International Management

A) Impact of difference between the national and organisational culture from the head office

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions:

This model was created by Dr Geert Hofstede in 1970. This model identified various dimensions of cultures that set themselves apart from other cultures of the world. These aspects are very necessary in order to expand the business operations in that country. Mentioned below is the comparison of national and organizational culture of USA from regional culture of UK, India and South Africa.

Power Distance: This aspect discusses the response of the less powerful personnels in organisations react to the unequal distribution of power. This depicts the nature of the cultures of different nations towards these inequalities. India stands at 77th in power distance whereas South Africa stands at 49. Both of these countries have higher scores than USA which is on 40th rank. This means that these countries experience more inequality than US, where the head office is headquartered. Due to this high tolerance of inequality, the company's culture would be directly get affected. The employees there will not be able to work in the manner that is required for the company. This is because people there follow a certain decision-making pattern and they are bound to work in a certain way. They might not be able to adapt the culture of the company. Whereas, the UK stands at 35th position. This could impact the culture of the consulting firm as it would have to mould its ways to satisfy their employees and would have to introduce a more appropriate systems of distribution of power.

Individualism : This refers to an aspect of individuality experienced by each employee. The decision-making power as well as freedom of speech, freedom of working and many other aspects are included in individualism. US stands at 97th rank which is highest than those countries the consulting firm is planning to expand its operations in. UK stands at 89th rank which would have a very little impact on the country's organisational culture. The employees in the UK would first think of their personal gain rather than the collective goals of the company. Since US stands higher than the UK, such employees would be a positive sign as they would be a bit inclined towards the company's goals. South Africa stands at rank 65 and India is at 48th rank. This means that employees are both individualistic as well as collectivists. This would have a negative impact on the operations of the company as the individuals of these two countries will fail to take effective individual decisions and their practices and methods will be largely influenced with the viewpoints of the society. To overcome this problems, the firm must set up its offices in the urban areas of these nations where there is a scope and encouragement for individualism.

Uncertainty Avoidance:This cultural aspect relates to the way in which a society manages its future uncertainties. In reference to national cultures of India and South Africa that perfectly blends with USA on ranks 56, 63 and 46 respectively. In these cultures, people are having low preferences for avoiding uncertainties and are more risk taking, relaxed, accepted imperfection and like to face risks as it comes. This is very well reflective in organizational cultures of companies operating in these countries as management often make rules just to be circumvented, schedules are flexible, handwork in undertaken only when requires and managers encourages employees innovation and adjustments. While in context to UK which is on rank 35, the society that is medium on uncertainty avoidance and thus like to plan strategies in advance for avoiding end time confusions or contingency. This is evident from its organizational cultural where in managers are proactive in planning out strategies with various alternatives for different types of situations that could be encountered.

CONCLUSION

The report concludes that for any organization to attain success and sustainability in its international projects it is requisite to understand both national as well as organizational culture of that nation or countries. Further various differences based on power distance, individualism etc. are been explained as basis of finding out difference between the culture of UK, India and South Africa with USA.

PROJECT 2

INTRODUCTION

International management undertakes an in-depth understanding of global economics, leading changes introduced in international companies and formulating transnational business strategies. The project is based on the case study of Shonteur Inc. which is a wine wholesaler business in USA. The case study is about one of its proficient managers who is able to lead one project in Napa Valley California fails to gain same success in firms new project in France. Thus the report will discuss in brief about challenges faced by manager in its new projct in new nation, probable issues faced in international borders along with recommendation to overcome these issues.

Main body

With introduction of globalization there has been significant change in the way an organization conducts its business. With decline in various inter country trade barriers, export support by governments of almost every nation and increasing demands of products and services from consumers across the globe globalization has provided immense opportunities for companies to diversify their business, reach out its target audience and earn higher profits. This has given high reliance for these businesses to effectively implement international management to attain growth, success and sustainability. International management deals with maintaining and developing a transnational operations across the country boundaries with either local or expatriate staff (Andersson and et. al., 2012).

