Global Business Cultural Analysis: Bangladesh - Research Paper Example

? Global Business Cultural Analysis: Bangladesh Introduction This research paper concerns about the cultural perspectives of doing business in another nation. The paper has a detailed analysis of cultural elements and dimension of Bangladesh. A detailed analysis of the cultural elements of US has also been covered in this paper to find out the issues in terms of business culture of US organization can be find out in a US organization if it wants to start business operation in Bangladesh. As the culture of people and also the organizational or business culture of the both the countries are different so a US company might face some issues in terms cultural diversity among the employees and also to understand the consumer behavior of the customers of Bangladesh. So, in this paper the important cultural elements and dimension are analyzed by comparing both to find out the changes a US company needs to render in terms of business policies and corporate governance. Major Elements and Dimensions of Culture in Bangladesh Communication The official language of the Bangladesh region is Bengali. Around 98 percent of the people in the region speak in the Bengali language. Bengali originally derived from Sanskrit is used in its natural form in Bangladesh. However, people are also found to use the English and Urdu languages for communicating with each other in the region. The communication styles of the Bangladeshi population are dependent on long and artistic sentences that become hard to comprehend if not supported by adequate gestures. The Bangladeshis are found to avoid sharing any common space between while tending to communicate with other localities or people pertaining to other regions. Rather communication is practiced while standing in close vicinity and even sharing a common touch. The abolition of any common space in Bangladeshi communication aspect however, is not found when a party to the communication involves a woman. In there, the people tend to create a space while tending to communicate with each other. However, the business people in Bangladesh communicate with each other through greeting and handshaking activities. While communicating with women in Bangladesh, greeting is mainly practiced unless and until hands are extended by the women folk (Lewis, 2005, p.448). Religion Bangladesh is a region that is found to embrace a number of religions pertaining to Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity. However, a survey made reflects that around 80 percent of the population residing in Bangladesh belongs to the Muslim culture. This fact thereby confers the region to be one of the world’s largest Muslim dominated regions. The Muslim community pertaining to Bangladesh is however, found to share an amicable relationship with people pertaining to other religions. Around 13 percent of the total population dwelling in Bangladesh belongs to the Hindu religion whereas the region is also constituted by people relating to Buddhist communities. The Muslim community in Bangladesh is mostly constituted by people belonging to the Shia and Sunni tribes while large numbers of Hindu people reside along different regions of the country. People belonging to Christian community particularly to the group of Roman Catholics generally constitute around 0.3 percent of the total population. Buddhists in comparison to the Christian community tend to constitute around 1 percent of the Bangladeshi population and are mainly spread along the Chittagong hills located in the region. Thus, Bangladesh largely embraces people belonging to different religions that in turn help in generation of a multicultural setting (Leung and Meggitt, 2009, p.22, 23; Paul, 2001, p.421). Ethics The people of Bangladesh are found not to abide by ethical and legal norms in their day to day business practices. The region gains a good amount of recognition pertaining to activities of bribery and theft conducted by the people working in the small and medium business enterprises. Such unethical practices are rampant in Bangladesh making the country a haven of such erroneous and illegal activities. The people mainly working in the public sector companies operating in Bangladesh contribute largely to the rise and spread of such unethical activities. Government officials and also the public servants continue carrying on the corrupt practices on a dynamic scale in the country. The current political faction tends to shift or transfer the responsibility of such corrupt activities to the previous government stating that such corrupt practices gained hold during the previous political era (McPhail and Walters, 2009, p.170). Values and Attitudes Values and social customs in Bangladesh are mostly governed by the tenets of Islamic religion. Domestic cultural values, in the region reflect a host of generations residing under one roof. Following of domestic cultural values is mostly reflected in the interior parts of the country pertaining to villages. The values and attitudes of the people in the region are now governed and impacted by developments occurring in the realm of education. Thus, marriages and other social events which were previously dealt with by senior family members are now taken part by the young and educated people on their own (Whyte and Lin, 2009, p.65). Regarding the practice of taking dowry in marriages, the same is better claimed in times of separation or death of the husband. Divorce gains recognition more in regards to Muslim communities dwelling in the region than to Hindu people. The Hindu people can gain divorce only through a legal support. Further the Islamic religion permits the Bangladeshi people to go for polygamy practices. The