VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS
FALCULTY OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
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COURSE ASSIGNMENT:
INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT,
MULTICULTURAL AND CROSS-NATIONAL MANAGEMENT
Course code: INE 3223 – E *
Student name: Nguyễn Dương Việt Hà
Student ID:
19051065
Class:
QH-2019-E KTQT-CLC 1
Instructor:
Assoc. Prof. PhD. Nguyễn Việt Khôi
Ha Noi, 2022
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUESTION 1
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The advantages of multiculturalism
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The disadvantages of multiculturalism
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QUESTION 2
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QUESTION 3
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REFERENCES
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QUESTION 1
Explain the advantages and disadvantages that a company may have while
doing business in a multicultural environment.
Multiculturalism (also known as ethnic pluralism) refers to the presence and
acceptance of many different minority cultures in addition to the dominant culture in a
given location.
Multiculturalism is prevalent in many large cities and has numerous benefits.
However, there are some issues with this concept. In some business case, multicultural
environment brings pros and cons at the same time for the firm.
The advantages of multiculturalism
The first benefit I want to mention is local market knowledge and insight
improves a company's competitiveness and profitability. When it comes to expanding
into new markets, a multicultural staff may provide a significant competitive
advantage. Adapting a product or service to flourish in a foreign market is common.
Understanding local laws, rules, and customs, as well as the competitive environment,
may assist a company in succeeding. Furthermore, local relationships, native language
abilities, and cultural awareness may enormously improve international business
development.
And, in the end, being more competitive means being more lucrative. Diversity
Inc honors the top 50 most diverse firms each year and compares their performance to
the market as a whole. Diversity is also beneficial to a company's financial line,
according to recent McKinsey research. In fact, ethnically diverse businesses are 35
percent more likely to outperform the national industry median in terms of financial
returns.
Secondly, a company can recruit and retain the top people by drawing from a
culturally diversified talent pool. Two-thirds of job seekers said diversity was
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important to them when assessing firms and job offers, according to a Glassdoor poll.
Demonstrating that your company is committed to building a multicultural and
inclusive atmosphere will help you stand out in a competitive global employment
market. Making diversity a priority in the hiring process can help you expand your
pool of potential employees. Hiring from a more varied talent pool not only makes
your company more appealing to ambitious, internationally oriented people, but it also
helps you retain them. Diversity in the workplace, including gender, religion, and
ethnicity, has been found to promote employee retention and lower turnover costs.
Employees are more likely to stay loyal in a diverse company if they feel appreciated
and valued for their unique contribution. This, in turn, creates mutual respect among
coworkers who value their team members' different cultures, viewpoints, and
experiences. An inclusive environment of cross-cultural collaboration is a great
method to bring colleagues and teams together throughout the organization.
Thirdly, teams with a variety of members are more productive and achieve
higher results. A varied workplace provides a wider range of experience, skills, and
working techniques, which can help to improve problem-solving ability and
productivity. Organizations with a diverse and inclusive culture are happier and more
productive, according to research. Working in homogeneous groups may appear to be
more convenient, but it can lead to a company accepting the status quo. On the other
side, diversity may promote healthy competition, pushing a team to do their best in a
positive way. This healthy competitive environment can lead to the improvement of
business procedures for increased efficiency.
Fourth is that diverse cultural viewpoints may spur innovation and creativity.
Our culture has an impact on how we perceive the world. A diverse range of opinions,
along with an international team's diverse personal and professional experience, may
provide fresh insights that motivate colleagues to see the workplace—and the
world—in new ways. Diverse perspectives have been proved to foster creativity and
promote innovation, allowing companies to solve challenges and satisfy consumer
requirements in novel and interesting ways.
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Higher-quality, tailored marketing requires cultural sensitivity, intelligence, and
local understanding. Cross-cultural awareness, along with knowledge of the local
market, allows for the creation of more successful marketing strategies and materials.
Websites, brochures, and other materials, for example, require high-quality, culturally
relevant translations. However, without the help of a native speaker, these can be
disregarded. Even brand taglines might be severely misunderstood when translated.