The case is based on a wine wholesaler business Shonteur Inc. that has its head office in USA. The firm employs 179 employees that mostly are of French. Out of all these staff company chose John Thompson who in past was successful in handling firm's project in Napa Valley, USA.  In there he implemented participative leadership  where in he delegated  work to his subordinates , encourages their participation in decision making that lead  the project to be a successful venture. Later on organization considering his past performance assigned another project in one of firm's French subsidiary. Thomson  taking up the responsibility applied same management style in this organization with to  view to get expected positive results. However , he has to face various challenges related to low employee morale, dissatisfaction among its workforce and high level of expressed anxiety by staff. This certainly is a critical problem as employees forms to be most valuable resources for a firm utilizing whose knowledge, skills and core competencies it achieves it ultimate objectives. Thus, dissatisfied, low motivated  workforce   is to create serious problems for Shonteur Inc such as high turnovers, absenteeism, poor performance, strikes that will ultimately hamper firm productivity, market share and  growth.  

The reason for the emergence of these issues related to employee is the same management style that was applied by John Thompson without considering the cultural background of its multi culture workforce. Also,  he applied leadership style by separating evaluating the needs and requirements of this particular French subsidiary. For overcoming these issues it is important for manager John Thomson to be knowledgable about mentioned below challenges faced by management across international borders that will help him to take corrective actions to deal with this situation (Bakker and et. al., 2012).

Challenges in International Business:

• International business structure- Organisation structure is different in various countries. This is one of the biggest challenge for Thompson to understand the business structure in Europe. Location, area, people are make a great effect on company's constitution.
• Foreign laws and regulations-All countries have their different laws and regulation which is difficult to remind everyone. Sometimes, it create problem for those who want to start their business in other countries. Thompson is also unknown about the laws and regulations applied in the Europe company.
• Communication difficulties-It is also one of the biggest challenge for Thompson in international business. Because according to this, he is from USA and now he is manager in Europe. Employees of European company knows French language, they may not be able to understand the language and way of communication of Thompson.
• Strategic Decision-Every person have their different way of thinking. They make decision their own past experience and future expectancy. In this case, Thompson involve his employees in decision making process. Here a problem can occur that Thompson belong from USA and his employees are from Europe and from different countries. Every person's way of thinking is not necessary to match with others this may cause a reason he noticed that French executives are dissatisfied and with low morale (Bilezikian and et. al., 2012).
• Environment, Natural disasters and Warfare-Thompson have to face serious resistance by some environment friendly organisations. People are more concerned about water and air pollution. It become a serious warning to their health. Some natural disaster like floods and disturbance or some types of political war break out in the grown up country. So, it is also in the list of challenges faced by Thompson.
• Workforce planning insight-Most of firms don’t have international endowment plan of action. It is a major concern, that Thompson face in his organisation which are looking for a much wider range of skill employees. Talent and knowledge can be different in geographical area (Briscoe, Tarique and Schuler, 2012).
• Cost control measure-Cost of every firm is depends on the performance of employees or location where company is situated.  Every firm want to control their cost and maximise profit. But in case of international business cost control is sometimes difficult. Thompson delegate authority to employees and they are not able to control cost and other measures to take decisions. So, it become a challenge for Thompson.
• Managing multiple HR system-Management of human resource in global companies is a challenging task for managers. Thompson, who is posted as a manager also face this problem in Europe. He treated with employees very politely but still they express anxiety and dissatisfaction.

What lessons can be learned from the experience (positive or negative) of other businesses that have headquarters in one country and subsidiaries in another in a globalised economy?

 With the globalisation of business and commerce, the trend of internationalising the business by setting up subsidiaries in different countries is increasing day by day. During operating business throughout various economy around the world bring out various challenges in front of companies. These challenges are as given below:-

• Language barrier:- One of the major barrier faced by companies operating at other geographical location is language differentiation. Due to difference in culture, language and values of people belongs to society in which business operates make it difficult for a business to communicate effectively about the product or services offered by them. This miss-communication has an huge impact over the demand of company's product or services (Canto and et. al., 2013).
• Political and legal issues:- Apart from language barrier another major issue faced by business that operate at international level is issues related to laws and regulation followed by country. Regulations are varied across various geographical regions which have an huge impact over the policies and operation that a company follow. Avoidance of these issues can create major problem for the survivability of a company in particular nation. This also affect the goodwill of the company and can lead to legal compliances that further incurred heavy loss to an organisation.
• Culture difference:- Another major barrier for the company's growth that is faced by an organisation operates in different country is cultural differences. A company must offer product and services according to the value and preferences shared by people lives in particular society. This help in achieving a market share in particular nation and avoidance of cultural value may leads to decrease in the demand of company's product and negative promotion which have an huge impact over the revenue of company (Ciabuschi,  Dellestrand  and Holm, 2012).

