Essay on Managing Across the Globe

Introduction

During the last few decades, the business environment has evolved significantly. From its domestic presence, the companies are embracing globally integrated strategies to compete on a global scale (Nambisan et al., 2019). To succeed in the highly competitive scenario, it is essential to have qualified employees to have the knowledge and skills to differentiate the companies’ competency for making strategic choices.

All MNC’s selects thousands of employees to take managerial positions in the international Organizations. These international expatriates undertake international assignments and belong to the same nationality as that Multinational company. With the increase in globalization, there is a high need to adopt expatriates to take up international projects. Management of the expatriates is a major focal area for the International Human Resource Management systems (Guðmundsdóttir and Eðvarðsdóttir, 2017).

Cross-cultural adjustments are a major issue that is caused by the varied differences in the social culture and influences the work performance of the expatriates (Halim et al., 2019). With increasing expatriates, the human resource management needs to focus on the cross-cultural adjustments and provide adequate training necessary for it.

Cross-cultural adjustments refer to eh cultural shocks generated when the individual cannot adjust to the different cultures in the foreign land. To adjust in a foreign land, one needs to alter an accustomed lifestyle and bring adjustments.

Cultural training develops the required cross-cultural skills and leads to better performance of the employees to work on overseas assignments (Tahir and Ertek, 2018). Cultural training improves the host country’s relationship and permits expatriates to adjust better to the new culture.

In this case, the parent company is Kraemer Textiles Inc. which has varied members. Bring a member of the senior executive team of this textile manufacturing company, which has its headquarters in the U.S.A, which produces and sells low-cost goods to several foreign countries worldwide. The company has established its expansion in production by setting as new factories in Bulgaria. It will aid in bringing down the production’s costs and bring more efficiency to production. During the initial operations, the parent company has sent expatriates to Bulgaria for facilitating knowledge transfer activities. The essay focuses on the cross-cultural issues these expatriates would face as the management for the new team set up in Bulgaria. It will also explore ways the Human Resource department can manage expatriates more effectively for creating high-performance.

Cross cultural issues and management of new teams of employees

According to Popp, 2021, cross-cultural studies can be defined as comparative tendencies in various fields of cultural analysis. It is a concept that recognizes the differences between diverse groups of people in a business platform belonging to several regional, national, and ethnic differences in several methods and desires to bridge them. Along with the emerging era of globalization, education on cross-culture has become a very crucial part of the business. On the contrary, the people associated with developing business abroad are required to learn the subtle differences in style and substance for being effective. Overall, the concept of cross-culture is becoming extremely significant with the globalization of business.

Figure1: Emergence of cultural issues across the globe

Source: (Popp, 2021).

A case study as observed by Jallow, 2021 that helps in defining the emergence of cross-cultural issues and management in the business environment revolves around Pepsi and KFC in China. Pepsi is a big multinational company that decided to expand in China. Pepsi’s slogan states, “Pepsi Brings back to life”. This slogan was translated in a very different manner to Chinese that did not meet Pepsi’s expectations in China. The Chinese considered Pepsi bringing back from death to their ancestors. This costs Pepsi a lot on a global scale. On the contrary, KFC had to face the same situation as well. The consequences were severe, which led to the shutdown of its operations for almost 10 years.

Figure 2: Trompenaars Cultural Dimensions

Source: (Wiki, 2021).

In the current scenario, Kraemer textiles Inc recently established a new factory in Bulgaria for reducing their overall costs of production. According to Wiki, 2021, organizations across the globe are dealing with a wide variety of cultures. Trompenaars suggests that cultural diversity helps in creating a better reflection of reality. For providing better insight on the cultural issues as well as management on the new teams and management Fons Trompenaars developed a cultural model with seven dimensions commonly known as Trompenaars Cultural Dimensions. The seven dimensions are:

• Universalism vs. Particularism

According to Toolshero, 2021, universal cultural ideas will help Kraemer textiles inc in identifying the right and wrong aspects. However, cultural differences persist among the employee’s standards and values are very important. It must be only departed after consultation. Kraemer textiles Inc must avoid Particularism as it promotes a feeling of dominance among the employees. They believe that personal relationships and status play a vital role in decision-making.

