Managing across culture Essays - Cross-cultural Psychology

Managing across culture Essays - Cross-cultural Psychology Managing across culture Final choice of location Group members: Introduction A place to start a new operation has been looking by a multinational Corporation (MNC) from the food & beverages industry. This MNC already has main operations in France, USA, India and New Zealand. To select the location of new operation, national cultural values, optimization of productivity, efficiency, market penetration and cultural value-added should be taking into account. Hofstedes model was used to analyze the cultural differences between the potential new locations (Brazil and South Africa) and the existing locations. 1.Hofstedes model analysis As seen from the bar chart (Appendix1.1) Brazil, South Africa, France, USA, India and New Zealand show many differences on each dimensions of Hofstedes model. 1.1 Power Distance Power distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. It has to do with the fact that a societys inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders. In corporations, power distance can indicate the social distance between employees and employer. India achieved the highest score compared with 5 other countries which is 77. This was followed by Brazil and then France at 69 and 68 respectively. In contrast, New Zealand, USA, and South Africa scored 22, 40, and 49 which are quite low. Consequently, power distance is far in India, Brazil, and France, which reflect that inequalities amongst people are acceptable in these societies. In that countries, the privilege of supervisors to be considered as a problem of course which significantly contribute to the implementation of authority and those features clearly not helpful to build harmonious relations between employees and managers. (Laura M. Milner, Dale Fodness, 1993). 1.2 Individualism- collectivism The fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members. It has to do with whether peoples self-image is defined in terms of I or We. In Individualist societies people are only supposed to look after themselves and their direct family. In Collectivist societies, people belong to in groups that take care of them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. Brazil and India gained low points in individualism dimension indicate that these societies are more collectivism, in which countries employee depend more on psychological contracts with the group. However, individual freedom and individual achievement are greatly important in the countries with high score on this dimension such as USA, New Zealand, France, and South Africa. The countries often consider encouragement and awareness of individual competitions. 1.3 Masculinity- femininity The masculinity societies will be driven by competition, achievement and success, with success being defined by the winner or best-in-the-field while in femininity countries, dominant values are caring for others and quality of life that is the sign of success and standing out from the crowd is not admirable. South Africa got highest mark on this dimension at 63, followed closely by USA with one lower, and then New Zealand and India (58, 56 respectively) . In these countries, behavior in work is based on the shared values that people should strive to be the best they can be and that the winner takes all. Also, people live in order to work, managers are expected to be decisive and assertive, the emphasis is on equity, competition and performance and conflicts are resolved by fighting them out. By contract, with a score of 43, France has a somewhat Feminine culture. At face value this may be indicated by its famous welfare system, the 35-hour working week, five weeks of holidays per ye ar and its focus on the quality of life. 1.4 Uncertainty avoidance This dimension is the extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have beliefs and institutions to try to avoid these. France and Brazil got high score on this dimension, which is 86 and 76 respectively, in those people are hard- working and supervisors tend to control employees strictly. However, in countries with low uncertainty avoidance, such as New Zealand (49), South Africa (49), USA (46),India (40), uncertainty in life can be accepted easier and people can accept more suggestion and critics. Furthermore, employees in the low uncertainty avoidance countries