South Africa Culture V.S U.S Culture

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Assignment on comparative management

  Submitted To:         Mr. Hamid Najmi

  Submitted By:         Hafiz Muhammad Bilal

                                        ROLL # MB2M-14-16

                                        MBA-II (1.5 Years)-M

SESSION: 2014-2016

Institute of Management Sciences

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Q1. In what way could the huge cultural diversity in South Africa pose challenges for MNCs seeking to set up a business there?

Ans: South Africa is one of the most multicultural countries in the world. South Africa is known as the “Rainbow Nation” a title that reflects its cultural diversity.  Of the total population, 31M are black, 5M are white, 3M are coloured and 1M are Indian. South Africa has 11 official languages.  English is the language of administration and is spoken throughout the country. The other official languages are: Afrikaans, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tsongo, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu. 

South Africa is a transactional culture, meaning they do not require a history with people in order to do business with them; they are personable people that have deeply rooted traditions. South Africans follow the European approach to personal space.

South Africa organizations share a vision of cultural diversity dominated by an “ethnocentric approach” in which the “my way is the best way” predominates. Each group tend to attach positive traits to the in-group and negative traits to the out-groups. Besides, it is a assimilation vision of diversity in the sense that it is more often necessary to non-whites to assimilate. White cultural references to succeed in the company (like dressing codes, languages used).

The cultural, social and economic diversity will pose challenges for MNCs even within the different racial groups there is a huge variety that has to be considered recruiting workforce interracial language barriers and even within the races different groups might react to different management styles and organizational structures (hierarchy, compensation, labor relations, time) very different educational background historic rivalries and wounds have to be considered marketing strategies and product specification might have to be adjusted to the needs of the different ethnic groups in the country huge difference between reliability a lot of local specialties, depending on the region.

Q2. How is South African culture different from or similar to U.S. culture?

Ans: