Managing and leading people across cultural borders Essay

Managing and leading people across cultural borders - Essay Example Globalisation has brought the entire world on one platform.Most of the countries of the globe are interacting on a regular basis in order to compete in the world markets.The managers are thus under a lot of pressure in these organisations for the purpose of the development of the long term goals and in order to conduct business To manage the global economy cross cultural communication has become essential. This is mainly because of the fact that a company in order to be multinational have to cross the national borders of the headquarters and has to make its presence in the different parts of the world in order to have a wider access to the world markets. The success of a company depends on the multicultural competence it possesses. This means that the company should be able to accommodate all the types of cultures in a particular location so that there are fewer problems to combat the global competition. Theoretical Background of Cross Cultural Communication Significant numbers of sc holars have contributed to the issues of cross-cultural communication. One of the main proponents who have contributed to the issue is Geert Hofstede. According to Hofstede, the variety of skills of management would vary across organisations. This means that for a company that is located in one particular country would have a distinct culture which would not match will the culture of an organisation that is located in a different continent. Thus natural cultures are unique. People are the most important part of an organisation. Since the humans build the companies it is imperative that the culture and the backgrounds in which the people are based would also mould the culture of the organisation which is being built. Thus the type of Management that is practised by the so called Western Countries like the United States would be different from that of Germany or Netherlands. Again the Western culture would be different from that of the Asian countries or the Middle Eastern countries w here a more conservative type of organisation culture prevails (Hofstede, 1984, pp. 81-99). According to Hofstede in the process of management the employees in the organisation would make use of the technical as well as economic resources in order to attain the desired outcomes. Thus the societies of the world are characterised by different set of cultures. Hofstede had shared his experience of working in IBM in the later phases of his life. There are various aspects of the theory of Hofstede. He explained the concept of power distance in the context of the organisation. In most of the organisation the control of the decision making would lie in the hands of the senior management and the employees across all hierarchy generally accept this unequal distribution of the power. The concepts of Collectivism as well as Individualism are other important aspects of the theory put forward by Hofstede. Most of the organisations have factions in the internal environment and the people involved form either a part of the group or may stand for themselves in the entire decision making process (Schein, 1992, pp. 45-64). The organisations may also have varying tolerance level for uncertainty as well as avoidance. Some of the conservative organisations prefer to remain safe by taking the more certain pathways as they are risk averse. On the other hand many other organisations may be willing to accept this kind of situations and take up risky ventures. The studies conducted by Hofstede also reveal that the organisations may be either masculine or feminine depending upon the kind of culture that it exhibits. While the masculine organisations would display the features like ambition, competitiveness, power as well as assertiveness, the feminine organisations would rely more on the proper management of the relationships