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Essay: Analysing cross-cultural differences when managing workforce across borders

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  • Subject area(s): Business essays
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  • Published: 15 September 2019*
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  • Words: 812 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 4 (approx)

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Analysing cross-cultural differences when managing workforce across borders is often overlooked with the urging need to satisfy financial goals. Not embracing these distinctions is bound to lead to inefficiency and incoordination between parties ergo, affect the overall and optimal realisation of a corporate’s goals. Culture is “shared motives, values, beliefs, identities, and interpretations or meanings of significant events that result from common experiences of members of collectives”, all of which affect one’s views of the world (Globeproject.com, 2004). Hence, leaders must address underlying theories, regional and ethnic cultural diversity of workers for behavioural support and effective leadership (Gudykunst et al., 1999; Alon and Higgins, 2005). The purpose of this essay is to highlight that not having a framework of understanding cultures, cultural intelligence, can hinder cross-cultural communication.
Cultures provide a basis for understanding behaviours as they stem from the conventions observed within members of a social grouping (Javidan et al., 2005). The GLOBE Project compares cultures against different dimensions and finds the most suitable leadership styles. Power distance is the degree of acceptance to levels of authority (Globeproject.com, 2004). The difference between the American and French culture, 4.88 and 5.28 respectively, results from their hierarchical perceptions (GLOBE, 2016; Globeproject.com, 2016). The U.S perceives hierarchy as inequality of roles whereas France as existential inequality thus, are more accepting (Hofstede, 2011). Evidently, Chalon views being demanding and setting high standards as effective. The observable cultural distance was hindering as his workforce expected him to seek their input and adopt a more collectivistic approach, one that matches their national culture values (Hofstede Insights, 2018). Moreover, Chalon may have adopted this style as his previous experience in authoritarian cultures viewed employee decision making as incompetent leadership (Lindholm, 1999). This behavioural difference between cultures emerged employees perceptions of Chalon as an autocratic and arrogant leader which reduced their motivation. Therefore, if a leader does not incorporate cultural behaviours in organisational contingency, cross-cultural communication is hindered and misconceptions have an impeding effect (House et al, 2002).
Meanings members of a culture associate with actions can be used to improve team performance from employee’s manifestations (Matveev, 2004). Regardless of both parties sharing a common language, meanings were misunderstood. Chalon adopted an aggressive and blunt approach to employee performance management which he believed would produce substantial results. However, this caused conflict and cultural clash as the humane orientation of the U.S is higher compared to France which consequently, decreased the employees’ motivation (Globeproject.com, 2016). Moreover, basing employee management strategy on previous success is inconsistent as experience is not a liable determinant of success. Conversely, basing it on a cultures definitions of support, autonomy and transparency in their relationships with others and their leadership, offers an understanding of ways to motivate and coordinate the workforce. The individualistic American society places significance on supportive monitoring and performance evaluation and autonomy as their desire to succeed is high in a highly competitive environment. (Gupta, 2011; Homsettee, 1975). Hence, not understanding various cultures and the meanings actors place on actions can restrain cross-cultural communication.
Moreover, cultural norms impact the development of relationships between leaders and team members which can help determine the effectiveness of communication (Schein, 1988). Originating from a high context culture, Chalon’s communication and relationship with the workforce is straightforward and is reliant on genuinely established relationships. This is suggested in his unwelcoming reaction when asked personal questions from his employees. However, the employees, from a low context culture, prefer more personal communication (Kim et al, 1998). This is due to their culture emphasising democracy and self-determinism therefore, they prefer more explicit and direct communication (Nishimura et al., 2008). This conflict hindered the communication between both parties as their socialisation intentions were misinterpreted. Additionally, those from high-context cultures expect more of others compared to low-context which is evident in Chalon’s expectations of his workforce exhibiting 110% effort (Gudykunst et al., 1999). Accordingly, not understanding the other party’s expectations of behaviour, as a form of cultural intelligence, can create misunderstandings and hinder cross-cultural communication.
To conclude, Chalon experienced culture shock from receiving negative feedback and was unaware of appropriate behaviour (Chang, 1997). Therefore, disregarding cultural differences between contexts can hinder successful transfer of knowledge and implementation of strategy as people’s behaviours are determined by their values and beliefs; whether organisational or national.  Additionally, the meanings people associate to actions affect their interpretation thus, one must adopt a framework to comprehend underlying cultural diversity. Furthermore, neglecting cultural contexts and the way they communicate can impede on cross-cultural communication as different expectations exist.
To overcome these challenges, an organisation can implement attribution training entailing knowledge and skills on cross-cultural behaviours for successful interaction and adaptation with the foreign country (Martinko and Douglas 1999). Additionally, personal coaching with a specialist on the host-culture and the business can provide immediate feedback on problems (Mendenhall, 2001). Moreover, improving Chalon’s management can be achieved by embedding cultural knowledge into policies and daily operations to develop cultural competence (Johnson et al., 2006).

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