Global management and cross-cultural management of enterprises

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric Company, once said: "Globalization has become a reality that cannot be ignored. There is only one standard to measure the success (performance) of an enterprise: international market share. Successful companies usually win by finding markets around the world. " With the acceleration of the globalization of the world economy, the market is no longer the internal market of a country, and customers are no longer the internal consumers of a country. The external business environment faced by enterprises has been globalized and transcended national boundaries. Only when an enterprise succeeds in the world market can it be called real success. It has become an inevitable development trend for enterprises to "go global" and operate globally.

With the implementation of global operation, enterprises are faced with many different production and operation environments from their home countries, including economic environment, political environment, legal environment, social environment and cultural environment. But among them, the cultural environment has an all-round, whole-system and whole-process influence on the operation of enterprises. This is because culture is the sum of social life, which includes the general behavior, beliefs, values, language and lifestyle of social members, and is also the characteristic expression of people's values, characteristics or behaviors in a certain area. In business operation under different cultural backgrounds, the most important thing is to understand the differences of consumers' ideas, values and social needs. Because the business itself is to meet the needs of customers, when this demand is largely based on culture, enterprises should strive to understand the market cultural norms to be developed. It can be seen that the cross-cultural differences in the business environment of enterprises are a major problem that enterprises will inevitably encounter in their global operations. Therefore, the success of cross-cultural management is the key to the success or failure of enterprise globalization management.

First of all, cross-cultural management is the core of enterprise globalization management.

Cross-cultural management is also called "cross-cultural management", that is, in the global operation, we adopt an inclusive management method for the culture of the country where our subsidiaries are located, overcome any conflict between different cultures under cross-cultural conditions, create a unique culture of the enterprise, and thus form an effective management process. Its purpose is to design feasible organizational structure and management mechanism in different forms of cultural atmosphere, to find enterprise goals beyond cultural conflicts in the management process, to make employees with different cultural backgrounds maintain the same code of conduct, and to control and utilize the potential and value of enterprises to the maximum extent. Only by successful cross-cultural management can global enterprises operate smoothly, enhance their competitiveness and expand their market share.

Second, enterprises should establish correct concepts in cross-cultural management.

First, enterprises operating globally must recognize and understand the objective existence of cultural differences among countries and attach importance to learning and understanding the language and culture of other countries. This is a necessary condition to improve the ability of cross-cultural management. Understanding cultural differences has two meanings: one is to understand how the culture of the host country affects the behavior of local employees; The second is to understand how the culture of the home country affects the behavior of managers sent by enterprises to the local area. Different measures should be taken to overcome different types of cultural differences. For example, conflicts arising from different management styles, methods or skills can be overcome through mutual teaching and learning; Conflicts arising from different living habits and ways can be solved through cultural exchanges. Only by mastering different types of cultural differences can we find appropriate methods to solve cultural conflicts.

Secondly, we should treat cultural differences dialectically, see their advantages as well as their disadvantages, and make full use of the differences expressed by different cultures to create opportunities for the business development of enterprises. As the general manager of Guangzhou Honda Motor Company said: "There are many internal contradictions in our enterprise, but there are also good aspects. When we choose partners in China, we always like to choose some partners who have different ideas from ours, which makes us often collide with each other, so that the collision of different ideas will produce new ideas, thus creating a new corporate culture of Honda. " Based on the general manager's experience, as long as we can correctly treat the contradictions and conflicts of different cultures, it will not only become an obstacle to enterprise management, but will become the driving force for enterprise development and the source of innovation.

In addition, we should fully realize that the key to cross-cultural management is the management of people, and we should implement cross-cultural management for all employees. On the one hand, the purpose of cross-cultural management is to integrate different cultures and form a new culture, and this new culture can only be realized through the thoughts, values and behaviors of all members of the enterprise, otherwise cross-cultural management will become a mere formality. On the other hand, in a global enterprise, the corporate culture of the parent company can be transmitted to foreign branches through the products and business models of the enterprise, but more often it is transmitted to foreign branches through managers who are familiar with the corporate culture. Therefore, global enterprises must emphasize the management of people in cross-cultural management, not only to let managers deeply understand the corporate culture of the parent company, but also to choose managers with the ability of cultural integration to undertake the important responsibility of cross-cultural management of foreign branches, and at the same time to strengthen the cultural management of all members of the enterprise, so that the new culture can really play its important role in management, so that globally operated enterprises can be in a favorable position in the competition with foreign enterprises.

Third, the strategic choice of cross-cultural management of enterprises

(A) localization strategy: that is, cross-cultural management in accordance with the principle of "globalization of ideas and localization of actions". Global enterprises need to hire a considerable number of local employees abroad, because local employees are familiar with local customs, market dynamics and various laws and regulations of the host government, and they can easily reach an understanding with local consumers. Hiring local employees can not only save some expenses, but also help them to expand the market and gain a foothold in the local area.

(2) Cultural compatibility strategy: According to the compatibility degree of different cultures, it can be divided into the following two strategies: 1, cultural parallel compatibility strategy. This is the highest form of cultural compatibility, which is customarily called "cultural complementarity". That is, in foreign subsidiaries, the culture of the mother country is not the mainstream culture. In this way, although there are huge cultural differences between the cultures of the mother country and the host country, they are not mutually exclusive, but complement each other. At the same time, they can give full play to their cross-cultural advantages in company operations. 2. A peaceful and compatible strategy to hide their major cultures. That is, managers deliberately blur the cultural differences in business activities, hide the main culture that is most likely to lead to the conflict between the two cultures, and keep the relatively dull and irrelevant parts of the two cultures. Let people with different cultural backgrounds live in harmony in the same enterprise, even if there are differences of opinion, it is easy to compromise and coordinate through the efforts of both sides.

