Question

Why is it important to honor the customs and traditions of a country when working on an international project? 600 words minimum

Answer 1

In order to ensure the success of Firms when working on an international project, it is important to honor the customs and traditions of a country due to various reasons. Firstly, honoring the customs and traditions of a country help to understand the concept of multiculturalism that is needed to be incorporated in its true sense, to the values of the Organization such that the Organization is more adaptable to the transnational structure. In this regard, Multiculturalism is a philosophical framework in any given Organization in order to design policies that can efficiently handle the concept of paying equal request to various cultures when people hailing from different backgrounds come together in Organization to work in a cooperated manner, promotion of cultural diversity, management of various ethnic groups within an Organization, etc.

One very significant risk that a Company faces when trying to diversify internationally is the cultural risk because there are certain Dominant cultures that express the core values that are shared by a majority of the organization’s members while there are also certain subcultures which could be regarded as the minicultures within an organization, typically defined by department designations and geographical separation. Hence in terms of implications, both these cultures impact the tolerance level of the people belonging to different cultures in a major way. Here, it is a rare ability to bridge such a perception gap which has already been rooted down into the beliefs of the people hailing from different culture. Honoring the customs and traditions in a country helps to curb with this risk.

Further, the National culture has all more greater impact than the Organizational culture on the minds of the people. In certain culture, there is a facilitation of commitment to something larger than self-interest that enhances the stability of the social system. However, it may not get along well with that of the other cultures where social commitment does not form an intrinsic part of the culture. This is where the ideologies clashes between the cultures and there arises the challenge of tolerance. Here, if the leaders are not intellectually brilliant, the diversity management issue will fail. Honoring the culture of other countries therefore requires intellectual leaders. In addition, when the Company goes international, the diversified team ethical issues are more critical to barriers to change and diversity which also comes in the way of welcoming or accepting another culture in harmony with that of one culture. The gestures and cultural characteristics are one culture may be complete inverse from that of the other, which may again pose as a barrier to tolerate other cultures. Some cultures are liberal while some are way too conservative hence arises the issue of tolerance to other cultures. Hence despite investing in multicultural teams training, some alliances still fail. If the leaders are not intellectually brilliant, they would find it difficult to manage these barriers because their own culture has not taught to see the other cultures in such details hence this intellect needs to be cultivated as well.

Honoring the cultures and traditions of the other countries shall also help the Companies fail persuade and control people when the Company diversifies because of there shall not be any faulty applications of the management theories which otherwise happen due to:

• Unrealistic expectations about the management motivation theories to deal with the diversity issues such as Management By Objectives results
• Lack of commitment by top management
• Failure to allocate reward properly
• Cultural incompatibilities

Therefore, in order to mitigate the above, the Company that works on an international project, needs to understand the behavior of the employees working at some other international location and thereby attempting to create a more efficient organization on the basis of such a study. This strategy could help in applying various scientific theories to study these individuals working in a Corporate set-up in order to optimize the performance of overall human resource even in a culturally diversified set up. Understanding the work culture and the dominance of the Organizational values that may either boost or impede the growth and productivity of an Organization and in the areas of employee retention or training and development, skills sets requirements while conducting an effective recruitment process, these strategies could in a way facilitate the predictability of the events by influencing the Organizational events.

In this regard there could be an application of two concepts to manage the cultural diversity: a. Psychometric instruments that could be used to make the cultural diversification more relevant and b. how it would help in types of risks that might be introduced to the organizational behavior and business practices in the home country, when teams are culturally or geographically diverse.

Minds play a very important role in controlling our Organizational behavior. It is only when the mind is healthy, that an individual could be in the position to undertake better decisions which could be in the advantage of an Organization. A poor health may therefore impact the mind adversely.

Also, it talks a lot about our mindset revolving around particular sets of ideologies as well that in turn helps in shaping the Organizational values on the part of the mindset. Some may be conservative in approach while some open and broad-minded. Diversity-conscious leaders in Company when formed on the basis of this mindset, becomes an identifying factor for the entire institution and this is how we can infer that there exists relationships between our minds and how we interact within Organizations. Accordingly, Psychometric tests is also used by these leaders as one of the important instruments in managing the diversity. The leaders of the Company also sort this help to deal with various other aspects of diversity such as gender diversity, age diversity, etc. These leaders have the competency to value the diversity in Organizational group dynamics as an internal source of strength since it provides a culture for inclusion of more and more people from different cultural backgrounds, age, gender, sexual orientation, marriage or religion belief. They therefore help in optimizing the employees’ potential to the best possible extent. Further, their competency involves the ability not only to form groups on certain basis but also to maintain the teams in order to facilitate the team’s performance towards achievement of the Organizational goals. These leaders assume accountability and undertake various effective decision-making processes that is essential in order to succeed in managing the team competency to boost the team’s overall performance. They also seek willing cooperation from their subordinates owing to their dynamic personality and hence they are charismatic extroverts.

In order to understand the cultures of the other countries while working on an international project, however, the HR role has got a lot to do with the structural changes. It is based upon the basic values, mission and vision statements of the Organization that an HR designs the policies for the entire Organization to follow. If the Organization is a local one, without any global activities, then the HR role would be perhaps niche to only that particular home country however, when the structural changes involve the stepping up of the Company globally, then various other HR clauses come into the picture. It has to regard the host country’s domestic HR laws governing the state, the attitude and the perceptions of the employees residing in such other countries, etc. Hence HR role needs to be customized based on structural differences.