cultural system of Bangladesh requires the women to wear only conservative and traditional dresses. The domestic culture of Bangladesh is still governed through a patriarchal form of society. In terms of attitudes, the people tend to act in a very friendly manner while retaining a high sense of curiosity. However, the domestic and business structure of the Bangladeshi society is often held to encompass a system of hierarchy. The senior or the higher authority groups tend to govern the subordinate groups treating them as mere servants. The people of Bangladesh are found to crave for status, power, wealth and a comfortable lifestyle. Moreover, the Bangladeshi population are also observed to be significant borrowers of wealth from their own counterparts to suffice their needs (Leung and Meggitt, 2009, p.91-92). Manners Regarding the parameters of social and business etiquette the Bangladeshi people are observed to render considerable significance to the parameter of hierarchy. People belonging to the higher hierarchy and social statuses are not regarded by their personal names. Rather they are honored in terms of ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’ by other people dwelling in the society. Moreover, a certain amount of space is shared by the people when dealing with the people belonging to higher statuses. Handshakes are carried out which often follows placing the right hand on the chest as a sign of courtesy or reflection of honor shown to the people of the higher authority. Again a similar distance is also shared when dealing with women folk of the region such that distance is shared in regards to communication and only greeting is carried out (Butler, 2008, p.30-31). Customs Bangladesh is observed to be mostly dominated by an agrarian society that tends to reflect a sense of rustic atmosphere in the region. Majority of the people in Bangladesh mainly work in the fields which reflect that the major population is constituted by the village folk. Thus, the culture of Bangladesh is mostly dominated by a traditional culture which is simplistic in nature and mostly conservative in their social and domestic dealings. Moreover the social customs reflect the dominance of a patriarchal form of society aiming to dominate over the women folk. Women in Bangladesh mostly resort to a purdah system while communicating to outsiders as a mark of a prevalent social custom (Clowney and Mosto, 2009, p.510). Social Structures and Organizations The social organization structure of Bangladesh reflects a sense of diffused structure with no proper hierarchy identified pertaining to the social systems and institutions. The society of Bangladesh constituted by Hindu and Muslim communities is found to be devoid of the caste system. Though hierarchal forms are found to exist in regards to the Muslim communities dwelling in Bangladesh, yet such hierarchal forms do not signify utmost rigidity. Rather the classifications made within the Muslim communities in terms of hierarchies tend to get diffused. The social structure of Bangladesh reflects a sense of openness and mobility rather than operating on effective stratifications. Further the different social classes and groups in the Bangladesh society tend to intermingle with each other irrespective of their social and economic position. This system further diffuses the structural parameters of the society. The people belonging to the Hindu religion residing in Bangladesh are found in abundance in the lower social and economic strata reflecting a Muslim dominated region. Moreover the prevalence of inter cast marital relationships enhances the system of social complexity in Bangladesh (Shreshta, 2002, p.245). Education The education system of Bangladesh is featured by five full years of primary education activity. Following which the student is subjected to a total of seven years of study in which secondary education requirements of the individual is met. The knowledge capacity of the students is further enhanced through a post secondary system of education. Here, the student is subjected to a specialized system of study that helps in refining one’s thought and understandability (Khandker, 1996, p.8). However, pertaining to the current social and economic situation it is found that the system of education practiced in Bangladesh fails to reflect equitable development and growth among the citizens. Rather the people are struck by the ills of improper development and growing inequity in terms of knowledge and wealth transfer. The education system prevalent in Bangladesh thus largely fails to promote the factors of social and economic development of the people (Staff Country Reports, 2005). Integration of elements and dimensions by locals conducting business in Bangladesh The local people in Bangladesh to open up a new business venture must take resort to effective communication practices pertaining to the dimensions of advertising and promotional activities to create consumer awareness. Use of local languages like Bengali is rendered in addition to English in the print, visual and broadcasting media to communicate with the local and regional people (Moonie and Perkins, 2004, p.55). Similarly, the local people must also focus on taking apt care of the social and personal needs of the Bangladeshi people in terms of religious consideration. Such consideration would help the business ventures gain an enhanced market for their service and product offerings both in regard to Hindu and Muslim communities. The people can also focus in starting up with a food business pertaining to healthy and natural foods in the region. It is because both the religious festivals and occasions pertaining to Muslim and Hindu religious systems share a common link to food and