...Introduction With the initiation of global economy comes an increased interaction between people of different countries and an increase in the need to deal with cultural differences. Thus, there must be an understanding of how the international project will affect people and how people will affect the project. This requires an understanding of economic, demographic, educational, ethical, ethnic, religious, and other characteristic of the people for whom the project affects or who have an interest in the project (Egeland, 2011). Today’s projects have dramatically increased in complexity, which requires a culturally and functionally diverse mix of individuals who must be assimilated into an effective unit – a project team. In order for the project to succeed it will be predicated upon the effectiveness of teamwork during all phases of the project life cycle (Knutson, J, 2001). Therefore, it is critical that organizations involved in international projects take into consideration “cultural risk”, which, if not consciously recognized may lead to ineffectiveness and in some cases prove to be very costly (Sennara & Hartman, 2002). Therefore, it must be understood that the most crucial element in international projects is “culture” (PM Hut, 2012). What is Culture? “Culture” refers to a way of life for a group or community that practices and shares values and common experiences that shapes the way in which the group or community understands the world. These values and practices...
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...Multicultural buyer/supplier relationship: the impact of importance of trust and ease of adaptation on continuity. Multicultural buyer/supplier relationship: the impact of importance of trust and ease of adaptation on continuity. Summary Abstract: 2 Introduction: 2 I) Theory: 3 Research question 3 II) Literature review: 3 Buyer-supplier relationship 3 Importance of trust 3 Adaptation 3 Continuity 4 Culture and buyer-supplier relationship 4 III) Hypothesis and conceptual framework 5 IV) Methodology 7 Research Design 7 Data Collection 7 Reliability and Validity analysis 8 Model significance and assumptions 9 V) Results 13 Hypothesis validation 15 VI) Limitations and further research: 16 Conclusions and managerial implications 18 Appendix 19 Survey: 19 References: 20 Multicultural buyer/supplier relationship: the impact of importance of trust and ease of adaptation on continuity. Abstract In today’s globalized world, more and more companies are dealing with international partners or tends to integrate international territories in order to expand their business. Those companies have, thus, a strong need to understand the impact of cultural differences on the working relationships between key dyads in the business process. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of cultural differences on specific factors (Importance of trust, Ease of adaptation and continuity) that determine the efficiency...
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...Culture and its implication on the international business management. Introduction Today, problems associated with global business management have been identified as factors that negatively impact the performance and productivity of multinational corporations and in turn, adversely affect regional and national economic growth The goal of this paper is to analyze the influence of culture in international business. The globalization of the world economy has intensified international relationships, increasing the importance of cultural dimension. The world is being affected by the globalization of the economy. This phenomenon is bringing movement of companies, assets, services, capital and people. Analyzing globalization this process is taking the world to major changes in the economic, technologic and social areas, which are having consequences in all organizations and societies that participate in this globalized market. It is a process that does not bring equal benefits to all participants. The globalization concentrates more of its actions in some sectors of economic activity and some regions and countries, rather than acting everywhere. With the world getting flatter doing business anywhere in the world is easier today, because of major changes in technology, global politics and expanded educational opportunities. But it is not only businesses that are affected. Governments, NGOs and society itself is changing at a fast pace. Nevertheless going forward can only happen...
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...The Importance of Understanding Culture in International Business | Business Management in an International Context | | The increasing number of interactions between independent countries, companies and people has highlighted the importance of an understanding of global cultures, both national and organisational. Culture plays a large role in the way individuals behave and interact with one another and therefore plays an important role in business interactions across cultures. Many definitions of culture are offered, but one more relevant to culture in international business is : “Culture is the way in which a group of people solves problems and reconciles dilemmas.” (E.Schein 1985) The first way in which countries can be broadly categorized is into either a high context or a low context culture. High context cultures place more emphasis on the importance of group identity. They have a high sensory involvement and participate more readily in bodily contact. Low context cultures prioritise individualistic properties. They use body language less frequently and are monochronic thus placing a high importance on timing and scheduling. Most Northern European countries and other western societies are low context cultures. It has been suggested by the acclaimed social scientist, Norbert Elias (1978) that the development of society and the basis of its’ cultural contexts are closely associated with the prominent historical groups of the region leading to an establishment...
