Cultural Issues in Global Organization

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Global organizations are companies whose operations are not limited by the national boundaries, but expand their operations worldwide. Globalization and advanced technology place an essential role in ensuring the success of these organizations because they help in communicating and giving an understanding of different cultures maintained by different communities, which the organization trades with. Strategic leaders have the responsibility of creating and maintaining the organizational characteristics to reward and encourage communal effort. Organizational cultures help it to cope with the environment. Organizational culture is the basic pattern of shared assumptions, values and beliefs that the company considers as the correct way to of thinking and acting on problems and opportunities that the company faces defining the issues considered of importance. There are numerous cultural issues that affect the smooth operations of global organizations following the differences in the peoples’ cultural practices and beliefs.

Some cultural issues that affect global organization include personal beliefs, legal requirements, religious belief, and superstitions. Personal, ethical and cultural beliefs come as a result of the environment an individual is living. Living includes dressing, foods among others. Some of the cultural and ethical practices are recognized by law and they law protect these cultures from being interfered with by foreigner. There are religious beliefs and superstations that are exercised by people from different cultures. These cultural and ethical issues dictate the behavior of the society (Bhagat, Triandis, & McDevitt, 2012). Sometimes they influence the reactions towards some business especially that deals with products that are sensitive to them such as food. To overcome these issues, the management must understand them and develop a strategic plan that would help in dealing with them.

McDonald is an organization that was started in the United State to offer fast food services to the customers. The organization started as a small organization aiming at supplies snacks to the Unites States. The organization has expanded its operation to several places in the world trying to overcome the barriers of cultural and ethical differences. The organization expansion aims at accessing cheap labor from other countries and enlarging the market hence increased profitability. The company has a continued expansion in the line of its products so that it can satisfy the needs of the customers globally (Adamy, 2009). There are some places where the entries and operation of McDonald cafes has been faced with strong cultural differences that hinder its success in those parts. The management develops plans that would curb this problem by introducing assorted menu that would fit the requirements of the customers from diverse cultures.

Despite the effort in the management to increase the sales and capture new market share, McDonald is still faced with cultural difficulties. The main snacks that the organization offers- burger and fries, are largely enjoyed in the United States, but people from other parts of the world prefer a different menu that is not clearly defined as the far it can go. The staff is competent in preparing the burgers thus introducing new foods to the menu gives them a challenge since they lack sufficient knowledge.

Different cultures in different states have different legal systems. Although one of the major reasons for the McDonald Company spreading it operation to other countries is to access cheap labor, there are some countries’ legal systems that prohibit foreigners from employing her citizens at a cheaper wage terming it as exploitation. Other limit the working age thus even if there are poor people who would seek employment, they cannot be hired before attaining a specific age (Times, 2013). The management is affected by the legal systems that govern employment making it hard for them to run their business smoothly.

On analyzing the ethical and social responsibilities of McDonald, there are numerous factors that need to be considered so that the company may expand. These factors include cost and customer’s preferences. For the organization to remain competitive in the market, the management has to come up with ways of reducing costs. MacDonalds has opted to outsource labor from cultures that has favorable labor policies that can enable them to hire employees at a cheaper price. Since the organization is global, the management hires people both locally and it can still institute top management personnel from the headquarters ensuring efficiency and uniform managerial skills despite the location of the outlet (Adamy, 2009). With this arrangement the organization gains a competitive advantage over their competitors because they can offer their foods at a reasonable price. This is advantageous to the employees and the organization at large.

The organization management considers the ways of attracting more customers through introduction of new menus. Employing local staffs helps the company to know the demands of the people in the area and prepare the snacks as per requirement. The local employees are knowledgeable on different local recipes hence they can prepare the expected foods. The organization is sensitive to the importance of adhering to the base market ideologies therefore they are sensitive in the quality of services they offer. When dealing with customers with different cultural belief, they respect these cultures and try to cope with them accordingly. This respect of different cultures has given the company a good reputation, which in return attracts more customers (Bhagat, Triandis, & McDevitt, 2012). The organization takes it as a responsibility to ensure that customer satisfaction is acquired irrespective of cultural differences that can be created by differences in the place of origin. The organization values personal tests and preference thus they have recipes that suits all their customers. Although the company initially concentrated on burgers and fries, they have increased the foods that they offer to meet the demands of their customers.

For a global organization to succeed, it is important to understand the cultural and ethical differences especially in places it has it operations. The management should gather information on the cultural practices and religious beliefs that can affect the operations of the organization. This helps the organization to be in a position to deal with the customers and the employees who have different cultures. Due to the cultural sensitivity of the product that McDonald deals with, the management incorporates the employees that understand the cultural foods with the location of the outlet. The ability of the company to offer variety of foodstuffs has given it a better stake in the market since it offers what the customers require irrespective of cultural differences. All the global organization should work towards ensuring that cultural and ethical differences do not affect their operations by ensuring that they take the interests of all customers. The existence of cultural differences should not limit the scope of the company’s organization, but should look for the ways to overcome the barriers created by these differences.

References

Adamy, J. (2009). McDonald to expand, posting strong results. The Wall street journal. Retrieved March 20, 2013 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123296471149515055.html

Bhagat, R. S., Triandis, H. C., & McDevitt, A. S. (2012). Managing global organizations: A cultural perspective. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.

Times. (2013). Can McDonald's Shape Up? Retrieved March 20, 2013 from http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,354778-2,00.html