A business with a varied skill set may provide a wider and more adaptive range
of goods and services. Companies gain from employing people with a broad variety of
abilities that are sometimes unavailable when recruiting locally by pulling from a
culturally diversified talent pool. By harnessing the talents and knowledge that their
foreign workers bring to the table, globally focused organizations may expand their
service offerings. A more diversified offering of products and services, as well as a
larger pool of abilities, can help your company gain a competitive advantage in terms
of adaptability. Organizations that are flexible and adaptive will succeed in today's
dynamic and uncertain global business climate. Adaptability refers to the ability to
design, create, and execute projects more quickly and efficiently. A business with
cultural and cognitive diversity is more likely to notice a market gap. It will also have
the worldwide (or market-specific) knowledge and expertise to assist a new or
modified product in adapting to changing customer behavior - and succeeding.
More opportunities for personal and professional development. Fundamentally,
a firm that is inclusive and culturally diverse will attract smart, ambitious, and
internationally minded individuals who will value the potential for personal and
professional development. Working with people from different cultures can be a
genuinely beneficial experience, as it allows others to learn about different ideas and
traditions. By bonding over commonalities and differences, you may become a global
citizen, letting go of preconceptions and an ethnocentric worldview, which is
becoming increasingly useful. Professionally, having a varied group of coworkers may
be beneficial, as it can expose you to different abilities and ways of working, as well
as help you build an international network that can help you push your career in
interesting new areas or abroad.
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The disadvantages of multiculturalism
Some colleagues from other cultures may be less willing to speak out.
However, having a diversified pool of brainpower is insufficient. It's also vital to
foster an open and inclusive work atmosphere in which all members of the team feel
empowered to participate. This can be especially difficult for coworkers who come
from polite or submissive cultures. Professionals from Asian nations such as Vietnam
or Japan, for example, may be more hesitant to speak out or share ideas, especially if
they are new to the team or in a lower-level position. Conversely, forceful colleagues
from the United States or Western Europe, as well as those from Scandinavian nations
with flat organizational hierarchies, may be more likely to speak out during meetings
or negotiations while others do not.
Across languages and cultures, professional communication might be
misconstrued or difficult to comprehend. While competent translations are essential
for effective marketing, there is a genuine danger that dialogue among multicultural
employees may be lost in translation. Language hurdles are only one of the
difficulties. Even in an organization where everyone speaks English, recognizing a
variety of accents or idioms used by native speakers might be challenging.
Furthermore, effective cross-cultural communication entails much more than simply
speaking words. Nonverbal communication is a complex and subtle aspect of cultural
interaction that can lead to misunderstandings or even insult among team members
from other nations. Things like physical space, creating or sustaining eye contact, and
gesture may all differ dramatically between cultures. Even a simple greeting or
handshake has cultural connotations that should be taken into account in the
workplace. This excellent infographic was created by Business Insider to demonstrate
the differences in handshakes and business welcomes throughout the world.
Professional etiquette is seen differently by different people. Colleagues from
other cultures might bring with them a variety of attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and
etiquette to the workplace. While they might be stimulating and even advantageous in
a varied professional setting, they can also lead to miscommunication and unpleasant
sentiments among team members.
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For example, formality (or relative informality), organizational structure, and
even working hours can all be a source of contention among cultures. A Swedish
professional may be accustomed to a 6-hour work day, yet a Japanese colleague may
not believe it is polite to leave work before their manager (or anybody else).
Furthermore, divergent approaches to timeliness, confrontation, and dispute resolution
might be problematic.
Teams with divergent working styles. Working habits and attitudes about work,
on the other hand, might vary greatly, reflecting cultural beliefs and exacerbating
disparities. Conflicting work methods can stifle productivity if they aren't
acknowledged and accounted for.
The Hult classroom reflects this experience in many ways, engaging you from
day one in a varied and collaborative working environment. You will master the talent
of speaking successfully across cultures and embrace the importance of diversity in
the workplace by studying across the world and learning with peers and instructors
from over 150 different nations.
It can be tough to navigate visa procedures, employment rules, and the cost of
satisfying workplace requirements. Additional allowances for attracting and keeping a
culturally diverse staff should be considered in addition to visas. For example,
offering a quiet room for prayer, as well as taking into account different cultural or
religious holidays, may make a workplace more friendly and inclusive for employees
of many faiths. Of course, these concerns and adjustments may often be both a
financial and administrative burden.