dietary practices (David, 2009, p.248). Pertaining to ethical issues, the local nationals must focus on setting and abiding by strict corporate governance rules. They must also be highly accountable to the public for their activities. The system of transparency enhanced regarding the formation of new business enterprises in the region would help in the augmentation of ethical standards in the workplaces formed. Such actions would evidently reduce the growth of bribery and corruption activities in the region. The local companies need to formulate effective codes of conducts along with a mission and vision statement to rightly bind the people to standard and ethical work practices. Further focus must be rendered pertaining to the generation of punishments to people caught in wrong dealings while working to service customers. Similarly, rewards must also be rendered to motivate people to work in a productive fashion in order to render the best products and services to consumers. Again the local nationals are required to embrace and honor the system of values of Bangladesh by effectively conducting greeting and other activities. The people are also required to safeguard the women and children from being subjected to exploitation in the workplaces. Moreover, the local nationals can focus on expanding the company to the rustic areas for gaining of community support in conducting effective business operation. Local nationals can also focus on enhancing the educations system of the country through working in the development of schools and institutions from the profit gained from business operations. Such enhancement of the education network in the region would help in the enhancement of the social responsibility paradigm of the companies run by Bangladeshi people. It would also render an equitable framework in the ambit of knowledge transfer and enhance the social position of the people. The local nationals owing to the diffused nature of the social structure can focus on developing products that would be liked by both the Hindu and Muslim population. Low amount of caste barriers in the society would help in effectively serving both the rich and poor population in the country. Moreover, the local nationals carrying on the business activity gain enhanced mobility of the labor forces constituted by large groups of Muslim and Hindu communities. Such enhanced mobility would help the business gain a significant amount of productive labor forces that would help the concern gain on profitability. Regarding the system of hierarchy, the local nationals need to follow the same to create a sense of abidance in the workplaces. Directives need to be issued such that the people belonging to the upper hierarchy in the concerns would be summoned by ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’ by people. Such system of hierarchy would help in effectively controlling the business operations and code of conducts in the concern. The above functions conducted by the local people would help in enhancing the goodwill of the firm and sustaining the market leadership position. Comparison with US culture There are wide differences in the social as well as business culture of Bangladesh than that of United States as the economy of both of these countries is totally different. The difference in culture can be assessed in terms of elements and dimension of culture of Americans compared to the culture of the people of Bangladesh. So, these various elements of culture of Bangladesh are different from the culture of America. Not only has the social culture but there major differenced in the organizational culture and the working environment of the American organizations. To compare this cultural elements and dimensions of Bangladesh with the social and business culture of United Sates, those elements of American culture are needed to be analyzed. The culture of the United States is so called a western culture and it is originated by the influence of European culture. Since long before, the United States has been developing in the different area of its cultural characteristics like the communications, religion, manner, customs, religion and also education of the people of United States. Today the United States of America has become racially and ethnically diversified country as most of the people are immigrants. Basically this large scale immigration of people took place in earlier days and this immigration of various cultured people has become one of the important characteristics of the country’s cultural scenario. If this factor is compared with the culture of Bangladesh, the people of the country are almost all the inhabitants of this region when Bangladesh was not formed and it was a part of India before pre independence era of Bangladesh. So, in Bangladesh, there is not much diversity in culture among the citizen compared to the culture of United States of America. The diversity in terms of cultural shows that people from different countries had come here as migrants and they recognized this country as land of opportunity for the economic efficiency and natural resources of this country. The income level of the people in America is much higher than that of Bangladesh as the country is richer than Bangladesh in terms of natural resources like the most expensive natural recourse, oil. Key characteristics of American culture are the liberal and conservative elements, political culture, scientific and military competitiveness, free expression and risk taking capabilities and also materialistic and moral elements of the people of America. Major differences in culture in America can be assessed in terms of geographical differences in culture of the people of the different regions of the country which is not