MANAGING ACROSS CULTURES

1
Introduction

• Managing Across Cultures
• Private business goal to stabilize profits.
  Success is
  influenced by
• Foreign sales
• Foreign resources
• Government business may or may not be
  profit-motivated (i.e. political motivations)
• Why Companies Engage in Management Across
  Cultures
• Expand sales
• Acquire resources
• Diversify sources of sales and supplies
• Minimize competitive risk

2

• Reasons for Recent International Business Growth
• Expansion of technology
• Business is becoming more global
• Transportation is quicker
• Communications enable control from afar
• Costs are more conducive for international
  operations
• Liberalization of cross-border movements
• Lower governmental barriers

3

• Development of supporting institutional
  arrangements
• Institutional arrangements
• Made by business and government
• Ease flow of goods
• Reduce risk
• Increase in global competition
• More companies are managing across cultures
  because
• New products quickly become global
• Companies can produce in different countries
• Domestic companies competitors, suppliers, and
  customers become international
• Competing more and more in knowledge-based
  industries

4
BARNGA Debrief

• What did you think was going on?
• Internal vs. External Attribution
• What caused the awkward situation?
• Did I read the rules wrong?
• Was I not paing attention??
• Or, Were they cheating?
• Conclusion
• Most effective international managers ask both
  internal and external questions, rather than
  allowing themselves to immediately conclude
  either that they or the others are causing
  problems.

5
BARNGA Debrief

• What did you feel?
• Tolerance for Ambiguity
• All humans respond emotionally to ambiguity. But,
  the most effective managers know their emotional
  response
• to ambiguity (which tends to be fairly
  consistent across situations) and therefore use
  the feeling as a warning that the situation is
  ambiguous (and therefore go back into
• data gathering mode, rather than responding to
  the emotion per se).

6
BARNGA Debrief

• What did you do about it?
• Range of global strategic options
• Dominance
• Avoidance
• Compromise
• Acculturation
• Synergy
• Connections with real life examples

7
Global Strategic Options
Cultural Cultural
Dominance Synergy Cultural
Compromise Cultural
Cultural Avoidance Accommodation
My Cultures Way
Their Cultures Way