MGT201 Cross Cultural Management —Assessment 2 — Written Report Task
o Your task is based upon comparing and contrasting the culture in two different countries. o The purpose of this assignment is to provide an opportunity to utilize your skills and knowledge to research cultural differences between countries. The assignment is based upon comparing and contrasting the culture in two different countries. o Research your reading list and the wider literature for information o • cultural dimensions, leadership style communications, decision making, managing teams and value systems of these national backgrounds
Explain in your presentation what may affect negotiations between business people from those nations. Investigate issues such as historic or recent socio-political events can influence cross-cultural relationships. You may have to read widely on the countries that you discuss. All sources MUST be referenced using HARVARD referencing style. Evidence of academic research that supports your analysis. Include at least 10 academic references from relevant academic and peer-reviewed journal articles, news articles and periodicals as well as from the Internet, Travel books, Government embassies, Chamber of Commerce.
Choose which issues are relevant to your chosen pair of countries and what your presentation should focus on. It is recommended that you create scenarios and give examples for the influences that you discuss. Prepare your presentation slides to be submitted before Group Presentation commence.
Interpersonal Communication
Interpersonal communication in the organization reflects to the communication taking place between the employees in the workplace environment that will allow them to exchange ideas, information, and other details about the assigned tasks in a given organization. It can be both verbal and non-verbal and thus it will be important for the managers to deploy such means of communication in the organization. However, challenges will arise for them when these managers will be working in different cultures and in different environment (Anzzolin, 2017). They will be required to understand the culture first and accordingly deploy these means of communication in the organization (Crossman & Noma, 2013).
Language will play a vital role in carrying out effective interpersonal communication. Hence, managers as recommended need to learn and understand the local language in a given work environment. Further, the managers will be required to prioritize messages so that he can choose what to focus on and what to ignore. He also needs to adhere to the degree of shared knowledge among the speaker and the audience; it will thereby allow him to instruct properly to his subordinates at the workplace.
Also, he needs to develop interpersonal relationships that will allow him to lower the power distance between the manager and an employee in the organization. It can be done through communication appropriate topics for discussion. The managers need to accept emotional displays of the employees and accordingly treat them to achieve desired future outcomes.
This report will focus on understanding the communication approach at Uzbekistan and Morocco. It will thereby first understand the cultural values and the approach to workplace in these nations; it will then provide recommendations to the managers so that they can communicate as per the expectations and also respect their culture, tradition, and social values (Obeng-Odoom & Jang, 2016).
Cultural screens on Interpersonal Communication
It is important for the managers to first understand the importance of culture in a given environment. They need to identify the social values, religious traditions, and even ways of communication among the local staff. It will thereby allow them to change their interpersonal communication traits accordingly and get adjusted in the new working environment. In this report, the focus will be on understanding of the cultures of Uzbekistan and Morocco that will later guide these managers to adopt to new communication mediums, channels, and approaches within the given working environment.
The managers will be required to modify their values, artifacts, communication styles, behaviors, and beliefs so that they can easily get adjusted in the new culture. It will thereby allow them to modify their oral communication, nonverbal communication, and written communication that will suit to the needs of a given culture environment (Obeng-Odoom & Jang, 2016).
The cultures of Uzbekistan and Morocco in this given case are different and thus managers need to understand the approach to different forms of communication. They also need to study the formats of phone conversation, facial expressions, body language, hand signals, emails, and text messages (Minbaeva & Muratbekova-Touron, 2013); it will thereby allow them to communicate properly with the local staff and without any misinterpretation.
Cognition and Communication
Considering the case of Uzbekistan first, it is found that the managers need to focus on intercultural adaptability and value the importance of openness and honesty at the workplace. They need to establish their credentials and authority as majority of the people of Uzbekistan respect both technical expertise and status (Minbaeva & Muratbekova-Touron, 2013). They even value firmness and dignity and thus managers need to consider taking this approach at their respective workplace. Second, they need to value the importance of cross-cultural communication and need to at least understand the languages of Uzbekistan and Russia. It will allow them to socialize with other employees of Uzbekistan working in a given organization in a better way (Noyes, 2014).
They have low tolerance for change and risk and thus intercultural sensitivity will be important for them in risk-tolerant environments. They also consider failure as a learning process and instead will encourage confidence in future ventures (Noyes, 2014). In addition, while negotiating on any of the business terms, they need to follow important instructions of the project that will be discussed during the negotiations.
On the other hand, for the manager that will start working Morocco, it is important to first understand that the roles of all the employees are strictly defined in the organization. They follow conservative behavior at the workplace and hence will follow the general code of conduct in the organization (Morris, Zhong, & Makhija, 2015). It is important for them to accept the hospitality shown by the Moroccan people in a given working environment.
However, Moroccans do not prefer personal spaces compared to other work cultures; hence, the managers need to keep distance to overcome any of such violations. Further, from the communication perspective, honor and reputation play vital roles. The managers need to avoid embarrassing situations and instead praise individuals for the projects undertaken (Morris, Zhong, & Makhija, 2015). They need to apply other communication techniques during the time of implementing any given change in the organization.
Communication Protocols
In some of the cases, the senior management authorities of Uzbekistan are found to be dictatorial and autocratic. Thus, a manager will be required to follow the instructions as provided to them. Also, cross-cultural knowledge is important for them as it will avoid time-consuming process and instead allow these managers to take effective decisions (Noyes, 2014).
However, they need to be aware of the fact that the meetings and negotiations are slow processes and the management team of Uzbekistan does not like to get rushed (Berman, 2013). However, once they establish them in a given working relationship, it will be much easier for the managers to follow other formalities of the given procedure. There is a need to keep a note of all the materials both in English and in Uzbek-language to avoid all types of cultural misunderstanding. And, also the rest of the team need to remain prepared for a given negotiation-contract in a given environment.
In the case of Moroccan culture, managers are recommended to follow the rules and procedures of the organization; they even need to consult with the senior management before taking any of vital decisions. During the time of negotiation, introductions are found imperative in this culture (Zhu & Bargiela-Chiappini, 2013). The time taken to make any decision will be long and thus managers might be required to wait for the final outcomes.
In addition, they must learn French as it is one of the most common languages used during cross-cultural communication. Moroccans are non-confrontational and they will agree to majority of the points during the discussion as they consider social values more valuable than the business values (Demangeot et al., 2013). Thus, managers need to consider these communication strategies and recommendations while working in the Moroccan culture.
Communicating across Cultures
It is important to understand that the role of culture will be vital in the process of communication. It is due to these reasons that the nations are organizing different meetings and conferences for the purpose of collaboration and also enriching their cultural values across the world. One can thereby find social and political events taking place across the world (Berman, 2013).
Once the business enterprises engage for a deal, they will assign managers of the organization to carry forward with the given tasks and complete them as per the expectations. For example, in the recently concluded events of BCCIE and of the AFS Global Conference, one can find that the key highlights of the event were interpersonal communication and communication across culture.
The managers were guided on different aspects of communication such as - improving interpersonal communication, understanding the culture and thereby adhering to the norms of formal and informal communication, developing skills for visual communication, and also adhering to the socio-cultural values while engaging with written communication (Morris, Zhong, & Makhija, 2015).
In both the cases of Uzbekistan and Morocco, it is important for the managers to understand the entire context of communication that include - sender, receiver, medium, feedback, and interference (Zhu & Bargiela-Chiappini, 2013). They accordingly need to develop the skills of - active listening, empathy, leadership, teamwork, and professionalism. Finally, they need to follow the recommendations provided to ensure carrying out successful communication at the workplace in a new working environment.