Cross Cultural Business Issues (Assignment) - 1000 words

Case study

You work for accounting firm based in Barcelona. Recently there has been a joint venture with a UK company but working conditions have deteriorated with many complaints being made by both the Spanish and UK staff about the working styles of the others. Here are some examples of the complaints.

Spanish complaints about the British:

The bosses dont act like managers, they dont command authority they want to consult their subordinates on everything, and Ive even seen workers

argue with the boss in meetings about silly ideas there is no respect!

Some of the managers are so young! I dont want to take order from a kid!

British complaints about the Spanish:

There is so much inconsistency with the rules they are always trying to make exceptions. Here, I have found its good to be friends with payroll

department if you want to be sure to be paid on time! It shouldnt be that way!

They are incapable of making decisions without getting a group consensus- it makes everything so slow. Cant they just make decisions for themselves

sometimes?

Question:

These complaints are symptomatic of two cultures that are distinct according to the findings of Hofstede and Trompenaars. Analyse the situation by not only identifying the dimensions that could be the cause of each complaint, but also examine what other difficulties they could cause and how the two cultures could work together better. You should back it up with evidence from Hofstede and Trompenaars.