The need for global leaders is important to all organizations, especially for those organizations that are expanding to other countries. They expand to other countries to stay competitive, investing and increasing the amount of business (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). Global leadership allows organizations to reach outside of their typical markets to provide services or goods to a new market. Those organizations that are more culturally diverse are able to resolve any difficulties and improve effectiveness when dealing with other countries and their cultures (Penn State University, 2019).

In an article written by Fatima Mansoor, she discusses the need for organizations to have business leaders that can manage other cultural needs in order to help continue to grow and keep the organization competitive. While organizations understand the need to stay competitive and expand to new markets most organizations find that they do not have leadership program that helps to develop their leaders to handle transitions (Mansoor, 2017). A global leader needs to not only be able to resolve and handle complex business issues, but they also need to be able to navigate cultural differences (Mansoor, 2017). These cultural differences can be language, behaviors, and practices, even beliefs.

More and more organizations are finding that global leadership is or has become a serious constraint to them (Folkman, 2014). As organizations grow and increase their services and products overseas they find that their programs or lack there of are not strong enough to develop their leaders to prepare them for the differences (Folkman, 2014). Developing stronger leadership programs and starting them earlier within organizations, will help to shape and grow leaders. Arming leaders sooner rather than later can ensure that when an organization is ready to transition overseas, they are comfortable and able to transition with the company. Organizations that build on a diverse cultural and provide/develop programs for their leaders to grow, will ensure that their leaders can distinguish different cultures and perspectives (Mansoor, 2017).

Organizations must begin to utilize new and innovative ways to teach their leaders to become strong global leaders in order to stay competitive, trade more effectively, and increase their bottom line (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). The need to develop global leaders will continue to grow in the future and organizations will continue to need to develop ways to teach their leaders as they expand overseas to navigate multinational operations (Mansoor, 2017). They must learn to meet their goals within the cultural differences and close the barriers appropriately.

 

Works Cited

Folkman, J. (2014, June 14). The Urgent Need to Develop Global Leaders For Compnay Growth. Retrieved September 21, 2019, from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joefolkman/2014/06/18/the-urgent-need-to-develop-global-leaders-for-company-growth/#51d89929487f

Mansoor, F. (2017, October 17). The Importance of Developing Global Leaders For Company Growth. Retrieved Septemeber 21, 2019, from Aepiphanni: https://aepiphanni.com/blog/importance-of-developing-global-leadership/

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. New York: Routledge.

Penn State University. (2019, September). Lesson 1: Introduction to Leadership in a Global Context. Retrieved September 21, 2019, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2008449/modules/items/27026942

 

 

When we think about global communication, we think about large companies doing business on a global scale. My experiences have taught me that this type of communication is much closer to home than I had even realized. My last engagement afforded me the opportunity to work with diverse group of individuals. What I did not realize until more recently however is that the communication issues that existed were rooted in something deeper than a person being shy or not wanting to rock the boat. Rather it has more to do with their cultural background. According to Business Insider.com (2015) my field was predominantly female with a 61.10% of workers being female. Additionally, the organization employed several different minorities in varying departments. “McKinsey Global institute estimates that gender parity could add $12 trillion to the global economy, and suggests gender diverse companies are 15% more likely to outperform their peers. Similarly, ethnically diverse companies are 35% more likely to do the same” (Salesforce Essentials, 2018). As a smaller organization we tried to work with other companies who were smaller to promote growth in our sector though as we grew, we needed to expand our vendor pool. Dealing even locally with vendors this day and age you run into a lot of diversity. Two of our vendors that we retained were domestically sourced but ended up having employees that worked remotely from both India and Canada. Needless to say, my working world was littered with cultural communications, and I didn’t even realize it. It is only now looking back I realize some pretty large errors on my part. Being aware of cross-cultural communication could have helped me better understand my staff and my business partners.

Several of my staff were from Columbia, approximately 1/3 in fact. Some were immigrants and some were first generation Columbians. In our most recent lesson Moran et al. (2014) discuss the concepts of high and low-context communication. Columbians are a high-context culture, and this made for some incredibly interesting conversations that only now do I completely understand. You see, as a low-context communicator I gave instructions as such. This would lead to some issues, one of them being I would frequently walk away wondering if I was simply going to be ignored as the level of engagement did not seem high to me. Frequently though, the work was not only completed properly but more efficiently than I had laid out. This was fantastic and, in the beginning, I thought I had finally inherited a great staff. I assumed my predecessor had simply done an amazing job at training the employees, so I corrected my behavior and did not give as much detail in my instructions. What I would realize later was that my team members who were native to America would begin to underperform. That was because I was no longer communicating with them the way they expected.

