Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
In organizations that are highly hierarchical in structure and as a result have tight spans of control, Power Distance variations may be tolerated yet not accepted. The role of Individualism, Uncertainty Avoidance and Long-Term Orientation for example all could combine to completely re-order how an operations strategy is executed between two different cultures, with dramatically different effects. Mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and other forms of corporate relationships all have as their common component the need to have a consistent strategy for managing cross-cultural factors. One example of this is the decision Hewlett-Packard made to build factories in Singapore that would focus on innovation in addition to lower costs for developing and manufacturing their inkjet printers (Ferdows, 2006). The cultural aspects of expansion of Hewlett-Packard into this region were more of a consideration than the costs of labor, according to Dr. Fedrows (2006). As the culture of Singapore values education highly, and had been graduating more engineers in mechanical engineering per capita than some areas of the United States, and given the fact the Hewlett-Packard was able to standardize their operational processes, the expansion of factories into the country was successful. Fedrows (2006) points out in his studies of how companies integrate cultural advantages with process efficiencies to gain global competitive...
The solution, according to this research, is to create operational strategies that allow for both cultural strengths and uniqueness to be combined with operational aspects of performance. Taken together, organizations have proven to be more successful with this hybrid approach vs. If they had adhered to a purely ethnocentrically-based strategy of operations (Christopherson, 2007). For any operations strategy to be successful it must focus on all aspects of execution, from the cultural components to those that provide for process efficiency, integration and long-term scalability.
References
Susan Christopherson. 2007. Barriers to 'U.S. style' lean retailing: the case of Wal-Mart's failure in Germany. Journal of Economic Geography: Transnational Retail, Supply Networks, and the Global 7, no. 4 (July 1): 451-469. (Accessed March 12, 2009).
Kasra Ferdows. 2006. Transfer of Changing Production Know-How. Production and Operations Management 15, no. 1 (April 1): 1-9. (Accessed March 12, 2009).
Ross a Hammond, Robert Axelrod. 2006. The Evolution of Ethnocentrism. The Journal of Conflict Resolution 50, no. 6 (December 1): 926-936. (Accessed March 11, 2009).
Geert Hofstede, Robert R. McCrae. 2004. Personality and Culture Revisited: Linking Traits and Dimensions of Culture. Cross - Cultural Research 38, no. 1 (February 1): 52-88 (Accessed March 12, 2009).
Cross-Cultural Communication With increased competition being witnessed in many industries, Multinational companies are setting shop to new foreign markets as a way of increasing their profitability and remaining competitive. Many countries have liberalized their markets, and present advancement in technologies has made it easy for companies to open new branches in foreign markets. However, this also comes with it challenges, particularly relating to cross-cultural communication. Effective cross-cultural communication is very important
Cross Cultural Business Conducting Cross-Cultural Business Three Cross-Cultural Differences: Certainly, among the most critical differences that must be accounted for before one begins practicing business in Asia is that regarding the way that people interact. In many ways, Western and Eastern culture stem from very different perceptions of the self and, consequently, how individuals should be expected to conduct themselves in interaction with one another. Indeed, Anbari (2008) et al. highlight this issue,
opportunities to improve the cross-cultural and cultural-awareness training at Hilton Hotels International, Inc. This study was important because Hilton Hotels compete in 78 countries across six continents and hosts guests from virtually every country in the world during a given year. In order to continue to its efforts that began in the late 1990s to rebuild its eroded brand, Hilton Hotels has sought to exceed customer expectations at every
Management STYLE IN THE United States Cultural Values and Business Theory X vs. Theory Y Management the High Tech Way Management STYLE IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC CULTURAL VALUES AND Business Role of Entrepreneurship In the United States, management values, beliefs and attitudes have undergone a gradual shift away from the simplistic stance of planning, organizing and directing. Valuable managerial skills, no matter what culture is being considered, have traditionally been masculine skills, highlighting the dominant, assertive, and
Cultural Distance: How Is it Measured, And How it Impact on Global Marketing Operations The persistence of cultural distances is relevant for the global multinational marketing operations exposed to multiple cultures in their everyday activities. This indicates that marketing across border introduces complexities because it forces global marketers to tailor their approaches and practices to each cultural context they carry out their business activities. As a result, this paper will discuss
Operations Management: Managing International Operations One of the modes of business today is international operation. The reasons for entering international markets may come to an organization because of many reasons; some are a reaction to the situations in the domestic market like competitive pressures, over production, declining domestic sales, fully filled up domestic markets, excess capacity of production in the domestic market, etc. even when a foreign competitor enters a market,