Influence of Culture on Working Styles

With the increase in the globalization, there is an emergency to have a demographically diverse working environment in every organization, be it small or big. A culturally diverse workforce helps in creating better strategies, plan and processes, as it involves a diverse knowledge about business and handling situations. To manage a diverse cultural workforce, there is a requirement for a trained manager, who have to ensure that there is an environment that encourages people from the diverse culture a part of the team and does not feel like an outsider. In this assignment, the strategies for managing a cross-cultural team are examined that should be incorporated by a manager for establishing a better working environment. The report explores the various aspects of a cross-cultural workforce that includes the influence on the working styles due to the diverse cultural workforce, the challenges that are faced by the manager, the different management styles and the importance of training the manager to achieve better competency in a cross-cultural working environment.

According to Sungjoo and Rainey, there is a huge influence of culture on the workforce and their working styles that have an impact on the outcome of the organization in different ways like performance of the organization, satisfaction of the employee and in the individual outcome of an employee (Sungjoo & Rainey, 2010). The manager has to manage these influence carefully without hurting any personal or cultural feelings. There are a number of conflicts that emerge due to the workforce diversity and this has an influence on the working style of the workforce. It further has bigger effects as the managers do not possess the training or an effective attitude to handle the various challenges associated with the diverse culture working environment. There is a difference in the working styles of people due to their various skills and talents, but the culture has the biggest influence on the working styles (Brett, 2018). It is in terms of both as an individual and in a group too. There is also a huge difference in the western and the eastern culture that also shows in their working styles. The western culture focuses more on the individual attributes. Their working style is influenced by their culture in a way that they give the maximum priority to their individual performance and achievements and this is due to the lack of strong hierarchy in their culture. On the other hand, the eastern cultures have a main focus on collectivism. Their working styles are more focused on the welfare of the entire group. They put forward their responsibilities towards the group first and then they think about individual achievements. For a manager, who may belong to any culture must have a knowledge about the diversity between different culture, so as to extract the best from different cultures and to incorporate it in the working styles to achieve more success for the organization and as an individual too (Das and Kumar, 2010).  

The effective organization management can be referred to as an art to extract the best capabilities from each employee, as to achieve the organization’s objectives and goals. This also requires that the manager plays a very important role in building a strong bond between different employees from various culture encouraging them to work as a single unit. For this, it is also important that the employee achieves maximum job satisfaction. Every manager has a different approach to handling the employees (Gupta and Bhaskar, 2016). This different approach is known as the management style. The various management styles are-

• Autocratic Style

Challenges Faced by Managers

Under the autocratic style, the managers consider themselves as the senior most and take all the decision on their own. They do not take opinions from their subordinates. The employees working under such management style lack the freedom as they are completely dependent on their manager and does not possess the right to make any decisions. Also, the employee lacks motivation in this type of working styles and thus there is no driving force for them to display their true potential (Jackson, 2013).

• Paternalistic Style

In this type of management style, the managers have the complete power to decide, what is beneficial for the employees. But they make the final decision after taking into consideration the opinions and the ideas of the employees. The policies that are decided in this management style are beneficial for both the employees and the organization. The employees feel connected with the organization under this style and thus are very loyal to their organization (Jackson, 2014). The employees always stay very motivated under paternalistic style.

• Democratic Style

As the word indicates, democratic style includes the involvement of each employee and the manager. This style encourages an open forum that is created to analyze a plan or a strategy with each person giving their opinion on the pros and cons of the idea. This is the most effective and healthy management style. It displays teamwork and focuses on building a strong bond between the management and the employee, in which communication plays a vital role.

• Laissez-Faire Style

In this management style, the managers have the least contribution and are employed merely for the sake of it. The employees have all the power of making decisions that are beneficial for themselves and for the organization. It is a management style that is best for people who prioritize individual success and want to achieve high levels on their own by outshining their competitors. Managers have no right in this style (Jackson, 2018).

• Walking Around Style

This type of working style is different from all the other styles, as in this style the managers do not restrain them in their cabins and they walk around to find about the various challenges and status of different organizational activities. The managers act as mentors and provide the perfect guidance to each employee (Jackson, 2015).

Before highlighting the importance of training the managers to handle the cross-cultural environment, it is very crucial to understand the challenges that a manager can face under a cross-cultural working environment and how the training will help in dealing with them effectively.

• Cross-cultural misunderstandings.

