Hofstede Cutlural Dimensions

Hofstede Electronic Submission Coversheet TO BE COMPLETED BY STUDENT By electronically submitting this work, I certify that This assignment is my proclaim work It has non previously been submitted for assessment Where material from other sources has been used it has been acknowledged properly This work meets the need of the Universitys ethics policy Student Name nidi kumar Student Number 9048219 Faculty FBSE Level of field of operation level 6 Course title internationa tipic business management Unit title Cross-cultural ManagementAssignment title Airbus and GLOBE Assignment tutor Peter Jordan Word count 500 Learner implore for feedback TO BE COMPLETED BY STAFF Tutor feedback Areas of Strength Areas for Improvement Grade mark Submitted on metre (Y/N) Tutor signature Date mention the key cross-cultural let ons faced by the Airbus con airium and relate these to the Globes projects clusters of business cultures. Critically evaluate the usefulness of this research in apprec iation the troubles involved and in devising viable solutions.What lessons can be learned for companies embarking on inter national projects? Introduction Cross-cultural management describes organisational behaviour within countries and cultures (Adler and Gundersen, 2008, p 13) as a result it compares the organisational behaviour across various countries and cultures and to the highest degree importantly it seeks to comprehend and advance the interaction of co-workers, managers, executives, clients, suppliers, and alliance partners from countries and cultures around the world. (Adler and Gundersen, 2008, p 13).A place that has experience of cross-cultural management and thus has its roots in several European countries is Airbus SAS. (Browaeys and Price, 2011). Outlined on the communitys website they express their desire to cut through national divides, sharing development costs, collaborating in the interest of a greater market share, and however agreeing a usual set of me asurements and a common quarrel (Airbus. com cited in Browaeys and Price, 2011, p 67). However, as time progressed evidence suggests that this has not occurred as demonstrated in key cross-cultural issues experienced by the organisation. Introduction not yet complete (Try to make a generic view of CrossCultural Management beyond companies ie consider how CC management is dealt with across indus judge sectors ( most prevalent in telecoms organizations) also what are the roots of CC management and how does it address new-fashioned global challenges/provide new solutions)) Method of Research By comparison of 2 companies ie Airbus / Globe highlighting key CC management mountes, issues and solutions (Risk of systemic flaws in approach/repea disconcert failures)YOU should compare apples with apples ie list all significant issues, select an issue eg Economic Patriotism and evaluate the approach taken by both parties / im arguing for creating A table to do this we can talk Key Cross-Cult ural Issues faced by Airbus (Related to Globes Cross-Cultural Approach) Problems Faced by Airbus (enumerate and modify in your own words) Socio-cultural & good problems. The workforce at the aircraft manu particularurer is geographically distri unlessed in proportion to national ownership stakes.In an instance of frugal nationalism, government distort private transactions among economic actors by discriminating against foreigners in the name of national interest. This lead to the decrease in the prolific efficiency. It is because of the various differences of management styles and way of chat. For e. g. comparing with the french peck, the Germans pick collective decision making, whereas the cut prefer centralised decision. At the same time the Spanish are flexible but have inferiority complex, so they have purpose to be vague and unreliable repayable to which they respond very less. Ian Stokes, 2006). The main problem is when EADS comp whatever of Airbus was occasiond, two chief executives German and French headed it. It was maintained even due to knowing the fact of the crisis caused by problems in development in A380 began. Looking from the Hofstedes cultural dimensions the French likes high power remoteness whereas the Germans prefer low power distance. So while making decisions Germans tend to interfere in the conversations while it is being dislike by France people. So this unexpectedly hurt the egos of the French people and creates a conflict between them. Hofstede. G, 1991) 1 Due to the government involvement respective countries, cost cutting measures were delayed as state aid comes to rescue their respective partner first. From this situation it seems that power id distributed unequally. The government is being self centred and looking after its own motives. Even no action id being undertaken by the grouping members of the compevery in order to tackle this issue. It is in this area that a culture shows the extent to which it tolerate s and fosters pecking orders, and how actively members try to reduce them. Mead, 1994 66) 1 matchless of the main causes in delay of the launch of Airbus A380 for two years was owing to the fact of having a complex wiring public figure system for it. There were 1,200 functions to control the plane that takes 98,000 wires & 40,000 connectors. The system has 500,000 models, which needs to be kept in sync from different countries. It was complicated and very much time consuming due the fact of the engineers being at different locations. Even the aircraft parts were create at different locations.For example nose sections are built in France, fuselages in Germany, wings in Great Britain and tails in Spain. And the final assembly were done in Toulouse (France). It unnecessarily increased the transportation cost, communication