Managerial Practices and Cultural Issues

Learning Objectives

1. To understand how, why and how much does culture impact management practices.
2. To identify key factors on which culture can be mapped or compared.
3. To understand ways in which managers can prevent issues at multi-cultural work places.

Case let – Uber’s Awakening

Although much of an organisation’s culture depends on the country of origin, a lot also depends on
how the organisation’s vision and values are stated and interpreted. Uber has been in the spot light
in 2017 ever since former Uber engineer Susan Fowler (see image 1) went public
to disclose the sexual harassment she went through and the insensitivity that
the Human Resource team showed to her when she approached them with her
complaint. Soon after this, Uber was in trouble and had to not only investigate
the problems but also repair the damage it had taken in the eyes of the public.
Post the investigation conducted, Uber realised that there was a problem with
how communication both verbal and in written was carried out and interpreted
which needed to change immediately. For example, the rooms designated to
1
negotiate, resolve conflicts or hold meetings were previously labelled as the .
“war rooms” and have now be changed to “peace rooms”. The phrase “always on” was now
beginning to seem misleading since being in work mode 24x7 is not the right way any organisation
would want its employees to be and that this could
have an impact on how they react in situations.
Until the exposé, some of the values such as ‘toe-
stepping’ and ‘always hustling’ (out of a total of 14
listed by the company) were redundant and were
simply cited as the reasons to back up the culture at
Uber.

Just two days after Susan Fowler’s post, Arianna

Huffington (see image 2), (the only female board
member at Uber in those days) publically
announced plans to bring about changes out of a
dire need to improve the culture. In a staff meeting
held the very same day, while expressing that
change is about to come, she clearly admitted that the culture was toxic and
that that day onwards there would be zero tolerance for those found guilty
in the investigation as well as those whom the investigations deem as
deterrents or dangerous by virtue of their behaviour. Soon, the investigation
into the matter being carried out by U.S Attorney General Eric Holder came
to an end and the findings resulted into dismissal of as many as 26
employees to reassure the strong commitment that the company had
pledged to bring about a change. Post the incident, a number of efforts have
been made by Uber to communicate to the public as to the problems they
realized that existed in the culture, along with a list of as many as 47 changes
that it decided to make. 2
.
 Introduction

There are many ways of management that have been drawn out over time. There is the American
way, the Japanese way and so on. However, their very names suggest that they may not necessarily
work in places other than where they originated. This is because some countries may be following
individualism whereas others may be following collectivism. America has individualism and
capitalism both woven into the very fabric of its society. The business community in India on the
other hand has been known to embrace a great deal of emotional intelligence in their day to day
working. For example, in America, a leader in an organisation will still be considered effective and
respected if the numbers are being achieved at any cost. Even if it means that the organisation has
to say goodbye to a fair chunk of employees without having any empathy for those affected
whatsoever. In India however, such a phenomenon is likely not to happen although lay-offs if
necessary might still be carried out. When it comes to respect however, there is certainly a gap.
History has shown that in the United States, if a top level employee is fired from an organisation for
having been known for notorious behaviour of some sort, he or she will still manage to get a call
from another organisation that needs the employee for the experience he or she holds or for the
sheer competence. Contrasting that with India, a disgrace even if not proven guilty can change the
fate of an employee’s career. This is because there is more to the term “intelligence” for us Indians
than it is for the Americans. The emotional energy is what constitutes this addition to the
interpretation of intelligence when viewed as a whole. Not only does our education system
emphasise strongly on aspects like respect and responsibility, it is ingrained into the very culture
that exists in the households and in between family members.

In Pune, a business school mandated the students to involve themselves in some or the other form
of social welfare tasks which was to be closely monitored and recorded by the institute to check
adherence. However, soon after the new practice was put in place, it was found that there was a
self-driven willingness among the students to perform tasks of such nature and that it was not just a
result of sheer compliancy, allowing the institute to do away with the efforts of monitoring.
 1. WHY CULTURAL DIFFERENCES EXIST