This is one of the biggest challenges that any manager faces is the misunderstanding that arises due to inadequate communication and also the different styles of communication in different cultures. Misunderstandings arise as one cultural style of communication can be offensive for a person from a different culture. A manager requires a proper training in communication, where he will understand and learn the different communication practices that are followed in various cultures (Jefwa, 2009).

• Understanding the different beliefs and values of various cultures.

Different culture, different values. In the opinion of Greet Hofstede, there are five main dimensions of cultural opinions. They are power distance, masculinity vs. femininity, individualism vs. collectivism, long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation and uncertainty avoidance. These aspects create a lot of conflicts and may offend people of different cultures, as a manager with improper knowledge may easily hurt the feeling of employees from a different culture. Thus, it is very important for the manager to know the values and beliefs of each culture and should incorporate it in dealing with employees. This will motivate the employees even more to give their best.

• The emerging frustration due to many cultural beliefs.

Different Management Styles

A manager can openly show his frustration towards his own cultural beliefs. But he should make fun or show frustration towards the cultural beliefs of a different culture, no matter how much he may disagree. But the manager has to be respectful and should get a training in displaying the right behavior under such circumstances. Dealing with them logically and practically can only be achieved through strict training (MacNab and Worthley, 2012).

• Understanding their working styles and ethics.

Every culture has a different approach towards their work. This also includes their actions and reactions in different situation. They might be offensive for many, but they are a part of their nature. The managers have to understand and gain knowledge about the different cultures working style. This is also required to pick the major strength of each cultures working style and incorporate it in a workplace (Mayer and Louw, 2012).

In the opinion of Hofstede’s national cultural framework that has five dimensions of cultural perspectives. There is a conflicting relationship that emerges in a working environment due to the different approaches that each culture exhibit in working styles, living life and dealing with circumstances. There is a need for the managers to have a huge knowledge and understanding of the beliefs and values of different cultures as it is very important for the quality management in an organization. The four dimensions of the Hofstede framework clearly show that it will affect the quality and the performance of employees, if the manager does not know the core values and beliefs of each culture. Only the factors uncertainty avoidance and masculinity have the least effect on a working environment (Vecchi, 2009). 

Conclusion

The importance of training is very important for each manager to possess for handling a diverse cultural environment. It is important to understand the different working styles and to logically implement a management practice that is in sync with the working style of different culture. The managers also require training for handling the various conflicts between people from different cultures and also to ensure that every employee is respectful towards each culture. The practices that are finalized should not offend any employee from different cultures. All these guidelines are important to follow, as to attain a high quality management and to extract the best performance from each employee.   

References 

Brett, J. (2018). Intercultural challenges in managing workplace conflict – a call for research. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, 25(1), pp.32-52.

Das, T. and Kumar, R. (2010). Interpretive schemes in cross?national alliances. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 17(2), pp.154-169.

Gupta, S. and Bhaskar, A. (2016). Doing business in India: cross-cultural issues in managing human resources. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, 23(1), pp.184-204.

Jackson, T. (2013). Seeing the Middle East through different inflections. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 13(2), pp.133-136.

Jackson, T. (2014). Is cross-cultural management studies morally mute? Cross-cultural management and ethics. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 14(3), pp.267-269.

Jackson, T. (2015). Modernization theory in international management studies and the role of cross-cultural management scholarship. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 15(2), pp.131-133.

Jackson, T. (2018). Why is the cross-cultural management of food security important? International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 18(1), pp.3-6.

Jefwa, J. (2009). Identifying and managing cross-cultural differences in the classroom: A case study of USIU. Journal of Language, Technology & Entrepreneurship in Africa, 1(2), pp.35-45.

MacNab, B. and Worthley, R. (2012). Stereotype awareness development and effective cross-cultural management. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 13(1), pp.65-87.

Mayer, C. and Louw, L. (2012). Managing cross-cultural conflict in organizations. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 12(1), pp.3-8.

Sungjoo and Rainey (2010). The Effects of Cross Cultural Work Force Diversity on Employee Performance in Egyptian Pharmaceutical Organizations. Business Administration Department, Faculty of Commerce, [online] 1(4), pp.162-165. Available at: https://www.sciedu.ca/journal/index.php/bmr/article/view/2146 [Accessed 11 Oct. 2018].

Vecchi, A. (2009). Quality management: a cross?cultural perspective. CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, [online] 16(2), pp.149-164. Available at: https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/13527600910953900 [Accessed 11 Oct. 2018].

Image Reference

I1.wp.com. (2018). [online] Available at: https://i1.wp.com/usdkexpats.org/sites/default/files/images/hofstede.jpg [Accessed 11 Oct. 2018].