• Individualism vs. Communitarianism

Communitarianism means providing equal opportunity to every member of the group. While individualism emphasizes more upon personal importance. For understanding and resolving the cultural issues, Kraemer textiles Inc must follow the ideas of communitarianism. This will help the management in developing strategic decisions as per the rapid cultural changes that sometimes tend to take palace even before people realize it.

• Neutral vs. Emotional

As Dass and Vinnakota, 2021 opines, neutral culture helps in controlling emotions, while emotional culture leads to expressing employees’ emotions openly. Kraemer textiles Inc must be aware that when people from cultures are mixing in a business environment from people from an emotional culture they can be deterred by each other’s behaviors. In this case, Kraemer textiles inc must take good preparation for taking every employee’s cultural background and beliefs into consideration. This is bound to eliminate any cultural issues or awkward situations.

• Specific vs. Diffuse

Specific culture in a work environment provides people with a large share of public space. While in diffusive culture the private and the public spaces are often interwoven. Kraemer textiles Inc must be aware of the creation of such spaces as there are more high chances of a conflict. Entertaining the formation of a specific culture in Kraemer textiles in the Bulgarian factory will lead to a peaceful correlation among employees sharing a common space and value each other’s formality.

• Achievement vs. Ascription

In an achieved, cultural environment employees’ worth is determined based on how well they perform in their tasks. As World, 2021 observes, a workforce with ascribed culture is based on employees’ status and who the person in question is. Kraemer textiles inc must be aware that if employees from this diverse cultural dimension work with each other it is best advisable to deploy the experienced, older people accustomed to formal customs and manners like a manager. It is also equally important that people belonging to ascribed culture effectively make use of the well-informed people associated with knowledge and skills belonging to an achievement-oriented culture.

• Sequence vs. Synchronous Time

Sequential time can be defined from the aspect of money while synchronous time is a more abstract concept. The synchronous time is more about rhythmic group factors and time. It focuses upon multitasking. Kraemer textiles Inc must focus on creating a synchronous work environment where people from diverse cultures will get a greater opportunity to participate and contribute in multiple works at the same time. However, the manager must also be aware that the work is completed on time.

• Internal vs. External Direction 

The concept of internal and external direction in Trompenaars dimensions of culture is associated with employees’ experiences as well as the environment. There are high chances of conflict if the employees from western cultures get mixed with employees belonging to a non-western culture. As the thought process of western culture is non-directed while nonwestern culture is mostly associated with harmony. According to Barmeyer and Mayer, 2020, Kraemer textiles inc is required to evaluate whether their work environment is creating a threat for people working under Bulgarian factories or is it sensible to move on with the factors created by the society.

Overcome the problems by HR manager of creating high performing teams

Managing cross-cultural teams is the major challenge for Kreamer Textiles as they set up their business in completely different nations. Cross-cultural teams are the global groups that comprise visuals from different cultures and backgrounds. Kreamer fails to recognize these fundamental distinctions within a team as a consequence of the conflicts and frustration that can be easily avoided in order to obtain rapid production from the members of the team. Communication techniques, as well as individual frames of reference, can both contribute to these inconsistencies. Employees in Bulgaria are willing to work lengthier hours than mandatory, even if it means working from home. Workers, on the other hand, may not reflect working past the stated hours unless in an extra and their mobile plans are turned off when they leave the office. Another important distinction in style in a cross-cultural association is each team member’s pattern of communication. While some team members are not afraid to express their unfiltered opinions and ideas about productivity, those from Percival societies are more likely to ponder before speaking.

Despite the fact that teams are now the standard in Kreamer textile for planning, strategizing, and executing, managing a team is still in its infancy. Moreover, introducing fresh talents is the element of diversity that introduces a slew of new obstacles.

