Write a Research Proposal on the Challenges of Managing Cross Cultural Behavior in International Business.
The modern day business modern day environment of business is extremely competitive in nature that helps the organization to be at it operational best and attain a certain degree of competitive advantage in the market (Thomas and Peterson 2017). A modern day business house is comprised of a lot many individuals from different cultures and different background. The purpose of conducting the following research is to examine different such cross cultural challenges that the management of the business organizations faces on operating a smooth business. The research will be focusing on Walmart Company, the largest retail chain of America and the world. The unique quality of the company is its ability to provide goods at cheap prices and also provides a quality shopping experience for the buyers (Luthans and Doh 2018). The successful human resource strategy employed by the company will be the area over which the research will focus. The proposal has shown a timeline that establishes the time limit of the research as well as the milestones of the research.
As mentioned in the earlier paragraph, the main objective of the following project will be to focus on the challenges of the different types of the cross cultural aspects of the organization. The industries such as Walmart have expanded themselves to a number of different countries in the world as a result of wide scale globalization (Luthans and Doh 2018). The expansion implied the recruitment of a varied range of workforce of different culture and different community totally unknown to the culture of the company. The objective of the organization is to thus to highlight on the cultural challenges faced by the management of the mentioned retail giants and how the organization cope up with them. The research will also highlight the factors that are behind the success of the organization in the global market.
The choice of the topic itself has been the first and foremost reason behind the increase in the scope of the research. The topic of the research deals with the challenges faced in globalization. This is important for increasing the scope of the project. The research will be discussing the main concepts of the cross cultural challenges faced by the organization along with the causes of the success in the competitive market. The research will also include both the primary as well as the secondary research elements, which aims to further increase the scope of the research.
The Human Resource Department of the business organizations in the modern world faces a tough time to manage the workforce and the workplace in total given the wide variety and range of the people working in the particular company (Lewis 2015). The expansion policies of the Multi National Corporations have forced them to recruit different individuals from the local area or the host country where they start their business operations. It is very much important for the HR management of the organization to manage the workplace properly because of the presence of a large number of employees who are from different cultures and different backgrounds. It is important for the organization to standardize the workforce and maintain a friendly workplace to attain success in the market (Deresky 2017). The operations of the business in global markets have been possible due to the presence of the modern levels of high scaled communication channels. Walmart has its presence in almost all the large countries with healthy economies. This includes the likes of USA, China, Japan, India and many more as such. The human resource department of the company along with the centralized Human resource department of the organization maintains an effective and proper communication between the organizations to maintain a smooth flow of business operations. The coordinated efforts of the Human Resource department help in the removal of discrepancies of the culture, understanding, traditions and the ways of performing a particular task. The behavior and culture of the employees are responsible for increasing complexity in the business and thus these two aspects have to given extra care to make sure no such serious complexities offer as a result of such complexities.
The data and the knowledge of the business etiquette, habit and attitude of the foreign nation are quite significant to compete and co-operate the business in the international market. It will help to evaluate on how the Management of Walmart deals with the different situations of the International Market and whether they take offensive or defensive steps to tackle such situations (Deresky 2017). There are many cases when the company faces issues on dealing with specialized situations. The company is unable to deal with the different kinds of advance technology in markets which does not have quality advancement. On the other hand it is capable to develop promotional and advertising approach on different communication channels like the internet or web services. This can be used as the primary source of information for the organization.
According to, Cascio (2018) the time when the workforce of a particular country makes entry into another host country, the people will be prone to suffer a cultural shock. This will be because of the differences in the culture, race, language, habits and many other such similar characteristics of the business organizations. There are high chances of these people to become isolated and separated from each other and make the most of the other employees. This also creates tremendous stress on the employees and affects their professional performance in a negative manner and will also lead to the loss of their self confidence.
The Hypothesis that will be developed while doing the research is as follows;
H0- Walmart is not able to face the Cross Cultural Challenges faced by them in International Markets
H1- Walmart is able to face the Cross Cultural Challenges faced by them International Markets
As mentioned earlier the research will be formulated by using both primary as well as secondary research elements. Therefore there will be a need to address the different primary as well as secondary research questions that will surely arise on the course of the research.
