Julie BIGEY Louis de FOUCHER Woojin KIM Class 14 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Should  managers  at  the  local  operation  blend  in  with  a  local  environment  or  do  we  want  to  

differentiate  ourselves?  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Professor VU-HOANG Year 2013-2014

Acknowledgment !!! We undersigned have not copied and have quoted the sources, whenever wherever used.!!Date :!

Signatures : !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Contents

!!Executive Summary ………………………………………………………..…. p.1!

!I. Introduction: Globalization and Culture ..………………………………. p.2!

!II. Should We Blend In? ……………………………..……………..………… p.3!

1. Advantages: Localisation …………………………………………….… p.3!

2. Obstacle: Case Study (1) ……..……………..………………….….….. p.4!

3. Strategies: How to blend in with smoothly? ………………………..… p.5!

!III. Should We Differentiate Ourselves? …………………………..…….… p.7!

1. Advantages: Diversity ……..……………………..……………..……… p.7!

2. Obstacle: Case Study (2) …..……………..…………………………… p.8!

3. Strategies: How to differentiate ourselves efficiently? ……..…….… p.9!

!IV. Solution: Mixture of Two Strategies ………………………………….. p.10!

1. Glocalisation …………………………………………………………… p.10!

2. The 4 Cultural Dimensions ………………………..……………….…. p.11!

!V. Conclusion: To the Wiser International Management ……………… p.12!

!Bibliography - Webography ……………………………………….……..… p.13

Executive Summary!!!

Before jump into our subject, in the introduction, we will look though the growing importance of the globalization and the understanding of culture. Today globalization must not be only defined by commerce with goods and services it is also a mixture of many different peoples with different cultures. Based on their understanding of the globalization and the culture, international managers also have to decide every each moment their behaviors and their general attitudes as well at the local operation.

On the chapter 1, we’ll examine closely about the advantages when we blend in with a local environment in both individual scale(Prevent mental disorder, Strong local relationship, More local info & Linguistic advantage, High convenience of Family and High feeling of achievement) and organizational scale(Relaxation, Diversity and High productivity). Then we will see one case which can possibly happen in reality to figure out some obstacles and the strategies which will help you to blend in smoothly: with basic 3 steps- Motivation, Linguistic ability, Interpersonal skill, and also additional 3 steps to go further- Patience, Cultural empathy and Sense of humor.

On the next chapter, to solve the curiosity of why we need a heterogeneous team, we provide some advantages derived from multicultural environment - Diversity. Diversity can result in the increased creativity and new attitudes in the organization. There also is some obstacles - ‘My way or Highway’ attitude, we’ll look though by a practical case of Mr. Dupont. Lastly, we’ll provide some possible strategies for you to differentiate yourself more efficiently: Non-dogmatic thinking, Linguistic effort, Body language and Lateral thinking.

On the final chapter, we’ll provide the specific solution - the mixture of two strategies, about when and in which situation you have to decide between two actions. Simply, ‘When to blend in with a local environment and when to differentiate yourself?’ To answer that question, we’ll use two concepts: Glocalization and the 4 Cultural Dimensions.

Finally we will talk about the rest of our ideas and thoughts regarding to the international managerial attitude.

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I. Introduction: Globalization and Culture!!

"Language as a vehicle of culture may influence the thinking and behavior. [...] The language can be transmitted, and culture (although more slowly) too. [...] Try to define peoples in a different way than by their language, their religion, their customs, their habitats, their economic behavior or their own sense of identity would have no meaning.”

- Jonathan Littell, <Les Bienveillantes>

!Some historians establish the beginning of the globalization at the 16th century with

the discovery of America and commerce overseas. Nowadays, the phenomenon is accelerated by the huge development of the new technologies of information and communication, the improvement of technology in transportation (trains and planes) and the disappearance of real and virtual frontiers (economic areas like ALENA or MERCOSUR, Schengen area and the internet) which deeply modified relations between states, society and culture.

But globalization must not be only defined by commerce with goods and services it is also a mixture of many different peoples with different cultures. UNESCO defines the culture by “all of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterized a society or a social group and that it includes, besides art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems , traditions and beliefs.” But it manifests itself in the arts, religion, political structures, education, work organization, politeness and other social structures.

