Masters Level assignment IB3

IBLP3Instructions

This assignment will assess competencies 3. Develop effective cross-cultural communications and negotiation skills to be used in a multinational setting and  4. Develop strategy formulation and implementation for management in multicultural organizations. 

Directions

We will continue to work on the due diligence analyses of the three countries chosen in LP1. For each of your chosen countries, you will write up an analysis of the impact of communications and negotiations with the U.S. while doing business. Your analysis will be based on chapters 7 and 8 of your text, and information from websites and other research. You should also address the strategy you would chose to enter each country and explain your rationale. Also discuss any areas of concern you may encounter with your business dealings with each of your countries. You will follow APA (6the edition) formatting (no abstract is required for this milestone) with title and reference pages, indented paragraphs and a minimum of four APA formatted references and associated in-text citations.  This information, and that of the following LPs, will become part of your final project artifact.

FOR REFERENCE ONLY: This is the Previous Assignment with three countries (these are the ones that should be used in above assignment):

Role of Culture and Diversity in Management of Multicultural Organizations

Effectiveness is an important attribute for an organization or country, particularly in the current era of globalization. The leadership of institutions therefore needs to be more effective in their endeavors such as reducing costs and time wastage. Recognizing the need for diversity in workplace is a value that is required to be portrayed in today’s leaders (Diller, 2013). The globalization process that is experienced in the social, political, and economic dimensions has significantly led to increased interpersonal cross-cultural contact. In particular, intensified internationalization in economic dimensions has been facilitated through joint ventures and alliances, which have also included cross-border acquisitions and mergers (Diller, 2013). This paper discussed the role of culture and diversity on the management of multicultural organizations, with much focus on Canada, China, and South Africa as developed, emerging, and developing countries respectively. Moreover, the discussions will be based on the cultural dimension theories of Geert Hofstede, Fons Trompenaars, and the Globe Project.

Canada as a Developed Country

Diversity and culture have played a crucial role in the formative history of Canada. Indeed, Canada’s foreign-born citizens boast the highest percentage than that of any other G8 country. In 2012, the country received record 257,515 immigrants for seven years in a row. Through its flexible immigration policy, the country has developed a society of mixed and diverse cultures, languages, and religions (Mathur et al., 2011). The immigrants compose over 20 percent of the country’s total population, which is the highest proportion recorded among the G8 countries. As at 2011, Canada reported over 200 ethnic origins habiting in most of the country’s largest urban centers. Although the country uses English and French as the two official languages, there are more than 200 languages spoken in the country (Mathur et al., 2011).

The diversity and culture in Canada is expected to intensify significantly in the next two decades particularly in the marge metropolitan cities. Statistics reveal that by 2031, 29 to 32 percent of the country’s total population will belong to a specific minority group, and 25 to 28 percent of the population will be foreign-born (Mathur et al., 2011). The diversity in Canada extends beyond ethnicity and race but spans sexual orientation, religious affiliations, gender, language, abilities, and economic status. The labor market in the country has largely benefited from the diversity. Most of organizations in the country have made significant strides in ensuring that their employees represent the diverse Canadian population. Canada is currently having the best Diversity employer for the past seven years, and these employers have developed exceptional diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Diversity in the workplace has been grounded on groups of employees such as persons with disabilities, visible minorities, women, and aboriginal people, and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people (Mathur et al., 2011).

The social, economic, and political success enjoyed by Canada can be attributed to the leadership style adopted by the country. The leadership has embraced diversity as a tool for reaching national cohesion and integration, which provides a strong foundation for economic growth and development. This can be explained through Geert Hofstede, Fons Trompenaars and the Globe Project. According to Geert Hofstede, culture is simply the way of thinking, acting, or feeling of a group of humans. In this regard, Hofstede explains the source of differences manifested in human behaviors, and how this can cause problems to human coexistence (Hofstede, 2010). For purposes of explaining and solving problems that arise when people of diversified cultures can harmoniously coexist, he devised five factors of cultural differentiation. These include collectivism/ individualism, feminism/ masculinist, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and long term/short term orientation. These criteria are effective in explaining the distinction that exists between individuals and nations. They are applicable in all countries in the world (Hofstede, 2010).

Canada has a low power distance index, which implies that the society has tremendously reduced the differences between the wealth and power of its citizens. In Canada, the population expects power relations that are more democratic, an attribute that the government has satisfactorily executed. The individuals in the country relate to others well regardless of their formal positions. The country also thrives on the cultural dimensions of collectivism, high uncertainty avoidance index, and long-term orientation (Hofstede, 2010). This means that Canada has a rule-oriented society, whereby the people have great preference to explicit controls, laws, and rules as a way of reducing the amount of uncertainty. The uncompromised diversity experienced in the country is an indication that the society attaches great importance to future oriented perspective as opposed to short-term perceptions. The management style in Canada is participative and individuals are involved in decision making in teams.

China as an Emerging Country

China is one of the fastest growing countries in terms of economic prosperity and supremacy. However, this growth has been encountered despite the large diversity manifested in the country. Although China’s territory is as big as the one in United States, there are approximately 56 ethnic groups that are recognized by the Chinese government. Most of these ethnic groups possess their own language, indicating that there is too much diversity in language (Cao & Wang, 2010). The country’s physical geography is also diverse as it ranges from plateaus to low plains and from deserts to rain forests, implying that the people living in the various physical locations of the country have diverse cultures. However, religious diversity is not prominent in the country since large section of the population does not practice any religious practices, with some people practicing Taoism, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam (Cao & Wang, 2010).