The primary questions of the research will be based mainly upon the different aims and objectives of the research. The following questions will try to address the different elements of the research topic and will thus have more concentration on the following. The primary research question will be directly linked to the research. It is as follows;
How does the MNC’s especially Walmart manage the cross cultural challenges that occur as a result of international expansion?
The secondary questions arising in the research will basically concentrate in the discussion and address of any additional elements of discussion or questions that may arise from any additional sources of information regarding the research topic. Some of the secondary research questions can be as follows;
The nature of the study is one of the key elements to the development of the methodology of the research study and also decides on the method of deciding the strategies of the particular research. The research will use both the qualitative and the quantitative elements to evaluate the different objectives of the research. The advantages of using qualitative data can be described easily by interpreting the final results of the study (Creswell and Creswell 2017). The following results include the strategies used by the mentioned organization to control the different cross cultural behavioral challenges of the organization in different international market where the firm operates.
Research Design
The evaluation of the objectives will be completed for this project with the use of the Analytic or descriptive research design. The choice of the particular research design over the other two existing designs is mainly due to the capability of the particular design to provide a detailed analysis of the different concepts and theories of the particular research topic. The following research design will be essential to gain an in depth understanding of the different cross cultural challenges and the ways by which the management of the mentioned retail organization tackles them to attain the needed competitive advantage in the market. Therefore it can be said that the following research design will be helpful and is also the most suited to gain the understanding of the cross cultural concepts and the challenges along with the detailed analysis of the mentioned topic.
Reliability and Validity
The validity of the different information and the research methods will be measured and tested properly. The main reason behind the testing of the validity of the research is to make sure about the genuineness of the information received. Reliability is the degree to which the assessment tool can easily produce the stable and consistent result of the information (Boyack Smith and Klavans 2018). The validity and reliability of the information used for the particular research is very much important to the success of the business. The information regarding the cultural concepts must be collected from genuine sources to ensure the genuineness of the research.
Sampling
The sample will be selected using the purposeful sampling method. In the following type of sampling method the participants are selected based on some pre selected criterion based on the research questions.
Sample Size
The sample size is predetermined and the participants consist of some employees, supervisors and communication experts of the mentioned retail company. The sampling will continue for the research until and unless a saturation point is met within the research. A sample size of 50 participants will be considered for the research.
The research methods that are be used to collect the data are done by conducting interviews and focus groups. The interviews will be used to explore the views, experiences and beliefs of the different participants of the research. On the other hand the focus groups will be used to group dynamics that will be used to generate qualitative data regarding the challenges and the ways of success for the organizations.
Research Variables
The research will focus on both the dependent and independent variable that will determine the research analysis of the organization. Both the variables of the particular study will be evaluated after the evaluation of the results of the research.
Quantitative Research design process
The quantitative research is done with the use of the descriptive design which helps to study the different statistical elements of the following topics in detail. The data regarding cultural competitiveness and the cultural challenges will be collected through a process of structured research instruments and the results of the research will be based on a larger size of research participants.
Research Instrument
The particular research will complete the quantitative part of the research by means of an online questionnaire.
Quantitative data Analysis
The quantitative data will be analyzed by the SPSS method. The SPSS method will help to analyze the topic in a variety of ways that is reliable enough and provides a different angle to the study.
Sampling and Sample Size
The sample size will be much bigger than the qualitative analysis and will consist of a large number of participants who will be provided an online questionnaire for the survey.
The questionnaire is designed and generated to the participants through internet. The set of questions must be open ended and will consist of multiple choice answers. The interviewing of the participants will be done through Skype to save the time of conducting face to face interviews.
Each and every of the data is gathered through genuine sources which itself ensures the validity of the data.
The vast scope of the research topic and the aim of the research to gain an idea on the identification of cultural research has been the main reason behind the selection of the qualitative research.
