Cross-Cultural Commercial Relations

Cross-Cultural Commercial Relations
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Cross-Cultural Commercial Relations
Introduction
In some regions of the world, cross-cultural relations are growing at a rapid rate thereby facilitating the meeting of needs of the customers. Nevertheless, there are several other regions where inadequate cross-cultural relations tend to hinder human resource in the market. During the last decade, the commercial industry has been faced with challenges of meeting market demands. This paper is an evaluation of the impact of culture on commercial dealings in both Middle-Eastern and Anglo countries (Alexandre, 2010).
A successful enterprise is that which defines its operations in a distinct manner. Such definition reduces the confusion and makes everyone appreciate relating with each other, hence, alleviating the challenge that the organization faces in its attempt to achieve its goals. Being successful necessitates the implementation of clear approaches so as to ease relationships among the team members. The approaches, therefore, enables the organization to save time and other resources while reducing the resentment among stakeholders. In essence, an effective commercial activity is accomplished after the identification and formulation of a brief and clear meaning of priorities thereby facilitating the understanding and contribution of everyone in the team (Vipin, 2002; Trevino & Nelson, 2004).
Since some commercial activities are sizable engagements, no one individual or a small group of individuals may come up with a commercial piece unilaterally. Distinct yet closely interrelating teams are formed for the purpose of completing a piece of work. At times, a team is encouraged to work in a unilateral compartment i.e. in a manner that appears to disregard the developments taking place externally. This call is aimed at ensuring that the team members concentrate to a level of working spontaneously and this, as explained above, is crucial in commerce and industry (Alexandre, 2010). Stakeholders in commerce and industries are coming up with acceptable standards of training that would facilitate effective service delivery, as well as marketing strategies, that would, in the end, influence upon purchasing decisions (Trevino & Nelson, 2004).
Training has been necessitated by the worry that unhealthy practices may lead to detrimental commercial consequences, and this would eventually lower the confidence of the customers, a situation which would hurt the industry economically. In this regard, governments in Middle East and agencies have embarked on marketing strategies that aim at popularizing the region as an international hub for commerce and industries. This paper compares the cross-cultural commercial relations of the Middle Eastern nations with those of Anglo countries with regard to various sectors of the economy (Rice, 1999).
Business Cultural Alignment and Governance
Gender Egalitarianism
Gender egalitarianism is among the predictors that are widely admired and encouraged for the purpose of ensuring successful leadership within the organization. Gender egalitarianism refers to the degree by which teams and their leaderships minimize gender inequality. In the Middle Eastern nations, for example, there is high gender egalitarianism as compared to the Anglo nations. This is the case because the society emphasizes on a reduced number of women in leadership positions. In Middle East, there is higher segregation with regard to the occupational sex as compared to the situation in the Anglo countries (Trevino & Nelson, 2004).
With regard to educational achievements, the percentage of women who access institutions of higher learning is lower in Middle East as opposed to the Anglo countries. Nevertheless, it is appropriate to appreciate that in countries such as Saudi Arabia, the percentage of women undertaking educational endeavors has increased dramatically. This means that should there be proportional representation in commerce and industry, the members of the female gender would contribute as much as their male counterparts do (Schein, 1992).
Uncertainty Avoidance
Uncertainty avoidance refers to the organization`s tolerance towards ambiguity and uncertainty. In some instances and some contexts, uncertainty avoidance refers to human being`s search for the truth. Uncertainty avoidance weighs the extent at which cultural programmers as well as the members feel comfortable or even uncomfortable with regard to the unstructured situations. The unstructured situations in question are mostly novel, surprising, unknown, as well as unusual (Saeed et al., 2001).
The culture of uncertainty avoidance attempts to mitigate the possibilities of the occurrence of such situations. This culture does so by impacting strict rules and laws, security and safety measures, as well as the religious and philosophical level. This factor assumes that there is a single belief in the absolute Truth, and that there can never be multiple truths, and that we have the truth in question. For instance, in Anglo countries there are reasonably high levels of uncertainty avoidance as compared to the Middle Eastern nations (Rice, 1999).
Organizations in Anglo countries are not keen on matters relating to uncertainty. They, therefore engage in careful planning endeavors in an attempt to avert uncertainty. In the Anglo countries, the organizations rely heavily on laws, regulations, and rules. Organizations in the West endeavor to mitigate the risks to their minimum before proceeding with the anticipated changes each at a time. The United Kingdom scores highly as compared the organizations in the Middle East. In most of the western organizations and organizations based on capitalistic economies, uncertainty avoidance happens to be relatively low. This situation is clearly considered to be in-line with these nations` cultures (Rice, 1999).