Culture is both individual and collective; it is a social construction, directly or indirectly wanted (unlike civilization) useful for the construction of the cultural identity of individuals.

Current estimates on the total number of international foreign workers stand at about 25 million.  International mangers today have to face and solve lots of problems when 1

operating abroad. Based on their understanding of the globalization and the culture, international managers also have to decide every each moment their behaviors and their general attitudes as well at the local operation.

This leads to our subject: Should managers at the local operation blend in with a local environment or do we want to differentiate ourselves?

!!

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II. Should We Blend In?!!

‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ Does it really work today? In this chapter, we will get to know the advantages by individual scale and organizational scale when international managers succeed to blend in with a local environment. And a provided case study will lead you to understand the possible disadvantages. Lastly, we will suggest some proper strategies for localization.

!1. Advantages: Localisation

The advantages when an international manager succeeds his(her) localization can be brought both in individual scale and also organizational scale where he belongs to.

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![Graphic 1] Individual & Organizational Scale

!A) Individual Scale

When an international manager blends in with a local environment, 1) it can prevent from some mental disorders such as home sick, depression, insomnia and some diseases caused from excessive stress which are likely to occur in a strange environment. These can be able with the positive aspect to a new environment but not with a negative aspect. When it comes to interpersonal relationship, he might be able to have some serious and true relation with local workers and also local people, each relationship enables an international manager to change a new, unfamiliar environment to ‘his’ environment. In other words, 2) by interpersonal relationship with local

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people, 3) international managers can get easily local information and 4) consequently it provides convenience to their family. One of the advantage is a linguistic advantage. Appropriate localization can facilitate for international managers to acquire the language skill more rapidly, and thereafter it becomes the foundation for his better localization creating this virtuous circle.

B) Organizational Scale

The advantages in organizational scale are deeply related to individual success. We can expect 1) relaxations of tension for the organization where he belongs to when an international manager successfully blends in with a local environment. Furthermore, it provides 2) diversity of products and improves 3) the productivity of the organization. Thus, it will make the organization more competitive as a result.

!2. Obstacles: Case Study (1) - ‘‘Who am I?’’

In the case above, why did Mr. Dupont come to fail and go back to France despite his effort? We are able to explain his failure by these reasons below:

•Loss of identity

•Unnatural effort

•Lack of patience

•Sense of humor

‘Blending in with a local environment’ does not mean that he has to totally change his identity or his life style. Losing his identity in this case is the crucial factor which brought him to failure. When someone looses his root, it’s equal that he looses himself.

Secondly, his effort was not so natural. Usually to achieve a goal, we need to make effort more gradually in the long-run.

Mr. Dupont, who is living in Paris, is transferred to the Seoul office. Before moving to Seoul, he learned Korean at his best, he also learned about the Korean culture by his korean friends in Paris and read some books about Korea. In the beginning of the life in Korea, everything was OK. Thanks to his efforts to blend in with a environment, he could make more friends, and it helped him in many ways to settle down in Korea. He always tried to speak Korean language and to act like Koreans. However, despite his efforts, he somehow started to be depressed. He figured out that he can never speak Korean like his korean friends. And he missed everything in his country, France. Eventually, he had to go back to his country in 5 month.

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And the lack of patience as well made him go back to his country. According to the professor VU-HOANG, patience and respect are essential for international executives because different culture have different reasons. Time is a necessary factor of learning. He should have avoided all the temptations of comparing the new culture with the home culture.  2

Let's not forget humor's social benefits. According to the professor Peter McGraw, and the journalist Joel Warner, not surprisingly, funny people receive positive attention and admiration. Your ability to create and appreciate humor also influences who wants to date, mate and befriend you. Most studies find humor to be a highly desirable attribute, which explains why the acronym GSOH (good sense of humor) finds its way into personal and online dating posts. And according to the work of Barb Frederickson and others who examine the benefits of positivity, humor is an excellent way to boost your creative prowess. Finally, humor smoothes potentially awkward social and cultural interactions. Think about how much easier an uncomfortable situation can be when you joke about it.  3

!3. Strategies: How to blend in smoothly?

