(TIỂU LUẬN) assessment task 2 team consultancy project written report lastly, recommendations are proposed for improvement in the workplace of generali the ability to empathize with each others

Assessment Task - Team Consultancy Project Written Report Subject Code: BUSM4699 Subject Name: Cross-Cultural Management Location & Campus RMIT Vietnam, Hanoi Campus Students: Nguyen Huu Phuong Nhi - s3764731 Tran Quynh Ngoc - s3636101 Pham Hai Yen - s3776356 Nguyen Phuong Hong Yen - s3695645 Lecture: Dr Abel Alonso Word Count: 3000 Executive Summary Each person from various different cultures and backgrounds will have to interact with each other more frequently in an increasingly globalized and growing economy Regardless of whether everybody will work and attempt together decently well, diversification will in any case happen and cause furious struggles and clashes because of an absence of comprehension of colleagues Diverse reasoning or methods of working are consistently a difficulty that each organization or business will have The most clear examples can be found in worldwide multinational organizations Moreover, in an increasingly technologically advanced world, virtual communication between countries is a big step forward to help multinational groups communicate with each other quickly and economically However, global virtual teams (GVT) also hides many cross-cultural challenges To relieve this issue, individuals in particular and businesses in general, should know about the fundamental drivers that have an immediate impact The objective of this report is to analyze several issues related to GVT of multinational corporations with the use of academic theories and real cases of an international company in Vietnam The case of an multinational insurance company, Generali will be applied to evaluate their practices in solving common cultural challenges Besides, a supporting article about GVT challenges perceived by millenials, is also reviewed As a result, in such a broad community, problems with communication and collaboration may often unintentionally offend each other Moreover, the interview conducted with Mr Nguyen Tung Lam, regional director in Hanoi of Generali, delivered a more in-depth perspective at the workplace from the viewpoint of a manager People communicate in their own unique manners, which may lead to misunderstandings when they not have the same level of understanding In detail, difficulties of Generali in cross-cultural virtual management could be divided into categories: leadership, communication, time issue and trust issue Lastly, recommendations are proposed for improvement in the workplace of Generali The ability to empathize with each other's cultural differences through training and preparation demonstrates one's effort when attempting to collaborate with an international partner It is important for a large multicultural corporation to create its own management structure in order to retain overall performance Table of contents Executive Summary Table of contents Introduction Overview of issues 2.1 Communication problems within multicultural teams or across subsidiaries 2.2 Leadership in multicultural organizations or between subsidiaries 2.3 Trust in multicultural groups or between subsidiaries within an organisation 2.4 Time issues within multicultural societies or between subsidiaries 5 Case studies 3.1 Description of case study and research article 3.2 Analysis of the case study and article 8 10 Recommendations 4.1 Training 4.2 Time comfort zone and preparation for virtual meetings 13 13 16 Conclusion 17 Appendices 18 References 22 Introduction Many businesses are looking to expand their operations internationally By moving to emerging markets, they will benefit from lower costs, as a result, contribute to the economic development of countries Generali, a big Italian insurance company is not exceptional when it operates branches in Vietnam However, doing business overseas presents several challenges in terms of different human behaviors and a lack of knowledge, especially when there is a significant difference in business concepts between Western and Eastern These difficulties become even more challenging in the virtual working context The theory of cross-cultural management was developed to help businesses submit, control, and operate their business successfully on a global scale Overview of issues The global economy is increasingly developing and expanding these days, with trade value accounting for 60.4% of world GDP (World Bank n.d) Globalization is an ongoing process, and understanding cultural differences has become a key factor for multinationals to expand into emerging markets Hence, as businesses evolve in the international context and especially in the current covid outbreak then all companies have to use virtual communication tools to support the work process, there is a question that top managers and company insiders need to consider: how to communicate well between cultures, to operate the business effectively, and how leaders need to give direction to find the best solution Therefore, there are four main problems that most businesses face in the context of international business 2.1 Communication problems within multicultural teams or across subsidiaries Understanding a country's culture is about showing respect and ensuring effective communication among members of an organization Communication is the key to all problems that need solving, expressing their thoughts and direct intercultural communication can sometimes lead to confusion because of different ways of presenting messages Especially during