Programme: BA (Hons) in International Business with Foundation Year

Module: Intercultural Communication

Module Code: TMDIBS101

Module level : Level 4
 Resources

Essential
• Buchanan, D.A., Huczynski, A.A. (2020) Organizational Behaviour, 10th edn., Harlow: Pearson. 
• Hill, C.W.L. & Hult, G.  (2019). International Business, 12th edn., New York: Mc-Graw Hill 
Recommended
• Hua, Z. (2019) Exploring intercultural communication, 2nd edition. London:. Routledge. 
• Scollon, R., Scollon,S. and Jones R.H.(2012)Intercultural Communication : A Discourse Approach. 3rd edn. Malden: Wiley-
Blackwell.  
 Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:  

1. Understand how cultural differences impact international business.

2. Describe and explain the role of a manager in international business across different
cultures.

3. Understand the venture plan and apply the management styles for effective
management of international teams and organisations.

4. Demonstrate an understanding of the managerial and leadership role international

business in the intercultural perspective in global business
Week 06 - Lecture
 Topics for today’s session

1.Cross-cultural leadership
2.Role of managers in international business across different
cultures
3.The intercultural perspective in global business
 Assessment
 Assignment Deadlines and weight:
Deadline Late
Subn
Component Form of Assessment
Weighting (%)
number assessment size

 
Group 12-15 minutes 19/03/2023
1 30% Yes
Presentation   presentation

2,000 words 26/03/2023 

2 Report or equivalent  70% Yes
Leadership Cross-Culturally?
 Leader attributes
UNIVERSAL POSITIVE LEADER ATTRIBUTES
Trustworthy Motivational
Just Dependable
Honest Intelligent
Has foresight Decisive
Plans Ahead Effective bargainer
Encouraging Win-win problem solver
Positive Administratively skilled
Dynamic Communicative
Motive arouser Informed
Confidence builder Coordinator
Team builder
Excellence oriented
Source: Dorfman, Hanges and Brodbeck, 2004) 
 Leadership Behavioral Theory:
Lewin Studies
Autocratic Style – the leader uses strong, directive, controlling
actions to enforce the rules, regulations, activities, and
relationships; followers have little discretionary influence

Democratic Style – the leader takes collaborative, reciprocal,

interactive actions with followers; followers have high degree of
discretionary influence

Laissez-Faire Style – the leader fails to accept the responsibilities of the

position; creates chaos in the work environment
 Cultural Differences in Leadership

Leadership viewed differently across cultures

Essential for leaders to

understand other cultures

Leaders need to alter approaches when crossing national

boundaries Photos courtesy of Clips Online, © 2008 Microsoft Corporation
 Leadership styles Leadership

Achievement-oriented
Directive leadership Supportive leadership Participative leadership
leadership
• Communicate • Make work pleasant • Set challenging goals • Involve subordinates
expectations • Treat group members • Expect high in decision making
• Give directions as equals performance levels • Consult with
• Schedule work • Be friendly and • Emphasize subordinates
• Maintain approachable continuous • Ask for subordinates’
performance • Show concern for improvement suggestions
standards subordinates’ well- • Display confidence in • Use subordinates’
• Clarify leader’s role being meeting high suggestions
standards
 Global Leaders

• A recent GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) project

produced some useful preliminary insights on the type of team leaders who would be most
effective in a given country
• A. Brazil. Such leaders would need to be team oriented, productive, and humane. They would be high in
consideration, emphasized participative decision-making, and have high LPC scores. Charismatic
leadership, especially its use of vision, was considered important.
• B. France. Leaders are viewed more bureaucratically and are not expected to be humane or considerate.
Leaders who are task oriented will do best, and they may act autocratically. While visions are of limited
importance, leaders are expected to be able to articulate strategies.
• C. Egypt. Prefer team-oriented and participative leadership, while the leader maintains a high level of
status. Leaders ask for opinions, but make decisions. Charisma and vision are important.
• D. China. Both initiating structure and consideration are important. There are status differences between
leaders and employees but participation is valued. Once again, charisma and vision are effective.
• It appears charisma and transformational leadership do generalize well across cultures but
more traditional leadership concepts are more variable.
 Henry Mintzberg’s Management
Roles
In engaging in Strategic Business Growth, Managers will have to identify which role they
would play in various instances when they deal with the employees. This enables better
communication with due consideration to cross-cultural communication needs.