Unbeknownst to me at the time I had an incredibly polarized staff. The staff had grouped themselves by culture and interacted with other members as little as possible. At first, I thought perhaps it was a language barrier issue. This was not the environment that I was looking for, I needed my people to work together, be supportive and learn ways to get along.  “The benefits of diversity in terms of greater collective access to relevant information, more creative solutions, and reduced conflict, can only be achieved when problem solving and decision-making groups are tightly integrated” (Moran, Abramson, Moran, 2014 p.183). My teams’ integration impacted productivity by 10%. The environment itself became more pleasant and the workers seemed to enjoy coming to work more. If only dealing with outside organizations was as easy.

As we grew and began to expand our business it was necessary to implement new systems and technology. We looked through many organizations that could fit our needs and settled on two, one was local and the other was based in Delaware. This being our first foray into this type of an engagement we did not realize that much of the work would be done on foreign soil. We would soon be negotiating contracts with Indians, no one had ever had to perform this function before, so the learning curve was steep. Moran et al. (2014) discuss the framework applied to Indian negotiators. Up to this point all negotiating had been done domestically. What I found interesting is that many of the items discussed in the framework model hold true to conference calls and daily interactions. Such items as “when Indians say “no problem” this is not to be taken literally” and “highly centralized with only modest responsibility delegated to lower levels” (Moran et al. 2014). I can tell you when you do not factor in the cultural differences in business the outcomes can make for some bumpy relationships.

In conclusion, I felt it was important to show that though we are focused on a global and seemingly large scale of business models within the scope of this coursework. Cross-cultural communication can exist both within and without of even the smallest organizations. Leaders need to embrace these other cultures to enhance the existing body of work and work to understand the difference in communicating with business partners to negotiate the work that needs to be done as well as the day to day interactions.

Works Cited:

Moran R.T., Abramson N. R., Moran S.V. (2014) Managing Cultural Differences. Ninth Edition. New York, NY: Routledge

Small Business Trends.com (2018). Why Equality and Diversity need to be SMB Priorities. Retrieved from. https://smallbiztrends.com/2018/03/small-business-equality-and-diversity.html

Throughout the semester, we focused a lot on cultures, diversity, differences within, and differences between. While we can easily compare one country from the next, I could not stop thinking about these topics and differences as it correlates to the United States alone. Being that the United States is made of up many different cultures from people all over the world migrating to the country, the U.S. can very much be considered that of a melting pot. Because of this, there are many differences between cultures that exists solely in the United States that can be compared and analyzed, for example, the culture of a Southern state versus that of a Northern state.

Growing up, my family and I had many opportunities to move to different countries and digest different cultures throughout Europe and the Middle East. However, while growing up in the U.S, I have only ever been exposed to one region, which was the North East. To be more specific, the greater New York City area. Back in May of 2018, I was offered the opportunity to relocate with my job from my hometown in the northeast region, down to Atlanta, GA. As both states exist in the U.S., I never really considered there would be any cultural differences between the two states. However, soon into my transition, I was presented with what can be considered or known as a culture shock “the feelings one experiences after leaving their familiar, home culture to live in another cultural or social environment” (Ziegler & Associates, 2019). This shock, while unexpected, was experienced on both a personal and a professional level.

Some of the first things observed were the distinct differences in certain mannerisms, the pace of the environment, and overall interaction that varied drastically from what I was exposed to up North. However, diving deeper into the professional side, our company itself felt a major change with respect to the variation of employee characteristics. While this is not to correlate a negative connotation to the southern culture, certain aspects such as time handling, swift operations, and project management varied from the norm of group of employees that came from up North. From a leadership standpoint, analyzing these differences and developing a medium with regards to expectations was soon called into effect. “To understand that in this emerging knowledge culture, open-mindedness to change and its management is essential ” (Abramson, Moran, & Harris, 2014).

