Cross Cultural Management And Communication: Impacts On Global Leadership

The Role of Culture in Influencing Organizational Patterns

Discuss about the Cross Culture Management and Communication for Globalization.
 

The culture of an organization plays a huge role in influencing the business pattern of an organization. Within a multidimensional organization people come from different geographical barriers. All these people speak in different languages, possess different beliefs and attitudes. The disparity in view or ideals often leads to friction within organizations.  Some of these organizational frictions have been seen to affect the overall productivity of the organization. The lack of cooperation also affects the systems and processes of the organization, which could be attributed to ineffective communication.

The organizational differences are often settled by adopting a suitable leadership approach. An effective leadership approach helps in implementing an employee centred approach. Thus, adopting and employee centred approach helps in providing sufficient growth opportunities to the workers. One of the most effective approaches which could be taken over here is adopting a suitable communication style and approach. In the current assignment, the different approaches of global leadership have been taken into consideration and evaluated with respect to cross cultural management.

Thesis statement: The cross cultural management and communication patterns affect the global leadership aspect considerably 

With the advent of globalization more and more companies have been seen to tap the overseas market for a steady availability of human resources along with well developed physical technologies and resources. Initially, under the global leadership approaches dominant organizational structuring had been observed w which gave little or no freedom to the employees. As mentioned by Rosa and Karimov (2018), under such dominant organizational conditions growth prospects of individuals are limited. Some of these approaches later came to be questioned in the form of modern day slavery. Under the foreign subsidiary approaches of global leadership expatriate managers were sent from the headquarters or the home country of the organization to the host country. The thrust was on emphasizing upon the local culture and practices which had upset some of the workforce at large. The knowledge transfer had been unidirectional in approach from headquarters to subsidiary and from home country to host country. As mentioned by Bird and Mendenhall (2016) unidirectional transfer of knowledge followed a certain hierarchy which helped in the effective dissemination of knowledge. However as argued by Binder (2016), the knowledge had to pass through multiple layers before reaching the end receiver, which could considerably affect the quality and the amount of the message disseminated. The expatriate leaders sent from headquarters often suffer from difficulties in adjusting to the local culture and beliefs of people. Some of these often lead to organizational frictions and the situation was made much worse with little help from the government. As mentioned by Islam (2017), the establishment of a global leader depends upon the adoption of cross cultural etiquettes which are guided by sufficient amount of exposures to different business environments.

Effective Leadership Approach for Multi-dimensional Organizations

Since 2000, there had been a considerable shift within the organizational culture with more focus upon the culture and beliefs. As mentioned by Tran and Tran (2016), implementing cultural sensitivity in organizations can enhance peace and harmony in the workplace by promoting maximum inclusion of the workers. However, as argued by Ray (2014), promoting   one particular culture above the other can also trigger riots based upon communal lines. The success of practising cultural sensitivity within organizations resided much in the power of the expatriate managers to communicate effectively with the host subordinate nations (Bird and Mendenhall 2016). In comparison to the present day leadership, anyone, anywhere and anytime could be called on to lead. This supports the idea of the creation of global leaders which is based upon spanning boundaries.  In order to emerge, as a global leader one needs to develop enhanced understanding of contextualisation of in cultural systems. 

The aspect of cross cultural management could be discussed with the help of a number of examples from actual business setting and scenario. The cross cultural management research studies have been divided into a number of different forms which are–uncultured, comparative and multicultural. The unicultural studies helps in understanding organizational management within a single country. The comparative research takes into consideration organizational management in two or more countries. The intercultural aspect focuses upon the communication gateways between organizational members of two or more countries (Amster and Böhm 2016).

The unicultural studies focuses upon country specific and culture specific leadership approaches. This is much in line with the working of the expatriate leaders stationed outside their native land.  As mentioned by Bird and Mendenhall (2016), adopting culture specific leadership approaches can help in resolving conflicts. However, as argued by Islam (2017), the adoption of country or culture specific approaches is not in line with global leadership practices; which places more importance upon adoption of a unified leadership approach rather than tailoring the leadership approaches as per individual nations.

