cross-cultural knowledge

Examples of cross-cultural knowledge in the following topics:

• Considerations when Managing a Global Corporation

  • Strong global management skills, intercultural competence, and a sensitivity to cultural issues are necessities for global managers.
  • Through identifying the necessary global skill set and effectively implementing these global managers within the business structure, multinational corporations can attain competitive advantage through cross-cultural knowledge.
  • Global management skills are largely based in developing cultural intelligence, or a high cultural quotient (CQ), which delineates an individual's general understanding and adaptability of foreign cultures.
  • It is also critical in cross-cultural endeavors to maintain one's own sense of values and ethics, particularly as differences in standards of living, GDP per capita, economic growth rates, and political environments come into play.
  • With lower standards of livings in certain regions, as well as differences in capitalistic philosophies and legalities, sensitivity to cultural differences is absolutely crucial in sidestepping the pitfalls of merging cultures that contradict one another.

• Global marketing: assessing potential markets overseas

  • There are five essential areas within which culture must be continually studied in order to achieve success in dealing with culture as it affects international marketing.
  • Cross-cultural marketing occurs when a consumer's culture differs from that of the marketer's own culture.
  • This simple fact proves the importance of culture knowledge in cross-cultural marketing endeavors.
  • In fact, the importance of cross-cultural study has inspired a definition separate from that of international marketing.
  • Cross-cultural marketing is defined as the strategic process of marketing among consumers whose culture differs from that of the marketer's own culture at least in one of the fundamental cultural aspects, such as language, religion, social norms and values, education, and the living style (Tian, 2008).

• Doing business across cultures

  • Installing cultural diversity training programs can help accomplish this by defining what cultural intelligence is, teaching employees to accept and work effectively with others from different cultural backgrounds, and taking advantage of advice from those who have cross-cultural experience.
  • Geert Hofstede, a leading expert in cultural values classification, developed a model of five dimensions of natural culture that help to explain basic value differences in culture.
  • Because language is a reflection of culture, some words cannot be cross-culturally translated, which implies that it is often better to have local copywriters write and translate marketing and advertising content to avoid cultural misunderstandings.
  • First, the concept of culture is defined, second, the various components of culture are identified, and third, vivid examples of cultural differences are provided.
  • Managers of businesses that conduct operations in an increasingly global environment face a dilemma when selecting and applying ethics to decisions in cross-cultural settings.

• Globalization and the U.S.

  • Though scholars place the origins of globalization in modern times, others trace its history long before the cross-Atlantic travel by Europeans in the 15th century.
  • Further, environmental challenges such as global warming, cross-boundary water and air pollution, and over-fishing of the ocean are linked with globalization.
  • The circulation of cultures enables individuals to partake in extended social relations that cross national and regional borders.
  • The creation and expansion of such social relations is not merely observed on a material level: cultural globalization involves the formation of shared norms and knowledge with which people associate their individual and collective cultural identities.
  • While cultural globalization has increased cross-cultural contacts, it has also been accompanied by a decrease in the uniqueness of once-isolated communities.

• Cultural Intelligence

  • Cultural intelligence is the ability to display intercultural competence within a given group through adaptability and knowledge.
  • The concept of cultural intelligence is exactly what it sounds like—the ability to display intercultural competence within a given group through adaptability and knowledge.
  • An interesting perspective on cultural intelligence is well represented in the intercultural-competence diagram, which highlights the way that each segment of cultural knowledge can create synergy when applied to the whole of cultural intelligence, where overlapping generates the highest potential CQ.
  • Hofstede's theory was designed in the 1960s and 1970s, and has remained a relevant perspective in international business, international politics, and cross-cultural psychology.
  • This diagram illustrates the three factors that constitute an effectively intercultural understanding for management: Regional Expertise, Language Proficiency, and Cross-Cultural Competence.

• Cultural Psychology

  • Cultural psychology seeks to understand how forces of society and culture influence individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
  • The main tenet of cultural psychology is that mind and culture are inseparable and mutually constitutive, meaning that people are shaped by their culture and their culture is also shaped by them.
  • Cultural psychology is often confused with cross-cultural psychology; however, it is distinct in that cross-cultural psychologists generally use culture as a means of testing the universality of psychological processes, rather than determining how local cultural practices shape psychological processes.
  • So while a cross-cultural psychologist might ask whether Jean Piaget's stages of development are universal across a variety of cultures, a cultural psychologist would be interested in how the social practices of a particular set of cultures shape the development of cognitive processes in different ways.
  • According to Vygotsky, social interaction—especially involvement with knowledgeable community or family members—helps children to acquire the thought processes and behaviors specific to their culture and/or society.

• Considering Cultural and Interpersonal Differences

  • The following figure highlights the three building blocks of one intercultural approach: cross-cultural competence, language proficiency, and regional expertise.
  • Still, cross-cultural competence is a relatively vague concept.
  • Knowledge – Acquiring a thorough understanding of history, cultural norms, basic language, and religion is valuable.
  • This chart illustrates the three factors that constitute an effectively intercultural understanding for management: Regional Expertise, Language Proficiency, and Cross-Cultural Competence
  • Employ cross-cultural competence to ensure interactions between diverse individuals create optimal results

• The Impact of Culture on Business Operations

  • Denison - Similar to Hofsede, Denison studied organizational culture in pursuit of idenitfying critical dimensions affecting internal culture.
  • Cross-cultural management requires cultural intelligence (sometimes referred to as 'CQ') along with an open-minded and empathetic mindset.
  • Observing the cultural tendencies of an organization and finding ways to accommodate them, and their interaction with other cultural predispositions, requires experience, motivation and self-awareness (of one's own cultural predispositions).
  • CQ Knowledge - An individual's ability to understand the differing cultures represented (particularly the economic, socio-linguistic, interpersonal and political frames).
  • It provides a strong platform for cross-cultural managers to be insightful decision makers.

• Defining Globalization

  • Globalization is the process by which the international exchange of goods, services, capital, technology and knowledge becomes increasingly interconnected.
  • The Silk Road is a strong example of the evolution and historic significance of global trade, as achieving common and predictable trade routes and practices resulted in large increases in regards to cross-cultural exchange.
  • Globalization is a natural phenomenon, in both cultures and markets, that allows for synergy through specialization.
  • This empowers domestic economies to gain a larger array of products, services, human capital, investment, and knowledge through leveraging external markets.
  • As cultures such as the Sumerian's realized the advantages of trading, the surrounding regions began a slow transition towards trade with other nations.

• Cross-Functional Teams

  • A cross-functional team comprises people from different departments and with special areas of expertise working to achieve a common goal.
  • Cross-functional teams include members who bring different types of knowledge and experience from areas such as finance, engineering, human resources, and marketing.
  • Many business activities require cross-functional collaboration to achieve successful outcomes.
  • Even though diversity of knowledge and perspective is the big advantage of cross-functional teams, it can also be a source of problems.
  • This can make communication between members of a cross-functional team difficult and subject to misunderstanding.