Covid pandemic, it is even more difficult to transmit information or communicate in language when everyone has to switch to virtual communication tools There is research about low context communication terms (LCC) and high contextual communication (HCC) and how they affect understanding and interactions among people (Nam K.A 2015) When a group comprises multinational members, communication conflicts between people from LCC culture and people from HCC culture will easily lead to communication conflicts It is more common in LCC cultures in individualist cultures such as Western countries (Canada, Germany) They tend to express themselves through direct verbal communication, speaking straight to the point Verbal agreements are respected in HCC when doing business, written contracts and signed agreements are essential while in LCC (William D 2015) This may cause conflict between enterprises when the business from LCC requires the enterprise from HCC to write a signed contract may be perceived as disrespectful, and a lack of trust can damage a relationship While the culture of contextual communication is high as in some Asian countries, the use of nonverbal communication involves paralinguistic signals (voice, pitch, volume) and non-verbal signals (eye contact, smile, touch, silence) They often speak through a message that they want others to ponder and understand Currently, to achieve high performance in a multinational environment, most companies adopt a Western working environment This will help employees be able to frankly express their individual opinions to make it easier to understand, collaborate and save time 2.2 Leadership in multicultural organizations or between subsidiaries Leadership and culture have similar relationships Different cultures will have different images of a good leader A survey of employees’ IBM from multiple locations worldwide and four dimensions that different cultures were identified (Hofstede 2001) While collectivistic culture is more team-oriented Individualistic cultures tend to prefer independent and different leaders (the GLOBE framework n.d) In the Certainty Avoidance dimension, countries with a high degree of uncertainty avoidance often favor more controlled regulators Besides, the Power Distance also contributes to an excellent leader in different cultures Employees from cultures with low power gaps cultures prefer active and participatory leadership In contrast, those from cultures with a high power gap tend to work better in a more directing style of leadership 2.3 Trust in multicultural groups or between subsidiaries within an organisation Every branch of Multinational Corporations faces challenges related to different cultures as they resemble parent group operations in the local context (He R and Liu J, 2010) Administrative personnel play a vital role in the failure or success of a Multinational Corporation, they must deal with fundamental challenges like strategic and cultural differences Nationalism has created friction within a group that can cause trust between members or governance between the parent company and its subsidiaries Differences between cultures and languages can lead to misinformation, distrust, as the story of Japanese and Americans working together has been likened to mixing hamburgers with sushi (Hausmann R , Tyson D, Zahidi S, 2012) Because the Japanese and the Americans have a long history before, and some Japanese still keep that hatred against their partner and vice versa Alternatively, the Vietnamese are still skeptical of China; requests for trust from the Vietnamese towards their neighboring partners may be hard to accomplish Moreover, due to the centralized decision-making power at the headquarters, promotion opportunities for the executive position of the host country nationals are limited This creates communication barriers, leading to misinformation and misunderstanding between host country nationals and top managers of the headquarters Hence, headquarters will have limited understanding and interaction with the local staff to assess the performance of local ability for future advancement (Ando N, Rhee D and Park N, 2007) 2.4 Time issues within multicultural societies or between subsidiaries The virtual aspects of communication also have an impact on aspects of the management tasks of MNCs The most significant reported impacts include time zone differences, response delays, and time limits for virtual communication (Kimble, 2001) Around the world, we have different time zones, it can be challenging to get everyone in the right group It could be midnight in one part of the world, and it could be rush hour in another This is a problem because everyone needs to be on the same page and doing the same thing Team members must start work early and work very late to communicate with each other, for instance, calling until 10pm or holding a three-way conference at am Swiss time (Oertig M & Buergi T, 2006) Besides, response delays and time limits for virtual communication are also factors that create obstacles in an international environment (See M 2018); in online meetings, they often bring up some new issues in meetings off the agenda It prolongs the meeting time and reduces the quality of the meeting Furthermore, when a subsidiary needs assistance from a qualified person, they cannot be present However, that day falls during the host countries' public holiday time, which leads to a delay in reply while the subsidiaries need an immediate response Case studies 3.1 Description of case study and research article 3.1.1 Generali Group Generali is a multinational insurance