Developing Cross-Cultural Capability

Developing Cross-cultural Capability

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary 4

2. Introduction 4

3. Research Question 5

4. Literature Review and Discussion 5

4.1 Edward T. Hall's Three Dimensions 6

4.2 Geert Hofstede's Five Dimensions 7

4.3 Fons Trompenaars' and Hampden-Turner's Seven Dimensions 9

5. Analysis and Key Findings 11

5.1 Characteristics of These Cultures 11

5.2 Key Findings 12

6. Recommendations 15

7. Conclusion 16

8. References 17

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A high-tech company, in the business of innovative solar technology solutions, is in the process of developing a new solar panel. The company is based in United Kingdom (head office) and the engineers at head office will be working closely with their Indian and Chinese colleagues because of their high and tested technical skills.

Cultural differences need to be taken care of efficiently to get the desirable results within given deadlines and without compromising the quality of project. British are culturally very different from Indians and Chinese. However, the latter two share most of the culture dimensions. We need to arrive at a conclusion that is a Win-Win solution for engineers from all the three countries.

These differences are identified in this report for analyzing the issues that may arise during cross-cultural team work and furthermore solutions suggested to avoid confusions and conflicts.

2. INTRODUCTION

Culture is defined, according to Hofstede (1980:25) as ‘the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another' (Browaeys & Price, 2008).

Culture is also defined as a body of behaviour, set of beliefs and traditions followed by people and transferred to the new entrants in society (Mead, 2005).

I understand culture as a set of acts or practices followed by a group of people. So any group of people sharing similar practices may be termed as from same culture, like doctors, accountants, artists etc. The concept of culture has spread from geographical level to organizational level.

Every culture has three layers which are as follows:

1. the first or outer layer which is the behavioral or explicit level,

2. the