Managing Across Borders For Planning And Controlling

Managing Across Borders: Planning and Controlling

Challenges Facing Across Boarder Management

Discuss about the Managing Across Borders for Planning and Controlling.

Management is the process of planning, controlling, directing and organizing business operations, resources and employees with an aim of achieving the set goals and objectives. Business management is the responsibility of the managers. Managing across borders involves the management of an international business environment which will consist of completely different aspects (Jain, 2012). Managing across boarders also refers to management of an international business organization. Management of an international environment currently has become a serious business operation especially for managers. This is caused by the adverse changes that face the international operating environment (Hale, 2009). Business organizations and industries are developing and growing at high rates which gives them the desire to go global (Grainger, 2010). The desire to exploit the global economies of scale and benefits for these businesses has led to great need for coordination and integration of management activities. Therefore, in today’s business world, this calls for capable managers or leaders with effective and efficient management skills that can be applied in every part of the world. With the increasing desire for growth and development, the international business environment requires a manager who can be successful in managing it (Kieck, 2010). In addition to that, it is important to secure and maintain the global advantage for such businesses and industries which ensures future productivity. Research has shown that, the global business environment currently needs managers with great technical and interpersonal skills that will help them manage and adapt to the various changes of the environment. Managing across boarders clearly offers the managers an opportunity to improve their skills, develop their knowledge and careers and implement their management strategies all over the world (Doyle, 2010).

In this assignment I will discuss the challenges facing management across boarder, benefits or advantages realized and the solutions to those challenges. Discussion

When a business goes global, it has to open more stores or start operation in another country or continent. Global businesses operate all over the world. Every country has its own different ethnic groups and races with different cultural practices. If the business’s cultural practices are different from those of the new location, then this becomes a challenge for it. Many businesses have ended up changing their business operations to suit those of the surrounding environment especially when they go global. These cultural practices can be practices related to national holidays, religious holidays e.g. Christmas among others (Reilly, 2015) Therefore, for management across boarder to be successful and effective for a business or manager, they should be able to identify and respect the cultural differences between the employees, stakeholders, business owners, customers and any other person who may be involved with business development and growth.

Solutions to Challenges

Different countries have different levels of technology advancement (McLinden et al, 2011). There are those that are still developing like in Africa and those that are already developed like USA. Businesses operating in these locations certainly use different technologies in their product or service production processes. In that case, when a business decided to go global and locate itself in a location that has different technological support, it becomes a challenge for it. This is for every business because the employees may not have the skills, experience and expertise to work with the technology. Therefore, this becomes a challenge for the managers to control and organize the operations in that kind of environment.

Businesses managers use various strategies to run their operations. A business that focuses on the improvement of its efficiency, effectiveness, learning and responsiveness to situation changes faces a challenge when it decides to go global. Operating in an international environment causes higher levels of complexity. Basically, the very act of a business going international multiplies a business’s operational complexity by default. Therefore, this means even the management process must be of high levels and effective for the business to be successful. However, complexity becomes a problem if the managers are not well prepared for the changes and if they are not effective and strong in making the right decisions.

Every country has its own common and popular management techniques for its business organizations. When a business goes global or when a manager is preparing to manage across boarder business, they must be able to adapt to the new location’s management techniques (Beši? and Hirt, 2016). On the other hand, the business managers seem to persist on using their own management strategies and methods. However, if the managers or the business is not ready to adapt to the technique they should find another way to effectively and efficiently manage their operations with success.

The geographical differences relate to the long distances between the business locations, for those that are already international businesses. The organizations are usually based in different countries which means that they are far apart. Additionally, for a managers who is managing an international business environment, it is a challenge. The managers must travel long distances to check out the business operations and development status. Furthermore, they have to check out the progress of the employees and their productivity. This is a challenge for managers who are used to meeting their employees, stakeholders, business owners etc. on regular bases because that may not be possible hence causing management problems.

Every country has its own economic growth rate. Developed countries have fast growing economic growth rates while developing and underdeveloped countries have low economic growth rate. These differences become a challenge for managers in charge of an international business or environment (Maur and Wilson, 2010). The currencies and exchange rates for these countries is also always different. This may affect management of businesses in different countries than management of those locally placed.

For businesses and managers to be able to be successful in managing across boarder, the following solutions can be used to avoid the challenges and solve the problems faced:

To avoid the challenge on management and solve the problem of insisting on using same managerial methods, an international manager(s) should create a suitable managerial techniques that is likely to be accepted by every stakeholder, business owner or employee themselves. The mangers should focus on identifying and recognizing every country’s management technique. Comparisons should be carried out to be able to decide the best method for which country and location (Khumalo and Chibira, 2015). Through this, managers who are responsible for global environment and those that manage international businesses will certainly be successful in their role. They will also be able to implement their management strategies effectively and efficiently.

This will avoid the challenge that relates to cultural differences. The management team should focus on identifying and recognizing all the differences in culture among the organizations employees, stakeholders, customers, investors among others. They should know what races and ethnic groups that are available in the organization or business environment. In addition to that, the managers should encourage cultural practice respect and adherence (Grainger, 2007). For instance, for the Christians, they should be allowed to celebrate their Christmas celebrations without pressure. By identifying and recognizing other peoples ‘culture, the managers will have the opportunity to learn those cultures hence making their work easier.