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...Cultures in Global Management Abstract What is culture and how other people deal with culture on a daily basis. Countries around the world work daily with different cultures in a business setting. There are many different ways that culture practices get done throughout the world. Middle East does things different than what the United States does. Global management and cultures bring many issues with it. Managers and staff need to find new ways to handle values, beliefs and social norms when working a business around the world. Most businesses have an assortment of different cultures and backgrounds because there are different people working within the group. This “Group of people" has the same religion, language, beliefs, and values share a culture no matter what. This, in turn, joined with all different types of people in the same cultural system. An examination made of the art of administering groups who are from different cultures, taking into account their different set of values, carry out, and ways of achieving different goals. A review presented of some of the problems that inherent in from one country to another because manager reject or is helpless of internalizing the local culture in which the displacement operates. Culture provides two functions that affect global management today. With the growth in global activities of both domestic and multinational companies, managers need a good perceptive of culture. People’s cultural backgrounds influence...
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...Table of Contents Introduction 2 Differences between Domestic and International Human Resource Management 2 What is Expatriate 4 IHRM has three dimensions 4 International assignments create expatriates 5 Increasing Importance of International Human Resource Management 6 Significance of International Human Resource Management 9 Conclusion 11 Reference……. 12 Introduction As we enter the new millennium, more and more companies are recognizing the importance of managing their human resources as effectively as possible. They are also recognizing that doing so, however, cannot be done without recognition and incorporation of the global context. It is virtually impossible to read a business periodical or newspaper anywhere in the world without seeing stories detailing the success of a company due to how effectively it manages its people. As the environment becomes more global, managing people also becomes more challenging, more unpredictable and uncertain and more subject to rapid change and surprise. Thus what we are witnessing within human resource management (HRM) is the rapid appreciation for and development of all aspects of global and international activities and issues associated with and affected by HRM. And because the importance of managing people effectively in the global context is so great, many companies are devoting a great deal more time, attention, skill, and effort into doing it well. To be successful, many firms have to compete...
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...International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management Emerald Article: Expatriation in the hotel industry: An exploratory study of management skills and cultural training Gina Fe Causin, Baker Ayoun, Patrick Moreo Article information: To cite this document: Gina Fe Causin, Baker Ayoun, Patrick Moreo, (2011),"Expatriation in the hotel industry: An exploratory study of management skills and cultural training", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 23 Iss: 7 pp. 885 - 901 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09596111111167515 Downloaded on: 29-09-2012 References: This document contains references to 43 other documents To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com This document has been downloaded 2118 times since 2011. * Users who downloaded this Article also downloaded: * Judie Gannon, Angela Roper, Liz Doherty, (2010),"The impact of hotel management contracting on IHRM practices: Understanding the bricks and brains split", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 22 Iss: 5 pp. 638 - 658 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09596111011053783 Hui Chen, Miguel Baptista Nunes, Lihong Zhou, Guo Chao Peng, (2011),"Expanding the concept of requirements traceability: The role of electronic records management in gathering evidence of crucial communications and negotiations", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 63 Iss: 2 pp. 168 - 187 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00012531111135646 François Des Rosiers...
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...Introduction This report shall focus on China as the world’s largest emerging market, examining how managerial practice in China differs from Western practice. This report shall attempt to offer guidance to managers operating in China, taking into consideration issues outside their normal experience, for example government regulation and cultural differences. According to Justin Lin, The World Bank's chief economist, China, which became the world's second largest economy in 2010, may become the world's largest economy in 2030, overtaking the United States, if current trends continue. Taking this into consideration we can see that not only is China the world’s main production market but also the world’s centre for consumption. It is crucial that western businesses and managers understand how to do business in China and the issues they may face in management practice in an international and cross-cultural context. Political and regulatory considerations for doing business in China, Anti-gifting regulations in China The giving of gifts is an essential part of Chinese culture (Yang 1988). Personal and corporate gifts accounted for approximately 25% of luxury goods sales in China in 2012. Bain et al (2013) This sale percentage is now at risk as the Chinese government attempts to combat both the act of corruption and a negative view among the population of the behaviour of politicians. As part of the anti-corruption campaign, in July 2012, the State Council passed regulations...
