cross culturalissues

8/13/2019 Cross Culturalissues

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Principles of Management

Cross-Cultural Issues


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Meaning of culture

There are 160 different definitions of culture

According to 'culture' scholar Clyde Kluckhohn

Culture consists of patterned ways of thinking,

feeling and reacting

acquired and transmitted by symbols, artifacts

The essential core of culture consists of traditional

(i.e. historically derived and selected) ideas andattached values."


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Different types of culture

Any group of people who have interactions

over a long period of time

country (societal),

region, religious groups

firms (corporate culture)


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Cross-cultural issues:different levels of analysis

Individual, interpersonal

Group

Organization Region

Society


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Cross-cultural issues?

India

Family, education

religion

U

Family, education

religion

UK

Me


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Issues for me Language

Norms relating to:

dress

eating

greetings

respectful behaviour : UTS - sir, standing fines

touch including male/female touch

Intra family relationships

Marriage customs


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Work Issues

ref:Cultural Savvy Consultancy in the IT Industry

Indian/US cultural issues:

Language barriers Hierarchy in Indian organizations

Indirect communication style

Time orientation Hard work versus smart work


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Language Barriers

Key challenges include:

Use of different sentence structure

Speech patterns Accents and intonation

Vocabulary

Difficulty in processing complexinformation in English


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Hierarchy in Indian Organizations

Dependence on superiors to provide direction andsolutions

Tendency to say yes to requests from clients

and superiors Agreeing to things without analyzing task

requirements properly

Lack of willingness to offer alternative solutionsand defer to authority more easily

Tendency to not ask questions for fear of losingface


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Indirect Communication Style

Using language with implied meaning

A tendency to make assumptions instead of askingquestions directly

Not directly asking the source of information forclarifications but depending on input from inner-circle ofcolleagues to explain something that was not clearlyunderstood

It is harder and may take longer to correct misdirection

Indians in general also like to make more use of bodylanguage. The Indian head nodding is legendary, agesture not easily understood by non-Indians.


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Time Orientation

Indians are more polychronic than their counterpartsfrom the West and thus tend to demonstrate a greatercomfort level with delays and interruptions in their workas well as deliverables.

They are less likely to inform the superiors or clientteams immediately when a potential delay is first known,but wait longer before communicating if somethingcannot be done;

also a larger tendency to justify the delay with a good

contextual reason. The clients may not always find outabout or understand potential problems or issues untiltoo late in the project.

Another factor which may lead to delays is that lots ofdiscussion and suggestions take place, even after the

decision has been made or conclusion already reached.


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Hard work versus Smart work

The cultural tendency in India is to beevaluated and rewarded for the effort orhard work alone.

The challenge is to redirect them so the focusis more on smart work rather than justhard work.

The intended goal is working more effectivelyand efficiently to achieve goals.


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Cross-cultural marketing

www.infosciencetoday.org

The globalization of the economic

environment had made it increasinglyimportant for todays marketing managers

to understand how to do business in

different cultural contexts. Effective

distribution of products cross-culturally has

become a critical factor for success.


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From a marketing point of view it is veryimportant for marketers to realize that asthe world becomes globalized the culturalimperative is upon us; markets in the 21stcentury are world and yet cross-culturalmarkets. To be aware of and sensitive to

the cultural differences is a major premisefor success in the 21st Centurymarketplace


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Clearly in the 21st Century we need an

examination of borderless markets where

national boundaries are no longer the onlyrelevant criteria to be considered in

marketing, economic planning, and

business decisions. Understanding cultural

borders is especially important for productsand industries that are culture bound.


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TOP 10 INTERNATIONAL

MARKETING MISTAKES


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The name Coca-Cola in Chinawas first rendered

as something that when pronounced sounded likeCoca-Cola: Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke

company did not discover until after thousands of

signs had been printed that the characters used

meant bite the wax tadpole or female horsestuffed with wax,depending on the dialect. Coke

then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and

found a close phonetic equivalent, Ko-kou-ko-le,

which can be loosely translated as happiness inthe mouth.


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10 international marketing mistakes

When Pepsi started marketing its products in

China a few years back, they translated

their slogan,"Pepsi Brings You Back to Life" pretty

literally.

The slogan in Chinese really meant,"Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the

Grave


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The American slogan for Salem cigarettes,

"Salem-Feeling Free",

was translated into the Japanese market as

"When smoking Salem, you will feel so

refreshed that your mind seems to be freeand empty."


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The Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan

finger-lickin good

came out in KFCs first Chinese campaign as

eat your fingers off.

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