corporation based in Italy The company currently has overseas headquarters and more than 60 branches in 50 countries Vietnam is one of the subsidiaries of Generali Group The offices in Vietnam had about 2000 employees out of 72.000 employees worldwide The Generali teams in Vietnam are mainly responsible for sales, marketing and customer services for the local market As R&D and Operation management mainly take place at headquarters, branches in Vietnam receive allocation targets from the head office in Milan or receive targets directly from Asia Regional Office in Hong Kong Regional meetings with the Asia Regional Office in Hong Kong and its headquarters in Italy will take place monthly, or when the company undertakes important projects Meetings are usually in the form of an online conference In addition, other forms of virtual communication are applied such as emails, calls or messages Virtual communication is expected to help the company save costs and time for travel, accommodation and human resources Figure Workflow of Generali Vietnam 3.1.2 The article “When technological savviness overcomes cultural differences: millennials in global virtual teams” (Velez-Calle et al 2020) We selected the research paper on the topic of virtual group challenges under the perceived experience of millennials because this is one of the large demographic groups of countries around the world (Deloitte 2020), and is expected to hold the senior positions of employment in the next 5-10 years (Tilford 2018) The paper focuses on two major issues: evidence to contradict previous international business literature which argues that cultural differences are the main problem of GVT and how millennials work in GVT to deal with the challenges of virtual teamwork and ensure effective team performance The study analysed 503 journals of undergraduate students from all over the world submitted to the GEE competition in 2012 3.2 Analysis of the case study and article Our study analyzes the case of Generali and the findings in the article of Velez-Calle et al (2020), to uncover the key challenges companies face when working in multicultural virtual teams This study adopts the input-process-outcome (IPO) framework which was adapted by Dulebohn and Hoch (2017) to align the context of the GVT According to Hoch & Kozlowski (2014), the IPO is the most widely used framework which is a tool to categorize and incorporate theories on GVT 3.2.1 Inputs This study focuses on two input categories, which are team leadership and team composition Leadership plays an important role in virtual team performance The leadership style and management skills of team leaders significantly affect the working attitude and work efficiency of the members (Serban-et-al.,2015) Unlike face-to-face team leadership, virtual team leaders require a higher level of communication skills and cross-cultural Appendix 10 understanding, since virtual communication is limited in space and time, as well as lacks nonverbal signals (Tenzer & Pudelko 2016) In particular, the study of Hoch and Kozlowski (2014) shows the importance of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) in virtual leadership Leaders with a high level of CQ have a positive effect on the team's performance, strengthen team cohesion and encourage engagement of team members Velez-Calle et al (2020) also agrees with the importance of leadership in virtual teams Leaders in the analyzed cases are said to be the “rescuers” for the whole team when facing a crisis, and the one who provides the leading solution for the team's challenges However, the virtual team leaders at Generali, in general, have not paid attention to this aspect When asked in the interview what strategies the company has in place to improve the understanding of diverse cultures of managers, it seemed to be a new concept to the interviewee There was a lack of proper -training on how managers can solve problems related to multinational virtual teams The second input is team composition At Generali, the most visible difference on the surface of diversity is language differences English is used as the common language for the three countries to communicate with each other However, because this is the second language of all three countries, virtual team members have encountered many difficulties in expressing and understanding the message The barriers in verbal communication can be overcome more or less by non-verbal communication (DiStefano & Maznevski 2000) For example, when you are unable to express your ideas with words, gestures and facial expressions can assist in conveying your ideas However, when teams work virtually together, communicating from long distances through the middle technology platform limits nonverbal communication (Jimenez et al.2017) This limitation also makes it difficult to build close relationships between colleagues in different countries, which also limits the level of trust and team cohesion of multicultural teams (Ford, Piccolo & Ford 2017) The next component of team composition is the level of KSAs (knowledge, skills, and abilities) of 11 members In the case of Generali, the level of CQ once again needs emphasis For a multinational company, understanding and adaptability to diverse cultures are the minimum requirements for employees One of the important elements in cross-cultural communication is the cultural context, including low context and high context (Hall 1959) High context cultures like Vietnam emphasize implicit messages that cannot be expressed in words In contrast, low-context cultures such as Italy emphasize direct verbal communication