Culture differs from country
to country and from market
to market. One thing that may be quite acceptable in one
culture may not be preferred in other countries and cultures. Since
the culture comprises a number of factors which are result of
interactions at home and outside world. The factors include education, religion,
social standing, norms, behavior, traditions, customs, etc. The
combination of these factors results in a behavior pattern which is quite
different in other cultures/regions. Sometimes these differences are
so vast that people who are geographically apart differs from each
other so much that the people from other regions could not adjust with
them. Thus the behavior that is proper and polite in one culture may be
rude, offensive and unacceptable in other culture. The most adverse effect
of cultural differences is experienced by expatriates who are citizens
of one country living and working in another country. Companies
spend a lot of money in expatriates' selection, training and sending them
to host country. Expatriates' failure represents the failure of firm's
selection process. Therefore they need to be selected and trained
very cautiously so that they can adjust themselves in different cultural
environment of host country.
In the field of international management, there are four types
of orientations which organizations choose to apply. The companies
in international business generally subscribe to one of these
orientations (Bartol & Martin, 1998). The orientations are as follows |
