Businesses in the International Scenario - Term Paper Example

Introduction In the contemporary era, businesses in the international scenario have been playing a vital role for the development of an economy. International business also provides the scope to a country to improve its business structure and economy for a better future prospect. In the present day context, globalization has been identified to influence an economy and business field owing to which cultural issues should be included in the business operations. After the globalization or internationalization in business, the world has been interconnected. Globalization in business has involved cross-cultural development in the business process. With the expansion of the cross-cultural features in international business, cross-cultural communication and intercultural negotiation are identified as important considerations for conducting business operations (Okoro, 2013). Recently, working culture is considered an important factor for conducting operations sustainably. In this context, entrepreneurs are providing managers with few special tours to the targeted countries with the aim of providing training to understand the work culture of those countries. Respectively, in immigration, managers are required to possess cross cultural communication skills for conducting business operations with better sustainability. This type of global exposure enables the representatives of these companies to collect information about the cultural values and practices, so that working culture in those countries are based on the cultural principles practiced. Internationalization in the business field helps to inter-connect political policies and economic policies of the various countries with each other (Georgia Department of Education, 2008). The objective of the study is to describe the importance of the cultural factor in international business. In this context, the study highlights several cultural features in the business context of two countries that include Singapore and United Kingdom. The study will also discuss about the impact of culture on international business. The Rationale for Choice of Country The UK is often identified to be a rich country in terms of economic growth, business operations and culture. In the context of international business, the UK is popular for expansion of business and establishing relationship based culture in the business environment. There are several reasons for selection the UK as a host country for selecting as an appropriate location for international business. The main reason for selecting the UK as a host country to conduct international business, as it is rich in terms of economic status. The UK is not a single country, as it include four regions which include Great Britain (England), Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. These regions are determined as appropriate location for conducting business operations for better business prospects in term of investment, technological advancement, culture and market growth among others. UK is recognized as the 6th largest national economy in the world. GDP of the country is higher and stable as compared to other developed countries in European Union. The UK is much developed in terms of services industry and production industry. In addition, English is identified as a universal language, which is highly implemented in the business field. In terms of international business, English language is the most applied and convenient language, which has been used for communication. In terms of communication process in the business field, the UK is the most preferable country for performing business operations with better communication process. Thus, the UK is selected as a host country with respect to Singapore for its business culture and growth prospects (Crown, 2013). Cultural Analysis of the Host Country The UK is rich in terms of cultural features. The culture of the UK bears historic attributes in its flow. The cultural trend of the UK is based on the human activity, which is associated with the people of the UK. The culture of the UK is inspired by the UK history and it has developed as an island country with liberal democracy. The people of the UK are Christians in religion. The UK comprises four nations owing to which the cultural richness and cultural diversification has been observed in the UK cultural. However, the culture of four nations is different from each other, but the three countries that include England, Wales and Scotland together form the Great Britain. The culture heritage is one of the most important factors, which makes the UK very much unique than the other European countries. In terms of culture and history, the Great Britain is identified as a royal country in the world (Fisher & Figueira, 2011). With the passage of time, the cultural features of the UK have changed to a large extent. There is a huge change in the UK social culture. Earlier, the people of the UK were recognized on the basis of class system, but now the UK is a multicultural society. After World War II, several people or immigrants from the former colonies entered in the UK for residing purpose (Fisher & Figueira, 2011). On the other side, Singapore is an island country where it bears different cultural values. Though Singapore also possesses a multicultural society which includes the Malay, Chinese, Indian and European, but it has the ethnicity based on its culture. In earlier stages, Singapore was a part of the British colonies where fishing was determined to be the main habitation of the people. The cultural features of the Singapore are very much surprising in nature, as several diversifications in the population have been observed. In this regard, multiple ethnicities in the Singaporean daily life have created a mixed cultural attributes as a special features. Reviewing the culture of the Singapore, the society is based on the concept of cosmopolitan society, where each and every people or citizen led a harmonious life (Qiang, 2004). There are several colonies, which are mainly developed for the people representing different community. For instance, different cultural people are able to practice their culture as Chinatown for Chinese community, Arab Street for Malay people, Serangoon Road for Indian community and the neo-classical buildings for the British people. The unique features of the Singaporean culture are that Singapore does not have any traditional culture such as the UK. The culture of Singapore is totally a mix culture. The most important uniqueness of the Singaporean culture is that Chinese Muslims are found here (Chee, 1996). Business Culture of the UK The UK is a nation where the cultural and the ethnic diversity have been found in its business field. The UK is popularly recognized as a leading business center of Europe. London, UK is identified to be the leading financial center of the European Union. The economic condition of the UK is considered one of the strong and stable countries in terms of economic stability. In addition, the overseas businesses conduct business operations in the UK, which is making the UK a strong country for business. The UK holds around 25% of investment percentage of Europe and more than 40% of Japan, USA and many other countries (4 Business Limited, 2010). The productivity and skill of the private sector in the UK are enhanced due to the stability in the