Cross-Cultural Management: Assessing Its Impacts On Business Growth And Productivity Essay.

1. Critically evaluate two different cross-cultural management journal articles that focus on a cross-cultural management issue. The two journal articles could focus on the same or different counties and could also be a multi-country study (empirical or conceptual). The publication dates of the two journals should be at least 5 years apart. Critically evaluate the findings and conclusions from the two journals and suggest possible explanations for the similarities and differences in the findings and conclusions [similarities and differences could be due to research method, location (country), year of study etc.] Finally draw conclusions for cross-cultural management studies and practice. 
   
   
2. Use your understanding of the cross-cultural management concepts, theories and literature to advice a prospective expatriate coming to work in a new host country (you may choose your country of origin) about 5 keycross-cultural issues that he/she should be aware of and prepare for before embarking on the international assignment. Using relevant literature would strengthen your suggestions. Also ensure to specify the host country.
   
   
3. Conclusion: critically evaluate the conclusions from the first section with your suggestions in the second section. Make recommendations for international companies and their managers.

1. Use diagnostic tools to critically evaluate how national cultures affect management practices;
   
   
2. Critically evaluate differences in leadership styles, decision-making processes, negotiation strategies, and communication styles across cultures, and evaluate their suitability in different international contexts;
   
   
3. Appreciate the requirements for successful expatriation and international human resource management
5. Critically analyse issues in business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility with theoretical underpinning, particularly those issues brought to prominence by the globalisation of business
   
   
6. Critically apply core conceptual frameworks needed to understand ethical issues in global business
   
   
7. Critically evaluate and use appropriate tools and mechanisms to manage business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility issues
   
   
8. Appreciate the impact of cross-cultural differences and business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility on managing across borders
   
   
9. Manage the challenge of international work teams and projects
   
   
10. Identify and analyse data for relevant decisions and present and communicate results of research and analysis.

Overview of Cross-Cultural Management

Globalization has rendered immense challenging situations among the business organizations in running their entire process of business successfully in various multinational countries. While expanding the business in different geographical boundaries the business organizations cannot be restricted within specific cultural border. Business experts have to implement cross cultural management in order to give equal opportunity to the people of diverse cultural backgrounds and attitudes. The article “Assessing the cultural intelligence and task performance equation: Mediating role of cultural adjustment”, published by Jyoti and Kour (2015), has provided in-depth overview on how cross cultural combination enhances business standards. The author in this very specific article has opined that people should be judged as per level of skill and competency. Cultural attributes should not be a major burden for business experts in expanding their business.

On the other hand, “from cross-cultural management to global leadership: Evolution and adaptation” stated by Bird and Mendenhall (2016), the article has depicted that after the evolvement of global leadership organizations are getting accustomed with cross cultural management. As per global leadership theory cross culture renders diversity in a business sector based on which employees get accustomed with the people from different psychological backgrounds. Kramsch (2014) opined that business managers are able to gather collective decision while making strategies. In addition, associates who play the role of global leaders are from different cultural backgrounds and psychological attitudes. Therefore as per concept, the two articles equally highlight the positive impact of cross cultural management in business expansion globally. The way of presentation of two authors differs. The first article focuses on evaluating the impact of cross management in expanding overall business growth. On the other hand, the second article primarily gives an in-depth overview on how global leadership leads an organization in following cross cultural management for increasing employability growth.  

The two research papers while evaluating cross cultural management have focused to use appropriate methodological tools for using appropriate data and information regarding the research issue. The first article has decided to select positivism research philosophy for making a keen observation about research issue. With the help of positivism research philosophy the author in this article like “Assessing the cultural intelligence and task performance equation: Mediating role of cultural adjustment”, has made in-depth observation. Positivism philosophy has helped the researcher to identify various impacts of implementing cross cultural intelligence within the business flow.

On the other hand, in the article “from cross-cultural management to global leadership: Evolution and adaptation”, the author has used interpretivism research method with the help of which the research issue is evaluated from different point of views. The primary issue that is identified in this very specific paper includes role of global leadership in promoting cross cultural management. After identifying the issue the author with the help of interpretivism method has evaluated theories of global leadership that enables an organization in implementing diversity management at the workplace.

Impacts of Cultural Diversity on Organizational Productivity

In order to make an effective data analysis and findings the first article has used to follow quantitative form of data analysis technique. Organizational employees are involved for conducting an effective survey method. With the help of quantitative data findings procedure the author has received immediate response from the participants. On the other hand, the second article has primarily focused to conduct qualitative form of data analysis technique. By involving organizational supervisor the author has made an effective interview session for evaluating importance of global leadership in implementing cross cultural management.

After making an in-depth analysis on two articles of cross cultural management like   “Assessing the cultural intelligence and task performance equation: Mediating role of cultural adjustment” and “from cross-cultural management to global leadership: Evolution and adaptation”, it can be concluded that diversity enhances organizational productivity in thee ream of international market. The necessary barriers that are created within the organization due to implementation of cross culture management can easily be overcome by implementing effective training and development program (Goodrich and De Mooij 2014). In addition, the study has focused to collect sufficient data and information by involving the organizational employees directly.

Cross cultural management is the study that is related to cross cultural context. With the rapid growth of business industry the market trends and cultures are changing gradually. In order to achieve international fame and reputation business organizations have to focus on expanding business wings in different geographical boundaries. People belonging to multinational countries are associated with a business organization. People of different cultural, language and psychological backgrounds and attitudes may have to face immense challenges in exchanging views and thoughts within an organization.

