Cross-Cultural Management - Singaporean Culture and Society - Assignment Example

Cross Cultural Management and Part Singapore in the News On 28th September the Singapore Chinese Teachers’ Union convened a seminar to celebrate its 60th anniversary (Zengkun, 2013). In an article posted by Strait Times on the internet, a screen shot of which is attached in the appendix, the Minister for Education Mr. Heng Swee Keat urged the Singaporean government to promote the Chinese culture and language. Mr. Heng assured the teachers that there is much more that the government can do to promote the Chinese language, which is one of the national languages in Singapore alongside Malays and contemporary Singlish, which is Singaporean colloquial English (Lee, 2010). Mr. Keat also urged those who are interested in art and crafts and those who can write to engage the government for grants to fund their projects aimed at promoting the Chinese culture. He pointed out that art is one of the major avenues of promoting a culture (Zengkun, 2013). The Singaporean Chinese Teachers’ Union president, Madam Lian Hwee Eng, implored the stakeholders to lower the restrictions barring a huge number of students from pursuing Higher Chinese studies. She opined that it is chiefly through education that people can be able to fully understand their own culture and that of others and that teachers play a central role and should be lauded for their efforts (Zengkun, 2013). Looking back at the event, I cannot help but get puzzled by the sentiments of the leaders addressing that forum advocating for the promotion of a single culture without a show of neutrality. Singapore is a multi-cultured country which is in transition to develop a single national identity like the majority of other countries (Lee, 2010). This is largely due to the fact that most of the people occupying it are not the natives. The majority of the population had their ancestors immigrate to Singapore from elsewhere in the world. According toYoursingapore.com (2014), the Malays are the natives yet they comprise only 13.3% of the population. Typically, the Singaporean population is comprised of 74.2% Chinese, 13.3% Malays, 9.2% Indians and the rest 3.3% is made up of Eurasians (Lee, 2010). This cultural diversity is further compounded by the presence of many expatriates in the country, most of whom are workers. It is alleged that 42% of the current population is made up of expatriates (Tamney, 1996). Given this complex cultural mix, in my opinion, it is only fair that nature be allowed to take its course. It is not right to promote one culture at the expense of others especially if the culture is a dominant one. Of late, Singapore has managed to forge its own identity as a hub of cultures; a meeting point between the East and the West (Angloinfo.com, 2014). This is the new culture that should be promoted and maintained. This contemporary culture should accommodate all the cultures and should not make some feel marginalized. Singapore is in an urban setting and is already using English as the language to promote integration of the various cultures. English is the language that should be promoted because it somehow reflects the collage of cultures in Singapore (Tamney, 1996). This can have a huge impact on national identity because of its national outlook. Promoting the majority culture does not help in promoting national identity. It is merely resisting the wave of change that is intended to give Singapore a new, urban feel with a complex cultural mix that forms the Singaporean national identity. The new national identity should promote business and foreign exchange because most people around the world will be able to relate with Singapore’s culture (Lee, 2010). Part 2: Experiencing Singaporean Culture and Society My experience with the Singaporean culture is nothing short of insightful. I had the privilege of interacting with students and workers in government corporations and I had a lot to learn from these communities. Knowledge of the worker’s psychology is essential in helping the management design strategies that will work to ensure profitability for those organizations that are profit-oriented and efficiency for organizations that are not-for-profit (Hill and Jones, 2012). For example, I learnt that the government is promoting national integration at all levels of administration. The government is intolerant to discrimination of the citizens on any grounds. As such, organizations are now recruiting, appointing and promoting employees based on their merits (Angloinfo.com, 2014). Meritocracy is the practice of selecting or promoting the most qualified individuals to fill the available positions (Shenkar and Luo, 2008). In schools, the brightest, based on the exams taken, are promoted to the next level or awarded. Additionally, the lower level education is made available for all people and is meant to equip the students with basic education and basic skills to help them venture into the formal and informal sector. As such, there is a huge pool of labor in both the formal and the informal sector. Since meritocracy is the main