An organization is made up of employees and administrators who have a common goal within a given organization. As an organization grows more branches are opened up beyond the borders. Although the regional branches have the same goals to the head office they have different organizational cultures. This paper focuses on the differences that arise due to diversity in cultures, language, time zone and technology and the benefits of global teams.
When a regional office is established in another location the management should consider hiring employees from that region to manage and coordinate the activities of that office. When team members of that office comprise of locals chances of success are high because there is no language barrier because some clients prefer to converse in their vernacular language rather than in international languages.
Lussier and Achua (2007) argue that deploying employees from the main branch could bring doom because the foreign employees may not understand the local languages which can negatively impact on their productivity. This is because the language barrier could make it impossible for them to persuade the local people to purchase goods and services from their organization when they can’t even utter a single word in the local language.
Different areas have different cultures and this culture continue to be practiced by employees within the organization and this is what brings diversity in organizational culture. In Islamic nations businesses are closed at lunch time to allow Muslim believers to go to the mosque for prayers.
These cultures should not interfere with employees’ performance in such nations. The management should extend its daily schedules to compensate for the time spent in the mosque. In some cases the customers could be interested in a product or service but since there is no effective communication between the buyer and the seller the sale can not be accomplished.
For instance, if an international bank which has its head office in London opened another branch in Egypt, it would be advisable to hire banking staff from that country because they know how to handle the local people since they share the same language and cultures.
In Egypt, men are supposed to keep their distance from men hence if a male employee from London was to work in this country he would find it difficult to cope with such cultures. On the other hand the locals would be comfortable with these Islamic laws because they have practiced them from childhood.
Being acquainted to the language of customers fosters good relationship with the customers because the employee can effectively attend to the needs of the client. Eliminating language barrier is important because communication between clients and organization’s staff is a too way traffic. Organizations gauge the performance of their branches by the feedback they get from their clients in those areas. This feedback is important because it helps the organization to improve its products and services (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2009).
All branches should identify how they can best improve their productivity regardless of the diversity in cultures and languages because their main mission is to achieve organizational goals. This means that the branches should not imitate the organizational cultures that are applied in other regional offices but should instead stick to those of their region.
Technology has really enhanced the management of global teams because the different offices in different regions can interact through the global network of computers.
Regional managers are able to implement organizational policies that are recommended by the head office because they can communicate instantly with the head office hence decisions are made faster (Lussier & Achua, 2007). In situations where regional offices don’t have access to modern technology the performance of such offices cannot match those of offices that have access to modern technology.
The internet has made management of organizations to be easy. For instance, regional managers don’t have to travel to head offices when they want to meet the senior administrators of the organization because they can have a virtual meeting facilitated by video conferencing in real time. When such facilities are not available in regional offices the policies and decisions that have been made by the head office will not be delivered in real time because communication is usually done through faxing and written letters.
Therefore, organizations should invest on technologies that will make sure tasks are performed in real time. This is because different regions have different time zones and since sometimes the regional offices would wish to contact the head office, the time difference can create a barrier because while it could be 8:00 A.M at the head office it could be 8:00 P.M in a given regional office.
Hence the required information that should be obtained from the head office is not available because by then their offices could be closed. In addition employees from different regions should be allowed to continue their respective cultures as long as they don’t affect their productivity.
References
Hughes, R.L., Ginnett, R.C, and Curphy, G.J. (2009).Leadership: Enhancing the lessons of experience. 6th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Lussier, R.N. & Achua, C.F. (2007.).Leadership: Theory, Application, and Skill Development. 3rd Ed. Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.