Reference no: EM132878145 , Length: word count:3000

Question 1. The Essential Readings given in the attached to you for this module should be your primary reference sources for this assignment.

Additional, independently researched sources that you use must meet the requirements for being reliable academic sources.

2. In order to pass, your assignment must show rigorous acknowledgement of sources in the form of a) in-text reference citations and b) a reference list.

3. Make sure you follow the Guidelines for writing the assignment on p.2 of this document.

Assignment brief:

Part 1. Critically assess the Hofstede and Trompenaars models of national culture.

Part 2. Use ONE of the case studies listed below to discuss how a specific cross-border business venture was impacted by cultural differences, as follows:

a) Referring to the Hofstede and Trompenaars models of national culture, assess and explain how national culture may have influenced the actions and behaviours of the organisations, and the outcome of the venture.

b) Referring to the Organisational Culture Inventory, explain how organisational culture may have played a role in the failure or success of the venture.

Write a short conclusion

Case study choices :
Choose one of the following cross-border ventures as a case study:
• Upjohn (American) and Pharmacia (Swedish) merger
• BenQ (Taiwanese) and Siemens (Germany) merger
• Daimler-Benz (German) and Chrysler (American) merger
• Ford (American) acquisition of Jaguar (British) compared with Tata (Indian) acquisition of Jaguar.
• Volvo (Swedish) and Renault (French) merger
• Amazon (American) market entry into China
• Tesco (British) market entry into Japan
• Marks & Spencer (British) compared with Zara (Spanish) market entry into China

Length: 3,000 words

Follow the Guidelines for each part of the essay below :
Guidelines for completing each part of the essay:

Part 1:
First show your understanding of each of the models (Hofstede and Trompenaars) and the dimensions of national culture that each proposes. (To further illustrate your understanding, you could think of using the countries involved in your chosen cross-border case study to explain how things are likely to work in these countries on some of the culture dimensions).

Then think about criticisms of the models. Some of these criticisms are likely to relate to how the models were developed and how data was collected. Other criticisms might relate to how the world has changed in recent years under the impact of globalisation and mass migration, and what superdiversity means for notions of ‘national culture'.

Part 2:
Introduce your chosen venture, giving a short summary of the venture: the context and the general outcome. Then:

a) Referring to dimensions of national culture, discuss:
• What were the cultural challenges for the organisations involved in the venture?
In thinking about the challenges, use what you know about the national cultural tendencies of the two (or three) countries. How different or similar are they on the dimensions of culture? (Use the statistics on the Hofstede's country comparison website and the Trompenaars&Hampden-Turner book as evidence).

• Going beyond Hofstede and Trompenaars, what do you know about typical workplace values, attitudes and communication styles in the two countries in the venture?

• How do you think these different (or similar) cultural tendencies could have impacted the outcomes? Do you think that cultural differences were taken into account by the organisations? Were adaptations made? Or were they not understood? b) Referring to what you learned about corporate culture and the Organisational Culture Inventory, discuss:
• Compared to Ideal Culture, how do you think the Actual Culture of the company/companies in your venture would look if mapped onto the OCI? (You will have to make assumptions about their Actual culture, based on your research on the companies).

• Suggest why the Actual Cultures of these companies could have either helped or hindered a successful outcome in the venture.

Conclusion:
Provide a paragraph with a few well thought out conclusions: How useful, in your opinion, are the Hofstede and Trompenaars models of national culture in helping to explain successes or failures in the venture? How do the two models compare in usefulness, in your opinion? How useful was the OCI in helping to explain the outcome of the venture?

Attachment:- Assignment_File.rar