Discuss about the a Stable Democratic System and Diverse Nation.
Australia is a developed country with a stable democratic system and diverse nation. It is the sixth largest country in terms of land area and is the only nation in the entire continent. The country is rich in ancient culture and has 10% of the world’s biodiversity. There are large number of native animals and plants and the vastness of land spreads from the snow-field of the South-east to the Australian Antarctic Territory and from tropical rainforests in the north to the red desserts of the centre. The country is blessed to have several World Heritage Sites like Sydney Opera House, Great Barrier Reef and others.
The country has been chosen as a host country to start international business due to its several advantageous features. The country has one of the most strongest economy and has been ranked as twelfth world largest economy and is called as the most performing nation that have succeed in every measure of excellence from wealth to health and from educational attainment to doing business in the country (World Bank Group, 2013). The country economic indicators are favourable for doing business such the unemployment rate is low, inflation is very low and there are plenty of skilled labour force. Moreover, the country has strong links with the growing nations of the world.
The country is a multicultural nation which is rich in both indigenous and immigrants culture. It is a famous destination for international tourism and is open for business with endless potentiality and boundless opportunities. The foreign trade policy are favourable in terms of increasing business and promotes global trade and investment liberalization
The paper will state the cultural analysis of Australia and highlight business cultural of the country and compare its cultural with Singapore. Further, by using Hofstede’s cultural dimension, how to work effectively in the foreign country is explained
Australia is a country of diverse culture and lifestyle. The original inhabitants of Australia are from the islands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait who holds the custodians of the world’s oldest culture and traditions. Remaining people of Australia are immigrants from various countries. Combining both, the country has a population of 23 million people, out of which 25% are of foreign country origin (Wild, Wild & Han, 201).
The laws of Australia acknowledge the rights of all the inhabitants to express their culture and belief and to live freely in the country. The inhabitants are suppose to incorporate such values that support the national life of Australia which includes, freedom of speech, respect for equal opportunities, dignity and freedom of the individuals, existence of secular government and freedom of religion, equality of people irrespective of gender and respect for the democracy of the country law and spread peacefulness (Casson, 2013). Further, the country strongly believes that the people residing in the country should not be differentiated in terms of cultural heritage, birth, gender, language and religious belief.
The national language of the country is English and the predominant religious belief is Christianity which is followed by around 64% of the population. However, other religious are also practiced actively showing the diversity of culture. The country is vibrant in arts and sceneries that follows both indigenous and migrant culture and reflected in film, theatre, art, music and dance.
In sports, Australian always receives high ranks and get impressive results at high level elite tournament. Regarding the food culture, the country follows diverse cuisines and is rich in agricultural products. It produces high quality fruits, vegetables, poultry, meat and several dairy products. The wine sector produces the world’s top quality of wine, some of which are, red wine, white wine desserts and fortified wines under the binding of the law.
The clothes that the Australian wears are of diverse in nature due to its diversity in the culture .However; they have different dress standards at the work place to maintain the standards.
The business culture of Australia can be studied through the etiquettes and customs that are followed by the people in the business world of Australia. The meeting etiquettes by the Australian in business are through appointments and punctuality is important for them at work. They are direct in communication and avoid hypes in presentation. They never like to bargain and believe in quick negotiation and do not like high pressure techniques (Verbeke, 2013). They may get slow at making decisions as it generally concentrates at the top management of the company. They business attire is conservative and believes in introducing themselves through exchange of business cards.
On the contrary, business in Singapore is strictly formal and protocol rules are to be followed. More importance is given to the company than the individual and commands are to be strictly followed. Meetings are conducted with prior appointments and punctuality has to be maintained. The business culture in Singapore is more formal and rule oriented than the business culture of Australia.
In terms of doing business, a comparative analysis can be made between the two countries in terms of business environment, tax system, Global competitiveness, trade openness, political bureaucracy, labor force and living environment of the people.
According to Ease of Doing Business Report, 2015, Singapore ranked 1 and Australia ranked 10. The scores of the country differ in the areas of taxes, investor’s protection, international trade and innovation of new technology. In regard to tax system, The 2014-15, Global Competitiveness Report of World Economic Forum has ranked Singapore 27 for its total tax rate system and ranked Australia 104 for the same. Similarly, The 2014, Best Countries for Business index have ranked Singapore 5 for the tax burden and Australia 35, that indicated higher tax burden. In respect of IP protection, Singapore was ranked as 2 and Australia was ranked as 17. In terms of Global competitiveness, Singapore is ranked as 2nd and Australia is ranked 22nd (Lin & Ewing ,2016).
The performance of Singapore is better than Australia in parameters like, property rights, efficient legal system, trust of politician, quality of educational system, tariff on trade, venture capital facility, strength of investor protection and government regulation burden. Further, the government of Australia’s spending is 34.2% of its GDP and that of Singapore is 12.5% of its GDP (Forsgren & Johanson, 2014). The setting of business is much easier in Singapore as compared to Australia due to efficient regulation, corrupt free regimen, low expenditure, low tax rate, flexible labor market and open foreign ownership policy.