The following are the major roadblocks that HR to manage in the cross-cultural team:

Communication and expression

In cross-cultural teams, the integration of communicating in such a way that every employee is on an equal page is a major obstacle. Even if every employee speaks the same language and is fluent in English, certain forms of slang or idiom are frequently misinterpreted.

It is the joint accountability in the teamwork that all persons must have a strong sympathetic of the conversation way. In virtual teams, where there is no face-to-face joining, communication problems are common. In Bulgaria, the virtual team, for example, must collaborate and complete the mission on cost-effective production. In either instance, every employee must be as clear as possible in their email and phone talks to avoid misunderstanding.

It must also build a working culture of swiftly responding to inquiries, as failure to do so can be quite confusing. With the cross-culture mix of employees, care must be taken with the technology used. A team member can take even mildly sarcastic comments or jokes seriously consequently in a disagreement.

Information gaps

In order to keep on top of the data and flow of the process, every employee should be on the same page. There should be no need to manually reconcile data from different sources. In order to cooperate and perform their jobs, each member of the team must have access to the precise resources in a specific manner.

In the case study of Holley company electric (Thailand) group co. ltd, the company attributed its success to a amount of elements, the most significant of which is a robust and effective cross-cultural management strategy that other Chinese corporations should learn from. The company was founded in 2000 in Chonburi’s Amata Industrial park. Less than 400 employees in the company are Chinese. Its major products are power metering instruments and power automation systems which account for 90 percent of the Thai market and have sold 1.5 million sets of power meters globally. Holey has integrated into Chinese organizational culture with the local Thai community and has become a member of the community. At its dawn, this Chinese company’s management team at all levels and technicians were primarily made up of Chinese nationals, and its management style was Chinese in nature, focusing only on growing output and enhancing service excellence. However, this operational style results in less competition and a greater employee income rate.

In order to overcome obstacles, the HR manager of Holley’s made the decision to hire Thai employees for the executive of the company and technical department. Apart from the chief accountant and the chairman, all Holley’s other workers that. The authority of Holley’s applied Hofstede-layer of a culture where they learn how to communicate with Thai employees to comprehend Thai culture and tradition, such as thinking. Living, and working styles and eventually, to form, nurture, and socialize the Holley culture. Holley co.’s success has proven the validity of this cross-culture management strategy.

Hofstede – layers of culture

From the above case study, it is understandable that cross-cultural issues can be overcome if the administration precisely uses theories and models. Hofstede layers of culture theory are the best among them. They stated that people inescapably carry a number of layers of mental programming within themselves corresponding to various levels of culture since everyone belongs to a amount of distinct groups and classes at the same time. Hofstede lists the number of categories of culture, a national level based on one’s home country or nations for those who have travelled during their lives, a class of regional, ethnic, and linguistic affinity, as most nations are made up of diverse cultures, regions, ethnic, religious and linguistic grouping. Gender diversification is based on whether a person was male or female. Kreamer textiles need to follow these rules as they set up their business in different nations. They might face numerous cross-cultural issues from local Bulgarians and they should perform their business by socializing their employees with their work organization.

Management of expatriate assignment

Kreamer textile inc. consider foreign management as they found their business in Bulgaria. They required management expertise to be a requirement for advancement in senior management. Thousands of Bulgarians are chosen by Kreamer for managerial roles in overseas production. These international aspirants are labeled as potential expatriates and they are dispatched around the globe as business missionaries, both short and long-term assignments that provide management and or technical skills. Employees of Kreamer who work on foreign assignments are of the same nationality as the Kreamer headquarter are known as expatriates. Kreamer requires global leaders to contribute to their survival in today’s competitive environment as a consequence of rising globalization. As a result, expats are important for Kreamer, and expatriate management is a crucial, aspect of international human resource management. Kreamer sends expats to Bulgaria for abroad assignments to entail more than just assigning them to a new job in another nation. Expatriation can be followed by rigorous training and it can be seen by the process that includes home country assignment, recruitment, selection, training or orientation, worldwide task, debriefing, re-entry, and returns. All these levels will be more or less than thoroughly functioned through the sending of expatriates on assignment. The following steps are focused on managing expatriates and successful selection of proper expatriate preparation.

