Managing Across Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Managing Across Culture - Essay Example This article will discuss diversity management from the point of view of a wide-ranging definitional perspective, professional training and acquisition of information. Contemporary studies of multinational managers specify the foremost reasons for failure to operate competitively in a foreign nation which include the manager’s â€Å"inability to adapt rapidly to a different culture; personality or emotional characteristics and inability to cope with the complexity of work responsibilities posed by the overseas assignment† (Katz and Seifer 1996, para 4). Managerial shortcomings happen not merely in the classic multi-year expatriate missions but also in short-term, more focused tasks that are oftentimes vital to the prospect of the company’s success in overseas markets. Significant inefficiency is more likely to occur if managers without adequate understanding and appreciation of the host country’s culture are sent on foreign assignment. ... Apart from the nationality of the manager selected for the task at hand, selection, training and socialization aspects continue to be a crucial part of increasing managerial achievements (Dowling, Schuler & Welch 1994). It is a common agreement among multi-national firms that there is no alternative for on-the-job expatriate training in the premature stages of executive growth. For instance, Colgate-Palmolive, whose foreign sales correspond to two-thirds of the company’s annual sales of $6 billion, recognizes international managers as those who have attained considerable first-hand experiences in various environments (Lublin 1992). Therefore, a multi-national firm’s success profoundly depends on the capability and competence of expatriate managers. Hence, there is an urgent and significant need for a solid and useful training ground for the expatriates. Nevertheless, MNCs initially consult theories regarding expatriate training in order to come up with a viable activity -based management plan that would produce efficient, spirited and open-minded expatriate managers. Hofstede’s and Trompenaar’s Theory of Diversity Management Geertz Hofstede, equipped with a vast record of cultural information, examined the outcomes and discovered evident trends of difference and similarity among the feedback alongside the five cultural dimensions (Lucas 2006). His study was conducted with IBM employees only, which enabled him to ascribe the trends of national differences in culture, mainly eradicating the diversity issues in organisational culture. The five dimensions are: (1) power distance; (2) individualism; (3) masculinity; (4)