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Essay / Cross-Cultural Management Problems Recommend Solutions
In today's fast-paced, highly integrated world, businesses have a growing need to hire and maintain a highly diverse and multicultural. With globalization, multinational companies have a great opportunity to work with people from different cultures and with a diverse skill pool. However, working in a foreign culture comes with a significant cost. Several issues arise when managing a culturally diverse workforce; management must resolve them. Understanding different cultures improves employee efficiency and productivity. However, many problems with cross-cultural analysis arise due to the lack of understanding of other cultures and sometimes the culture in which we live. This can be confusing. This confusion leads to distortions about the very cultures we are trying to understand. The paper will highlight several theoretical and practical issues in cross-cultural management and recommend solutions. PROBLEMS OF INTERCULTURAL MANAGEMENTCulture is a set of values that defines a way of life. It explains what a society considers good or bad, right or wrong. Culture is therefore a system of values. Using this value system helps in understanding cultural norms, ways of thinking and the social aspect of people's lives. Understanding culture is a process and it is important to know that culture cannot be understood if one ignores the context in which culture is viewed. For example, above the age of 18 it is considered normal in American culture to drink, but in a Muslim society it is generally not acceptable. However, there are exceptions, such as an American may drink at a party if foreign delegates are in a Muslim society, so context (foreign delegates' party) is essential when studying cultures..... .. middle of paper ......nce of context to understand a different culture. Causes of the cultural paradox include cultural myopia, lack of cultural experience, and the inability of schools to explain the complexities of other cultures. In individuals, certain factors lead to paradoxical behavior. Understanding a culture is not possible without considering the context. Although stereotypes and sophisticated schemas are helpful in understanding a culture, they are not enough. We need attributional knowledge and factual and conceptual understanding to understand a culture. This simply means understanding that any characteristic can apply to anyone. This can be done through practice and using the cultural sensemaking model. With a deep understanding of our own culture and taking context into account, we can better understand a different culture..