Cross-Cultural Management: Business With Customers From Different Cultural Backgrounds

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Cross- cultural management is a vital skill which all managers need for them to be effective in their duties. A manager who has cross-cultural skills is able to work in a variety of workplace settings without any problems. Attachments which people have to their cultural backgrounds influence the way they interact with one another.

Organizations which have embraced multi-culturalism are willing to transact business with customers from different cultural backgrounds. Managers need to be aware of underlying cultural values which influence the way employees perform duties assigned to them.

A manager who understands diverse cultural backgrounds of his employees is likely to relate with them better than a manager who does not. This report will show the role of culture in an organization and how cross cultural managers need to adapt to different work environments to achieve good results (Young).

Young reveals that cross- cultural skills help expatriates to fit in foreign environments where they have been hired to work easily. It is necessary for managers and other senior workers who work in foreign work stations to familiarize themselves with cultural values and attitudes which are dominant in their new work locations.

This knowledge helps managers improve their communication skills to help them interact well with other people there. Managers who are contracted to work in foreign work stations need to be willing to learn new ideas and attitudes which will help them adapt to their new locations.

They also need to learn cultural norms and ways of life which are practiced in those locations. Managers need to have a foresight on challenges which they will encounter while working with people in their new work stations who come from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

Managers need to nurture their soft skills to be effective in cross-cultural work settings. They need to improve their communication skills and learn proper social etiquette for them to be effective in their new roles. It is necessary for managers willing to serve as expatriates in other countries to improve their language skills to enable them interact well with other people in their new organizations.

For instance, managers who intend to work in Brazil need to improve their knowledge in Portuguese which is the country’s official language. A manager who does not understand the language commonly spoken in his new work location may not be able to perform his duties effectively. This is because he may not be able to articulate himself to his subordinates effectively. Young reveals that managers need to learn how to display courtesy and humility through their actions as this will help them break cultural and language barriers easily.

Business managers need to learn meanings of commonly used non-verbal signs to understand how people in their new work locations react to different issues. The ability to understand different signs commonly used in a foreign work station helps a manager to understand people’s emotional reactions to different issues..

Some signs and gestures send different signals and messages in different locations. In some countries, hugging is frowned upon because their cultures do not condone unnecessary body contact.

For instance, in several countries in the Middle East, handshakes between men and women are frowned upon yet in other parts of the world, this is considered as a normal way of greeting (Young). It is important for expatriates to understand modes of interaction in societies where they will be working for them to have proper knowledge on how to conduct themselves.

Managers need to take time to reflect on their own cultural backgrounds and how they affect their personalities and behavior. This will help expatriates to understand themselves and what they need to do to adapt to a different cultural environment. Managers who are globally exposed understand management systems used in different countries and regions.

It is important for managers who seek to be competent in their duties to learn how to interact with employees at the workplace. This will help them to come up with an effective approach to make employees serving under them perform their duties diligently to obtain positive results.

For instance, in China, business leaders are more authoritarian compared to Germany where managers consult their subordinates before they make important decisions. A manager who is used to the ‘German’ way of doing things needs to adapt quickly to the new corporate environment in China, if he gets transferred there (Young).

It is necessary for professionals that seek to make an impact globally to be flexible in the manner they approach work tasks. They should be ready to adapt to different workplace practices in their new work locations. They need to take time to understand commonly used business styles and how they are applied for them to make positive impacts in their new locations.

Likewise, managers who seek to improve their cross cultural skills need to learn about dominant social systems in their new locations and their relevance to communities which live there (Young). There are different social functions which are deeply revered in different countries which managers need to be aware about. This will help such managers to understand their employees and clients well enough so as to satisfy their expectations effectively (Young).

Effective cross-cultural skills help managers to manage diverse teams of employees more effectively. Managers must not try to introduce new concepts without taking time to understand how they will be implemented. They need to understand the cultural contexts their organizations operate in and how change management approaches are used.

A manager who fails to understand these situations will face resistance from employees in lower levels of the organization who have worked there for a longer period. Some managers undergo various stages of “culture shock” when they are deployed to work in foreign locations.

Such managers may find it difficult to adapt to their new locations because they do not understand the organizational behavior of employees in their new places of work (Young). Such managers may make unfavorable comparisons between their foreign work stations to their previous work stations where they were more familiar with the organizational behavior.

Expatriates should not go overboard in an effort to show they are adapting to new cultures in their foreign work locations. They should try and understand the culture first before displaying their affection to it to ensure they are not treated as objects of ridicule. In their quest to fit in, expatriates need to subdue their excitement to acceptable levels, to help them focus on tasks which need to be performed.

Expatriate professionals can be more comfortable in their new work locations if they have an open mind. This will help them to avoid being influenced by personal negative prejudices towards foreign cultures which they are adapting to. They need to be more accommodating to divergent views and opinions shared by employees and other people they work with.

Managers need to have strong conflict resolution skills to help them resolve any disagreements which are likely to occur in their new work locations. Expatriate professionals may be singled out for unfair criticism due to some political, social or economic issues which exist in their countries of origin. They need to understand how to avoid unnecessary conflicts which may have a negative impact on their reputation.

Managers who try to initiate changes in new organizations where they work may face a lot of resistance from employees which is likely to result in workplace conflicts. It is necessary for managers to be ready to compromise with their employees to ensure crucial work procedures do not stop due to unresolved conflicts (Young).

Young opines that managers who seek to be acquire cross cultural skills need to be adaptable and tolerant. They should accommodate other people’s divergent views, opinions and practices in locations they are going to work. They should not be quick to take offense when derogatory remarks are made by clients and other people during important business undertakings.

Managers who are not able to control their temper are likely to face difficulties when working in a foreign business environment. Young advises managers to be more patient and understanding so as to excel in their new work stations. Expatriates need to change the way they think about certain issues to enable them adapt easily to their foreign work stations. They need to strengthen their multi-cultural skills for them to be competitive in different global work environments.

Works Cited

Young, Rudolph. “Cross-Cultural Skills: Essential for Expatriate Success.” The Chronicle of Higher Learning, 23 Aug. 2011. Web.

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Cross-Cultural Management: Business With Customers From Different Cultural Backgrounds

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