1. Introduction
If we look at our surroundings, we’ll come to know that we are living in a society where every other person belongs to some other country. They carry their culture along with them, wherever people move, they don’t accept new norms and behaviors. But at the end, to live in the society one has to accept its norms, behaviors and styles. Even the companies operating in a particular region have to come up accordingly. Otherwise, they will have to suffer. In short, culture has great impact on individual, society and the companies.
2. Cultural theories
Companies can avail the competitive edge through an effective use of cross cultural dimensions. One creative thinking and positive dealing with this factor can help greatly in successful achievement and completion of goals. For recurrent encounter of cultural differences, various theories has been identified. The Hofstede and the Trompenaar (1993) theory are the models for cross cultural management.
• Hofstede theory
According to the study of Hofstede, the national culture can be dimensioned into following:
1. Power distance
It refers to the situation where less powerful members of company expects that there is an unequal distribution of powers.
2. Individualism vs. collectivism-
Save your skin first or look after yourself before the others. The basic theme of Individualism is to put stress on the personal goal instead of the society.
3. Uncertainty
4. Masculinity vs. feminity- refers to the distribution of roles on the basis of gender.
5. Long term orientation vs. short term orientation
• Indulgence vs. restraint –up to what extent people can control over their desire and wishes.
• Trompenaars theory
Trompenaar has provided a framework of national cultural differe...
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...rks in 21 countries and has partnered networks in an additional 40 countries. Vodafone is operating almost every country in Europe, mostly in the name of Vodafone and also with the partnership of other networks. Vodafone UK is the third largest mobile company in the UK and has 19.2 million subscribers throughout the county. Vodafone becomes the 5th private operator to launch full 3G services in India in March 2011. Vodafone introduced, first of its kind retail concept stores called Vodafone Angel Stores.
The management issues of any company arise when they don’t follow the culture of every country, separately. The difference between the culture may become a harm or may lead to success of the company, depend upon how the company utilizes this factor. Vodafone has its own strategies to deal their market. They focus and give due importance to the cultural difference.
Culture is expressed through a variety of different ways, from clothing styles to lifestyles to faithful traditions. It can also have a deep impact on the viewpoints of those around you, whether negatively or positively. No matter how a person goes about their everyday life, they can rise above the expectations of their culture to change the world around them. Culture does not have to be the basis of every thought, word, or deed of a person.
Depending on who you are and what you believe, you will have your own idea on the positives and negatives of individualism, and where you stand. Despite the fact of the good and bad in American Individualism, without the freedom of standing alone, we are nothing. To group individuals together, categorize them and classify them as a single entity is demeaning to each person’s individuality. There is a lot of positives and negatives that go along with being an individualist.
There are many different types of cultures and ways people would react in different situations. When a person thinks of the word culture they start to think of races, places, and states. Culture is in fact a lot more than that, culture is a society’s set of unique patterns, behaviors and beliefs (M.A., Lucas, Social Psychology Sociological Perspectives 3rd edition). Culture can be identified in various ways for example, the way you feel about certain situations or how would one person react differently from the way they grew up environmentally or religiously. The way a person was raised environmentally, physically, and spiritually all have an effect on other cultures. The way a person would normally act would no longer act that way due to the actions of the past. Different cultures affect other cultures in almost any way possible.
Individualism in today’s society is the “belief that each person is unique, special, and a ‘basic unit of nature’.” The individualism concept puts an “emphasis on individual initiative” where people act independently of others and use self-motivation to prosper. The individualists “value privacy” over community the individual thrives to move ahead in life (U S Values).
Firstly, the report will introduce the company and give an outline of the current operations, with focus on their current position in the market, and discuss the main competition faced in a global market. Secondly, focus will lie on the external forces and their influences on the company’s operations, along with discussing the strategic opportunities in order to overcome any facing competition. Finally, the report will include recommendations for the future of Vodafone and how they can become a market leader.
In the article, Cultural constraints in management theories, Geert Hofstede examines business management around the globe from a cultural perspective. He explains how he believes there are no universal practices when it comes to management and offers examples from the US, Germany, France, Japan, Holland, China and Russia. He demonstrates how business management theories and practices are very much subject to cultural norms and values and by understanding these differences, it can give managers an advantage in global business practices.
Culture is “a system of shared beliefs and values that develops within an organisation and guides the behaviour of its members” (Schermerhorn et al. 2011). It plays an important role in any organisation. For instance, in Woolworths we can se...
in order to be a successful professional. In United States Companies is common to see
As a result, culture plays a vital role in expanding international business with its impacts from general strategic direction to details like logo.
It is a “pattern of beliefs, values and learned ways of coping with experience” (Brown 1994) that manifests itself into three layers: artefacts at the shallowest, values and beliefs in the middle and basic assumptions at the deepest. It is inseparable from the organisation that cannot be easily manipulated as it is fundamentally non-unitary and emergent. Finally, organisational culture is important as it is one of the main determinants as to whether a firm can enjoy superior financial and a comparative advantage over firms of differing cultures.
Organisational culture is one of the most valuable assets of an organization. Many studies states that the culture is one of the key elements that benefits the performance and affects the success of the company (Kerr & Slocum 2005). This can be measured by income of the company, and market share. Also, an appropriate culture within the society can bring advantages to the company which helps to perform with the de...
Culture has a major role shape in our society. Even though some individuals live in the same culture don’t end up with the same characteristics. Many things in culture can affect our society. For example the music we listen to, the clothes we wear the places we go to, government and many more. Another related issue I see now in days is how we are to follow any example that is established from popular culture, like the media. It just seems very strange and odd to me that whoever controls the media industry has so much control over people 's actions. People are influenced by their culture. Another example is the clothes we wear. We feel that we need to wear the best clothes and become very materialism and that’s because we are being drove by
The topic chosen for the study is “Market potential for Vodafone 3G services inBijapur”. This study will help Vodafone to understand the different customers using internet services of Vodafone.
Sonderberg, A-M & N Holden. (2002), Rethinking cross cultural management in a globalizing business world' International Journal of Cross Culture Management 2(1): 103-121