Development of strategies for becoming a transformational global leader during momentous shifts such as the personal example provided, are critical factors in the development of leaders across the globe. While many believe that a “culture shock” exists from country to country, take a moment to look around and understand the plethora of variations and cultures that exist within your own country. Understanding these core differences as they exist in the United States, offers a better understanding and acceptance of cultures that exists outside the country, thus contributing to more elite leadership methods.

References:

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Ziegler & Associates, H. (Ed.). (2019). What is Culture Shock, and What Can I do to Avoid it? Retrieved from https://www.hziegler.com/articles/culture-shock.html

Communication is key; we have all heard this saying, but as you dig deeper into encoding, decoding, and channel in which communication is achieved it becomes clear where the break down can occur in the communication process. Once the knowledge is gained regarding these pieces to the communication puzzle, how one handles this information and betters their process and the process of their team is what leads to success, open communication, and paves a path that lessens misinterpretation and allows open-effective communication. 5 Dynamics is a tool that has allowed our team to better communicate, improve in our encoding and decoding, and not be afraid to change the channel in which we communicate.

Let’s start with the basics; “communication is about the exchange of information between individuals” (PSU, Module 4, 2019). How the information is shared can occur in many forms; face to face, telephone, email, and text messaging to name a few. When the face to face and telephone options are removed from the equation, it becomes harder to “read between the lines”, hear the tone of someone’s voice, feel the passion in which they are speaking, as well as pick up on intonation, inflection, and body language. Thus, we are left to interpret the message received by the sender. Encoding is when the sender of the information creates a message and decoding begins when the message is received and interpreted by the receiving party. When we are left to interpret information without all the missing parts noted above a break down in communication can occur rapidly. Add in culture, language, and diversity in any sense and the process can further break down.

Our team was introduced to 5 Dynamics about a year ago and it has allowed a better understanding of our individual styles of encoding and decoding and has allowed us open conversations of how we can improve. 5 Dynamics is a tool that allows individuals to learn where their energy is focused best. There are 4 energies: 1) explore – these are individuals that thrive on ideas, 2) excite – individuals that are seen as the cheerleaders, want others to be happy, and are motivators of others, 3) examine – this energy prefers data, the why behind things, and the bigger picture, and lastly 4) execute – are the get it done individuals. Just reading these high-level definitions for each energy one can begin to see that each energy needs something different.

So, how does this play into encoding and decoding? If I am communicating with an individual that is high examine, I am aware that this person prefers more information, is data-driven, and is going to want to know the “why” behind the ask/work/change that is being sent by the sender (during the encoding process). Versus if a message is being sent to someone in the execute energy, this energy just needs to know what the ask is and when the work is due. An email between these two energies would be vastly different; one would have bullet points, while the other would be lengthier and contain more details. If we are aware of what an individual needs when communicating, it makes the decoding process that much more successful. If the information being sent is clear, concise, and geared to that individuals energy preferences there is less need for back and forth emails (our typical way of communicating), and there is less misinterpretation during the decoding process.

As a group we have agreed that if there are more than 2-3 emails on one topic, it is time to have a face to face or telephone conversation. Too many emails on the same topic seems to lead definite misinterpretation, and instead of going down that rabbit hole we get on the phone or talk directly, and this has changed the dynamics of our team, allowed us to have better comradery, and improved conversation on how we can better communication. This process has also allowed us to ask one other, “what did you interpret when you read that email”? Having this information is invaluable and allows us to course correct to prevent further error when encoding to that person and allows immediate clarification for that person that was decoding.

 

References:

Pennsylvania State University (2019). Leadership and Global Context – OLEAD 410. Online course lesson, Penn State World Campus, The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved September 21, 2019 from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2008449/modules

 

When we think of culture, many of us think about it in terms of geography. It’s true that different countries or geographic regions have different traditions, social norms and overall ways of life. Culture is at the core of any group or institution. But what exactly is culture? Schein & Schein define culture as “accumulated learning [that] is a pattern or system of beliefs, values and behavioral norms that come to be taken for granted as basic assumptions and eventually drop out of awareness.” (2016). As you can see, culture is a very complex and very dynamic concept.

