In the modern world, international professionals face many issues in business communication and in the workplace. Managers want to do business using their companions. Where sometimes it just can not work and leads to multiple implications for business procedure.
National culture undeniably has a great effect on business culture. To be able to have an effective method of trading with the participants of other cultures, you need to have cultural level of sensitivity and focus on cultural dimensions. Understanding of characteristics that are typical to each ethnical group can help international professionals in assistance with acquaintances from other social backgrounds. I've focused on few categories of factors hampering-cross social sizes on global business operations generally speaking and especially in my own business context.
Hofstede's cultural sizes model
Hall & Hall's social value orientations
The cultural proportions that impact our values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours are what eventually set ethnicities apart. People need to develop a deep understanding of these culture measurements to have the ability to develop cultural level of sensitivity and a romantic relationship to deal effectively in cross-cultural setting. (Tuleja, 2005)
Harischandra Going Global
While majority of businesses stay local, many have widened their business businesses beyond the countrywide borders and most are over a verge of heading international. As such, Harischandra Mills PLC, too has went global. With acceptance of environmentally friendly, quality yet convenient products at an acceptable rate and due to growing demand for medical and quality slow prepared food, Harischandra must expand its string of suppliers and manufacturers beyond Lankan borders. Because of this, trade with international sellers and distributors boosts and under those circumstances Harischandra is one of the many companies that must experience cross-cultural obstacles when interacting with business lovers and customers overseas. Through many various problems and learning encounters, these days Harischandra effectively collaborates with an international distributors Western foods whole retailers Pvt Ltd for sale and distribution of company's foods in Australian Market. Presently, Harischandra has nine permanent, full-time employees in hq in Australia although the majority of firm's development is found in the home country - Sri Lanka. See Appendix 01 - Company Portfolio
Culture of Harischandra Mills
The culture of Harischandra reflects relatively typical Sri Lankan sociable patterns and management techniques. Your choice making is centralized, where many decisions in the company were made over formal assembly during the day however although decisions are made mostly cooperatively, the final decision is definitely with the chairman. The culture of the company therefore reflects the interpersonal culture of the house country. Appendix 03: Austrian Business Etiquette and Culture will show the ethnic difference in Australia while the [Table 01: Socio social differences for Australia Vs. Sri Lanka highlights and contrast a few of such socio social differences between your home and sponsor country.
Hofstede's Cultural Sizes Model
Power distance.
In given implications of cross-cultural sizing in business, considering the freshness into the international business associates the organization could be many obstacles in culture, working habits as well as in communication. Remember the fact that one's culture has an effect on individual's behavior, there may be misunderstandings between Harischandra and its international associates from a higher ability distance. Refer Appendix 04: Extremes of Hofstede's 'Electricity distance' Aspect. Sri Lanka may be considered a high vitality distance culture that was reflected in the way we run our business up until today. Thus, relationship between managers from countries with different vitality distance could cause some dissatisfaction with either party. For instance, Local manager from your home distance country might suggest that before making any last decisions, he/she would like to take the subject matter back again to the team and also have a discussion about it. On the other hand, a Overseas supervisor would not think twice to produce a decision solely. Because of this, in order to truly have a successful business relationship with partners from high electricity distance countries, it's important for Harischandra to have a unique communication strategy in place.
In respect to the idea of Hofstede about social differences, speaking about communication with lovers from high power distance countries, there are a few differences in decision making process. Harischandra must check with and get ideas and ideals from the abroad partner because they are uncertain of the product's acceptability by the marketplace. The market specific knowledge can only just be obtained from the foreign partner; therefore its Autocratic decision making would not work in this case.
In Western european culture, scoring lower in power distance, professionals try to reduce inequalities like overt status and subordinates expect to be part of a dialogue where their opinions are appreciated and are taken into account. In Harischandra, every employee is not part of producing process.
The company has now acknowledged that in Australian decisions are to be made differently compared to Sri Lanka: Taking care of director usually talks and employees should stay and listen and only listen to him. The level of power and influence of the top management are usually clearly focused to hierarchy. The directions of the manager are strictly carried out and the main decisions are considered by the manager without talking to employees. In contrast, the amount of privileges and liberty to do something among employees is higher in companies oriented towards equality. Subordinates have the right to express disagreement with manager, provide their own thoughts and opinions and the supervisor acts similar to a consultant which is visible in the Western european partner. It is therefore always preferred to have a balanced electric power distance in making effective business decisions.
