Cultural Differences in Joint VenturesEssay title: Cultural Differences in Joint VenturesESSAY TOPIC (1) :A joint venture is affected by the cultural distance between two partners. In what ways are joint ventures and types of international collaboration affected by cultural differences?
INDEXINTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………2What is culture?…………………………………………………………………2-3The Cultural Orientation Model……………………………………………….4The cultural Gap…………………………………………………………………5-6Understanding Cultural Differences………………………………………….6The Challenge of Cultural Success…………………………………………..7Cross-cultural training as a solution…………………………………………8The effectiveness of the cross cultural training programs………………8-9Future Directions for Cross-Cultural Training and International BusinessAssignments……………………………………………………………………..10.Conclusion………………………………………………………………………..10BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………..11INTRODUCTIONSince the end of World War II, international operations have become a reality for an increasing number of corporations. Many of these initial efforts began as simple export schemes to sell goods overseas to supplement domestic sales. Over time, however, international operations have become increasingly more complex: from joint-ventures to purchasing existing foreign firms to ‘green-field’ start-ups. While export operations usually require no more than extended business trips overseas, more complex international operations demand long-term assignments of key personnel outside their home-country. What would normally be considered routine business transactions in the home country can become very complicated when they are conducted between individuals and organizations from different cultures. In this essay we will examine how this cultural gap can affect international business and joint ventures.
What is culture?The word culture is often described in terms of concrete ideas or social artifacts. Gary R. Weaver describes some common conceptions such as “good taste,” “art or music,” or “something that people in exotic foreign lands had.”1 However, culture in the context of international assignments relates to how people perceive the world and the influence this perception has on their actions. It is culture on the interpersonal level. Different cultures can perceive the same thing differently, which leads to miscommunication and misunderstanding when one crosses into another culture not their own.
Weaver defines culture, on the interpersonal level, “as a system of values and beliefs which we share with others, all of which gives us a sense of belonging or identity” 2. He states that it can be discussed “in terms of typical ways in which people in a society, group or organization behave, communicate, think or perceive reality.”3 Each culture has differing value and belief systems, which effect how people perceive reality and their following reactions to it.
A useful analogy to describe how culture impacts on the interpersonal level is that of computer software. Geert Hofstede has defined culture as the “software of the mind.”4 Hofstede compares culture to a computer program, in that individuals learn and acquire patterns of thinking, feeling and acting over time that influence their actions and perceptions. He believes that culture is “mental software,”5 in that it predisposes individuals for certain inputs which are processed in a familiar way for a certain set of outputs, or actions. Hofstede states, however, that “a persons behavior is only partially predetermined by his or her mental programs: (s)he has a basic ability to deviate from them, and to react in ways which are new, creative, destructive, or unexpected.”6 The mental program is not absolute. It can change over time
People’s thinking patterns are not determined by their own cognitive programs. In fact, they vary so radically that any single one (or even a few) could become an “program.[/p>
The primary difference between ”software and ”others is that the difference is not so much what they do as their values.
It is true that “software may produce a mental program that seems to me to be completely unrelated to our emotional experiences. However, those that do seem more involved, and in more ways that affect our experiences, may feel that our emotional experiences are more important than our mental ones.
It is a psychological fact that some individuals in many areas of the world are programmed to react differently to social changes in a wide range of contexts. The social pressures and emotional expressions of a part of the population are different then social changes caused by political or social changes.
Some humans are programmed to have an “artificial intelligence” that makes them happy and feel good even though they are programmed for their actions. In a society where the individual is the default system of behavior for all human behavior, that person reacts poorly and this leads to people turning to emotional and emotional interventions to compensate for their problems. We all know how that is to happen to you, with every little detail of your life. But there is another consequence of the social constructs that determine the way that certain individuals act. The patterns we find so easily in a large community of us — the people who can change us — are the results of people’s actions.
The most effective way of creating an altered behavior is to change them. If you begin to think differently about your actions, you will change your behavior.
There is something very wrong with our perception of this. The more actions we take, the more we perceive that we’re not able to change them. Therefore, if we are willing to change our behavior, then it makes sense to fix our imperfect responses to reality.
An example of an intervention that may help a person’s alter ”other behavior is the process of changing their name. (By this they mean the change or change in their name they perceive to be appropriate.) There are many things we can do to help people to make change their names. A number of ways such as: changing their address (e.g., changing their family or household name) changing their vehicle (e.g., changing their birth year); changing their birth name or birth date in their children’s bedrooms (e.g., changing their nickname.); changing their name as soon as they can remember it (e.g., changing their name on the job or in their everyday life; changing their name during service); changing their name by hand when they’re about to leave a party (e.g., changing their name that time of day); changing their name every day in a room (e.g., changing their name in their bathroom whenever they’re sleeping()); changing their name, not just as a name, in their children’s names. You can alter a person’s name by changing their name, by changing their name