Diversity in China is also exhibited in their meals. In United States, restaurants in different locations can make cheeseburgers that are almost identical to each other, an attribute that is different in China. In this regard, Chinese food is categorized on various styles on the basis of the type of food and how it is cooked. These styles include Lu Style, Sichuan Style, Huia-Yang Style, and Canton Style among others (Cao & Wang, 2010). The country is also diversified in terms of economy, where individuals living in rural areas have much worse life standards relative to those in urban areas. The provinces in the east usually register a higher GDP per capital compared to those in the west.

China’s situation in diversity best fits in the GLOBE Project, which developed a set of culturally endorsed leadership theory dimensions. These dimensions have an ultimate objective of realizing team’s statistical grouping of leadership aspects into common dimensions. In other words, the dimensions act as a summary of indices of the skills, abilities, and characteristics that are culturally perceived to contribute to, or inhibit, and outstanding leadership (Trompenaars & Voerman, 2009). The country dwells on charismatic or value-based cultural diversity whereby the leadership reflects the ability to motivate, inspire, and expect high performance results from others based on core values that are firmly held. The country believes in the power of transformational leadership, which seeks to inspire commitment and devotion for the realization of the country’s short-term and long-term goals and objectives.

The cultural diversity in China is consistent with the GLOBAL project’s dimension of Team-oriented. In this regard, the country’s leadership believes in effective team building as well as implementation of a common goal or purpose across its population. The team-oriented dimension is statistically related to the primary leadership goals of diplomatic, team integrator, collaborative team orientation, administrative competence, and reverse scored malevolence. Moreover, the GLOBAL dimension of participative has gained much relevance in China’s pursuit of economic growth (Chhokar et al., 2013). This is because many organization involve all its employees in making and implementing decisions. Unlike China, United States has, however, thrived on the participative dimension despite it being a single culture. The participative leadership in United States and China has contributed to positive performance of employees, which has translated to organizational and country’s growth (Chhokar et al., 2013).

China’s cultural diversity can also be explained on the basis of the Fons Trompenaars theory of cultural diversity and communication. According to Trompenaars, culture is the way humans come together to solve the problems affecting them (Trompenaars & Voerman, 2009). As a result, he devised seven dimensions of cultural differentiations, which include individualism/communitarianism, universalism/particularism, affective/neutral, achievement/ascription, specific/diffuse, internal/external control, and sequential/synchronic. These criteria of cultural differentiation have had a large positive impact on the management trends in China. Based on these cultural dimensions, China has effectively managed complexity in the heterogeneous environment, which is a serious challenge that is faced by many countries, international managers, and corporate leaders (Chhokar et al., 2013). Using the Trompenaars’s dimensions of cultural diversity, most of the cultural differences in China have been reconciled, an attribute that has given the country a competitive advantage in the global economy. China adopts participative management style whereby the primary objective is to build a consensus and commitment among organizations.

South Africa as a Developing Country

South Africa is one of the countries that has high ethnic diversity, and possesses 11 languages that are documented in the country’s constitution as official languages. The country’s melting point of cultures comes as a surprise to many visitors, with the country hosting a fascinating mix of citizens. Apart from Africans, the country also hosts European people, as well as people of mixed races and others of Asian descent (Seekings, 2008). As a result of this diversity, there are numerous hybrid mixtures of different cultures whereby the people believe that, regardless of their individual cultural heritage, they are, at heart, proud South Africans. Politically, the country’s democracy has been evolving over the years, whereby it has become more integrated despite the diversity, and the country perceives cultural diversity as a strong asset to its growth.

South Africa’s diversity is manifested in such attributes as food, music, and fashion among others. The country’s fashion is one of the most creative forms of expression and source of pride for the country as it portrays the country’s diversified culture. In South Africa, Western trends and African heritage interact, something which has earned the country a great depth of culture and history that is unsurpassable and untainted. The country has even established cultural heritage sites, which are enough evidence that the country embraces and treasures cultural diversity as a crucial source for its social, political, and economic growth and development (Seekings, 2008).

The cultural diversity exhibited in South Africa as a developing country can be described using the GLOBE model. This model seeks to establish a long-term programmatic research effort that is designed to identify the complex and fascinating effects of culture on economic competitiveness of societies, organizational effectiveness, leadership, and human condition of the members of the societies (Hofstede, 2010). This model seeks to increase the knowledge that is available regarding cross-cultural interactions. In this model, the cultural diversity dimensions that are consistent with South Africa’s scenario include institutional collectivism, assertiveness, performance orientation, future orientation, and humane orientation (Hofstede, 2010).

In humane orientation, for instance, the country has invested in ensuring a supportive and considerate leadership, which includes generosity and compassion among its citizens. In this regard, the leadership ensures that performance is undertaken with modesty and humane orientation. The leadership also focuses on security and safety of its individuals and group members. The leadership style is status conscious, self-centered, conflict-inducer, procedural, and face-saver (Hofstede, 2010). The country adopts an affiliative leadership style whereby individual’s ideas are prioritized.

Conclusion

From the cultural diversity discussion for Canada, China, and South Africa, all the countries offer a good opportunity for business establishment. This is because the countries embrace cultural diversity, which is crucial in facilitating business growth. The global leadership requires specific skills that determine the success of multicultural organizations. This is because the global leadership involves management of businesses across borders where there are different economic, cultural, and legal systems (Chhokar et al., 2013). The most critical skills for current global leadership are inquisitiveness, ability to deal with multiple perspectives and ambiguity, frame-shifting, ability to adapt and add value, and capable of creating business models depending on social, political, and economic environment. Below is the chart comparing the three countries with the United States.