Culture and Management
Discussion Question #1
Culture plays a significant role in global business and while most business operations have economic relevance, the capability to effectively accomplish effective interactions basing on diverse cultures depends on the managers’ ability to reconcile the global differences. Cross-cultural learning, therefore, enables international managers to be productive. According to Adekola and Sergi (2016), cultural knowledge and intelligence enable global managers to implement strategic approaches that cross global boundaries and yield success. Global managers suffer various problems based on cultural differences in the respective regions and thus the need for cultural competence and intelligence to navigate the different cultures. The globalization demands increase daily, and they mainly depend on effective interactions with global vendors, customers, and partners, and thus cultural knowledge enhances the managers’ ability to tackle the global business operations.
Discussion Question #2
Intercultural communication mainly involves studying the diverse communication strategies between cultures and how different cultural practices affect this communication. Communication between different cultures also seeks to understand the different cultural beliefs and practices, for instance, religion, general responsibilities, customs, languages, humor styles, and attitudes. People should, therefore, avoid developing assumptions when interacting with others from different cultures (Bird & Mendenhall, 2016). An illustration of this is the different ways the concept of obligation is conceived across the various societies around the globe. To the German citizens, the idea of obligation implies the responsibility to adhere to the set rules. The concept of obligation to a Chinese individual, however, means the responsibility to prioritize the group rules over oneself. Therefore, it is easy for human beings to believe that they have similar cultural values and beliefs with people from varying cultures without understanding that there are essential cultural distinctions in what the values imply. Intercultural global training is therefore vital to enable individuals to embrace cultural differences and seek approaches to handling the cultural differences to boost cohesion.
References
Adekola, A., & Sergi, B. S. (2016). Global business management: A cross-cultural perspective.
Routledge.
Bird, A., & Mendenhall, M. E. (2016). From cross-cultural management to global leadership:
Evolution and adaptation. Journal of World Business, 51(1), 115-126.
.