There may be some limitations in the study as because it might happen that the different theories and models required for the purpose of the study might not be sufficient enough or may not be best suited for finding the actual results and meeting the goals of the following business. There may be possibilities that there is a limited availability of resources like the unavailability of the participants due to various reasons, receiving less or irrelevant information regarding the actual discussion of the research topic. The problems or issues may arise at any given point of time. The main solution to this problem is that the research must be done with utmost care and precision. The maintenance of a proper time schedule will also be necessary for ensuring the success of the research.
Task Name |
Duration |
Start |
Finish |
Research Proposal Timeline |
82 days |
Wed 7/4/18 |
Thu 10/25/18 |
Selection of the Research Topic |
1 day |
Wed 7/4/18 |
Wed 7/4/18 |
Approval of the Research Topic |
2 days |
Thu 7/5/18 |
Fri 7/6/18 |
Researching and the Development of the Aims and Objectives |
6 days |
Mon 7/9/18 |
Mon 7/16/18 |
Preliminary Investigation |
10 days |
Tue 7/17/18 |
Mon 7/30/18 |
Assembling all the Preliminary Data |
5 days |
Tue 7/31/18 |
Mon 8/6/18 |
Researching the Data |
6 days |
Tue 8/7/18 |
Tue 8/14/18 |
Compiling the Data |
10 days |
Wed 8/15/18 |
Tue 8/28/18 |
Submission of the Draft |
1 day |
Wed 8/29/18 |
Wed 8/29/18 |
Continuation of the Research |
20 days |
Thu 8/30/18 |
Wed 9/26/18 |
Assembling New Information |
10 days |
Thu 8/30/18 |
Wed 9/12/18 |
Identification of the Sample |
1 day |
Thu 9/13/18 |
Thu 9/13/18 |
Selecting The Number of Sample Size |
4 days |
Fri 9/14/18 |
Wed 9/19/18 |
Interviewing The Sample Population |
5 days |
Thu 9/20/18 |
Wed 9/26/18 |
Researching on the Available Data |
21 days |
Thu 9/27/18 |
Thu 10/25/18 |
Compiling the Total Data |
10 days |
Thu 9/27/18 |
Wed 10/10/18 |
Assembling and Preparing the final Report |
10 days |
Thu 10/11/18 |
Wed 10/24/18 |
Final Submission |
1 day |
Thu 10/25/18 |
Thu 10/25/18 |
Table 1- Time Schedule Table of the Research
Conclusion
The research to be conducted is sure to throw light on new information and a number of learning outcomes will be gained by the readers. This includes the cross cultural challenges faced by the organization during the international expansion of the business, ways by which the company manages the challenges and the different advantages that the company receives after the achievement of the cultural strategies. Therefore the main research will be a good source of information that will have a much larger scope and cover a wide range of theoretical and statistical aspects of the given research.
References and Bibliography
Abdulkadiro?lu, A., Angrist, J.D., Narita, Y. and Pathak, P.A., 2017. Research design meets market design: Using centralized assignment for impact evaluation. Econometrica, 85(5), pp.1373-1432.
Ang, S. and Van Dyne, L., 2015. Handbook of cultural intelligence. Routledge.
Boyack, K.W., Smith, C. and Klavans, R., 2018. Toward predicting research proposal success. Scientometrics, 114(2), pp.449-461.
Cascio, W., 2018. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.
Creswell, J.W. and Creswell, J.D., 2017. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.
Deresky, H., 2017. International management: Managing across borders and cultures. Pearson Education India.
Lewis, S., 2015. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), pp.473-475.
Luthans, F. and Doh, J.P., 2018. International management: Culture, strategy, and behavior. McGraw-Hill.
Marczyk, G., DeMatteo, D. and Festinger, D., 2017. Essentials of research design and methodology. John Wiley.
Neuman, W.L., 2016. Understanding research. Pearson.
Patten, M.L., 2016. Proposing empirical research: A guide to the fundamentals. Taylor & Francis.
Thomas, D.C. and Peterson, M.F., 2017. Cross-cultural management: Essential concepts. Sage Publications
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