Taslim Ahammad :
The understanding of cross-cultural differences and how to manage such differences are critical for effective management in international and multi-cultural business organisational environment.
Cross cultural management is a knowledge management perspective that breaks the concept of culture that has affect management thinking, education, and research for several decades. It is the management of people and things that involve a different cultural background. Cross-culture management studies teach how to handle conflicts of the heterogeneity culture and actualize effective management. Its aim is to design a feasible organization structure and management mechanism across the different cultural backgrounds. It also plans to use enterprises’ resources, especially exert potential value of enterprises efficiently and effectively.
The ethnic or national contexts have been conversed and open a vision of cross cultural ideas. It can provide an opportunity for an organization to learn a new way of social interaction. This helps an organization to become more effective and efficient in multicultural business environments. Thus, it helps increase the organization’s global fluency. Global fluency could establish a good business relationship and creating a competitive advantage in the global marketplace for the organization. The improvement of production, delivery service, technologies that fulfil customers’ needs has increased the organizations’ competitiveness. Competences are viewed as a competitive strategy. Thus, they must improve their organization by running competence development programs. The purpose of competence development programs is to prepare for an uncertain future. For a cross-cultural organization, it is very important. The expectations, behaviour, and attitudes of a new employee are affected by socialization and desired by the organization with different manner. Functions include recruiting candidates that can be effective in cross-cultural environments, handling differing regulatory environments for business, training employees to handle intercultural communication issues, facilitating cross-cultural teams, aligning HR policies and procedures across corporate entities in different nations
Communication is a major barrier between different cultures. This can come in the form of a language barrier, where some team members aren’t fluent in the language in which business is conducted. It may take them longer to communicate their ideas. They may also be unable to get their message across correctly, or team members may not take their ideas seriously because of their lower level of language skills. The way an organization is structured can also be a barrier for cross-cultural teams. Organizational structures vary from company to company. They include horizontal organizations where there is no official hierarchy and companies with several levels of management, where the word of the superior is law and not following directives is seen as a sign of disrespect. When working with cultures that view authority differently, the way the organization is structured can cause problems. Some employees may not feel comfortable bringing up ideas that don’t agree with the manager’s, while others may do so, but make a grave cultural mistake. One’s culture can also affect decision-making style. Conflicts between the manager and an employee, or between two employees, can arise if one makes decisions analytically and the other instinctively. Similarly, some employees may make decisions quickly, while others take their time. This can cause friction between team members. If the barriers between cultures are not dealt with effectively by management, they can slow down daily tasks, affect team relationships and derail larger business initiatives.
In order to successfully perform as a cross-culture manager, a number of strategies to dealing with issues that arise as a result of cultural differences should be employed. One of the most important strategies is adaptation. Ignoring cultural differences or not understanding their importance can be harmful. Instead, it is imperative to acknowledge cultural gaps that may exist on the team and figure out ways to work around them. A manager needs to be able to think of creative solutions to cultural barriers.
With the help of global communication tools, such as the internet and mobile phones, it is easy for companies big and small to operate on an international level. Multinational giants such as Google or Apple operate in several countries all over the world, their leadership team deals with people from a variety of cultures.
Many universities offer courses on cross-culture management as part of a business degree. In addition to getting a formal education in cross-culture management, some leaders may choose to learn on the job by delving in to the day-to-day aspects. Others may try a course from an organization that specifically deals with cross-cultural education for professionals, such as Global Integration, which provides practical tips and tools. Management leaders can apply in the workplace to better deal with cultural differences within the company.
Cross-cultural management is an interdisciplinary field of study. It aims to improve communication, management and interaction of people from different cultures in the society and in an organisation.
(Taslim Ahammad is Assistant Professor, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University (BSMRSTU), Gopalganj, Bangladesh).
