Essay Sample: The Four Fundamentals of Management and Intercultural Communication

The four fundamentals of management

In the global scale, managers tend to experience challenges in conducting their functions effectively. Therefore, to successively manage an organization, managers have continued to adopt the fundamentals of management. The fundamentals of management provide four functions namely; planning, organizing, leading and controlling (Schraeder et al., 2014). Planning involves forecasting through developing mission, vision and strategizing on how to achieve the set goals and objectives. The second function which is organizing revolves around developing an organizational structure that assists in attaining the set goals and allocating the human resources. On the other hand, leading deals with the behavioral management which aims at inspiring others through proper actions. Lastly, controlling aims at ensuring that the performance and results are as expected and that they do not deviate from the planned performance.

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For firms operating in the international market to perform well, they need to have a global strategy which works hand in hand with the management fundamentals. The global market is usually competitive; hence, organizations are required to have an effective and efficient global strategy. An effective strategy identifies the path that an institution is planning to pursue and develop unique innovations to succeed in the ever-changing environment. Also, an effective global strategy should incorporate the four fundamentals of management in all the four functions (Schraeder et al., 2014). An effective global strategy encompasses upfront planning through setting achievable goals to cover every aspect of the four principles of management. Therefore, for a firm to be successful in the international marketing, it should integrate its comprehensive approach with the four management principles.

McDonald's is a leading fast-food company that has been successful through the implementation of an effective global strategy. The fast foods company operates globally but customizes its products to suit the target customers. Tailoring the products is done through planning in advance and realizing what the customers in a given region prefer. After planning, the company developed an organizational structure and allocated local staffs to local outlets to ensure better customer service. As the McDonald's operates globally, it aligned its global strategy to the leading principle where the outlets operated uniformly with similar colors. Lastly, the company has a robust feedback platform for customers to evaluate the customer satisfaction which is part of the control function in management. It is therefore clear that companies that align their global strategies with management functions tend to succeed.

Cultural Differences in Communication

Individuals from different regions possess communication differences attributed to cultural diversity. Communication within two different cultures or regions can be challenging due to various factors such as fluency and the manner in which individuals present ideas. Expression of ideas has an impact on the cohesiveness within the workplace as communication breakdown would lead to confusion. Also, Scott and Wildman (2015) ascertain how the decision-making process tends to be time-consuming due to different norms when contributing to discussions. Some cultures appear to have different perspectives on eliciting ideas some feel that they cannot express their opinions before their seniors. Others are hesitant to contribute to prevent being seen as foolish or uninformed. With the challenges mentioned above, it might be challenging to communicate and conduct business together.

In efforts to overcome communication challenges that come with cultural diversity, institutions should adopt effective measures and continually review them. Among the proposals, leaders should establish cross-cultural teams to develop clear communication protocols. When soliciting opinions, every member should be given a chance to communicate and express their idea (Scott & Wildman, 2015). Also, leaders heading discussions should encourage contribution and communication among members through appreciating ideas contributed. To overcome the fluency and clarity challenge, members should shape their message and learn to listen actively. Active listening and message shaping ensure that any message being communicated is clear and understood by others.

Decision-making process

Decision-making process tends to be difficult but so critical to every organization. The project management institute advocates for a five steps process for making effective decisions. The process starts with stating the problem/goal where the problem is identified, and a clearer understanding of the problem is established. Rust (2012), defines the second phase and how it involves the gathering of information for weighing your options to have a couple of alternatives for choosing the best option. The third step is to consider the consequences that will come with the choice selected. After reviewing the results that would come up with choosing the alternative, decision making follows where one identifies the best solution based on the information gathered through the process. Finally, the decision made is evaluated to find out if the decision has solved the problem at hand.

Competitive vs. Cooperative Cultures

Teams working from different locations across the globe can be puzzling giving rise to conflicts. Competitive negotiators have developed a dispute resolution process which can be ideal for virtual teams. Competitive negotiations tend to possess hostility and attitude towards opposite parties, and each party tends to think that their way is perfect (Tao & Ave, 2014). Negotiators in the method believe that they have lost when their opponents get what they want. On the other hand, cooperative negotiations collaborate to achieve a common objective for the best interest of both parties. The method tends to be better as compared to the competitive way because both parties interest is considered.

References

Rust, J. (2012). A Simple 5-Step Decision-Making Process. Retrieved from mirasol.net/blog/five-step-decision-making.php

Schraeder, M., Self, D. R., Jordan, M. H., & Portis, R. (2014). The Functions of Management as Mechanisms for Fostering Interpersonal Trust. Advances in Business Research, 5, 50-62. Retrieved from journals.sfu.ca/abr%0Ahttp://journals.sfu.ca/abr/index.php/abr/index

Scott, C. P., & Wildman, J. L. (2015). Culture, communication, and conflict: A review of the global virtual team literature. In Leading global teams (pp. 13-32). Springer.

Tao, X., & Ave, N. (2014). A Cooperative-Competitive Negotiation Model. Routledge