The focused company of this report is an active participant in the fashion footwear industry, with a long reign of over 150 years. The company itself was founded in the United States, however grew rapidly in popularity and acquired multiple other fashion footwear branches, which are all governed according to the same structure and format.

Despite New Zealand’s multicultural, independent and overall diverse society, our interviewee expresses her struggles regarding cultural miscommunication, understanding and barriers both within immediate staff in the workplace environment along with interactions with customers. Thus, such limitations and conflicts are prevalent in such societies regardless of diverse cultures being the norm.

Additionally, our interviewee also expresses her gratitude and growth in understanding cultural differences, norms and communication. She states that although she faces challenges, a diverse team has educated her and widened her perspectives as well. Given how large such fashion companies are and the nature of the retail field, further analysis of the Hofstede dimensions, identification of cultural miscommunications and potential resolutions will be explored to mitigate such challenges. These aspects will be further explored below.

Hofstede Dimensions

Despite the fact that the company is a United States-owned firm, the female New Zealander works alongside people of other nationalities such as New Zealanders, Americans or Indians. Although she is used to diversity and multicultural atmospheres because of her country, she does encounter cultural limitations within the work environment, such as the language, dressing code or perception of rules.

Additionally, not only does she have issues with her partners, but also with the clients. For instance, there are many cultures where physical contact is inhibitive and not very common. In the case of our interviewee, when she is helping a customer to measure their size-foot, she ensures that she clearly asks if it is okay to be physically close to another person with the sole intention of helping them try on shoes. It would be prohibitive for her to make other people uncomfortable and dissatisfied with the service.

The interviewee stated to share the workforce with people from the United States and India. That is the reason why we will be comparing those cultures on the basis of the six Hofstede’s Dimensions. See below Figure 1.

There is a low Power Distance between the managers and the employees. Since New Zealand and the United States have a participative orientation, the regular workers still have the ability to voice their concerns without fear. Both managers and employees expect to be consulted and the information is shared very frequently. This situation surprises her Indian coworkers, because for them it should be the complete opposite. They are used to more Hierarchical distances and a top-down structure in society and organizations. In India, power is centralized and managers count on the obedience of their team members.

Also, despite the fact that all the three countries are considered to be Masculine, she states that in the workplace there is no competition, instead, they prefer to follow the Feminine values, and care for each other. ​​This is why they have an effective manager who is supportive to his/her people, and decision making is achieved through involvement of the group.

Moreover, as her Indian manager is more of a Collectivist person, the New Zealander sees it as an advantage as she was used to being Individualistic. The interviewee appreciates a lot that her manager takes into account what the coworkers express. In the American and New Zealand cultures, the superiors are accessible and managers rely on individual employees and teams for their expertise.

Lastly, Hofstede states that the higher a country scores in indulgence the higher the willingness of a society to follow their instincts and wants in terms of enjoying life and having fun. Therefore, while New Zealand and the United States share the top scores of Indulgence, our interviewees manager’s Indian culture is rather considered to be restrained, who has the perception that the employees’ actions are regulated by social norms.

Outcome

Cultural limitations have been identified from the interviewee perspective. It was noticeable how the understanding of the corporate rules differed from store to store. For instance, in stores where western ideals were governed people inferred the “smart-casual” as being “more casually”. On the other hand, the store where our employee works showed a more literal way of following the rules. This was influenced by the southern  Asian background of their manager showing a high uncertainty avoidance, meaning that the manager had an emotional feeling for rules, and precision.

Moreover, cultural miscommunication exists in the retail stores in New Zealand specially where they employ a diverse team and serve a broad range of customers. Therefore, the staff needs to sometimes adapt its approach to the customers. Since they are diverse they need to make use of verbal communication, and body language to fully understand customer wants. In other words,  diverse cultures mean different levels of communication. Therefore, some cultures need high context to understand the message. However, for others it is enough if it is said with confidence, or written somewhere (low context). When a problem arises the interviewee opted for verbal communication as their tool to solve possible misunderstandings. One of the current problems in retail is customers not obeying the national coronavirus restrictions. For instance, elderly do not like to be stopped from shopping because they are not using a face mask, when this scenario occurs the retail employees felt  inhibited in handling the matter by themselves and opted to contact their manager to solve this issue otherwise if the discussion between the customer and the employee were to escalate the store may lose its reputation, followed by possible clients.