Formal Authority and Status/ Power

Personal Characteristics and Skills
Cultural Background

Decisional Roles
Interpersonal Roles Informational Roles
Entrepreneur
Figurehead Monitor
Disturbance handler
Leader Disseminator
Resource Allocator
Liaison Spokesperson
Negotiator

13
 Henry Mintzberg’s Management
Roles contd.
Interpersonal roles arise directly from a manager's formal authority and concern relations with others.
Role Description
Figurehead Performs symbolic, representative
obligatory ceremonial, legal and
social duties.
Leader Creates the necessary culture and
structure to motivate employees
to achieve organizational goals.
Liaison Maintains a network of contacts
with those inside and outside own
unit or organization who provide
information and favours.
Examples
Greets visitors, presents
retirement gifts, signs contracts,
takes clients to lunch, opens
premises, attends annual dinners.
Increases productivity through
hiring, staffing, developing,
coaching, training and directing
employees. Provides challenging
assignments.
Attends staff and professional
meetings, lunches. Attends staff
and professional meetings, lunches
uses email and phone.
14
 Henry Mintzberg’s Management
Roles contd.
Informational roles concern how information is used in the manager's job, where it comes from and to whom it is
communicated.
Monitor Scans environment for information Questions subordinates and
to understand the working of own contacts, receives information from
organization and its environment. network contacts, reads business
magazines, talks to customers and
attends conferences.

Disseminator Transmits information received from Makes phone calls, sends emails,
outsiders to the members of own writes reports, holds meetings with
organization (intimal direction). bosses, peers and subordinates.

Spokesperson Transmits information to outsiders Gives press conferences; media

on organisation's views, policies, interviews; speeches to external
actions and results (external groups; prepares weekly status
direction). reports; conducts internal team
briefings.

15
 Henry Mintzberg’s Management
Roles contd.
Decisional roles: their requirements are determined by the manager's role, seniority and availability of information.
Entrepreneur Searches the organization and its
environment for new opportunities,
and initiates planned, voluntary
changes.
Disturbance handler Takes corrective action when
organization has to react to
important, involuntary, unexpected
changes.
Resource allocator Allocates resources to different
departments by making approval
decisions.
Negotiator Participates in sales or labour
negotiations. Resolves inter-
departmental arguments.
Develops new products, processes
and procedures; reorganizes
departments, and implements
innovative employee payment
systems.
Intervenes to avoid a strike, deals
with customer complaints, resolves
personal conflicts between staff.
Budgets, schedules, programmes,
assigns personnel, plans strategically,
determines manpower load, sets
targets.
Negotiates merger details, supplier
contracts, wage settlements and
internal disputes.
16
Cultural influences on Work Design

17
 Industrial Production

Industrial production can be broken down into 4 key stages:

• The birth of interchangeability/scientific management (early 19th century)
• Taylorism (end of the 19th century),
• Fordism (early 20th century),
• Toyotism (after 1945).

• Changing role of managers?

• Cultural influences?
18
 Taylorism by Frederick Winslow
Taylor

• Efficiency: by increasing the output by worker and reducing deliberate ‘underworking’ by employees.
• Predictability of job performance by standardizing tasks and dividing them in small, closely specified
subtasks.
• Control by establishing discipline through hierarchical authority and introducing a system whereby all
management’s policy decisions could be implemented.