yardstick, interviews and employment testing are the main criteria used when recruiting and promoting employees in organizations (Hill and Jones, 2012). These practices resonate with those of many countries in the world. Interviewing presents a unique opportunity to ask a variety of questions to aid in the assessment of an individual complementing the merits on the CV (Hill and Jones, 2012). Interviewing was not very common in Singapore. This was mainly because the majority of the population is made up of Chinese people who organize their businesses and other organizations around family structures. But with the influx of other people from different cultures interviews are increasingly being adopted by managements as selection avenues. While interview, as an avenue of selection has worldwide, the same cannot be said of employment testing. Many countries, especially those that were under colonial rule and had some form of discrimination, are yet to embrace employment testing as methods of selecting the employees for promotion (Shenkar and Luo, 2008). The discourse is that those communities, races or religions that were favorites during the colonial rule have an added advantage in that they are already established in the system and that they have a better chance of gaining promotion as compared to those societies that were not favored by the colonial masters. However, employee testing is widely used these days by most management executives. Despite the past injustices that gave unfair advantage to some communities, these tests are seen as tools that foster integration and fairness in that they are based on meritocracy (Hill and Jones, 2012). The other thing I learnt is that most of the citizens are bilingual. They learn English as the first language in school while they learn their mother tongue at home as their second language (Lee, 2010). The government has established English as the official language complementing Chinese, Malays and other national languages. English is the language used by businesses in transactions and official communications in Singapore. Lastly, it is imperative for management to afford the employees their holidays. Singapore, being multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-religious, has many holidays. The employees get to enjoy all those national holidays regardless of their religion, race, and ethnicity. The Singapore work force is made up of Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and free thinkers or atheist (Angloinfo.com, 2014). The major public holidays are, therefore, the Chinese New Year, Muslim’s Eid Ul-Fitr, the Christmas day celebrated by Christians, the Diwali celebrated by Indians and the Vesak day by the Buddhist (Yoursingapore.com, 2014). It is imperative that managements take notes of these holidays so as not to offend their employees. If the employees feel that the management does not have their interest at heart it will be hard for them to stay motivated in their work. Their job satisfaction will decrease and so shall their job performance. Ultimately, it is the organization that will lose as its efficiency and profitability eventually decrease (Lee, 2010). Part 3: Developing Cross-Cultural Effectiveness This part develops cross-cultural effectiveness by determining the native culture, the foreign culture and then looking for ways to integrate the two so as to enable one to co-exist and be effective in the foreign culture. Therefore, the part shall first profile the Singaporean culture then profile a foreign culture, in this case the US culture, then determine how a business executive can understand the US culture for management purposes and even use it as an advantage. a) Self Awareness This section profiles the profound characteristics of the Singaporean people using the model of culture. The model of culture establishes that there are 8 cultural parameters that can be used to profile a culture. These parameters are; time focus, space, structure, action, time orientation, power, communication and competition. These parameters, as a whole, determine the cultural perspective of that culture (Hofstede, 1991). The components of these cultural parameters are, however, subject to change as time goes by because cultures are not static. Therefore, the measure of a cultural perspective of a specific culture is relevant and subsists only at the moment of the study. Figure 1 shows the different cultural parameters that can be used to assess a culture. Figure 1: The model of culture showing the 8 cultural parameters Since the Singaporean culture is a complex mix of several other cultures, the parameters tend to fluctuate but generally remain at the middle as the cultures drift towards utopia. There are no prevalent extremities observed. For example, when it comes to time focus the Singaporean people can be defined as polychromic. This is because most of them have the long view of time. This way, they are able to execute several things at a time as there is more fluid scheduling unlike monochromic population (Henry, 1979). The population cannot be graded as either for public space or for private