Cultural Management

1. Group 1
K50- CLC QTKD- FTU
Trần Tuấn Anh
….

2. Contents
Introduction
Training for Manager
Case Study
Conclusion

3. Introduction
1. Company
• Home country: the USA
• 7 years reputation
• High-quality hardware products
fulfilling orders on time
** Factory in China: producing small items and
assembling (Mr. Yan Wong, 45 years old, is the
director)

4. Introduction
2. Situation
In the third quarter of year, company revealed some
problems in management in China.
To be replaced

5. Introduction
• David will come to China for 2 years
=> Expatriate
• He is trained during 3 months before
departure.

6. Criteria for Managers
1. Adaptability to Cultural Change
•Ability to integrate with different people,
cultures, politics, religion, and ethics, to make
flexibility in managing operations.
•Mr. David needs
-being comfortable with work challenges
-adjusting to new living conditions
-learning how to interact well with Chinese
nationals outside of work
-feeling reasonably happy and being able to
enjoy day-to-day activities

7. Criteria for Managers
2. Physical and Emotional Health
To adopt climate, cuisine, timeline of work
3. Age, Experience, and Education
The age of 33 with 5-year experience as a produce
manager
4. Language Training

8. Criteria for Managers
5. Motivation
-desire to work abroad, sense of mission
-motivators : wage, promotion, opportunity to improve
economic status.
6. Leadership Ability
Specific characteristics: maturity, emotional stability, good
communication skill, independence, creativity…
⇒ Mr. David should
-start to learn the language, customs
-attend training sessions provided by the company
-confer with colleagues

9. Objectives of Training
After this training program, our company has
great expectations that Mr. David can:
• deal with life pressure which varies from country
to country.
• reach the mutual understanding between
manager and employees.

10. Objectives of Training
• cross out the differences in emotional distance
towards subordinate relationship
• manage the interact fruitfully with candidates.

11. Model of Development
1. Overall Objective
Increasing effectiveness of expatriate
and repatriated executives
2. Problem Recognition
Internal relations
- Employee recruitment:
+/ Nepotism and over-hiring
+/ Rapidly rising wages for market for
skilled manual and white-collar
employees
-

12. Model of Development
2. Problem Recognition
Internal relations
- Reward system:
a wide wage disparity between semiskilled and skilled workers
>> the negative effect on workers’ interpersonal relations
- Work performance
Local managers: management risk-averse and are often
unwilling to innovate
Workers give little emphasis to the quality of output
- Labor relations
- Unions in China are less adversarial than in the West

13. Model of Development
External relations
Widen network by going to conferences and key industry functions
>>challenging due to culture and language barriers
Family relations
- indicated the inability of the spouse/family to adjust to the
location’s cultural environment
- lack the infrastructure such as adequate medical services, housing,
schools
2. Problem Recognition

14. Model of Development
Headquarters relations
- limited from sharing owing to intellectual property
- Headquarter makes final decision for big problem
Relations with home government
- USA expats’ confidentiality and safety
Relations with host government
- the immigration documents
- to take photographs of their furniture and belongings as proof
of ownership in the event they are lost or stolen
- cut through red tape and avoid unnecessary
- bureaucracy
- tax free for income not from China
2. Problem Recognition

15. Model of Development
3. Development Objectives
Review terms and conditions of assignment
Increase cultural awareness
Increase knowledge of the host country
Impart working knowledge of the foreign
language
Increase conflict management skills
Minimize re-entry problems
4. Assessment of Development Needs

16. Model of Development
5. Development Method
 Knowledge about cultural, political, economic,
business, legal, and social factors of the host
country
 Awareness of the needs and expectations of
the different parties interested in international
operation
 Awareness of the problems of family relations
in the host country

17. Model of Development
6. Intermediate Result
 Predeparture training
 Orientation
 Area study
 Language instruction
 Cross-cultural group
 Behavioral simulation
 Case method
 Postarrival training
 Orientation & training
 Intergroup problem solving
 Re-entry training

18. Model of Development
Desired Result
How much development?
Development Method
Re-entry training
Desired Result
Effectiveness of the repatriated executives

19. Cross-Cultural Training

20. Cross-Cultural Training
Climate in China
•a great diversity of climates
•located entirely in the northern hemisphere
•The northeast: hot and dry summers and cold
winters
•The north and central region: continual rainfall,
hot summers and cold winters
•The southeast region: substantial rainfall, with
semi-tropical summers and cool winters
•Central, southern and western China: flooding
and seismic activity.
1. Environmental Briefings

