Understanding the intercultural management

Résumé du document

Today, most companies operate in the international market. Small and medium sized firms that export to the big multinationals, all have to deal with foreign partners. For these relations to be constructive, it is essential to understand the cultural context of the targeted country. Indeed, this context strongly conditions the behavior. That's why we will try to understand the various dimensions of national cultures with the Hofstede theory. Then, we will study in depth the differences that companies and employees can face with the French and German cases. Finally, we will give recommendations to succeed in certain foreign professional contexts.

An organization will work correctly only if its members share the same values. In multinational organizations, the people who do not belong to the dominant culture must be bicultural to succeed. However, the subsidiary company's staffs do not need to be bicultural; only the leaders of the subsidiary company need to, because they are the interface between the national staff and the international superstructure.

International organizations, like the United Nations and the European Union, cannot, by definition, have recourse to the use of a dominant national culture. The only viable way to manage such organizations lies in the creation of strong under-organizational culture based on trade, rather than on a national identity.

Extraits

[...] Least rules are possible and motivation is encouraged by the need of success The individualism degree The individualism degree (and personal freedom) opposed to the need for life in group, making safe but demanding in term of attachment, of solidarity, and in time spent to seek a consensus. In France and in the UK, one has to take charge of him and his family. Identity is based on the individual. The relation between employer and employee is a contract based on mutual advantages. The management is individualized on the contrary of Brazil and Philippines where we can see widened families, where the group protects the individual in exchange for its loyalty. [...]

[...] Thus the Germans do not hesitate to counter hard their superior if they detain the competence for it. The British expect from a meeting that it has an objective and that it is reached at its term, after debate and decision-taking. Conclusion: As a conclusion, we can say that the business is strictly connected to the international context. Even if the technical evolutions, the tools or common languages facilitate the communication between countries, the knowledge of the values of every country is important, not to make critical mistakes and lose opportunities or market shares. [...]

[...] In good logic, it is thus the smartest manager in the international plan which should be the best negotiator. To negotiate outside its cultural territory needs a preparation that the companies include more and more often in their training plans. Indeed negotiation seems to be the most fundamental and the most fruitful competence to succeed in an international environment. When the manager is in front of a foreign culture, he must try to understand the logics, the behaviors, the customs, the motivations and the other senses of identity. [...]

[...] That is why the Germans GMP : International Business: Understanding the Intercultural Management. need a clear situation scenario in comparison with French. Germans ask that we give them in detail all the necessary information, even resuming those already known. French, as for them, have a much opened communication system. Thereby the information circulates freely, quickly and everywhere. But even there, the German company dominates on the French company at the tasks realization level which remain spotless thanks to their compartmentalized communication system that is carefully ordered in all its details. [...]

[...] Understanding the intercultural management. GMP : International Business: Understanding the Intercultural Management. Today, most of the companies operate in an international ladder. Small and medium sized firms that export up to the big multinationals, all have to deal with foreign partners. For these relations to be constructive, it is essential to understand the cultural context of the aimed country. Indeed, this context strongly conditions the behavior. That's why we will try to understand the various dimensions of national culture with the Hofstede theory. [...]