Individualism vs. Collectivism
Compliance to the results of Hofstede, Sri Lanka shows high collectivism. Refer Appendix 05 Extremes of Hofstede's Collectivist/Individualist Aspect. Hofstede mentions that in individualistic countries like US, Australia, people focus on tasks and they are not concentrated on personal romantic relationships whereas in collectivistic ethnicities employees, oriented towards their job think more about well-being of an entire company. In contrast to Sri Lankan business culture, though the social habits are highly collectivist in nature, the original companies with family owned record still practices individualism when it comes to decision making. Whereas European culture show characteristics of individualism in sociable action, it shows signs of collectivism as it pertains to decision making as the decision are made collectively while sole autocracy is highly disliked. Western european societies indicate equality and so does not recognize discrimination more than a certain group. Consequently they would not want to work with such organizations who discriminate their lower levels of employees.
On the in contrast, in Sri Lanka, there are so many employees that management does not need to learn their brands or consider their views. Moreover, it scores high in electric power distance therefore, with this hierarchy; communication between management and workers down the road is negligible. Therefore, it is more preferred to own collectivism in the business than what the sociable behavior states. For instance, no matter an individualistic or collectivist in the socio-cultural habit is, it's always beneficiary to be always a collectivist when doing business as it motivates every person in the business and may causes new thinking and best business decisions being considered.
Uncertainty avoidance
Sri Lanka is a culture with moderately low uncertainty avoidance and low stress levels. Corresponding to Hofstede (1980) people from high uncertainty avoidance cultures try to ask many questions because they are not sure what will happen the next day which, subsequently, often leads to stress and nervousness. Harischandra will face this when moving to US after Australian Business as it has a UAI of 46% which is nearly low.
Hofstede's theory suggest that's Sri Lanka is among the low uncertainty avoidance countries with lower levels of stress.
However when it comes to Australian business, Harischandra discovers that uncertainty avoidance index (UAI) is also quite low in Australia (Geert Hofstede Research, n. d). Lankans and Aussies are more tolerant to uncertainty and ambiguity. It is therefore unlikely that there will be a great deal of questions being asked to ensure all the details as means of trying to reduce risks or doubt. Furthermore the expectancy of very limited contracts is low due to lessen UAI.
Scollon and Scollon (2001) argue that it should be clear that "communication increases results the greater the participants discuss assumptions and understanding of the entire world. Where two people have very similar histories, backgrounds, and experiences, their communication works quite easily" (p. 21). Nonetheless it could be argued that personality has whole lot regarding, not only the culture.
Masculinity vs. Femininity
This dimension suggests which values are normal in societies - male or woman. Masculine ethnicities such as home country have a tendency to be ambitious, assertive and competitive In masculine societies "dominant principles in culture are material success and progress; men should dominate in all settings; men should react assertively, ambitious and rough; care for money and material objects are essential" (Arrindell et. al, 2003). In feminine cultures like coordinator country's, the grade of life matters, people "work to live a life" and "not live to work. ". They consider standard of living and aiding others to be very important. In womanly cultures prominent societal worth are care and attention and safety of others. Women and men usually share equivalent tasks.
According to Stets & Burke (2000) "In american culture, stereotypically, men are ambitious, competitive and instrumentally focused while women are passive, cooperative and expressive". (p. 3)
However for successful of any business, a balance between these two dimensional are essential as neither the two extremes would help organizational development. For instance: Employees are the most valued resources for any company, working too much may damage the work quality as well as their personal lives that will in turn again affect work adversely. Furthermore the other extreme of feminist wouldn't normally be 'so-productive' and beneficial for a corporation either. Therefore a balance between the two is highly preferred running a business decision making.
Short term/long term orientation
In this sizing, Hofstede (1997) reviewed society's "time horizon" where he likened people's principles on orientations and need for time. In long term oriented cultures, people have values that happen to be oriented towards the near future, whereas in a nutshell term oriented societies, individuals are oriented towards days gone by and present.
For example, in long-term oriented civilizations employees wish an extended relationship with the company, they consider that time is required to achieve business results. The difference is that people from short-term oriented cultures need quick results. It is important to allow them to maintain personal stability and happiness in the present.
However, despite its level of popularity, Hofstede's style of national cultural dimensions has been a subject to certain criticism since the publication of Culture's Results in 1980. It has been explained that culture is hard to evaluate, especially by study methods; that only one company - IMB has been used in the research and this such complicated phenomenon as culture cannot de identified by only several proportions (McSweeney, 2002).
Hofstede replied to all or any the criticism and justified his research by saying that within one organization the culture is the same, and any possible distinctions may be only discussed by cultural distinctions. However, as he later accepted organizational and nationwide ethnicities are interconnected and frequently there are more than one organizational cultured in a organization.
