Description
Globalization is growing and economic barriers, such as national borders are becoming less important because of EU, ASEAN and WTO. Therefore, cultural diversity in the workforce is growing and organizational behavior is becoming more complex.
Cross-Culture Management for Foreign Managers
at Hotel Industry in Thailand
Suvi J. Jäämaa
Business Administration, Stamford International University, Bangkok, Thailand
Email: [email protected]
Abstract—An effective cross-culture management (CCM)
can be a huge competitive advantage to the international
companies. Therefore, this study had one research question;
how can foreign managers overcome the key challenges of
cross culture management at hotel industry in Thailand.
The empirical information was gained through seven in-
depth interviews with non-Asian managers at hotel industry
in Thailand. Chosen participants were asked to identify
challenges and solutions what they had faced at their work
in Thailand and also what was it like to work with role-
oriented people. The sample size was quite small, because it
was more important to find the right people for this
research than the quantity. Only one industry was chosen
for this research, which might not represent the whole
business base. This study was mainly based on Hofstede’s
Five Dimension Model [1] and Huijser’s Model of Freedom
[2]. The results of this study shows that cultural-awareness
and deep understanding of cultural differences are the keys
to the effective CCM. It is hoped that this study will give
benefits to the readers, how to avoid most common pitfalls
when working in cross-culture environment.
I ndex Terms—cross-culture management, hotel industry,
globalization, Thailand
I. INTRODUCTION
Globalization is growing and economic barriers, such
as national borders are becoming less important because
of EU, ASEAN and WTO [3]. Therefore, cultural
diversity in the workforce is growing and organizational
behavior is becoming more complex [4]. Globalization
has brought a lot of opportunities, but also challenges,
such as, more pressure to international management [5].
Also the world is moving slowly towards knowledge
economy and therefore companies are becoming more
depended on the skills of its employees’ [6].
Therefore, it is important to understand different
cultures and the cultural differences more deeply.
Furthermore, diversity in a workforce can be bottomless
resource. Cultural-awareness will increase reliance and
loyalty between two parties and eventually provide
competitive advantage and profit to the company [7].
Also it is stated, foreign managers who are living in a
different culture, is expected to adapt to surrounding
culture [8].
Manuscript received April 16, 2014; revised July 3, 2014.
Cross-culture management can be defined as an
organizational behavior; how employees from different
cultures cope together with each other in multi-national
companies. Also one of the aims of CCM is to provide
information and develop the communication between
these people [9]. It has also been said that CCM cannot
be just management of cultural differences. It also should
include managerial activity about knowledge
management, global networking and active learning from
organization [10].
The most common reasons for failures of cross culture
business are that managers are not able to handle
differences in culture, communication or behavior and
therefore misunderstandings, problems, and even
conflicts are faced [11]. Effective cross-culture
management may have benefits like marketing advantage,
better reputation, creativity and advanced problem
solving ability in daily basis. Therefore, it is important to
understand different culture dimensions and the cultural
differences more deeply [3].
There have been many researches about CCM, such as,
Hofstede’s Five Dimension Model [1] and GLOBE
research [12]. Usually researches about cross cultural
management focus mainly on how one culture differs
from another [5]. This understanding is useful, but it has
limitations. Existing research has paid too little attention
to the question; how to handle diversity to gain
competitive advantage [13].
Despite of all criticism, researcher has used Hofstede’s
theory as an extension, because it is one of the most know,
widely discussed and cited theory in the field of CCM [14]
[15]. Hofstede has also replied to criticism
comprehensively. Additionally, Hofstede’s five
dimension indicators were suitable and applicable for this
research [16] and cultures have different dimensions,
beliefs and habits. Therefore, different ways to cope with
cultural differences was required for this research [17].
This research investigated CCM at hotel industry in
Thailand. The aim of this research was discover the
challenges of CCM at hotel industry and understand why
foreign managers has faced challenging situations and
what where the reasons behind these situations.
Furthermore, this research was made to give guidelines
for foreign managers to avoid the pitfalls of these
challenges, when cultures meet in the hotel industry in
Thailand. This study had one research question which
was: how can foreign managers overcome the key
103
Journal of Advanced Management Science Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2015
©2015 Engineering and Technology Publishing
doi: 10.12720/joams.3.2.103-108
challenges of cross culture management at hotel industry
in Thailand?
This research had qualitative approach, and data was
collected by seven in-depth interviews during March and
April 2014. Seven non-Asian managers, who worked
different types of hotels in Thailand, were interviewed for
this research.
II. THE INTERWIEV DESIGN
Interview design included seven themes. These themes
were used as a guide during interviews. This interview
guide strategy gave more structure to interviews and by
this way the collected data was easier to organize and
analyze [18]. First, each interviewee were asked to
provide brief background information about themselves
such as age, education, length of work experience and
length of stay and current position in Thailand. This
information was used mainly for background info for
researcher and this part of the interviews is not published.
To collect data about biggest cultural differences and
challenges interviewees were asked to tell about their
experiences of Thai culture, how they communicate with
local employees. After this interviewees were asked to
describe the most challenging situations and how did they
managed these situations. To understand Thai culture
more deeply, researcher asked interviewees to define
what is like an average Thai employee and what is the
best way to work with them? At the end of interviews,
managers were asked to give instructions for new
managers, how to be successful in a different culture and
what is like a good manager.
Qualitative data were collected by seven exclusive in-
depth interviews from foreign managers (two Finnish,
Canadian, French, Norwegian, Columbian and British)
who worked as a supervisor or managerial level at hotels
in Thailand. Three interviews were conducted at Koh
Samui, two at Pattaya and three at Bangkok, Thailand.
Interviewees had managerial working experiences for
two months to 20 years and these managers had been
working in Thailand for two months to four years.