Finally, since the company’s headquarters are located in the United States, the main values, and practices are implemented to its franchises. The interviewee explained that they feel “they are given opportunities to speak our mind and perspectives”. This could be due to the rather neutral score in power distance of its HQ in the United States combined with one of the lowest power distance cultures in New Zealand providing the employees a space where their concerns are heard without being belittled, and solving issues as they come.

Possible solutions

In a corporate environment, people from different backgrounds come together and each brings their own culture, which can vary. Employees have to keep this in mind and overcome it. Language barriers can lead to misunderstandings, so it is important to know the co-employees and be aware of their language and culture. This can happen through regular team meetings that take place informally. This ensures a personal exchange between the employees. There are also different understandings of norms between departments. These could be circumvented by strengthening cross-functional communication, creating departments containing employees from different departments and building a common vocabulary so that each department understands what the other department is talking about and what it values.

A uniform dress code with a company logo could help to overcome the hurdles of clothing, which is handled differently by each employee.

Of course, in a service company there are not only differences between employees, but also between employees and customers. For this purpose, regular training could be introduced where case studies are played out to train the best possible behaviour. A handbook could also be created that suggests the most appropriate behaviour for standard problems in all cultures.

The most important thing, however, is that problems are addressed openly within the company structure, because this is the only way to change a staff member and ensure smooth cooperation.

Authors

Gary S. Guadalupe M.
Amsterdam School of International Business, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Block 2, Semester 1, 2021

Carlota Prieto Garcia
Amsterdam School of International Business, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Block 2, Semester 1, 2021

Lisa Schreibweiß
Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego
Semester 5, 2021

Tasfia Mahmood
Auckland University of Technology
Block 2, Semester 1, 2021

For assignment C, our group interviewed the managing director of a subsidiary of an international company about their cultural diversity management. During the interview, numerous topics regarding diversity management were discussed with our interviewee, such as the cultural limitations in the work environment, what is seen as prohibitive and inhibitive within the company, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, as well as intercultural communications.

The aim of this assignment is to identify and navigate the way culture influences people in an international work environment. Additionally, it also helps us attain a better understanding of the different cultural dimensions and how it applies to organizations, rather than just an individual.

Cultural limitation

The interviewee states that there are several limitations when working in a multicultural company. The first restriction is that workers from a higher management level tend to experience less problems due to cultural differences, while this occurs more between people at a lower management level. The reason why there are fewer problems in the higher management level is due to the employees’ level of training, work experience, their awareness of consequences of not following guidelines and their responsibility as a role model and a leader. The second limitation mentioned is that one can sometimes ‘be thrown into a drawer’. What the interviewee meant with this is that cultural differences and background may lead to people being judged and stereotyped, which might result in workers being heard less or even ignored. Thirdly, there are constraints that usually arise from individuals within a foreign culture, and not so much in an organizational setting within the same culture. This has often to do with how well those people adapt to the working culture, the dominant culture. Finally, the last limitation is the fact that it is up to the employer and his management to make cultural diversity become a competitive advantage.

Communication and interpretation

Especially in an international company, where most of the employees come from different countries, with different cultural backgrounds and languages, it is important to make use of interpretation and translation to avoid any possible cultural miscommunication. According to the interviewee, it is crucial to behave professionally in a work environment, private life and work life should be distinguished properly. Moreover, it is essential to obtain mastery of the English language, as that is the most spoken language in the world and the chances are big that all the employees will be able to speak English, despite their individual level of English.

