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Dear Ehab,
This is a very pertinent question in today’s globalizing, rapidly changing highly competitive business world. Organizational Culture, the flexibility and adaptability of organizations and ability of the leadership of organizations and the managing teams to define organizational culture have a bearing on their very survival and continued existence of business organizations!
Here is my answer in the form of a following compilation of information! I hope you will find it relevant and informative!
CULTURE the mysterious word that characterizes a work environment. People in every workplace talk about organizational culture. One of the key questions and assessments, when employers interview a prospective employee, explores whether the candidate is a good CULTURAL FIT. Culture is difficult to define, but you generally know when you have found an employee who appears to fit your culture. He/ she just feels right.
We know and often talk about our world that is getting rapidly smaller. Be it the time taken to travel across the globe, or to communicate with someone at the other end of the world, things have changed considerably. The world we knew is shrinking fast. In the expanding business world of powerful trade and business interests, political boundaries are tumbling, geographical obstacles are being leveled down and cultural barriers are being won. Economic integration among regional blocks is emerging one after another and political boundaries are transcended by collaborations and cooperation among nations, governments and business houses.
Fundamental transformation of business is underway. Forged by digitization, ubiquitous connectivity, and globalization, this transformation has radically altered the very nature of the firm and how it conducts its day to day business. No industry is immune to this trend. Coming to terms with the implications of this change is critical for survival and growth of employees and organizations. Globalization is the new buzzword used to describe the establishment and maintenance of various cross border economic, political and socio-cultural relations happening in the world today. With the world beginning to work as a unit and the boundaries disappearing, we seem to be en route to what called the global village.
As rapid changes are taking place in the global economy, managements of various companies around the world are responding as never before as these companies no longer remain mere national firms, but have subsidiaries in many countries and are becoming Multi-national Enterprises. This implies that firms from any country now compete with firms operating not only from their domestic market but also the international market. The companies are becoming less tied to specific locations and their operations and allies are spread around the world, as they source resources and coordinate activities all around the world. For these multinational enterprises, the world seems a playground with their processes spread all across the globe.
To be able to succeed in such a rapidly expanding global economy with its ever increasing chaos and unpredictability, ever changing business environment and other dynamic parameters , individuals and managements are required to develop knowledge , skills and experience in the international arena .
In response to this unfolding business scenario, is the emergence of a new globalised professional, who is well-educated, trained executive in the business field, holding important managerial positions in the multinational enterprises. These executives travel internationally, think in cosmopolitan than in national terms and speak the globalised business language – English. These citizens of the world are seen as a force for pursuing the business agenda of further globalization. It is on the shoulders of these management executives that the responsibility of successful international management lies.
Today, more than ever before, we are able to comprehend the various differences among nations as a fall out of convergence of the world brought about by globalization
Though the world is claimed to be becoming culturally homogeneous, still very significant differences exist between different national cultures. The globalisation of economy has made the differences among nations more resonant than ever since now the uniqueness of a nation presents a challenge to the other nations of the world, making it a little hard to deal with it. There are certain factors in the national environment that distinguish a nation from another especially when it comes to doing business.
Distinctness in their political, social, economic, cultural and administrative environments etc give rise to dissimilarities in the nations. It is in accordance with the national environment that the firms, both national and multinational conduct their business. It is imperative for the multinational enterprise to get to grips with the substantial differences that exist between national cultures to develop an effective understanding of different norms, values and assumptions, which are prerequisites for successfully doing business in different nations. So, to be effectual, a thorough study of the national environment must be made by a multinational enterprise before establishing a subsidiary in a particular nation.
Culture has a strong bearing on business among the different aspects of national environment . Culture influences people’s behaviour in critical ways. This is so because culture plays a fundamental role in forming values, which interact with the needs, attitudes and norms of the individuals and groups and result in different behaviours.
As such a thorough understanding of culture is very important for international managers, especially where cultural differences exist between the host country and the home country of a multinational enterprise. A thorough understanding of the cultural differences enables not only effective management by ensuring that people behave in ways appropriate for the organisation but also correctly interpret the behavioural differences and thereby interact effectively to avoid misunderstanding and be accepted by others.
Apart from all the material resources, the human resource or the employees play a key role in the success or failure of the entity in a given different cultural environment as they are the ones who turn the plans into actions by the use of the physical resources like machinery, technology, finance etc.
A given national culture with its values, beliefs and attitudes lays down norms for acceptable social behaviour. It indirectly dictates the behaviour of people, their preferences and perceptions.
Owing to the differences in national cultures, the staffing practices followed in the home country and host country may differ greatly.
To unravel the mystery of the world culture that has such great bearing on the performance of an organization, it is important to revisit the subject to know what is culture
According to world renowned Professor Emeritus – Hofstede (1984),
“Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another…Culture in this sense, includes a system of values; and values are the building blocks of culture.”
This implies that, A culture is particular to a group and not others and Culture includes a system of values, which are basis of culture.
It is in this context that individuals as employees and collectively as organization need to be prepared. The ones that cannot manage to effect smooth changeover are at risk of failing.
An individual is always worried if he or she is a proper fit in a given department/ organization and hence hesitates to decide if he or she is ready to work in a given different organizational culture / national culture.
However, the world of opportunities beckon individuals and business entities to explore the possibilities of all round development and career advancement.