Interviewees ranged in age from 25 to 45. Educational
background ranged from vocational school to Master’s
degree.
In comparison of Hofstede’s five dimension model all
other interviewees, except Columbia, had really high
scores in individualism. Based on the Hofstede’s five
dimension theories can be said that culture of
interviewees’ between Canada and United-Kingdom has
similarities and then Finland and Norway has quite
similar scores in these dimensions. France had some
similarities in scores between Canada and Columbia [1].
Managers, who had similarities in these cultural
dimensions, described same kind of challenges and
differences during interviews.
Generally, it can be said that individualism had the
biggest difference in comparison interviewee’s culture to
Thai culture.
III. CHALLENGES OF CCM
To discover the challenges of CCM at hotel industry in
Thailand researcher summarized the collected data by the
themes, which were:
• Culture, communication, behavior
• The challenges of CCM when working with Thai?
• The best solutions to these challenges
• How to avoid most common mistakes working
with Thai?
• Thai employees
• Tips for new foreign manager
Based on these themes, mentioned before, researcher
found out that the four challenges were most common
among conducted interviews. These challenges were;
different expectations and observation in communication
challenge, language cap between foreign managers and
Thai employees’ challenge, task efficiency challenge and
the conflict avoidance challenge.
A. Different Expectations and Observation in
Communication Challenge
According to Hofstede’s research Thai people have
high scores in collectivisms, which means that they are
not use to debate or give feedback like people from
individualistic countries. High scores in power distance
indicate that hierarchy is also valued in Thai culture [1].
These dimensions are very different compared to
individualistic countries. Thus, the expectations and
observation during communication were so different
between Thai employees’ and interviewed foreign
manager.
Different expectations appeared, when managers
started to communicate with local employees. By asking
questions, interviewed managers expected to find out
more information what was happened and why?
Managers were used to have two-way discussion, to
change ideas with employees and improve current
situations, without meaning to insult anybody. To
managers this was just a handy and fast way to clarify
and solve issues with employees. Two-way discussion
between local employees’ and manager was hard to gain
in Thai culture, because it is against Thai traditions. Also
hierarchy should be respected. Furthermore, if manager
kept asking questions about what Thai employees’ have
done, they felt easily insulted, un-trusted or unsecure.
According to Model of Freedom theory Thai
employees expects that the managers, who are above
them in hierarchy, gives orders only and there is no need
for feedback in such cases [2]. If the manager is in same
level with the employee, it is quite hard to give orders
because Thai employees’ feel that manager has no
authority to do so. Levels of hierarchy should be
respected. There is no easy way to cope with this issue.
Sometimes, situations like these made managers felt
frustrated and misunderstood. Also they felt that
development is harder and slower because of hierarchy.
Moreover, in some cases Thai employees’ did not
express true feelings. They liked to say yes even when
they did not mean it. They did it, because they wanted to
be polite and respect the hierarchy. Managers who came
from individualistic countries reported that sometimes
104
Journal of Advanced Management Science Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2015
©2015 Engineering and Technology Publishing
they felt irritated, because they could not have direct and
honest answer.
Another reason, why communication was so hard is;
average Thai employees are not really cultural-aware and
they are not really eager to learn more about other
cultures and take influences. Few managers (Norwegian,
Finnish and Columbian) had experienced that Thai
employees’ were interested about other cultures in a
polite way, but they did not really understand the
differences. Thai people are really long-term oriented and
traditions are highly valued, which was in with line with
Hofstede’s research that LTO had high scores in Thailand
[2].
Fig. 1 summarizes the differences of thinking between
non-Asian manager and Thai employees’. The difference
between collective and individualistic thinking was one
of the main reason why expectations and observation was
so different between participants. Thai employees
expected managers to tell them what to do, as it has been
tradition for them a long time, therefore sometime it is
enough if they just answer yes, as a sign of respect during
communication. If manager kept asking question, Thai
employees seemed to felt insulted and untrusted, they did
not understand why foreign manager has brake the
tradition and to them is was insulting behavior. Foreign
managers expected to have open discussion to solve
problems and gain more knowledge instead. As a result
most of the managers felt frustration, because of double
checking and lack of open discussion.
As a said, respect towards traditions and hierarchy are
highly valued in Thai culture and for foreign managers
this seemed to be hard to cope and adapt with. In
individualistic cultures communication is more direct and
open.
Figure 1. Summary of different expectations and observations in
communication
B. Language Cap between Foreign Managers and Thai
Employees’ Challenge
All interviewed managers had faced a communication
problems related to cap of language. Also in research of
Sriussadaporn was mentioned that language deficiency
has caused communication problems [11].
None of the interviewees spoke fluent Thai. Therefore,
interpreters and translator programs and body language
were used a lot to during communication. All in all, good
skills of spoken English among average Thai employees
are rare, especially at lower working levels. Thus, some
of the managers felt that their English is becoming worse,
because of use short and simple sentence.
Because of language cab, it is harder to make deep
relationships whit local employees’ and gain the trust,
which is one of the base values in Thai culture.
According to Hofstede’s research, personal relationships
are the key factor to make business with Thai [1].
Semantics related to language cap has also caused
problems. Semantics means that same word can mean
different things in different cultures [19]. E.g. the yes
word seemed to have different meaning. Interviewed
managers saw the yes-word more like “I understand” or
“I will do it”. Instead, average Thai employees saw the
yes-word more like “I am listening” or “I might do it”.
Furthermore, sometimes Thais do not tell the truth, if they
do not understand or agree with manager. In many
situations they easily say “yes”, because it was an easy
way to avoid conflict. Managers commented that over
time, it is easier to see and read behind the lines, when
other person is not following.
