Practice Report

MANAGING CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Umar mukhtar
1026914

1
 Contents pages

 Executive summary 3

 Introduction 4

 Hofstede cultural framework 5

 Problems in management 6

• Communication 6

• Conflict 6

• Decision making 7

 How to manage cultural difference? 7

• Training and development 8

• Respect for other s’ culture 8

• Appreciation and motivation 9

 Conclusion 9

 References 10

2
 Executive summary
The focus of this report is understand what are the problems faced by
organization when they try to manage people of different cultures. This report
cover different dimension of hofstede cultural frame work and their result when
they applied in 23 countries and different other aspects that cause problems like
communication style, attitude toward conflict, approach to complete task,
decision making style, attitude towards disclosure, approaches to knowing when
people try to manage people of different cultures.
Then this report describe that how we can overcome these problems through
different techniques like training and development, effective communication,
motivation and appreciation.

3
 Introduction
The purpose of the report is to find out the problems which the managers face
when they manage the people across different culture. We use different theories
like hofstede cultural theory and few other theories to actually find the real
problems which the managers face and then we find out the way which become
beneficial to cross the barriers of the culture and help nations to combine
together to achieve their goal and work as a team and help each other.
Let’s start from the beginning that what is culture?
Culture is basically the values, norms and beliefs a set of people have and on the
basis of these values and belief how people behave and share their common
experiences.
Managing people across culture
It is not an east task to manage people across culture. There are several
problems that organization has to face while managing people of different
cultures because every nation has his own norms and belief. Every nation has
his own thinking pattern some believe on perception some nation are more
judgmental and they have their own style of work like some people like to work in
group some like individual work similarly some like to work in flat organization
some like hierarchy in the organization. Few other problem which the
organization face include communication, because if they do not understand their
language properly then how they can perform work. Now we try to elaborate
there points in our finds.

4
Findings
Hofstede cultural framework
We take the example of hofstede model of cultural framework and try to find out
the problems which the different nation face while managing across culture.
Hofstede model base on five things
1. Power distance
2. Uncertainty avoidance
3. Individualism vs. Collectivism
4. Masculinity vs. Femininity
5. Long term orientation
When we talk about power distance, its mean that there is unequal distribution of
power with in organization. Some nation accept high power distance means that
they have powerful hierarchy of management like Malaysia but some nations
accept low power distance mean they have flat structure like Australia, Denmark,
Ireland . Similarly some nations take risks while some do not take risk and have
flexible structure hofstede call it uncertainty avoidance. Some nations like to work
separately while some nations like to work in a group like a family and they have
long term relations that are individualism and collectivism. Masculinity means that
some nation is male dominated like in Asian countries while femininity means
that some nation gives equal rights to male and females like in Western culture.
In long term orientation means that some nation keeps the future in mind while
making policies or making decision like United States and United Kingdom while
some nations thinks only about the present and the past.
A research has been conducted in 23 countries in 2006 on difficulties face by
organization in managing people of different cultures by using Hofstede's national

5
cultural framework. It was concluded from their results that all parts of hofstede
models is been effected when they try to manage people across culture like
some elements effect quality practices and some effect performance of the
organization.
(By Alessandra Vecchi, Louis Brennan)
Then there are several other factors which creates a lot of problems when we try
to manage people of different cultures like
1. Communication style
2. Attitude toward conflict
3. Approach to complete task
4. Decision making style
5. Attitude towards disclosure
6. Approaches to knowing
Communication style
Communication style of the different nation varies according to their culture,
emotion, feelings etc. There are different ways of understanding one thing it
depend on culture like American and European people like direct eye contact
Asian considered eye contact a rude manner.

Attitude toward conflict

Some organizations avoid conflict they feel that conflict is bad thing but some of
the nations like conflict. They believe that conflict is natural thing it’s good for
organization they considered them a source of new idea. So it’s better to
understand that what policies organization is going to adopt.

Approach to complete task

There are different methods to compete task depend on the skills, tools,
management and technique. Different nations has there own ways of managing
the time depending on the technology they use, kind of Labour they have and
how much skills they have. Similarly some nation like distribution of work like
they divide the work in to small parts and then they perform like assembly line

6
work but some nation like that when they star work they want to complete it at his
own.

Decision making style

Myer-Briggs gives different approaches for decision making. According to him

there is several ways of making decision like some people are Extrovert and
some is Introvert. Similarly some people use senses in making decision while
other believe on intuitions. Some people think about the matter by using there
senses but people some feel. Some prefer judgment their decision are based on
facts while some believe on perception. So every nation has his own way of
making decision.

Attitude towards disclosure

Different nations have different attitude towards disclosure so it is very difficult to

combine different nation on one way.

Approaches to knowing

Knowledge is the base that helps you in making the decision. So every nation
has his own way of getting the knowledge according to their values, tradition, and
believes. So they make decision by using their knowledge so it should be
different from other nations.

(By Anastasia Bibikova & Vadim Kotelnikov, Founder of the Ten Business e-
Coach)

How to manage different nations across culture?

There are different techniques to manage the people across culture like

1. Right balance

7
 2. Training and development

3. Effective communication

4. Respect other culture

5. Synergy

6. Appreciation and motivation

Right balance

There should be right balance of employees in your organization so that no

problem arises because problem arises only when there is imbalance in the
environment between them. There should be the same policies and rule for every
employee. There should not be having any disharmony and there should be right
balance in the organization.

Training and development

The best tool to manage the people of different nations is through training and
development. First trained the employees according to the organization need
then perform different techniques to merge the different cultures according to
your need. Conduct informal dinners, workshops, and languages courses so that
employees get the chance to understand each other well.

Effective communication

If you are working with multiple nations then you should keep in mind the
communication problem because it is the only way to express yourself and your
ideas. So there should be the language that mostly people can understand and
there should be some measure for those who can not speak that language well
that might be in the form of language classes.

Respect other cultures

8
To keep the harmony and peace it’s very important to respect other cultures
because every culture has his own traditions, values and believes. It can cause
great conflict with in the organization if people do not respect other culture. So it
is very important factor when you are managing people of different nations.

Synergy

Synergy in business is very important because it combine people work and

increase efficiency and performance. It is something very effective. So in synergy
you combine the talented people and get maximum output that separately they
cannot attain.

Appreciation and motivation

Appreciation and motivation is great tool to achieve organizational goal. If you

have people of different nations than to combine them and get work from them is
difficult. But if you motivate them and give appreciation then they work with lot of
hard work and help you in attaining the organizational goal.

(By: Vadim Kotelnikov, Founder, Ten3 Business e-Coach )

Conclusion

It was concluded that it was difficult to manage the people of different cultures
as every culture has his own norms, believe and traditions but now as many
organizations are going globally so they are adopting many techniques to
merge the nations and there cultures.

It’s difficult to manage the people across culture but many organizations doing
it quite successfully through fair rules and regulation, training and by adopting
many other ways.

9
 References

1. Quality management : a cross-cultural perspective

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=4E6779B
84E7B9FB1689E81123174751F?contentType=Article&contentId=1786448

2. Managing cross-cultural differences

http://www.1000ventures.com/ten3_operations/customized/cross-
cultural_differences_china-us.html

10