Business Across Cultures Assignment Sample

Introduction of Business Across Cultures Assignment

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Business across cultures is a significant concept of business where people from various cultures, nationalities, and backgrounds work together for the betterment of the work environment. At the same time, it enhances the chances or opportunities of globalization of that particular business venture. Business across cultures is quite an important step for the organization as they need to expand their operations all over the world as per their own requirements. While doing business across cultures, it is important to know all the differences and variations in the work procedure and business gestures. In this essay, the main aim will be to deliver an overall idea about business ventures across cultures. At the same time, it is quite important to understand and critically mention the basic concepts and theoretical perspectives in various cultures nationwide. On the other hand, recognition of the dimensions and influence of culture in the workplace will be described. Critical evaluation of the techniques to overcome the cultural barriers in case study scenarios will be addressed. Relevant tools and theories will be applied to understand the scenario. At the same time, the ability to analyze problems and find out solutions in an effective, culturally sensitive, and professional manner both verbally and in writing will be mentioned in this essay.

Main Body

Culture is nothing but a term that can give shelter to the social behavior, beliefs, and perspective of some communities. Culture is widely used to make people understand the social activities and beliefs of a particular community. It is very important to have some distinguishable cultural traits. Often society becomes a witness of various cultures. Culture can give people a proper perspective of life while giving shelter to various ideas. In human life, the importance of culture is undeniable. Even in the workplace, various cultural backgrounds are given priority to enhance the productivity of the workplace. Various cultures can easily enhance the creativity of any workplace (Blancero et al., 2018).

While understanding the bright prospects of culture in various workplaces, it is quite important to implement this tactic in business as well. Various businesses need to expand their operations across the globe. While doing business it is very much important to understand the necessity of culture in the workplace. At the same time, various cultures in one business can make a very broad customer base (Carthon et al., 2021). Customers can come from any cultural background and satisfy them it is quite important to show respect to their cultures. Various companies do exactly the same while dealing with customers from various cultural backgrounds. While working in the United Kingdom, being a cosmopolitan country, a variety of cultures can be witnessed. The various nationalities live here for their own purposes. To satisfy all of them in one go, the business should have something more impactful to attract them to the workforce or in the customer base. While doing business across cultures, the company needs to entertain all the cultures at the same time. Being a cosmopolitan country, the United Kingdom also tries to do the same with business ethics. The business ethics practiced in the country, generally entertain every possible culture and background. As the impact of various cultures on the productivity of the company is very significant for the organization (Cooke et al., 2019).

The companies require the concept of business across cultures because many people join the workforce. To understand their potential it is very much important to make them feel special and wanted in the very organization. At the same time, it will be very much helpful for the organization when more feedback and ideas will be received. Coming from various cultures will help the employees to understand various demographics. It will be immensely helpful for the organization. At the same time, the company may have a huge base of customers who come from different cultures. It is quite important to know about their cultural preferences while serving them. It will give an overall good impact and help the organization. In the United Kingdom, courtesy and politeness are given importance. At the same time, their ironic sense of humor is also given proper importance while doing business in the country. Emails and more direct communications are given utmost priority while doing business in the country. The people living in the country believe in face-to-face communication for a better understanding of the deals. At the same time, punctuality is given priority. It is also helpful for the other cultures when doing business with them. Handshakes are very important to maintain a friendly gesture towards the other parties. Formal business attire should be worn as there is a mix of cultures so it is best to stick to the formal business attire (Joseph et al., 2021).

A few companies are taken as references while doing the essay based on business across cultures. Financial companies like HSBC, pharmaceutical companies like AstraZeneca, and consumer goods producer Unilever can be the best example of such businesses. Being in the finance and pharmaceutical industry, HSBC and AstraZeneca deal with various suppliers, meet demands of their customers and try to satisfy them as well. At the same time, being a consumer good producer company, Unilever needs to meet the requirements of its customers, and deal with their complaints. At the same time, Unilever is a multinational company serving in various other countries. So the company has to deal with multiple cultures at the same time (Carthon et al., 2021).

