Managing Cultural Differences, Coursework Example

Differences between a National Culture and a Corporate Culture

A corporate culture refers to the behaviors and beliefs that determine how management and employees of a company handle business transactions and interact during work hours. A corporate culture is usually implied rather than being defined expressly, since it is developed with time and depends on the traits of the workforce. For example, Mitsui Chemical has corporate culture that offers intensive training of all of its employees in chemistry and mathematics. Conversely, national cultures are set of behaviors, norms, customs, and beliefs that are formulated within a community of a sovereign nation. As a result, international companies such as Mitsui Chemicals should develop management styles that auger well with the national culture of the United States. For instance, the company must adapt to the United States’ quality management styles such as laws and codes that affects design and risk requirements. If the two cultures were confused, it may result in clashing of project management styles. Additionally, confusion may lead to improper time and budget appropriation. For instance, the initial project collapsed due to confusion that arose due to the differences between Mitsui Chemicals and Anderson Development Company project management styles. As a result, the project lagged behind time and budget.

Corporate Cultural Issues

There are several cultural differences that exist between Mitsui Chemicals and Anderson Development Company, ADC. Firstly, ADC relies on entrepreneurial activities and maintains a culture of medium level of formalization and relatively flat hierarchy to promote quick decisions. This is complemented by the fact that the company has 150 employees with six of them assigned as nitrogen triflouride project experts. Conversely, Mitsui project team is embedded in a centralized authority involving numerous levels of hierarchy. Each decision goes through a definite hierarchical path before it is passed by the management. Additionally, each decision is passed by group consensus. These issues differ by industries in the two countries. For instance, the Japanese Shimonoseki Works has different corporate issue as compared to Mitsui Chemicals in terms of project management.

The two companies also have different approaches regarding fixtures of meetings during project management. In the initial stages of construction of ADC, Mitsui Chemicals organized frequent meetings in intervals of up to four days. The goals of the meetings were to get updates on the progress of the project in terms of time and budget management. Contrary to this, the management of ADC opted for fewer meetings to reduce the amount of time spent in formal reporting since there was little progress on the work at ground level. Such issues occur at different stages of organizational lifecycle since Mitsui was able to adjust to ADC corporate cultures at the end.

In addition, all Japanese manufacturing industries are expected to form unions, as it applies to Mitsui Chemical facilities. On the other hand, ADC manufacturing facilities, located in the United States, are located in close proximity with automotive manufacturing industries in Detroit implying than ADC is strongly non-union. Although the neighboring companies in Detroit are Unionized, ADC took a different path to practice uniqueness. As a result, the company has maintained its own rules and regulations that disregard team-based atmosphere especially in its management. These corporate cultures differ by industries since other companies located in Detroit have formed unions apart from ADC.

National Cultural Issues

The two companies, Mitsui Chemicals and ADC, were compelled to design multinational cultural guidelines to address the varying issues existing between the Unites States and Japan. Firstly, time management issue arose between the two companies. The national culture of both countries varied in terms of normal working days per day, weekends, and holidays. For instance, national culture in America assigns eight hours of work during weekdays. In Japan, workers are expected to work for more than ten hours per day during weekdays. As a result, the two companies had to come up with a consensus regarding time management.

In addition, the two countries have different human resource management systems. For instance, all companies in Japan are expected to form unions with other companies with similar manufacturing facilities. Conversely, companies in the United States can either unionize or operate as an individual manufacturing company. This is a major national corporate issue since unions in Japan are expected to train all employees in their respective field of work. In the United States, companies such as ADC can form their own policies relating to their human resource systems without interference from unions.

The two countries have diverse national corporate issues regarding hierarchy of decision-making. The government of Japan expects all organizations to formulate proper hierarchical paths of decision making under central authority. As a result, each decision passes through a rigid and formalized process to ensure all member of the management team present his or her observations. Reasonably, this process is not only time consuming, but also financially extensive. Conversely, the United States companies such as ADC relies on medium levels of formalization and relatively flat hierarchy in the decision making process. This promotes quick decision, which in turn, reduces the cumulative cost of project management.