The six steps concerning the current scenario that is appropriate for the management of expatriate assignments are:

• Attribution Training

As Hånberg and Österdahl, 2021 suggests, attribution training plays a crucial role for the expatriates in thinking and acting like a host nation. Kraemer textiles Inc through this methodology will aim at providing the expatriates with insights up-on cultural point of view in Bulgaria. This will equally enable the expatriates to understand as well as explain national behaviors. Kraemer textiles Inc by teaching such skills will help in transforming expatriates attributes towards a more isomorphic type of culture. It must be noted that this type of training is close; ly related to creating cultural assimilation through a series of intercultural short episodes.

• Language Training

Language training plays a crucial role in training the expatriates with the business language that Kraemer textiles Inc uses in their Bulgarian factory. Fluency often takes months for attaining expertise. In the end, there are lots of benefits associated with this kind of method of training. This method is one of the strongest methods to prepare those expatriates who are suffering from a lack of language skills. If this problem continues in the Bulgarian factory of Kraemer textiles Inc then it will result in slowing down their process of adjustments. Hence the expatriates need to use common courtesy plus cultural empathy to help in facilitating with the host’s culture.

• Cultural Awareness Training

The goal of this method of training is to provide the expatriates with an insight into the concept of the differences among the cultures. According to Don-Solomon and Fakidouma, 2021, Kraemer textiles Inc will be teaching about the home culture. Their training methods include developing charts of value ranking, building up self-awareness, and exercises that help in strengthening perceptions. Some other methods must also be included that must contain self-assessments which is also a very good way of building self-awareness and acceptance at the same time. It will help the expatriates of Bulgarian factories to get adapted to the host culture.

• Interaction Training

This method is completely based upon the interaction that exists between the new as well as the old expatriates belonging to local culture. Overlaps in placements of the expatriates must be used by Kraemer textiles Inc in this method. This can be extremely beneficial for adjusting to the expatriate’s process. The benefits of overlapping the tasks might provide the expatriates with explanations of the tasks, coaching, management, and clarifying the operations that are used in the Bulgarian factory. It must be equally pointed out by Kraemer textiles that there are several cost-related issues associated with this method so it is avoided by most of the organizations but the results are very effective.

• Cognitive Behavior Modification 

According to Junnonen, 2020, this method is among all those training methods that are less used for providing training to the expatriates. However, this would provide the expatriates of the Bulgarian factory with an opportunity to name the activities that they find rewarding or punishing. Hence promoting a sense of equal participation. By providing the expatriates with such opportunities they can hopefully apply the same process in the ghost country and enable them to identify as well as focus upon the rewarding activities. This will equally promote a positive feeling of facing cultural challenges.

• Sequential Training 

It is a kind of pre-departure training that would help the expatriates of the Bulgarian factory have realistic expectations before they have arrived. As Brett et al., 2020 opines, Kraemer textiles inc must be aware of training the expatriates more efficiently especially when it comes to cultural contexts. The most appropriate reason for training in the post-arrival phase is the very short phase of time between departure and selection. Another reason for the expatriates is that it might get difficult for them to understand the social behavior of the host cultures.

Selection of expatriate, training, and rewards

Selection of expatriates

The choice to relocate the managers of Kramer Textiles to Bulgaria, which is the expansion project, also implies that critical capabilities are skills required by the managers selected as expatriates for the factory managers at Bulgaria to prove to be valuable resource (Sugavaneswaran and Šarkiūnaitė, 2021). The selection of the right expatriates is an essential goal for Kraemer Textiles to set up the aptest or suitable staff as managers for managing the factory and local team at the Bulgaria factory.