Fig. 2 summarize that Thais respect the hierarchy and
sometimes, they have to agree with the managers who are
above them, even if they do not understand or agree. It
would be against the tradition and hierarchy. All of the
interviewed managers commented that they need to
double-check everything, and just to be sure that job is
done.
Double-checking was manager’s mandatory routine,
which required a lot of time. One reason for that was the
poor level of spoken English among average Thai
employees’ and also poor level of spoken Thai among
foreign managers. Managers who came from
individualistic countries felt that double-checking was
hard, time-consuming work, which could not be skipped.
To some managers double-checking was waste of time,
because they were not used to supervise employees all the
time.
Figure 2. Summary of challenges related to language cap
C. Task Efficiency Challenge
Expectations of task efficiency among Thai employees’
and foreign manager had also differences. Interviewed
expatriates felt that Thai employees were hard to be
motivated, and average Thai employees was not that
committed to work compared to European employees.
Average Thai employees have more relaxed attitude
105
Journal of Advanced Management Science Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2015
©2015 Engineering and Technology Publishing
towards custom service or quality of standards and they
had very different thinking about how to work. Managers
also commented that it is usual Thai employees do only
the minimum what has been asked them to do. Therefore,
managers need to be very precise with the instructions, or
which kind of standards the hotel had. One reason for
different thinking was that majority of interviewed
managers came from individualistic countries and Thais
are collective.
Furthermore, based on the gathered information, Thai
employees are not so engaged with the precise work place,
they can easily change the workplace. They are not used
to work hard by the same way as foreign manager would
like them to do. Columbian manager told that it was
normal that there were no rush to serve customer. Thai
employees seemed to have time to surf in the net for and
talk with each other, before serving customer. Another
manager complained that Thai employees have a lot of
absences, and they come late to the work. Thai employees
like to have fun at work and take it easy. One reason for
this is that the working hours per day are long. European
managers are more used to work at the full speed, when
they are at work place, but Thai employees’ might even
live in the same building where they work. Free time and
work time are not that separated in Thailand, which can
explain that they are not so eager to work hard all the
time.
Furthermore, concept of time is different between high
and low context cultures. Also, Thai employees are more
focused to do one thing than to see the bigger picture,
why it would be important to serve customers well. Not
just get things done.
Fig. 3 summaries the challenges related to work
efficiency. Foreign managers expected Thai employees to
see the bigger picture why to work and use so called
outside of the box-thinking to solve problems. Meanwhile
average Thai employees seemed to think; “there is time to
do this task” or “I do precisely what has been asked to do,
nothing more”. The difference between individualistic
and collective –thinking and the concept of time were one
of the reasons, why the attitude and expectations was so
different regarding task efficiency.
Figure 3. Summary of challenges related to work efficiency
D. Conflict Avoidance Challenge
According to the Model of Freedom theory, conflicts
are threatening and thus Thai people avoid conflicts [2].
Thais avoid strongly conflicts, because there is a fear of
losing face. They rather change the workplace than take
the risk that they will lose a face. Many manager
(Canadian, French and Finnish) reported same kind of
situations like this: Thais rarely say “I am sorry” or “it
was my mistake”. Instead they rather stop answering the
questions or do not take the responsibility. One reason for
this behavior is the collective thinking. They do not want
to stand out the crowd.
Fig. 4 summaries, which kind of thinking is behind the
conflict avoidance. Thais avoid conflicts, because there is
a fear to lose face, which cannot be happen. They rather
change the workplace than take the risk beforehand.
Collective thinking and respect towards hierarchy
seemed to be one of the reason, why conflict avoidance is
so strong in Thai culture.
Figure 4. Summary of the fear of losing face and conflict avoidance
E. Tips to Foreign Managers How to Avoid Most
Common Pitfalls of These Challenges
How earlier presented challenges can be overcome
then? Here are some guidelines for these challenges. Tips
for the different expectations and observation in
communication challenge: The key is to understand Thai
culture and the differences of Thai culture. Managers
could try to find the balance between two different
expectations: what can be expected and obtained from the
employees. Manager should also remember to be gentle
and polite towards Thai employees always. Training and
open communication can be also helpful but by telling
Thai employees comprehensively about the different
expectations could make them understand other cultures
better and make Thai employees trust to the foreign
manager more.
Tips for language barrage challenge; as long as there is
two languages involved communication will be
challenging. Easiest solution of course would be to learn
communicate with Thai language. If this is not an option,
then manager could try to find the right people to work
with and try to make deeper relationship with those
people. Also managers should know that the word yes
does not mean just yes to Thai employees. Also it could
be helpful to learn to read behind the lines and interpret
non-verbal sign.
Tips for task efficiency among Thai employees’
challenge; Manager should tolerate the different concept
106
Journal of Advanced Management Science Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2015
©2015 Engineering and Technology Publishing
of time and be prepared that sometimes it takes time to
get things done. Double-checking is mandatory daily
routine, but there should be a balance that managers do
not do that too much behind employees’ back. Also
comprehensive training what good customer care means
could be one solution to this challenge.
Tips for losing faces and conflict avoidance challenge;
always remember that Thai employees cannot ever lose
faces, which means that asking strict question in a
meeting front of other people is not a good idea. Also
ability to read behind the lines and see non-verbal signs
might be helpful because Thai employees’ does not say
easily, if something is wrong, instead they will keep quiet.
By being patient and careful will help manager for sure to
handle the cultural differences.
IV. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
Researcher found four main challenges, which were
different expectations and observation during
communication challenge, language cap between foreign
managers and Thai employees’ challenge, task efficiency
challenge and conflict avoidance challenge.
Thai employees’ has different expectations and they
observe things differently during communication than
managers from individualistic countries. Thai employees’
value highly the hierarchy and traditions and Thai
employees are not used to work against these traditions.
