Mgmt

Globalization (Fox, Hundley, 2011), Cosmopolitanism (Woodward et al., 2008), and Global Citizenship (Hughes, et, al., 2019) become a widely dominant trends that countries, economies and organizations pursue to grow and expand its practices and businesses worldwide, as well to connect people from different cultural backgrounds by building a distinguished yet integrated culture, political and economic synergy (Fox, Hundley, 2011).

The extensive movement toward corporate globalization, where they seek to expand overseas to get their products manufactured and distributed, and their services delivered across the entire world, it becomes a necessity to adapt the leadership, which is complicated process involves leaders, followers and situations, to this new era of communication that takes place between different people who come along from various cultural backgrounds, and to develop the global leaders who are qualified to lead their organizations successfully in such nowadays tough global competition (Hughes, et., al, 2019).

Leading across cultures is a global trend that influence the communication between individuals, and impact the organizational success and progress worldwide, as the global leaders are those who gained their experience over the time by dealing with followers coming from different cultures, and who are highly competent in leading international organizations, and able to resolve the conflicts that arise at the workplace, due to the common misunderstanding that usually happens when various cultures are involved in one place (Hughes, et., al, 2019).

This report aims to explore recent trends in cross-cultural communication and frameworks that demonstrate the cultural differences between countries, which are commonly used by organizations to understand its staff, so it can transcend the barriers and challenges of building effective interpersonal connections between executives, leaders and staff or followers, and its managerial implications on the organizational success.

The followed case-study of Huawei Co. and the way they lead their personnel from domestic Chinese marketplace to global span, especially within US. intensively competitive markets, considers a real-life story that will definitely inspire future leaders and multinational companies to transfer their leadership experience toward sustainability and growth.

Basically, this report deals with the current trends of cross-cultural communication and frameworks of cross-cultural differences, that generally explores the western culture of USA and Chinese culture, however this report doesn’t touch the implications of cross-cultural differences in the third world countries and the Middle-East, where they are still arrear in achieving such advancements of cross-cultural communication, although the multi-national corporations in Arab countries might achieve slight returns, but it’s almost due to the organizational culture of the parent companies where it’s originally initiated.

Nowadays, as the world becomes smaller and the large companies tend to compete internationally and expand their business outside their national borders, the leadership adopt a completely different trends in leading and communicating virtually with their staff, who resides across the world, and has different cultural backgrounds rather than traditional ways of leading face-to-face (Hughes, et, al., 2019).

As the leadership experiences a significant transitions, where leaders nowadays are widely using the emails, internal blogs and bulletin-boards, shared files, fax-mails to facilitate the dissemination of information and directions (Zornić, et, al., 2011), also other tools that are recently emerged for video- conferencing, like MS-Teams and Zoom internet applications, which strengthen leader- followers rapport, and in returns enhance the sense of integrated organizational culture and citizenship behavior of all organization’ staff no matter their personal background, which consequently result of high standard of performance and achievements (Gupta, 2010).

E-Leadership (Mohammad, 2009) becomes the definite consequences of digital information, and e-business evolutions, so the adequate knowledge to effectively use the tools to virtually connect across national boundaries becomes a must-acquired skill for all global leaders, in which to enhance the leaders’ responsiveness to the world’s variables, instead of spending long time thinking and reacting to the everyday global changes.

Fundamentally, the leaders should have key competencies to adapt to the current new era of communication either face-to-face or virtually with their diversified teams, as it’s recommended that leaders should be bi-lingual (Hughes, et, al., 2019) as the language one of the most important tools of communication, also the leader should be knowledgeable about the etiquette (Okoro, 2012), and non-verbal gestures of different cultures when he/she deals with team members from different cultural backgrounds for effective communication, and to avoid the common misunderstandings that might lead to conflicts (Hughes, et, al., 2019), also for the leader is expected to master the negotiations with his/her organization global stakeholders and decision-making partners, due to the increasing business competitiveness and rising alliances between companies across the world (Okoro, 2012).

The organizations top management are ought to ensure the employees continuous learning and development, and they cope up with the new trends of cross-cultural communication trends similarly as their leaders, who are supposed to motivate his/her team members to develop their interpersonal skills and global favorable etiquette of communication with their peers (Chew, Horwitz, 2004).