In the face of prejudice or unfavorable cultural preconceptions, integrating
ethnic teams can be tough. While local knowledge is crucial, it's also critical to
encourage team cohesion to avoid colleagues from various nations working in
isolation and restricting information transfer. This can be difficult to overcome,
especially if there are underlying stereotypes between cultures that prevent people
from cooperating. Negative cultural stereotypes can have a negative impact on
employee morale and productivity. The centuries-old animosity between the British
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and the French, or the Poles and the Germans, for example, may sometimes sneak into
the workplace. Although not all stereotypes are negative—for example, the idea that
Americans are self-assured or that Asians are intelligent—they are all simplifications
that can be restricting or divisive in the workplace. While overt discrimination and
stereotyping are major concerns, established and unconscious cultural prejudices can
be a more difficult hurdle to overcome when it comes to workplace diversity.
QUESTION 2
Assume that a Vietnamese investor conducts his/her business in a foreign
country. Analyze that country (*) multicultural environment issues that may
affect his/her business results.
The military industry – telecommunication group Viettel is one of the earliest
and most successful vietnamese companies to invest in foreign markets. Viettel has its
own brands in ten countries after more than ten years. Established as a technology
company, Viettel hardly had issues in techonology. However, the Group's human
resources management is challenged by investment and business activity on all three
continents, Asia, America, and Africa. Because Viettel now includes individuals from
various nations throughout the world, they will undoubtedly face language, cultural,
and legal challenges.
Figure 1: Original logo of Viettel in home country Vietnam
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Hiring employee in the host country is different from in the home country. This
is harder to the both non-english nation like Vietnam and Peru. Invest to another
culture, the R&D activities is hard, change human resources management to fit in new
market is even harder. Because worker is the success key of owner. A friendly
multicultural environment workplace leads to cooperate fluently. But the border
between changing the Viettel original identity and loss the company original identity
is very close. Viettel need general rules to avoid employee and employer
misunderstanding. In addition, religion and culture are obviously affect the firm
activities a lot.
Figure 2: The International Appearance of Viettel in different countries
There are several significant difficulties. The first range I have to mention is
Viettel has many degrees of corporate culture. There are Viettel's corporate culture
distinct framework such as logo, uniform, cultural programs, traditional holiday,
language meaning, symbol meaning, E-Publications, stories, social activities. For
instance, if Viettel miss any important holidays in that religion, the worker will take
that as an unfair taking care, and claim that a toxic workspace atmosphere. If in Peru’
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Independence Day, the Viettel people still have to go to office, then they will be
offensed just like the same situation in Vietnam’s Imdependence Day. And what if
religion days like Sant Rose of Lima in Peru, the company still work as normal, it is
not suitable for the local traditional.
Other issue is the uniform and slogan. When invest to the country that have
some optional reqirement like Saudi Arabia – muslim area, Viettel have to consider
about it. The polo with short sleeves is not allowed here, especially for women. The
slogan is also need to understand in that country’s language, so it will not violate in
any meaning. Viettel should also consider about the office architecture if it is affected
by the religion or not.
The education and training their staff about the multiculture are another issue
that have to develop. Changes in the corporate environment or internal structure are
quickly adapted by employees. The leader will never know how amazing idea their
staff have if they are out of mind. New idea can be a ideal as noone know what is the
best for the staff’s country than them. Morover, Viettel braches in have to connect to
each other so if there are any misunderstanding, it will be international problem.
Viettel Telecom Company employs a large number of people and operates in a variety
of locations, including remote areas, border areas, islands, and mountains. As a result,
the company's training and development of human resources is a huge undertaking
that costs a lot of time, money, and effort.
There are so many consequences that can be caused by an unhealthy
workspace. If the staff are catch the wrong vibe in that firm, they can rate the low star
and give some negative review online, or even make-up the story. As a
telecomunication
firm,
Viettel probably understand the power of digital
communication.
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QUESTION 3
From your above analysis/findings, please provide implications/ solutions for
any vietnam company to have a better performance in that country.
In reality, Viettel have recently apply some strategy to solve the above issues
that are quite efficient.
Viettel intends to be Asia's premier equipment manufacturer in electronic
telecommunications, information technology, and automation control. Viettel's
mission is straightforward. Viettel seeks to awaken Vietnam's strength. Viettel ensures
that its personnel are well-versed in communication skills and have a positive attitude
toward customers. Furthermore, Viettel hires individuals with strong English abilities
in order to realize the company's objective and vision.
