Managing Across Cultures and Comparative Management

Managing Across Cultures and Comparative Management

2018-2019

A Reflection of the Multicultural Team-working

Adam Smith Business School

University of Glasgow

Student ID: 2369628

Word Count: 2573

Contents

1. Introduction……………………………………………..…………………………2                                                
2. Analysis of National Cultural Differences…………………….………………...2-6

1. A Brief Introduction of Existing Cultural Measuring Models……………....2-3
2. Analysis of National Cultural Difference of the Multicultural Team……….3-4
3. Comparison of Team Members’ Behaviors with Hofstede’s Model……......4-6

1. Significance of Individual Personality Differences……………………………….6                                    
2. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Multicultural Team-working…..………6-8

1. Analysis of the Advantages of Multicultural Team-working………...………7
2. Analysis of Potential Problems…………………………………………….7-8        

1. Cultural Self-awareness………………………………………………..………..8-9

5.1 Significance of Cultural Self-awareness………………………………………8

5.2 Alteration of My Personal Cultural Self-awareness…………….…………..8-9                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

1. Conclusion…………………………………………………………….……….9-10                                                    
2. References………………………………………………………...…………..10-13                                                  

1. Introduction

Due to globalization, it is inevitable that managers will face the challenges of leading a cross-cultural team which subsequently means that employees can easily suffer cultural shock in a multicultural team-working environment (Nardon et al. , 2011). According to Hofstede(1980), culture is defined as a collective mental programming which is shared by individuals within a society and distinguish them from other groups (Rolling, 2018). Consequently, culture, as a sort of value, is able to affect team members’ behaviors in line with their preferences and orientations (Kluckhohn & Stodtbeck, 1961). Thus, it is very imperative for those managers and employees who often work in a multicultural team to understand cultural difference and minimize the damage from cultural shock. In the MACCM module, I was assigned to a multicultural team to prepare a presentation about a case study. This provided me with deeper insight into the cultural differences during our group discussions. In this reflective essay, an analysis of behavioral differences based on the cultural measuring model introduced in the lectures will be made, followed by the exploration of the advantages and disadvantages of multicultural teamworking. Apart from that, the significance of individual personality differences will be analyzed. Finally, the influence of multicultural teamworking on my personal cultural self-awareness will be explored to demonstrate my personal alteration due to this multicultural experience.

1. Analysis of National Cultural Differences

1. A Brief Introduction of Existing Cultural Measuring Models

When it comes to the cultural aspects that fundamentally matter within multicultural management, cultural measuring models need to be taken into consideration since ‘culture’ is not easily measured. But with those models, cultural differences can be easily identified. As for the cultural measuring models, according to the MACCM lecture (Rolling, 2018), there used to be five main measuring models, including Schwartz’s universal human values, high and low context communication from Hall and Hall, Hofstede’s model, 7D culture model(Trompenaars),and GLOBE Project, which are usually used to analyze the differences of national culture. With the further study of multicultural management related to international business, the last three models have become the mainstream tools, because of their wide coverage of different level units in culture. In this essay, when it refers to the analysis of national cultural differences and the individual behavior I have experienced in my previous multicultural team-working, it will be mainly focus on Hofstede’s model because of  its domination in this field since 1990s as a benchmark of other culture measuring models (De Mooij & Hofstede, 2010). Furthermore, with 116,000 surveys collected from more than 40 countries, this model has such a huge database that it has arguably demonstrated its objectivity and rationality as it is most used in the world when it comes to this subject study. And last but not least, Hofstede’s culture measuring model, consisting of six culture dimensions, has clearly illustrated the culture features and preferences of each country with specific scores, allowing the researcher to easily identify the national cultural differences of target countries (Hofstede, 2010).

1. Analysis of National Cultural Differences of the Multicultural Team

As a multicultural team, our team comprised 4 male students and 5 female students of whom seven are Chinese, one German and one Brazilian. Thus, the analysis of national culture differences will concentrate on the comparison among those three countries. With regards to the six culture dimensions of Hofstede’s model, this analysis will be merely focused on three of them including power distance, individualism and collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance respectively because the individual behaviors during the group discussion have differed from the national perspectives in terms of those three dimensions and the other three dimensions were not sufficiently relevant within this group for further discussion.