According to the interview, when working virtually, the lack of understanding of cultural differences has made some Vietnamese employees feel uncomfortable when receiving too frank opinions from the Italian manager The limitation of the virtual working environment further hinders mutual understanding 3.2.2 Moderators This study focuses on virtuality as the main moderator in the case of the Generali company Virtuality factor is a broad concept, which includes geographical dispersion, spatial distance, temporal differences and configurational differences (Dulebohn & Hoch 2017) The time difference is a key challenge that is associated with other cross-cultural difficulties in Generali In the article by Velez-Calle et-al (2020), time difference is a frequently mentioned issue in students' journals However, the authors argued that the time difference problem does not belong to the concepts of cross-culture issues, including values, beliefs and social systems (Hofstede 1991) The article also cites one of the student journals in the study, where the time issue is mentioned as a solvable problem and less significant than the other challenges However, according to Dulebohn-and-Hoch-(2017), temporal difference is one of the factors that affects the inputs and outputs of teamwork, because it changes and connects relationships within the framework This is true in the case of Generali, where the time management problem, although not a culture issue, indirectly affects cross-culture challenges Firstly, the Appendix 12 time zone in Italy is hours behind Vietnam, so the ideal time for the two countries to work together is 9am - 12pm in Italy, equivalent to 2pm - 5pm in Vietnam However, hours of collaboration is not enough time for the two teams to express the problem they are facing through virtual meetings As analyzed earlier, since both countries are non-native English speakers, it usually takes a longer amount of time for the sender of the message to express their ideas and to fully understand the opinion of the others Besides, the next time management problem is the different holidays of Vietnam and Italy If a team reports a problem to another country during these days, they have to wait until the end of the holiday to get an answer In this case, although the time difference is not a cultural concept, it does add to the challenges associated with communication difficulties Moreover, this degree of influence increases as task interdependence and task complexity increases Recommendations People can not be forced to be changed, therefore, it is recommended to encourage people to adapt and be aware of culture intelligence through training leaders and employees, time comfort zone arrangement and virtual meetings preparation 4.1 Training 4.1.1 Building and training team leaders Ank and Inkpen (2008) stated that a manager’s knowledge of norms, practices and conventions in different cultures are gained from education and experiences Therefore, extra training is needed to ensure a qualified manager could handle challenges within the team as well as show the employees how much the organisation cares about solving these issues Training in goal setting, role clarification, conflict resolution and ability to build trust of team members has to be delivered to the leaders (Ford, Ronald & Loren 2017, p 29) To build trust, the leader is expected to build both credibility and reliability by never failing to 13 complete any promise or task, keeping open-access for all team members during the projects and maintaining continuous and predictable communication schedules with each member of the team (Brady & Prentice 2019, p.26) Leaders are required to explain challenges and the scope of the work, time frame and limitation of the budget hence, at the very first stage, the right people are chosen for the right position Therefore, employees will nurture themselves to adapt to new cultures The responsibility of defining task goals and role requirements for mission accomplishment to each member (Hunsaker & Hunsaker, 2008) requires the leader to clearly explain the task, provide specific performance feedback to the team, set and monitor deadlines, and hold members both individually and collectively (Ford, Ronald & Loren 2017, p 32) 4.1.2 Training employees Training is the key solution for GVT issues therefore, not only the leaders need to be trained but also the whole team members a, Innovation work behaviour Employee innovative behaviour which is presented through the ability to develop, adopt and implement new ideas is essential for business success (Yuan & Woodman 2010, p 323) Employees imply it by rethinking and changing the underlying principles of the company to maximise the performance There are several recommendations to encourage employees’ creativity and enhance their innovation which include being open-minded with team diversity where employees are forced themselves to be flexible and tolerant of differences; participating in projects with a sense of having to work hard on challenging and important tasks; encouraging employees to take responsibilities and take control over their works The positive impacts of innovation are proved in many scholars as the employees would enjoy more work satisfaction, achieve higher performance and productivity, develop personal growth, improve relationships among workplaces (West and Anderson, 1996) 14 b, Multiculturalism On the other hand, multiculturalism is suggested to help employees to balance their different cultural identities and develop appropriate communication styles within the workplace (Korzilius, Bücker & Beerlage 