The crossvergence concept is important as it addresses development, interaction and growth of economies and its impact on culture. This subsequently leads to the creation of unique values among individuals in a society. It is highly influenced by interactions of culture and business ideas. This improves with high development in communication and technology. It is a theory that includes both the classic convergence and divergence concepts. It consists of three categories, namely; conforming – crossvergence, static – crossvergence, and deviating – crossvergence (Thanasankit, 2003, p.200).
In order to stay competitive, businesses would change some of their practices and cultural patterns to imitate those practiced by more successful organizations. This comes as a result of constant pressure to improve product quality. Individuals and sub-groups joined together bring national culture and economic influences, leading to different, unique value system (Kelley, 2006, p.69). Cross-national influencers would move around to new national boundaries in the form of foreign direct investment, partnerships, new competition and influence others economically. Importation of foreign management practices through international joint ventures with transnational organizations is prone to cross-border migration.
Culture is not static for those working in dynamic environments. For example, people in business and management where global competition and market forces render heavy and meaningful influences see differences in styles, strategy and other variables (Kelley, 2006, p.69). Industries and institutions are making meaningful shifts due to increased competition and advancement in technology. The same culture led to similarities of managers in southern china and differed between the mainland and certain regions of china with different subcultures. Organizations’ policies and practices need to take account of complex interactions between different cultural values as collective societies form social frameworks with a high degree of loyalty and exchange favors between the group members. Narrowing power distances might respond to positive closer relationships between superiors and subordinates in a company (Mead, 2005, p 16). Due to uncertainty and discontinuity, the modern manager has to acquire skills of facilitating other people. Linguistics and other regional nuances specifically bring differences in managerial attitude between regions.
Cultural values are directly reflected in the observation of people’s behaviors. The Indonesians’ high collectivism was reflected in how they organize their lunch hours and influence other workplace activities, their social and work priorities, loyalties, and relationships between groups (Mead, 2005). Many people seek to work for organizations whose values fit their own and would take the role of a ‘’whistle-blower” against their organization when things that conflict with their values are done. Values are groups of beliefs and some people may discriminate against women, biological differences between sexes, attitudes to homosexuals and lesbians and have problems with people of one gender working in jobs commonly associated with the opposite gender (a man as midwife, a woman as soldier). A reward belief system may be formed to shape values about equity. Sometimes people judge others in the process of selection, appraisal or promotion and organizations’ policies and practices need to take account of complex interactions between different cultures (Furnham, 2005, p. 231). Attitudes are predicted from a series of behaviors of individuals. Individuals work together more than for individual recognition. Thus managers should devise policies and procedures that should be strictly followed. These policies should be in detail and in written format. Organization policies and practices should be effective and in relation to Crossverging realities as cultural positions among regions and nations are also changing. People respond to man-made parts of the environment that is shared and passed through communications, resulting in greater satisfaction for those in the community. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that language and language patterns provide a set of concepts that cause a person’s overall cognition (Kelley, 2006, p.69).
Reference List
- Furnham, A. (2005) The psychology of behavior at work: the individual in the organization. Chicago: Psychology Press.
- Kelley, L., MacNab, B., & Worthley, R. (2006) ‘Crossvergence and Cultural Tendencies’, Journal of International Management, 12, 67-84.
- Mead, R. (2009) International management: cross-cultural dimensions. London: Wiley Blackwell.
- Thanasankit, T. (2003) E-commerce and cultural values. New York: Idea Group Inc (IGI).