They expect that the manager’s tell them what to do, and
they do not like to debate or have an open discussion
about the issues between managers, who are above them.
In situations like these, they felt unsecure or even
untrusted when managers kept asking too many questions.
Also the lack of express true feelings made these kinds of
situations even harder.
Instead, intention of interviewed managers was to gain
improvements and change ideas but this kind of
discussion are almost impossible in Thai culture,
especially if there are different working levels involved, it
is just against the tradition. Most of the managers said
that because of this, they need to double-check everything,
which made them feel frustration. One way to cope with
this challenge is to build strong relationship with
employees’ and gain their trust. Training and open
communication could also help but by sharing cultural
awareness might be the way how to make average Thai
employee to understand why foreign manager think so
differently.
Language cap causes challenges. Managers told that
double-checking is a mandatory routine to them because
of language cap and sometimes they have to use body
language and simple sentences to communicate, which
will mean that it is harder to make deep relationships with
the employees’. Because of language cap there is often
lack of open discussion and trust. One way to cope with
this challenge is to interpret non-verbal signs: learn to see
when other person is not following. Also patience with
this matter is helpful and understand that Thai people do
not express true feelings all the time.
Task efficiency was one of the challenges because
expectations were so different. The difference between
individualistic and collective thinking and also concept of
time were the biggest reasons why task efficiency was
seen so differently. Furthermore, concept of time is much
more flexible in Thailand. Managers from individualistic
cultures are used to work hard and use outside of the box
–thinking, when they are working. Average Thai
employees’ instead had more relaxed attitude and they
were more focused to solve problems fast than think the
bigger picture. One way to cope with this issue is to be
flexible and understand that sometimes it takes time to
get thing done. Adaptation to the different concept of
time and clear, exact instructions about the expectation
might be helpful to manage this challenge.
Also the conflict avoidance is common among Thai
employees’ and it is because of the fear of losing face.
Thai employees do not always express the true feelings
because they do not want to have conflict, or they do not
want to stand out from the crowd. Managers need to learn
to read non-verbal signs and read behind the lines to
avoid insulting anybody. Thai employee cannot lose a
face, therefore it is important to remember not to lose a
temperature with them, or express emotions.
As a general guideline how to avoid these challenges
are the cultural-awareness and deep understanding of
cultural differences. Also the balance between managers
own culture and Thai culture should be found. Manager
should also be gentle and polite and learn to read behind
the lines and interpret non-verbal sign of Thai employees.
By training and telling employees what is expected helps
them trust more to foreign manager. Also to find the right
people who to work with can help to cope with Thai
employees’.
IV. IMPLICATIONS
Cross-culture management is becoming more and more
common and effective CCM can be huge competitive
advantage thus, it is important to make further research
about CCM. This study is mainly an extension of
Hofstede’s five dimension model [1]. These two research
are more focusing on to find the cultural differences, but
this research was focusing more the cause and effect
relationships and to question why these differences has
causes challenges.
Results of this research are also in line with the
previous survey of Roong Sriussadaporn about managing
international business communication problems at work:
a pilot study in foreign companies in Thailand [11]. In
this research the biggest challenges were problems related
to mentality and accountability, task assignments, time
management, language deficiency and personal/work
relationships which are quite similar with this research.
V. CONCLUSION
The objective of this research was to discover the
challenges of CCM at hotel industry and understand why
foreign managers has faced these challenging situations
and also to provide tips to foreign managers how to avoid
earlier presented challenges in a diverse environment in
Thailand? Seven non- Asian foreign managers (two from
107
Journal of Advanced Management Science Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2015
©2015 Engineering and Technology Publishing
Finland, one Norwegian, French, Columbian Canadian
and English) were interviewed for this research.
Researcher found out that the four challenges listed
below were most common among conducted interviews.
? Different expectations and observation in
communication challenge
? Language cap between foreign managers and Thai
employees’ challenge
? Task efficiency challenge
? Conflict avoidance challenge
Based on these collected data, researcher provided
guidelines how to overcome these challenges. It can be
said that based on this research cultural-awareness,
openness, deep understanding of cultural differences and
patience are the keys to the effective cross-culture
management.
It is hoped that this study will inspire people to have a
further discussion about cross-culture management and
make people understand cultural differences more deeply.
Researcher hopes that further research about this topic
will be conducted by scientific way in the future.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was made under the sincere guidance of
Dr. Martin Goerlich, who showed the author the right
direction and helped to conceptualize this project. The
author also would like to thank all committee members,
teachers, interviewees: who gave all the data for the
research, classmates and friends: who gave excellent
hints and tips how to improve this research and family for
support and help. Special thanks to Jussi, who has helped
the author to think outside of the box during this journey.
REFERENCES
[1] G. Hofstede, G. J. Hofstede, and M. Minkov, Cultures and
Organizations: Software of the Mind, United States of America:
McGraw-Hill, 2008.
[2] M. Huijser, The Culture Advantage a New Model for Succeeding
with Global Teams, Amsterdam: E-book Publication Ayn Press,
Haarlem 2013.
[3] Dubrin, Principles of Leadership, 7th ed. Erin Joyner, 2013, pp.
22-23, 38-40.
[4] S. M. Aghazadeh, “Managing workforce diversity as an essential
resource for improving organizational performance,” International
Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. 53,
no. 6, pp. 521–531, 2004.
[5] F. Luthans and J. Doh, International Management: Culture,
Strategy and Behavior, Mc Graw Hill Companies, Inc. 2012, pp.
116-118, 122-133.
[6] P. B. Evans, The Global Challenge International Human Resource
Management, Mc Graw Hill International Edition, 2011, pp. 260.
[7] K. Weiermair, “Tourists' perceptions towards and satisfaction with
service quality in the cross-cultural service encounter:
Implications for hospitality and tourism management,” Managing
Service Quality, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 397-409, June 2000.