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...Cross-Cultural Human Resource Management BUS 357 February 20, 2012 Cross-Cultural Human Resource Management Today’s business world continues to evolve to worldly new levels due to the global market. Before globalization began taking place, business was primarily localized or regionalized within villages, townships and kingdoms. The initial changes of transportation’s or shipping’s delivery methods from the beginning of time by just human delivery to the transportation or shipping of goods and people by methods using horses, donkeys, camels, elephants and other animals began to change access to goods and services from more distant areas, lands and cultures. The innovative minds of humanity began the progression of new transportation, travel, shipping and delivery methods with the inventions of wagons, boats, trains and airplanes. These inventions changed the access to goods and peoples from every point on the globe, resulting in numerous progressions and changes to travel, business and industry around the world. Other new technologies of the telegraph, phone, radio, televisions, satellites and the computer have all changed the communication techniques and access to people and information all over the globe. Where it once took possibly hours, days, weeks and even months for communications or information to flow from different locations, the world is able to communicate or access information in seconds today. Different cultures began the progression from receiving...
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...Managing cross cultural communication Introduction Globalization is a phenomenon that is in vogue nowadays. In this rapidly changing world to succeed it’s imperative for an organization to adopt the phenomenon of globalization. On one hand globalization cultivates scores of benefits for the organization. On the other hand, it also generates various dilemmas for management. One of these dilemmas is of effective communication management. This phenomenon of globalization presents challenges of understanding and managing cross-cultural communications. According to Stephen Roberts: “Culture is the framework in which we communicate” This suggests that various factors give rise to the problem of cross-cultural communication. These factors include: language, environment, technology, social organization, the perception of authority and non-verbal communications. Having the ability to assess these variables is vital in ensuring for managers to convey messages and conduct business across a wide range of cultures. This paper addresses communication within multicultural project teams and the significance of leadership style in managing cross-cultural communications. The aim of this paper is to reveal different ways or skills that managers need to adopt to make the process of communication effective. Furthermore, this paper sheds lights on variegated barriers that may exist in effective communication process in a cross-culture environment. Literature review Zapf...
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...Environment SBUS4004 Summer June 2014 – Term 1 October 2014 – Term 2 SBUS4004 The Global Business Environment MODULE CODE: TITLE: LEVEL: CREDITS: TEACHING METHODS: SBUS4004 The Global Business Environment 4 20 Lectures Seminars Independent Study N100 16% 8% 76% JACS CODE: AIM(S) • To introduce the importance of the global business environment within which organisations operate. To enable students to identify and recommend business decisions considering the changing components of the global business environment. • LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this module students should be able to: • • • outline and discuss the characteristics of an organisation’s environment; identify and discuss how organisations interact with the global business environment; interpret and produce supply and demand (price) predictions based on global business environment scenarios; distinguish how different organisations compete domestically and internationally; understand and identify cultural differences between countries and the importance of the different aspects of culture in doing business in a global context. • • CONTENT • Determining the difference between needs and wants and their significance to economics and business. Three economic systems, planned, free and mixed economies and the implications of each system on business/ organisations and society. Market classifications and characteristics: consider competitive (perfect/ non perfect) and non competitive (Monopoly...
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...In your opinion, what is the most relevant macro-environment factor (legal, political, cultural and economic differences) for an international business when choosing to internationalise into an emerging/developing market? Discuss any international business concepts or theories that could be used to help justify your answer. In the past few decades internationalisation has been a phenomenon in being a main subject in international business research. Globalisation has allowed countless commercial opportunities to occur over the border of their national country by maintaining competition and the continuing growth of international firms (Tikhonova, 2012). In foreign countries, legal and political systems as well as the economy are essential to have knowledge in as it explains how political systems, laws and regulations and economic differences affect international business opportunities. Although these factors are vital in understanding the foreign environment, it is not as broad as culture. Culture is a factor that includes several aspects that range from different dimensions which on a broad level includes linguistic, regional, religious and ethnic dimensions (Reference for Business’s website, 2014). Fundamentally for an international firm to endure success in emerging markets it is relevantly important to have full understanding of consumers and their cultural differences. In order for a firm to reach their full potential and succeed in an emergent market they need to have...
