Cross Cultural Perspectives Essay Example for Free

Cross Cultural Perspectives EssayIntroductionThe world is an ever changing place. What is taboo forthwith may become a norm tomorrow. There be vast numbers of countries with various languages, religions and their cultural ethnicity. India has been referred to as a country which is a spiritedness example of unity in diversity. In todays age of capitalism and free trade, borders are soon getting irrelevant and people are migrating, more than ever before, to achieve their personal and organisational goals. It becomes all the more important to perceive cross cultural dynamics and its implications on international argumentes looking to draw out in new markets. Why understand Culture?Today we see companies looking towards new markets and industries to expand their businesses. Growth in the west is almost at its saturation peak and developed industries are looking to foray into Asian markets to promote their growth and take advantage of developing economies. There are a lot of con straints in entering new markets, businesses have to understand regional aspects and the environment which govern these markets. There are various aspects of the environment which are Political, Legal, economical and Cultural. Economic, Legal and Political environment differ in different regions and are sometimes governed by their local glossiness. Culture in worldly concerny ways influences and has a major role to define these policies. When businesses are entering new markets they can study economic limitations, political and legal environment. But Culture is a man made part of the environment(Herskovits, 1948, p.17).Geert Hofstede in 1980 explained that Culture consists of shared mental programs that control individuals response to their environment. It has been very easy to understand culture in terms of Hofstedes dimensions and compare countries based on these studies. These are Power distance, Uncertainty avoidance, Individualism-Collectivism, Femininity and Masculinity. I once came across an advertisement from HSBC, where in a polish company selling washing machines wanted to know why their sales are highest in a part of India. When their representative visits the seller he realises that the machine is used to prepare a delicacy rather than washing clothes. The punch line of the advert was if youre going to do business internationally you should bewith a bank that knows about International business During the 3rd session of Cross-Cultural Perspective we came across a task of negotiation.My secern learnings during this task were that communication style and sharing of information was vital in palmy negotiation beneficial for all. We started aggressively trying to hurtle our opinion and make the other party aware about our concern and make them sensitive to our objective. But we soon realised that the key to a successful negotiation was dealing with the other party with co-operation and being sensitive to their needs. This realisation made us reach an amicable solution towards solving the ugly orange tree case. Hence we learned that a good negotiator should possess good negotiating skills, communication, multiple solutions and too should understand the emphasis of BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement).We also learned about Leaders and their qualities. There is an argument by some that leaders are born, others believe that leaders can be made. I am of the view that leaders are not born just now made. I do have certain leanings in terms of charismatic leaders and their family tree, e.g. Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, but to larger extent leaders can be made and groomed provided they have the necessary qualities and attributes to lead and motivate people. During my work assignment I worn-out(a) a considerable amount of time in United States of the States. I was spearheading a transition project which involved training, coaching and transitioning work from United States to India. My colleagues from A merica were straight forward and direct in their communication. The instructions and information provided by them was straight to the point and often construed by me as rude. I had a opposition with my co-worker where I asked him to put in some extra hour of work. He was quite direct in refusing and also went ahead in tell me that this is not the way Americans work. I was influenced by the work culture in India and assumed that it is alright to ask a colleague to stay back a couple of hours after work. In the US, there was a lot of emphasis on work-life balance. ConclusionNow after getting acquainted with cross-culture perspectives and various theories I have better understanding between the cultural differences ofAmerica and India. I think that using the dimensions provided by Hofstede and theories based on these dimensions we can analyse and understand culture and their dynamics. These will be helpful to organisations entering new markets and regions.