In-Group Collectivism
In-group collectivism is among the most important factors which facilitates successful organizational performances. The factor is important due to its cultural dimension which has actually emerged as a powerful predictor of two of the most widely admired features of successful leadership. In-group collectivism refers to the level at which stakeholders express cohesiveness, loyalty, and pride within their organizations as well as respective teams. Some organizational characteristics have been associated high in-group collectivism while others relate to a low level of collectivism (Middleton, 2002).
In Anglo countries, organizations are associated with higher in-group collectivism as compared to the organizations in the Middle East. For instance, in with regard to the organizations based in Anglo countries, obligations and duties are found to be important determinants in relation to social behaviors. In the Anglo countries, there is strong distinction between the in-groups and the out-groups. Stakeholders are required to emphasize on the relatedness within groups or teams. This makes the life pace to be much slower as compared to the situation in the Middle East (Middleton, 2002).
With regard to the organizations in the Middle East, personal attitudes and needs are the most important determinants which relate to the social behaviors. Indeed, stakeholders within the Middle Eastern organizations perceive minimal distinction between the in-groups and the out-groups (Rice, 1999). Stakeholders are required to emphasize on rationality in the behaviors that they choose to adapt to. This makes the pace of life within the organizations in question to proceed at a much faster rate as compared to the situation in the Anglo countries. Much of the rest of the essay focuses on the issue of in-group collectivism since this is the factor which lay much emphasis on team efforts and effective leadership (Saeed et al., 2001).
Anglo-Business Culture
As such, working in seclusion is, at times, helpful as one is not deterred with the happenings that take place beyond the team limits. Nevertheless, complete seclusion may prove detrimental as sections of production may proceed in a divergent manner, a manner that may make their eventual integration challenging. With regard to the above discussion, it is imperative for different teams, irrespective of how distinct they are, to collaborate during a commercial exercise. Such collaboration can only be achieved by enabling these teams to share their accomplishments as the exercise progresses (House, 2004).
Critics of this form of leadership argue that it erodes the importance of management in commercial engagements as team leaders assume the authority meant for the management. It is imperative to keep in mind that commercial activities are sensitive, and roles ought to be carefully divided so as to minimize conflicts or misunderstandings. In conventional leadership, leaders take up the formal role of making the strategic decisions which necessitate them to have the accommodative management skills as well as emotional intelligence. This is not always the case with team members and, as such, assuming this form of leadership would, indeed, overshadow the importance of communication (Rice, 1999).
Conventional leadership is not the best strategy for team leaders in a commercial activity to assume. This is because they may not meet the obligations that are associated with it. For instance, they would be required to act as the team guides as well as the evaluators of the team performance. Of course, there are chances that their evaluation would be laden with bias. Such bias would, consequently, derail the efforts that the organization may have employed for the purpose of enhancing communication (House, 2004).
The UK is rich in culture. This lifestyle and culture, as well as the wisdom of the natives, has been a boost to the spa and beauty industry. Nevertheless, wisdom and cultural practices greatly are different from acupuncture to Tui-Na, and Shiatsu to Ayuryeda. This difference comes as the result of the need for the indigenous people to retain their ancient experiences and practices in therapeutic and herbal remedies. This is because these practices have proved to produce a healing effect to those that practice it. For many years Anglos have been inheriting and practicing this knowledge in search for a variety of medical remedies. Currently, there are a variety of spa training institutions that disseminates knowledge on that how to treat clients (House, 2004).
Nevertheless, most spa therapists in London are beauty salon operators, masseuses, physiotherapists, fitness instructors, and nurse aides. Various spa associations have been collaborating with the authorities in London in setting up accredited standards for spa operators as well as the facilities that they work in. These standards began to be sought following the realization that, despite the rich spa culture, British therapists struggle in getting employment globally (Rice, 1999).
Corporate-Social Responsibility Management
Cultural barriers are attributed to mean the artificial hindrances that are founded on attitudinal or organizational biasness that prevents individuals who are qualified enough from getting a promotion in an organization. Women and other minority groups are discriminated against when the promotion is being considered. Women and the minorities are hence not able to acquire their aspirations considering that they are able to see their aspirations. The opportunity 2000 has been faced with this form cases making the government take efforts to sort out this issue by engaging in constructive activities with the employers. Cultural barrier is an issue that can be solved by offering opportunities to women where men more often take up. Just as the term professionalism has transformed, so has the meaning of management changed (House, 2004).
Diversity is the cradle of opportunity, be it in the employment or market. Gratitude of the fruitful mosaic of the variation in the workforce leads to group variation and assists in the creation of a surrounding where teams are able to their maximum ability. A general market method will not acquire value that is there in the diverse groups of consumers. The variety is found in age, gender, race, physical ability, and personality among others. Present government desires to offer people of varied places, but not same attributes, the chance to be represented in parliament and different places of employment (Al...