Briefing Paper

Name: Olumide Esan Student number: 1231246

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 1 LNG015-6 May 2013

Executive summary:
The multi-cultural diversity of the population in Luton has made it a highly considerable market for our product. The university been our main target focus, has a rich ethnic combination of students who share different attitude, personality, mindset and sense of fashion. The purpose of this business plan is to give explanation as regards to my teams product The Team The team is made up of highly exciting and sociable individuals that share a common goal regardless of the fact that we hail from different countries and have different cultures and personalities. The product Our products consist of causal outfits (T-shirts, jeans) and trendy fashion accessories. Working with people from different cultures most times poses difficulties which we are experiencing as of the moment. Communication amongst us has been the main predicaments. Differences in Cultural background, Dedication to group work and meetings and personality. Using the SWOT analysis we have been able to identify our setbacks

CONTENT

Terms of References Overview of the situation ..... Analysis of the situation .. SWOT Analysis ..... Strengths . Weakness.. Opportunities. Threat.. Solutions and recommendations Forecasts and outcomes

References

TERMS OF REFERENCE
Who we are:

We are a team consisting of members from China, India and Nigeria. Who our clients are:

Our clientele are mainly students and young adults, we also cater for people outside this group as our merchandise is worn by people of all race, gender, social class and other works of life What information does our client want?

We are providing this information to our clients to enlighten them on our business already existing, in progress and future plans.

Overview of the situation

Analysis of the situation

Hofstedes theory:
Power distance: this can be explained as the level of power amongst people in any society, which could be high authority and low authority.it also can be said as the degree people who arent influential in any given group or society acknowledge that power is distributed unequally. In countries that are high power distanced, the non- influential assent to power relations that are more autocratic and paternalistic. Underlings acknowledge the power of others simply based on where they are situated in certain formal, hierarchical positions. While on the other hand societies that practice low power distance envisage power relations to be consultative or democratic. People interact with each other as equals irrespective of formal positions. Power distance is the way people perceive power differences in every society Uncertainty avoidance: this refers to the efforts members of a society deals with apprehension or anxiety by minimizing uncertainty. Cultures with high uncertainty avoidance mostly have its members as highly emotional people they make an effort to reduce the occurrence of unknown and unusual circumstances and to carry on with careful changes step by step by planning and by implementing rules, laws and regulations. whereas, societies with low uncertainty avoidance are flexible and they change very often. They have only few rules, and prefer unstructured environments. Members from the low uncertainly avoidance are usually pragmatic! .Long-term and short-term orientation: long-term orientation is the scope to which a society lay emphasis on the future. A society with a long-term orientation is founded on steadiness, perseverance, order and economy. They cultivate pragmatic values oriented towards rewards, persistence, saving and capacity for adaptation. In contrast to a civilization with a short-term orientation will expect instant returns and will keep on the satisfaction of direct needs and wants preferably than on long-term speculation.

Masculine and feminine: this can be defined as the emotional roles between the genders, a society with a feminine culture means women and men are equals. The culture places values on equality on life and relationships. The culture encourages both gender to share the same values emphasizing modesty and caring. A society that is masculine on the other hand tends to be more competitive, materialistic, power-oriented and ambitious in values. Individualism and collectivism: this is the level of integration of individuals in a society, in individualistic societies; emphasis is laid on personal achievements and individual rights. People are expected to stand up for themselves and their immediate group, and to choose their own relationships or associations. In contrast to collectivist societies, where people act mostly as members of a constant and organized group or society.

HOFSTEDES 5D MODEL
45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 pdi idv mas uai lto nigeria china india

Using the bar chart as seen, one can see how our different cultures interfere with each other. Power distance: the chart indicates that we are all from high power authority countries so there is a problem with leadership as everyone is expecting directives from someone has to what to do most especially our Indian colleagues, they cannot comprehend the work or their responsibility without been told how to go about it. Our Chinese colleagues will most of the time keep mute and not share ideas if not asked for their opinion. The power distance is affecting the teams productivity ideas are not been share often, questions are always avoided. Individualism and collectivism: we are collectivistic when it comes to achievements in the group. We tend to stick to our ideas or notions of our various cultures. This goes for the Indians and Chinese as I am the only African in my group. Our Chinese colleagues stick together, share an idea and speak as one entity same goes for our Indian colleagues. This is also due to the fact that we are all from collectivism societies. Uncertainty avoidance: the chat indicates that the Nigerian culture has the lowest avoidance than other culture; this means that the Nigerian is bold enough face with unidentified situations. I feel confident when doing anything in the group more than other person from other societies in group. My teammembers are not always comfortable when approached with unfamiliar situation. I am more receptive to experience or learn about new things than my team-members Masculine and feminine: our group is masculine oriented because the mindset of my group members from their countries. They are from the masculine culture as indicated on the chart. Our team leader is a female and she also questions her position as she feels a man should take the lead not her. Members of the group are reluctant to respond to her as they feel a female should be a leader in a male dominated group.

High and Low context culture: communication is key. And it is the biggest obstacle in my group.. High context and low context cultures is about communication within or outside a group.my team is a high context cultured team and this can be justified with the conversations we have at meetings Asians and Africans are grouped in the high context culture, whereby very few words are needed to communicate information to individuals in the same group but are needed more and chosen carefully for someone outside the group. The Chinese are very high context people they hardly talk and share individual ideas with non-Chinese teammates. Low context cultures more words are used and the have to be elementary and unambiguous

Time perception: In term of Monochronic and Polychronic cultures. They are evidently in my group. Asian and Africans are grouped in the polychronic culture. Our attitude towards time is very relaxed which is due to the fact that we are all from polychronic cultures. which makes meetings irregular Richard R (1999) stated that a polychromic attitude is a situation where people do not specify on time accountability and are able to change their plans easily. As a result of this, polychronicity basically has a flexible timetable. While the Monochronic culture which is rooted here in the United Kingdom, works accordingly with time.

SWOT (Team Working) STRENGTHS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Our group is diverse in cultures, ideologies and One We Ev We As

WEAKNESS 1. Our group member has four men and one woman so sometime we do not tell straight to the group when we have to discuss. 2. Some of us is a bashful person so they do not talk much when we have meeting that make we have a little problem about sharing and presenting the idea in the group. 3. As we just recently know each other that sometime we not dare to straightforwardly give comment in the group that make we do not get the real comment or information and put into our work. 4. We all have less experience about doing good assignment.

5. To work with many people as group that causes difficulty to make the decision in the same way.

OPPORTUNITIES 1. To have good member and good relationship between each other those make good opportunity to reach to the perfect goal than working alone. 2. To get more experience about group working and team work in multicultural. 3. To get a lot of new knowledge by exchanging idea in the group especially our group member come from different nation so it is a good to learn from other.

THREATS 1. Relate to our group member come from 4 different countries so we have a little problem about language that make our communication between our group does not goes smoothly.

2. Working with multicultural team that make we have to be careful ourselves action in the group to avoid misunderstands each other and we also have to try by heart to understand other reaction too. 3. Personal behaviour is another significant thing in the group that is risk to make problem. 4. Too much self-confident of people will not work well for group working.

5. We do not have very often meeting to discuss about our work because of personal time of each member. 6. The delay of sending information of member makes limited time to complete the work and make it perfectly.

Solutions and recommendations From the problems working in multi-cultural team that we have got, we should