Decision Making vs. Authority

Often studies have boiled down to two major aspects on which confusion is created when a different
culture is exposed to an employee, team or an organisation. The first of them is Decision Making –
Who all are involved in the decision making process? Who takes the final call? - And the second is
Authority – How much should an employee factor in the rank of another person while
communicating and how should one alter the body language accordingly. Understanding each of
these is important because in present times,
most opportunities of growth and
partnership lie in countries like India, Russia,
China etc. wherein hierarchy and authority
are usually considered as important and thus
inducing autonomy or authority at the lower
levels may prove to be detrimental. In most
cases decision power holds with those high
up in the hierarchy but it is not necessary
every time. Moreover, the approach to
decision making is also different in different
countries. In some countries such as Japan
and Germany, decision means a lot many
people getting committed to something that can’t fail once launched or implemented and hence the
decision has to come out with a considerable amount of people getting involved and a lot of thought
process. Whereas in countries like China, Bangladesh, Russia, decisions may not only be arrived at
relatively quicker but may also be subject to revision or change as per the need. In the United States,
sometimes a decision is taken for the sake of it instead of taking no decision at all as it is considered
that some decision taken will take the company a step forward. Also employees in the US are
habitual of seeing decisions being taken by the ultimate bosses that may at times contradict advice
and inputs taken from subordinates. Interestingly, in China, subordinates will not share feedback or
give suggestions unless and until asked for, or being explained the ultimate goal and aim of a project
and correlating that with their present processes/tasks/practices.

For these reasons, mergers/acquisitions/joint ventures may sometimes end up being failures
despite the fact that one or both of the companies involved in such events perform flawlessly on
their home turf or independently. That is why it is important that when teams or individuals from
two separate cultures are to come together for a particular objective, the difference in the way
meetings are conducted, opinions are taken, business is carried out in each of the cultures is
explicitly explained beforehand.
Different Takes on Similar Practices in Different Countries
Sometimes, there may be a gap between what the companies identify as the right step to take or the
solution to offer for its employees, and, what the employees see as right or wrong. An interesting
case of a Fortune 100 company from the west looking to absorb expats, creating packages to attract
them, revealed that the house allowances were designed keeping in mind the number of members
in the employee’s family and not the employee’s rank. It turned out to create confusion amongst the
organisation as to who was actually powerful in the organisation. In another interesting case, a firm
based out of the United States that always kept the “one person one responsibility” approach,
decided to stick to it while aligning its newly set operations in other countries. In some countries this
approach backfired as the firm ended up recruiting more than it needed and in some cases even
made the employees feel like they are not competent to handle more whereas they were actually
habitual of taking care of multiple responsibilities together. Thus HR experts advise a recurring
practice of taking a “Culture Inventory” in large organisations at stipulated intervals of growth. This
inventory would help organisations take necessary measures to create balance and to cater to
specific needs of those that have moved in from foreign cultures.

Pamela Hinds, a professor of management science at Stanford, has known to be an active researcher
in the dynamics of work practices in accordance with culture. In June 2016, she shared insights of
three interesting experiments she conducted. In the first, she studied the effects of An American
high tech company’s initiative to replicate so called “innovation practices” in the company’s
counterparts in China and India. The practices included a shorter development cycle, which in the
US, was taken as the right way for employees to have opportunity to experiment and practice more
autonomy, therefore giving them more opportunities wherein failure only meant as an opportunity
to learn. In India however, employees saw this as an opportunity to not only align their skills with
best practices that the west brought, but also to include and engage customers in the earlier stages
of business processes. In China though, speed meant efficiency and that a tighter schedule would
usually send across a message to employees to sharpen their focus on meeting deadlines. However,
by doing that, they kept innovation in product design aside. Unlike India, the Chinese saw involving
customers in the preliminary stages as an unreliable practice.

Also, as a part of the innovation practices, the US firm replicated their innovation centres containing
large expanses of both indoor and outdoor spaces, in a campus located a few hundred metres away
from the main office building with the idea that such spaces would help employees to brain storm
and ideate. For the Chinese, it was hard to be a part of these centres as they were accustomed to,
and preferred working on their own desks designed in a manner that restricted unnecessary
communication with colleagues, so much so that eventually they had to close the separate centres
as all the employees had shifted back to the main building. Although there was less opposition of the
idea from the Indians, they did express that they found it hard to collaborate in open spaces and
longed for closed spaces like conference rooms and cubicles. Unlike the Chinese however, they did
not voluntarily shift back to the main building till they were asked to do so. A key point to be made
here was that in the Chinese campus, there was no liaison to assist them with the transition and so
there adaption was a failure, which was not the case of the Indian counterpart. It may thus not be
right to say that a conscious effort only can guarantee such adaptation, because such change of
practices could have been equally likely been accepted than rejected on grounds of imposition.
However, without conscious efforts to explain the reason, subjects of the experiment were (as seen
in the China case) less likely to understand the essence of the new practices.

In the second study, Pamela interviewed employees from 9 different software firms that collectively
covered India, Germany and the United States. The experiment revealed how each practice had a
different effect on employees in each of the countries. For example, there were some practices laid
out for employees’ career path that motivated the Americans and Germans but made the Indians
dissatisfied causing some of the employees to make efforts to look for other jobs. The Indians
usually valued maximum contact with their managers for supervision and feedback whereas the
Germans and the Americans preferred autonomy and expressed that they were better off with
lesser time devoted to feedback and supervision. The flat organisational set up that exists in the US
and Germany was disapproved by the Indians for they feared losing opportunities for promotions
and growth. To cater to this dissatisfaction, when the Indians were subjected to rotational practices
so that there was some perceived assurance of learning and growth, they seemed to regain their
peace and comfort.