To achieve these objectives, he implemented his five principles of scientific management (Taylor, 1911):
• A clear division of tasks and responsibilities between management and workers.
• Use of scientific methods to determine the best way of doing a job.
• Scientific selection of the person to do the newly designed job.
• The training of the selected worker to perform the job in the specified way.
• Surveillance of workers through the use of heirarchies of authority and close supervision.
19
 Fordism by Henry Ford

• Revolutionized techniques of mass

production by moving away from Taylor’s
analysis of individual production of work
objects to mechanization of the flow of
objects between workers for efficient
mass production.
• Key contributions;
 Systematic Analysis of jobs using the
time-and-motion techniques
 Installation of single-purpose machine
tools to manufacture standardized parts
 Introduction of mechanized assembly line
Henry Ford’s Assembly Line YouTube Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTZ3rJHHSik&
ab_channel=DanielL%C3%B3pezIglesias
20
 Towards Lean Working

• Era of Scientific Management only focused on better manufacturing and production processes which were
focused on the capital, machinery, tools and technology elements in production.
• Out of the factors of production, Labour that influences the business production was not given any
consideration.
• These manufacturing methods were considered as Lean Working Processes and have influenced the
operations of many companies over the years. Boeing aircraft manufacturing process and Toyota car
manufacturing process are some examples of this.

• Work force/ employees of an organization have a great impact on the business output.
As a Manager, it is important to understand the significance of the work force
in an organization.

21
 Lean Working
Plaudits
Offers employees skill acquisition
Expands workers’ skills repertoire
Provides more fulfilling jobs
Allows staff to initiate improvements
Encourages teamworking and multi-skilling
Facilitates job rotation
Promotes organizational learning
Facilitates continuous improvement
Empowers employees
Enlarges jobs
Source: based on Martin (2017); McCann et al. (2015); Carter et al (2011); Mehri (2006)
Criticisms
Leads to job deskilling
Narrows job definitions
Intensifies work
Reduces discretion and job autonomy
Produces narrow multi-tasking
Increases management's control over staff
Creates rigid standardization
Generates managerial bullying
Increases job strain and job stress
Increases supervisory surveillance
22
 McDonalization
McDonald’s has used both studies of Taylor and Ford and developed a process that worked
better for their business operation. This is termed as McDonalisation.
• Efficiency: Every aspect of the organization is geared towards the minimization of time. The
optimal production method. For McDonald’s customers, it is the fastest way to get from
hungry to full.
• Calculability: An emphasis on things being measurable. The company quantifies its sales,
while its customers calculate how much they are getting for their money. McDonaldization
promotes the notion that quantity is equivalent to quality, e.g. that a large amount of product
delivered quickly represents a quality product.
• Predictability: The provision of standardization, uniform products and services, irrespective of
time and location. So irrespective of whichever McDonald’s outlet you visit in the world, you
will receive the same product in the same manner.
• Control: Standardized and uniform employees perform a limited range of tasks in a precise,
detailed manner complemented by non-human technology which is used to replace them
whenever possible. 23
 Digital Taylorism

Work Fragmentation Worker Measurement

E.g.- Skilled and Unskilled/ Manual Performance of employees being
jobs, measured through use of
Administrative and professional jobs Performance Metrics and appraisals

Digital Taylorism
Employee Rewards Worker Punishment
Pay being decided in Based on under-performance of
proportion to the employee employees, uses strategies such as
‘rank-and-yank’ and ‘stack ranking’
performance

24
 Entrepreneurial Management and
Intercultural Communication

Cultural Cultural
Backgrounds Backgrounds

25
 Leavitt Diamond

Harold Leavitt (1965) has suggested that organisations can be viewed as complex systems which consist of 4
mutually interacting and interdependent variables; Organisational Objectives, Technology, People and
Organisational Structure. These are affected by the firm’s environment such as;
• Political situation
• Economic factors
• Social factors Culture
• Technology
• Environmental
• Legal factors
26
 Strategic Business Growth
Corporate strategy refers to the company aims and how the company intends to
achieve these aims. Whenever a company changes its strategy, it alters the other
variables including organization structure, people, processes and rewards. This is
seen in Jay Galbraith’s STAR Model given below (Galbraith, 2002; Kates and
Galbraith, 2010).

27
 Cultural Difference in International
Business

• By way of exploring these differences, we are briefly going to look

at 3 ways in which culture can cause challenges.
• These are:
1.Personal Challenges – the emotional challenges faced by
individuals.
2.Cognitive Challenges – the mental challenges faced by people.
3.Pragmatic challenges - the practical challenges faced by
business.
• Let’s explore these in more detail below.

