Replies (300 words total – 100 words minimum, per reply)
BUSI 604
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Additionally, you will reply to a minimum of 3 other classmates’ threads. Thus, you will have
submitted substantive written responses to a minimum of 3 other classmates’ threads.
What is Substantive Interaction?
The School of Business is committed to the collaborative learning model. In this course,
collaborative learning requires each student to read and spend time reflecting on other’s
postings, and then respond in a substantive manner to the postings of others. In composing
substantive responses, you can do several things, such as:
o compare/contrast the findings of others with your research;
o compare how the findings of others relate and add to the concepts learned in the
required readings; and/or
o share additional empirical knowledge regarding global business — or international
experiences you may have had — relative to the postings of others.
The collaborative learning model requires substantive interaction between students on a
weekly basis. Consider the Discussion as equivalent to being in a class, thus maintain
professional communication standards at all times (no “IM” shorthand or informal jargon,
please).
DISCUSSION POST:Key Term and Why You Are Interested in It
Culture: I am interested in writing my discussion on culture because I believe it is one of the most critical factors in the health of an organization, yet it is often not specifically managed. I have been working in the same job in the military for nine years. Yet, I have been a part of several cultures within the community, which have greatly affected job satisfaction, quality of life, and engagement, among other factors. Leaders have the ability to manage and control, to a certain extent, the culture of their organizations or groups. I am interested in looking into how adding the complexities of national cultures affects the organizational culture and how national culture affects business.
Explanation of the Key Term
“Culture is the set of shared goals, values, practices, and attitudes that characterize a society, or in the business sense, an organization.” (Merriam Webster-Culture, 2022) The complexities of culture become more complex when business culture and cultures within the separate departments of a business and national cultures begin to merge in the case of multinational corporations. One researcher adds additional layers to business cultures, such as norms, customs, rituals, artifacts, symbols, and even the structures and buildings in which the business works are part of the culture. (Coutts, 2021)
Major Article Summary
As our textbook points out that understanding the cultures of the businesses that an organization wishes to conduct business with internationally is important to success. The article that I have chosen seconds that notion, stating, “To achieve success in business relationships over time, companies are advised to be sensitive to the cultures of their foreign partners.” (Orra, 2020) Rather than looking at international business (IB) as a whole, the article systematically looks at emerging markets that conduct a large amount of IB. Specifically Chinese Guanxi, Arabic Wasta, Latin America Compadrazgo, Brazilian Jeitinho, and the Russian Sviazi. The article looks specifically at the literature on cultural-specific relationships regarding these five nations and their subsequent business cultures more in-depth. Much research has gone into common importer-exporter international business relationships, but this article seeks to delve more deeply into the specifics of these cultures’ business practices. Chinese Guanxi is the most studied culture, with 64% of the research conducted because of China’s international business presence over the last three decades. Chinese Guanxi is manifested through the use of social capital, service of close friendship, and associations to foster business relationships. This differs from Arabic Wasta, which conducts business more commonly using a social contract between families or tribes. Brazil and Russia have adopted a more western and purpose form of business relationship where the relationship ends after both parties needs are met, which differs from the previous two cultures, which have deeper relationships and ties. Knowing these differences is important to business managers when dealing with other cultures. The article suggests that business managers should consider the cultural context of each culture they intend to do business with, as they differ significantly from each other. Not doing so threatens to offend their culture and, ultimately, the business relationship.
Discussion
Globalization is inevitable as the world continues to become increasingly interconnected with advancing technology. There are both positives and negatives to the reality of globalization, but one thing is certain: it is unavoidable. (Satterlee, 2018) With that being the case, learning to lead and manage a business in a multinational organization is crucial. One of the most significant challenges in leading a multinational organization is understanding the different cultures that the organization conducts business with. Communication, religion, ethics, values, manners and customs, and social structures are all cultural dimensions that greatly affect how international business is conducted. The article I chose looked at those differences in five major emerging markets and described their business culture. There are incredible amounts of nuance to understanding another nation’s culture fully and the microcultures within the businesses, but a general understanding of how the organization conducts business is beneficial to the cross-cultural relationship.
The other four articles I researched all added valuable incite in different ways, but some were less specific and more general than what I found in the article I chose to write on. One article was valuable to understand how to create an ethical culture. Another study researches the challenges of understanding cross-national differences in values and business culture. It is understood that values related to a specific culture affect how people behave in different situations. (van Hoorn, 2017) These differences create ethical dilemmas for organizations to grapple with at times. For example, in some nations, bribery is a common business practice. This presents ethical challenges for cultures that have protections and laws against bribery. As I stated earlier, much of international business must be imported and exported, creating this ethical challenge to be relevant regularly at ports. These cultural differences in ethics played such a significant role that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) had to amend its policy from zero tolerance of bribery to allowing “faciliation payments” so that goods could be transferred through ports and customs. There are tremendous differences in the ways different nations conduct business that is influenced mainly by the countries’ culture. Understanding those differences makes the process of navigating business with multinational corporations efficient.