[8] T. I. Kawar, “Cross-cultural differences in management,” Jordan:
International Journal of Business and Social Science, pp. 3, 2012.
[9] M. J. Browaeyes and R. Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural
Management, England: Pearson Education Limited, 2008.
[10] N. Holden, Cross-Cultural Management: A Knowledge
Management Perspective, Pearson Education, 2002.
[11] R. Sriussadaporn. (2006). Managing International business
communication problems at work: A pilot study in foreign
companies in Thailand. Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok,
Department of Speech Communications and Performing Arts,
Thailand. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. [Online]. Available:http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=1352-7606
[12] G. Yukl, “Leadership in organizations (7 Edn.),” Pearson, pp. 450-
465, 2010.
[13] K. M. Lievre, Cultural Others: A New Conception of Cross-
Cultural Management, the University of Melbourne, pp. 6, 2011.
[14] M. H. Bond, "Reclaiming the individual from Hofstede's
ecological analysis-a 20-year Odyssey: Comment on Oyserman et
al," Psychological, 2002.
[15] G. Hofstede, “The archimedes effect,” in Working at the Interface
of Cultures: 18 Lives in Social Science, M. H. Bond. London,
Routledge: pp. 47-61, Bulletin, vol. 128, no. 1, pp. 73-77, 2002.
[16] G. Hofstede, “Dimensions do not exist: A reply to Brendan
McSweeney,” Human Relations, vol. 55, no. 11, pp. 1355–1361,
2002.
[17] O. Furrer, B. S. C. Liu, and D. Sudharshan, “The relationships
between culture and service quality perceptions: Basis for cross-
cultural market segmentation and resource allocation,” Journal of
Service Research, vol. 2, pp. 355-371, May.
[18] A. B. Glenn, Preparing a Qualitative Research-based
Dissertation: Lesson Learned, 2005.
[19] A. J. Robbins, “Organizational behavior (15 Edn.),” Pearson,
2013.
Ms. Suvi J. Jäämaa (born in September,
1984) grew up in Hämeenkoski, Finland. In
2008 she got a degree in financial
management from Lahti University of applied
science in Finland. Now she studies master's
degree in business administration in Bangkok
and this article was part of that degree. She
will graduate at the end of year 2014. After
her bachelor’s degree she spent six years
working in financial sector in different
positions such as FINANCIAL ASSISTANT
and CHIEF ACCOUNTATN in Finland. Now she is working as a
FINANCIAL ANALYSIST in Finland but she hopes that she can
continue her research about cross-culture management in the future.
You may contact her by mail: [email protected]
108
Journal of Advanced Management Science Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2015
©2015 Engineering and Technology Publishing
doc_319779717.pdf
Globalization is growing and economic barriers, such as national borders are becoming less important because of EU, ASEAN and WTO. Therefore, cultural diversity in the workforce is growing and organizational behavior is becoming more complex.
Cross-Culture Management for Foreign Managers
at Hotel Industry in Thailand
Suvi J. Jäämaa
Business Administration, Stamford International University, Bangkok, Thailand
Email: [email protected]
Abstract—An effective cross-culture management (CCM)
can be a huge competitive advantage to the international
companies. Therefore, this study had one research question;
how can foreign managers overcome the key challenges of
cross culture management at hotel industry in Thailand.
The empirical information was gained through seven in-
depth interviews with non-Asian managers at hotel industry
in Thailand. Chosen participants were asked to identify
challenges and solutions what they had faced at their work
in Thailand and also what was it like to work with role-
oriented people. The sample size was quite small, because it
was more important to find the right people for this
research than the quantity. Only one industry was chosen
for this research, which might not represent the whole
business base. This study was mainly based on Hofstede’s
Five Dimension Model [1] and Huijser’s Model of Freedom
[2]. The results of this study shows that cultural-awareness
and deep understanding of cultural differences are the keys
to the effective CCM. It is hoped that this study will give
benefits to the readers, how to avoid most common pitfalls
when working in cross-culture environment.
I ndex Terms—cross-culture management, hotel industry,
globalization, Thailand
I. INTRODUCTION
Globalization is growing and economic barriers, such
as national borders are becoming less important because
of EU, ASEAN and WTO [3]. Therefore, cultural
diversity in the workforce is growing and organizational
behavior is becoming more complex [4]. Globalization
has brought a lot of opportunities, but also challenges,
such as, more pressure to international management [5].
Also the world is moving slowly towards knowledge
economy and therefore companies are becoming more
depended on the skills of its employees’ [6].
Therefore, it is important to understand different
cultures and the cultural differences more deeply.
Furthermore, diversity in a workforce can be bottomless
resource. Cultural-awareness will increase reliance and
loyalty between two parties and eventually provide
competitive advantage and profit to the company [7].
Also it is stated, foreign managers who are living in a
different culture, is expected to adapt to surrounding
culture [8].
Manuscript received April 16, 2014; revised July 3, 2014.
Cross-culture management can be defined as an
organizational behavior; how employees from different
cultures cope together with each other in multi-national
companies. Also one of the aims of CCM is to provide
information and develop the communication between
these people [9]. It has also been said that CCM cannot
be just management of cultural differences. It also should
include managerial activity about knowledge
management, global networking and active learning from
organization [10].
The most common reasons for failures of cross culture
business are that managers are not able to handle
differences in culture, communication or behavior and
therefore misunderstandings, problems, and even
conflicts are faced [11]. Effective cross-culture
management may have benefits like marketing advantage,
better reputation, creativity and advanced problem
solving ability in daily basis. Therefore, it is important to
understand different culture dimensions and the cultural
differences more deeply [3].
