Understanding Business Culture for Effective Communication
Discuss about the Generational Shifts in Managerial Values.
Culture is a form of collective social norms, values and rules, which is accepted by a particular group of individuals. According to a certain definition of culture, it refers to the way how the people do things in their particular cultural environment, community or country, the culture of a particular place or group if individuals change with the change of time. Each and every countries have different ideologies and beliefs and way of life thus it is important to understand the cultural norms of a particular organization or a country to be able to communicate effectively for business purposes. Culture is the chief component in a business environment it helps in devising strategies to carry on with the business. While communicating for business purposes understanding the national culture is not the only thing o be kept in mind, in the case of business culture it is very important to begin with the right kind of first impression, the formalities, and negotiations should be done in a proper way.
Beginning the business relationship with the proper communication is immensely crucial for the future of the business (Gordon 2017). The culture of different countries may vary to a huge extent and the managers have to understand how to promote communication between the people belonging to various cultural backgrounds, if they fail to do so then it can lead to the failure of a business proposal and end of negotiations. The business culture can be distinguished into two forms:
- Low Context Cultures: In this type of cultures, the individuals communicate with each other in easier terms and they mean exactly what they say (Alves, Booth and Fryzel 2016). This type of cultures are rather straightforward in nature there is no ambiguity in the language spoken. The countries which have low context cultures are USA, Australia and others.
- High Context Cultures: These type of cultures are sensitive in the nature of their communication, in these cultures the method of interaction and behaviour, etiquettes play a huge role in the circumstances. The people in these countries pay a huge importance in the attitudes of the individuals. The examples of such counties are Japan, China and other Asian countries.
Although the cultures of different countries may vary to a huge extent yet there are some common measures followed for effective cultural business communication. To establish a good and proper business culture between two organizations belonging to different cultures there are few business etiquettes that are following commonly by the business persons:
- Understanding the differences between one’s own country and the host country will help cope with the situation.
- Thanking others at the end of the meeting or any interview is very important and is also polite thus it helps in creating a positive self-image.
- Providing honest statements while negotiating in a business meeting or while suggesting a deadline for the completion of a project also helps in enhancing the business relations (Hogan and Coote 2014).
- One should never lose temper while attending a business meeting, if the point of view of a person does not match with another then they should resolve it in a calm manner through proper discussion.
A healthy and vibrant business environment is something that keeps the business going on, and makes the people within the organization to be committed to the organizational culture (Stewart et al. 2017). A proper business culture is promoted through beliefs, plans, ownership and the results. The following are the chief elements of business culture:
Money is often a huge motivation for a person to choose a particular organization, but it is not the only motivation. Most people choose the organizations according to their own values and beliefs. Individuals choose a particular organization primarily based on what they themselves feel passionate about and something they know that they can do or achieve and they crave such an environment where they can find similar minded people (Jondle, Ardichvili and Mitchell 2014). Similarly if there are certain established core values or beliefs set within an organization, it will promote a healthy business culture. The people within that organization will follow and have faith in those core values or beliefs.
The purpose of the organization should be often highlighted and demonstrated of the employees so that they can feel motivated (Dodge et al. 2017). The goals and motives of the company should be brought into life with the help of various types of support and development programs. The employees of an organization should be treated in a proper manner ad that will speak about the culture of that particular organization.
Key Elements of a Healthy Business Culture
The cultures, which are most productive and strong in nature, are those, which are set upon clear objectives. Only when the people will understand the objectives of the organization they will be able to deliver high productivity and will lead the organization towards a bright future (Hoorn 2017). To help an organization to reach such heights where it can help in serving a higher purpose, such a system is needed where people can work and can manage themselves, and to create such a self-sustaining environment the organizational objectives should be clear.
Telling inspiring stories is a vital way of attracting the employees to join in the growth process of the organization, but doing that will not help the organization in the long run, it is necessary to create future leaders of the company who will in turn lead others (Craft 2016) It is the primary duty of a leader to select and develop leaders within the internal teams of the organization; later on, they can teach and help others in the future.
One of the most reliable ways to understand the commitment of the individual employees is by assessing their accountability towards their work and the organization (Sielicka 2016).
This can be done by measuring the performance of the employees, setting their individual goals and communicating with them to understand their position.
Ownership is the ultimate element of business culture; the employees need to understand that their role in the growth and development of the company is crucial and thus this idea will invoke a feeling of ownership within that individual.
Every organization has their own set of rules and norms this is known as the business culture, this plays an important role in the development of an organization. Having a definite business culture makes the staffs motivated towards the organizational culture (Ghorbani and Partonia 2014). Different organizations have different way of functioning and this contribute towards shaping a common organizational culture. The culture of an organization determines the way the employees treat each other and the kind of practices they follow within the organization. The following points will enumerate the importance of business culture:
- The business culture determines the employee relationships within an organization. The employees will only stay loyal to the management if the environment of the organization is healthy. The management promotes healthy ideologies related with the organizational culture and this causes the employees to rest their faith in the hands of the management, in this way business culture promotes a healthy relationship among the employees and the management (Stewart et al. 2017). In several companies the employees are provided with special grants and incentives as a part of enhancing the employee management relationship, there are also other ways to promote the same followed by other organizations.