problems and foremost aspect time consumption. There was a problem with regards to software and knowledge as well. The engineers in Germany and Spain used t he aged(a) version V4 of the computer-aided design computer programme in order to design the wiring system, while the engineers in France and England used the newer version V5.This created trouble and delay while transferring the data because the some data was overhaulless while transferring files from one system to another. With regards to knowledge, French were familiar with the software while the Germans were not inexperienced compared to French. According to Hofstedes1 it seem that the French are more of individualistic in nature because they were least concerned about the nurture of its partner companys. Due to the lack of integration in engineering it resulted failure in execution. When the HRM team was most needed to train the employees communicate between them regarding the software problems, they were very busy with responding to the new legislation- such as those concerned with labour working hours and the French directive on rights of individuals to choose their own training. As the French are more type of individualism because of the preference towards centralised executive, they tend to first sort out their problems that made them busy in doing things which was not important compared to training problem. Ian Stokes, 2006) 1 (Trompenaars, 1993 8-11) 1 The top managers were busy struggling for the senior position in the consortium and lobbying for influence. These lead political goals get in the way of project goals. From this it seems that that the top managers were very much individualistic in nature. They were more interested in getting the name an enjoy being superior in the organization. They seemed to be self-achievement oriented and least concerned about the problems going on in the company.This disperse the decision making power which was most needed in problems like this. (Hofstede, 1991) 1 All this problems lead to the delay in launch of Airbus A380 for two years that was scheduled to launch in 2006. Delay in delivery constraine d some airlines to cancel their orders. This gave them loss of euro 2 billion due that they had to make drastic cuts in the size of its workforce and closure of some plants, which in turn dented their image in the market. Efforts taken by Airbus to tackle the issues. In order to tackle the design of the wiring system and the software problems, Airbus made special investment to train its employees with the help of the software supplier. They even tried to set up intercultural sessions to inspire a warm feeling of mutual understanding, but it failed to address adequately the fundamentals of co-operation. The EADS managers most of the times tried to draw attention to the common areas and similarities, rather than differences in order to tackle the cross-cultural differences with regards to perceptions and doing things. They have distributed their workforce in proportion to the ownership stakes geographically because they thought that this would increase their productive efficiency. P ut Table A in here Critical Evaluation of Research (based on analysis of table) Economic Patriotism Many organisations are forced to develop and expand themselves into new markets overseas due to the increasing maturation of domestic markets and foreign competitors. In order to gain a competitive favor over their competitors they are recognising their identity that can help them to sustain.The main motive behind this step is that by enlightening the only one of its kind temper or character of an organisation or group, all the way through symbols, communications and behaviours, it will help them to create favourable corporate image in the minds of these groups. Such differentiation will help them to create an image based on the uniqueness of its own identity, as well as creating a tendency in the minds of the people or groups as a basis for developing long-term profitable relationships. (Van, 1992) 2. Economic patriotism is most of similarly related on these theories.Economic patri otism means, punting ones surface area. Economic patriotism is the coordinated and the promoted behaviour of consumers or companies (both private and public) that consists of favouring the good or services produced in their country or in their group of countries (wikipedia) 3. According to me economic patriotism means favouring the people and practices done in ones own country, right or wrong. The main motive of the people living in their own country is to promote its thoughts, beliefs, way of doing business, etc. this is automatically done because they had been under the influence of such practices since their childhood.Its like expressing that they love their country and ready to sacrifice for it. Economics patriotism can be done with the help of many activities for e. g. imposing tariffs on imports, quota system, or encouraging consumers to purchase own domestic services and products. Now a days a new type of economic patriotism has came up that does not allows foreign investo rs to develop or acquire companies in ones country. For e. g. Arcelor acquired by Mittal (Largest steel industry). Government and political bodies are playing the main role to promote economic patriotism.Even in the Airbus case study economic patriotism has played a significant role in problems created by government of different countries. The workforce at the company is geographically distributed in proportion to national ownership stakes. So this makes the workforce far from each other. According to the company it may help them to increase productive efficiency. But in an instance of economic nationalism (whereby the people support their respective rights and countries), the