The models of the culture of global automobile companies. The model of culture the most appropriate for the selected international competitor
Some of the three most known models of culture are Hofstede, Hall/Hall, and Gesteland. Hofstede’s model arose from interviews with employees of IBM in over 50 countries. The other two models were the results of 30 years and 27 years of personal experience, respectively. Hofstede and Gesteland have five dimensions of culture, while Hall/Hall has four dimensions (Jakobsen, 2009). Hofstede measured power distance, collectivism vs. individualism, femininity vs. masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term vs. short-term orientation.
Hall/Hall measured time as monochronic or polychronic, context as high or low, message speed as fast or slow, and space as high or low territorially. Finally, Gesteland measured relationship vs. deal-focused culture, low vs. high-context culture, formal versus informal culture, polychronic vs. monochronic culture, and expressive vs. reserved culture (Jakobsen, 2009).
Hall surveyed a few countries only, but he had many interviews. On the other hand, Gesteland relied on personal experience without statistics when doing research. Hofstede’s model is the most common and homogeneous because it includes many countries and a substantial number of interviews.
The three global automobile companies chosen for this paper are the Ford Group, Toyota, and Daimler. Toyota has a constant improvement culture, while Ford has a tight management culture. Daimler has a culture of integrity that determines the eventual decisions made at every level of the company (Daimler, 2015). Toyota teaches and embraces a culture of continuous improvement. At the same time, it seeks to have respect for people.
The model of culture that best suits the Daimler automobile company is Hofstede’s model because it measures the cultural attributes of countries from all over the world and includes a wide variety of features. It would suit the description of Daimler due to its diversity and singleness of purpose. According to Hofstede’s model, culture is the collective programming of the mind, which ends up distinguishing members of a group from non-members (Jakobsen, 2009).
The type of economic system that best relates to each of the researched international competitors. The potential effects of such an economic system on the societies in which the system is involved
The competitors to Daimler are Toyota and Ford Group. The economic system best relating to Toyota is a mixed economy, where the state has a substantial influence on markets and ensures that companies do not exploit and disrespect people. Daimler also appears to suit a mixed economy, where there is enough freedom for individuals to pursue perfection. At the same time, there are guidelines on what the pursuit of perfection should cost the society to prevent harming others and allow healthy competition. Meanwhile, the Ford group would go well with a market economy, where individual goals succeed, and companies pursue profits above everything else.
The mixed economy’s effect on societies enhances competition and reduces the price of goods and services to make them affordable. However, sometimes it leads to inefficiencies in companies because of regulations, such as price-fixing, which do not realize true market equilibrium prices. The mixed system can cause overproduction of goods and services or underproduction, depending on fixed prices and their influence on consumer demand. Meanwhile, a market economy ensures that companies operate as efficiently as possible, and consumers have adequate knowledge about the availability of goods and services. However, consumers may miss essential services and goods because the supply of such products does not make a lucrative business sense for companies. In addition, in market economies, companies can go on to exploit resources without caring about sustainability.
The major reasons why certain countries have lagged behind other countries in economic development. The generic actions that the researched major competitors could take in order to encourage economic progress within these countries
Some countries lag behind others in economic development because they lack sufficient resources and have low levels of per capita incomes that cause the overall demand for goods and services in their economies to remain low. The level of domestic competition in various industries could also be low, such that companies face little incentive to innovate and come up with value-added processes that increase commodity prices and revenue potential. Higher incomes for companies will eventually lead to higher incomes to the government. However, the government may contribute to slow economic growth due to the misallocation of resources and failure to reduce the cost of production and distribution of goods and services. This can happen because of corruption or lack of sufficient human capital to enable a government to make the right policies for guiding the development of its economy.
The generic actions that Daimler, Toyota, and Ford Group could take to encourage economic progress in their countries would be to establish manufacturing plants in those countries as a first step. This would stimulate employment, leading to high disposable incomes and increasing the reputation of the countries as preferred destinations for manufacturers. A second step would be to invest in local businesses and infrastructural projects over the long term so that their profits from global sales become sources of foreign exchange earnings for their countries.
The earnings should be useful for investing in energy and other infrastructure projects that lower the cost of production and make the goods and services produced in these countries compete globally. A third action is for the companies to become innovative in their business practices and operations to set a standard for other businesses to follow. This should encourage growth in the whole economy. Innovation sets the pace for inter-industry collaboration and learning, which eventually translate to a culture of constant improvement for the firms in the economy (Tallman, 2009).
Leading an international company. The steps to take in order to propel a person to a global leadership/management position at the company (education, social development, community activities, bargaining skills, language skills, conflict management skills)
Daimler would be the company that is most interesting to lead because it is a global leader in the production of luxury vehicles and has maintained the reputation and position for many decades. Its culture promotes integrity, and the organization provides a number of options for career growth in both business and technical sides. The company manages a network of global distributors and subsidiaries and maintains cordial relationships with its suppliers and customers at the same time. Daimler also has an employee development program that provides opportunities for career growth inside and outside the organization.
I have to advance my education to achieve a comprehensive knowledge of global business practices to become a leader of Daimler. This will require me to be an employee of Daimler or another global automobile company at a substantial leadership position for a while as a learning process. It will also require me to enhance my social development skills and become a good negotiator. I have to embrace both inspirational and transformative leadership styles so that I can maintain the excellent reputation of the company and lead it effectively whenever there are conflicts arising from stakeholders within and outside the company.
Additionally, I have to be conversant with global cultures and economies to understand different motivators for consumer decisions. I must also embrace varied market segmentation approaches for the company’s product to reflect different economic sizes, level of competition, and regulatory regimes. Speaking and writing more than three global languages will be a plus while having sufficient conflict management skills is mandatory for such a position.
To reach this position, I will continue with my studies and seek on-the-job training opportunities that will help grow my experience. I will also take part in community leadership projects in order to improve my people management skills. Moreover, I will have to run a business with a global reach as an employee or an owner to become conversant with the global playing field and its challenges. I must also travel around the world and interact with people from many cultures.
The global changes in expansion, technology, marketing, products, services, human resources, and customer service, etc. that the CEO of the selected international organization would make
The two global changes will be to improve human resources and marketing of products. Within these two broad changes, there will be staff changes in some of the global business units that are underperforming. Staff changes will create urgency for improvement, and the new occupants of top-level management positions in those countries will be selected from the most capable backgrounds. However, the main intention of changing staff will be to ensure that any learned bad practice that was corrupting the Daimler traditions and cultures does not continue to hurt the company.
As a leader, maintaining a homogenous culture throughout the organization will facilitate better coordination of growth and expansion. Daimler will continue concentrating on the luxury and executive markets of the respective countries of operations. In some countries, the dealers will have to improve their marketing or lose their dealership. Pushing the values of the company to independent dealers will ensure a universal Daimler shopping experience for customers. Additionally, as CEO, I will also increase the visibility of the brand through corporate sponsorships and media outreach events globally to counter the increasing competition from other car manufacturers around the world.
References
Daimler. (2015). Culture of integrity. Web.
Jakobsen, S. H. (2009). Negotiation: The art of reaching agreement. Copenhagen: Academica. Web.
Tallman, S. (2009). Global strategy. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. Web.