CROSS CULTURE
˜Cross culture and business practice: are they coterminous or cross- verging?
Businesses are the engines of globalization and the key actors in international business. Business practices play a vital role in globalization through worldwide investments, global business transactions and exchange of skills and knowledge across national boundaries.
Since businesses conduct transactions in several countries through its headquarters and subsidiaries, its operation faces complex issues. Cross cultures, government laws, human resource management policies, politics are just some of the entities that businesses have to deal with in its operation and sustainability. According to Kanga (2006) government policy and the integration of cross cultures and values through the impact of global communication are two of the more specific drivers of globalization. These two factors also have their implications in many facets of business practices including its human resource management activities.
When businesses internationalize, cross cultural concerns, such as staffing, executive development, compensation, and labor relations require globally savvy professionals to facilitate international business success. Kanga identifies some internationalization concerns faced by a business which include how to merge the cross cultures, languages, and general work expectations of employees from different countries, and how to respond to employees who bring to their new work situations sometimes very different attitudes toward supervision and have very different expectations related to the practice of management. The different communication and business practice styles, motivation philosophies, and organizational structures and frequent lack of understanding of the cross-country cultures, markets, employment laws and practices, and language, by the parent company, can cause difficulty for the local human resource manager..
The article of Kanga suggests that many people managing businesses lack knowledge or sensitivity to cross cultural differences which often results in mistakes during interactions on the job and privately. The cross cultural issue makes the interaction with people from other cultures a challenge for those working abroad. It is therefore important to learn about other cultures or at least understand and pay attention to the fact that there exist different cultures. Learning languages is also very helpful. Kanga suggests that businesses need to learn to cope internationally with issues like selecting and preparing people for working and managing in other countries, negotiating and conducting business in cross cultural settings, and capitalizing on and absorbing that learning throughout their international operations. At the core of success in these endeavors is the need for cross cultural awareness and understanding of effects of cross culture on day-to-day business operations.
Inescapable as it may seem, Kanga concludes that dilemmas on business practices brought about by cross cultures are unavoidable and should be expected at work especially in business firms owned or controlled by individuals from a different cultural orientation especially when they employ the local citizens in their international operations. Dealing properly with situations such as instances of principled power struggle between supervisors and subordinates from different cultural orientations, will be of much help in running a business firm properly and successfully. Addressing conflicts and working out understanding by compromising for the good of all will pave the way to maintain smooth working relationships among the employees, staff, supervisors and subordinates.
Sims believes that ethics influences the value system of every individual by serving as a moral guide or “base” to the application of acceptable principles that are needed to become a moral being. It determines our conception of when things are going well and when they are going badly. It determines our conception of what is due to us, and what is due from us, as we relate to others. It shapes our emotional responses, determining the cause of pride or shame, or anger or gratitude, or what can be forgiven and what cannot. It gives us our standards – our standards of behavior. In the eyes of Sims, it shapes our very identities. Our consciousness of ourselves is largely or even essentially a consciousness of how we stand for other people. We need stories of our own value in the eyes of each other, the eyes of the world.
In the article of Sims (2006) he pointed out that ethical attitudes in particularistic cultures like in China tend to be less stiff and formal between employers and employees but the commitment between them is strong. In the same article, Sims found that Chinese people communicate in a way that upholds traditional values of harmony and kinship affiliation as compared to North Americans. Japanese people, on the other hand, are considered neutral in this respect because they feel that expressing emotions in the workplace is “unprofessional”. Other cultures, that are considered to be relatively affective, feel that the indifference of neutral colleagues in the office is a manifestation of dislike and superiority among co-employees.
Sims points out that a lot of studies have been conducted pertaining to ethical attitudes that compare Western and Eastern cultures have been very common. Such studies cut across gender and ethnicity in differing levels of analysis, context and issues critically addressed by some authors. Sims stated that the rampant interest in the entry of alien workers in the American workforce was perceived by some to be to be a solution to size and capability problems of the United States (US) labor force while seen by others as a threat to jobs of American workers. It was mentioned further that foreign workers usually enter the US workforce in the most menial positions although they held higher positions in their native land. Most of them were employed through the underground job market where their employers do not have to pay for their compensation insurance and withholding taxes, hence, such employers profit more. Findings such as these give birth to social issues and problems that international business organizations face within the workplace concerning effective management.
In a case study of expatriate assignments of women managers in Chile, it was found out that women in particular will encounter the possibility of negative stereotyping from co-workers, managers and clients in the host country regarding their roles and that dedicated efforts in preparing women for expatriate assignments through in-country support system can make international assignment more effective for women employees and the organization itself.
Sims points out that studies on organizational communication have always been used by large companies so as to ensure good working relationships among employees as well as to evaluate the relationship among members and staff of big corporations. Sims further elaborated that the idea of global community in a model that suggests intercultural and international communication and ethical problems to best address the immediate need is of much importance to truly build a global community. Inquiries have been made in order to realize how the Eastern and Western culture differ in the work setting by comparing the evident and obvious contrasts between different cultural orientations and ethnicity. Such differences include most recurring ethical dilemmas brought about by race in business where employees and staff of varying cultural orientations who work together as an organization.
Studies on organizational communication have always been used by large companies so as to ensure good working relationships among employees as well as to evaluate the relationship among members and staff of big corporations. Sims further elaborated that the idea of global community in a model that suggests intercultural and international communication and ethical problems to best address the immediate need is of much importance to truly build a global community.
Sims in his journal article proposes the use of ethics audit in the company is composed of decision-making protocols designed to address ethical dilemmas which includes an outline of steps to follow in dealing with ethical problems in the workplace so as to identify ethical issues in the practice settings, assess risk levels, rank order each issue, and eventually develop a strategy to minimize risks. He concluded that social workers have not had access to a structured guide to help to help them assess their efforts to identify and address key ethical issues. Such issues usually comprise confidentiality and privacy, service delivery, professional boundaries, informed consent, defamation, practitioner impairment, and termination of services.
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