Revenue of HSBC

(Source: HSBC, 2022)

HSBC, being a retail company based in the United Kingdom, tries to connect with every single customer. Now being a cosmopolitan country, there are various cultural backgrounds living in this country. They rely on the company for their daily financial purposes. While targeting these demographics, the company is actually very down to earth and tries to help its customers all the time. Cultural diversity gives them proper opportunities and more scopes for innovations and helps them in their growth. At the same time, they believe in fairways while recruiting intensively to introduce a diverse work culture to the employees. They believe in making an inclusive work culture that believes in diversity. A supporting society is there to help the other cultural backgrounds while doing business. HSBC is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Partnership for racial justice. By the end of 2025, they are aiming to double the number of black employees in their organization. At the same time, by the end of 2025, HSBC has an aim to reach 35 percent in leadership achieved by women employees. They have a global Accelerating Female Leaders program for women who are willing to work with HSBC (HSBC, 2022).

Revenue of AstraZeneca

(Source: AstraZeneca, 2022)

Being a pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca is trying to expand its operations across the globe. Currently, the company is working to achieve gender equality by the end of 2025 in managerial positions. At the same time, the company is willing to give 48.1 percent of senior management roles to women executives. By the end of 2025, the company will be launching its diverse supplier programs in 10 countries across the globe. Australia, New Zealand, and Poland already are working with the company and the company is giving preferences to its cultural backgrounds. The company equally gives importance to various demographics related to ethnicity, race, sex, disability index, etc. At the same time, the company believes in a speak-up culture, and twice a year they ask for feedback from the employees. At the same time, the Human Rights Campaign also declared the company as one of the best workplaces when it comes to cultural diversity. The disability index to work in the company is quite high and is almost 80 percent. At the same time, for their diverse work culture, Forbes has declared them as one of the best companies (AstraZeneca, 2022).

Global revenue of Unilever

(Source: Unilever, 2022)

Unilever, being a consumer goods producer, is working right now in 190 countries. To understand the requirements of the customers, the company needs to employ local people. At the same time, to expand its business more, the company relies on its diverse work culture. They believe in equity and change in society. The company believes that this will not only strengthen the bonds but also it will enhance the growth of Unilever. At the same time, to enhance its operations, Unilever relies on diverse suppliers (Mason, 2020). Around the world, the company has 53,000 suppliers and spends 2 billion euros every year worldwide. South Africa, Kenya, Brazil, India, etc countries are giving opportunities to the company and the company is willing to grow with these countries. The company also gives equal importance to gender equality and promotes women's empowerment. 31 percent of Unilever Leadership Executive positions are held by women in this organization. Right now, the company is willing to make the number reach 36 percent. Their framework for fair compensation is a good scheme to provide equal rights to women working in the organization. The company does all the best things which will enhance the diverse work culture of the company (Unilever, 2022).

The main issues in these companies are actually tarnishing the image of the companies. The main issues include, not enough maintenance of the diverse work culture, not producing enough good results out of these schemes, not enough funds, etc. These problems are very much impactful when the companies are quite determined to enhance their work culture. Being a company that deals with finance, HSBC needs to have enough funds to achieve its goals. Unstable financial problems have become obstacles for the company and they are not able to concentrate on their diverse work culture. At the same time, Astrazeneca has everything and planned everything ahead. Still, they could not reach their goals for lack of proper implementation. Implementation requires proper strategies to make everything work as per the requirements. On the other hand, being a multinational company, Unilever can not maintain its diverse work culture (Unilever, 2022). Working in various countries makes it always confusing and the leaders could not focus on the various projects at the same time. These problems can lead to serious problems in the organizations. They can not work with the diverse work cultures and business across cultures can not be achieved entirely. Companies need to rectify these problems. The first procedure is to identify the problems to understand the roots of the problems. At the same time, the companies need to solve these problems as soon as possible. These problems may harm the reputation of the companies. The customer base can be interrupted because of such issues in these multinational companies (Weller et al., 2021). In various countries, the companies are operating and they need to focus on the workforce. At the same time, to maintain the workforce the companies need to balance everything beforehand. They have to be very prepared while doing business across cultures.

To mitigate the problems, the institutional theory of diversity management can be implemented. This theory simply tells that understanding the structure of the company, it is very much important to study the behavior of the staff and a few limiting factors imposed by the company. At the same time, the companies need to stay stable and firm about their decisions to help their employees with their policies of diverse work culture. At the same time, the companies need to prove their determination beforehand while working with diverse work culture ethics. This theory simply helps the organization with various legislations which will help the company to limit the actions of employees. The employees will not be entertained if they are found guilty while trying to maintain the diverse work culture. This will also help to create a generous and diverse work culture (Gonzaga et al., 2020).