Different countries have different laws and regulations governing the business activities. Furthermore, there are laws that also govern the production of business production or services which are different for each country. Therefore, for an international business, the challenge on what law is to be adhered to can be avoided by creating new laws for the business itself, its products and services. These laws should however go hand in hand with the laws of the country where the business will be/is operating (Reilly, 2015). For managers who manage international environments, they should learn and be ready to adhere to the laws of the countries where their business operations are.

This will solve the issue with geographical differences. The challenge of managers failing to attend business meetings in every organization in every country can be avoided and solved by developing an effective and efficient communication process (Boermans, 2012). Communication can be through emails, phone calls, video calls among other methods. The managers can conduct meetings vial Skype or video conferences rather than waste time travelling all over the world to conduct meetings. However, the managers should be ready to connect with the other managers and organize meetings at regular times of the business year in different countries.

With cross boarder management, the managers have the opportunity to manage and lead a large area. An international business has more employees, operations and activities to handle than the local business organizations. The managers get the chance to lead international organizations in international environment. The global business environment offers better opportunities for the managers to practice and implement their skills, knowledge, expertise and experience (Machulskyi and Bogomyagkov, 2012).  This is likely going to develop their careers and improve most of the skills they have.

Business managers must possess certain skills that make them special and successful in their role. However, international managers should have even better skills for them to succeed in their role. Therefore, when managing global teams, the manager will be required to develop their skills more so that they can be fit for the role (Capaldo, 2013). They must be ready to change drastically according to environment (should be flexible), patient in dealing with changes and among all things be ready to learn.

In an international business and environment, different people get to practice various cultures. Just as mentioned earlier, a manager whose role is to conduct across boarder management should be able to identify those different cultures and recognize them. In addition to that, they should understand the cultures and respect them. Across boarder management offers a better chance for a manager to learn about new cultures, their influences and different ways to manage (Moran et al, 2014). Also, they get the chance to develop new strategies that will be effective and efficient for the success of their responsibilities across the world.

When managers travel the world and visit different countries to manage their businesses, they get the opportunity to learn new different management strategies. This is gotten from the different methods used in different countries. Managers are able to choose the best ones for their organization, understand their advantages and disadvantages as well as the benefits that accrue to their usage. Managers also get to meet knowledgeable people either investors, stakeholders, customers and employees from whom they learn a thing or two from (Reiche et al, 2016). With this, the managers will be able to effectively manage their businesses.

Conclusion

Managing across boarder is the process of managing businesses across the world or in an international environment. International management therefore requires effective, efficient and well skilled managers to succeed. These type of management has a good number of challenges that are involved. However, the solutions are also an easy way out of the problems that face cross boarder management. Businesses should ensure that their businesses have investigated their chances of success, understood the benefits, advantages and disadvantages of being an international business. Additionally, they should ensure that they have identified the challenges and solution to those challenges before they go global.

References

Beši?, A. and Hirt, C., 2016. Diversity management across borders: the role of the national context. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 35(2), pp.123-135.

Buyonge, C. and Kireeva, I., 2008. Trade facilitation in Africa: challenges and possible solutions. World Customs Journal, 2(1), pp.41-54.

Boermans, M.A., 2012. International Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (Doctoral dissertation, Utrecht University).

Capaldo, J., 2013. The Uncertain Gains from Trade Facilitation. Tufts University, Global Development and Environment Institute Policy Brief, pp.13-02.

Doyle, T., 2010. Collaborative border management. World Customs Journal, 4(1), pp.15-21.

Grainger, A., 2007, June. Trade facilitation: A review. In a conference on Global supply chain security at Imperial College, London.

Grainger, A., 2010. The role of the private sector in border management reform. BORDER, p.157.

Hale, G., 2009. In Search of Effective Border Management. Canadian International Council.

Jain, S.R., 2012. Coordinated border management: the experience of Asia and the Pacific region. World Customs Journal, 6(1), pp.63-75.

Kieck, E., 2010. Coordinated border management: unlocking trade opportunities through one stop border posts. World Customs Journal, 4(1), pp.3-13.

Khumalo, S. and Chibira, E., 2015. Finding practical solutions to cross border road transport challenges in SADC: a review of major challenges and prospects. Southern African Transport Conference.

Machulskyi, I. and Bogomyagkov, Y., 2012. Corporate and business strategy at MNEs: A managerial practice view.

Maur, J.C. and Wilson, J.S., 2010. Trade costs and facilitation: open trade and economic development. Edward Elgar Publishing.

McLinden, G., Fanta, E., Widdowson, D. and Doyle, T., 2011. Border management modernization. World Bank.

Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V., 2014. Managing cultural differences. Routledge.

Reiche, B.S., Mendenhall, M.E. and Stahl, G.K. eds., 2016. Readings and cases in international human resource management. Taylor & Francis.

Reilly, P., 2015. Managing across borders and cultures. Strategic HR Review, 14(1/2), pp.36-41.

Reilly, M.P. and Williams, M.T., 2012. Global HR: Challenges facing the function. Gower Publishing, Ltd…