When an individual person visits to another country for employability opportunity or further education the person has to face immense cultural issues among which language issue, cultural values and psychological beliefs, food culture, time zone are the most prominent. The person after visiting to another country has to face language barrier. Being unable to communicate with each other properly the person does not get enough support and cooperation from the business coworkers. As the food habit differs from one country to another the person has to face innumerable difficulties in being accustomed with the lifestyle of foreign countries. Psychological barrier is the most effective factors due to which an individual person from another country face challenges in taking collective decision at the workplace. Due to the difference of time zone person may have to face health issues.  Thomas and Peterson (2017) stated that cross cultural management is very much beneficial for making collective decision at the workplace. In addition, while grabbing the attention of international customers, the organization has to implement diverse culture at the workplace.

Comparative Analysis of Two Research Articles on Cross-Cultural Management

 Cultural diversity helps the employees in rendering innovation within services. Organizational managers are able to take innovative strategic decision at the workplace. As per the opinion of Moran, Abramson and Moran (2014), organizations have to face challenges in maintaining effective organizational behavior due to cross culture. Communication barrier has become one of the most effective issue due to which people are unable to maintain an effective rapport with each other. After facing language barrier employees do not intend to share their views and thoughts regarding the business goal. As a result, customer service system gets affected immensely due to internal communication gap.

Betancourt et al. (2016) stated that while evaluating cross cultural management the study has primarily focused to identify five major cross cultural issues due to which organization has to face major challenges. The primary issues that the business organizations have to face due to cross culture include language issue, cultural issue, psychological issue, religious issue and issue in rendering organizational productivity. However, Hofstede’s cultural dimension is one of the most effective frameworks in evaluating cross cultural management at the workplace.  Based on four major segmentations this particular theory has implemented various dimension of multiculturalism.

Power Distance index indicates that employees get opportunities and scopes within organization based on their power in terms of race, religion and culture. Gee (2014) stated that employees from every culture and religious backgrounds and attitudes should get equal priority and response at the workplace. Richards and Schmidt (2014) opined that business experts should give more priority on group performance rather than focusing on the performance level of an individual. Individual Vs Collectivism implies that business experts by involving employees from various cultural backgrounds and attitudes within a team can render business success. Masculinity Vs Femininity has given overview on how business organizations tend to show their biasness while maintaining gender equality. Binder (2016) opined that large number of business organizations are there which neglect to provide equal priority to both male and female employees. Uncertainty Avoidance indicates that uncertainty is the part of business. While running overall business process experts may have to face uncertain situations. People are from different geographical backgrounds and cultural attitudes. As a result, due to the lack of communication the business experts may have to face immense difficulties in meeting customers’ needs and demands (Ratts et al. 2015). As a result, immense uncertain situation arises which can create a major risks for rendering business success.

3: Conclusion and recommendation 

Major Cross-Cultural Issues that Businesses Face

The entire study has provided in-depth overview about various aspects of cross-cultural management. The study has critically evaluated two journal articles by analyzing their research method, data analysis and findings of the research issue. In the first article, “Assessing the cultural intelligence and task performance equation: Mediating role of cultural adjustment”, the study has highlighted that people should be appointed within an organization as per level of skill and competency. Cultural attributes should not be a major burden for business experts in expanding their business. The second article, “from cross-cultural management to global leadership: Evolution and adaptation” has depicted that after the implementation of global leadership organizations are getting accustomed with cross cultural management. As per global leadership concepts cross culture renders diversity in a business sector based on which employees get accustomed with the people from different psychological backgrounds. The study has made an in-depth comparative analysis about the methods used in two articles. The data analysis and findings of these two articles have been critically evaluated in this very specific study.

However, while critically analyzing two articles some of the limitations have been identified. In order to overcome these limitations relevant recommendations can be provided. The first article has primarily concentrated on cultural intelligence and its impact on business growth. Some of the major barriers of cross cultural communication have not been evaluated in this study. Therefore, it can be recommended that the study could have focused on evaluating on how cross cultural barrier can be overcome. On the other hand, it has been observed that second article is based on qualitative questionnaires. In order to collect sufficient data for making in-depth research the author could have focused on making an effective survey as well.

References

Betancourt, J.R., Green, A.R., Carrillo, J.E. and Owusu Ananeh-Firempong, I.I., 2016. Defining cultural competence: a practical framework for addressing racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care. Public health reports.

Binder, J., 2016. Global project management: communication, collaboration and management across borders. Routledge.

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.

Gee, J., 2014. Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. Routledge.

Goodrich, K. and De Mooij, M., 2014. How ‘social’are social media? A cross-cultural comparison of online and offline purchase decision influences. Journal of Marketing Communications, 20(1-2), pp.103-116.

Greenfield, P.M. and Cocking, R.R. eds., 2014. Cross-cultural roots of minority child development. Psychology Press.

Jyoti, J. and Kour, S., 2015. Assessing the cultural intelligence and task performance equation: Mediating role of cultural adjustment. Cross Cultural Management, 22(2), pp.236-258.

Kramsch, C., 2014. Identity, role and voice in cross-cultural (mis) communication. In Misunderstanding in social life (pp. 137-161). Routledge.

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

Ratts, M.J., Singh, A.A., Nassar-McMillan, S., Butler, S.K., McCullough, J.R. and Hipolito-Delgado, C., 2015. Multicultural and social justice counseling competencies.

Richards, J.C. and Schmidt, R.W., 2014. Language and communication. Routledge.

Thomas, D.C. and Peterson, M.F., 2017. Cross-cultural management: Essential concepts. Sage Publications.