These all are the few example of barriers that are faced by a company which is headquartered in one nation but have established subsidiaries in various other countries. But apart from this there are few corporations that operates their business at global level successful. Shonteur Inc. can learn from experience of these organisations to manage their business more appropriately. Some commonly known examples are:

Domino's Pizza Inc., is an multinational organisation that is known among one of the best pizza maker. It operates its business in various countries around the world and on of the most successful brand. Main reason behind its success is, company changes its process and policies according to the region in which it operates. Like, domino's always change the topping of their pizza according to the taste and preferences shared by the people reside in particular region. This  keep them always in demand of customers. Shonteur Inc., have very much to learn from Domino's but the main think to learn from them is to modify the policies and process of business according to the demand and culture of society in which company operates. This help in achieving higher success in marketplace (Creutzig and et. al., 2012.).

On the other hand, Coca-Cola is very known brand which operates it business in various countries throughout the world. This company is very much known about the value it offer to its customer as well as employees which make it successful around the world. The main reason behind its success is its skilled and satisfied workforce which contribute a better performance toward accomplishment of organisational goal. It provide equal opportunities to employees regardless of any region or culture they belongs. Apart from this company also perform various activities to remove language barriers. So, Shonteur Inc. can learn the employees management style from Coca-Cola that help in removing the anxiety and dissatisfaction from employees. This further support in improving the performance of employees.

Apart from this Nokia corporation is also one of the leading multinational company that has faced failure while operating its business in different nation. Main reason behind this is company uses similar feature and avoid to implement changes in product according to the trend prevailing in market. From this Shonteur Inc., can learn to make changes in policies and processes according to the demand of customer and trend in market (De la Mothe and Paquet, 2012).

Recommendation

In order to overcome from the problems of  low employees morale, dissatisfaction among workforce and high anxiety level shown by them it is important for John Thompson as a manager to take following corrective action:

Situational management style: There is no perfect style of management and leadership that could be universally effective in all business situations. Thus, it is important for John Thompson to apply situational leadership style that implies gaining understanding  intellectual level of its employees and analysing the current business situations and then formulate strategies accordingly.

 Also, it is of vital importance for manager to understand and over barriers related to language and culture. This is because it  forms key factors in hampering the employees motivation and job satisfaction, which in this case is evident that as majority of staff belongs to same nation as of manager the other staff belonging to Germany, Spain and Portugal feels to be left out as they must have found difficult to understand the language that is been spoken by employees as well as corporate culture that  is been followed. This resulted in their low motivation level and dissatisfaction from work (Deresky, 2017).

Training programs: Another critical step the manager is required to take is to design and develop appropriate training and development program for its multi diversified staff that will help them to gain knowledge about the culture of the country they are working .

CONCLUSION

From the above mentioned information, it can be concluded that international management needs skills and knowledge above business entity. Role of culture in international business is important for them to manage their policies and strategies effectively. National and organizational culture characteristics are essential in order to handle diverse contexts in successful manner. There are different factors that help an organisation to maintain their long lasting and strong position at international marketplace.    

INTRODUCTION

International management undertakes an in-depth understanding of global economics, leading changes introduced in international companies and formulating transnational business strategies. The project is based on the case study of Shonteur Inc. which is a wine wholesaler business in USA. The case study is about one of its proficient managers who is able to lead one project in Napa Valley California fails to gain same success in firms new project in France. Thus the report will discuss in brief about challenges faced by manager in its new projct in new nation, probable issues faced in international borders along with recommendation to overcome these issues.

Main body

With introduction of globalization there has been significant change in the way an organization conducts its business. With decline in various inter country trade barriers, export support by governments of almost every nation and increasing demands of products and services from consumers across the globe globalization has provided immense opportunities for companies to diversify their business, reach out its target audience and earn higher profits. This has given high reliance for these businesses to effectively implement international management to attain growth, success and sustainability. International management deals with maintaining and developing a transnational operations across the country boundaries with either local or expatriate staff (Andersson and et. al., 2012).

