Globalization and Multicultural Management

1
Globalization and Multicultural Management

• Susan Vonsild
• Interlink

2
Cross-cultural management

• Cross-cultural management studies the behavior
  of people in organizations around the world and
  trains people to work in organizations with
  employee and client populations.
• It describes organizational behavior within
  countries and cultures
• Compares organizational behavior across cultures
  and countries
• and perhaps, most importantly, seeks to
  understand and improve the interaction of
  co-workers, clients, suppliers, and alliance
  partners from different countries and cultures.
  Cross-cultural management thus expands the scope
  of domestic management to encompass the
  international and multicultural spheres.

• Adler International Dimensions of
  Organizational Behavior (1991)

3
Management challenge in a globalized world
4
Aalborg Industries Selskaber
Marine aktiviteter Industri aktiviteter Fabrikker
Aalborg
Stockholm
Rauma
Dalian
Busan
Rotterdam
Kobe
Tokyo
Qingdao
Miami
Shanghai
Nanjing
Hanoi
Guangzhou
Houston
Dubai
Hong Kong
Singapore
Jakarta
Macaé
Petrópolis
São Paulo
5
Business forms new old

• HQ-Subsidiaries
• Projects
• Joint ventures
• MA
• Strategic alliances, partnerships
• Outsourcing/Offshoring
• gtgt Mgt of operations which are located in
  different organisations in different parts of the
  world with personnel of diverse backgrounds.

6
Changing structures management capabilities

• From traditional hierarchical structures
  emphasizing either-or choices (centralization vs
  decentralization, product vs geographcial
  divisions) gtgt
• Transnational, integrated networks of assets and
  resources with multidimensional mgt perspectives
  and capabilities, and flexible coordinative
  processes.
• Managers must be able to sense and intepret
  complex and dynamic environmental changes able
  to develop integrate multiple strategic
  capabilities able to build manage the new
  organisations required to link these sensing and
  response capabilities and deliver coordinated
  action on a world-wide basis.
• Bartlett Ghoshal, Building Transnational
  Capabilties The Management Challenge (2000)

7
Changing management capabilities

• Global business management
• worldwide business strategist
• architect of assets and resources configuration
• cross-border coordinator
• Worldwide functional management
• worldwide intelligence scanner
• cross-polinator of best practices
• champion of transnational innovation
• Geographic subsidiary management
• bicultural interpreter
• national defender advocate
• frontline Implementer of Corporate stategy
• Top level corporate managemnnt
• providing direction purpose
• leveraing corporate performance
• ensuring continual renewal

Bartlett Ghoshal, Building Transnational
Capabilties The Management Challenge (2000
8
Culture as a

• problem/threat opportunity/resource
• culture gets in the way
• culture as a source of competitive advantage

9
How to get that competitive advantage?

• importance of releasing cultural synergies at
  the interfaces where knowledge, values and
  experience are exchanged
• Søderberg Holden Rethinking Cross Cultural
  Management in a Globalizing Business World
  (2002)
• Example
• Indian Global Sales Manager for a Danish company
  from his office in Shanghai.

10
Model of core problems core solutions (Holden
2002)
11
Critical Cultural Variables
Authority, responsibility accountability
Power Extent to which power is distributed
Urgency
Time The view of and way time is used
Structure Extent to which uncertainty creates
discomfort
Culture
Communication The way and style information is
shared
Individual/group Whether individual or group
takes precedence
Commitment Agreements contracts Risk-taking Konf
likt
Source Interlink
12
Multi-cultural teams
The central operating mode for a global
enterprises is the creation, organization and
management of multi-cultural teams groups that
represent diversity in functional capability,
experience levels and cultural backgrounds. Rhein
smith, The Managers Guide to Globalization
(1993)
13
Multi-cultural teams

• Guidelines for diagnosing the effectiveness of
  multicultural teams
• 1. Begin as one would with mono-cultural teams
  until there is a problem that appears to have a
  cultural basis.
• 2. Differences in national culture, while
  important, are usually secondary
• 3.The mistake made by many managers is not that
  they leap to cultural solutions from personal
  differences, but that they do not know enough
  about cultural differences to determine whether
  or not they are a factor.

14
Diagnosing difficulties in team

• A manager or facilitator should use the
  following order in examining potential team
  difficulties
• - personal styles
• - stage of team development
• - effective team functioning
• - stages of professional development
• - national culture
• - corporate culture
• - functional culture

15
Group task

• What are the evidences of paradigm shift in the
  Vicks case?