Today the business world is becoming global. The interaction between countries and ventures, all around the world. Multinational companies have never been this important or powerful. Because of the augmentation of the interaction between different nationalities different cultures, people are being more and more influenced by other cultures.
"greater openness of national societies and cultures signifies eo ipso an enrichment in the sense of greater cultural diversity... the whole population of a nation/state (or any territorial community) comes into contact with other cultures and adopts them" Globalization and Europe, Zdravko Mlinar and Franc Treck, Chapter 5, pages 77-78. It is very difficult to define the culture that people belong to because they are influenced by many different sources. In order to study the advantages of cultural diversity, we would face the difficulty of defining the word "Culture". That term is often used to speak of many things which are totally different. It is difficult define it because of it multiple meanings.
[...] Femininity is a situation in which the dominant values in society are caring for others and quality of life.” We may consider the United States, Japan, or Great Britain as masculine countries and Norway or France as feminine countries. All of these dimensions are essential in order to perfectly know the culture of a worker and a well managed team. Thanks to this analysis, manager of culturally diverse workplaces are able to adapt their team better and avoid troubles between team members. [...]
[...] firms expand their sales into foreign markets, locate production facilities abroad, and search the world for the most productive and talented employees, they are increasingly challenged by the cultural differences among countries and among the people with whom they do business.” Ricky W. Griffin and Michael W. Putsay, International business, second edition, chapter 9 page 326 One of the major problems is the communication. The culturally diverse workplace permits one to be closer to the market, to be aware of the different cultures, but it also engender communication troubles between different cultures. Something seen as normal in a country may be impolite or offensive in another one. [...]
[...] The MBI model is a good issue for manager in a culturally diverse workplace because it analyzes the different culture and then overcomes the difficulties. So, with this model, “Differences create value and we value the differences. The result is High performance.” This MBI model is extract from International management behavior, from Henry W. Lane, Joseph J. Distefano, and Martha L. Maznevski. Conclusion To conclude this essay, the most important thing to remember is that in a global business world such as the one we are living in, cultural diversity may be a major advantage for a firm if she manages it well. [...]
[...] Participation in international taskforces and teams can increase a manager's awareness of differing national attitudes towards such matters as the recording of decisions, humor, status, dress, punctuality, entertainment and team work itself.” Colin Coulson-Thomas, Creating the global company, Chapter 8 page 210 and 211 Cultural gap is the main trouble an international corporation may be faced with. We may define it as an important difference between people, due to their differences of roots, education or culture in general. As defined in many books like International management, building cross-cultural competence, or Organizational behavior, the sensitive point which engendered cultural gap are the followings attitudes to: communication, nonverbal communication, gift giving and hospitability, religion, values, time, age, age, and education. [...]
[...] Advantages of a culturally diverse workplace “Internationalization can result for the first time in a need to work more closely with those of different cultural background.” Colin Coulson-Thomas, Creating the global company, Chapter 8 page 194. Source of competitiveness in global business In a global business world, to build a culturally diverse workplace is a key to success for a Company for many reasons. As written by Hodgetts and Luthans in International Management, international edition, page 96 : “Culture can affect technology transfer, managerial attitudes, managerial ideology, and even business-government relations. [...]
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