Substantially, it’s important to show a glimpse of an important models of cross-cultural communication, that help engaging everyone and strengthen their communication patterns, which include cultural Iceberg model that implies part of individuals’ culture is displayed - above the water - like education and skills and the bottom part is implicit – under the water – like values, beliefs, behavior and perceptions (Petty, 2019).

In addition, two models that are commonly used in healthcare field as it considers one of the most critical fields of services that deals with patients from across the world who need special kind of medical practitioners’ care, consideration and emotional intelligence (Mikolajczak, et, al., 2007), which are “R.E.S.P.E.C.T” and “L.E.A.R.N” Models.

Regarding “R.E.S.P.E.C.T” model used by the medical practitioner who works in diverse communities, it refers to Rapport as connection with patient, Empathy as being considerate to his illness, Support as overcoming the barriers of communication, Partnership of finding best way of curing the patient, Explanations as frequent using of verbal confirmation of delivering the correct information, cultural competence as respecting the patients’ cultural background and to establish the Trust (Welch, M., 1998).

Moreover, concerning “L.E.A.R.N” Model (Berlin, Fowkes, 1983), it is recommended by Canadian Paediatric Society for Children Healthcare, so the medical practitioners are required to be good Listener and empathetic, clearly Explain the problem, Acknowledge the different perspectives, Recommend the best treatment and Negotiate the process of medical treatment agreement (Ladha, et, al., 2018).

Therefore, due to the tendency toward the globalization, massive immigration, open market competitiveness and major alliances between companies across the world, also overseas expansions of multinational corporations MNCs, where the management and leaders deal with personnel and teams from different cultural backgrounds, who have different languages, norms, values and perceptions; all of these oblige the companies’ executives and leaders to adopt new skills and trends, to transcend the common misunderstandings, in order to achieve successful cross-cultural communication, inclusion and blending them into unified organizational culture which lead to potential future growth for the organizations.

This part of the report includes a brief outlook of known frameworks that are used to figure out the cross-cultural differences, which assist leaders to clearly identify the cultural dimensions of their diversified teams, and to acknowledge the best way of effective communication, it includes “Hofstede’s” framework, “GLOBE” project and “7d Culture model”.

According to the modern and North American cultures, they score low or moderate in “uncertainty avoidance” means that they appreciate risk and work on long-term plans, also low to moderate in the “long-term orientation” as north Americans tend to continuously searching for their best new opportunity and progress at their workplace but relatively committed depending on the personal benefits, also for “masculinity” and “power distance” they score low to moderate, as this culture still have sense of masculinity, but they tend to legitimize the path to gender equality, in addition they tend to build organic and flat organizations with less hierarchical structures of management, as well as the north Americans are more toward “individualistic” cultures which considers the personal achievement over the team mentalities, self-worth and independence (Hofstede, 2003).

Consequently, leadership in an open communities is different and difficult, where it includes immigrants, workers and professionals from the entire world, so leaders are supposed to understand and assess the cultural differences of their team members and subordinates, which definitely affect their behavior with their leaders, peers, so the employees feel inclusive in achieving the overall organizational objective.

The “GLOBE” project concluded the studies by clear identification of nine cultural dimensions that clearly distinguish one country from the other, and 6 leadership dimensions that indicate the favorable qualities of leaders but with consideration of different cultural profiles.

The “GLOBE Cultural Dimensions” to describe the cultural characteristics are:

· “Performance Orientation”: motivate performance improvements and excellence.

· “Assertiveness Orientation”: value direct, confronting and aggressive relationships.

· “Future Orientation”: seek long-term plans and investments.

· “Humane Orientation”: reward the sense of being fair, caring, generous and friendly.

· “Institutional Collectivism”: reward the cooperative performance and achievements.

· “In-group Collectivism”: motivate commitment, loyalty and cohesion within teams.

· “Gender Egalitarianism”: value the gender equality in positions and decisions.

· “Power Distance”: power is centralized and followers are obedient.

· “Uncertainty Avoidance”: value following rules, structured and consistent lifestyles.