In the third study, a company was under the magnifying glass for its collaborative technologies in its
offices set up in the US, Japan and Mexico. As expected, differences were observed despite similar
processes, responsibilities and duties. In Mexico, since predicting traffic was next to impossible,
‘work from home’ was an option that most who could exercise, resorted to, whereas in Japan, there
was strict belief that work could only be done in the office and not elsewhere. Also, the Japanese
seemed to believe that for meetings, dedicated devices and systems offered by third parties were
the right thing to invest in and to employ, whereas in U.S and Mexico, mere freeware and webcams
were simply employed for the same.

Interpretation of Time Related Instructions

An interesting anecdote cited by one of the writers on the Harvard Business Review website, reveals
how people from different countries took instructions related to time. The writer invited tourists
from various cultures in a lake in the countryside somewhere in Europe. She reveals that the
Germans arrived about 10 minutes in advance, whereas the Belgians were right on time, the
Americans missed punctuality by a few minutes whereas the Lebanese turned up almost an hour
after the Americans did. Surprisingly, on interrogation, each community expressed that they felt they
were right on time. This showed that different cultures had different perceptions of timeliness and
deadlines. Miscommunication of time puts trust at risk. Thus a manager who is leading employees
from various cultures can elaborate instructions about time to reassure that both are on the same
lines. A manager must also factor in the cultural buffer time that arises out of sheer tradition. For
example, Siesta is the term given to a short nap that the Spanish are habitual of taking post lunch
due to the warm weather. In fact, most of Southern Europe is known to have such a tradition and
thus most offices in these areas factor in the Siesta time while formulating working hours. As
competition has increased and so has awareness on the need to be dynamic and adaptive to global
business practices, the Siesta time is no longer taken into account by the multinationals. Talking of
power naps, In China, if an employee is seen taking a nap on the desk, it is considered as an after
effect of hard work and dedication and is respected by letting the employee sleep for a while rather
than waking him or her up and ridiculing for being ineffective and lazy.
Digitalisation - a Hurdle
A prominent digital analyst, Brian Solis, disclosed the findings of The Digital Cultural Challenge, an
effort to study whether digitalisation and corporate culture had any impact on one another or not.
As much as 62% of respondents expressed that the biggest hurdle for their company to go digital
was the kind of corporate culture that dwelled within. The overall finding throughout the study
revealed that there was a significant amount of gap in the perception of existence of a digital culture
in the organisation in between the employees and the senior management. It was found that not
only were there no performance indicators aligned to the digital shift, in most cases, the senior
management never failed to set a vision for the digital drive in front of the employees. So, a gap in
the effort to communicate in turn created a void in the strategy formulation and execution part of
the drive.

Agile Work Culture

In the business world, there exists a concept called “Agile Working”. The essence of the term relates
to practices that improve talent retention, increase productivity and optimise workforce by
matching an organisation’s resources to its clients’ demands. Agility has become absolutely critical in
today’s world thanks to dynamics of business environment. Hierarchical, control and command
structures will thus pose as hurdles to agile functioning. Only those companies in which senior
management can diffuse responsibility and decision making authority top down can create and
maintain an agile working culture.

Mismatch between Age and Style

It is not necessary that cultural issues arise when there is more than one firm in the picture or when
the differences arise due to nationality, ethnicity, religion and other such obvious factors. An
organisation may face cultural issues within despite having a homogeneous mix of culture. Clyde
Group, a Washington DC based communications and public relations agency, once conducted a staff
survey and the results came as a shock to the managing director Alex Slater making him realise that
there was a need to change the culture within the company immediately. The results of the survey
revealed that most of the employees had plans to leave the organisation in a year or two and rated
the office environment as average. Moreover, none of the employees felt that their compensation
was adequate. Employees that were responsible for getting the work done (mostly in the 20 to 30
age range) admitted being afraid of being ridiculed for committing mistakes and that a 60 hour
working week was taxing for them. Alex expressed in an article that he could relate this comment
with his tendency to drop in e-mails to the employees at odd hours or on weekends expecting
immediate responses. He felt the need to hire a consultant to investigate the matter and rework
practices and policies. Post the consultant’s analysis, the working week was reduced to 40 hours,
mistakes if committed were taken in as opportunities for learning and employees at all levels were
encouraged to walk in with suggestions and complaints devoid of fear of conference. A post-
implementation survey confirmed the positive impact of the new practices when as much as 85% of
the employees agreed to the statement “Clyde Group is a fantastic place to work”. The culture in
small companies usually flows down from the top where usually the owner or a CEO commands.
These people have a rigid mentality of how things should be done and expect others to follow suit.
This is where the problem starts.
In another U.S firm, an analysis of the exit interviews drew key insights for the human resource
department. The exit interviews made the firm realise that there was lack of clear organisational
structure and internal communication practices making the offices a frustrating place to work in. The
need to scan the exit interviews resulted out of the fact that the HR department found it difficult to
hold and hire enough employees to reach a certain level of talent inventory in light of the company’s
plans to expand business. Introspection within the company’s day to day activities made the HR
team realise that the start-up culture like working did not fit with the employees most of whom
were mid-aged and performed important roles only as a part time engagement due to their
associations with other companies simultaneously.