Hofstede defines social differences predicated on national borders. However, some countries have significantly more than one nationwide culture within one boundary, i. e. Australia which includes quantity if immigrants with different nationality, cultures and feels. Therefore, a question develops: how exactly does one define countrywide culture in such case?
It is would be not right to predict somebody's patterns based exclusively on those measurements - in every particular circumstance other aspects need to be taken into account: family record, personal persona, specific situation, etc. Hofstede's model can be used among the many recommendations of looking after culture.
High framework vs. low context communication
It could be seen that during the communication procedure for the associates from high-context and low-context civilizations, the misunderstandings event is common. In program to our Lankan firm Harischandra, which works in high-context culture, the communication barriers may arise throughout a communication with international partner from a low-context culture. Indirect emails from folks from high context culture relating to Hall and Hall (1990), can be one of the reason why for major communication obstacles in international business relations which can lead to negative business decisions. It would be problematic for low context managers of European foods whole sellers Pvt Ltd to comprehend high framework culture and also to read "between your lines" home country does indeed. Therefore Harischandra must be direct in communication and steer clear of indirect communication.
Language
Everyone in the business related to the overseas dealing must package with cross-cultural communication issues on daily bases. As terms can be a main hurdle during interaction process with Western european foods whole vendors Pvt Ltd. Harischandra needs to have 'big ears' to attempt to understand. However, it is not only language difference that causes a barrier; it's the cultural dissimilarities. The ways of expressing something often means rude to other. Largely to Harischandra even as don't use our mom tought to speak to the foreign partner, leading to miscommunication which can result in many incorrect business being taken.
"Nervous laughter" is one of the non-verbal communication ways (Scollon and Scollon, 2001). It has been witnessed that Asians have a tendency to smile or chuckle when they feel difficulty or embarrassment in span of communication. Such behavior, as Scollon expresses, is "often misinterpreted by westerners (p. 156). Such distinctions in non-verbal communication, where same gesture differs from country to country, could cause misinterpretation. The translations errors in Harischandra have minimal existence being that they are not using interpreters and terms of communication with international customers is English. Moreover, the words on packaging on the trunk side of package is also English.
Technological
Miscommunication between companions caused by technology also appeared to be one of the frequently showing up implications in Harischandra's day to day business activities.
Partner is emailing a great deal where Harischandra is wanting to chatch up with the technology as they didn't use this setting of communication during the middle with their hierarchy. Therefore foreign partner may find it hard to complete with email.
While technology provides the chance for easy and low-cost communication for individuals across the world, it also creates problems. "Problems arise when the network falls, the technology does not work, or the team member needs more trained in how to use the digital tools, " Grosse said (p. 26). Harischandra that they had problems as they used fax all the time and took time to work with email, but now we use email mainly and communication runs quicker for both folks.
Grosse (2002) argues that all employees need to be been trained in how to use the technology as well as should be offered tech support team anytime there is a need of it. However Customer Service Representatives complain that it is very aggravating when emails jump again or don't get customers emails on time due to high dependency because of this function of communication that can result in stress and challenges when it fails.
It is worth noting that irrespective of potential technological problems, for Western foods', email communication continues to be preferred to calls regardless of subject urgency as they sees "It goes quicker and you can omit too much politeness, non useful small chatting". Despite the fact that we at home country choose it the other way round, it could be argued that even though the cellphone might be faster, it is more challenging for individuals to speak than to create and it avoids misunderstandings. "The e-mail format and enough time it allows both sender and recipient to construct so this means helps the non-native loudspeaker of British (Harischandra in cases like this) to communicate more effectively" (Grosse, pg. 35).
Dealing with and lovers and customers of any different culture.
Considering the major difference in socio-cultural conducts patterns and business decision makings between home and sponsor country, it suggests Harischandra to acquire big ears and a small mouth. Harischandra should comprehend the variations in considering and behavior patterns and pay attention to customers and the partner more regularly; to know what they are saying. Trying to change to the way business counterparts bargains makes everything easier, where each party seems themselves conformed and confident where mutual understanding among companions also plays a large role.
Keeping information inflow under control and dealing with e-mail in well-timed manner, Harischandra can avoid any potential miscommunications or issues that may arise if not given attention and goal as needed.
Ensuring effective communication
When conversing to marketers and suppliers, Harischandra's strategy ought to be to make it personal, to make them feel respected: Send news letters vendors and the distributors can make sure they are approach Harischandra individually is necessary. They ought to get email information, immediately sent by the Chairman Mr. Bastiyan in Harischandra as it appeals more personal; So that they believe that they are essential and it's not automatic emails. This type of emails usually begins with: "Dear distributor or dear customer. " Self-explanatory and explicit statements are made to avoid misunderstandings which is typical way of communication in Australia.
