mach, M. and Baruch, Y., 2015. Team performance in cross cultural project teams: The moderated mediation role of consensus, heterogeneity, faultlines and trust. Cross Cultural Management, 22(3), pp.464-486.

Miao, C., Humphrey, R.H. and Qian, S., 2018. A cross-cultural meta-analysis of how leader emotional intelligence influences subordinate task performance and organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of World Business.

Moore, F., 2015. An unsuitable job for a woman: a ‘native category’approach to gender, diversity and cross-cultural management. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(2), pp.216-230.

Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V., 2014. Managing cultural differences. Routledge.

Ott, D.L. and Michailova, S., 2018. Cultural intelligence: A review and new research avenues. International Journal of Management Reviews, 20(1), pp.99-119.

Stahl, G.K. and Tung, R.L., 2015. Towards a more balanced treatment of culture in international business studies: The need for positive cross-cultural scholarship. Journal of International Business Studies, 46(4), pp.391-414.

Stedham, Y. and Bell, V., 2014, July. CROSS-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT AND DETERMINANTS OF TRUST. In Allied Academies International Conference. Academy for Studies in International Business. Proceedings (Vol. 14, No. 2, p. 1). Jordan Whitney Enterprises, Inc.