Cross Cultural Challenges for Business Practices

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Introduction

The effective application of cross-cultural teams leads to the provision of innovative thinking and experience to an organization competitive position. However, the differences associated with culture can lead to the interference of successful achievement of plans in today’s multicultural global business society. To achieve the developments set, managers should ensure that they be culturally sensitive, and promote motivation and creativity by using flexible leadership, as a way of helping alienate from cultural misunderstanding (Harris, Moran, & Moran, 2004). This essay is determined to explain various multicultural differences experienced in various countries and ways to avoid them.

Thereby are theories, which are applied to avoid multicultural differences. These theories contemplate relations between motivational orientation, people, definition of others and self, risk orientation, attitude towards the environment, and attitude towards time. Managers today in the vast and extensive multicultural global business society face cultural differences, which can interfere with the conclusion of various developments. There are various dimensions that show the main problem that any society must cope up with, but for which the resolutions differ. Some of these dimensions include relations between different people. This entails individualism and collectivism. The other aspect is motivational orientation, where societies choose the various ways they will cope with the uncertainty of living (Minkov, & Hofstede, 2011).

A.  Discuss three major cross-cultural differences that would need to be taken into consideration if your company were to expand into this market based on your selected country.

There are various challenges or cultural differences experienced by those wishing to expand in other countries. These challenges have serious implication to the expansion of a business. One country where such differences are includes China. China is one of the countries that are booming. This is a story that many of those eyeing china will claim. Indeed, china is placed as the second biggest world economy, with an annual economic growth amounting to 10 % over the past three decades. This is an aspect that makes those willing to expand their businesses salivate on how to expand in this market. Due to the various cross-cultural differences, managers need to have a clear and concise idea of these differences and how to face them (Harris, Moran, & Moran, 2004).

There are various cultural differences that those people wanting to expand in china will have to face. These may include red tape. In china, many bureaucratic and administrative tasks that are modified in the west may be time consuming. Everything from account opening, company registration, and product approval can amount to a month. A strong law rule and a consistent regulations application mean that such processes are easier to achieve and this is a convenient aspect for the company. In addition, many actions in the west that are handled electronically require a lot of paperwork that needs to be stamped by hands after filling them. The time needed for the completion of these tasks requires may amount to be unexpectedly lengthy. Those employing their staffs to act as sales and marketing staffs in china are faced with more administrative tasks thus their efforts bear no fruits. In China, administrative teams should be put in place to ensure that the company is successful. This gives the staffs a chance to concisely look unto marketing and sales matters (Minkov, & Hofstede, 2011).

The other difference that those willing to expand in China will have to face is communications. This amounts to one of the main challenges that are faced by foreign companies in china. In spite of some of Chinese people having an understanding in Chinese and English, it is very difficult to find a Chinese who concisely understands the subtleties of this language and holds a strong understanding of English and Chinese to help steer delicate business discussions (Harris, Moran, & Moran, 2004).

The other difference that is common is human resources. For as long time, companies related to western companies rate china as the biggest challenge in doing business as a result of their human resource. Western employees are said to delegate responsibility and possesses flexible authority lines, Chinese workers are used to a more ranked structures where each person possesses a role that is clearly defined. Such differences may lead to pressures between western managers accustomed to employees who undertake their own initiative, and the Chinese staffs taught to follow instructions (Minkov, & Hofstede, 2011)..

B.  Compare U.S. business practices to practices in your proposed country for each of the following: 1. Product

China is one of the countries that are booming. This is a story that many of those eyeing china will claim. Indeed, china is placed as the second biggest world economy, with an annual economic growth amounting to 10 % over the past three decades. This is an aspect that makes those willing to expand their businesses salivate on how to expand in this market. This is, however, an aspect that has not yielded a good relationship between US and china. There are various business practices that make it different for US and china to cope. The aspect of products in the marketing mix is an aspect that is not quite regarded by Chinese companies as compared to US. US regards their products to be very unique, thus Chinese companies use the aspect of taking into consideration one aspect of the marketing plan mix. This is an aspect deemed to an engineer job in china (Harris, Moran, & Moran, 2004).

2.  Price

Regarding price, US companies tend to have a considerate aspect of meeting with their advisers with a motive of having the same price, and which will not affect their product and customers. This is also an aspect that is also the same in china despite the fact that they tend to use one aspect of the marketing mix. The implementation of price is regarded a sales force job in china (Minkov, & Hofstede, 2011).3.  Promotion

The aspect of promotion is the aspect that Chinese organizations clearly put in mind. This is the piece of marketing mix that they put into consideration. This is an aspect that is well implemented by Chinese organizations as they say it helps in a business success. Promotion in US is highly put into consideration and a team is setup to ensure they look unto this issue (Minkov, & Hofstede, 2011).

4.  Place

Just like product and price, the issue of place is an aspect that is not highly regarded by Chinese organizations. This is an aspect that is said to be the senior management job. This is an aspect that is widely regarded by US companies as they have to clearly identify the correct place for the product they want to deliver (Harris, Moran, & Moran, 2004).

C.  Discuss two distinct ethical issues that you will need to understand and respect as your business expands into your selected country.

There are various ethical issues that those willing to expand their business in china. With the aspect of china being a superpower, western countries need to realize that they have to put up with the various ethical issues associated with china. Western experts should not state that they understand china well as there are ethical issues they need to understand. They include understanding different cultures values, you are ought to find out a common point. The other ethical issue is that reliability and honesty is very necessary in china. This is an aspect that the Chinese people adore. Respect is also another ethical issue that Chinese people need to understand, thus western experts should put this into mind. These are among the vast issues that western experts need to clearly understand as they wish to expand to china (Harris, Moran, & Moran, 2004).

Conclusion

The clear understanding of multicultural differences is very good when it comes to business expansion overseas. The effective application of cross-cultural teams leads to the provision of innovative thinking and experience to an organization competitive position. However, the differences associated with culture can lead to the interference of successful achievement of plans in today’s multicultural global business society. Managers should realize that they understand the country of choice well so that the cultural differences can be surpassed by their projects plan.

References

Harris, P. R., Moran, R. T., & Moran, S. V. (2004). Managing cultural differences. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann.

Minkov, M., & Hofstede, G. H. (2011). Cultural differences in a globalizing world. Bingley, UK: Emerald.