Nevertheless, the interviewee also has the opinion that in some occasions, it is better when both sides don’t have a common language, because it makes them more dependent on the common themes that have to be resolved and it results in them having to use a translator or an interpreter. He mentioned this, because if one party has a lower language level it may occur that he misunderstands the one that speaks more sophisticated. In situations where there will still be a language barrier between the employees in the company, our interviewee suggests that it would be easiest to utilize online translators for virtual settings, and for offline situations to use an interpreter or translator. These mediators are very helpful to resolve communication problems in a work environment. On top of that, it is mentioned that communicating one-to-one is also a great way to avoid misunderstandings between people and to resolve misunderstandings that have already occured.

Prohibitive and inhibitive

Every Culture has prohibitive or inhibitive behaviors or actions. Our interviewee has the opinion that in the context of an international work environment it is hard to say what is prohibitive or inhibitive, because every culture has different aspects to it. He did say though that especially bigger organizations have certain guidelines or a code of conduct. These guidelines are usually open phrased. This means that especially management has different ways of interpreting it, in order to accomplish the inclusion of the cultural differences. One example of such a guideline may be “respect each other”. Respect may look very different in each culture, but since the wording is so basic and, in the roots, it applies to everyone in each situation.

Hofstede Dimensions

The interviewee comes from Poland, which is also reflected in some answers when observing it from Hofstede’s dimensions perspective. First of all, it can be said that Poland has a relatively high hierarchy orientation, namely 67. Secondly, Polish culture is seen more as an individualistic culture with a score of 60 on the scale of Hofstede. Thirdly, it can be said that the culture of the interviewee is highly achievement oriented, meaning that goal and work focus is more appreciated. Besides that, the score of 93 on certainty orientation is seen as a high degree to which people prefer rules, regulations and controls. Moreover, the Polish culture scores low on time orientation which means that the focus is more on fulfilling the present needs. Lastly, the score on indulgence is also relatively low, amounting to 29, meaning that the Polish culture leans more towards letting behavior to be regulated by social norms (Tcps, n.d.).

Outcome

When conducting the Interview, our interviewee said he did not know the Hofstede Dimensions, so we explained the model to him and showed him the results of two countries he knew the cultures of: Germany and Poland. We also asked questions to dig deeper on those dimensions where he did not know what to answer. We found out that on many occasions he agreed with what was said. On some other occasions, he disagreed. For example: He said he did not like hierarchy in a work environment as much, which is part of power distance. He also said that he prefers the emotional way of communication, which is part of a feminine culture. From one of his answers, “Either they have it, or they don’t” one could see that he is more power distant and more masculine.

Overall we were able to come to several conclusions. First, the Hofstede dimensions are not necessarily a hundred percent true in every situation. Second, the interviewee may perceive himself and his organization differently in these dimensions compared to the Hofstede values, due to a lack of understanding of the dimensions. And last, and most importantly, since it is an international company and the interviewee has worked in many different cultural settings and work environments, his perceptions might not necessarily represent the classical polish values. Thus, how much these dimensions apply always depends on the situation and the cultural experiences of those that are evaluated.

Possible solutions

The Best-Practice Example our interviewee described was one he experienced some time before he worked for his current organization. It also rather concerns action before something happens rather than reaction after something happened.

He joined a new team of managers which came from all around the world and gathered together in a seminar in preparation for the work. In groups they identified all prejudices and biases as well as positive aspects they could find about the others countries and cultures. Then they presented these to all and altogether they found ways of accepting and understanding one another. The time they spent together also helped them meet on a personal level and make friends.

He recalled that this way of going about such a cultural diversity influenced the work culture right from the beginning in such a way that it hardly happened that misunderstandings occurred since everyone knew what the thought about oneself, both positive and negative, and they knew where they could meet and understand each other. They always had a common ground. In all his career he only experienced this once and it was the Best Practice of going about cultural differences and improving, overcoming this hurdle.

