Introduction
A joint venture, according to Adler and Graham (1989),along with mergers and acquisitions, licensing and distribution agreements, and sales of products and services – critical aspects of all such interorganizational relationships, are face-to-face negotiations. This would mean the interaction between people. In today’s society, as the world becomes much more globalized than we could ever think of, with the fast growth of the internet industry, we are connected with people from another country at an instant. However, business to business deals and negotiations are still at a stage where face-to-face communication is still required. As interpersonal communication is brought onto the table, with the clash of different
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However, more importantly, it was the cultural clash that brought the JV into a poor state initially. As Adler, Doktor, and Redding (1986) wrote in their article, with the growing shift of business from the Atlantic to the Pacific Basin, East-West cultural differences are becoming increasingly significant. Research in developmental psychology, sociology, and anthropology shows that there are major differences among the cognitive processes of people from different cultures. In the era of the global corporation, cultural diversity has to be recognized, understood, and appropriately used in organizations. It is suggested that cross-cultural management would greatly benefit from comparative studies considering the impact of the cognitive aspects of culture on managerial practice.
Moving forward as a combined company, the JV faces great competition from low-cost Chinese rivals, and as the internet technology is increasingly changing the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is faced with much deeper challenges as demand in the entire industry is decreasing tremendously. Yet one challenge would also be the challenge to integrate the French culture with that of the American Culture. As Shenkar (2001) pointed out, establishing a measure gauging the “distance” between cultures has understandably presented an even greater challenge. With the globalization of
the success of the joint venture depends upon the compatibility of the partners and this compatibility involves culture as well. Culpan (2002) suggests that each partner in the joint venture brings its own culture and if these cultures are not
During my Module 8 assignment I briefly touched upon the importance of building a rapport. In a negotiation meeting, rapport is an effective determinant of the degree to which both parties build up the necessary trust to achieve integrative understandings. Between Sharon and Alice rapport will be linked each others readiness to collaborate and come to an agreement, to share pivotal data, to make a less negative environment, and to a lessening of the risk of a deadlock. Perpetually, the value behind listening for Sharon as a negotiator is to observe the relational abilities, both verbal and nonverbal, of Alice. It is important for Sharon not to come across as hostile or authoritative but rather understanding and reflecting that she is there for the best possible outcome for both the company and Alice. Actions speak louder than words and if Sharon’s body language is not matching her words to Alice trust will not be able to be built decreasing the chances of a win-win situation. Sharon should enter the
The case of Karen Leary illustrates the implications cultural conflict can have on business organizations and office culture. A common mistake managers make is undermining the power of cultural constraints at the organizational level. After six years as a financial consultant at Merrill Lynch, Karen Leary was promoted to general manager at the Elmville branch in Chicago. Leary wanted to achieve success at the branch office by building high-producing, successful group of professionals who work together to provide clients with complete service in meeting long-term financial goals.
For any international organization, understanding cultural differences is very significant in the global context. The article analyzes the role and impact of the cultural perspective when dealing with conflict in the global context. “What seems like a perfectly reasonable approach in one culture may seem ridiculous, disrespectful, inefficient, or unfair to managers from other cultures. Japanese and German managers may be uneasy with conflict resolution preferences that differ from their own.” (Adams, p.110.) The understanding that organizational and global cultures vary results in the connected research supported in several businesses in diverse fields.
The two words most often used, ”cooperative and collaboration,” can easily be both applicable to the United States of America and other countries today, and are still often used to describe contract negotiations for the United States of America as well as other countries. (Barnardin & Russell, 2013).
6. What general lessons regarding the management of joint ventures in entrepreneurial settings can you draw from this case?
Globalization and technological advancement have dictated the need for managers to deal with multiple ethnic groups with different culture in their day to day interactions. According to Kulkarni (2012), cultures play critical roles in individuals, including values, beliefs, humor, worries, fears, hopes, opinions, attachments, and anxieties.
In the case “Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc. Tsedal Neeley states that lack of inappropriate communication, leadership and decision-making is root of the crisis of HS Holdings. Generally, cultural diversity is based on many things one being the idea that certain characteristics should not be completely disregarded but regulated and valued as important. With this in view, diverse cultural issues can result in organizational problems. First, we must view your techniques to manage your global team and recognize the primary root of the problems. Secondly, you will need to identify who should be responsible for the crisis of HS Holdings because of miscommunication and inefficient leadership. Thirdly, defining roles and job descriptions is extremely important in an open work environment and
Mismanaging cultural differences can render otherwise successful managers and organisations ineffective when working across cultures. As stated byOsland (1990, p. 4) ``The single greatest barrier to business success is the one erected by culture''. Hofstede (1983) defines culture as "the mental programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another" (Hofstede 1983 p. 25). Through the comparison of Chinese culture and Australian culture using Hofstedes five cross-cultural dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, and long-term orientation an insightful view into the differences and similarities of the cultures can be obtained (Chong & Park 2003). Human Resource Management
While many of the world’s economic powers seem similar, there is no doubt there are some very key differences. Many of these differences can be attributed to cultural differences within each of the countries. While many of these countries work together in global business efforts, cultural differences would certainly have a significant impact on management style, leadership and even work ethic of the employees. The United States and Japan are both strong economic powers that hold to a capitalistic economic system. Their management styles, however, are very different. This can often be explained through the differences in culture and management or leadership styles. Over the years, the two
Managers were concerned about knowing and understanding each and every perspective of their employee’s cultures. As they know that without studying or knowing the culture, coordination cannot be built between the employees. It is the existing perspective of managers dealing with cross-cultural management (Sultana, 2013).
Culture and the environment affect a business in many ways. Culture is not simply a different language, a different shade of skin, or different styles of food. Culture, and the environment in which you are a part of, affect the running of day to day business operations of all companies’ day in and day out. This paper will assess how Linda Myers, from the article, “The would-be pioneer,” (Green, S., 2011) was affected by the huge culture shock of working for a global conglomerate from Seoul, South Korea. We will discuss what went wrong with Ms. Myers approach to business, Hofstede’s five dimensions of culture as it
First cultural misstep that Alison and John made was their lack of research prior to the task. They have conducted research regarding managers and the ways they communicate decisions overseas. They also gained insight of the success of each division but what they failed to consider some of the psychological cultural differences. They overlooked possibility of different reactions among the managers based on their background. For instance, some managers were afraid to lose their jobs where in fact that was not the case. We can see that from this quote” Every culture possesses a unique mixture of attitudes, values, and social expectations.
Cultural differences between countries have strong effects on individual personality and behavior, as well as on organizational culture (Hofstede 2001). These differences can be a significant barrier for an international business leader. Failure to understand and adapt to these differences may
In times of rapid globalisation and economic development growth, the environment of business has become more and more complicated as a huge number of firms want to globally expand their businesses. Subsequently, the managerial implications of cross-cultural management is the challenge of this development. As Abbe (2007) states, cross-cultural leadership has developed as a way to understand leaders who work in the global markets. Culture is the “software of mind” that can influence people’s patterns of thinking and behaving.