On the other hand, there is another theory that can help companies to build up their work ethics again. The resource-based theory of diversity management is another approach that focuses on the implementation of the strategies while maintaining a diverse work culture. At the same time, physical capital, financial capital, human capital, and corporate capital resources are given importance in this theory. At the same time, these resources can either help or hinder the organization's activities. Organizations try to make the most use of these resources in order to help and develop companies. Organizations that are more diverse gain an advantage over organizations that are homogeneous from a business standpoint. When a growth or innovation strategy is utilized, racial diversity within firms improves financial performance. The performances of these companies can be improved if these theories can be implemented properly. These theories will be able to show the directions while looking for feasible and potential solutions for the company (Akintayo et al., 2020).

To mitigate such problems, not only the theories but also a few strategies can be immensely helpful for the companies. HSBC, AstraZeneca, and Unilever being cosmopolitan companies need to work with various countries and their demographics. To understand the requirements of the demographics, it is very much important to understand their cultural preferences. All of these companies are targeting consumers who may have multiple choices. At the same time, in the market, there are multiple options for consumers who are willing to expand their operations. So these companies need to be a bit unique while offering consumers some special services.

Being a finance company, HSBC can recruit more local people while trying to understand the basic economy of the country. The company should focus on the economy of the country and the people who understand the local economy and the demographics. As per the requirement of the place and consumers, the company should select its policies (El-Bassiouny, and El-Bassiouny, 2018). To encourage others to work with local talents, they can organize various events. Teamwork should be given priority here. At the same time, the leaders should be taking responsibility. More feedback from the customers and employees should be welcome for the betterment of the organization.

Being a pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca should be very careful about its ventures. They should rely on the local climate and local suppliers while making medicines. The local laws should be imposed on the operations of the company. Various countries have different legislation when it comes to drugs and medicines (El-Bassiouny, and El-Bassiouny, 2018). The company should abide by the law. At the same time, they should go with the requirements of the customers. The production will be based on the requirements of the people and the place. As per the demands. They should be focusing on their diver work culture. If they take some local people, it will be easier for them to understand the local demands. At the same time, they will be able to guide the company about various drug-related legislative. Again, teamwork should be given priority as this will enhance the opportunities. People can brainstorm together and they can work while focusing on a wide range of possibilities. At the same time, feedback and complaints should be accepted with proper enthusiasm from the employees and the customers to do well in the future (Erdur, 2020).

Unilever is a multinational company that is constantly dealing with various problems. Diverse work culture is not a huge factor for the company but still, the company is having some issues. It can not manage such diverse networks. To maintain the network, the company should make more managerial posts and train them as per their requirements. At the same time, the company should have some firm policies which will be able to help the company. Managing a diverse work culture and doing business across cultures are not that much easy. The company needs to understand the others’ perspectives as well while doing business. To seal the deal, they should be given proper opportunities and ideas so they can focus on their operations. At the same time, Unilever should follow the strategies to have more impactful results (Georgiadou et al., 2019). It is quite important to focus on the organizational structure while making up new policies and strategies that will eventually help to grow. At the same time, the companies will be able to cope up with the diverse work culture while doing business across cultures.

Conclusion

While going through various cultures while doing business, it is important to give them priorities. At the same time, it is also important to understand the basic concept of cultures while doing some business. To cross the cultural barrier, it is quite important to understand the foundation of the cultures. Access to the huge and cosmopolitan customer base, it will be also very important when globalization will be done giving importance to the cultural aspects. Various companies put effort into bringing cultural diversity into their workplaces. Being a cosmopolitan country and being a hub of many nationalities, the United Kingdom also tries to practice a few strategies to empower various cultural backgrounds. In this essay, companies based in the country like HSBC, Unilever, and AstraZeneca is also shown as references where the cultural aspects are given proper importance. At the same time, the influence of the cultures on these companies' operational structures is mentioned for betterment. On the other hand, the feasible techniques to overcome any kind of cultural barriers while doing business are also addressed in this essay. At the same time, the problem is properly elaborated and along with it a proper solution that can be feasible enough to apply is addressed in this essay. The essay will simply give advantages to the cultural backgrounds and their importance in the companies.

References

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