We suggest a strategic approach(inspired by the professor VU-HOANG) to succeed to blend in with a local environment like below.

The basic 3 steps are:

1) Motivation: Specific and intense motivation offers driving force of success when working overseas. This factor applies also to his partner and family members.

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Conference <Competencies When Operating Abroad> / Professor VU-HOANG2

<The Humor Code: In Search Of What Makes Things Funny> / Peter McGraw, Joel Warner3

2) Linguistic Ability: It is not about the total control of a specific language but it is about the development of a feeling for others: the local expressions, the information, the interest.  4

3) Interpersonal Skill: It is the most important factor which helps creating relationship. Developing interpersonal skills became an important and essential part in business.

!If you get over those 3 basic steps, it means that you are ready to go further 3 steps

to be a successful international manager. Here are additional 3 steps:

1) Patience: It is absolutely a requirement in especially working abroad as leaving overseas is not always full of joy. International managers should learn how to tolerate.

2) Cultural Empathy: Without cultural empathy, it is extremely difficult to have a continuous and stable life in that country.

3) Sense of Humor: It helps in terms of relaxations of tense to the organization. In addition to that, it can be the most powerful weapon if one succeed to show his(or her) personal charm which can attract people regardless of his language level.

!Then we are able to have diverse experience and also the opportunity for

employees’ personal growth. We will take about these advantages more precisely later on.

!!!!!!!!!

/ 6 13 Conference <Competencies When Operating Abroad> / Professor VU-HOANG4

III. Should We Differentiate Ourselves?!!

Before getting to know why international managers have to differentiate themselves, we’d better know the advantages of homogeneous teams made up of people from the same race, gender, social background and age - often provide equal access and participation of members, as there is less chance for exclusion. Members of a homogeneous team will have an easier time of comprehending each other's verbal and nonverbal communications and will have more shared experiences in common. The similarities can, to some extent, avoid misunderstandings, prejudices and, arguably, speed up work processes and the completion of tasks, although this is not always the case as personality conflicts can occur within homogeneous teams as easily as within heterogeneous teams. There is evidence, such as within educational programs for gifted students, that homogenizing groups on the basis of intelligence provides a good environment for high achievers to progress at a faster pace than is possible in mixed ability groups.  5

There starts a question. Despite these advantages, why do we need a heterogeneous team? There is, of course, lots of advantage when we have a heterogeneous team. However, if an international manager underestimates himself and his power which can bring dynamic and creativity, the advantages of heterogeneous team will never appear. In other words, international managers should differentiate sometimes.

!1. Advantages: Diversity

When an international manager tries to differentiate themselves from the local workers, we can expect such advantages:

1) Creativity increases when people with different ways of solving difficult problems work together towards a common solution. There is no one best answer to any question--the more ideas you can obtain from different people, the more likely you are to develop a workable answer. Other cultures can offer insightful alternatives one culture might not have considered. This is a tremendous advantage of diversity in the workplace.  6

2) New attitudes are brought to the business table by people from diverse cultures. For instance, Americans may want to consider adopting the perspective other cultures have about time. American culture believes that “time is money” and

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http://www.ehow.com/info_8357494_homogeneous-vs-heterogeneous-teams.html5

http://www.ehow.com/info_8357494_homogeneous-vs-heterogeneous-teams.html6

“getting to the bottom line” is paramount in business. However, in most other countries around the world “time is for building relationships” and an integral part of getting to know the other party you are considering doing business with before starting a transaction. How much of an advantage would workplace diversity be if we followed this practice more closely?  7

!2. Obstacles: Case Study (2) - ‘‘My way or Highway’’

As you see in the case above, there are two main problems which possibly occurs when an international manager insists to differentiate himself away from a local environment.

1) Communication Issues: Diversity impacts workplace communication in positive and negative ways. Between co-workers, diversity can place impediments in the way of effective communication, which can directly dampen productivity and the cohesiveness of small groups. Spending time with diverse employees can break down communication barriers over the long-term, but first impressions and co-workers' orientation periods can be difficult to control when cultures clash.