Then, “GLOBE” studies explored the impact of these cultural dimensions on the leadership and institutional functions within each culture (Javidan, Dastmalchian, 2009), so the Leadership qualities that are entitled to different cultures, and it included “Charismatic or Value based leader” who tend to be visionary, inspirational, risk taker sincere, decisive, intuitive and performance oriented, “Team oriented leader” who is collaborative, communicative, and diplomatic; however the “Self-Protective leader” who is self-centered, competitor, indirect and cautious, in contrary the “Participative leader” who is not autocratic or bossy, motivate the delegation and empowerment, and for “Humane Orientation leader” who is generous, kind and empathetic, finally the for the “Autonomous leader” who is independent and individualistic-oriented.

Although, the “GLOBE” project identified the favorable traits of successful global leaders, who deal with diversified teams, but it also mentioned that some of qualities are preferred to be adopted for certain countries and others for different countries, as for the manager who works in two different countries but with the same cultural profiles such as Australia and Singapore are likely to easily recognize the similarities between both teams cultures and figure out the differences, so he/she can work on strengthening their communication and relationships (Javidan, Dastmalchian, 2009).

“7d Culture Model” illustrates a special orientation of interpreting the people’s relationships as they differ in their cultures, and explains the pathways to overcome the challenges happen due to this differences, which also vary depend on the culture, people and situations (Sales, C.2006).

First, the five dimensions of “7d Culture model”, that deal and control human relationships within a certain culture are based on:

· “Universal versus Particularism”: general standards or individualized basis.

· “Collectivism versus Individualism”: group versus individual norms.

· “Neutral versus Affective”: revealed or hidden feelings.

· “Diffuse versus Specific”: commonly collaborative or in particular issues.

· “Achievement versus Ascription”: value the performance or position.

Those five dimensions are likely to dive deep into the human characteristics of each society, so it is easy to identify the proper way of communication with its people (Sales, C.2006).

Here are the remaining two dimensions of “7d model” concerning about how a specific society’s or country’s culture deal with time and the changing nature of the world, which are (Sales, C.2006):

· “Past, Present, Future, or Mixture”: the modernity level of the society’s culture.

· “Control of versus Accommodation with nature”: the adaptability of the society’s culture.

The last two dimensions are likely to point out the difference between the modern culture like North America which is adaptable and advancing forward speedily, and eastern culture in the developing countries, that is rigid and slowly progressing, which also describe the status-quo of their extremely different nations.

At this point, the leader of diversified or international teams is ought to identify the cultural dimensions and differences of his/her followers, through employing either “Hofstede’s Framework for Assessing Cultures and GLOBE project or 7d Culture Model”, in order to figure out the appropriate skills and qualities needed to effectively communicate, and avoid the misunderstandings that might lead to conflicts amongst team members.

According to the research studied the conflicts that are encountered in MNCs (Mba, 2015), due to the cross cultural differences, it concluded that “Language, Non-Verbal Gestures”, “High-Context Cultures” who are indirect and hold implicit feelings and perceptions like China VERSUS “Low-Context Cultures” who are direct, individualistic and facts-oriented like USA, as well the power distance factor , they considered the main important differences that influence the effectiveness of cross-cultural communication (Mba, 2015).

In that instance, it is critically important to point out range of solutions recommended here in this study (Mba, 2015), that can be generally applied to these cross- cultural conflicts in MNCs, such as spreading and emphasizing the knowledge of the organizational culture within organization and among the staff, recruiting the highly skilled leaders who have adequate interpersonal skills and gained their professional experience outside their home countries, and most importantly organizations need to explore the cultural differences internally through reinforcing the theoretical frameworks (previously mentioned) of assessing cultures like “Hofstede’s” to properly understand the dimensions of its human resource.

Definitely, it is necessary to highlight a real-life example of MNC (Multi-National Corporation) like Huawei, which went global from domestic China’s market, and currently it is a giant telecommunication company operates across the world.

Huawei leadership was able to properly identifying the cultural differences between its original culture and others’, so that it was clear what is the perfect way to penetrate the global market, through effectively implementing the modern trends of cross-cultural communication, which elevated its potential to achieve its dramatic growth over the recent years, and hereunder the success story of Huawei from “London Business School Articles”.

