Business under Western Culture
Introduction
The mother business naturally has the control on the things and activities in other business launched in other countries. There is a trend regarding the action or strategies of the Western companies to impose the western culture in the country in which another business is launched. When it comes to the term “western culture”, it simply refers to the thoughts and business culture or practices that are applied in western regions of the world like in Europe and America. The implementation of the western culture can be mirrored on different types of businesses and thus encountered many culture issues.
Western Culture in Wal-Mart [An Example]
Wal-Mart is a recognizable as a top player in terms of the management and employed strategies. As a leading supermarket in Europe, the organization implemented a strategic approach regarding the empowerment of the workforce as well as the corporate culture. The Wal-Mart is open to the workforce and welcomes any suggestions in the improvement of company in terms of policies and practices. With that, the firm also encourages the training programs for all the employees and discovering their other potentials (Hayden, et.al., 2002). However, when it comes in the business culture, the firm is described to be morally conservative which gives a hint on the patriarchal culture, which gives more opportunity on men than of women, especially in corporate positions. This action is probably because of the idea of sound control which is promoted in the Western culture (Carson, 1994).
In other countries, Wal-Mart successfully entered in the foreign markets because of the strategies in the management and the potential of the organization to boost the economy of the foreign countries. However, success is not always on the side of Wal-Mart. In fact, the failure of the shopping destination for the Europeans is traced back on its struggled in countries in Asia. The traditional formula for success like the low prices, inventory control and a large variety of merchandise seems to be not so effective in the making a great positive impact in the counties like South Korea and Japan. Because of the different habits and somewhat, culture of the foreign countries, the success for expansion of the organization is not justified. The implementation of the western culture of the organization exposed the vulnerability of the organization in performing overseas.
In the practice of Wal-Mart in other country, the shoppers might get shocked by the attitudes of the people running the store because the culture is different. There is a problem in terms of research in the type of country the firm wants to establish the expansion, and the lack of knowledge leads to their failure. Moreover, the western companies are expected to adjust or more probably adopt to the culture of the foreign country in order to catch their target market and not to the idea that the market will adjust for them.
Adoption of Western Culture
In the event that the organization will apply the western culture in business, they are expected to be aware in the tastes and preference of the market – at first and which seems to be very important. There is a slow progress in adopting the western culture in business and the mother company should provide the adequate information about the market, the economic behavior, the competitors, etc. and with all of the gathered information, the firm can finally jump into the creation of the strategy.
In the comparison between the Western companies and Japanese companies, there is a representation that difference exists. The Western Companies rely too much on the power of the banks and their shareholders that leads to an unstable business because they depend on the stock market, investment and currency. While Japanese are very serious in their internal labor market, even though a company experienced recession they will still survive in the competition with an organizational slack. This gives to the idea that if the western company relies on the investment and they happened to invest in one of the poor countries, the company might face a great loss if the management did not changed their strategies (Omara, 2008).
However, as viewed on the other type of enterprise or industry like in manufacturing, it is described that Western companies has a responsibility in meeting their own set of standards based on the participating companies, research, and government organizations and then, latter develop their product. The use of policies, technologies, standards, codes, and infrastructures are the UK’s gateway toward the evolution (Haake, Moore, & Oliver, 2000).
References:
Carson, A., (1994) The Gender of Sound: Description, Definition and Mistrust of the Female Voice in Western Culture, Resources for Feminist Research, 23(3): 24+
Haake, S., Moore, C., & Oliver, N., (2000) Recipes for Success – Product Development Benchmarks in the UK and German Food Industries [Online] Available at: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/research/working_papers/2000/wp0027.pdf [Accessed 29 September 2010]
Hayden, P., Lee, S., McMahon, K., & Pereira, M., (2002) Wal-Mart: staying on Top of the Fortune 500 A Case Study on Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. [Online] Available at: http://allman.rhon.itam.mx/~oromero/Wal_Mart_CaseStudy.pdf [Accessed 09 September 2010].
Omara, S., 2008 Product development, International Journal of Product Development [Online] Available at: https://www.inderscience.com/www/IJPD_leaflet.pdf [Accessed 29 September 2010]
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