Principles of Management Cross-Cultural Issues

Meaning of culture
There are 160 different definitions of culture According to 'culture' scholar Clyde Kluckhohn Culture consists of patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting acquired and transmitted by symbols, artifacts The essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e. historically derived and selected) ideas and attached values."

Different types of culture

Any group of people who have interactions over a long period of time country (societal), region, religious groups firms (corporate culture)

Cross-cultural issues: different levels of analysis

Individual, interpersonal Group Organization Region Society

Cross-cultural issues?

India

UK

Me Family, education religion

Family, education religion

Issues for me

Language Norms relating to: dress eating greetings respectful behaviour : UTS - sir, standing fines touch including male/female touch Intra family relationships Marriage customs

Work Issues
ref: Cultural Savvy Consultancy in the IT Industry
Indian/US cultural issues:

Language barriers Hierarchy in Indian organizations Indirect communication style Time orientation Hard work versus smart work

Language Barriers
Key challenges include: Use of different sentence structure Speech patterns Accents and intonation Vocabulary Difficulty in processing complex information in English

Hierarchy in Indian Organizations

Dependence on superiors to provide direction and solutions Tendency to say yes to requests from clients and superiors Agreeing to things without analyzing task requirements properly Lack of willingness to offer alternative solutions and defer to authority more easily Tendency to not ask questions for fear of losing face

Indirect Communication Style

Using language with implied meaning A tendency to make assumptions instead of asking questions directly Not directly asking the source of information for clarifications but depending on input from inner-circle of colleagues to explain something that was not clearly understood It is harder and may take longer to correct misdirection Indians in general also like to make more use of body language. The Indian head nodding is legendary, a gesture not easily understood by non-Indians.

Time Orientation

Indians are more polychronic than their counterparts from the West and thus tend to demonstrate a greater comfort level with delays and interruptions in their work as well as deliverables. They are less likely to inform the superiors or client teams immediately when a potential delay is first known, but wait longer before communicating if something cannot be done; also a larger tendency to justify the delay with a good contextual reason. The clients may not always find out about or understand potential problems or issues until too late in the project. Another factor which may lead to delays is that lots of discussion and suggestions take place, even after the decision has been made or conclusion already reached.

Hard work versus Smart work

The cultural tendency in India is to be evaluated and rewarded for the effort or hard work alone. The challenge is to redirect them so the focus is more on smart work rather than just hard work. The intended goal is working more effectively and efficiently to achieve goals.

Cross-cultural marketing
www.infosciencetoday.org The globalization of the economic environment had made it increasingly important for todays marketing managers to understand how to do business in different cultural contexts. Effective distribution of products cross-culturally has become a critical factor for success.

Cross-cultural marketing
From a marketing point of view it is very important for marketers to realize that as the world becomes globalized the cultural imperative is upon us; markets in the 21st century are world and yet cross-cultural markets. To be aware of and sensitive to the cultural differences is a major premise for success in the 21st Century marketplace

Cross-cultural marketing
Clearly in the 21st Century we need an examination of borderless markets where national boundaries are no longer the only relevant criteria to be considered in marketing, economic planning, and business decisions. Understanding cultural borders is especially important for products and industries that are culture bound.

TOP 10 INTERNATIONAL MARKETING MISTAKES

The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as something that when pronounced sounded like Coca-Cola: Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the characters used meant bite the wax tadpole or female horse stuffed with wax, depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, Ko-kou-ko-le, which can be loosely translated as happiness in the mouth.

10 international marketing mistakes

When Pepsi started marketing its products in China a few years back, they translated their slogan, "Pepsi Brings You Back to Life" pretty literally. The slogan in Chinese really meant, "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave

10 international marketing mistakes

The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, "Salem-Feeling Free", was translated into the Japanese market as
"When smoking Salem, you will feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty."

10 international marketing mistakes

The Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan
finger-lickin good came out in KFCs first Chinese campaign as eat your fingers off.