It is no surprise that, increased global nature of business, is the key reason for cross cultural
workforces to be born. If an organisation does not understand the nuances that come with
globalisation, it will expose itself to risks. This is because as the global workforce ages, the impact of
diversity due to gender and ethnicity only gets stronger and usually employees crossing borders of
their homeland usually tend to have higher demands from the human resource management.

Work Culture Issues due to Gender Disparity

Another researcher, Michael J Berens highlights another aspect of workplace culture issues. His
perspective is based on gender. In an article posted in September 2007 for multibriefs.com he has
cumulated various findings by various researchers on the shocking yet omnipresent peculiar type of
disparity that women at managerial positions have to go through. At the very root of un-biasness
towards women on the professional front be it – compensation management, hiring, promotions, - is
the very practice of undermining a woman’s ability to perform to her max, thus putting them at a
disadvantage always. It is no surprise thus that the findings of a research conducted by one of the
lecturers at Middlesex University, Dr. Danilel Lup, revealed high dissatisfaction amongst women who
were promoted in work places that were otherwise known to have a flexible work culture, decent
promotion opportunities and handsome pay packages. This dissatisfaction as per Dr. Lup is nothing
but a result of widespread discrimination against women at work. This discrimination is more
towards the form of disrespect and disregard than withdrawal of perks or benefits, and so despite
bagging a promotion, their performance diminishes thus reinforcing the belief that lingers in the
minds of the narrow minded male chauvinists.

Toxic Work Culture

Sometimes, the atmosphere in an office turns such that employees begin to exhibit harmful
behaviour which is detrimental not only for the health of the business but also for the emotional
wellbeing of all the current and future employees in the office. To list out the signs of such a culture
would mean to write a separate booklet altogether however, the reasons by and large are a few
which can be individually pointed out easily. First, there is a lack of, or diminishing sense of
sensitivity of courtesy and conduct. Second, there is widespread cynicism. Third, there is lack of fear
of consequences. Fourth, the sheer number of people attached to such behaviours outnumbers
those not exhibiting the same, making them feel that it is the very culture of the organisation and
that there is nothing wrong in it. The most important of all, there is unawareness of, - or the
unwillingness to acknowledge the above. The signs, if to be grouped under common heads, would
usually fall under – Unfairness, Illegal or Immoral Activities, Offensive communication of various
sorts, Risk of physical injury and Wasteful discussions.

2. UNDERSTANDING CULTURES

There are two types of cultures mainly – Corporate – that forms out of the practices, values and
beliefs of a company, and, - Societal – that forms out of one’s personal experience in formative years
with family and friends.

The Dimensions of Culture

The impact of culture on values at workplace has been comprehensively studied by Geert Hofstede
(see image 3) and the five dimensions of culture he identified are till date considered as the primary
tools for classifying countries with respect to their culture. The
way a society takes the inequality in distribution of power across
various levels in a hierarchy was termed by him as Small vs.
Large Power Distance (coded as PD). The inclination of a
community to place self before the society or vice versa was
tagged as Individualism vs. Collectivism (IDV). Masculinity vs.
Femininity (MAS) Precedence of valuing ambition, assets, and
3 competitiveness was termed as Masculinity whereas in
.
contrast, Precedence of quality of life and relationships was termed as Femininity. Strong vs. Week
Uncertainty Avoidance (UA) Preference of rigidity in rules and structure was called Strong
Uncertainty Avoidance whereas acceptability to changes and reforms referred to Weak Uncertainty
Avoidance. The newest addition to these factors was called Long vs. Short Term Orientation (LTO)
wherein cultures that value Long Term Orientation, considered social obligations and family time
important than anything else. Identifying such factors has made it easy to relate and grade a country
and its culture.
 Illustrations taken from www.hofstede-insights.com

For example, Hostfede’s studies revealed that workforces in Japan give high importance to fixed
gender roles, importance to rigid rules and structures and long term goals orientation, while keeping
individualism and power distance on the back seat. Usually in Japanese companies, decisions are
arrived at through consensus built by the top management by taking in hints and advise from the
middle level management who in turn draw policies and procedures that are based on the
information they receive from the operation level staff. In this manner there is smooth
synchronisation maintained in between the various levels of the organisation. Many companies that
belong to Japan have famous management concepts that have been studied, reviewed and
appreciated worldwide. Example – Kaizen developed and followed Nissan.