There have been many researches about CCM, such as,
Hofstede’s Five Dimension Model [1] and GLOBE
research [12]. Usually researches about cross cultural
management focus mainly on how one culture differs
from another [5]. This understanding is useful, but it has
limitations. Existing research has paid too little attention
to the question; how to handle diversity to gain
competitive advantage [13].
Despite of all criticism, researcher has used Hofstede’s
theory as an extension, because it is one of the most know,
widely discussed and cited theory in the field of CCM [14]
[15]. Hofstede has also replied to criticism
comprehensively. Additionally, Hofstede’s five
dimension indicators were suitable and applicable for this
research [16] and cultures have different dimensions,
beliefs and habits. Therefore, different ways to cope with
cultural differences was required for this research [17].
This research investigated CCM at hotel industry in
Thailand. The aim of this research was discover the
challenges of CCM at hotel industry and understand why
foreign managers has faced challenging situations and
what where the reasons behind these situations.
Furthermore, this research was made to give guidelines
for foreign managers to avoid the pitfalls of these
challenges, when cultures meet in the hotel industry in
Thailand. This study had one research question which
was: how can foreign managers overcome the key
103
Journal of Advanced Management Science Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2015
©2015 Engineering and Technology Publishing
doi: 10.12720/joams.3.2.103-108
challenges of cross culture management at hotel industry
in Thailand?
This research had qualitative approach, and data was
collected by seven in-depth interviews during March and
April 2014. Seven non-Asian managers, who worked
different types of hotels in Thailand, were interviewed for
this research.
II. THE INTERWIEV DESIGN
Interview design included seven themes. These themes
were used as a guide during interviews. This interview
guide strategy gave more structure to interviews and by
this way the collected data was easier to organize and
analyze [18]. First, each interviewee were asked to
provide brief background information about themselves
such as age, education, length of work experience and
length of stay and current position in Thailand. This
information was used mainly for background info for
researcher and this part of the interviews is not published.
To collect data about biggest cultural differences and
challenges interviewees were asked to tell about their
experiences of Thai culture, how they communicate with
local employees. After this interviewees were asked to
describe the most challenging situations and how did they
managed these situations. To understand Thai culture
more deeply, researcher asked interviewees to define
what is like an average Thai employee and what is the
best way to work with them? At the end of interviews,
managers were asked to give instructions for new
managers, how to be successful in a different culture and
what is like a good manager.
Qualitative data were collected by seven exclusive in-
depth interviews from foreign managers (two Finnish,
Canadian, French, Norwegian, Columbian and British)
who worked as a supervisor or managerial level at hotels
in Thailand. Three interviews were conducted at Koh
Samui, two at Pattaya and three at Bangkok, Thailand.
Interviewees had managerial working experiences for
two months to 20 years and these managers had been
working in Thailand for two months to four years.
Interviewees ranged in age from 25 to 45. Educational
background ranged from vocational school to Master’s
degree.
In comparison of Hofstede’s five dimension model all
other interviewees, except Columbia, had really high
scores in individualism. Based on the Hofstede’s five
dimension theories can be said that culture of
interviewees’ between Canada and United-Kingdom has
similarities and then Finland and Norway has quite
similar scores in these dimensions. France had some
similarities in scores between Canada and Columbia [1].
Managers, who had similarities in these cultural
dimensions, described same kind of challenges and
differences during interviews.
Generally, it can be said that individualism had the
biggest difference in comparison interviewee’s culture to
Thai culture.
III. CHALLENGES OF CCM
To discover the challenges of CCM at hotel industry in
Thailand researcher summarized the collected data by the
themes, which were:
• Culture, communication, behavior
• The challenges of CCM when working with Thai?
• The best solutions to these challenges
• How to avoid most common mistakes working
with Thai?
• Thai employees
• Tips for new foreign manager
Based on these themes, mentioned before, researcher
found out that the four challenges were most common
among conducted interviews. These challenges were;
different expectations and observation in communication
challenge, language cap between foreign managers and
Thai employees’ challenge, task efficiency challenge and
the conflict avoidance challenge.
A. Different Expectations and Observation in
Communication Challenge
According to Hofstede’s research Thai people have
high scores in collectivisms, which means that they are
not use to debate or give feedback like people from
individualistic countries. High scores in power distance
indicate that hierarchy is also valued in Thai culture [1].
These dimensions are very different compared to
individualistic countries. Thus, the expectations and
observation during communication were so different
between Thai employees’ and interviewed foreign
manager.
Different expectations appeared, when managers
started to communicate with local employees. By asking
questions, interviewed managers expected to find out
more information what was happened and why?
Managers were used to have two-way discussion, to
change ideas with employees and improve current
situations, without meaning to insult anybody. To
managers this was just a handy and fast way to clarify
and solve issues with employees. Two-way discussion
between local employees’ and manager was hard to gain
in Thai culture, because it is against Thai traditions. Also
hierarchy should be respected. Furthermore, if manager
kept asking questions about what Thai employees’ have
done, they felt easily insulted, un-trusted or unsecure.
According to Model of Freedom theory Thai
employees expects that the managers, who are above
them in hierarchy, gives orders only and there is no need
for feedback in such cases [2]. If the manager is in same
level with the employee, it is quite hard to give orders
because Thai employees’ feel that manager has no
authority to do so. Levels of hierarchy should be
respected. There is no easy way to cope with this issue.
Sometimes, situations like these made managers felt
frustrated and misunderstood. Also they felt that
development is harder and slower because of hierarchy.
Moreover, in some cases Thai employees’ did not
express true feelings. They liked to say yes even when
they did not mean it. They did it, because they wanted to
be polite and respect the hierarchy. Managers who came
from individualistic countries reported that sometimes
104
Journal of Advanced Management Science Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2015
©2015 Engineering and Technology Publishing
they felt irritated, because they could not have direct and
honest answer.
