Introduction
Today’s marketplace has a growing challenge in securing a marketplace for serving multicultural and international customers. Organizations, therefore, need successfully to adopt a service delivery that will successfully satisfy the expanding, diverse marketplace. Taking into account the business expansion which is taking place globally, it creates a situation where there will be a clash of culture, where there is lack of culture understanding, and both in the home front(U.S Jand abroad. Evidently, servicing customers who speak different languages and from different cultures require different abilities and skills other than those of traditional clients.
Culture has different aspects that can cause conflicts and confusion; such issues go beyond manner of dress and religious differences. Such differences include hierarchal manner in business dealings, way of communication, hand gestures, eye contact need for personal space and casual touching. An excellent example of a country that an expatriate manager is sent is China. The first step to overcoming cultural challenges is through overcoming language barrier; this can be done through learning commonly used vocabulary and possibly learning the use of gestures.
Also, culture difference can be overcome through culture awareness training prior to being posted to the host country. It includes learning important things about the Chinese culture and the Chinese people and how they behave, so that it may be easier to associate with them. Additionally, it is important for the expatriate to appreciate the Chinese culture, to prevent a lot of future conflicts. In the same note, it is important to be aware of the culture difference, and the need for behavioral change as it does not occur through a one-time training session. Studies show that for organizations to be productive, some effort has to be invested in building relationships. Therefore, employees and even managers need to be disciplined for the benefit of the organization that they are posted.