social, political and economic field. The stability in the social, economic and political field helps the country to receive a growth and decrease in the inflation rate. The business policies of the UK have few restriction and business regulations. The market place and the workforce of the UK have least restrictions for both national and international locations. The UK has the largest international transportation system and one of the best communication processes that are considered to be major strengths of the UK business industry. Another important factor of the business industry of the UK is that it has very lower rate of personal tax and the most widely spoken language i.e. English, which are considered to be the fundamental characteristics of the business industry. In order to develop international business in the UK, minimum cultural differences and language differences are the major contributors towards the development of an appropriate working culture (4 Business Limited, 2010). The lower rate of corporation tax in the UK economy is also determined to be a big advantage for the future business establishment. Due to the several social, economic and political opportunities, the UK is flexible for international business. In the UK, over 200,000 new businesses are established per year in terms of domestic and international basis. The business culture of the UK has few cultural dimension, which make it very much unique as compared to other countries (4 Business Limited, 2010). The UK is paying more focus on in its cultural protocol, which will be heavily applied in business tradition. The people of the UK are punctual regarding their daily operations. In addition, focus has been laid on the development of international cultural relations and other corporate cultural activities (Fisher & Figueira, 2011). In Singapore, the organizations develop group oriented working environment, where group culture is offered a high priority. In Singapore, there are three quarters of people which include the Chinese Malays and Indians. As majority portion of people of Singapore are Chinese, the business culture of Singapore has been dominated by the Chinese business culture. This also observed that the business culture of the Singaporean is much more westernizing than the other Asian countries. In order to establish an international business, the young Singaporean businessmen are very much interested and experienced in interacting with other cultures. The modern Singaporean business culture is adequately flexible in nature. In this modern era of Singaporean business culture, the businessmen are flexible and open-minded, and they are very much interested to establish a new business with foreigners (Katz, 2008). In the Singaporean business culture, the relationship between two people or several groups are mainly observed. The Singaporean business culture is effective and well established, as the Singaporeans maintained a similar business culture like the UK business culture (Katz, 2008). Unique Cultures Impact International Business The cultural dimension plays an important role for any international business. The national culture of several countries is now coming into the forefront of the global prospect as the interdependency between nations, people and business has increased. As different people are representing different culture, the cultural deviance is identified to be influencing the business culture. Currently, the rapid increase in global trade has raised the need to have a better knowledge as well as understanding about the different cultural aspect, so that international business is conducted in sustainably (Bowie, 2007). The UK economy is rich for establishing any kind of business. The economy of the UK has the ability to provide adequate support to businesses for better future growth as well as success. The cultural elements of the UK are identified to be based on factors such as race, ethnicity, religion and language among others (Visit Britain, 2010). In this regard, based on the Hofstede cultural dimensions that include power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertain avoidance, pragmatism and indulgence, a better understanding of the UK culture can be obtained. Power distance dimension implies that inequalities have reduced in the UK. Individualism dimension signifies that the people are highly individualistic from the early age and in this respect, people are determined to be independent. Based on masculinity dimension, it has been identified that the UK people values quality of life and care for other people. Uncertainty avoidance implies that the UK people are adopted towards change. The pragmatism dimension signifies that the British culture is changing. Indulgence dimension signifies the UK people are optimistic and possesses positive attitude (ITIM, 2014). In this respect, based on the Hofstede culture dimensions, it can be identified that the UK is the most referral place for international business in term of economic, culture and market conditions among others. Contextually, businesses with the opportunity of having better cultural aspects, market conditions and technological advancement are able to conduct operations in a sustainable and profitable manner. Subsequently, the UK is an appropriate host country for conducting international business. Concussion Based on the above discussion, it can be notified that the cultural essence has been observed in the every aspects of business. Globalization is the main factor accountable for the growth and interdependency of different nations. Every country is identified to have unique tradition and culture based on which business operations are required to be conducted. In this respect, the uniqueness of culture between two different countries that include the UK and Singapore has been analyzed. It has been observed that the UK business culture and the Singaporean business culture are different. The business culture of the UK is comparatively more formal than the other countries, whereas the Singapore business culture maintains flexibility in the workplace. Thus, cross-cultural values in the international business are important for better business success and sustainability. References 4 Business Limited. (2010). Thinking business solutions. Doing Business in the UK, 1-15. Bowie, A. (2007). The effect of culture on business relationships. Journal, 1-19. Chee, T. S. (1996). Cultural forces and counter forces in contemporary Singapore. National University of Singapore. Crown. (2013). The smart city market: Opportunities for the UK. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/249423/bis-13-1217-smart-city-market-opportunties-uk.pdf Fisher, R. & Figueira, C. (2011). Cultural polices and trends in Europe. Country Profile United Kingdom, 1-101. Georgia Department of Education. (2008). International business & marketing. Marketing Sales & Service, 1-14. ITIM. (2014). The hofstede center. Retrieved from http://geert-hofstede.com/united-kingdom.html Katz. L. (2008). Negotiating international business – Singapore. Project, 1-7. Okoro, E. (2013). International organizations and operations: an analysis of cross-cultural communication effectiveness and management orientation. Journal of Business & Management, 1(1), 1-13. Qiang, L. (2004). Section ii: core culture values and beliefs of Singapore. Singapore, 1-15. Visit Britain. (2010). Culture and heritage. Topic Profile, 1-93. Read More