government of respective countries changed private transactions according to their thoughts and practices in order to protect the local economic interests.They discriminated foreigners in the name of national interest. So political bodies came into role in order to support the local people. Their economic mo tives include the preservation of physical exertion or attraction of economic activity to a certain area. And the companys strategic motives were to include national security in order to capture rents abroad in monopolistic market. But the patriotic approach of the company proved ineffective because it conflicts with the economic efficiency, which derives from the protection of the interests of the local lobbies. pic The company tried to integrate all its employees and create a sense of togetherness but the economic patriotism practiced by the people and government in respective countries failed the companys objectives. The politicians want to win the votes from people by supporting their interest. The damaged caused by economic nationalism indirectly created inefficiency and poor performance of corporate governance. Due to this damage Airbus reputation was dented. The government did not support because it conflicted with the ideas and thoughts of the government.The cost cutting me asures were delayed because the state aid first comes to rescue the government-supported company. The competition increased because government supported companies had privileged access to infrastructure and procurance contracts. This delayed all the process in the company and unnecessarily increased the loss and the cost of production. Indirectly the Airbus suffered from takeover threats from the more effectual organisations. Finally, the national efforts to support ones interest proved to be self-defeating as other countries react in kind, neutralising the initial attempt to gain competitive advantage.Reflection of the way the company was organised. One of the causes of the delay was the complex wiring system and the software compatibility. The digital system has 500,000 models that need to be kept in sync. Despite of the fact that even a single mistake can create problems the company operated from different regions further complicating the wiring system. The seems to be communic ation gap between the employees because engineers in Germany and Spain used the older V4 version of the CAD program to design the wiring whereas engineers in France and England used the newer V5 version.Although it has been said by the software developer that both the version were compatible but the company should not have taken risks of going with different versions. Although there was claim by developer regarding compatibility the data was lost while transferring files from one system to another. The suppliers were also not involved in a collaborative effort to anticipate problems. There was lack of training and communication among the engineers as well. It can be seen because the engineers in France were familiar with the software while the Germans did not have much experience with it.This shows that there is centralised decision in the company that made other engineers lack of knowledge. They built the different parts in different region, which further complicated the assembling system due to the lack of communication related to knowledge and software problems. pen Hellemans notes that what happened in Germany was not just technical problems related to software but it was an execution failure due to lack of efficient knowledge. (Davis, 2007) 1 From the problems that Airbus faced, the company was not properly organised because it seems that relied mostly on the software developer regarding the solutions.There was even lack of training, communication and transparency within the organisation. It seems that mostly the decision were made in headquarters only, not with the consent of other people. The merger of the national components in 2001 only integrated themselves officially but mentally they were far away from each other. It even seems to be inequality from lack of technological development equally because when France & England upgraded themselves to V5 version, the German and Spain were still on the V4 versions. Lessons Learned. what are the lessons lear nt from this specific research ie outcomes from analysis of the table/also comment on the quality of the research / ie selection of evaluation parameters to compare, what if scenarios / heuristics / deductions / further research) In the real world there is not any specific best way to integrate diverse cultures within an international joint venture. It solely depends upon the situation and the kind of cultures involves. But I am nerve-wracking to be closer to individuals perception and actions that may lead to a common ground where everyone accept each other.Research Proper research needs to done onwards setting up such a culturally diversified company. Research should be on the basis of the cultural dimension of Hofstedes1 i. e. power distance, uncertainty avoidance, manlike vs. feminine, short-term vs. long-term orientation, what they like and what they dont. It helps them to integrate all their activities on the common grounds and come up with a solution that maybe acceptable to everyone. Collectivists approach As we dont have any idea about what peoples want and desires are, a collectivists approach will explore the ideas and perceptions about each other.It will gradually help to know each others ideas and beliefs that can be helpful to achieve the desired goals and objectives. Initially it may create problems but at the later stage when everybody has been know to each other it help people or employees to understand regarding what to do and what not to do. Diffuse relationships