space, they are indifferent. The Singaporean cultural structure can be said to be a collectivist society. Though it does not embrace extreme collectivism, the majority of the population value group orientation and reputation unlike individualists (Lee, 2010). A culture based on collectivism advocates for conformity as well as group-centered behaviors unlike individualistic dimensional culture which emphasizes self-reliance and independence (Russell and Valenzuela, 2005). According to Hofstede (1991), collectivism promotes conformity whereas individualism promotes self-actualization. The population values equality as opposed to hierarchy and promotes a co-operative culture as opposed to competitive one. As such, many businesses are collaborating and sharing their resources in order to operate at the optimal level and take advantage of economies of scale. The following table, Table 1, profiles the Singaporean culture. Table 1: Summary of the characteristics of the Singaporean culture Parameter Value =1 Value= 5 Score (out of 5) Time focus Monochromic Polychromic 4 Space Public Private 3 Structure Individualistic Collectivism 4 Action Doing Being 3 Time orientation Past Present 3 Power Hierarchy Equality 4 Communication High-context Low context 3 Competition Competitive Co-operative 4 Figure 2: Chart summary of the Singaporean cultural profile b) Cross-Cultural Understanding This part demands the identification of a country where business is going to be done and profiling of the perceived culture of that country. The country selected is the US. The choice was made based on the market the US offers for luxury products. My preferred organization is a luxury-dealing firm, Armani. The US luxury market is the second largest market in the world and offers profound business opportunities and managerial experiences (Scholz, 2014). Furthermore, the inherent characteristics of the American culture make it apt for the sale of luxury products. Examining the US culture, the following characteristics stand out. The first one is that the Americans are monochromic as opposed to polychromic. Thus, they are better suited at following schedules and beating time. The people favor their private life though there is a large percentage of outgoing individuals. Of significant interest, the US culture is largely individualistic. Due to this, most of the consumers are after the social advantages of luxury goods. In an individualistic culture, the consumers “tend to seek variety and hedonistic experiences” (Russell and Valenzuela, 2005; 87). Most of the American luxury consumers purchase luxury goods to portray impressions of their position in the society. Such consumers are, therefore, mainly after their own satisfaction and making a communication. They want to display their status and make evident the difference between them and others in the society (Henry, 1979). With regards to power and competition, the US population is hierarchical and extremely competitive (Scholz, 2014). It is hierarchical because of the clearly defined social strata. The US population is individualistic and aimed at showing social class. The organizations in the US are extremely competitive and tend to disregard collaboration as a tool of doing business to maximize on profits. As such, most organizations opt to outsource cheap labor and raw materials from abroad to lower their cost of factors of production. Table 2 shows the ranking of parameters in the US culture and Figure 3 is the summary of the same. Table 2: Profile characteristics of the US culture Parameter Value =1 Value= 5 Score (out of 5) Time focus Monochromic Polychromic 2 Space Public Private 3 Structure Individualistic Collectivism 1 Action Doing Being 3 Time orientation Past Present 3 Power Hierarchy Equality 1 Communication High-context Low context 3 Competition Competitive Co-operative 1 Figure 3: Chart summary of the US cultural profile Comparison between the two cultures Given the glaring differences between these two cultures, people from these two cultures, who are working together, may differences in strategies to improve their core competencies, their time focusing strategies and the products to introduce in the market. The workers from the US tend to prefer basing their strategies on the internal strengths harnessed. Managers from Singapore are more willing to collaborate to enhance core competencies. The managers in the US are more likely to institute the traditional top down organizational structure whereas those from Singapore would prefer a flatter organization structure (Lee, 2010). Figure 4 shows the differences between the two cultures showing how it may impact on business practices of individuals in the two countries. Figure 4: Comparison between the Singaporean and the US cultures c) Adapting Professionals Skills In light of the aforementioned differences between the Singaporean culture and the US culture. Cultural preferences tend to influence the way a manager perceives situations and perform their managerial duties (Hill and Jones, 2012). The following is an illustration of the managerial duties and how they may be