In contrast, Chinese organisations have a different way of functioning. Instructions usually flow
down the line with an expectation that they have to be followed with rigidity. This sometimes may
be dangerous since the lower management tends to avoid confrontation on the context of warning,
advice, suggestion and feedback. The Chinese scripts contain a lot of metaphors and so, even official
documents such as agreements may contain lot of ambiguity, allowing partners to deviate from the
projected promise. When it comes to building and maintaining relationships in business, any
gratifying effort as long as perceived acceptable by society, is made and is the norm across the
various sectors.
Likewise there are certain set characteristics of work culture linked to other countries, - Germans
work culture’s ultimate focus is on product quality, Swedish prefer a relatively flatter organisation
with lesser levels and so the functioning is team-orientated.

Comparing Cultures
With so much of research already carried out to understand difference in culture, the business world
is not devoid of misunderstandings and difference of opinions. This is because culture as a concept is
too complex to be broken down into characteristics and be associated with nationality or ethnicity
which in turn leads to stereotypical assumptions. For instance, in some cultures, effective
communication may mean simplicity, clarity, repetition for confirmation whereas in others it may
mean use of fluttery language, metaphors leaving much for the receiver to interpret and imagine for
one’s own self. “Constructive” is the adjective that the working creed uses for feedback to
communicate the essence of it being beneficial. Some communities consider blunt and direct
feedback as apt to fit the adjective whereas others suggest diplomacy is the key.

Overall, cross-cultural business has been influenced by specific aspects identified over time such as

- Evaluation – Direct vs. Indirect Negative Feedback

- Persuasion – Specific vs. Holistic
- Disagreement – Avoidance vs. Confrontation
- Leadership – Hierarchical vs. Egalitarian
- Decision Making – Top-down vs. Consensual
- Communication – Implicit vs. Explicit
- Trust – Relationship vs. Task
- Time Schedules – Flexible vs. Organised

All countries on the globe are so inter-connected that it will be unjust to say that businesses are not
competing globally in some way or the other. Sometimes the difference between the success or
failure of doing business in a foreign country may simply lie in how much importance has a company
given to obtaining sensitivity towards one’s culture and the understanding of norms and practices
that are ideal to the culture. This would also mean that an understanding of the society has to be
gained, because most cultural learning comes to an individual from one’s childhood by recalling
one’s experiences and interactions within families and friends. Thus, this tedious task is a committed
call that enterprising companies may have to take when expanding business beyond borders or
attracting talent from other parts of the world.

Mapping Culture
Managers may refer to published material from various authors that maps countries and cultures on
factors such as those mentioned above, and develop their very own improved versions as guides in
accordance with the culture mix that reports to them. Erin Meyer, an American professor and author
based in France, known for her book – The Culture Map, that is a result of 13 years of study of
cultures across the globe, created various scales and maps some of which are given on the next page
(see image 4 - Culture Map, 5 – Trusting Scale , 6 – Comparing Teams Across Multiple National
Cultures).
 4

6
 3. MANAGING CULTURAL ISSUES AT WORK PLACE

Having known the various issues that companies face when there are people from various cultures
involved, all coping strategies discussed by experts, authors and academicians till date can largely be
linked to one of the following four heads. – Structural Intervention, Managerial Intervention,
Adaption and Exit. Which strategy to choose depends on case to case, however preference and
recommendations for Managerial Intervention has been the most out of the available strategies.

The solution to this problem lies in creating “Inter-cultural Managers” who would be trained in a way
such that they are able to bring employees from diverse backgrounds at a common ground thus
breaking the barriers that cause hindrance to effective communication. After all, it is communication
that is the core essence of understanding variations in culture since it does not only encompass
words, it may relate to actions, behaviour etc. Taking humour as an example, in Europe, the attempt
to crack a joke in between a serious discussion is taken positively and is seen as an attempt to
lighten the meeting or ease the tension. In China or Japan however, such an attempt will be judged
as inappropriate behaviour or lack of maturity.

To avoid cultural differences, Pamela Hinds from Stanford University, made a few recommendations.
First, she suggests that one must focus on the desired outcome or the intent rather than specific
behaviour or action. This give the employees to adapt at their pace and in their own ways so that the
ultimate objectives are achieved. She emphasises the importance of a liaison to bring in a sense of
comfort and guidance during the transition so as to maintain the overall spirit of the efforts. She
insists that compatibility is the right approach and not replication. She strongly supports
experimentation in the process to adaptation as it may not be necessary that the management find
an ideal solution in the first go.