(3) Cultural innovation strategy: effectively integrate the corporate culture of the parent company with the local culture of foreign branches, and promote mutual understanding, adaptation and integration of different cultures through various channels, so as to build a new corporate culture on the basis of the parent company culture and local culture, and take this new culture as the management basis of foreign branches. This new culture not only retains the characteristics of the corporate culture of the parent company, but also adapts to the local cultural environment. It is different from the corporate culture and local culture of the parent company, but an organic combination of the two cultures. This will not only enable global enterprises to adapt to the cultural environment of different countries, but also greatly enhance their competitive advantage.

(d) Cultural avoidance strategy: When there are great differences between the culture of the home country and the culture of the host country, although the culture of the home country occupies a dominant position in the operation of the whole company, it is impossible to ignore or ignore the existence of the culture of the host country. Managers sent by parent companies to subsidiaries should pay special attention to avoiding major differences between the two cultures and not causing cultural conflicts between them in these "sensitive areas". Especially in countries with strong religious power, we should pay special attention to respecting local beliefs.

(V) Cultural infiltration strategy: Cultural infiltration is a process that needs long-term observation and cultivation. Managers sent by multinational companies to work in the host country do not try to force local employees to obey the human resource management model of the home country in a short time because of the huge differences between the culture of the home country and the host country. Instead, relying on the cultural advantages formed by the strong economic strength of the home country, it gradually infiltrated the local employees of the company, so that the culture of the home country was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people unconsciously, and the employees of the host country gradually adapted to this culture and gradually became the executors and defenders of this culture.

(VI) With the help of Third culture strategy: When multinational companies conduct global operations in other countries and regions, there are huge differences in the cultures of their home countries and host countries, and multinational companies cannot completely adapt to the business environment of the host country completely different from their home countries in a short time. At this time, the management strategy adopted by multinational companies usually relies on Third culture, which is relatively neutral and has a certain degree of understanding of the culture of the home country, to control and manage its subsidiaries in the host country. This strategy can avoid the direct conflict between the mother culture and the host culture. For example, if European multinational companies want to set up subsidiaries in the Americas such as Canada, they can first set up their overseas headquarters in the United States, where their thinking and management are more international, and then implement unified management of all subsidiaries in the Americas through the American headquarters. If American multinational companies want to set up subsidiaries in South America, they can first set their overseas headquarters in Brazil, which is a kind of thinking and economic model close to internationalization, and then implement unified management of other subsidiaries in South America through the subsidiary headquarters in Brazil. With the help of the culture of the third country, the management of the subsidiaries of the host country, which is ignorant of the managers of the home country, can avoid unnecessary waste of funds and time and make the subsidiaries achieve rapid and effective results in the business activities of the host country.

(VII) Occupation strategy: it is an extreme cross-cultural management strategy, which means that global marketing enterprises directly inject the corporate culture of the parent company into foreign branches when making foreign direct investment, destroying the local culture of foreign branches, while foreign branches only retain the corporate culture of the parent company. This method is generally suitable for situations where the strong and weak cultures are in great contrast and local consumers can fully accept the parent company culture, but from the actual situation, this model is rarely used.

In a word, global enterprises should choose their own cross-cultural management mode on the basis of fully understanding their own corporate culture and foreign culture, so that different cultures can be best combined to form their own core competitiveness.

Fourth, an effective means to achieve cross-cultural management: cross-cultural training

Cross-cultural training for employees, especially managers of subsidiaries, is the most basic and effective means to solve cultural differences and do a good job in cross-cultural management. The main method of cross-cultural training is to train all employees, especially non-local employees in cultural sensitivity. Bring employees from different cultural backgrounds together for special training, break the cultural barriers and role constraints in their hearts, and enhance their response and adaptability to different cultural environments. There are many ways to cultivate cultural sensitivity. Mainly includes:

(1) Cultural education: inviting experts to introduce the connotation and characteristics of the host country's culture in the form of lectures, guiding employees to read books and materials about the host country's culture, and providing ideological preparation for employees to work and live in the new cultural environment.

(2) Environmental simulation: Simulate the cultural environment of the host country from different aspects through various means. Show employees the situations and difficulties that may be encountered in working and living in different cultural environments, so that employees can learn how to deal with these situations and difficulties, consciously think and act according to the cultural characteristics of the host country, and improve their adaptability.

(3) Cross-cultural research: that is, through academic research and cultural exchange, organize employees to explore the essence of host country culture and its influence on managers' thinking process, management style and decision-making mode. This training method can encourage employees to actively explore the culture of the host country and improve their ability to diagnose and deal with problems in the integration of different cultures.

(4) Language training: Language is a very important part of culture, and language communication is the most effective way to improve the adaptability to different cultures. Language training can not only make employees master language knowledge, but also make employees familiar with the unique expression and communication methods in the host culture, such as gestures, symbols, etiquette and customs, and organize various social activities, so that employees have more opportunities to contact and communicate with people in the host country.