Organizations have unique cultures as well. Organizational culture is “a product of factors including history, product, market, technology and strategy, type of employees, management style, as well as national culture. (Needle, 2004 as cited in Nikpour, 2016). My employer, for example, is a global food manufacturer which originated and is still headquartered in Mexico. We have locations in 32 countries around the globe. While each country has their own set of values, beliefs and traditions, that make up the micro-culture of each individual subsidiary, our overarching corporate culture remains strong.

However, it is my belief that, while organizational leaders can manipulate some of the factors that comprise corporate cultures in order to shape or improve the corporate culture, they cannot simply sit down and define it and make it be so out of sheer will alone. “Intentions are important, but… perceptions count.” (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). To be successful in creating or improving a company’s culture, leaders across the organization must be committed to uphold the core values and beliefs that they set forth and to promoting this and gaining the buy-in of employees. At my company, the first of our seven corporate beliefs is “we value the person” and the second is “we are one community.” These two statements say a lot about the culture of the company. And, they are not just words. These are values that are woven into the fabric of who we are as an organization. I have never before been a part of an organization with such a robust, cohesive and vibrant culture and, although I’ve only been with the company for a short time, I am all-in.

All organizations have cultures, whether they can define them or not. Culture is an important part of a company’s success or failure. It is the driving force of human behavior, morale and productivity. (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). In order to make a positive impact on these things, a company’s leadership team should uniformly exemplify and promote a set of values, beliefs and norms that can be unanimously celebrated and supported at all levels.

 

Works Cited:

Moran, R., Abramson, N.R. & Moran, S. (2014). Managing cultural differences (9th ed). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Nikpour, A. (2016). The impact of organizational culture on organizational performance: The mediating role of employee’s organizational commitment. International Journal of Organizational Leadership. 6(2017) 65-72. Retrieved from https://ijol.cikd.ca/article_60432_9a9a6611a397719a068702bb17be5460.pdf

Schein, E.H. & Schein, P. (2016). Organizational culture and leadership (5th ed). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

DJomas/Shutterstock. Image Retrieved from: http://discovermagazine.com/2019/july/ewk-body-language

What is communication? Most people think communication is the way you speak, how you speak, the tone of your voice, etc. People aren’t typically aware of body language, facial expressions, posture, eye contact, nonverbal signs, or signals during interactions. To put it in a broader perspective, different cultures, professions, and backgrounds can interpret body language and nonverbal communication differently. I believe that it is important for people to be mindful and aware of the variation of nonverbal communication, especially in this multi-cultural world. I picked this topic to write about because of coming from Asian culture. There were things I learned that were significantly different in the U.S than in Asia.

One of the most interesting nonverbal communication that I find very amusing is in Japan. In Japanese culture, you should eat noodle soup or ramen very loudly at a restaurant as a compliment to the chief. This means that the food was delicious. So eat away, loud slurping sound is highly encouraged in a restaurant in Japan! However, this would be considered rude in the U.S.

Another example, “In western culture, a person who does not maintain good eye contact is regarded das slightly suspect. Those who avoid eye contact are unconsciously considered unfriendly, insecure, untrustworthy, inattentive, and impersonal” (Moran, Abrason & Moran, 2014. Pg. 51) This sounds normal to you, right? However, this is quite the contrary in some other culture. “Japanese children are taught in school to direct their gaze at the regions of their teacher’s Adam’s apple. Japanese Adults lower their eyes when speaking to a superior as a gesture of respect” (Moran, Abrason & Moran, 2014. Pg. 51) There were various examples of cultural differences within International Communication in Chapter Two of this week’s lesson.

Personal space can also be an issue between cultures. According to the article Body language – a minefield for international business people. “Some cultures touch more than others; generally, those who do not mind the invasion of their personal space. The British and Japanese, however, will often apologize if their coat brushes against someone else” (Hurn, 2014.) Knowing the culture and personal boundaries are something to be mindful of during traveling and interacting with other cultures.

In conclusion, I believe it is important for business people is to be aware of their cultural body language. One must understand how it may cause misunderstanding or offend others with a different culture. Being self-aware would help people adjust their communication style to different cultures, especially when conducting International Business.