Authors

Hiromi de Oliveira Ontani
Student: International Business Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Block 2, Semester 1, 2021

Linh Le
Student: International Business Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Block 2, Semester 1, 2021

Jens Tiebing
Student: Bachelor of Management Kozminski University
Semester 5, 2021

A French female worker started her career with an international sports company when she was 22 years old and a trainee.  After 23 years of hard work with the same company, she is now an industry director specializing in the area of  gloves.  From the onset of her career, she was assigned to collaborate with a South Korean team as a manager and all members of the South Korean team were men and older than her. On the first day of work while walking into the office, her subordinates murmured in a small group and gave her a peculiar and perplexed look. She was not familiar with this sort of behaviour and her initial reaction was to ask, “Is there any problem?” Everyone in the group became very quiet and one of them politely answered “Oh! Nothing, Miss!” Because she holds a higher position than the employees who were murmuring, she did not understand that there was an element of power distance that was in play.  The behaviour  continued to happen day after day, until she could not stand these actions anymore and organised a special meeting just to tackle this issue. When everyone on her team was in the meeting room, everyone had a straight face and looked absolutely frightened. She broke the silence by saying “I have been working with all of you for a while now and I have noticed the back talk and whispering , would anyone care explaining to me what is going on?” No one dared to speak a word and they looked into each other’s eyes with a concerned look. She then switched the tactic and said “You are all my teammates, and we work together as a team but not as enemies. Please share your opinion whenever you feel like it. If anything, I am the one who is supposed to help you, not to harm you!”. After this comment from her, an old veteran spoke up : “Then we are going to be honest with you. First of all, you are just a young woman. How can you possibly lead our team as a manager?”.  She was very initially shocked but slowly realised the cultural clashes and the reason why they were all acting in a manner that she was unfamiliar with. After that, she tried to provide them with explanations and examples by putting herself in their shoes, and worked hard on getting to know every one of them, not only professionally but personally as well. Gradually, they started to accept her and invited her to join them for a laugh every now and then instead of laughing at her. 

Outcome

As a young French female manager, she faced many difficulties while dealing with her South Korean team. Even though South Korea is considered a hierarchical society where people accept orders from more powerful members of the society without the need for more justification and subordinates expect to be told what to do from their manager, her team was not fond of her in the beginning but still respected her title. They would give her looks that implies that she is incapable of the position, making her feel uncomfortable as a means of non-verbal communication. Additionally, her team even verbally expressed how surprised they were by asking her “how could you possibly lead our team as a manager?!”.

Having older men in her team who have acquired this way of thinking could be related to the fact that women’s roles were limited to managing the household, children and extended family in traditional South Korean society. South Korean women  have been taught the virtues of subordination and endurance as part of their moral circle from a young age to prepare for their future roles as wives and mothers. It would be prohibitive for a young South Korean women to challenge this status quo. This shows the difference in gender roles between the two cultures (French and South Korean) where it is both inhibitive and prohibitive for a woman to manage a team comprised of men in South Korea; whereas when working with her French team she did not face this situation. Aside from gender roles, power distance has a significant role when it comes to a person’s age in South Korean culture. Older people are placed on a pedestal in most Asian countries which explains the actions of the South Korean team. They did not look at her qualities, character and core values rather they judged simply because she was a young woman. In addition, they were fast with their interpretation (cultural misappropriation) without knowing enough about her French background which created cross-cultural communication obstacles which in this case was due to gender role stereotypes. 

Best practice

In order to create a work environment where everybody feels seen and understood, and to avoid miscommunication, or cultural misappropriation, team members should try to postpone interpretation of another cultures social gestures until they are aware  of the individual personalities and cultural references needed before placing any judgment and attaching attribution to their behaviors.

Authors

Safia Salim (LinkedIn)
Amsterdam School of International Business; Block 2, Semester 1, 2020/2021

Agassi Ngai (LinkedIn)
Amsterdam School of International Business Block 2, Semester 1, 2020/2021