The selection of the managers for the Kraemer international project in Bulgaria must be the same as that of the domestic managers but with certain additional requirements. It is greatly important that managers as expatriates for Bulgaria must possess knowledge of the home country and foreign country culture, customs and business practice. Expatriates must have complete knowledge or can grasp the knowledge and skills of international management practices in cross-cultural work environments and regulations of then host-country. 

There is no way to chalk down the exact requirements for the expatriates who can be apt for the position as managers in Bulgaria. However, certain selection criteria must be looked into for selecting the right candidates. Firstly, expatriates must posses’ cross-cultural awareness and interpersonal skills. If thew expatriates do not possess these skills, tackling the cross-cultural adjustments in the new environment in Bulgaria will not be possible. 

Another essential point is that the experts must have families who can shift and adjust to new conditions. When the expatriates are choosing, they must shift to Bulgaria for a long time or maybe have their job base permanently in the new factory (Pombar, 2018). Hence, if the families also shift in some time with expatriates, then the family must have the ability to adapt to local cultures. 

Moreover, the Human Resource Managers need to keep in mind that expatriates will need to tackle different conditions like adjustments in interactions with local Bulgarians, adjustments to the host country, and adjustment to new working policies. Hence, these criteria are essential when selecting the expatriates for the role of managers in Bulgaria for the Kraemer Textile expansion project. In addition to these factors for the selection of the expatriates, it is a must that the expatriates have the skills technical knowledge vital for effective management and operations of the factory set up in Bulgaria. The track records of the expatriates in their performances in technical skills and work also be a selection criterion.

Training

The expense of business failure is not worth in the basis of a foreign manager, pre-departure training, and provide the huge number of expatriate managers who leave their assignment early, this is the reason, Kreamer textile does not focus on making preparation their preparations their expatriates are routinely dispatched to all corners of the world which is clearly understandable on cross-cultural interaction preparation and training is important. However, it is clearly shown that Kreamer expatriates are dispatched from all corners of the world without any or only cursory cross-cultural training. When expatriates arrive in the host country, they will almost certainly confront cross-cultural adjustment problems as well as practical dissimilarities in their everyday life. If they are not well prepared for this, it may be the sole cause of failure. At the time of process training, an expatriate who has robust concerns and reservations about many or all aspects of the international assignment has the option of resigning before departure rather than discovering their error while in a different nation. The important practices of training are included in the pre-departure phase of the expatriates in the way that increase the likelihood of finishing the assignment, pre-departure training will equip the expatriate with the knowledge, skills, and strategies that are required to deal with cultural shocks, for instance.

Rewards

The Foreign Service premium, typically between 10 to 20 percent of salary, is added to the mist schemes for rewarding expatriate personnel. Where conditions in the country are less advantageous such as Bulgaria, the hardship allowance of up to 30 percent of salary may be awarded to the employee who went to the host country. In industries with a highly mobile workforce, the remuneration scheme, in which wages are tied to the country in which the firm has its head office rather than employees’ home countries, which is prevalent instead of being tied to home country revenue, rewards could be linked to local conditions in the host country. The host country’s salary or destination is focused on what is called. From a pay and benefits standpoint, the posted employees are treated the same way as the local employees of Bulgaria.

Conclusion

The employees who take expatriates accept the international base assignments and perform better in the host country. Human Resources management pertains to effective cross-cultural management and selection, training, and rewards programs. These are effective ways that bring high productivity and efficiency for the Organizations with expatriates. In a nutshell, we can say that Kraemer Textiles Inc. is a company that has expanded to Bulgaria with expatriated as managers to work in association with a local production team in the international country. The International Human Resource Departments need to ensure that every aspect, especially cross-cultural training, adjust to a foreign land. The right candidates to be expatriates, training and reward programs for expatriates’ employees are apt for bringing desirable results. When the expatriates of Kraemer Textiles Inc. perform well with efficiency, the main aim of the parent company expanding to Bulgaria is to bring down production costs, and better efficiency will be attained. The Human Resource Department needs to hold an adequate program for cross-cultural trading align with retention, selection, and rewards for all employees going into the international project to attain business objectives. Usage of latest technologies and techniques in managing cross-cultural world environment in Bulgaria where the U.S based employees would be expatriate managers and the workers would be local Bulgarians. A communication and collaborative work environment will benefit Kramer Textiles, setting its factories in Bulgaria as part of international expansion.

