The report brings about the discussion on the cultural aspects of the markets of the host country and the related aspects. Each country has different cultural activities and cultural rituals. The term culture includes many aspects, such as material goods, the things people use, and produce. Culture also defines about how people think and behave, and perceive the world, and understand their own lives. Culture of any country is composed of several elements, such as customs, laws, dress, architectural style, social standards, religious beliefs, and the traditions (Huang & Rundle-Thiele, 2014). Australia has been chosen as the host country, and the home country as Singapore. Thus, the report will use information from the Hofstede cultural dimensions for a company to operate in the chosen host country.
Australia has been taken as the host country, for analysing the cultural background, and comparing it with the home country as Singapore. The rationale or the reason behind choosing the host country as Australia is to get the best job opportunities in accordance to the skills and qualities. Working abroad is the best decision in terms of both personal and professional development, and is one of the greatest challenging experiences. Work experience in Australia i.e. outside the home nation, provides insight to the world and broadens the horizons of an individual, and facilitates in continuation of career development in the future.
The host country, Australia practices western culture which has been primarily obtained from Britain, but it has been also influenced by some other factors within the country. These factors include geographical characteristics of the country, cultural inputs of certain other groups of people which consist of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and other Australian people. Culture includes the beliefs, behaviour of people, objects and other characteristics common to the people, or members of a particular group or society. In addition, each country has some unique societal aspects of their culture, which describes about the language, customs, values, norms, organisations, and institutions operating within country (Sassen, 2016).
Unique cultural values or components which are prevalent in Australia are mentioned below:
Flora and Fauna are native to the continent which includes kangaroo, Koala, emu, and wattle symbolise the national ethos, especially in context to the national and international aspects of the country. The language English is spoken in the country, and some other common languages Chinese, Vietnamese, and Italian. Thus, 50 indigenous languages, and Australian Creoles is also spoken by the population of Australia. Christianity is the major religion in the country for around 52% of the citizens (Baker, Robards & Buttigieg, 2016). Talking about the significant cultural components, it is known that arts in Australia- dance, music, theatre, and craft, have achieved international recognition. Beaches in Australia are considered as the notable symbol of aspects of national culture (Petrakis, Kostis & Valsamis, 2015).
Food customs in Australia indicates about the tradition ‘fusion cuisine’, a blend of the European cooking practice with Asian flavours, and products. Australia has been the world leaders in terms of the fast food consumption. For an example, burger and chicken stores are potent stores in the suburbs, and coffee & wine has been becoming increasing popular in the country.
Business culture of a country refers to the beliefs, values, and behaviour which determine the way through which a company’s management and employees communicate with each other and deal with the outside business operations. The discussion will now state specifically about the business culture of the host country, i.e. Australia and how does it differ from that of home country, i.e. Singapore.
Discussing about the business culture of Australia, it has been analysed that the country has been through an unprecedented era of quarter upon quarter growth of GDP, fuelled by the growing economy of China and the strong relation between Australia and China. This has been supportive in structuring the service sector of the country leading to higher success (Anicich, Swaab & Galinsky, 2015). The structure of business organisations in Australia is mainly hierarchical, and the two factors contributing to the organisations to be fairly hierarchical, includes less attention paid to the titles, and rankings within Australian organisation (Moran, Harris & Moran, 2014).
Australians are direct and clear in their communications, and rarely intimated by the status and growth of others. Thus, Australian organisations practices ‘authoritarian’ style of management in their operations. However, it has been analysed that consultative management would be more suitable to the organisations in the country (Hickman & Silva, 2018). As it will consider the opinions of every employee working leading to healthy relations within organisations; signifying committed professional approach of the businesses (Takeda & Melby, 2017).
Australians are punctual in conducting their meetings, and the appointment is to be taken in advance to the actual date of meeting. Business cards are exchanged during introductions in their business meetings (Australia Government, 2018). Taking the hold of their business responsibilities, managers at businesses in the country often believe that it is not necessary to build personal relationships with their team members or colleagues before doing business (Johnson, 2016).