21. Cross-Cultural Training
Geography of China
•Located in Southeast Asia along the coastline of the
Pacific Ocean. China is a very diverse land including
deserts, mountains and fertile river basins.
•Difference in time zones of two countries: on average,
China is 16:0 hours ahead of USA.
•Example: when it is 1:00 am (midnight) in Washington
DC USA, it is 5:00 pm in Beijing China (same calendar
day)
1. Environmental Briefings

22. Cross-Cultural Training
America China
Manufacturing average
income
$2928 1169 yuans
Tuition fee The average application
fee calculated based
overall USA is 38.44
USD
+ Application fee of
different major for
different degree in every
university varies from 90
USD to 150 USD,
normally not in excess of
200 USD
+ Average tuition fee
ranges from
3300 USD
(around20,000 RMB) to
9900 USD (around
60,000RMB) per year.
Income, housing, school in China
1. Environmental Briefings

23. Cross-Cultural Training
Income, housing, school in China (cont’d
1. Environmental Briefings
America China
Average living cost Estimated living cost in
USA would be 8,000-
10,000RMB (around
1300 USD-1650 USD)
per year
Living cost in
metropolitan areas like
Beijing, Shanghai,
Guangzhou would be
4500-5000RMB/month
(around 740 USD-830
USD/ month); Other
cities would be around
1500-3500RMB/month
(around 250 USD-580
USD/ month).
Real estate
prices
18,549 yuan per square
meter in 2010

24. Cross-Cultural Training
Familiarize the individual with cultural institutions
and value systems of the host country
Individualism
Power
Distance
Uncertainty
Avoidance
Masculinity
Long-Term
Orientation
United
States
91 40 46 62 29
China 20 80 32 66 118
2. Culture Orientation

25. Cross-Cultural Training
Programmed learning techniques designed to
expose members of one culture to some of the
basic concepts, attitudes, role perceptions,
customs, and values of another culture
3. Cultural Assimilators

26. Cross-Cultural Training
Employee behavior and expectations:
•Low individualism scores are largely explained by
Guanxi, the embodiment of the Chinese culture in
both business and nationality. Loosely translated it
•The collective nature of the Chinese culture is
seen in other areas of behavior and expectations.
3. Cultural Assimilators

27. Cross-Cultural Training
Management style
•Two countries differed on all factors of managerial
performance except for planning and decision
making
•Leaders are not used to listening to subordinates
or adopting team’s perspective
3. Cultural Assimilators

28. Cross-Cultural Training
Staff behavior
•Subordinates are afraid of saying “NO” to their
superiors
•Subordinates are depending on the superiors
•People value long term success and set backs
are allowed in the process of developing
3. Cultural Assimilators

29. Cross-Cultural Training
Communication system
•In Chinese subsidiary company, any problem and
urgency has to be reported to the superiors in order
to make solution and get contact with relative
department, which can be regarded as a formal
communication system.
•Chinese staffs are not willing to extend their
relationship outside the group where they belong to.
Therefore a feasible way of organize people from
different groups is to use formal communication
systems
3. Cultural Assimilators

30. Cross-Cultural Training
• By videos
4. Sensitivity training

31. Case Study
1. Case study
In company regulation, workers must works for full 8 hours/ day
with 6 days/ week from Monday to Saturday. If anyone violates this
rule for at least 5 days/ month without permission, he/ she shall be
fired.
Suppose that in the Assembling Workshop, Mr. David discovered
a fraud in working hours. Team leader in the Workshop, who
has worked for a long period of time and is older than David 6
years, often go to work very late and even absence for some days.
Because he is old and he usually conceal for workers’ mistakes no
one complain or report about his violation. They are afraid of being
retaliated.
Questions:
• What issues does David face with in this case?
• What should David do to deal with those problems?

32. Case Study
2. Suggestion
1.Issues David are facing
• Power distance
• Perception about ages in working
• Unfairness in the factory
2.Solutions
• Talking privately with Mr. Wong
• Find out workers’ opinions
• Get vote to choose another team leader

33. Conclusion
• This situation is designed to elucidate the barriers of
cross cultural communication in multinational firms.
• Through the training program, this case is provided to
managers to help them having a picture about what
barriers culture brings to the cross-cultural management.

34. Conclusion
• => Managers should take their times and learn
the differences of the communication and the
culture.