Reflection on practice

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Section 1: Introduction and Problem Statement
Culture has many different definitions but most of them have a lot in common. It is said in the business world that there are several attributes that define and distinguish cultures of so many nations from each other, such as traditions, techniques, beliefs, institutions and many more (Miller, Griffin, Di Paolo & Sherbert, 2009).

In recent years, due to the worldwide expansion of the economy, multinational companies had to take actions in order to stay competitive. They have decided to go further outside their countries of origin improving and widening their chains all over the world and broadening their borders in order to offer products and services to people from different cultures (Lin, Koroglu & Olson, 2012). In 2004 Hyundai Truck & Bus in Russia had 18 dealers all over the country and the number had increased to 47 by 2005. As for now there are 62 dealers of “Hyundai ComTrans Rus” in the country and the number is forecasted to grow. In the meantime the main competitors of “Hyundai” in the commercial transport market in Russia have been expanding rapidly since the beginning of their operating activity in the European part of the country. “HINO Motors” company entered the market at the end of 2008 and now has 19 enterprises in their dealer’s network. “Mitsubishi FUSO Truck and Bus Corporation” started operating in May 2010 and has 37 dealers by present. These numbers indicate the growth of dealer’s networks of large and multinational foreign companies in a commercial transport market in Russia (Lebedyantseva & Litovchenko, 2012).

The development of these multinational companies is one of the most important and significant events for the economy of the world in the previous years. The companies able to enter the foreign markets usually possess big budgets and employ many workers. They are capable of competing with the largest companies in different countries that are less developed economically and financially (Ekerete, 2001).

In the end the cultural difference could play a significant role in relationships between the two sides such as the Asian company and their official distributor in a Western country, or the two people of different nationalities in one company. This important aspect could in the future be the key to success, both for producers and consumers (Fletcher, 2006). “Hyundai ComTrans Rus” employs people of many nationalities and different cultures, representing a South Korean based automaker “Hyundai Motor Company” in a heavy truck and bus market. Working in such surroundings gives a lot of experience and opens up new possibilities but in a meantime it shows potential issues and obstacles caused by a difference in mentality, culture and beliefs.

Marketing and Advertising, being the first line of communication between the producer and the potential consumer, are important and it is crucial to know whether the cultural differences within the corporation could influence both of them, and if so, how much. To some extent both of the departments could be influenced by the cultural differences, which could lead to the need for another marketing approach or use of different advertising tools from the ones used in the country the company originates from. In the case of “Hyundai ComTrans Rus”, thrift and frugality common among Asian companies do not correspond to the mentality of the people of Eastern Europe. There is a gap between the desires of the South Korean managers and the needs for marketing and advertising of the local employees in the Russian commercial transport market. This is a conflict, which needs to be researched in order to be able to give possible solutions. The purpose of this paper would be to determine a gap that impacts the marketing and advertising operations in a multinational company, do a research about this and give recommendations on how to resolve the issue. The research paper would consist of a literature review being based on articles related to the research question from different sources. Primary data, as the main source of information, would be collected in order to develop the research, all from professional Marketing managers and directors of Advertising, having great work experience in multinational companies being located in one country and being managed and controlled from another country of different culture. The collection of primary data would be done through a series of individual interviews during which questions would be asked concerning the issue, overall work atmosphere and more. In the end the aim would be to understand to what extent the cultural differences between employees in a multinational company affect and limit marketing and advertising operations and what are the possible solutions?

Section 2: Literature Review

It is said that in recent years multinational corporations have expanded more throughout the world and created a number of branches that ease their involvement in international partnerships and open new markets and, therefore, possibilities for further development and such companies employ not only workers from the countries of origin, but also a significant number of people of different cultures and nationalities from the country of operations (Rozkwitalska, 2013). It is also stated that an everyday cross-cultural contact being established at the place of work forces these branches to meet the needs of their employees and consumers, thus, understand the culture (Rozkwitalska, 2013). If any kinds of disputes arise in the workplace in the company among employees of different culture, this could interrupt the operations in any department including marketing and advertising and the efficiency of the work could decline, therefore it is very important to identify the obstacles that cause misunderstanding between co-workers in order to increase employee’s satisfaction and, by that, improve their quality of work, motivation and intercommunication (Rozkwitalska, 2013). This could help in resolving future disagreements concerning marketing and advertising approach and tools.

