Cross-Cultural Perspectives essay
Ford is one of the largest automakers in the US. Today, the company operates globally. Ford conducts operations in different countries of the world opening its outlets in different countries. The international market expansion opens new opportunities for the company to enhance its marketing performance and competitive position in the industry in global terms. However, the international market expansion stimulated by the process of globalization brings not only positive effects but also raises substantial problems, which Ford has to overcome to keep growing and to enhance its marketing position consistently. In such a situation, Ford faces substantial cultural barriers because the company has to operate in the multicultural environment. At the same time, the company should come prepared to take into consideration ethical and social issues to avoid internal conflicts within the company and to maintain positive company-customer relationships. Therefore, the process of globalization opens large opportunities for such companies as Ford to expand its operations globally but the international market expansion raises cultural, ethical and social issues, which the company has to deal with to keep progressing and maintaining its business development successfully.
Today, the company operates internationally due to the progress of globalization which contributed to the elimination of fiscal barriers and emergence of free trade. In such a situation, Ford has taken the full advantage of the globalization to advance its business to international markets. The company has expanded its operations globally to reach its target customer group worldwide. The international market expansion involves the construction of assembling plants and research centers of the company in different countries of the world, establishing corporate standards in new outlets of the company.
As Ford enters new markets, the company confronts the problem of cultural barriers which are two-fold. On the one hand, the company faces the problem of cultural gaps between managers of the company transferred from the US and local managers and employees hired by the company in local labor markets. Local employees have different cultural norms and traditions. They are accustomed to a different management style and manager-employee relationship. As a result, when they start working with American managers, the latter may face considerable problems because their management style may fail to work effectively because of cultural differences between managers’ and employees’ background.
On the other hand, Ford confronts the problem of cultural gaps between the company and customers. To enter a foreign market successfully, Ford has to close cultural gaps between traditional policies of the company and cultural norms and traditions of customers. Customers have specific cultural background and the company cannot ignore it, while developing its business in a new market. For instance, European culture is apparently different from American one. In such a situation, policies that work effectively in the US may not always work in the EU.
At the same time, to eliminate possible cultural barriers, Ford attempts to introduce cultural norms and standards, which are grounded on universal, humanistic values. In such a situation, the company attempts to avoid the risk of cultural conflicts within the company as well as between the company and its customers. The introduction of corporate standards helps the company to develop universal policies for all outlets of the company, regardless of their physical location. In this regard, the company has to take into consideration the flexibility of its corporate cultural standards.
In this regard, the flexibility is one of the crucial elements of policies conducted by the company. Ford encourages its managers to conduct flexible policies. In fact, flexibility helps managers to adapt to the culturally diverse environment (Ogbu, 1993). As a result, managers can elaborate the management style that matches cultural norms and traditions of their subordinates. In such a way, managers will minimize the risk of errors. At the same time, the company also focuses on hiring local managers and employees to minimize the risk of tension and cultural conflicts between managers and employees. Instead of transferring managers from the US, the company offers local managers and employees training that makes them come prepared to work according to corporate standards.
However, cultural issues may be complicated by ethical issues that arise in the course of the global expansion of Ford. In this respect, it is worth mentioning the fact that the company entering the new market may face considerable ethical problems, which often emerge because of cultural differences. For instance, Ford operates internationally that means that the company operates in developing countries or countries, where democracy is under-developed. As a result, the company has to adapt its policies to specific cultural environment and to deal with ethical issues that arise. For instance, Ford may face the problem of corruption, when operating outside the US in a developing country. Hence, considerable ethical issues arise. On the one hand, the company needs to implement its strategy of the international market expansion and to enter the new market. On the other hand, the company faces the problem of corruption and the risk of unfair competition. In such a situation, the problem of corruption means that the company has to deal with local, corrupted authorities (Van der Borght, 2000). In such a situation, Ford confronts the ethical dilemma between its corporate standards, which do not admit the involvement of the company in corruptive actions, on the one hand, and the corruption of the local authorities, on the other.
At the same time, the international market expansion of Ford faces a number of social issues, which affect consistently the organizational performance of the company. For instance, social standards and social security in the EU, one of the major markets for the company, is consistently higher than in the US. As a result, the company has to develop its social responsibility in relation to employees, which may include compensation plans, health care coverage, and other socially important issues. In fact, the development of the social responsibility of the company becomes very important for Ford not only in the EU but also in the US and other countries because social standards keep progressing.
Moreover, the company has to respect social standards and conduct policies of social responsibility to maintain the positive image of the company in the US and the EU. For instance, if the company slips to the violation of employees’ rights or the use of child labor, Ford is likely to confront substantial problems in the US and the EU. As a result, Ford tends to conduct policies of social responsibility in any country, where the company operates.
Thus, the process of globalization opens new opportunities for Ford to expand its business internationally. However, the company confronts the problem of cultural barriers between its cultural background and specific cultural norms and standards of employees and customers abroad. The international market expansion also raises ethical and social issues, which the company has to deal with to implement this strategy successfully.
