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Cross Cultural Management

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Cross Cultural Management
The purpose of this essay to demonstrate the cultural differences between the UK manager going to work as an expatriate manager in Colombia. By taking into consideration Hofstede, Bond, Trompenaars and other cross cultural management researchers to advise the UK manager about the Colombian culture, taking into consideration the differences between leadership styles, decision making, recruitment and selection, motivation, planning and team versus individual working.The reason for selecting Colombia was that according to the results by Geert Hofstede, these two countries are very opposite to one another. Therefore it will be good to compare the differences and the similarities between the countries’ culture.
According to Adler (1983) Cross Cultural Management is defined as the study of the behavior of people in the organizations located in cultures and nations around the world. It focuses on the description of organizational behaviour within countries and cultures, on the comparison of organizational behaviour across countries and cultures, and perhaps most importantly on the interactional of people from different countries working within the same organization or within the same work environment.
As an advisor to a UK company opening a subsidiary and to send an expatriate Manager to work in Colombia, the best way is to enter the country with an acceptance to what is the culture of Colombia, as it is always better to accept and then expect.
Hofstede defines culture as “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another Culture, in this sense, includes values; systems of values are a core element of culture.”(Mead et al, 2009)
From further research on Hofstede’s culture dimension, we can state that there is a huge different between the UK and Colombian culture. (Hofstede, 2009)

Power Distance is the extent to which members of a society accept the unequal distribution of power among individuals. (Ball et al



References: Dereskey, E. (2011). International Management, 7th Edition. Prentice Hall Dereskey, E Mcfalin, D., Sweeney, P. (2011). International Management, 4th Edition. New York Harris, P Hampden, C, T, Trompennar, F. (2004). Building Cross- Cultural Competence. UK Hodgetts, R Mead, R., Andrews T. (2009). International Management, 4th Edition Wiley Nancy J Cross-Cultural Management Research: The Ostrich and the Trend Cultural taboos (2010) Available at: http://www.circlesofexcellence.com/blog/?tag=cultural-taboos&paged=2 [accessed: 21 March, 2011]. Colombian culture tips Available at: http://rw-3.com/tag/colombian-culture/ [accessed: 19 March, 2011]. Intercultural Management, UK. Being a Manager in United Kingdom http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/intercultural/management/uk.html [Accessed: 20 March, 20011] Theory X and Theory Y Available at: http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/mcgregor/ [accessed: 19 March, 2011].

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