Bryan Walker from IDEO, San Francisco and Sarah A Soule from Stanford University, have
emphasised that change of culture can simply not be brought about by sheer imposition of
mandates. They insist that change must be brought about as a movement in which senior
managements and facilitates employees to bring about the required change.

Developing Intercultural Sensitivity and Competence

Ultimately, it is a manager’s duty to develop intercultural sensitivity and competence, for which
many attempts have been made to understand what comprises of such an understanding. The
model of Intercultural Sensitivity given by Dr. Milton Bennett explains a 6 staged process to attaining
such sensitivity in increasing order of the effectiveness and proximity to the ultimate goal.

1. Denial – is when one simply denies acknowledging that cultural differences exist. This is
usually because one tends to avoid facing the possibility of such a difference and in most
cases; there is lack of interest towards the same.
 2. Defence/Reversal – Defence is when there is a strong attachment with, - and a high regard
for one’s own culture despite recognising the presence of a cultural difference. One usually
tends to see the other’s culture as a threat to self-esteem. The opposite of Defence is
Reversal which is seldom the case, as it means that one start’s to regard one’s own culture
as inferior to another usually caused by immense immersion into or exposure to the other
culture.

3. Minimization – This is when there is awareness and acknowledgement of cultural

differences yet the effect of the same is minimised thanks to the approach of common
humanity that people keep, the essence of which is to disregard relevance or importance of
such differences.

4. Acceptance – This is when there is deep understanding of one’s own as well as others’
culture. Not only is each culture valued and considered at par and valid, there is some sort of
appreciation for the values that one can incorporate from the other culture.

5. Adaption – This is when an individual temporarily shifts one’s own behaviour and thought
process to assess a situation from another culture’s perspective.

6. Integration – At this final stage, one tends to have a deep understanding of various cultures
from which efforts to integrate values so as to enrich one’s own cultural identity, are taken.

To assess how much of intercultural sensitivity or competence has been attained; Milton Bennett
and Mitchell Hammer’s Intercultural Development Inventory tool proves to be of great help. It
consists of 50 factors that are valid across various cultures and that can be assessed using reliable
statistical procedures. These 50 aspects are measured against two versions of attained stages of
cultural sensitivity, - one of them is the Actual Stage of development, - whereas the other is the
Self-perceived stage of development. Usually, an individual’s understanding of their stage in terms
of the latter is unrealistic and way above the reality which is shown by the former.

4. THE NEED TO HANDLE MULTI-CULTURAL WORKFORCE

An HR titled called Going Global, revealed that most human resource managers would prefer to hire
candidates that have the ability to adapt to the changes in work ethos of another country and that
employees who are open to relocate in the beginning of their careers are the preferred candidates
during recruitment. In response to this growing preference, many business schools are making short
term training and experience under foreign culture a mandate. In one such school, the student first
goes through training about the culture of the country he or she is designated to go to, with the help
of written material that draws out the well-known features and characteristics of that culture. When
the student has completed his or her tenure as a part of the project on foreign land, it is expected of
the student to draw a comparison of the effectiveness of understanding culture through books as
compared to exposure or observation. Every time, the student valued observation and exposure as
more meaningful and as a way to gain more insights than to refer to guides or published material.
One such student who returned from India exclaimed that books never taught him that an Indian
manager’s nod could mean a yes or a no, both, and that it is up to one’s ability to understand tone,
expression and context to pick the right one out.

Research has shown that employee retention and employee

engagement are the top challenges that business leaders
come across. Why? The answer is simple. Employees are
gaining more bargaining power than ever before since
platforms like Glassdoor and Linkedin have made it easier
for job seekers to analyse whether the a company would be
a great place to work for or not. Interestingly, companies
with the highest ratings on such platforms turn out to be
stalwarts in the race to be termed as one of the best places
to work for their efforts to include diversity. For some
companies however, ambiguity and mystery are at the
centre of the very essence of their work culture. In an article
published online, a manager at Louis Vuitton reveals that
ambiguity creates a sense of the presence of a magical
unknown ingredient that has always pushed employees to
think for themselves to gain clarity and exhibit decisiveness.

5. ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

On a completely different pattern of thought, a professor of management at Robert J Trulaske
College of Business, Arthur Jago has a different perspective on studying cross cultural management
style. He says that the basic intrinsic motivational factors to
performance for any working employee are more or less the same
irrespective of the nationality or culture. Analysing data in a different
way, Jago uses the results to support his statement that managers
across borders and cultures are more alike than different. Jago
surveyed close to 6500 managers from 14 different countries. They
were each given a set of 30 case studies, their responses to which
were studied. Each case in a set was different from the other and
each posed a situation to the manager who had to choose a solution
or describe his or her intended course of action as a response. The
results showed that more often than not, the responses to scenarios 7
given by the managers from different countries were more or less on
the same lines. Hence he proposes that the difference in various managers can be related to the
situations they face rather than their own cultural differences. He backs his proposition by stating
that not only are most studies concentrated on how culture influences management practice instead
of trying to find out whether the impact is substantial enough, or for that matter even there at all,
thereby creating an assumption that it does, - but also love for one’s own culture or country may
result in data which on interpretation may mislead researchers, making them believe that culture
has an impact on work style more than it actually does.
 CASE STUDY

Dr. Reddy’s Successful Attempt at Change in Culture

__________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Reddy, a global pharmaceutical company based in Hyderabad,
operates in 27+ countries, and has a 20,000 strong workforce. The
sheer scale however, caused problems when it came to
implementing decisions which despite being taken for the good health of the business, didn’t yield
desired effects on the company. When the company’s performance records started to deteriorate,
the CEO, G.V.Prasad (see image 8)ought to refine and evolve the company’s culture towards
innovation, agility and a patient centric approach. Despite being aware that reaching his ultimate
aim would mean to launch an extensive effort to bring about a change such that it is carried forward
by each employee, he began the journey first in search of a “purpose”. For this, the company’s
designated team paired with a global innovation and design company called IDEO. Their first step
was to list down the needs of each individual who was directly or indirectly associated with Dr.
Reddy, be it the scientists or the investors or for that matter the external partners. The efforts led
the team to boil down to the phrase “Good health can’t wait” as their purpose as a company.

Unlike traditional practice, the company did not just simply recite this message everywhere and in
every form possible, the senior management decided to slowly incorporate this new approach by
using the spirit of this new purpose in their
your own tasks to guide their decision
making. The idea was to lead by example.
For this, the senior management
deliberately gave preference to projects
that had scope of showing patient centric
behaviour, innovation and agility. Not only
was the change reflected in the approach,
the product packaging was also reworked
to make it more patient-friendly. In the
countries where Dr. Reddy operated, the
very nature of their sales force was altered 8
to something better wherever possible to
reduce the perception of desperation or intent to sell and to replace that perception with the intent
to serve or the intent to heal. In Russia, for instance, sales representatives were rebranded as
knowledge experts and the new verbal communication in the use as a part of subliminal marketing
was the phrase “more knowledge is better physicians which means healthier patients.” On the
technological front, in order to be better approachable by customers for their queries and requests,
a data platform and system was developed in house.

Once things started to set in motion at various places in the company with the right spirit, G.V
Prasad felt it was high time that the new intention and direction was shared and talked about at a
larger scale with both those related with company internally (scientists, knowledge experts, shop
floor staff) and those related externally (investors, channel 9
partners, customers). At the event for communicating with
the internal stakeholders, not only was the new direction
shared, everyone was invited to come and help the company realize and achieve the new approach.
Each attendee was asked to promise oneself that from then onwards their actions and approach
would constantly strive to facilitate the spirit “Good Health Can’t Wait”. The next day, the company
unveiled its new website and brand identity (see image 9) with their newly found commitment. Not
too long after this, two innovation centres were set up India, one in Hyderabad and the other in
Mumbai, in order to boost and support creativity and innovation within the company.

The results started to show almost right away. The first indication came from an in house source – a
scientist who was delighted to express to Prasad that for the first time in the company he was able
to innovate, develop and finalise a new product in a mere span of 15 days which earlier was not
possible since acquisition of raw materials itself would otherwise take months added to which there
are other stages of product development such as prototype, testing etc. He also expressed to have
felt the change in the dynamics shown by each employee in each department.

Today apart from the challenges that the company is facing in terms of the price fixing probe by the
US medical bodies, the innovation seems to be never ending as just on the November 2 nd 2017,
Dr.Reddy launched an effective generic cancer fighting drug. Most investment experts also keep
citing Dr. Reddy as an option one must invest in.

Questions to Discuss

1. Do you feel things would not have worked the way they did for Dr. Reddy had the senior
management not led the movement of change by example ? Explain in brief
2. What other do’s and don’ts or lessons to take home, can you point out from the case.
3. Do you feel that every change a company plans should always keep costs or profitability at
the centre while formulating? Explain briefly to support your answer.
4. If you were to decide a strategy for change in the culture of Dr. Reddy what alternative
strategy would you have come up with?