29
 Personal Challenges

• When working in a multicultural environment or with another culture,

the personal challenges can be many.
• When we come across cultural differences and are unable to
recognise and deal with them, our responses are emotional. This can
have a detrimental impact on many factors including a sense of well-
being and confidence.
• Anxiety and stress are common reactions for people new to working
in a foreign culture. When people find themselves confronted with
difference, they feel challenged and therefore build mental walls to
help them cope. These walls, more often than not, do more harm
than good. 30
 Personal Challenges

• For example, decision making may be impaired or people may

withdraw from others, creating even more distance between
themselves and a solution.
• Symptoms may also be physical, with people experiencing headaches,
migraines, exhaustion and burnout.
• The ‘Culture Shock’ experienced by many expatriates who move
abroad is a very good example of how cultural differences affect
professionals on a personal level. Not being able to manage cultural
differences is a common reason cited for failed international business
assignments.
31
 Personal Challenges

• The Business Culture Complexity Index™ ranks the top 50 economies

of the world according to the potential complexity or ease of their
business cultures.
• Which country do you think is the most complex?
• Business Culture Complexity Index™ 

32
 Cognitive Challenges

• Working with people from different cultures can present considerable cognitive challenges.
• Cognitive challenges relate to how we think, process information and essentially how we view
the world.
• When we come up against a foreign culture, this can cause us real problems, especially if we fail
to recognise differences and adapt.
• Two simple examples of this are the concepts of time and relationships.
• Some cultures place a high value on time, others don’t. If you come from a culture in which
‘time is money’ and you find yourself working with a culture in which it isn’t, your cultural
norms can result in you making bad decisions.
• Time conscious professionals can see lateness in other cultures as unprofessional or even
disrespectful. They don’t appreciate that in the culture they are working with punctuality is a
much more nuanced concept.
• In reverse, those cultures that are a lot more flexible with their approach to time can see the
time-conscious professionals as rigid and materialistic, which ties in with the value given to
relationships. 35
 Cognitive Challenges

• In some cultures, it's relationships before business whereas in others, business first.
Usually, those cultures that are time conscious are less relationship orientated.
• Now, what happens when you have a professional from a very task-orientated culture
visit a client or colleague from a very relationship-focused culture?
• Yes, they can see each other’s priorities incorrectly, i.e. the relationship-driven culture
sees the task-driven culture as impersonal, unfriendly and disinterested, whereas the
task-driven culture is seen as not taking business serious enough, spending too much
time on small talk and breaching the line between personal and professional matters.
• The result is a sort of cognitive dissonance – both sides are looking at one another
through their own Cultural Lens which means they are interpreting behaviours
incorrectly and attributing erroneous meaning to them.
• This can happen at many levels, whether we are talking about a general approach to
business or in the more specific areas such as how we communicate, manage 36
hierarchy and conduct negotiations.
 Practical Challenges

• Doing business with people from different cultures can also affect the more
practical aspects of work.
• Whether we realise it or not, we have all been conditioned by our cultures to
approach work and the practicalities of business in specific ways.
• All of us have specific ideas as to what is the good or bad way to conduct a job
interview, give a presentation or handle a customer complaint.
• Many of these do not necessarily translate into other cultures, which can cause
challenges.
• For example, the simple act of eye contact can cause several practical challenges.
What happens when you have a culture that sees eye contact as a sign of
confidence and engagement interact with one that sees eye contact as rude? If
the two parties are unaware of this there can be several consequences such as a
lack of trust, poor communication, a failed job interview or a confusing meeting.
37
 Practical Challenges

• Management is another good example of where we see differing cultural

expectations cause challenges in the workplace.
• What happens when you have a manager who is used to a more hands-off
leadership style, whereby they leave their team to their job, come into a country
where the management style is much more authoritative and directive?
• They can come across as weak and unqualified.
• And if it is was the other way around, the manager would be seen as a control
freak who doesn’t trust their team to do anything.
• The result can be very messy. In Iraq a few years ago 
a foreign expat manager actually managed to cause a riot and get himse
lf beaten up
 due to not understanding local ways.