Singapore has been found that the business is usually conducted in English in the country. Both Singapore, and Australia are the best places to conduct business activities, but they have few distinct differences in their corporate culture. The culture of Australia differs from that of Singapore in a way, that giving and receiving gifts is not expected in the Australian organisations, whereas Gift giving in Singapore is treated as a common way of expressing thanks; small gifts exchanged include pen and company logo (Besley, 2015). One major difference in the business culture of the home country from the host country is the working hours, Singapore has longer working hours than Australia; business hours in Australia is from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday i.e. 5 days a week (Yeo & Pang, 2017).
Australia has no official business language, and English is spoken by the most population whereas in Singapore as there English is considered as the main language both at work, and homes. Setting up a business firm in the host country will require 3 steps, whereas in Singapore it takes only 2 steps. Discussing about the meals during business meetings or causal meetings, it has been found that Australians focus more on fast food and wines, whereas Singaporeans give preferences to food rather wine, as there food is better and cheaper. Decision-making in Singapore is better and quick whereas the decision-making in Australia is slow, as the organisations follow collaborative work environment (Li, 2018).
The corporate culture of Australia and Singapore has been analysed from the above discussion which will further determine the appropriateness of the companies to operate in the host country (Australia). This will be based and analysed through the use of the components of Hofstede cultural dimensions (Triandis, 2018).
Hofstede cultural dimension is a framework which describes about the cross-cultural communication within a society. It mentions about the effect of a society’s culture on the values of people and how those values relate to the behaviour of individuals in the society. The differences in national cultures will be based on four dimensions of this aspect, which include power distance (PDI), individualism (IDV), uncertainty avoidance (UAI), and masculinity (MAS) (Cleaver, Jo & Muller, 2015).
Australia is considered to have the score of 90; on this dimension is a highly individualist culture which infers about the loosely-knit societies. They state that the people need to look after themselves and their family members. Moreover, in business world, employees are often expected to become self-reliant and take initiative for their growth and development (Khlif, 2016). Thus, a company entering into running a business in Australia must focus on the individualistic dimension, and make their employees self-sufficient and hard-working to attain their goals, which would lead to effective functioning of their businesses (Sheridan, Scott & Roberts,2016).
Australia scores 61 on the dimension of masculinity and is to be known as ‘masculine’ society. The values shared amongst individuals in Australia, is that they must strive to become their best versions, which determines their behaviour at school, play and work, and forms the basis of their success. Thus, a company operating their business in Australia need to incorporate features of masculinity, i.e. men employees need to become tough, assertive, and focused on material success, than women to enhance their effectiveness (Turner, Fiske & Hodge, 2016).
Discussing about the dimension of uncertainty avoidance in the host country, which score on 51, it can be stated that Australians are intermediate on their outlook towards the unknown or ambiguous situations. They believe that the future is uncertain, and it leads to anxiety and employees from different cultures need to deal with this in different ways. Thus, a foreign company which needs to operate their businesses in Australia must consider this fact and strategies their goals with necessary preventive measures and effective plans. The other two factors or dimensions include long-term orientation, and indulgence where Australia is a highly indulgent country. Thus business organisations must enable their employees towards possessing positive attitude and becoming optimistic towards attaining their aims and goals in the organisation.
Conclusion
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that the study of cultural values play an important role in the society or within countries. The values, norms, and the belief system defined by the culture of any country, determines the performance of any company contributing to the growth of overall country. The report has discussed well the cultural values of the host country, Australia and home country (Singapore), and ways or facts to be considered for a company to operate effectively in Australia. Hence, the persistent difference in cultural values is relevant for the multinational companies which operate in more than one country.
References
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Australia Government. (2018). Setting up a business in Australia. Retrieved from: https://www.austrade.gov.au/international/invest/guide-to-investing/setting-up-a-business
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