If this topic intrigues you, here is a link where you can see even more examples of body language and gesture around the world. Thank you for reading.

https://translit.ie/blog/body-language-gestures-across-world/#.XYWlAChKjIU

References:

Hurn, B. J. (2014). Body language – a minefield for international business people. Industrial and Commercial Training, 46(4), 188-193. doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1108/ICT-01-2014-0004

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Body Language and Gestures across the World and what they mean. (2018, May 8). Retrieved from https://translit.ie/blog/body-language-gestures-across-world/#.XYWlAChKjIU

 

The term “glass ceiling” can be defined as the barriers that women and minorities must reach in order to climb the corporate ladder (Moran, Abramson, and Moran, 2014, p.156). I chose this topic because not only am I a woman who will want to excel and progress in her career, but I am raising daughters who I hope will have the same opportunities. A study from 2008 found that women often are hired at lower levels and with lower salaries than that of their male coworkers which often resulted in them not being on the path to the top of the company (Moran, Abramson, and Moran, 2014, p.156). The hiring and development of a more diverse workforce will only benefit a company. When a company is more diverse, they can reap the benefits of greater collective access to relevant information, more creative solutions and reduced conflict” (Moran, Abramson, and Moran, 2014, p.183). Therefore, corporations should invest in programs that help women and minorities to break through the glass ceiling.

One way a corporation can help break through the glass ceiling is by mentoring programs. An example of a mentor program would be pairing a more experienced employee with a less experienced one to form a nurturing work relationship and gain valuable knowledge (Moran, Abramson, and Moran, 2014, p.158). I believe success could be found in having women of any management level mentoring other women as they enter the company in entry level positions. This could also help a company when recruiting, training and placing women into positions of management which is another step to breaking through the glass ceiling.

Another way a corporation can break through the glass ceiling is simply by showing CEO commitment. The CEO is the leader of the company and to whom employees look to for guidance and vision for the company. The CEO should be making it clear in not only their “talk” but also in their “walk” by taking steps to put more women in leadership roles.  

As more women are reaching the higher tops of the corporate ladder, another related concept should be considered, which is the “glass cliff”. This is a situation where a woman is brought in as a leader to turn around a sinking company (Forman, 2019). Laura Forman describes this term as when “a woman is able to rise, but to a height from which she is likely to fall” (2019). An example of this is most recently when Linda Kozlowski became the new CEO of Blue Apron Holdings after Brad Dickerson resigned following the company’s 72% market value loss (Forman, 2019). This is an example of how there is still work to be done and that even when we do make it to the top the expectations are often higher for us. 

 

Works Cited

Forman, L. (2019, Apr 08). At blue apron, ‘glass ceiling’ gives way to the ‘glass cliff’. Wall Street Journal Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/2204499307?accountid=13158

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

 

Effective communication is very important in nowadays. Because we understand correctly what other person is trying to tell us, to do, to know, to postpone, to keep in mind, etc. Even it is more important when you work or if you are a leader in a organization. That needs to know what you think what are your ideas, your vision, your goals, your values, your life.  To avoid miss understanding what is the real message you are listening or try to express. It is necessary to be clear, concise, to the point what we need to express.

Also for a leader it is basic to have a good communication with his followers. So they keep following him and know what he needs for them to do.  A good complement for effective communication is the body language because many times some people try to express something but with their body language they say other thing. Body language add expression and meaning to our message and more character.

In some professions communication is basic to get forwarded what it is necessary to tell. For example if a lawyer is not able to communicate to the judge why his defendant is innocent, then the judge likely will charge him/her with many years in prison. Or if a insurance agent is not clear how to explain the benefits from an insurance to a client ,then the client wont buy it. In our private life communication is very important also to keep a marriage and a family informed about what is going on in certain situations, the rules the family is looking for to keep the order in the house.

Effective communication lead us to reach, success, trust, problem solving and right decision making.  For this is important to be a good listener. Because if we do not listen very well what the other person is saying, then  the conclusion we are going to get will be false and wrong. Listening wit empathy and open mind will help the process of good understanding.

In a leadership context good communication is essential, because this allow transparency, trust, organization growing, employee managing, and keep good relationships with stakeholders. with no other better way a leader could inspire his followers than with enthusiasm and emotive communication and motivate them to reach their goals.

References:

Reference, 2019

www.reference.com/business-finance/important-communicate-effectively

AIB. Australian Institute of business. 2019, 6 reasons why effective communication should be a focus in your business.

Retrieved from: www.aib.edu/au/communication/6-reasons-effective-communication-focus