Attached is a cross cultural management case study, “Japanese Companies in Germany”.
In broad terms, this assignment will cover the student outcomes expectation set out in the Subject Outline, which were:
• Distinguish cultural similarities and differences between people.
• Identify ways in which culture may affect organizations and their management.
• Apply relevant cross-cultural theories and frameworks in an effort to understand business challenges and problems in a global environment.
• Reflect on the role of culture in verbal and non-verbal cross-cultural communication.
You are required to analyse the case study, as indicated under these headings:
1. (5 marks) Identify FIVE persons, bodies, organisations or groups in the case study.
2. (5 marks) For EACH of the five you have chosen, identify and comment on cultural similarities and differences for each of them separately (these differences need not be from the case study)
3. (5 marks) Identify and comment on ways in which culture appears TO YOU to affect each of the five you have chosen. This could be on their management or for any other reason.
4. (10 marks) Identify FIVE instances from the case study of verbal and non-verbal communication This does NOT need to be relevant to the five you have chosen in answering Question 1.
5. (15 marks) Give THREE definitions of culture. This can be from your reading of various text books or from any other sources. You must give references if you quote from a source.
6. (5 marks) In his writings up to the early 21st century, Geert Hofstede identified five dimensions of culture. He then gave a number of countries “scores” within these dimensions. What were the dimensions and what were the scores he gave to the following countries? (See Table in Question 6)
7. (5 marks) Following on from Hofstede’s work, the Project GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organisational Behaviour Effectiveness) study – pages 173 to 182 of the Text Book “Cross Cultural…