Culture has played an important part in the history of mankind. With recent changes in organizational environment, it has also become an important facet that is being considered by companies.
This is especially true for the companies that have elevated their presence to join the international scene.In general, culture is considered to be the ways of living and beliefs that is observed within a particular community and is shared by its members (Bodley, 2006).Expectedly, there are differences in culture that is caused by several factors among which are geographic distances and environmental differences. The marked differences between the two cultures are the ones which need to be focused on by the cultures involved as a part of their accommodation.
Likewise, the centrality of the particular element of culture should also be taken into consideration because of the role it plays in the lives of the people (Olshfski & Cunningham, 2008). Should there be the inability to accommodate all of these, a compromise should be done on the basis of whether it affects the goals of the organization and other essential elements of culture that contribute to this end.As accommodation of another culture becomes costly in terms of quality of services, differences, and impact to the organization as is shown in Gupta (2007), it becomes imperative for the company to take into thought a plan where an agreement can be made between the cultures as to the extent of their accommodation.On the other hand, there is the likelihood that other alternatives deemed to be less expensive than the accommodation of the culture will be taken by the company such as dealing with a more compatible culture.
Should an impasse be encountered, an arbiter or a third party may be of great help in order to reconcile the differences that the parties are not seeing. There might be four outcomes in terms of the situation herein where the parties may reach a win-win, win-lose, or a lose-lose situation (Lele, 1992). Likewise, it is not on being the host or the guest that should serve as the basis for choosing who should accommodate more but on the capacity and the nature of the things that need to be done.ReferencesBodley, J. H. (2006).
"Culture." In Microsoft® Student 2007 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation.Gupta, R. (2007). Outsourcing or ostracizing.
Retrieved January 8, 2008, from http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/EvergreenEnergy/gupta.html.Lele, M. (1992).
Creating strategic leverage: Matching company strengths with market opportunities. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Olshfski, D. & Cunningham, R. (2008).
Agendas and decisions: How state government executives and middle managers make and administer policy. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
