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Intercultural Communication

Give examples of how different cultural management styles can influence leadership and decision-making in various cultures, and what implication this has on people in the business field.

Management style and leadership differ depending on the country that where they are applied. However, there are some similarities in the method of conducting business because cultural influence can connect diverse business strategies. The local culture has a vital role to play in determining global management. People living in Romania often view the management style practiced in Netherlands as being weak. In Romania, the prevailing leadership style is extremely authoritative, unlike in the United States where it is less formal. Calling people by their first name in America is a friendly gesture, but in Germany or France, this is considered to be quite a rude behavior. Latin countries view the American level of punctuality as being pushy and at times, Americans view the Latin sense of time as being unresponsive or lazy. The Germans and British have different planning styles when it comes to future events. Germans tend to increase planning activities, while the British reduce their staff when planning for events in the future.

In different countries, managers have certain roles that are determined by their nations’ cultural characteristic. For example, the most common role model for a head of a company in Germany is a coalition builder, while in Japan and France it is a consensus builder, and a military general respectively. In China, it is the head of the family and lastly in the United States, it is the CEO. Technology progress, high mobility, political changes, and market globalization has influenced changes in management styles (Neelankavil & Mathur & Zhang 136). It is therefore important that people in the field of business to establish ways of being culturally adaptable. They have to learn about the culture of the people that they intend to do business with in the future. This will ensure that business is conducted in the most effective way in order to ensure that all parties involved benefit.

A resort hotel chain is opening a hotel in Saudi Arabia. It is designed to accommodate visitors from other countries as well as local Saudi business executives. To advertise in the magazines in the Mideast, the hotel chain plans to use one of its ads that promote its property in Atlanta. This ad shows a man and woman in their thirties, sitting near a pool, in their bathing suits and “toasting” each other with cocktail glasses to imply “We’re having a good time in this paradise-like environment.” Do you anticipate any problems in running this ad in the new location?

Saudi Arabia has a lucrative business environment especially for westerners. However, the foreigners should be able to deal with the various cultural differences. In this case, since the new resort is aimed at attracting American customers as well as Saudi customers, it must be accommodating to both cultures. Saudi Arabia is a strict Muslim nation whereas the United States has many religions such as Christianity and even Islam; in addition to being open minded about many diverse issues. However, in America, the advertisement by the Saudi resort will not receive criticism because people are used to such advertisements. In Saudi Arabia, the advertisement would create a lot of controversy since people would highly criticize its content (Reed 88).

The interaction between women and men in Saudi Arabia is limited quite severely and the advertisement has promoted the interaction between the two parties. Furthermore, in the Saudi culture, women are not allowed to expose their bodies in public; hence, the advertisement would be viewed as being against its culture. People in Saudi would respond negatively to the advertisement because it goes against the traditions of the Saudi who have a lot of respect for their culture. Additionally, the resort will eventually not have operations in Saudi Arabia because it has disrespected the Saudi traditions (Reed 95). Therefore, the advertisement should be specifically changed to suit the culture of the Saudi people. This shows that cultures are different and people should have intercultural communication skills that will allow them to interact with each other effectively.

Work Cited

Neelankavil, James & Mathur, A. & Zhang, Y. Determinants of managerial performance: A cross-cultural comparison of the perceptions of middle-level managers in four countries. Journal of International Business Studies 31.1(2000): 136.

Reed, Mildred. Understanding cultural differences. Maine: Intercultural Press, Inc, 1990.Print.