influenced by the perceptions inculcated by a culture. i) Planning Planning involves clear definition of goals and objectives (Shenkar and Luo, 2008). The Singaporean culture promotes long term planning because its time focus is mainly polychromic whereas the US culture is monochromic. Furthermore, the US managers are oriented to take orders from above and enforce them whilst the Singaporean managers are likely to expect consultations before decisions are made (Russell and Valenzuela, 2005). To address this, it will be imperative for one to adapt to the top down approach at the expense of the favored flatter organization structures. That way, data is generated from front line employees and managers and conveyed to the strategic managers who make the decisions and relay the decisions downwards. However, the managers are free to set competitive objectives which they will target as long as they are in sync with those of the organization (Hill and Jones, 2012). ii) Organizing Organizing involves determining the tasks the employees conduct and how they will relate (Hill and Jones, 2012). Since the US culture is power-oriented and rigidly hierarchical, the employees’ tasks and who they report to is usually explicitly provided. Singaporeans tend to perceive themselves as equals. To address this, job descriptions and time schedules should be drafted. Detailed plans are crucial in working in a US organization (Hill and Jones, 2012). iii) Staffing Staffing is recruiting the appropriate employees (Shenkar and Luo, 2008). There are no major differences in perceptions between the US and the Singaporean cultures that would cause a difference in staffing strategies. Both cultures favor the use of interviews in recruiting exercises and the use of employment testing in as job promotion criteria. Additionally, both cultures reward employees based on their performance and merits (Yoursingapore.com, 2014). iv) Directing Directing is the performance of activities, by the management, that guide junior employees towards the attainment of the organization’s goals (Hill and Jones, 2012). Singaporean managers are more outgoing and lead by example. The US managers, on the other hand, value their private lives and tend to rely on issuance of instructions. Communication in both cultures is neither in high or low context. However, the US managers issue more specific instructions. To adapt to this environment, a manager should embrace a hands-on approach to directing. Explicit instructions are issued upon which responsibilities are clearly delegated (Shenkar and Luo, 2008). Employees who do not follow the explicit instructions are held responsible as the manager is also held responsible for those under his docket. v) Controlling Controlling involves the assessing of performance and providing a feedback (Hill and Jones, 2012). It also involves constant monitoring of performance to note deviations and put in place mechanism measures to address negative variations (Shenkar and Luo, 2008). Both cultures are focused on doing and less on being. Since there are fewer differences here, the usual Management by Objectives (MBO) and the traditional performance appraisal schemes where the top managers assess their juniors may be used. Alternatively, the more vibrant 360 degree feedback mechanism may be used because it affords a unique opportunity for employees to review one another’s performances, their subordinates and even their bosses (Hill and Jones, 2012). This provides a better, insightful analysis into the performance of the individuals in the organization. It is important that managers tailor their specific perceptions and professional skills to adapt into the culture they are going to operate in (Lee, 2010). References Angloinfo.com., 2014.Singaporean cultural norms and traditions. Angloinfo.com, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 11th March 2014] Henry, W., 1979. Cultural values do correlate with consumer behavior. Journal of Marketing Research, 16(9), pp. 121-127. Hill, C., and Jones, G., 2012. Strategic management: An integrated approach. New York: Cengage Learning. Hofstede, G., 1991. Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. London: McGraw Hill. Lee, T., 2010. The media, cultural control and government in Singapore. London: Taylor and Francis. Russell, C., and Valenzuela, A., 2005. How does culture matter? San Diego: San Diego University Press. Scholz, L., 2014. Brand management and marketing of luxury goods. Berlin: Diplomica Verlag. Shenkar, O., & Luo, Y., 2008. International Business. Chichester: Wiley. Tamney, J., 1996. The struggle over Singapore’s soul: Western modernization and Asian culture. Singapore City: Walter de Gruyter. Yoursingapore.com., 2014. Culture, language and people. Yoursingapore.com, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 10th March 2014] Zengkun, F., 2013. Singapore can still do more to promote the Chinese language and culture: Swee Keat. Readers’ Post, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 11th March 2014] Appendix Appendix A: Screen shot of the website with Singaporean news Appendix B Read More