The case is based on a wine wholesaler business Shonteur Inc. that has its head office in USA. The firm employs 179 employees that mostly are of French. Out of all these staff company chose John Thompson who in past was successful in handling firm's project in Napa Valley, USA.  In there he implemented participative leadership  where in he delegated  work to his subordinates , encourages their participation in decision making that lead  the project to be a successful venture. Later on organization considering his past performance assigned another project in one of firm's French subsidiary. Thomson  taking up the responsibility applied same management style in this organization with to  view to get expected positive results. However , he has to face various challenges related to low employee morale, dissatisfaction among its workforce and high level of expressed anxiety by staff. This certainly is a critical problem as employees forms to be most valuable resources for a firm utilizing whose knowledge, skills and core competencies it achieves it ultimate objectives. Thus, dissatisfied, low motivated  workforce   is to create serious problems for Shonteur Inc such as high turnovers, absenteeism, poor performance, strikes that will ultimately hamper firm productivity, market share and  growth.  

The reason for the emergence of these issues related to employee is the same management style that was applied by John Thompson without considering the cultural background of its multi culture workforce. Also,  he applied leadership style by separating evaluating the needs and requirements of this particular French subsidiary. For overcoming these issues it is important for manager John Thomson to be knowledgable about mentioned below challenges faced by management across international borders that will help him to take corrective actions to deal with this situation (Bakker and et. al., 2012).

Challenges in International Business:

• International business structure- Organisation structure is different in various countries. This is one of the biggest challenge for Thompson to understand the business structure in Europe. Location, area, people are make a great effect on company's constitution.
• Foreign laws and regulations-All countries have their different laws and regulation which is difficult to remind everyone. Sometimes, it create problem for those who want to start their business in other countries. Thompson is also unknown about the laws and regulations applied in the Europe company.
• Communication difficulties-It is also one of the biggest challenge for Thompson in international business. Because according to this, he is from USA and now he is manager in Europe. Employees of European company knows French language, they may not be able to understand the language and way of communication of Thompson.
• Strategic Decision-Every person have their different way of thinking. They make decision their own past experience and future expectancy. In this case, Thompson involve his employees in decision making process. Here a problem can occur that Thompson belong from USA and his employees are from Europe and from different countries. Every person's way of thinking is not necessary to match with others this may cause a reason he noticed that French executives are dissatisfied and with low morale (Bilezikian and et. al., 2012).
• Environment, Natural disasters and Warfare-Thompson have to face serious resistance by some environment friendly organisations. People are more concerned about water and air pollution. It become a serious warning to their health. Some natural disaster like floods and disturbance or some types of political war break out in the grown up country. So, it is also in the list of challenges faced by Thompson.
• Workforce planning insight-Most of firms don’t have international endowment plan of action. It is a major concern, that Thompson face in his organisation which are looking for a much wider range of skill employees. Talent and knowledge can be different in geographical area (Briscoe, Tarique and Schuler, 2012).
• Cost control measure-Cost of every firm is depends on the performance of employees or location where company is situated.  Every firm want to control their cost and maximise profit. But in case of international business cost control is sometimes difficult. Thompson delegate authority to employees and they are not able to control cost and other measures to take decisions. So, it become a challenge for Thompson.
• Managing multiple HR system-Management of human resource in global companies is a challenging task for managers. Thompson, who is posted as a manager also face this problem in Europe. He treated with employees very politely but still they express anxiety and dissatisfaction.

What lessons can be learned from the experience (positive or negative) of other

businesses that have headquarters in one country and subsidiaries in another in a globalised economy?

 With the globalisation of business and commerce, the trend of internationalising the business by setting up subsidiaries in different countries is increasing day by day. During operating business throughout various economy around the world bring out various challenges in front of companies. These challenges are as given below:-

• Language barrier:- One of the major barrier faced by companies operating at other geographical location is language differentiation. Due to difference in culture, language and values of people belongs to society in which business operates make it difficult for a business to communicate effectively about the product or services offered by them. This miss-communication has an huge impact over the demand of company's product or services (Canto and et. al., 2013).
• Political and legal issues:- Apart from language barrier another major issue faced by business that operate at international level is issues related to laws and regulation followed by country. Regulations are varied across various geographical regions which have an huge impact over the policies and operation that a company follow. Avoidance of these issues can create major problem for the survivability of a company in particular nation. This also affect the goodwill of the company and can lead to legal compliances that further incurred heavy loss to an organisation.
• Culture difference:- Another major barrier for the company's growth that is faced by an organisation operates in different country is cultural differences. A company must offer product and services according to the value and preferences shared by people lives in particular society. This help in achieving a market share in particular nation and avoidance of cultural value may leads to decrease in the demand of company's product and negative promotion which have an huge impact over the revenue of company (Ciabuschi,  Dellestrand  and Holm, 2012).

