Culture Clash Essay

The article â€Å"Why Don’t They Like Us Overseas? Organizing U. S. Business Practices to Manage Culture Clash† by Thomas Begley and David Boyd discusses reasons and ways to strengthen corporate culture as it is the chance to expand overseas and to avoid so-called culture clash. Different countries ahs their own cultural beliefs, ethical norms and ways of doing business and what is considered normal in one country may be considered unethical and abusive in another one. Shared culture is the best for unity of purpose. For example, Americans are often wondering why others don’t like them. The reasons are refusal to sign agreement on global warming, national fixation on celebrity icons, etc. Actually, it is called international perception and every nation has national traits, beliefs and customs which are not understood and shared. When companies try to apply their corporate values overseas, they face a number of challenges and tensions as those people are provided with another mentality. Worldwide systems would be of great help as they offer customer responsiveness, global performance management, infrastructure capabilities, etc. The authors argue that global consistency is needed for overall mutual understanding. Global consistency is defined as â€Å"a means of increasing corporate efficiency†. (p360) To impose own values is not effective way out as overseas employees often resist as values are not universal and motivators are not similar as many Americans believe. I think that the article is very informative as it shows ways to cope with culture clash and to increase efficiency. The concept of cultural difference can’t be ignored when expanding overseas as employees have another values and beliefs. Cultural difference can be applied to every organization and company, not only those which are willing to expand overseas. Corporate culture is not national culture and, therefore, leaders should promote effectiveness through mutuality. References Begley, Th. , & Boyd, D. P. (2003). Why Don’t They Like Us Overseas? Organizing U. S. Business Practices to Manage Culture Clash. Organizational Dynamics, 32, 4, pp. 357-371.