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Cross Cultural Management

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The purpose of this essay to demonstrate the cultural differences between the UK manager going to work as an expatriate manager in Colombia. By taking into consideration Hofstede, Bond, Trompenaars and other cross cultural management researchers to advise the UK manager about the Colombian culture, taking into consideration the differences between leadership styles, decision making, recruitment and selection, motivation, planning and team versus individual working.The reason for selecting Colombia was that according to the results by Geert Hofstede, these two countries are very opposite to one another. Therefore it will be good to compare the differences and the similarities between the countries’ culture.
According to Adler (1983) Cross …show more content…

Colombian’s societies are strongly from birth onwards integrated into strong groups, this is often extended family. (Hofstede and Bond, 1988)
Colombian people would openly express emotions even in business circumstances, whereas the British would consider such display unprofessional. (Helen Deresky, 2003)
UK managers separates work, relationships and personal issues, they compartmentalise their private lives and work, they are more direct and open, whereas in an diffused oriented cultures, such as Colombia, there is spill over from work into personal relationships. (Helen Deresky, 2003)
According to Edward Hall Britain is a monochronic time society. To British citizens time is precious and limited resource, it is to be scheduled, saved, and also spent with precision, for the British time is money, and the clock is at all times running. Therefore, schedules and deadlines must to be met, and when others are not on time for meetings, British may feel insulted, when meetings digress from their purpose, British tend to become impatient. (Mcfarlin et al, 2011)
However in Colombia attitude toward time is “manana” meaning tomorrow. From Edward Hall research, Colombian is a polychonic time society.

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