In today’s multicultural global environment, businesses frequently encounter cultural differences that affect all aspects of the business. Cultural differences include disparities in attitudes, behaviours, norms and values of people who live or work together. Businesses will have diverse managerial approaches depending on the cultures that encompass its workforce. The potential usefulness Trompenaars and Hall’s cultural framework to businesses have been discussed widely. Both cultural frameworks propose a set of cultural dimensions such as low context versus high context languages, individualism versus collectivism, and universalism versus pluralism that affects human emotion, thinking and behaviour in the workplace in predictable ways. This
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Understanding cultural differences leads to competitive advantage and thus, it is a critical component for long-term success. Hall’s concept of context is the most important cultural dimension in his framework. According to this framework, cultures exhibit either a high context or low context language. North America is categorized as a low context culture, as individuals depend little on the shared experience and the context of a situation in communication. They believe readers rely exclusively on spoken or written words and thus, information given must be explicit. Latin America is an example of a high context culture, as individuals in this region leave much unsaid. Instead, they believe that the listener is familiar with the context and as such, does not need as much direct information to understand the situation (Changing minds. Org, n.d & Rogers, Hart & Miike, …show more content…
First, IBM managers in Latin America focus on the group rather than the individual which in turn, makes the management prefer a consultative management style over the autocratic leadership style. The second way in which the collectivist values and high context cultures affect IBM operation in Latin America is in relationships between the management and subordinates. Latin Americans expect to be treated with kindness and courtesy in the workplace, and the survival of the company depends largely on the relationships within the organization (Robert & Wasti, 2002). Thirdly, popular celebration plays a major role in Latin American business environments including religious revelries, which illustrate the need for a management style which demonstrates understanding and inclusion in working arrangements and schedules. Employees appreciate being included in the managerial practices; however, they still prefer a managerial approach where one leader makes the decisions. Latin American culture favours the development of teamwork in workplace. IBM employees based in Latin America value relationships based on empathy and communication, both of which they feel are indispensable in regards to teamwork. Another way that high context and collectivist cultures in Latin America affects the IBM business environment is by influencing its communication. The IBM communication structure
Understanding cultural differences leads to competitive advantage and thus, it is a critical component for long-term success. Hall’s concept of context is the most important cultural dimension in his framework. According to this framework, cultures exhibit either a high context or low context language. North America is categorized as a low context culture, as individuals depend little on the shared experience and the context of a situation in communication. They believe readers rely exclusively on spoken or written words and thus, information given must be explicit. Latin America is an example of a high context culture, as individuals in this region leave much unsaid. Instead, they believe that the listener is familiar with the context and as such, does not need as much direct information to understand the situation (Changing minds. Org, n.d & Rogers, Hart & Miike, …show more content…
First, IBM managers in Latin America focus on the group rather than the individual which in turn, makes the management prefer a consultative management style over the autocratic leadership style. The second way in which the collectivist values and high context cultures affect IBM operation in Latin America is in relationships between the management and subordinates. Latin Americans expect to be treated with kindness and courtesy in the workplace, and the survival of the company depends largely on the relationships within the organization (Robert & Wasti, 2002). Thirdly, popular celebration plays a major role in Latin American business environments including religious revelries, which illustrate the need for a management style which demonstrates understanding and inclusion in working arrangements and schedules. Employees appreciate being included in the managerial practices; however, they still prefer a managerial approach where one leader makes the decisions. Latin American culture favours the development of teamwork in workplace. IBM employees based in Latin America value relationships based on empathy and communication, both of which they feel are indispensable in regards to teamwork. Another way that high context and collectivist cultures in Latin America affects the IBM business environment is by influencing its communication. The IBM communication structure