2017, p 15) Multicultural people or expatriates are people crossing national borders to work and live in bicultural or multicultural environments Brannen and Thomas (2010, p 13) suggested that the business should build environments where bicultural people can thrive Business could provide language courses to those not speaking predominant languages in team or provide translators during discussions, celebrating or at least showing the awareness of the national celebrations at the virtual team location, operate cultural activities such as making quizzes about cultures, having time to chat, go out for a meal or organize seminars to specific regions to give chances to everyone to explore different cultures c, Cultural Intelligence Cultural intelligence (CQ) refers to the ability to adapt to other cultures quickly and be able to view businesses through various cultural lenses (Thomas et al, 2015) Elenkov and Manev (2009) and Korzilius, Bücker & Beerlage (2017) suggested that expatriates need CQ to integrate knowledge from different cultures into their innovative behavior (Figure 2) Figure 2: Conceptual model (Korzilius, Bücker & Beerlage 2017, p 16) CQ is a multifaceted construct which includes the heart( CQ motivation: the drive to put the effort in adapting to new culture), the head (CQ knowledge: the knowledge of the norms, practices and conventions acquired from education and experiences), the head (CQ 15 strategy: the process to generate cultural knowledge), the body (CQ behaviour: the capacity to exhibit actions) Figure 3: Cultural Intelligence construct (Alonso 2021) Four components of CQ are hand and hand with each other and form a strong construct Applied to this construct, the CQ training process which is achieved through team leaders and employees training also goes through step by step and hence, it is expected to be successful The training will create the motivation for employees to commit to the company and then acquire the new culture through supportive activities, HR procedures and company strategies It will lead to adaptability, from that, team cohesion and trust is built and as the result, the key problem of cultural management is resolved 4.2 Time comfort zone and preparation for virtual meetings In central European Times (CET), the time from 14:00 to 15:00 is considered as the Golden Hour in many multicultural companies However, it will fall in the evening for the people working in the Asia-pacific region (Brady and Garry 2019, p.31) Therefore, employees need to arrange the time to be the most efficient by asking everyone to coordinate the time and even accept the schedule is likely to be inconvenient for somebody It is 16 suggested that the leaders should choose varying time for virtual meeting times which shows the same favour and respect from leaders to different people from numerous time zones (Chhay and Kleiner 2013) A probable planning is also incredibly important in virtual team meetings Virtual meetings need to be held regularly or at least once a year and are well prepared in advance and notified by everyone A well-prepared planning requires a clear agenda, a straightforward facilitation structure that includes time for individual contribution, small group work, presentation, integration and co-creation as a team (Brady and Garry 2019, p.92) This will increase the productivity of the meetings, reduce the wasting time and hence, minimise the gap of misunderstanding and inefficiency Conclusion To conclude, under the control of the headquarters in Italy, Generali Vietnam suffered several problems which are communication, leadership, trust and time differences In order to solve these issues, there are numerous recommendations for the company to overcome and training is the key solution Generali should improve their inward correspondence following suggested solutions as recommended above With legitimate application and adaptation, Generali business will be more sustainable and beneficial 17 Appendices Appendix The IPO framework of virtual team, reproduced from Dulebohn and Hoch (2017) 18 Appendix Meyer's CultureMap of Italy and Vietnam, adapted from Meyer, E 2021 Key interview questions and answers with Regional Director of Generali Hanoi Office We would like to understand more about your company's cross-cultural context ➔ We have expatriates as managers, or seeders in each branch However, there is not too much of a problem working with them, though In general, Italians are quite sociable, cheerful and have many similarities with the Vietnamese lifestyle The most prominent issue recently is probably related to online team meetings and virtual communication How does your team conduct virtual meetings with managers in Italy? ➔ Skype for business is the platform our company often uses ➔ There is a hour difference between the two countries So the most ideal time to work together is afternoon in Vietnam, which corresponds to morning in Italy We had to make full use of the overlapping hours to solve the problems However, that amount of time was quite short for both sides to fully express the issues ➔ Some Vietnamese employees have poor English comprehension skills, this often takes more time in the discussion to explain the ideas to employees And conversely, it also takes more time for them to fully express their opinions 19 In your opinion, what are the key problems that you can see in virtual meetings? ➔ There are usually some new issues (which are outside of the agenda) raised during the meeting without prior notice It prolongs the time and reduces the quality of 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