Intercultural Environment in Globalization Era
Question:
Discuss about the Analysis of Local Culture Of A Country
The local culture of a country plays a critical role in development of business relations of enterprises. The local culture influences the policies and legal procedures of the business organizations. The culture of a country comprises of political aspects, economic aspects and social aspects of the society. In the era of the globalization, management is focusing on developing effective intercultural environment. It is important as the present workforce is diversified and belongs to different cultures and backgrounds. With the globalization, people travel to different places to work; however, different in culture can result in conflicts and other issues. Therefore, it is important to understand the differences between different cultures and their impact on the personality and the behavior of the people. It is essential because it help to increase creativity at workplace and helps to remain competitive in business environment. The present report is based on analysis of cultural aspects of Curacao and analyzing the differences with other countries. It is based on the classroom activity in which a team of different nationalities is formed and they dress up in their national attire. During this activity, various observations were made regarding the uniqueness of different cultures and the impact of customs on the personality. The paper has discussed the importance of intercultural communication and management in the global business environment. The report analyzes the culture of the native country with the help of CAGE framework. Then after, different theoretical frameworks are used to analyze the differences between the cultures of different countries. In the conclusion, recommendations have been made to address the cross-cultural dilemmas which may arise between people of different cultures.
The curacao’s is the small island which is situated in the coastlines bays near the shelf of South America. For the analysis of home country CAGE framework is selected. This framework describes the cultural, administration, geographical and economic distance of one country from the global nations. It provides a broad view on the different cultural aspects of Curcao.
Cultural: The culture of the country is based on diversity. There are different types of the people living in the one nation. Most of the people follow catholic religion. According to the culture perspective, Curacao is small city but there are number of languages adopted. The official languages of country are Dutch, Papiamentu and English. However, the Dutch is sole language in all administration level (Zaidi, et al., 2016). In the Cuisine, local food is called Krioyo. Most popular dishes in Curaçao are found in Aruba and Bonaire too. Most of the food is based on the combination of Caribbean cuisine and Latin American cuisine. The national value and culture is liberal and people follow an open lifestyle. People live with freedom and enjoy the high standard of living. Most of the people believe in living in peace and also they promote high standards in society. For the culture perspective, other nations in the group also have different population. Russia and SA does not welcome the foreigners; however, on the other hand, India has the highest diversity in the world. Due to diversity, the country is able to manage intercultural differences carefully.
Observations on National Attire Uniqueness
The educational structure of the country is based on Dutch education system. Besides public schools, private and parochial school are also present. The main institute of high learning is the University of Curaçao, enrolling 2,100 students.
Administration: Due to its favorable financial laws and regulations, it is considered as tax haven country. Regarding other trades, the country makes business deals with the USA and other European nations. In the labor force survey of 2016, it is indicated that employment rate was 13.3% which is quite low and shows the country’s stable growth. On the other hand, other countries like India and Saudi Arabia are also economically become robust. SA is an oil exporting country so economically they also have a strong position and India is a developing country. Russia is the powerful nation in the globe.
The political environment of the country is stable. In the Curacao, government is continuously focusing on development. In the present time, the government is actively trying to implement policies to enhance the industrialization and the economic activity in the country (Alleva, Martijn, Veldhuis, and Tylka, 2016). The stable relationship of government with other countries helps to expand local business. The laws and regulations of country promote equity and stability among individuals. The political environment of Curacao also focus to increase foreign direct investment which can make economic conditions of the country stronger. In the group, other nations like Russia, SA and India also have stable and strong political environment. Government in these nations are also working towards the development, so it can give strong competition to Curacao.
Curacao is located in the South Caribbean Sea and it is situated in the north of Venezuela. It is different from other tropical islands. It has desert like habitation and there is scarcity of the drinking water.
The economic condition of the country is ideal and based on tourism, international trade, shipping and services and oil refining (Beugelsdijk, Maseland and Hoorn, 2015). The country is highly dependent upon the service sector and most of the income is generated by the tourists. In addition, the beautiful island also offers a high standard of living and rank 46th in the world GDP. Curaçao possesses a high income economy, as defined by the World Bank in year of 2016. In the economic sector, the country is also looking forward to develop more foreign investment which is named as ‘Open Arms’ policy. In the financial sector, the country is the also making remarkable progress. There are a number of financial companies which are working with the local government to providing more financial stability in the country.