ETHICAL DILEMMA
You are the Assistant HR Manager at an office of a telecommunication company in Riyadh. The
present workforce at the office consists of middle aged Arab males at the decision making level and
young to mid-aged Indian males at the operational level. Following the announcement of Vision
2030 by the Saudi Government, - a plan to make social and economic reforms for UAE for the post
oil-era, your HR head asks you to start brainstorming and preparing for the cultural, procedural and
infrastructure changes that the company may have to bring about in the near future. You decided to
assess the outlook of the present workforce by circulating a questionnaire that would record the
employees’ take on represented conditions or illustration of an extensively diverse workforce in the
same office in future. The responses make it clear that no one is comfortable with the idea at
present. Moreover, some have even requested the HR in the comments to maintain the present
culture and gender mix, which if changed will make them change their minds on continuing the job.
However, all in the HR department are well aware that as per the new vision, certain changes in the
law would compel companies to alter the cultural mix at workplaces. On communicating the results
of the questionnaire with the HR head, you are asked to devise strategies that would eventually help
change the present outlook of the employees. You choose to start conducting training sessions for
the same. However, your first attempt results to a failure as not only does anyone turn up for the
training, the employees stop responding to your instructions now that they have understood your
intent.

Questions to Discuss

1. Would you start to exercise power and mandate to force employees to attend the training
sessions?
2. Would you ideate and think of other options to try and achieve the same?
3. Contemplating the possibility of the Arabs resigning right before the implementation of
changes to the law in terms of diversity at work place, what strategy would you devise to
source the right talent to replace the vacancies?

CHAPTER SUMMARY
 Culturally competent people could be justifiably called so if they possess a healthy mix of the
following characteristics. – Patience, Respect and Tolerance for Differences, Curiosity,
Adaptability and Flexibility, Emotional Intelligence, Openness to cultural diversity, unbiased
approach, Cultural Leadership Behaviour, Multicultural experiences and Emotional Resilience.

 Human resources managers must devise training programs that help employees achieve the
above mentioned characteristics to be well mentally equipped to learn cultural differences.

 Measuring return on investment on cross cultural training programs is difficult since the benefits
that accrue to a multi cultured organisation may be impossible to measure using metrics.
However a pre- and post-implementation feedback of any sort from the employees shall
definitely show the impact of any initiatives taken to bring about cultural awareness and
compatibility.

 Greater the similarity in culture, higher is the ease of communication, level of understanding,
commonality and correlation. On the other hand, greater the differences, greater is the
attention towards variances in various aspects such as language, authority, behaviour which in
turn causes communication problems.

 Despite the challenges of cross-cultural workforce, organisations are bound to benefit from such
diversity, as a wider range of approaches and perspectives to a given situation, can unleash
potential for creativity and innovation, leading to effective solutions when solving business
problems.
References

1. http://www.management-issues.com/opinion/6088/how-culture-impacts-management-practices/

2. https://newtrendsinmanagement.wikispaces.com/Management+Practices+in+Different+Cultures

3. https://www.halogensoftware.com/blog/the-business-of-culture-how-culture-affects-management-around-the-
world

4. https://www.fastcompany.com/3068682/what-can-uber-do-to-fix-its-broken-culture

5. https://hbr.org/2017/07/being-the-boss-in-brussels-boston-and-beijing

6. https://hbr.org/2014/05/navigating-the-cultural-minefield

7. https://hbr.org/2006/11/managing-multicultural-teams?referral=00060

8. https://hbr.org/2016/12/talking-about-ethics-across-cultures

9. https://hbr.org/2016/10/adapting-your-organizational-processes-to-a-new-culture

10. https://hbr.org/2016/06/what-the-best-cross-cultural-managers-have-in-common

11. https://hbr.org/2016/06/how-to-build-trust-on-your-cross-cultural-team

12. https://hbr.org/2016/06/research-why-best-practices-dont-translate-across-cultures

13. http://smallbusiness.co.uk/cultural-obstacle-digital-transformation-2539004/

14. https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/business-education/india-immersion-yields-lessons-
in-culture-as-much-as-business/article36131429/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&

15. https://www.forbes.com/sites/karenhigginbottom/2017/03/14/cultural-barriers-to-agile-working/#484b5e071400

16. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/smallbusiness/2017/04/16/culture-shock-business-owners-see-
need-change-their-ways/100422410/

17. https://www.businessdayonline.com/leading-cultural-change-every-organization-must-see-big-deal/

18. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-
samples/toolkits/pages/understandingworkplaceculturesglobally.aspx

19. https://hbr.org/2015/10/when-culture-doesnt-translate

20. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161219151837.htm

21. http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/workplace-culture-creates-obstacles-for-women-managers/business-
management-services-risk-management

22. https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/workplace-checklist-how-toxic-is-yours-hot-jobs

23. https://hbr.org/2017/06/changing-company-culture-requires-a-movement-not-a-mandate