been seen in Bangladesh as it is a small country compared to America. Important elements and dimensions of culture are different of the Native Americans and other sub cultured people from the culture of the Latin Americans. These differences can be seen in both social and business aspect. Though there is diversity in culture among the Americans but the basic pattern is same where a substantial difference in culture can be assessed among the people of Bangladesh. This difference is seen from the people of Bangladesh, currently living in America. There are many people from Bangladesh came to America mainly for garment business as the main source of garment of United States of America is Bangladesh. Communication Though there is no official language in the United Sates at its federal level but 30 states of this country have passed legislation to make the US English as an official language of this country but US English is different from the United Kingdom English in both written and verbal accent. Mainly the verbal language is much different from other English speaking countries. On the other, the official language of Bangladesh is Bengali also the communication language is Bengali but its remains the similar as earlier Bangladesh. The communication style of the Americans is straight forward and has confidence than that of Bangladesh people. Religion Among all the developed countries in the world, the United Sates is one of the most important religious countries in terms of demographics. Most of the Americans are Christian. According a study the United States is only the country where people think region is one of the most important factor in their lives where as in Bangladesh the people have a good faith on their religion but not much extent as United States of America. Like the federal politics in the United States, the religion has been creating debate around many current issues which affecting the American’s faith in their religions. Ethics Ethics is mandatorily followed by the American in terms of both social life and also in business and corporate life. Especially in this business environment the employees need to follow the ethical business practice. In this parameter, the country is far better than any organizational practice in any other country. Ethics is the key important factor which can make the difference and can generate conflicts within the organization, if an American organization runs business in the Bangladesh where both the country’s employees need to work together. Values and Attitudes There are many specific values and unique pattern of attitude that Americans business organizations generally follow. Times is the most important factor in the personal and also work life for the Americans. It is mandatory and strict factor that need to follow by the Americans. For this reason, the deadline given to any employees is not generally extended by the American organizations and it is also another key important factor where the people of Bangladesh cannot work with the American employees and even an American organization where time is the most important factor to be maintained. Americans love collaborative work, and they also love to face competition. The organizations believe in the capability of implementation of knowledge of employees not only by the knowledge or the degree that someone has. In Bangladesh, people having good academic knowledge or having higher educational degree are given maximum priority not the practical experience holders. Manners Manners of Americans are mostly western touched, and this is the reason they look like more advance in terms professionalism from the developing countries like Bangladesh. The key reasons behind this type of manners of the Americans are income level, education and countries prestige in the global position in terms of economy and also resources. The Americans always show confidence in any circumstances as they do not face monetary problems for fulfilling basic needs. Individualism is one of the main factors that can be seen from the Americans. It plays a significant role in the lives of the Americans. In the cultural elements like the behavior, manner and communication styles, the Americans can be distinguished among the people of Bangladesh, and they always show professionalism. Social Structures and Organizations Cultural diversity of United States of America shows that people from different countries had come here as migrants, and they recognized this country as land of opportunity for the economic efficiency of this country. The income level of the people or per capita income in USA is much higher than the people of Bangladesh as the country is richer than Bangladesh in terms of natural resources like the most expensive natural recourse, oil. Key characteristics of American culture are the liberal and conservative elements, political culture, scientific and military competitiveness, free expression and risk taking capabilities of the Americans and also materialistic and moral elements of the people of America. Major differences in culture in America can be assessed in terms of geographical differences in culture of the people of the different regions of the country which is not been seen in Bangladesh as it is a small country compared to United States of America. Important elements and dimension of culture are different of the Native Americans and other sub cultured people from the culture of Latin Americans but, the basic characteristics of culture is similar for all the Americans and it can be seen by their social structure and working culture in the American organizations. Education In United States education is provided by mainly the government and it has kept a continuous focus on the development of education