Another reason, why communication was so hard is;
average Thai employees are not really cultural-aware and
they are not really eager to learn more about other
cultures and take influences. Few managers (Norwegian,
Finnish and Columbian) had experienced that Thai
employees’ were interested about other cultures in a
polite way, but they did not really understand the
differences. Thai people are really long-term oriented and
traditions are highly valued, which was in with line with
Hofstede’s research that LTO had high scores in Thailand
[2].
Fig. 1 summarizes the differences of thinking between
non-Asian manager and Thai employees’. The difference
between collective and individualistic thinking was one
of the main reason why expectations and observation was
so different between participants. Thai employees
expected managers to tell them what to do, as it has been
tradition for them a long time, therefore sometime it is
enough if they just answer yes, as a sign of respect during
communication. If manager kept asking question, Thai
employees seemed to felt insulted and untrusted, they did
not understand why foreign manager has brake the
tradition and to them is was insulting behavior. Foreign
managers expected to have open discussion to solve
problems and gain more knowledge instead. As a result
most of the managers felt frustration, because of double
checking and lack of open discussion.
As a said, respect towards traditions and hierarchy are
highly valued in Thai culture and for foreign managers
this seemed to be hard to cope and adapt with. In
individualistic cultures communication is more direct and
open.
Figure 1. Summary of different expectations and observations in
communication
B. Language Cap between Foreign Managers and Thai
Employees’ Challenge
All interviewed managers had faced a communication
problems related to cap of language. Also in research of
Sriussadaporn was mentioned that language deficiency
has caused communication problems [11].
None of the interviewees spoke fluent Thai. Therefore,
interpreters and translator programs and body language
were used a lot to during communication. All in all, good
skills of spoken English among average Thai employees
are rare, especially at lower working levels. Thus, some
of the managers felt that their English is becoming worse,
because of use short and simple sentence.
Because of language cab, it is harder to make deep
relationships whit local employees’ and gain the trust,
which is one of the base values in Thai culture.
According to Hofstede’s research, personal relationships
are the key factor to make business with Thai [1].
Semantics related to language cap has also caused
problems. Semantics means that same word can mean
different things in different cultures [19]. E.g. the yes
word seemed to have different meaning. Interviewed
managers saw the yes-word more like “I understand” or
“I will do it”. Instead, average Thai employees saw the
yes-word more like “I am listening” or “I might do it”.
Furthermore, sometimes Thais do not tell the truth, if they
do not understand or agree with manager. In many
situations they easily say “yes”, because it was an easy
way to avoid conflict. Managers commented that over
time, it is easier to see and read behind the lines, when
other person is not following.
Fig. 2 summarize that Thais respect the hierarchy and
sometimes, they have to agree with the managers who are
above them, even if they do not understand or agree. It
would be against the tradition and hierarchy. All of the
interviewed managers commented that they need to
double-check everything, and just to be sure that job is
done.
Double-checking was manager’s mandatory routine,
which required a lot of time. One reason for that was the
poor level of spoken English among average Thai
employees’ and also poor level of spoken Thai among
foreign managers. Managers who came from
individualistic countries felt that double-checking was
hard, time-consuming work, which could not be skipped.
To some managers double-checking was waste of time,
because they were not used to supervise employees all the
time.
Figure 2. Summary of challenges related to language cap
C. Task Efficiency Challenge
Expectations of task efficiency among Thai employees’
and foreign manager had also differences. Interviewed
expatriates felt that Thai employees were hard to be
motivated, and average Thai employees was not that
committed to work compared to European employees.
Average Thai employees have more relaxed attitude
105
Journal of Advanced Management Science Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2015
©2015 Engineering and Technology Publishing
towards custom service or quality of standards and they
had very different thinking about how to work. Managers
also commented that it is usual Thai employees do only
the minimum what has been asked them to do. Therefore,
managers need to be very precise with the instructions, or
which kind of standards the hotel had. One reason for
different thinking was that majority of interviewed
managers came from individualistic countries and Thais
are collective.
Furthermore, based on the gathered information, Thai
employees are not so engaged with the precise work place,
they can easily change the workplace. They are not used
to work hard by the same way as foreign manager would
like them to do. Columbian manager told that it was
normal that there were no rush to serve customer. Thai
employees seemed to have time to surf in the net for and
talk with each other, before serving customer. Another
manager complained that Thai employees have a lot of
absences, and they come late to the work. Thai employees
like to have fun at work and take it easy. One reason for
this is that the working hours per day are long. European
managers are more used to work at the full speed, when
they are at work place, but Thai employees’ might even
live in the same building where they work. Free time and
work time are not that separated in Thailand, which can
explain that they are not so eager to work hard all the
time.
Furthermore, concept of time is different between high
and low context cultures. Also, Thai employees are more
focused to do one thing than to see the bigger picture,
why it would be important to serve customers well. Not
just get things done.
Fig. 3 summaries the challenges related to work
efficiency. Foreign managers expected Thai employees to
see the bigger picture why to work and use so called
outside of the box-thinking to solve problems. Meanwhile
average Thai employees seemed to think; “there is time to
do this task” or “I do precisely what has been asked to do,
nothing more”. The difference between individualistic
and collective –thinking and the concept of time were one
of the reasons, why the attitude and expectations was so
different regarding task efficiency.
Figure 3. Summary of challenges related to work efficiency
D. Conflict Avoidance Challenge
According to the Model of Freedom theory, conflicts
are threatening and thus Thai people avoid conflicts [2].
Thais avoid strongly conflicts, because there is a fear of
losing face. They rather change the workplace than take
the risk that they will lose a face. Many manager
(Canadian, French and Finnish) reported same kind of
situations like this: Thais rarely say “I am sorry” or “it
was my mistake”. Instead they rather stop answering the
questions or do not take the responsibility. One reason for
this behavior is the collective thinking. They do not want
to stand out the crowd.