Cultural Analysis of Curacao
The present is discussion about the national culture by using the CAGE cultural dimension framework and the culture of Curacao is compared with other nation’s culture through this cultural framework.
The national culture of every nation is different from each other. There are different types of the countries which hold different culture. The national culture defines ways in which people interact with each other, ways in which they take business opportunities and ways in which they make communication with each other. As per the national culture dimension, Hofstde and Hall dimension model can be used to analyze the cultural characteristics of a country (Clegg, Kornberge and Pitsis, 2015). Both of these frameworks are based on evaluating the cross culture in the nation and its impact on business.
Evalution of the Hofstede Model
This model is based on six different types of cultural dimensions. Each type of the dimensions shows different perspective of culture. Following are the cultural dimension of Hofstede model.
Power distance
It expresses the attitude of culture towards inequalities. In this dimension, Curaçao scored low rank. The power is decentralized and people dislike control and hierarchical level. In addition, employee’s behavior is more informal towards managers. Individuals like to make direct and participative communication. On the other hand, in India, Russia and Saudi Arabia high number of power distance is obtained. All the decisions are taken by the top management and management follows formal attitude towards other employees (Guerber, Rajagoplan and Anand, 2016). The power distance between these countries is highly centralized.
Individualism
The cultural dimension of individualism is based on the way in which people care about each other and degree of interdependence. Curaçao scored high rank in individualism. It means people followed individualism and prefers to care for themselves. Impact on the dimension of business is that the relationship between employees and employer is based on contract and mutual advantage. On the other hand, India, Russia, and Saudi Arabia scored low rank in this dimension. It means people believe to maintain strong relationship with each other. So, the employees in the organization shared common values and like to work in the group.
Masculinity
This culture dimension is based on identifying the motive of people. In the society some people like to provide the best or like what other people do. For Netherlands, score is low which means that country follow the feminine characteristics. It means people like to maintain the quality of life and work for equity (Mazanec, Crotts, Gursoy and Lu, 2015). Russia also scored low under this index which means society is caring for other people and maintain high quality of life. While other nations score high. In business organizations, managers are expected to be decisive and assertive.
Economic, Geographical, and Political Distance using CAGE Framework
Uncertainty Avoidance
It means ways in which the culture is believed to control the future risks or the occurrence in future. Curaçao scored high ranks which means people like to work with perfection and avoid uncertainty. There are rigid codes of belief and ideas which should be followed by everyone. In Russian and Saudi Arabia, society also scored high rank which means people establish most complex bureaucracies and for each project, detailed planning is required. On the other hand, other countries like India scored low score as compare to other countries.
Long-term Avoidance
This dimension describes the ways in which the society deal with its future and the present situations. The Curaçao scored high ranks which means in society people believe to establish long-term goals for future. In Netherland, people easily adopt changes in current circumstances. It results in helping people to establish long-term growth (Rallapalli and Montgomery, 2015). On the other hand, countries like India and Russia also score high rank as it means they believe in long-term goals while in Saudi Arabia the score is low. It means people have a strong concern to establish normative thinking and focus on quick results.
Indulgence
This dimension is defined as the extent, to which people try to control their desires and impulses. Curaçao scored high ranks and it means people in the society like to express their feelings and viewpoints in their life and possess the positive attitude towards fun and enjoyment in their lives. India and Russia scored low in the dimension which means society is more restrained in nature (Videikien? and Šimanskien?, 2015). Saudi Arabia scored moderately which means there is no clear picture or unified answer to the indulgent behavior of the society.
Evaluation of Hall Culture Framework
Hall culture is based on three dimensions time, space and communication context. The Curaçao country score low in this framework. It means people like informal behaviors and follow verbal communication in business (Ferraro and Briody, 2017). The low context culture creates less misunderstanding among the people. On the other hand, India, Russia, and SA follow high context culture which is more confusing in nature and follow non -verbal communication methods in their communication.
The second dimension which is used is time. This dimension is divided into two parts i.e. Monochronic time and polychronic time. The Curaçao country followed the monochromic time. It means people assume careful planning and scheduling. The similar things are followed by Russia. While India and Saudi Arabia followed polychronic time in which people of these countries focus on making human interaction and have less concern in getting things done.
Evaluation of Hofstede Model
The third dimension of Hall Framework is the space culture. The space culture associated with the ways in which people require their own personal space at the workplace. Curaçao country followed high territorial which means people have great concern over the ownership. It is also identified that workers need their own space and maintain healthy work-life balance (Lane, and Lindquist, 2015). On the other hand in countries like Russia, India and Saudi Arabia people follow low territorial, which means people do not have any type of work-life balance and low space is provided to them.
