Telemarket Report

In the past two decades the era of globalization has been struck by an enormous international growth in regard to foreign directive investment as well as trade.  In the past most of the western companies never made any engagements in international business.  Domestic markets were attractive enough with sufficient growth prospects. Foreign markets therefore did not have to go into the trouble considering some features of foreign markets like foreign languages and diversity in cultural behavior. In the recent past the business environment has changed prompting companies to expand their boundaries into foreign markets. This has lead to the rise of multinational companies conducting business on a global scale. This has put companies in different cultural contexts which require management to consider cultural diversities which raises the question of Cross Cultural Management which form the back bone to the discussion in this paper.

The article for discussion in this paper is by Maddy Janssens which serves to explore the viability of safety Policies Corporation wide. The performs an examination towards the relationships that stand out in constructs that affect safety perceptions in regard to workers in French United States and Argentine plants of a United States Multinational country. The company has corporation wide safety policy for workers (Janssen, 1995). The proposed differences in cultural contexts are based on the three cultural dimensions- which are collectivism/individualism, participative or auto critic style in decision making and paternalistic and authoritarian management styles- which are compared against cultural groups using multisampling analysis in the formulation of structural equations.

The finds led to the hypothesis that our French culture overall concern in regard to priority of workers safety by the management is has a lower effect compared to that of the United State. On the other hand the same has stronger effect comparing the case in Argentina than is in United States. In addition emphasis put on production holds less effect on the perceived levels of safety in Argentina than it is in the United States but this is strongest in our French culture than in any of the two.

In any business organization power distance is quite an important aspect in determining management styles. Power distance can be defined as the extents that characterize the distribution of members who are less powerful in organization where by members are in acceptance that there is unequal distribution of power (Usunier, 2008). Countries that follow a system where members only follow orders without questioning like in most companies here in France as well as in Japan, China and Italy have high power distance with leadership being authoritarian.  In countries that are characterized with low power distance, superiors allow members with less power to actively participate in decision making and leadership is democratic with organizations being decentralized with highly qualified employees and reduced number of supervisors. This characterizes most Anglo Saxon countries like Germany and Scandinavia among others.

If we were to have a group of Chinese or French managers leading a team of German then we expect to have problems if the managers are not properly advised. This is due to the differences in the organizational culture that the individual are used to. As exemplified above the leader ship structure of the Chinese or the French are some how authoritarian while in Germany they are democratic (Usunier, 2008). The managers should also be advised on the benefits that can be achieved in respecting cultural factors at work. Mangers should be advised on how to improve and make modifications to their approach in management and promote cooperation through motivation among colleagues. This would enhance productivity and harmony.