The comparative leadership approaches helps one in understanding the different psychologies or attitudes guiding the behaviour of employees within an organization based upon the different management types. As mentioned by Maranga  et al. (2017), viewing the organization from multiple lenses can also help in removing certain biases of working within a multicultural and multilingual organization.

The intercultural management approaches are based upon the different types of communication approaches adopted within an organization. It places emphasis upon the adoption of a structured form of communication which could help in easy transfer of messages across organizations and hierarchies (Merkin et al. 2014). As argued by Ray (2014), there are a number of hindrances to such managerial approaches. For example, the difference in languages often restricts the process of effective exchange of messages between employees, employee and management and two different organizations. Some of the  aspects  to global leadership  which could be  implemented in order to promote effective inter-organizational communication are–mindfulness, cognitive  flexibility, behavioural flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity and cross cultural  empathy.  As mentioned by Skendall and Ostick (2017), the aspect of empathy along with behavioural flexibility can help in coping with the pressure within a multilingual organization. 

Global Leadership Approaches and their Impacts on Employees

The various aspects of cross culture management in the establishment of global leadership have been supported over here with the help of a number of theoretical perspectives.

 One of the concepts which had recently emerged with respect to global leadership is adjustment. The adjustment had been further divided into three different forms which are –work adjustment, interaction adjustment and general adjustment. The work adjustments refer to getting comfortable or used to the new roles and responsibilities imposed upon an expatriate manager. As mentioned by Islam (2017), support and cooperation from the management as well as the employees are required at this a stage. It is during this stage that an understanding develops between the changed or newly employed management as well as old staffs. The general adjustment refers to broader aspects of living and working in another country. As argued by Romano and Platania (2014), the general adjustment has got much to do with the intrinsic capabilities for adjustment within an individual. The interaction mode on the other hand, refers to adjustment with the different cultural norms. As mentioned by Lick and Hooa (2016), some of the specific issues, which are faced at this juncture owing the language barriers which makes communicating and understanding difficult.

The adjustment stages are further by a stage of anticipatory judgement.  As mentioned by Bird and Mendenhall (2016), the anticipatory judgement is further governed by a number of external and internal factors. The external factors are in the form of the support or encouragement received from family and peers to embrace the change, whereas the internal judgement is dominated by an anticipation regarding the future course of action. The future course of action covers the prospects of success and failure, which either encourage or withdraw an individual from being part of a change. The cross cultural management is further dependent upon switching between business policies and objectives.  As commented by Islam (2017), the ability to modulate oneself based upon work roles and responsibilities help in implementing a successful cross –cultural management.

The aspect of communication is very important within an international business organization. The communication parameter could be divided into two different forms over here which are high context communication (HCC) and low context communication (LCC). The high context communication is used when receiver had already developed sufficient amount of knowledge or idea regarding a phenomenon so that fewer and much structured or coherent information are transmitted through the messages. On the other hand, in low text communication mode the receiver has little knowledge upon the subject matter. Therefore, the speaker has to speak in a much detailed manner so that message in received in the right format (Kittler et al. 2011). In a cross cultural environment, the expatriate manages generally has to use the low context communication which helps him in explaining the subject as well as bond effectively with the employees (Holmes 2017). 

The Emergence of Culture and Beliefs in Organizational Culture

The aspect of global leadership has been further studied in order to understand the factors, which contributes towards the development of a global leader within an international or cross cultural organization. The need for cognition, cultural intelligence as well as readiness to travel is some of the factors which govern successful making of a global leader (Romano and Platania 2014).

The cultural intelligence is measured on a four point scale which consists of strategy, knowledge, motivation and behaviour. The strategy consists of processes individual use to gain knowledge regarding different cultures. The knowledge is used to understand the similarities and differences associated with different cultures. The motivation refers to energy and attention employed by an individual to learn regarding different cultures. The last stage is the behaviour, which refers to an individual’s ability to adapt to different languages and cultures in multilingual organization (Romano and Platania 2014).

