Text 4. Cross- Cultural Management that Makes a Difference

Cross-cultural management, as defined concept, is no more than twenty years old. It came into being because in the past decade international companies have become truly international. They are not just exporting; they are opening offices in other countries or buying into joint ventures.  As a result, they employ lots of foreign employees, many of them local hires, and have their own employees living and working in other cultures.

Cross-cultural management training teaches, explains, consults and conveys modes of communication to people so they can better understand a culture foreign to them.

We all understand, intellectually, that things are done differently abroad, yet many people tend to forget this in the heat of daily business. Not all conflict is caused by cultural differences – some people just can’t get along – but often it is. Employees must be taught how to manage and be managed across cultures.

Culture is like the air you breathe but only when you put your head under water do you realize that you’ve been breathing air and now you are deprived of it. The same is true for culture: when we are in our home countries, we are swimming in culture without seeing or sensing it since it’s how we were brought up. Only when you leave your country, or start working with foreigners in your home country, do you become aware of your own culture.

When a foreign company opens an office in Russia, for example, it imports its culture here. Not only do the expatriates working here experience culture shock, but so do the Russians working in the company. Naturally the experience of working and interacting differs depending on whether you work for a German, French, or Japanese company.

One always carries his/her culture and it is always done on the subconscious level. When you come into a new culture, you are shocked because it confronts your own. If you try to push your culture onto the people and environment around you, people will find you difficult. The key to understanding any culture is information- you must look around and ask questions, even if you think they are stupid questions.

If no one explains you how another culture functions, you will not know how to interpret the way its people interact with you; you may seem like they just don’t like you. There are lots of avenues to describe culture: history, traditions, nature, and even ways of society. Knowing even some of them helps reduce conflict because people start to understand more about the culture, and, more importantly, become more open minded. They may still not like their colleague as a person, but at least it isn’t because he is American, French, or Chinese.

Cross-cultural management doesn’t claim to solve all communication issues and get rid of all workplace conflicts. But it does one thing for sure: it brings to light the cultural issues many of us keep hidden. It teaches people to accept the fact that differences do exist.

When you are going to work in an international company, first of all, you should anticipate that you are probably not going to understand what is going on. It is natural for people who do not understand to start blaming somebody else. To combat this, you need lots and lots of solid communication.

How should a company coming to a new culture cope with cultural issues?

First, the company leader need send pioneers – people with international knowledge and experience working abroad. Many foreigners put the blame for their bad experience on the country they are going to, when it is really the fault of living and working abroad for the first time. Living abroad is not easy.

Whether you settle on a joint venture or take on a local partner, sit down and discuss your cross-cultural issues, and come up with a strategy. When you hire locally, first choose those who have experience in an international environment. It is much more difficult to open an office directly, rather than taking on a partner or creating a joint venture, due to the laws and regulations. Foreigners encounter difficulties in any country. Don’t jump to conclusions and blame your host country for your problems. First consider how foreigners are treated in YOUR country.

Text 5. Cross-cultural management in Russia.

In northern European cultures it’s considered professional to keep business and family separate, but not in Russia. Here, people expect to be able to discuss personal problems at work and think it’s fine if their boss calls late at night or on the weekend to talk about business. In other countries, at half past six workers are in private time.

This means what you, a foreign manager, might consider good business management, is actually not. Family and work are more mixed in Russia – it’s what you call a diffused culture – and this may create conflict.

In Russia if you want to succeed in business as a manager, you must show interest in your employee’s life. You must ask your employees how their granny feels and whether their children did well in their exams. And this goes both ways; employees also expect to take an interest in your personal life.

If you manage your staff in this way, should you ask an employee to come in Monday at 8 AM instead of 9 AM to settle important issues, the employee will agree gladly because he or she is grateful to help and feels connected to you personally.

Of course in Russia there is a style of management, called management by walking around, that builds on this more personal work environment. In this model, employees expect the boss to know everything; the boss is like a teacher. Overseas, your typical teacher may take time to think about a student’s question, but in Russia if you ask the teacher a question he is expected to answer at once, even if he doesn’t have the right answer. That what your worker will expect of you.