Article about intercultual communications styles analysis

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What is culture?
A pattern of basic assumptions - invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration.
Organizational culture can loosely be defined as the shared assumptions, beliefs, and "normal behaviors" (norms) of a group. These are powerful influences on the way people live and act, and they define what is "normal" and how to sanction those who are not "normal." To a large degree, what we do is determined by our culture. Culture is very powerful. (One example is the cultural change effort at British Airways, which transformed an unprofitable airline with a poor reputation into a paragon of politeness and profit).

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National culture is an important element in understanding the nuances of the organization culture. One has to understand it as mixing of national and organizational cultures can produce interesting dynamics in multinational companies. For example French are more talkative and candid; Americans have more sense of hierarchy and are less likely to criticize. Similarly, Asian or Latin culture encourages a more distant managing style than American. Therefore key aspects of national culture such as customs and language are brought to work by individuals working together, societal and organizational culture influences as the person's value, ethics attitudes and expectations. Thus Proper orientation must be given to employees especially expats about the country's culture. This will help employees to easily adapt to the national culture. This also helps in understanding the work ethics and way of life and will be able to manage the company more effectively.

Individuals working together bring key aspects of societal culture such as customs and language to work. These influence the person's value, ethics attitudes and expectations. Thus the key challenges are about making effective team decisions, giving or receiving feedback and conflict resolution. Moreover there are problems of difference in perceptions, handling the work and managerial style. This is further aggravated by the differences in the national cultures. Organizations have different cultures due to the interaction of four factors: people, ethics, property rights given to employees, and structure.

Characteristics of People within the Organization
Companies attract, hire, and retain people with different values, personalities, and ethics. People are drawn to companies with values similar to their own. As people and values become more similar, organizational culture becomes more unique. The founder impacts the culture by setting the initial values and hiring the first employees.

Organizational Ethics
The cultural values of the founder and the top managers are beyond an organization's control. Yet an organization can cultivate ethical values to control employees through guidelines for appropriate behavior. Ethical values are an inseparable part of organizational culture.

Personal ethics influence organizational ethics. Personal ethics stem from societal ethics and an individual's upbringing.

Property Rights
Cultural values arise from property rights, the rights given to stakeholders to receive and use organizational resources. Shareholders have the greatest property rights, because they own the resources and share in profits.

These differences make communication more challenging. Therefore, the interpersonal skills of the members will assist in the effectiveness of the team. For instance, if members of the team work well together, they can then draw upon the strengths of each other to meet the common goals of the organization. However, if a team member would ...