Reference

Web Source

Dass, M. and Vinnakota, D., 2021. Cross-Cultural Mistakes by Renowned Brands – Evaluating the Success and Failures of Brands in Host Nations. [online] Ijtsrd.com. Available at: <https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd20268.pdf> [Accessed 27 September 2021].

Hånberg, C. and Österdahl, G., 2021. Cross-Cultural Training of Expatriates. [online] Diva-portal.org. Available at: <https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:227437/FULLTEXT02> [Accessed 27 September 2021].

Popp, C., 2021. Cross Culture Definition. [online] Investopedia. Available at: <https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cross-culture.asp> [Accessed 27 September 2021].

Toolshero, T., 2021. Trompenaars Cultural Dimensions. [online] toolshero. Available at: <https://www.toolshero.com/communication-skills/trompenaars-cultural-dimensions/> [Accessed 27 September 2021].

W, W., 2021. Trompenaars’s model of national culture differences – Wikipedia. [online] En.wikipedia.org. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trompenaars%27s_model_of_national_culture_differences> [Accessed 27 September 2021].

Wiki, W., 2021. Kraemer Textiles Inc. – Wikipedia. [online] En.wikipedia.org. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraemer_Textiles_Inc.> [Accessed 27 September 2021].

World, T., 2021. 10 Tips for Managing Successful International Assignments – TMA World. [online] TMA World. Available at: <https://www.tmaworld.com/2021/04/20/10-tips-managing-successful-international-assignments/> [Accessed 27 September 2021].

Bibliography

Barmeyer, C. and Mayer, C.H., 2020. Positive intercultural management in the fourth industrial revolution: managing cultural otherness through a paradigm shift. International Review of Psychiatry, 32(7-8), pp.638-650.

Brett, J., Behfar, K. and Kern, M., 2020. Managing multicultural teams (pp. 155-164). Routledge.

Don-Solomon, A. and Fakidouma, P., 2021. Managing Cultural Diversity: Implication for Organizational Innovativeness. European Journal of Business and Management Research, 6(4), pp.368-371.

Guðmundsdóttir, S. and Eðvarðsdóttir, S.E., 2017. Recruiting for international assignments: looking beyond technical knowledge. International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 17(3-4), pp.220-229.

Halim, H., Bakar, H.A. and Mohamad, B., 2019. Expatriation in Malaysia: Predictors of Cross-Cultural Adjustment among Hotel Expatriates. International Journal of Supply Chain Management, 8(1), pp.664-675.

Jallow, D., 2021. A Strategic Case Study on PepsiCo. Available at SSRN 3828353.

Junnonen, A., 2020. Managing a Diverse Workforce: The Role of Human Resource Management (Doctoral dissertation).

Nambisan, S., Zahra, S.A. and Luo, Y., 2019. Global platforms and ecosystems: Implications for international business theories. Journal of International Business Studies, 50(9), pp.1464-1486.

Rodriguez-Pombar, J.M., 2018. The Right Candidate: An Inclusion of Selection Criteria for Foreign Assignment: A Correlational Study (Doctoral dissertation, University of Phoenix).

Sugavaneswaran, R. and Šarkiūnaitė, I., 2021. The importance of internal and external factors for the selection decision of expatriates. In 15th prof. Vladas Gronskas international scientific conference: reviewed selected papers (pp. 113-119). Vilniaus universiteto leidykla.

Tahir, R. and Ertek, G., 2018. Cross-cultural training: a crucial approach to improve the success of expatriate assignment in the United Arab Emirates. Middle East Journal of Management, 5(1), pp.50-74.