The Cross-Cultural Risk (Term Paper Sample)

The Cross-Cultural Risk Project
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The Cross-Cultural Risk Project
The establishment of a business in an international environment poses several threats to progress. Some common cultural challenges include the local market model, subcultural practices, ethical issues, and stakeholders' conflict. Addressing the cultural differences in Egypt, the focus shall be on the enhancement of cultural intelligence. There are four areas of competencies that we shall develop and become culturally competent. They include willingness, strategy, knowledge, and action (Harris, 2015). Further still, some of the essential issues on cultural competence that we would address include language, religious differences, custom values, time perception, ethical practices, contextual cultures, ethics, and Hofstede dimensions. The Egyptian urban taste has been influenced by western culture, while the rural area is predominantly conservative (Leidner & Kayworth, 2006). The value of family and religious holidays play an essential role in Egyptian life.
Religion and language form the main guidance of cultural values: ethics, social structures, and customs in Egypt. The dominant religion is Islam; however, Coptic Christians are also influential in the country (Mostafa & Elbendary, 2020). Some of the international employees, especially the top managers, are Christians. There are higher chances that the workplace will have religious diversity. We shall encourage tolerance and respect for other religions within the workplace. Our organization will be secular and non-tolerant to religious animosity. The organization's culture will ban religious discussions in the workplace. However, members will have the freedom to attend religious holidays and ceremonies. The common language in the country is Arabic; therefore, our team will have an interpreter to communicate with stakeholders. The teachings of Islam influence the Egyptians' cultural values; for example, the obligation to pray exact times within a day, avoidance of pock, decent dress codes, and the observation of Friday as the Muslim holiday (Commsceo Global, 2020). Our organization shall not operate on Fridays.
The management of time and space in Egypt is different from such managements in the United States. Egyptians perceive time as polychromic, while personal space depends on gender. First, polychromic time perceptions allow Egyptians to undertake several tasks in tandem. Therefore, Hall's theory is essential in handling polychromic cultures. It states that cases of punctuality and multitasking are common among polychromic cultures (Chin, Wang, & Rowley, 2020). Therefore, Egyptian employees will constantly be reminded to arrive for meetings on time. Personal space will be respected in the workplace. The space in the office arrangement will be sufficient to avoid closeness, especially of a different gender.
Egypt is a high context culture country, which has been affected by technology. One of the major factors that influence how humans communicate is technology. High cultures prefer relationship building and closeness (Sukkar, 2017). Our organization will focus on oral communication rather than written ones. However, technology has challenged traditional communication in Egypt that emphasized closeness and strong family ties. Many people have resorted to social media, especially in urban areas. Therefore, we will also apply to social media communication.
Hofstede offers six cultural dimensions that influence cross-cultural communication. The six dimensions include power distance, collectivism and individualism, femininity and masculinity, orientation period, restraint vs. indulgence, and uncertainty avoidance index (Vasile, 2016). There is a high power distance in Egypt; therefore, employees will be using official communication channels whenever they have an issue with the management. The country also appreciates collectivist culture; therefore, workers will work more in teams rather than individually. Furthermore, the country is masculine and practices higher uncertainty avoidance (Beugelsdijk & Welzel, 2018). Division of labor and specialization is the best human resource management method that can flourish in the country. Restraints and long-term orientation of the country's culture mean that goals should be long-term, and members should be encouraged to be disciplined.
References
Beugelsdijk, S., & Welzel, C. (2018). Dimensions and dynamics of national culture: Synthesizing Hofstede with Inglehart. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 49(10), 1469-1505.HYPERLINK "https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022022118798505"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022022118798505
Chin, T., Wang, S., & Rowley, C. (2020). Polychronic knowledge creation in cross-border business models: a sea-like heuristic metaphor. Journal of Knowledge Management.HYPERLINK "https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JKM-04-2020-0244/full/html"https://www.emerald.com/insig