A different article supports the previous argument that cultural differences do affect relationships among co-workers with different background, religion and beliefs and it is emphasized that there are two identified variables, which impact the workforce in a multinational company: the management and the employees (He & Liu, 2010). Both of the parties play a big role in influencing the communication as the way employees are managed in a new environment is as important as the attitude of employees working in a new workplace among people of different cultures and traditions and in most cases it is the gap between these variables and the outcome of it, such as misunderstanding of information, lack of communication etc., which could create more obstacles for a healthy operation in marketing and advertising and, thus, obstructing the company from achieving their objectives (He & Liu, 2010). According to the same study it is suggested that the multinational company operating in a new environment should not be managed and obliged to communicate in the same way as the headquarters in the country of origin due to differences in cultures, which could lead to disputes, therefore the parent company has to find a way to adapt to a different way of operations in a new place and learn as much as possible about the traditions and approaches in marketing and advertising operations of particular countries (He & Liu, 2010).

It is stated that a lot of issues among different cultures arise from reluctance of the headquarters of the company to respect and take into account the methods of operations used in a particular country that are impacted by specific cultural characteristics related to this concrete environment (He & Liu, 2010). Communication plays a significant role in the life of prosperous multicultural international companies due to a highly competitive environment they are forced to operate in and efficiency of a company is partially dependent on methods and approaches used for marketing communications and managers in multicultural environments should not disregard the importance of the obstacles created by the differences in culture between the employees (Tian & Borges, 2011). As soon as the company takes into account all the significant cultural aspects of the country they are operating in, they should be able to use an appropriate strategy for marketing and advertising operations in a multicultural environment in order to succeed financially and improve the image of a company (Tian & Borges, 2011). In the same article it has also been claimed that despite marketing being one of the worlds most common operations, the gap between people of different nationalities and cultures all around the world is widening, therefore in a modern society managers of marketing and advertising departments in multinational companies should be aware of all the cultural differences on a regional, state and other levels in order to stay competitive around the world (Tian & Borges, 2011).

Marketing and advertising operations apply widely on many countries and places and in order to reach certain goals a high level of international communication should be put into practice and it is due to a reason that even in relationships between co-workers of similar cultures and beliefs some barriers could arise, not to mention relationships of employees coming from different cultural environments with various backgrounds, values, knowledge, traditions and language, which results in cultural disputes being more complicated to solve in a work place and makes misunderstanding practically unavoidable in a multinational company (Tian & Borges, 2011). If looking at a global level most Asian countries are considered as high-context culture and in advertising and marketing operations companies from there tend to be more intuitive, indirect and use feelings rather than words in the commercials, while people with low-context cultures, such as in United States and Western Europe, prefer to be direct with their customers and use facts and actions in promoting the brand. Advertisements in South Korea also tend to emphasize the name of the brand or company more often than in countries of low-context cultures (Miller et al., 2009).

Russia is, same as South Korea, considered to have high-context culture and, thus, this supports an argument that there are still a few similarities between the South Korean and Russian cultures, which could simplify mutual understanding between the two sides in a marketing and advertising department (Miller et al., 2009). In the end, speaking of the obstacles in relationships between different cultural groups we could underline several reasons that lead to emergence of these issues in multinational companies: misunderstanding between employees in a multicultural environment, attitude and level of respect towards the parent company in a different country, differences in management approaches in a new environment, different employee reactions on extraordinary situations between workers of different cultures, language barrier and a level of global awareness and pursue of various goals at a workplace by people from the country of operations (He & Liu, 2010). Language barriers and misunderstanding of information go very close together as in many cases employees speaking the same language are unsuccessful to communicate the needed information due to differences in perception of some phrases in their first language (He & Liu, 2010). Section 3: Research Question

Section 4: Research Design
The Research Question states that the aim of this study would be to understand to what extent the cultural differences between employees in a multinational company affect and limit marketing and advertising operations and what are the possible solutions. As the research paper includes a literature review, a search of articles related to the research question was conducted and the most suitable papers were taken from different sources. The main source of information for this study is the primary data; therefore a collection of information in form of qualitative data was done through a series of individual interviews with the managers of the Marketing and Advertising department, during which questions concerning the issue, overall work atmosphere and more were asked. Towards the end of the study we would be able to give recommendations for possible solutions concerning the issue based on the following sources: the literature review, presented above, and the primary qualitative data gathered at the place of work, which covers the problem from the perspective of two Marketing and Advertising department employees. Personal observations over several months of internship in the company within the department would be also taken into account and used in order to give the recommendations of how to address the issue.

