The company where I was working was taken over by a British multinational company in the mid-1990s. The newly appointed Managing Director from the UK, during one of his visits to the plant, inquired how Gujarati people eat food at home. Having heard the response, he decided to sit down on the floor and have Gujarati food, along with all the senior colleagues of the plant.
What was the Managing Director trying to do? He was trying to appreciate the cultural norms of the new place and show his willingness to embrace. Such behavior by the Managing Director obviously helped the local management open up more during subsequent discussions.
In the last 2 decades, cross-cultural challenges in international business management have become prominent as the companies have started expanding across the territorial boundaries. Even leading management schools in India have started incorporating cross-cultural challenges as part of the curriculum of international business management.
"Culture" is one of my interest areas, I recently had accepted an invitation to educate the students of a Diploma program on the International Business Management, on the topic of cross-cultural challenges. For my preparations, I browsed through many books on the subject. My knowledge-base got enriched substantially as the treasure of information contained in these books, was invaluable and highly relevant.
This article is an effort to present, some of the relevant issues related to the cross-cultural challenges in International Business Management.
What is "Culture"?
Culture is the "acquired knowledge that people use to anticipate events and interpret experiences for generating acceptable social & professional behaviors. This knowledge forms value creates attitudes and influences behaviors". Culture is learned through experiences and shared by a large number of people in the society. Further, culture is transferred from one generation to another.
What are the core components of "Culture"?
What are the critical issues that generally surface in cross-cultural teams?
What are the communication styles that are influenced by the culture of the nation?
What are the important nonverbal cues related to the communication among cross-cultural teams?
Epilogue
"Cross-cultural challenges in international business management", has become a keenly followed topic in the last two decades. There are enough examples of business failures or stagnation or failure of joint ventures, on account of the management's inability to recognize cross-cultural challenges and tackle them appropriately. There are also examples of companies having compulsory training on culture management or acculturation programs for employees being sent abroad as or hired from other countries, to ensure that cross-challenges are tackled effectively.
The world is becoming smaller day-by-day and therefore, managers involved in the international businesses will have to become more sensitive to the challenges emanating from the cultural and ethnic landscape of the countries they work in.
Ignoring cultural challenges while managing internal businesses is a risky proposition because the stakes are high. It is cognate to the "Hygiene" factor of the "Dual-factor Motivation" theory developed by psychologist Frederick Herzberg in the mid-1960s. In the management of the international business, embracing the cultural diversity of the country may or may not bring success, but not doing so will surely increase the chances of stagnation or failure.
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