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...04/02/2015 04/02/2015 REFLECTIVE DIARY Cultural Differences and People Management – BLDE606.2 REFLECTIVE DIARY Cultural Differences and People Management – BLDE606.2 Module leader: Dr Dawn Williams Seminar teacher: Fiona O’Connor Student name: Charlotte Marcenac Student ID: W151350741 Module leader: Dr Dawn Williams Seminar teacher: Fiona O’Connor Student name: Charlotte Marcenac Student ID: W151350741 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Table of contents II. Introduction III. A module providing a greater understanding of culture self-awareness, through the process of cultural pluralism IV. Reflecting on the political rights of women in France and Saudi Arabia across the concept of masculine societies V. Cultural Shock: a concept perceived as a disease, or a learning process of cultural differences? VI. Difficulties to demonstrate high and low context from you culture, but a strong relation with other cultural patterns to help. VII. The importance of rituals, symbols, beliefs when negotiating with the Chinese culture, as example: the meaning of a gift VIII. Cross cultural management: the relationship between managers and employees in France compare to Australia. IX. Conclusion X. References INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION According to Schön (1983), reflective practice enables people to involve in a process of continuous learning, by learning from experiences. This reflective...
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...Globalization Note Series Pankaj Ghemawat and Sebastian Reiche National Cultural Differences and Multinational Business The eminent Dutch psychologist, management researcher, and culture expert Geert Hofstede, early in his career, interviewed unsuccessfully for an engineering job with an American company. Later, he wrote of typical cross-cultural misunderstandings that crop up when American managers interview Dutch recruits and vice versa: “American applicants, to Dutch eyes, oversell themselves. Their CVs are worded in superlatives…during the interview they try to behave assertively, promising things they are very unlikely to realize…Dutch applicants in American eyes undersell themselves. They write modest and usually short CVs, counting on the interviewer to find out by asking how good they really are…they are very careful not to be seen as braggarts and not to make promises they are not absolutely sure they can fulfill. American interviewers know how to interpret American CVs and interviews and they tend to discount the information provided. Dutch interviewers, accustomed to Dutch applicants, tend to upgrade the information. To an uninitiated American interviewer an uninitiated Dutch applicant comes across as a sucker. To an uninitiated Dutch interviewer an uninitiated American applicant comes across as a braggart.”1 Cultural differences, while difficult to observe and measure, are obviously very important. Failure to appreciate and account for them can lead to embarrassing...
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...INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: Definitions of IHRM: Scullion (2005) tracked the evolution of definitions of IHRM. He observed that although there has been little consensus, definitions have broadly concentrated on examining the HRM issues, problems, strategies, policies and practices which firms pursue in relation to the internationalization of their business. Schuler et al (2009) similarly recently positioned the different views that have existed about the nature of IHRM. IHRM encompasses: ‘. . . the worldwide management of people in the multinational enterprise’ (Poole, 1990; p1) ‘. . . human resource management in an international environment . . . problems created in an MNC performing business in more than one country, rather than those posed by working for a foreign firm at home or by employing foreign employees in the local firm’ (Briscoe and Schuler, 2004; p1) ‘. . .how MNCs manage their geographically dispersed workforce in order to leverage their HR resources for both local and global competitive advantage’ (Scullion, 2005; p5) ‘. . . a branch of management studies that investigates the design of and effects of organizational human resource practices in cross-cultural contexts’ (Peltonen, 2006; p523) ‘. . . all issues related to the management of people in an international context [including] human resource issues facing MNCs in different parts of their organizations [and] comparative analyses of HRM in different countries’ (Stahl and Björkman...
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