The company employees need to be considered as members of a group or an organization. They should be involved decision-making process. It helps the employees to build rapport between themselves that in turn explore each others ideas and beliefs.Their relationships with each other helps us to find how efficient the organization is and what steps need to be taken in order to tackle the cross-cultural issues. Teambuilding session should be conducted in order to create a feeling of o neness, which can increase the efficiency of a company. (Trompenaars, 1993 8-11) 1. equality If we integrate diverse cultures within international joint venture equality should be eer there in term development, technological advancement, knowledge, etc. n the Airbus it failed because Germany Spain had V4 version of the Cad programme whereas France England had the latest V5 version. So always proper standardisation should be adopted within the whole organization at a specific time. Global knowledge, local understanding the approach should be to indulge diverse cultures but the process should be local. It means any activity done should be on the basis of the activity carries out in the home country of any organisation. Proper training should be given to its employees from the engineers at headquarters because they know it better than anyone else.This helps them to consume less time and achieve perfection, stabilisation, which is considered to be vital in any industry in order to a chieve goals and objectives. Training can even be of language, way of doing things, actions, etc. Due to lack of proper training the Germans were not familiar with the software, it more delayed the project while executing the fuselages. Time focus (polychromic) Initially the top managers need to be polychromic in time i. e. the top managers need to focus on several tasks should be less dependent on detailed information hile doing these tasks. Their main focus should be on involvement with people. This helps the employees or the partners in business to be much more expressive and approach the management whenever they feel to do so. (Hall hall, 1990). References. 1. Marie-Joelle Browaeys and Roger Price arrest Cross-Cultural Management, 2008. 2. Marlo Thomas Helene Hill, International Marketing Review, Vol16, Number 4/5, Year 1999, pp 376-390. 3. http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Economic_nationalism. Read more http//www. ukessays. om/essays/cultural-studies/airbus-case-study. phpixzz 2BNsfYQjM Economic Patriotism A key cross-cultural issue which has been highlighted is the considerable damage caused by economic patriotism to Airbus. An example of this economic patriotism which caused difficulties was the issue of German and Spanish engineers using the older V4 version of the CAD program whereas the UK and France used the new V5 version. A significant reason for the rejection of the new system has been emphasized by Williams (cited in Clark, 2006) as a matter of national pride.The Germans felt the French were imposing the new system upon them, causation them to reject it. In relation to the GLOBE theory, this act can be identified as an action of assertiveness from German employees, due to the fact that they would rather emphasis on results rather than relationships. Furthermore, Webber (cited in Clark, 2006) expressed this when he explained that changing over to new software is costly and time consuming. As a result, German employees faced French imposition wit h confrontation. German and French governments also had extensive involvement causing increased economic patriotism. Will add government issues here and relate to individualism from Hofstede Reorganisation of company Airbus required a reorganisation of the company in order to improve co-ordination, reduce the costs of production and the time between conception of planes and their introduction into service. (Browaeys and Price, 2011, p 67), however this was not planned efficiently, due to the fact that culture differences would arise. A significant issue Airbus faced was the problem of having two CEOs, one from Germany, the other from France.This caused significant concerns because they had to compromise over key decisions due to each country having different cultural approaches to business. This part will be related to power distance, uncertainty avoidance, collectivism (institutional)(no consideration for others) , future and performance orientation(very undersized performance a s they are not achieving anything) Will include evidence that relates to the Airbus and globe Decentralized management Loss profits Common language didnt go as planned Gender egalitarianism I will discuss gender egalitarianism as its a key issue because in the case study evidence suggests its a male dominated job Critically evaluate In this part of the essay I will evaluate the usefulness of the theory including issues such as Data collected from 2004 (therefore not up-to-date) Quantitative research rather than qualitative Lessons learned Equality Rapport between employees More intensive research needs to be done Diffuse relationships Integrate activities on common ground Reference scalawag ADLER, N. , and A. GUNDERSEN, 2008.International Dimensions of Organisational Behaviour. 5th ed. USA Thomson Higher Education BROWAEYS, M. , and R. PRICE, 2011. Understanding cross cultural management. 2nd ed. England Pearson Education Limited CLARK, N. , 2006. The airbus saga crossed wired and a multibillion-euro delay- Business-International Herald Tribune online viewed 25 October 2012. Available from http//www. nytimes. com/2006/12/11/business/worldbusiness/11iht-airbus. 3860198. html? pagewanted=all Important choose one of the following statements (DELETE TWO THAT DO NOT APPLY) Intermediate entranceway