2) Integration Issues: Social integration at work can only be influenced to a small degree. The formation of cliques and exclusive social groups is a natural process that can be impossible to control at times. Because of this, companies can experience informal divisions in their staff, creating a situation where culturally diverse employees avoid exposure to each other during break times and after work. Although there is nothing fundamentally wrong with this scenario, it can hinder the effectiveness of sharing knowledge, skills and experience, thus curbing productivity growth and the effectiveness of teams.  8

!

Mr. Dupont, who had a unpleasant experience in South Korea, is now transferred to Tokyo as a marketing director specialized in French market. This time he knew how to cope with everything, he tried not to loose his identity. As expected, that was what the company expected from him working in the branch in Tokyo. He provided positive diversity in the department, and it automatically increased productivity. However some problems started to occur. He always speaks in English as he doesn’t speak Japanese, but some local workers seem like having difficulties using English. And also, Mr. Dupont feels lonely and somehow isolated from his Japanese colleagues…

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http://www.ehow.com/info_8357494_homogeneous-vs-heterogeneous-teams.html7

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-diversity-workplace-3041.html8

3. Strategies: How to differentiate ourselves efficiently? Actually there are several things that we have to be extremely careful when we

want to distinguish ourselves from the local colleagues when operating abroad.

!!!!!1) We must not be any dogmatic thinking in particular assuming that is only

best way, ‘my way’.  - When we became dogmatic, it makes strong barriers which 9

prevent harmony with other workers and also can be considered as ignorance or even disregard for others.

2) Linguistic efforts to understand the language and acquire an enough language level are required prior to differentiation of oneself. As we saw at the very beginning of our report, language is regarded as ‘a vehicle of culture may influence the thinking and behavior.’ A number of companies in the southwest United States, for example, prefer to hire bi-lingual customer service reps to have less conflicts between spanish and american co-workers.

3) We must take care of our body language, not only what you speak. Whenever we are around other human beings, communication is taking place. We are never not communicating. The average person speaks for a total of about 10 to 11 minutes a day and the average sentence takes only 2.5 seconds. But human beings make 250,000 facial expressions per day.  The experts tell us that non-verbal signs 10

have five times the impact of verbal signs.

4) The way of lateral thinking helps us to think more diversely and leads you to decide how to differentiate more wisely each moment. Lateral thinking is to reconstructing out of old existing patterns. It doesn’t need to be correct in every process, we can also bring any irrelevant information and use them. Lateral thinking is a process and way of thinking which doesn’t deny any ideas, we don’t assume or expect to happen but welcome the unexpected interruption, and there is no even category, label, segment fixed. Lateral thinking has power to generate various alternatives.

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Conference <Expatriate and Managing Abroad> / Professor VU-HOANG9

http://www.thenextwomen.com/2012/05/02/international-management-skills-10

importance-understanding-cultural-differences

IV. Solution: Mixture of Two Strategies!!

Until now we learned about the strategy to blend in with a local environment and to differentiate ourselves as well. But in reality, we cannot cope with every single situation only with one strategy. For instance, in you’re having a meeting at branch in China, would you cling to your position as a foreigner? In that case, if you’re not blending with other local colleagues, you will need more energy and time to get your message out to others even though your idea is good enough. On the other hand, if you don’t make any difference with other Chinese colleagues, it’s almost like loosing your own identity and the reason why you are there. Then, now we have to ask ourselves, when and in which situation should we try to blend in, and to make ourselves different? In this chapter of our report, we’ll provide proper solution for that.

!1. Glocalization Glocalization Glocalization (a portmanteau of globalization and localization) is a term denoting the adaptation of a product or service specifically to each locality or culture in which it is sold. It is similar to internationalization. The term “glocalization” is a newly coined blend of globalization and localization refers to a concept to describe individual, group, organization, product or service that reflects not only global standard but also local one. The increasing presence of McDonald's restaurants worldwide is an example of globalization, while the restaurant chain's menu changes in an attempt to appeal to local palates are an example of glocalization. Glocalization means a case in which a global product is transformed into another shape in order to meet the needs of local consumers. For more examples, McDonald’s tried to satisfy the tastes of Korean consumers by making Korean-style of hamburgers such as ‘Bulgogi burger’ and ‘Kimchi burger’.  11

!The concept of Glocalizaton does not only apply to the company scale but also to

individual scale. You have to know how to optimize yourself to your environment without loosing your identity which can be your own strength.