Section 5: Participant Observer Journal Data and Analysis
Two interviews were conducted in the end of a five months internship at “Hyundai ComTrans Rus” in Moscow, Russia. The Manager of the Marketing and Advertising department (hereafter “first interviewee”), and Manager’s Assistant and the Chief Analyst (hereafter “second interviewee”), agreed to answer several similar questions concerning the problem in writing.

The first question asked whether in the opinion of the interviewee the cultural differences between employees in multi-national companies affected the marketing and advertising operations. While first interviewee supported the suggestion, that the departments in any companies could be influenced by the cultural aspects in a certain way, second interviewee believed that as the operations in the departments of their kind were primarily aimed at the consumers, cultural differences among the employees could not have a strong impact on the outcome of their work as the values of potential customers are what the operations must consider first. The second question related specifically to the “Hyundai ComTrans Rus” company and whether the issues based on cultural differences were present there and if the resolutions for them were needed. The first interviewee stated that this could not be addressed as a serious problem in their company but at certain moments there were aspects that needed consideration and resolution. The second interviewee underlined that communication and collaboration of people of different views, beliefs and cultural values was not a problem in the company but rather a reason for mutual development.

The third question concerned the relationship between the headquarters of “Hyundai Truck & Bus” in South Korea and the official distributor of commercial vehicles in Russia “Hyundai ComTrans Rus”, specifically whether there were any disputes arising between them that were limiting the marketing and advertising operations in the Russian Federation and what they were based on. The first interviewee described the Korean workers as more prone to bureaucracy and discipline, which sometimes disturbed the promotion of new ideas in a marketing and advertising department in Russia and limited their actions. The second interviewee entirely supported the argument of first interviewee by saying that employees from South Korea had traditionally been more punctual and
disciplined, sometimes excessively. He suggested that the reduced level of bureaucracy would benefit the acceleration of the introduction of new ideas in the operations of their department. The next question referred specifically to the working atmosphere in the company and whether the cultural differences affected the relationships within a team. Both of the interviewees emphasized the point that despite of a working atmosphere in “Hyundai ComTrans Rus” being quite effective and a fact that South Korean employees were more likely to respect the chain of command and the management, they appeared to be less flexible and taking more time in terms of decision-making when in comparison with the Russian employees.

The fifth question raised the problem of a language barrier between the Russian and South Korean co-workers and the way the managers coped with it in the marketing and advertising department. Once again both first interviewee and second interviewee agreed on the same point stating that such issues could arise during the preparations of marketing and advertising campaigns from time to time when new ideas and different operational tools were brought into action and most of them should have been first discussed with the employees coming from the headquarters in South Korea. Professional translators and a number of Russian speaking Korean employees in the company helped them to resolve such issues when needed. The next question related to the specific cultural differences between the employees from Russia and South Korea, which had an effect on the work of the department. Both of the interviewees described the Korean employees as very respectful towards elders and the hierarchy, and honest when it came to following a long list of standards, rules and regulations implemented. At the same time both of them underlined that the lack of fast and flexible decision-making process skills by the workers from South Korea could indirectly affect the operations of their department.

Russian employees on the contrary had more freedom of communication with the management and they were able to respond fast to emerging changes as the work process was always less regulated and less strict and they were more flexible and fast at decision-making. Questions seven and eight were concretely addressed to the possible solutions of these problems and changes that could be implemented by both the headquarters and the official distributor “Hyundai ComTrans Rus” in Russia. first interviewee responded that in order to avoid any issues based
on cultural differences in the “Hyundai ComTrans Rus” company in the long-run she would suggest the headquarters to increase the flexibility of South Korean employees coming to Russia in decision-making process, reduce the number of formal documents and adopt only the list of mandatory regulations and norms, and also organize special thematic trips around Russian Federation for Korean employees and trips for Russians around South Korea to increase the knowledge and understanding of cultural features of both countries.

In order to solve the problem of misunderstanding informal communication between co-workers and special trainings on teamwork and spirit could be implemented by the official distributor in Russia. Second interviewee agreed on all of the suggestions made by the manager of Marketing and Advertising department. Both of the managers believed that the influence of cultural differences was not strong enough to affect the operations of their department but closer to an end of the interview they expressed a different point of view suggesting that such sorts of problems could arise from time to time and should be addressed immediately in order to prevent future issues. It was stated that the level of bureaucracy and discipline among South Korean employees working in Russia and those working in the headquarters disturbed the promotion of new ideas in a marketing and advertising department in the company in Moscow and limited their actions. It also related to the introduction of new marketing and advertising tools, which took a long time to be approved due to the lack of flexibility in a decision-making process by the Korean employees.