- The culture of the business or organization encourages the employees to compete with one another to improve their individual performances in a healthy manner without any bitterness. If the employees are appreciated for their good performance by their superiors then they are motivated to perform even better for the next time (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). The employees are in a way motivated by the practiced business culture of the organization.
- In each and every organization there are some predefined set of rules which each employee should abide by. The business culture present within an organization defines some of the policies, which in turn provides a “sense of direction” to the employees. Only when every individual employee understands his/her role in the organization, then they will be able to put forward their best performance.
- Different organizations have different business cultures. The business culture of one organization differentiates it from another. It helps in creating a unique brand image of the organization. The culture, which a business follows, provides it with an identity and others can easily relate the organization by recognizing its business culture.
- The business culture of an organization unifies the employees of the organizations. The business culture promotes equality and justice among all the employees and prevents malpractices. The employees need to feel safe and well adjusted with the company environment so as to deliver their best performance. Under a proper business culture the efforts of each of the employee is noticed and they are equally praised and appreciated so that there are no feelings of bias among all.
- The business or work culture helps in uniting the people belonging to different nationalities to come and work together for the benefit of the organization. Each of the employees has grown up in different families and they have their individual ideologies and beliefs, it is the culture of their workplace that helps them in overcoming their personal differences (Ma and Marquis 2016). In many organizations certain rules are followed by all the employees irrespective of their designations, such kind of practices help the employees to stay motivated and provide several benefits to them in the future. The future prospects of an employee depend upon the right kind of organizational practices and make them successful. The existing practices will help the new employees to adapt with the business cultures of the organization and they will enjoy success in the future.
- A healthy relationship is promoted among the employees due to business culture of the respective organization. The work that the employees do does not burden them and everyone works according to the work culture (McLuhan 2015). The employees do their own work in their respective time and they complete it without any complaints, they do not get the scope to complaint as the business culture promotes positivity among each of the employees.
- It is only the business culture, which can help in extracting out the best performance among the individual team members. The employees are motivated to send the reports timely only if there exists a proper rule about timely submission of the performance reports; everyone takes the responsibility of their own work and performance. The culture of the business develops in the employees a habit to work according to the rules and to abide by them and ultimately this helps them to become successful in future.
Business studies are aimed to teach about all the possible prospects of a business, the structure, function and the ethical perspectives of a business. Business culture plays an important role in the entire business studies, without learning the importance of business culture, it is impossible to complete business studies. Understanding the concepts of business culture is important as the world is a global village and organizational or business culture teaches the significance of other cultures. To promote business among the people from other cultures understanding their business culture is of vital importance. The relationship between the employees and management is also explained with the help of business culture, how it motivates the employees and disciplines them and aids the management to arrive at a better understanding with the staff. A defined set of policies is required for the proper functioning of the entire organization as a whole, without defined policies and regulations, the employees will feel lost, as they will lack direction, if they are not able to understand their work it should not be expected that they will perform well. Thus learning business culture as a part of business studies teach a lot about the function of an entire organization, without understanding the importance of organizational/business culture it will be impossible to understand the complexities regarding running a successful organization.
Reference List:
Alves, A.A., Booth, P. and Fryzel, B., 2016. Business Culture and Corporate Social Responsibility: An Analysis in the Light of Catholic Social Teaching with an Application to Whistle?Blowing. The Heythrop Journal.
Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015. Changing organizational culture: Cultural change work in progress. Routledge.
Craft, J.L., 2016. Common thread: The impact of mission on ethical business culture. A case study. Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-19.
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Ghorbani, M. and Partonia, S., 2014. The importance and role of personal entrepreneurship training in the development of business culture and its challenges. Asian Journal of Research in Business Economics and Management, 4(5), pp.300-313.
Gordon, G., 2017. Guiding Organizational Culture. In Leadership through Trust (pp. 53-62). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
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Ma, J. and Marquis, M., 2016. Business culture in East Asia and implications for competition law. Tex. Int’l LJ, 51, p.1.
McLuhan, M., 2015. Culture is our business. Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Sielicka, E., 2016. Entrepreneurship And Business Culture: Management Of Changes. Modern Transformation Of Economics And Management In The Era Of Globalization, p.90.
Stewart, D., Verbos, A.K., Birmingham, C., Black, S.L. and Gladstone, J.S., 2017. Being Native American in business: Culture, identity, and authentic leadership in modern American Indian enterprises. Leadership, 13(5), pp.549-570.
van Hoorn, A., 2017. Generational shifts in managerial values and the coming of a unified business culture: A cross-national analysis using European social survey data. Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-20.
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