The external factor that influences Viettel and the company’s human resource
practices is their reputaion. Viettel has risen to the top of the list of the world's top 100
telecoms companies. Furthermore, changes in the telecom sector's management, such
as the telecommunications price ceiling, the limitation of promotional forms, the
registration of personal information, and so on, have a significant impact on Viettel's
process business. Viettel has chosen not to engage more than one person to work in
different roles due to the effects of the economic crisis and volatility. The organization
is continuously on the lookout for people who can work in a variety of roles. To save
money on operations, Viettel has to minimize the number of employees and hire
multi-skilled workers.
The societal impacts on employee expectations come next. There will be
certain effects on Viettel as a result of higher employee expectations, and the
corporation will have to adapt its organizational structure. If Viettel wishes to attract
more qualified personnel, it must provide a competitive compensation.
The last effect is due to technical progress. Technology is progressing, and this
will have an impact on recruiting. At work, the use of technology and automation
reduces the number of people required. And since the technology are sync, there will
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be less misunderstanding at work. Viettel should continue to train its employees in
new technology capabilities,
There is one point that I think Viettel should upgrade is that training technology
need to be done at the same time with training about the firm culture and lifestyle.
Viettel currently uses management training courses in the form of on-the-job training
or distance learning by incorporating information technology into the training process.
That would be great if they combine them together. And they should do the training
area by area.
The performance evaluation and reward is necessary to remove inequality.
Employee evaluation is done in two ways at Viettel. The Paired Comparison Method
is the first. An employee will be assessed for other employees in the same department,
and vice versa. This strategy is handy for evaluators, but it is prone to prejudice,
therefore Viettel has used it less in recent years. The second technique is the rating
system. Viettel uses a scale for self-evaluation; each employee rates himself or herself
based on a performance evaluation, and the manager checks in on weekends. This
approach has a high level of self-control, saves time, and allows for correct evaluation.
This is the approach that is most usually utilized. The main goals of conducting yearly
performance evaluations are to improve employee performance and determine
appropriate remuneration and rewards. The goal of this strategy is: to discover and
recognize exceptional employees, and employee morale and self-discipline will
improve as a result of your efforts.
In fact, Viettel have already done their staff reward quite impressed. Employees
at Viettel will be eligible for all of the state's regular benefits. Viettel buys health
insurance for its employees and pays for their social insurance. Furthermore, Viettel
offers a variety of foreign language programs to help employees enhance their foreign
language abilities. There are several incentives and rewards available to your staff. For
instance, when employees utilize Viettel services, they receive a free ATM card, as
well as free gifts and discounts. In addition, the Military Telecom Corporation
(Viettel) held an event to recognize individuals, collective excellence, outstanding
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contributions, and group breakthroughs throughout the year. This is an annual
competition to identify the greatest people and groups, and 2018 is the first year it has
been dubbed "The Best of Viettel." Individuals who were recognized at "The Best of
Viettel" were given VND 100 million and a VND 100 million study trip abroad.
They're all in their early twenties.
In term of employee involvement, Viettel Company holds contests every year
to encourage workers to come up with innovative ideas. Employees of Viettel can
register to participate, or they can opt out if they don't want to. The goal of this
competition is to bring employees together and identify the finest individual to award.
Viettel's incentive is generally in the form of cash or special privileges when utilizing
the company's services. As a result, the majority of Viettel employees are keen to
participate in this competition. This competition allows them to hone their abilities
and come up with fresh business concepts.
All the solutions are in efficient performance mode, but what if they can make
it in a bigger range, like brach to branch, country to country. The staff will gain more
motivation as the reward is even more valuable.
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REFERENCES
1. Thi Huong Dang, Thi-Ngoc Bich Chu. (2019). The Effects of Human Resource
Management Practices on Organizational Commitment – The Case of Viettel
Group. EDESUS Proceeding 2019 (33 of 1531).
2. The 8th International Conference on Emerging Challenges: CONTEMPORARY
ISSUES IN INNOVATION AND MANAGEMENT. (2020). Hanoi University Of
Science And Technology School Of Economics And Management.
3. Paul R. Krugman, Maurice Obstfeld, Marc J. Melitz. (2012). International
Economics Theory & Policy (9th ed.). Pearson Education.
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