Establishing ECL Culture in China Case Study

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Updated: Dec 19th, 2023

Introduction

Business management is a very dynamic activity that continues to change with time. This change has been attributed to many factors such as the evident transformation in the mode of operation for businesses.

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In China, this change has been driven by the need for businesses to survive in the changing environment. Otherwise, they are forced to close down due to business environmental factors.

The present-day world has transformed into a global village due to information technology explosion that has eased communication between different parts of the world.

Expanding across the globe provides greater challenges to businesses due to an almost total paradigm shift in the way they would be required to conduct their trade for survival.

This matter has been evident in countries that have entrenched cultural practices that inform their ways of life. These countries are mostly found in Asia, with China being the best example.

Consideration of cultural practices should be part of the structures that businesses especially from Europe and America should consider when venturing into the Asian market.

The Asian and western cultures have a significant contrast. In the case of ECL, this challenge had to be overcome when ECL ventured into the Chinese market.

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The works of Engleberg, Project Management Institute, and Thompson come in handy in this paper while discussing the subject of establishing ECL culture in China.

Problem Identification

Electronic Communications Limited is a company that had existed in the United States of America since 1928. It had existed on proven management styles and practices that had become a standard for the company and its operations.

The application of standardized practices that are sanctioned by the headquarters of the company in the United States can be described as part of the success story of the company because it ensured smooth operation of the company and all its branches around the world.

A difference in operation procedures and practices makes it expensive for many companies to operate profitably and smoothly because different countries use different rules.

In the case of the ECL, the company faced a human resource problem with regards to cultural factors that inform the interaction of staff at different levels of the organization.

This therefore made it difficult for the company to smoothly make decisions affecting the Chinese venture because the decision-making process in China was different from that in the United States of America.

Situation Analysis

Problem 1 – Communication Skills at Team Level

Communication is a fundamental tool that can either make or break the organization. Communication influences decision making because it determines when a decision should be made, thus making it an essential bit in that process.

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When addressing the issue of group communication, Engleberg and Wynn (2013, p. 17) present communication as an important tool at all levels because there is a very high risk of things going wrong in any case where there is a communication breakdown in a group.

This claim reveals why there is an emphasis on clear and fast communication between organizational structures.

Any organization that wishes to achieve its organizational objectives has to put in place proper communication structures that will convey and always remind the staff of the organization’s objectives.

Borrowing from the works of Project Management Institute (2013, p. 19), communication stands out as the force that drives organizations and institutions towards achieving their deliverables.

Inter and intra-organizational communication strategies have to be upheld by organizations, failure to which they will never achieve their goals. Communication at the team level is important because it is through these teams that organizations set goals that are to be achieved at different levels.

Engleberg and Wynn (2013, p. 7) point out the need to develop a communication plan by organizations. According to them, the plan has to show the channels that people need to follow to make sure that chances of communication breakdown are minimal.

ECL had developed a clear communication structure for teams as a way of working in an all-inclusive way by its staff through the teaming for excellence program that had been developed by the ECL headquarters in America (Hong Kong University, 2001, p. 5).

The problem that this mode of operation faced was that the Chinese culture encouraged more individualistic approach to problem solving, which was an opposite of what ECL encouraged through teaming for excellence.

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Therefore, the problem that comes up is that there have to be established communication structures at the team level and within the organization itself that will allow communication to take place at different levels.

The problem in this case is that teamwork within the Chinese culture exists at a very minimal level. Hence, having communication at the team level will imply the development of team structures.

Problem 2 – Communication Planning at Team Level

Communication in a team has many purposes, with one of them being to bring about synchrony of thoughts and activities by team members. This goes about to bring harmony and purpose within team members in achieving their intended objectives.

Communication planning at the team level involves taking into consideration the objectives of the whole organization and objectives of the team before a communication path can be created.

Project Management Institute (2013, p. 19) concurs with this claim by pointing out how the communication of the team should be planned within the communication structure of the larger organization in that it should be within the laid down organization’s communication structures.

ECL China has had all its organizational structures being imported from America, with all the Chinese workers being trained along the American standards so that they can reflect the organization’s standards. This inhibits communication planning at the team level.

Project Management Institute (2013, p. 24) highlights the need to have a defined channel and model that shows who, when, and to whom one should report. For the ECL case, it needs to come down from the headquarters.

The Chinese culture does not encourage subordinates to take steps without authority from their superiors and hence the waiting period for the green light before any decision can be adopted.

Communication planning at the team level is also affected by the Chinese cultural practices that dictate how staff members at different levels interact because the interaction sometimes happens as indirect communication. Thus, this factor has to be considered during team planning.

Problem 3 – Cross-Cultural Negotiation Skills at the Team Level

Thompson (2012, p. 220) presents cross-cultural negotiation as a very vital tool for organizations that wish to achieve their goals.

Cross cultural negotiation is one of the factors that ECL had to overcome during its establishment in China because it came about with so many cultural factors that were fundamental in the Chinese culture.

It had to be considered during negotiation. Cultural differences can be described as one of the factors that have been a problem for ECL’s entry into China.

The Chinese people employ an indirect approach, as discussed by Thompson (2012, p. 223) towards issues by trying as much as possible not to offend or undermine the opposite party.

This makes negotiations across the cultural divide complicated because there is a lot of vagueness that comes about due to a lot of grey areas that are created afterwards.

The Chinese culture ensures that the party across the negotiating table does not feel undermined or in other words made to lose face. Thompson (2012, p.228) developed the idea of negotiation as a strategy of solving communication disputes.

Similarly, Project Management Institute (2013, p. 24) also highlights that negotiation is a way of arriving at a solution between and/or among parties that have differed on issues concerning cost, resources, and scope among others.

According to him, people in conflicts can use “bargaining, mediation, adversarial adjudication, and inquisitorial adjudication” (Thompson, 2012, p. 228) as working strategies to settle their conflicts.

Therefore, borrowing from this idea, the Chinese people conduct their negotiations through mutual trust between the parties, thus making the legal process part of the formality.

This mutual trust has to be developed over a period of time, which under the western culture, can be sealed with the signing of documents. Therefore, cross cultural negotiation skills are a problem especially where the parties are not seized with each other parties’ cultural negotiation practices.

Negotiations across cultural lines can take a lot of time because understanding each other might take time as it is evident in the case of UCL ventures into China where the decision-making process does not involve a clear examination of the issue under scrutiny in the effort of getting the best solution (Project Management Institute (2013, p. 24).

Therefore, negotiation along this platform of cross cultural difference becomes more complicated when decisions have to be communicated from the head office in America. Such a rigid decision-making channel is a hindrance to a quick conclusion of negotiations.

Reference List

Engleberg, N., & Wynn, R. (2013). Working in groups (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Hong Kong University (2001). Establishing an ECL Culture in China: Organizational Differences or National Differences, CABC, 155(1), 1-11.

Project Management Institute. (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge Fifth Edition. Newton Square, Pennsylvania: Project Management Institute, Inc.

Thompson, L. (2012). The mind and heart of the negotiator (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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IvyPanda. (2023) 'Establishing ECL Culture in China'. 19 December.

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IvyPanda. 2023. "Establishing ECL Culture in China." December 19, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/establishing-ecl-culture-in-china/.

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IvyPanda. "Establishing ECL Culture in China." December 19, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/establishing-ecl-culture-in-china/.

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