Is the cultural diversity facing the global business primarily a concern for Marketing or Human Resource Management?

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Global businesses are a reality nowadays. The development of technology, the decrease of tariff and non tariff barriers, the creation of international trade values and institutions such as the World Trade Organisation (created in 1995 as a successor for the GATT) allow companies to trade worldwide with less and less constraints. Between the end of the 1970's and the end of the 1980's international exports have been multiplied by three and are still growing. Thus, companies operate in more and more countries. It is not unusual to see companies trading in more than 50 countries. General Motors sales its products in more than 160 countries, L'Oreal employs people of 86 nationalities, and ATT delivers communication services among 81 countries… However, even if legal and technological constraints have decreased, companies are still facing some difficulties when they move abroad. Actually, selling products in 160 countries means convincing people of 160 different cultures. Managing people from 86 different nationalities implies constructing work relationships between people that do not have the same culture. Because of this cultural diversity, global businesses are now facing cultural constraints.
Because this diversity has direct impact on Marketing and Management policies, one can wonder if it is primarily a concern for Marketing or HRM.

Extraits

[...] For instance the producers of the children's game Pokémon had to abandon the export in Saudi Arabia because gambling is un-Islamic (Daniels and al, 2004.) In the other hand Bongrain, the French cheese giant is successful abroad because it adapts its cheeses to the local tastes (Daniels and al, 2004.) Concerning the promoting decisions and particularly advertising and branding, marketers will mainly face cultural diversity due to languages, aesthetics and values of the foreign costumers. Language will be the first issue to sort out when launching an advertising campaign or a brand name. The first question marketers will have to answer is: which language should be chosen? In countries where there are several languages, one should not be mistaken. [...]

[...] Because of this cultural diversity, global businesses are now facing cultural constraints. Because this diversity has direct impact on Marketing and Management policies, one can wonder if it is primarily a concern for Marketing or HRM. To answer this question, it could be useful to go back over the features of cultural diversity. Then we can try to define which manager will have to be more aware of cultural diversity: the marketing manager or the Human Resource manager? Dealing with cultural diversity in organisation will impose managers to be aware of the large range of possible consequences that can have differences in cultures. [...]

[...] Few people will be aware that in Islamic societies “wealth is to be used to satisfy basic needs in moderation” (H. Mühlbacher and al p192-193.) Values, attitudes, customs and manners are also a topical component of cultures. This part of cultural diversity will maybe be the most difficult to apprehend for multinational managers. First, they govern the daily life of the people and consequently have consequences in quite all part of human activities: the way of eating, speaking, thinking, drinking, offering presents or celebrating feasts for instance. [...]

[...] To the question “which of the options on work and leisure seems most desirable to the answers were: Linked with all these components of culture, aesthetics will also be a part of the cultural diversity. In addition to these basics of culture, several models have been designed to apprehend cultural diversity. These models often focus on behavioural elements of culture and can be useful tools to use for both marketer and Human Resource manager to have a first idea of the culture they will be confronted with. One of the most known is the one drawn Geert Hofstede. [...]

[...] Is the cultural diversity facing the global business primarily a concern for Marketing or Human Resource Management ? ESSAY TITLE Global businesses are a reality nowadays. The development of technology, the decrease of tariff and non tariff barriers, the creation of international trade values and institutions such as the World Trade Organisation (created in 1995 as a successor for the GATT) allow companies to trade worldwide with less and less constraints. Between the end of the 1970's and the end of the 1980's international exports have been multiplied by three and are still growing. [...]