Huawei founder is “Ren Zhengfei” has an exceptional philosophy of leading his people, he always thinks that his company’s human resource are the most important pillar, so the employees become his success partner by owning more than 95% of Huawei’s stock in the stock exchange market, he also has broader-focused strategy in developing the employees, through equipping them with different languages, skills, etiquette and global standards of health and safety procedures, to be able to compete outside the Chinese borders, unlike most Chinese company does not motivate its employees to step out and discover the world.

Huawei founder had a persistent dream of going global, so he always focused to grow regionally at first by developing the company’s devices to meet the global criteria; as well he believed that his staff had the similar vision to go international and conquer the world.

Zhengfei’s Objective: going global to reinforce Huawei’s existence and accelerate its growth worldwide.

Zhengfei’s Strategy: once he decided to proceed his first move toward global markets, so he involved all the company’s leaders and employees (Participative Leader) in this decision, as they are considered Huawei’s biggest asset, so his first mission was to create a global leadership that on the world-class standards, who are able to function virtually (E-Leadership) and on field, so they can overcome the challenges of cultural differences that might impact on the organizational financial performance and goals accomplishment.

Zhengfei’s Tactic: included sending the company’s frontline leaders to their field offices across the world to inspect the possibilities in the new countries, and assess the cultural differences in a way that improve the efficiency of serving the prospect customers, as well as aligning the Chinese culture of the parent company’s staff with the other western cultural perspectives to avoid the probable effects of Chinese style at the workplace.

Huawei Achievement: developing value-driven leaders, who are focusing mainly on achieving customers satisfaction across the world.

Results’ evaluation: Huawei leaders were able to integrate the western individualism-based cultures to serve the its collective ambition, through emphasizing the value of crossing the cultural differences, to be able to compete successfully in the world’s marketplace.

Although, Huawei achieved remarkable leap for its growth and in the telecommunication industry across the world, but it can move vigorously toward the future, through accurately identifying the difference between its employees’ cultural values and the others’, through effective implementation of theoretical concepts of cultural differences, as China is always described as a high-context culture who are indirect, conservative and emotional, however USA is defined as a low- context culture who are direct, individualistic and factualists.

Moreover, based on “Hofstede’s” framework to assess the cultural dimensions of societies and corporate settings, China is characterized by high in power distance as authority is centered in the upper hand of the organization, also collectivism which focuses on the group values and orientation, also masculinity is dominated in Chinese communities and decision making-process, and they score high in uncertainty avoidance where they do not favor taking risks, as well as they tend to build long relationships on personal and professional levels as they score high in long-term orientation (China, 2015).

Whilst, USA is inversely oriented toward individualism, low power distance, value the femininity, high in short-term orientation, low in uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede, 2003).

Hence, this set of differences between the two opposite cultural dimensions of both societies implies that China business leaders should firstly think of the possible pathways to bridge to the other, as they should believe that their company’s success based on their individual comprehension and performance of building effective communication channels with others, through the effective implementation of recent trends that strengthen the cross-cultural communication, as the organizations’ leaders should be bi-lingual to work with diversified team , flexible in flatter organizations, emotionally intelligent, with high adaptability level to the global business needs.

This report considers a detailed study of cross-cultural communication recent trends, which deal with the barriers of effective communication between diversified teams and leaders, as well as for proper understanding of the cultural differences between various societies or countries, it was important to highlight the common frameworks that include distinguished yet comprehensive perspective of these cultural differences, such model like “Hofstede’s” framework of assessing cultural dimensions of societies, “GLOBE” project and “7d Culture” model.

In fact, within the recent decades it started a massive movement toward globalization, as corporates tend to expand internationally and reinforce its identity through global presence, hence it was important to research the previous studies investigated how these cultural differences between the parent company and its international affiliates might impact the business performance and its sustainability, also the feasible ways to integrate all different cultures into inclusive united one, in order to build the global citizenship for all levels.

Finally, for perfect concepts integration with the facts, the example of Huawei as a role model corporation, and its founder Zhengfei was the ideal leader with definite strategy and tactics, who motivated his team to implement it, and adopting the recent global trends of leadership, in order to achieve its dream of expanding beyond the regional borders.

Huawei was able to effectively build the bridges to transcend the difference between its original Chinese and western cultures, which considered the main significant factor of achieving its consistent progress over the years, however set of recommendations are combined to leverage its performance for achieving better results.