standard and the literacy rate of the country. The control and fund for the education purpose comes from the three legislative level, federal government, state government and local authorities. Rules and regulations are strict in the public educational institutions compared to the schools and colleges of Bangladesh. The literacy rate and is much higher than that of Bangladesh. More than 80% of the country’s adult populations have higher secondary degree and more than 27% have completed the bachelor’s degree or master degree. Bangladesh is agriculture depended country, so, many people depend on agriculture, and people do not get sufficient job opportunities even they have a bachelor’s degree or higher. So, the education standard of the people is lower than that of America, and it reflects in their social and organizational culture. Implications for US businesses that wish to conduct business in Bangladesh There are not major differences in the social and business culture of Bangladesh. A merely professionalism can be seen in the organizational culture as well as the working environment and among the employees at their work both in public as well as private organizations. Communication is one of the important factors and also the major differences are there in the work culture of the organizations or business in Bangladesh than that of United States. So, major changes will be required in a US business if it starts business in Bangladesh. The local people of Bangladesh are proficient and comfortable in Bengali as a language of communication both in verbal and also in written. Many businesses in Bangladesh including the news and advertising companies use Bengali as a mode of written and also audio visual communication like an advertisement in TV. There is no use of Bengali language in both written as well as verbal communication in the US organizations. For doing business in Bangladesh, a US company needs to reorganize its mode of standard communications for the customer, supplier and other stakeholder of the company in Bangladesh. The US business will also face difficulties as both American and people of Bangladesh need to work together in the organization. Another element where a US business needs to make implications is the business ethics and values. The US businesses follow higher level of ethical business practice compared to organizations in Bangladesh. Their strict corporate governance will face a tough acceptance by the major stakeholder like thy employees and the domestic suppliers in Bangladesh. A US business needs to restructure its corporate governance. Consumer behavior of the people of Bangladesh is totally different from the people of America. But, US companies are generally developed based on the taste and preference of the American consumers. For example, a US food company basically concentrates on the food habits of the Americans whereas, doing a food business in Bangladesh is likely more tough as the company needs to consider the food habits of different cultured people. Some cultural issues regarding food are very common among the two major religions in Bangladesh i.e. Hindu and Muslim. Another important internal factor a US business needs to reconstruct that is the work culture in the organization. If a US company wants to start a business in Bangladesh, it needs to consider the common organizational structure as it need to hire people of Bangladesh to serve better to customers as well to maintain effective management with the other stakeholder like suppliers. Time management and professionalism are the two key important factors, where people of both countries have wide differences. So, work culture, rules and regulations need to be changed by the US Company according to organizational work culture of Bangladesh so that any kind of conflict among the employees not arise which results low productivity of the employees in the organization. Conclusion A US company needs qualified and experienced professionals in the top management of the organization in Bangladesh to make strategies which will suit in that country. There must be effective involvement of the people of Bangladesh in the long term decision making for business and different activities for growth of the business. So, a lot of implications are needed for a US business, if it wants to start a business in Bangladesh. It can be a new business or can be an expansion of an existing US business in Bangladesh. It is a real fact that, there is a good business relationship between these two countries. Bangladesh has been providing sufficient cottons and garments to US since a long period, and many US businesses in export import industry operate in Bangladesh successfully. Like these cultural issues, there are many multinational companies that are facing cultural issues in the foreign countries, For this reason, these companies generally develop business policies, rules and regulations based on the local or regional culture where they operates. So, a US company needs implications in its organizational culture based on the business culture of Bangladesh. Reference Butler, S. (2008). Bangladesh. United Kingdom: Lonely Planet. Clowney, D., amd Mosto, P. (2009). Earthcare: An Anthology in Environmental Ethics. United Kingdom: Rowman & Littlefield. David, L. (2009). Human Resource Management. New Delhi: Pearson Education India. Khandker, S. (1996). Education Achievements and School Efficiency in Rural Bangladesh, Parts 63-319. Washington D.C.: World Bank Publications. Leung, M., and Meggitt, B. (2009). Bangladesh. United States: Bradt Travel Guides. Lewis, R. (2005). When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures: a Major New Edition of the Global Guide. 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