Global leadership and organizational behavioural effectiveness (GLOBE) have linked cultural dimensions with organizational styles and business leadership. As mentioned under the GLOBE perspective, the dimensions of culture and cross cultural communications determine the differences in communication styles and interaction goals (Lick and Hooa 2016).

For the literature review, a number of secondary databases   have been used such as PUBMED, NCBI, ELSEVIER, CINNAHL etc.  A number of keywords have been used for making the search such as cross-cultural communication, global leadership, leadership and cross culture etc. Though search a number of articles and journals had been shortlisted. The articles or journals in languages other than English have been excluded. Additionally, only the articles printed within the last 10 years have been taken into consideration. The articles printed prior to that have been excluded. Additionally, built around the same keywords or providing the same message has been excluded from the study criteria.

A number of research gaps have been found while doing the literature review. For example, some of the studies have been limited to specific territories or regions. Therefore, the aspect of global leadership had not been correctly presented over there. Some of the articles discussed cross cultural communication but no global leadership, whereas the rest discussed regarding only global leadership and not cross cultural communication. Additionally, the small sample size used in some of the studies further limited the findings of the research.

Conclusion

The current study focuses on the concept of cross cultural management and communication approaches on global leadership. The current decade has seen a change within the management styles where the thrust has been upon adoption of cultural intelligence for working within a multicultural and multilingual setup.

The Concept of Adjustment and Anticipatory Judgement in Global Leadership

The cultural intelligence helps one in understanding the different cultural and behavioural norms amidst different environmental settings. The change in behaviour further helps development of apathy towards individual of different social races, which harbours a feeling of positivity within the organization. The article here rightly evaluates the different contributory factors towards global leadership. However, it fails to emphasize upon the role of intercultural communication effectively as the communication approaches are extensively correlated to the leadership styles used. 

References

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Binder, J., 2016. Global project management: communication, collaboration and management across borders. Abingdon:Routledge,pp.56-85.

Bird, A. and Mendenhall, M.E., 2016. From cross-cultural management to global leadership: Evolution and adaptation. Journal of World Business, 51(1), pp.115-126.

Holmes, P., 2017. Intercultural Communication in the Global Workplace, Critical Approaches. The International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication, pp.215-302.

Islam, T.,  2017. Practices of Cross-Cultural Etiquette and Communication in Global Business – A Conceptual Analysis on Managing Corporate Expansion. A Review Study. pp.102-22.

Kittler, M.G., Rygl, D. and Mackinnon, A., 2011. Special Review Article: Beyond culture or beyond control? Reviewing the use of Hall’s high-/low-context concept. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 11(1), pp.63-82.

Lick, P. and Hooa, S., 2016. Cross-cultural Communication Model in International Business, pp.126-216.

Maranga, D., Kennedy, M., Madison, D. and Denise, R., 2017. Globalization and Its Implications for Global Leadership, pp. 45-58.

Merkin, R., Taras, V. and Steel, P., 2014. State of the art themes in cross-cultural communication research: A systematic and meta-analytic review. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 38, pp.1-23.

Ray, D., 2014. Overcoming cross-cultural barriers to knowledge management using social media. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 27(1), pp.45-55.

Romano, J. and Platania, J., 2014. Attitudes towards internationalism through the lens of cognitive effort, global mindset, and cultural intelligence, pp.102-322.

Rosa, D. and Karimov, D., 2018. Cross-cultural Project Management and Intercultural Communication Competencies in Non-profit Organizations, pp.105 -220.

Skendall, K.C. and Ostick, D.T., 2017. Brief History of Leadership. The Social Change Model: Facilitating Leadership Development, p.4.

Stahl, G.K., Miska, C., Lee, H.J. and De Luque, M.S., 2017. The upside of cultural differences: Towards a more balanced treatment of culture in cross-cultural management research. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, 24(1), pp.2-12.

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