The "glocal strategy" concept comprises local, international, multinational, and global strategy approaches. It differs from the global strategy approach, since it explicitly recognizes the importance of local adaptations and tailoring in the marketplace of business activities. In addition, it comprises typically international and multinational strategy issues.  12

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Wikipedia ‘Glocalization’11

<Glocalization of Business Activities: A ‘’Glocal Strategy’’ Approach> / Goran Svensson12

Now you know that you have to ‘glocalize’ yourself properly. Our next strategy will explain about how your ‘Glocal strategy’ can be implemented in reality depending on where you are.

!2. The 4 Cultural Dimensions

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Blend in with a local

environment

Differentiate ourselves

Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory is a framework for cross-cultural communication, developed by Geert Hofstede. It describes the effects of a society's culture on the values of its members, and how these values relate to behavior, using a structure derived from factor analysis. The theory has been widely used in several fields as a paradigm for research, particularly in cross-cultural psychology, international management, and cross-cultural communication. We analyzed by each 4 dimension and figured out which strategy is more fit and efficient between two efforts - to blend in with a local environment and to differentiate ourselves - depending on where you work according to the 4 cultural dimensions. This does not mean that you only need to try to blend in with a local environment when you are in a country of strong masculinity such as Germany. It shows that your effort to try to blend in with the environment would be more stressed compared to when you are less masculine country.

Hierarchic Distance !!!!!Control of Uncertainty !!!!Individualism

Masculinity

V. Conclusion:!To the Wiser International Management!

!!

It’s already the last page of our report. We studied about two different attitudes whether to blend in or to differentiate ourselves, and it was a good opportunity to think about our incoming future. We will probably work as an international manager or at least at international and multicultural workplace. We might have to choose our attitude every moment and take the action in the short term and in the long run.

Thanks to this given good opportunity by our beloved professor, Mr. VU-HOANG, we could spend lots of time thinking about our future attitude. So actually our work was not only about those two attitudes but also about our future.

Then at the end of our work, we can’t help asking ourselves. Is there an answer for our question? We remember vividly that when we tried to search on the internet some theories and cases concerning our subject at the beginning of our work. We thought there were already given answers on the internet and what we had to do is just to get that information. But it was not like that at all. There was not at all given answers anywhere. At the last resort, we had to ask ourselves. We made all the cases in our report by ourselves, revising the lessons of the professor VU-HOANG, and created new theory on our own. Even though it was not perfect and written in poor english, we can’t deny that this process gave a number of insights and lessons.

We should say that there is no equation like mathematics which we can apply to every situation when it comes to international management. However, there are still some clues and indicators if we look at them carefully which tell us where to go and what to do. This ability is not something that we can gain by one-time learning - but what we have to learn for our lives maybe.

We would like to finish with one nice figure of speech which describes international management.

‘‘Managing an international team and business can be a different ball game and at times may require a different skill set; however the satisfaction you’ll get out of it will be even greater and it feels like the world is your oyster when you succeed.’’  13

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Bibliography

!!

Books:!• <Les Bienveillantes>, (2006), Jonathan Littell!

• <The Humor Code: In Search Of What Makes Things Funny>, (2011), Peter McGraw, Joel Warner!

• <Lateral Thinking>, (1970), Edward De Bono!!!Revues:!• <Glocalization of Business Activities: A ‘‘Glocal Strategy’’

Approach>, (2001), Goran Svensson / School of Management and Economics, Växjö University and School of Economics and Comercial Law, Göteborg University, Sweden!

!!Internet:!• http://www.ehow.com/info_8357494_homogeneous-vs-

heterogeneous-teams.html!• http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-

diversity-workplace-3041.html!• http://www.thenextwomen.com/2012/05/02/international-

management-skills-importance-understanding-cultural-differences

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