The trade policy of Singapore is more open with less trade barriers and simple tax structure, minimum paperwork and excellent infrastructure In contrast, Australia was having competitive disadvantage in terms of import/export activities. Tariff rates, efficiency of government, procedures of custom duties and openness toward foreign participation. The labour Force Evaluation Measure of BERI has ranked Singapore as having the best labour force whereas Australia is raked at tenth. In terms of productivity and employer-employee relation also Singapore is top ranked whereas Australia rank is 43 and 53 (Folsom et al., 2012). Lastly, Singapore is considered to be the most preferred immigration spot whereas; Australia is ranked at 6th position for the same. Again, Singapore is regarded as the 3rd most preferred country to work and Australia is regarded in 18th rank.
Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory helps to understand to how the society culture affects the employees’ values and behaviour in an organization and establishes a framework for cross-cultural communication through 6 cultural dimensions, power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty, long term orientation and indulgence (Enderwick, 2013).
Power distance dimension is based on the inequality of the individual in a society and explains the cultural attitude due to the inequality among the people. It is defined as the manner in which the less powerful people in the organization accept and expect this unequal distribution of power (Dunning, 2014). Australia has scored low as 36 in this and it generally has hierarchical system in an organization where managers rely on team work and the superiors are easily assessable. The communication between the managers and employees are informal, participative and direct.
Individualism dimension discusses the degree of interdependence maintained among the individuals of the society. In this people are more concern about themselves and their family as compared to collectivist society where people are in group and take care of themselves in return of loyalty from others (Dunning, 2013). Australia score 90 in this dimension as the country follows exceptionally high individualistic culture. Based on this, in the organization employees are supposed to show initiative and be self sufficient. The employees’ promotional and hiring decisions depend on merit.
High Masculinity dimension states that the country is driven by competition, success and achievement both in leisure and work. A high feminine dimension indicates that the ruling factor in the society is having a good quality of life and to be caring. Australia has 61 scores in this dimension and have high score in Masculinity (Dinnie, 2015). The people believe in resolving their conflicts at their levels and win the goal. They give more importance to success and achievements and at the workplace the people follows the basic rules of hiring and promotion.
The uncertainty dimensions explain that how the society will deal with the fact that one can never predict future with certainty. There is always some uncertainty with regard to future. The attitude of the people towards future uncertainty brings anxiety and different people from different culture deals with their anxiety differently (Casson, 2013). Australia has scored 51 in it and the institution tries to avoid this. The amount of threat a foreign person feels due to this dimension depends on his or her attitude towards handling uncertainty
The dimension of long term orientation tries to explain the link of past in dealing the challenges of present and future. The normative societies that score low are those who do not prefer societal change and believes in maintaining their tradition and values of the past. On the contrary, those who score high are the person who like the change and believes in modern education system as a method to grow in future. Australia has a low score of 21 and so the people follow the past tradition and respect it (Australia, 2013). They are comparatively small savers for future and instead of thinking too much for future, they believe in achieving fast results in the present.
The dimension of indulgence refers to the degree of socialization in the country. It helps to understand the attitude of people towards controlling their desires and impulse which reflects the manner they are raised in the society. If their controlling is weak then they are called as indulgence but if their controlling is strong then they are called as restraint (Cavusgil et al., 2014). Australia is called as an indulgent country where the people of the society believe in releasing their desires and impulses. They have a positive attitude towards life, believe in optimism and give importance to leisure time.
Conclusion
The paper presents the cultural analysis of Australia to understand the manner of doing international business in the country and to make business profitable. The Australian culture has been compared with Singapore culture and conclusion has been drawn that Singapore business culture is better than that of Australia and the former is regarded as the best place to do business as compared to the latter. The Hofstede’s 6 cultural dimension analysis is done to understand the people’s culture in the society towards work and family. It has been understood that people are informal and direct; they believe in individualism and desires to be independent. They are traditional people, like socializing and respect their culture. They are indulgent in attitude and release their impulse and desires and believe in achieving fast instead of long term future planning.
Based on the cultural analysis, the international business can design their strategies and policies to meet the requirements of the people and to obtain maximum from the human resource of the company.
References
Australia, S. (2013). Doing Business with Australia: Producer Offset and Co-productions.
Casson, M. (Ed.). (2013). The Growth of International Business (RLE International Business). Routledge.
Cavusgil, S. T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J. R., Rammal, H. G., & Rose, E. L. (2014). International business. Pearson Australia.
Dinnie, K. (2015). Nation branding: concepts, issues, practice. Routledge.
Dunning, J. H. (2013). Multinationals, Technology & Competitiveness (RLE International Business) (Vol. 13). Routledge.
Dunning, J. H. (2014). The Globalization of Business (Routledge Revivals): The Challenge of the 1990s. Routledge.
Enderwick, P. (Ed.). (2013). Multinational Service Firms (RLE International Business). Routledge.
Folsom, R. H., Gordon, M. W., Spanogle, J. A., Fitzgerald, P. L., & Van Alstine, M. P. (2012). International business transactions: a problem-oriented coursebook.
Forsgren, M., & Johanson, J. (2014). Managing networks in international business. Routledge.
Lin, L., & Ewing-Chow, M. (2016). The Doing Business Index on Minority Investor Protection: The Case of Singapore. Singapore Journal of Legal Studies, 46.
Verbeke, A. (2013). International business strategy. Cambridge University Press.
Wild, J., Wild, K. L., & Han, J. C. (2014). International business. Pearson Education Limited.
World Bank Group (Ed.). (2013). Doing Business 2014: understanding regulations for small and medium-size enterprises (Vol. 11). World Bank Publications.
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