This paper presents a proposal to a company’s CEO aimed at the improvement of the company’s current position and final outcomes. This proposal delves into Hofstede’s model, which describes long-term and short-term orientations and the potential impact that these perspectives can have on the functioning of an organization.
As for long-term orientation, it could be defined as the extent to which individuals are focused on long-term goals (Textbook). In other words, it could also be explained as an orientation toward future achievements and goals rather than immediate revenue (Brigham et al. 2014). Long-term orientation helps to attain a certain competitive advantage by outlining the most important stages of a companys growth and creating a strategic plan aimed at its becoming a leading one in a certain sphere.
On the other hand, short-term orientation is used to describe an approach that is focused on short-term results, profitability, and immediate revenue (Textbook). In this case, all efforts are devoted to the quick rise of a certain venture and its increased profitability, and long-term perspectives are often ignored. Short-term orientation contributes to the appearance of qualities such as personal steadiness, respect for tradition, and self-respect among the company’s employees.
Besides, the functioning of SmithFinances might be improved by applying the long-term perspective. The company’s bottom line is increased profitability. Considering the unique features of the functioning of any financial company, a long-term perspective should be explored to attain improved final outcomes. The fact is that a focus on long-term goals will help company leaders create the efficient strategy necessary for the company’s gradual rise and profitability at a certain stage of its evolution (Minkov & Hofstede 2012).
At the moment, the company might not have high revenues; however, strict adherence to the given plan will help the organization overcome rivalry and become the most powerful actor. For instance, Japan is characterized by the existence of a number of family-owned companies with long traditions, many of which are profitable at the moment. This example proves the power of the long-term dimension.
On the contrary, the Philippines, a country in which short-term orientation prevails, has shown much poorer financial results. Altogether, if to compare Japan and the Philippines, we could see that the long-term perspective used in the first state determines the character of its business sphere where the majority of companies exist for a long period of time and have stable revenues. In the Philippines, companies appear and close trying to obtain high revenues in a short period of time.
Therefore, training the company’s staff in accordance with the long-term direction makes commercial sense as it could be considered as a long-term investment that will provide returns over the course of the company’s evolution. Moreover, the company will benefit from the improved efficiency and professionalism of the staff and better relations with expats. (Wenar 2013).
The fact is that the exploration of the long-term approach improves relations within the collective and gives time for foreign workers to understand the current corporate structure, values appreciated by the company, and its goals. Having enough time to adapt and not experiencing pressure that comes from the necessity of the immediate results, expats will be able to become a part of a collective and work better (Black & Gregersen 1999).
Reference List
Black, S & Gregersen, H 1999, ‘The right way to manage expats,’ Harvard Business Review, pp. 2-8. Web.
Brigham, K, Lumpkin, G, Miles, G & Zachary, M 2014, ‘Researching long-term orientation’, Family Business Review, vol. 27, no.1, pp. 72-88. Web.
Minkov, M & Hofstede, G 2012, ‘Hofstede’s fifth dimension. New evidence from the world values survey’, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, vol. 43, no.1, pp. 3-14. Web.
Wenar, L 2013, ‘Fighting the resource curse’, Global Policy, vol. 4, no.3, pp. 298-304.