Russian employees could be described as more open and communicative when it came to the management and decisions could be usually taken at a fast rate, in some cases, avoiding the paper work or processing the documents very fast. A long list of different standards and norms introduced by the Korean side was also suggested to be a problem, taking into account that usual working regulations in the Russian Federation were never that strict. Language barrier also played a significant role in widening the gap between the employees of different cultures and increasing the number of obstacles to normal operations. With the help of these interviews I was able to get a better understanding of the possible problems and relate this information to the literature review and to my own observations and experience. I was able to compose a list of recommendations of how to address the problems.

Section 6: Conclusion and Recommendations
From the very first day in the “Hyundai ComTrans Rus” company I have been asking myself whether there were any issues between the employees of different cultures. I have been observing frequent appearances of the South Korean employees in the office of the marketing and advertising department. I have witnessed a few obstacles to mutual understanding between the managers and the Korean co-workers. Language barrier and different ways of thinking and dealing with operations affected the work of the department in a way and required more time for the realization of planned activities. These were my observations, which I had to back up with the thoughts and doubts of professionals and the literature on the topic that could be found online. The problem that we were studying concerned the cultural differences between employees in a multinational company and to what extent it affected and limited the marketing and advertising operations. The expansion of the world economy forced the multinational companies to grow and start the operations in the countries of different cultures, beliefs, traditions and values.

The interaction with the local population and employment of them in the company became inevitable. This problem started arising all over the world in the biggest corporations and firms, which resulted in many studies related to the similar topic of the effect of cultural differences. The companies operating in the foreign occupations had to meet the needs of their new employees and consumers and understand their culture. Success of the company and motivation of the new staff became directly dependent on the way the headquarters were controlling their branches all over the globe. Throughout the interviews I realized that this problem is not as serious in the company as it first appeared to be but the cultural differences within the place of work had their minor impacts on the operations, and the management was aware of the possible threat. South Korean company “Hyundai Motors” has grown into one of the leaders of both the cars and heavy trucks industries in the world and their gradual integration in the culture of the new environment has given more freedom to the local workers. Having slight problems and misunderstandings between the employees from Russia and South Korea should not be regarded as a serious issue but rather as a way to learn more about each other and improve in different aspects of the operations.

Despite the fact that the majority of the employees in “Hyundai ComTrans Rus” are of Russian culture, the managers of different departments, specifically marketing and advertising, are willing to gain more freedom when dealing with decision-making process and bringing new ideas into operational campaigns as it usually takes a lot of time to get an approval from the headquarters due to many various regulations and norms followed by the South Korean side. In general the “Hyundai ComTrans Rus” company had a few issues based on the cultural differences between employees and managed them in a right manner. The management is aware of such obstacles and both the headquarters and the distributor in Russia take all the needed actions to maintain a healthy and comfortable environment within the workplace. However there is no doubts that cultural differences would still be affecting the operations in the marketing and advertising department in the future and therefore several following recommendations should be taken into account in order to reduce the gap between the co-workers and eliminate the obstacles that affect their relationships and the work within the department.

Following the research on the stated problem and the conduction of the literature review and appropriate qualitative data in form of the interviews, a list of recommendation has been set up and aimed at improving the current situation in the “Hyundai ComTrans Rus” company in terms of cultural differences and their effect on the marketing and advertising operations. Due to differences in cultures, values and traditions the headquarters should not manage their branch in Russia in the same way as their South Korean companies and should learn more about the methods of operations used in the Russian Federation. The headquarters should increase the flexibility of South Korean employees coming to Russia in terms of decision-making process. This relates to the introduction of new operational tools and time-consuming approval process of them, which disturbs the work in the marketing and advertising department and could lead to bigger issues. The reduction of the level of bureaucracy and discipline among the Korean employees would positively affect the operations in the department.

Reducing the number of formal documents and adopting a list of mandatory regulations and norms could help to reduce the time of this process and therefore accelerate the promotion of new ideas. “Hyundai ComTrans Rus” itself could organize special trainings for staff on teamwork and spirit and different informal outdoor and indoor activities in order to help the Korean employees to integrate in the new community and improve motivation and intercommunication of all workers. As the language barrier remains an important problem it is recommended to put into practice special classes that could be held after work for the foreign employees in order to reduce the level of misunderstanding between the co-workers and encourage the Russian and Korean employees to integrate more into each other’s cultures. The headquarters in collaboration with the official distributor could organize special thematic trips around Russia and South Korea for their multicultural employees in order to increase the knowledge and understanding of cultural features of both countries.

References
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