Excerpt
Contents
Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
1. Introduction
2. The Countries of the New Organisation in a Concise Overview
2.1 Detroit (USA)
2.2 Guangdong (China)
2.3 Katowice (Poland)
3. Differences & Similarities between the Countries, likely Problems of the Merger &
3. how to alleviate these Issues
3.1 Language & Communication
3.1.1 Potential Problems of Language & Communication
3.1.2 Possible Recommendations to alleviate the Problems of Language &
3.1.2 Communication
3.2 Hofstede´s Five Cultural Dimensions
3.2.1 A Comparison between the different Countries within the New Organisation
3.2.2 Possible Recommendations to alleviate the Problems of Cultural Differences
3.3 Monochronic and Polychronic Business Cultures
3.3.1 Potential Problems of Monochronic and Polychronic Business Cultures
3.3.2 Possible Recommendations to alleviate the Problems of Monochronic and
3.3.2 Polychronic Business Cultures
4. Conclusion
List of References
List of Tables
Table 1: Low-context and high-context business cultures
Table 2: More potential problems the new organisation could expect to have
Table 3: High and low power distance
Table 4: Individualism and collectivism
Table 5: Masculinity and femininity
Table 6: Uncertainty avoidance
Table 7: Long-term and short-term orientation
Table 8: Comparison: Monochronic and polychronic business cultures
Table 9: More cultural issues
List of Figures
Figure 1: Hierarchy of the new organisation
Figure 2: Flag of Detroit
Figure 3: Flag of Guangdong
Figure 4: Flag of Katowice
Figure 5: Overview: Hofstede´s Five Cultural Dimensions
Figure 6: Different time zones
1. Introduction
It is a matter of fact that through increasing globalisation, multinational companies now face a wide range of issues related to cultural differences. This is especially true of a merger of three organisations from three different countries and continents, which would imply huge changes to an organisation and their cultural awareness.
This report will focus on a large automotive company based in the USA which is merging with two other organisations from China and Poland. The senior management will be based in Detroit, USA, because they are specialist in the automotive industry and therefore they will head the organisation. Furthermore the middle management will be located in Guangdong, a province of China. Because they need to reduce their costs urgently, the production facilities will be closed in the US as well as in China and will be moved to Katowice, Poland. This process should begin immediately with the aim to start production within 12 months.
The new organisational hierarchy represents the polycentric approach and means that each subsidiary is managed by Host-Country Nationals (HCNs) (Brewster, Sparrow and Vernon 2007).
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
Figure 1: Hierarchy of the new organisation (own figure)
The purpose of this report is to discuss the main issues of cultural differences within the new organisation and secondly, to consider what human resources in particular could do to alleviate these differences on a short and long-term basis.
2. The Countries of the New Organisation in a Concise Overview
2.1 Detroit
Detroit is located in the Midwest region of the USA and is well known for his automotive industry. As a result automotive companies as well as other related companies are well connected all over the world. Americans are very direct, and their language is ‘low context’ and communication is more informal than formal (Engel, Szerlip and Watson 2001).
2.2 Guangdong
The province Guangdong is located in the south of China and is one of the country's economic engines (China Daily 2010). A very sensitive duty for the senior management is to avoid words like ‘no’ when they talk to the middle management. This is a major communication problem, because Americans are direct and ‘no’ is a common word in their vocabulary. However, in China, this may be interpreted by as losing face. It is important to understand that, because reputation and respect are very important in China (Li, Szerlip and Watson 2001). Thus, if they feel insulted or disrespected, the Chinese middle management will not work in an effective way for the organisation.
2.3 Katowice
Katowice is located in the south of Poland. The Polish are well known for their hard work, directness and punctuality (Kissel, Szerlip and Watson 2001).
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- Quote paper
- B.Sc. Marcel Keller (Author), 2010, International Human Resource Management, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/160064
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