These all are the few example of barriers that are faced by a company which is headquartered in one nation but have established subsidiaries in various other countries. But apart from this there are few corporations that operates their business at global level successful. Shonteur Inc. can learn from experience of these organisations to manage their business more appropriately. Some commonly known examples are:

Domino's Pizza Inc., is an multinational organisation that is known among one of the best pizza maker. It operates its business in various countries around the world and on of the most successful brand. Main reason behind its success is, company changes its process and policies according to the region in which it operates. Like, domino's always change the topping of their pizza according to the taste and preferences shared by the people reside in particular region. This  keep them always in demand of customers. Shonteur Inc., have very much to learn from Domino's but the main think to learn from them is to modify the policies and process of business according to the demand and culture of society in which company operates. This help in achieving higher success in marketplace (Creutzig and et. al., 2012.).

On the other hand, Coca-Cola is very known brand which operates it business in various countries throughout the world. This company is very much known about the value it offer to its customer as well as employees which make it successful around the world. The main reason behind its success is its skilled and satisfied workforce which contribute a better performance toward accomplishment of organisational goal. It provide equal opportunities to employees regardless of any region or culture they belongs. Apart from this company also perform various activities to remove language barriers. So, Shonteur Inc. can learn the employees management style from Coca-Cola that help in removing the anxiety and dissatisfaction from employees. This further support in improving the performance of employees.

Apart from this Nokia corporation is also one of the leading multinational company that has faced failure while operating its business in different nation. Main reason behind this is company uses similar feature and avoid to implement changes in product according to the trend prevailing in market. From this Shonteur Inc., can learn to make changes in policies and processes according to the demand of customer and trend in market (De la Mothe and Paquet, 2012).

Recommendation

In order to overcome from the problems of  low employees morale, dissatisfaction among workforce and high anxiety level shown by them it is important for John Thompson as a manager to take following corrective action:

 Situational management style: There is no perfect style of management and leadership that could be universally effective in all business situations. Thus, it is important for John Thompson to apply situational leadership style that implies gaining understanding  intellectual level of its employees and analysing the current business situations and then formulate strategies accordingly.

 Also, it is of vital importance for manager to understand and over barriers related to language and culture. This is because it  forms key factors in hampering the employees motivation and job satisfaction, which in this case is evident that as majority of staff belongs to same nation as of manager the other staff belonging to Germany, Spain and Portugal feels to be left out as they must have found difficult to understand the language that is been spoken by employees as well as corporate culture that  is been followed. This resulted in their low motivation level and dissatisfaction from work (Deresky, 2017).

Training programs: Another critical step the manager is required to take is to design and develop appropriate training and development program for its multi diversified staff that will help them to gain knowledge about the culture of the country they are working .

CONCLUSION

From the above mentioned information, it can be concluded that international management needs skills and knowledge above business entity. Role of culture in international business is important for them to manage their policies and strategies effectively. National and organizational culture characteristics are essential in order to handle diverse contexts in successful manner. There are different factors that help an organisation to maintain their long lasting and strong position at international marketplace.    

REFERENCES

• Andersson, L. and et. al., 2012. International Association of Dental Traumatology guidelines for the management of traumatic dental injuries: 2. Avulsion of permanent teeth. Dental Traumatology. 28(2). pp.88-96.
• Bakker, K. and et. al., 2012. Practical guidelines on the management and prevention of the diabetic foot 2011. Diabetes/metabolism research and reviews. 28. pp.225-231.
• Bilezikian, J. P. and et. al., 2014. Guidelines for the management of asymptomatic primary hyperparathyroidism: summary statement from the Fourth International Workshop. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 99(10). pp.3561-3569.
• Briscoe, D., Tarique, I. and Schuler, R., 2012. International human resource management: Policies and practices for multinational enterprises. Routledge.
• Canto, M. I. and et. al., 2013. International Cancer of the Pancreas Screening (CAPS) Consortium summit on the management of patients with increased risk for familial pancreatic cancer. Gut. 62(3). pp.339-347.
• Ciabuschi, F., Dellestrand, H. and Holm, U., 2012. The role of headquarters in the contemporary MNC. Journal of International Management. 18(3). pp.213-223.

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