The first topic treated on this blog is Organizational Behavior with regards to International Management.
Every group of human beings has its own symbols of identity, shared values etc. that are - as Hofstede once put it - "[...] the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another [...]"[1]. What is described here is the term „culture“ as often used in international business contextes. The question is, why to discuss culture in business contextes: Well, following the description above culture plays a role in all our daily life, because our individual behavior is influenced by culture as well as our behavior in groups and group behavior itself, depending on the predominant values and attitudes in the group(s) we belong to. As we are treating topics out of the business area I am concentrating on cultural behavior influencing individuals or groups in organisations.
Known Scientists as Peter Drucker or Peter Senge have already recognized how important organizational culture can be (see Senges work „The Fifth Discipline“[2] which treats besides other important topics „Team Work“ and „Shared Visions“ amongst employees or Drucker’s thoughts concerning organizational change or team building processes). As stated in the text of Mead (treated in class) culture is not the only factor but it clearly is an important one, because the external culture oft the surrounding environment as well as internal cultures of groups, teams and the organization itself influence peoples behavior and work outputs.[3]
And all of that is happening in every organization, no matter wether it is national or multinational.
But clearly the globalized world we are now living in has influenced the importance of culture and its management. The role of international business managers becomes increasingly important because more and more organizations are not just influenced by their direct surroundings anymore. What exactly is their role in this whole new universe of daily cultural exchange?
Well, we can imagine a lot of different labor areas for international managers: For example, a so far national company willing to expand – abroad. This could mean building an external plant closer to a foreign delivery market, establish a subsidary company or „just“ selling products abroad. The international business manager in charge of that has to know about a lot of things before getting into business. Before building foreign business markets a manager should know a little bit about the foreign culture to establish for example a new part of the organization there. Working habits might be different (not even talking about foreign laws etc.), attitudes differ, values might not be shared with the original company and so on. A lot of scientist already tried to help managers with getting an image of a foreign culture (see for example Hofstedes dimensions[4]) by measuring certain central features of cultures. Those central insights in other cultures can avoid making inexcusable mistakes in negotiations with foreign partners, but they cannot shelter you completely. As often in life, the first impressions might last and sometimes business negotiations fail, because one side (or both) was not aware of cultural differences or not willing to except them and act appropriately. This might also handicap intercultural project teams when the members are feeling ackward because of cultural differences. Intercultural managers are supposed to mediate in thoses cases, locate incentives and support effective team work.
Various service providers already specialized on the field of intercultural management education, aiming to develop cross cultural management skills to train managers in this field. I will name one of those services that, from my point of you, covered most oft he important issues an international manager should learn about[5]:
· Respect and Courtesy: Managers should not bloc out differences and predict only one ideal way of doing something, acting or behaving. It is the first step to openmindness and understanding.
· Tolerance: Intolerant intercultural managers will mess up, because they will not find ways to come to an exchange with their subordinates and they will not be able to understand neither to act in favor to enforce working relations of different cultural backgrounds.
· Intercultural Managers should be able to identify problems and cultural Taboos to guard their employees of different cultural backgrounds.
· Of course, they have to know the laws of foreign countries when starting business with them.
· Interaction between workers with different cultural backgrounds should be encoured. That could be done formally in meetings or informally in after work activities etc.
· In multicultural or cross cultural organisations people have to understand messages if they are supposed to do well what is asked of them. So simplify language by not using slang etc., offer language programs etc. One could also offer written instructions.
· BE FLEXIBLE and try to cope with your heterogen environment
The role of intercultural management is getting more and more important. Without this kind of management organisations will have a lot of problems. As stated in the title of this article your strategy can be good as hell (in theory) but if one is not taking the people into account who are supposed to fulfill your plans everything might go down. A good strategy is only achieveable if one consider different needs and habits of people. Therefore one has to analyse different group cultures of your workforce to get a little bit of "control" (which can never be fully) of the organizational behavior.
[1] Hofstede 1984, In: Mead, R.: International Management. Cross Cultural Dimensions. Blackwell Publishing, London 2004, P. 8
[2] Senge, Peter M.: Die fünfte Disziplin. Kunst und Praxis der lernenden Organisation. Zehnte Auflage. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta 2006.
[3] Mead, R. 2004: P. 4-5
[4] http://www.geert-hofstede.com
[5] http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cultural-services/articles/intercultural-management.html
Sabrina, I do think that the important issues an international manager should learn about, are the ones that you mention in your post "Culture eats strategy for breakfast, every day!" - Peter F. Drucker.
ReplyDeleteIt is very important that an international manager tolerate, respect and interact with their employees, because there is a clash of cultures, good leaders are necesary to direct companies that are willing to expand to new markets.
I think your way of writing your point of view, is very professional, you have a very good writing and excellent points of view.
I like the way you make special emphasis on the importance of intercultural management skills within the company, how to manage differences with and between the workforce is the key of international management . I definitely agree when you say " that one has to analyse different group cultures of the workforce to get a little bit of "control" (which can never be fully) of the organizational behavior" , because i personally think that, it doesn't matter how much you read about cultures or how many cultures you have contact with, there is always going to be impossible to understand or to become an "expertise" on this field because every human being is full of complexities and therefore differerent ways of behaving, thats why you as a manager shouldn't pretend to have full control over the company ,even if you have some cultural knowledge, you as a manager must be aware of cultural differences and as open minded as possible regarding cultural aspects and you must never take anything for granted.
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