for international business it is very important to manage cultural diferences as we have seen in organizations and cultures class, we have to understand that further more than the negotiation and understanding of the project there are some implications and cutural customs or beliefs that must be taken into account, besides prof. hofstede's demostrated that national and regional cultural groupings affect the behaviour of societies and organizations and he reflect them in what is called the main cultural dimensions: individualism, masculinity, power distance, uncertainity avoidance.
i would like to make a special reference to power distance which i considered its the basic concept for well develpment in an organization.
Power Distance as explained in the conference "dealing with cultural diferences" its the degree at which the members with less power of a country or organization expect and accept that power is distributed in an unequal manner. when refering to an enterprise organization the power distance is reflecated in the Hierarchy which reflects the existent uniquality were the less powerfull people always are dependent of the more powerfull, the subordinates always expect to be told what to do and there is always a diferent treat between subordinates and boss, but when its a organization with low PD the general atmosphere of working change, theres mores sence of cooperation between members, and a constant interaction between the boss and the subordinates or employees with less hierarchy in the organization.
i would like to mention some countries which have a very significant power distance, for example countries with high PD are Arab countries, Guatemala, Malaysia, the Philipines, Mexico, Indonesia and India.
and countries which have a low PD are: Scandinavian countries, New Zealand, Irelan, Denmark, Austria, Israel, Swtzerland, Britain and Germany.
i considered very important to make a research on the power distance dimension in the company or country which we will make business with, this will guide you on how to work with them, how poeple of that culture intercat or not during the negotiation process, it is important to know how willing they are to cooperate, so you can have in advantage a defined strategy on how to work with them; related to the inner organization the power distance its always a important issue folowed by respect, which makes the basis of all relations.
as an example i would like to make reference to a study made with Asian adolescents (high power distance culture) which had greater difficulty discussing problems with their parents than did Caucasians (low power distance culture). this refelcts the cultural way of relating with others, it is easily to trust and in case of companies its easily to work and give suggestions, examples and advices to others in the organization when you are part of a low power distance culture, which makes yourself uncontious of the reaction and relationship with others.
References:
conference "Dealing with Cultural Differences" by Nick B. Meyer
How culture difere, available at: http://hakunamatatajumbojumbo.blogspot.com/2009/02/culture-in-interpersonal-communication.html, posted February 6, 2009
i like the way you explain the power distancy, this is really important to know at the time of negotiate with certain countries and companies becouse you will know how people is acting and how they are guided during the negotiation process. Also very interesting the classification of the countries with high and low power distance, this can be very important to study at the moment of entering a country.
ResponderEliminarIt seems to me you really like to explore cultural issues and the way cultures differ from one another :D
ResponderEliminarYour explanation of Power distance as a cultural dimension is great. You also give lots of examples.
I also consider really important the study of Power distance in different cultures, especially in the area of cross cultural managing.
In order to successfully manage cultural diversity, it’s necessary to understand the way people are used to being treated, so that you can make your adaptation as smooth and possible, and avoid lack of productivity for being too soft, or confrontation for being too hard.