38
 Cultural Differences in Business

• So, as we can see culture can affect international business in many

ways.
• In essence, when you have two or more differing views, opinions,
assumptions or presumptions come together, the result can be
negative due to a lack of understanding between the two.
• This is why cultural awareness is so important.
• The more aware you are of your own culture and the effect it has on
you, the more aware you will become of how culture affects others
and what you can do about it.

39
 Cultural misunderstandings
•Relations have been going well and the Chinese have been invited for a factory tour in anticipation of the
contract between the two companies finally being signed.
•The evening after the tour, the Americans host the Chinese delegation for a dinner at a local restaurant.
•Upon entering the restaurant, the head of the Chinese delegation is greeted by a junior member of the US
team. He asks where he should sit, to which he is told to, “sit where you like”.
•The next day the Chinese delegation left the USA without signing any contract. Days later the US team
received word that the Chinese felt humiliated and were reconsidering the business relationship.
•So, what happened?
•Well the cultural misunderstanding comes down to a few things. In Chinese culture, hierarchy is really
important, whereas in American culture, it's more about equality and displays of hierarchy aren’t culturally
comfortable.
•So, when the head of the Chinese delegation was only greeted by a junior member of the team, rather than
the most senior, he immediately felt a loss of face.
•To add insult to injury he was then told to ‘sit anywhere’ – when, ideally, he should have been given the seat
at the head of the table next to the most senior member of the US team. In Chinese culture, people tend to
hide their feelings. For this reason, the team did not say anything at the time. 
•The US team had to work hard to repair the damage. This cultural misunderstanding led to an 8-month 40
delay
 Cultural misunderstandings

• This individual really struggles to understand the British. For example, when they prepare a
report or a presentation and show it to their manager for feedback they are told, “it’s fine”.
• However, after handing in the report or making the presentation they discover the manager is not
pleased as things are missing.
• They can’t understand why they are being told something is fine, to only find out later, it is not
fine. This along with other communication challenges is really bothering the Dutch national.
• So, what’s going on here?
• Well, it’s all about how different cultures communicate. The Dutch are used to being open,
frank and honest when giving opinions. If you say something is ‘fine’, then it’s fine.
• In the UK however, the British communication culture is very different. You need to listen to
much more than the words in the UK. People say one thing but mean another. Saying something
is “fine” in the UK really means it is not fine – it’s the exact opposite.
• Among Brits, they understand what ‘fine’ means – it means it’s 'not good enough' and that
changes need to be made. The Dutch national however took the meaning literally – big mistake!41
 Cultural misunderstandings
• Within a very short time, the Thai nationals in the office were not very impressed with
their new addition. Complaints were being made against him for inappropriate behaviour.
• Most notably many of the Thais said he was rude to them. He was being given the cold
shoulder by his Thai colleagues and not feeling welcome.
• So, what went wrong?
• In this example of a cultural misunderstanding, the Australian was trying to make friends
through humour. He would make jokes about his Thai colleagues in front of other people.
Now in Australia this is an acceptable way of making friends.
• ‘Banter’ between colleagues is normal and people will make jokes about one another as a
means of showing friendliness.
• In Thailand however, this simply does not translate. You don’t make jokes about people in
front of others, especially work colleagues. As a result of his behaviour, all the Thais in the
office thought that the Australian was extremely rude and insensitive; in fact, he was just
trying to be friendly. 42
 Cultural Misunderstandings and
Values
• As we see in all three examples of cultural misunderstandings, both sides
have not understood that their culture, and their way of doing things, doesn’t
work in the new culture.
• Much of this comes down to values and how cultures are shaped by the
values they prioritise.
• For example, the Chinese value hierarchy whereas the Americans value
equality. The Dutch value transparency whereas the Brits value subtlety and
diplomacy.
• The Thais value face, reputation and formality whereas the Australians value
humour, friendship and a much more informal approach to business.
• All cultures prioritise different values and a lot of the time when we see 43
Any questions?
Thank You