Limitation
The limitation of this model is its validity and reliability. The model is based on data which are collected from one company and sample size can be small. The basic assumption of this model is based on national culture but it not includes impact of globalization. The application of above framework can be improved by using the technological advancement and interacting this model with globalization.
The national culture is also reflected in the organization’s management. The business firm is highly affected by beliefs and culture of the country. In the management perspective, human resources practices of each country is different. Each nation has a different perspective regarding the HR practices and procedures (Andersen, Leisink, and Vandenabeele, 2017). The prime focus of human resources management is to maintain human capital in the business and use its optimum level. The HRHHHHH HR practices of the organization include hiring, maintaining HR policies and developing HR regulations etc. The culture of each nation also reflects oi HR practices of the company.
Recruitment and Training
The HR of the company is solely responsible for selecting and provides training to employees in the organization. The national culture and attitudes of employees are highly influenced by the training of employees. In Curaçao country, business organizations provide all required training and skills development program through which employees can become more creative. Due to impact of western country, Russia also follows similar practices and provide training to their employees (Gabriel, Cheshin, Moran and van Kleef, 2016). However, India and Saudi Arabia failed to provide enough training to workers due to economic condition and the lack of the human resources. In these countries, people believe to hire less skilled employees as compared to the western country.
Bridging the Demand and Supply Gap
Another work of human resource in an organization is to make sure to fulfill demand and supply gap within the business. The HR department of the company is conducting interviews and providing the best candidates for the vacant position. The HR in the western countries includes the Curaçao motivating employees and directing them towards to higher performance (Guinot, Chiva, and Mallén, 2016). On the other hand, the counties like India and Saudi Arabia failed to bridge the demand and supply gap because in these countries people do possess limited skills and knowledge. In Russia, the organization hires only the local people who are less interactive towards foreigners. In the present times, the competition among the business organizations has increased drastically. The business enterprises have realized that the human resource has the competence to create competitive advantage to the businesses. Therefore, organizations are providing different remunerations packages to attract the most talented people at the workplace. However, it is realized that there is still a huge gap in the supply and demand of the talented workforce. It is important for the governments to fulfill this gap by making some radical changes in the education system of the society.
Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-term Avoidance of Curacao
Employment Legislation
The employment legislation refers to the laws and regulations which are developed to provide health and safety to employees. In the business, there are different types of risks which are associated with workplace and need to be controlled. The foremost employment legislation which is followed is providing minimum wages and other acts such as insurance act, employees compensation for any type of accidents are appears (Shen and Benson, 2016). There are several industries, in which the employees face a higher degree of risk and the probability of workplace hazard. The government has made it mandatory to provide insurance coverage to these workers. Other than that, the government has also made sexual harassment laws in which the employees are protected against any sexual offence at the workplace. In Curaçao country, the employment legislation is strictly followed and minimum wages are also followed. In other countries such as India, Russia, and Saudi Arabia employment laws are followed and also employees have to face many types of problems. The laws are very strict and stringent in Saudi Arabia. The laws related to workplace are also different as the constitutions of Saudi Arabia are based on the Sharia or the holy book.
The Hofestde and Halll cultural model is considered helpful in describing the national culture of all countries. In this framework, there are certain weakness which can be improved. The limitation of model is that it based on limited number of research and sample size. It should include more research by using the large sample size by gathering data techniques. The influence of this model on HR management is that it helps to explains manner in which different types of techniques are used by HR on the national context and maintained human capital in organization.
Conclusion Notes
Summing up the present report, it is concluded that national culture can create a huge impact on business. The values, beliefs, culture, and attitudes make the business structure more complex or simple. In the context of the Curaçao country, culture is more open and Fridley. On the other hand Russia, SA and India allowed limited openness in culture. Curaçao country’s managers maintains high ethical standards at workplace and also allow diversity at the workplace. The country has also maintained sustainability in all aspects as compare other countries. For the business purpose, this country provides facilities and growth. The political, economic, culture of country promotes better working conditions for employees and business. Thus, it is considered that for the trade perspective it is more favorable as compared to other countries in the Group. In order to overcome the cross cultural dilemmas organization can provide ethical and cultural training to all of its employees.
Comparison of Hofstede Model for Curacao with Other Countries
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