Fig. 4 summaries, which kind of thinking is behind the
conflict avoidance. Thais avoid conflicts, because there is
a fear to lose face, which cannot be happen. They rather
change the workplace than take the risk beforehand.
Collective thinking and respect towards hierarchy
seemed to be one of the reason, why conflict avoidance is
so strong in Thai culture.
Figure 4. Summary of the fear of losing face and conflict avoidance
E. Tips to Foreign Managers How to Avoid Most
Common Pitfalls of These Challenges
How earlier presented challenges can be overcome
then? Here are some guidelines for these challenges. Tips
for the different expectations and observation in
communication challenge: The key is to understand Thai
culture and the differences of Thai culture. Managers
could try to find the balance between two different
expectations: what can be expected and obtained from the
employees. Manager should also remember to be gentle
and polite towards Thai employees always. Training and
open communication can be also helpful but by telling
Thai employees comprehensively about the different
expectations could make them understand other cultures
better and make Thai employees trust to the foreign
manager more.
Tips for language barrage challenge; as long as there is
two languages involved communication will be
challenging. Easiest solution of course would be to learn
communicate with Thai language. If this is not an option,
then manager could try to find the right people to work
with and try to make deeper relationship with those
people. Also managers should know that the word yes
does not mean just yes to Thai employees. Also it could
be helpful to learn to read behind the lines and interpret
non-verbal sign.
Tips for task efficiency among Thai employees’
challenge; Manager should tolerate the different concept
106
Journal of Advanced Management Science Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2015
©2015 Engineering and Technology Publishing
of time and be prepared that sometimes it takes time to
get things done. Double-checking is mandatory daily
routine, but there should be a balance that managers do
not do that too much behind employees’ back. Also
comprehensive training what good customer care means
could be one solution to this challenge.
Tips for losing faces and conflict avoidance challenge;
always remember that Thai employees cannot ever lose
faces, which means that asking strict question in a
meeting front of other people is not a good idea. Also
ability to read behind the lines and see non-verbal signs
might be helpful because Thai employees’ does not say
easily, if something is wrong, instead they will keep quiet.
By being patient and careful will help manager for sure to
handle the cultural differences.
IV. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
Researcher found four main challenges, which were
different expectations and observation during
communication challenge, language cap between foreign
managers and Thai employees’ challenge, task efficiency
challenge and conflict avoidance challenge.
Thai employees’ has different expectations and they
observe things differently during communication than
managers from individualistic countries. Thai employees’
value highly the hierarchy and traditions and Thai
employees are not used to work against these traditions.
They expect that the manager’s tell them what to do, and
they do not like to debate or have an open discussion
about the issues between managers, who are above them.
In situations like these, they felt unsecure or even
untrusted when managers kept asking too many questions.
Also the lack of express true feelings made these kinds of
situations even harder.
Instead, intention of interviewed managers was to gain
improvements and change ideas but this kind of
discussion are almost impossible in Thai culture,
especially if there are different working levels involved, it
is just against the tradition. Most of the managers said
that because of this, they need to double-check everything,
which made them feel frustration. One way to cope with
this challenge is to build strong relationship with
employees’ and gain their trust. Training and open
communication could also help but by sharing cultural
awareness might be the way how to make average Thai
employee to understand why foreign manager think so
differently.
Language cap causes challenges. Managers told that
double-checking is a mandatory routine to them because
of language cap and sometimes they have to use body
language and simple sentences to communicate, which
will mean that it is harder to make deep relationships with
the employees’. Because of language cap there is often
lack of open discussion and trust. One way to cope with
this challenge is to interpret non-verbal signs: learn to see
when other person is not following. Also patience with
this matter is helpful and understand that Thai people do
not express true feelings all the time.
Task efficiency was one of the challenges because
expectations were so different. The difference between
individualistic and collective thinking and also concept of
time were the biggest reasons why task efficiency was
seen so differently. Furthermore, concept of time is much
more flexible in Thailand. Managers from individualistic
cultures are used to work hard and use outside of the box
–thinking, when they are working. Average Thai
employees’ instead had more relaxed attitude and they
were more focused to solve problems fast than think the
bigger picture. One way to cope with this issue is to be
flexible and understand that sometimes it takes time to
get thing done. Adaptation to the different concept of
time and clear, exact instructions about the expectation
might be helpful to manage this challenge.
Also the conflict avoidance is common among Thai
employees’ and it is because of the fear of losing face.
Thai employees do not always express the true feelings
because they do not want to have conflict, or they do not
want to stand out from the crowd. Managers need to learn
to read non-verbal signs and read behind the lines to
avoid insulting anybody. Thai employee cannot lose a
face, therefore it is important to remember not to lose a
temperature with them, or express emotions.
As a general guideline how to avoid these challenges
are the cultural-awareness and deep understanding of
cultural differences. Also the balance between managers
own culture and Thai culture should be found. Manager
should also be gentle and polite and learn to read behind
the lines and interpret non-verbal sign of Thai employees.
By training and telling employees what is expected helps
them trust more to foreign manager. Also to find the right
people who to work with can help to cope with Thai
employees’.
IV. IMPLICATIONS
Cross-culture management is becoming more and more
common and effective CCM can be huge competitive
advantage thus, it is important to make further research
about CCM. This study is mainly an extension of
Hofstede’s five dimension model [1]. These two research
are more focusing on to find the cultural differences, but
this research was focusing more the cause and effect
relationships and to question why these differences has
causes challenges.
Results of this research are also in line with the
previous survey of Roong Sriussadaporn about managing
international business communication problems at work:
a pilot study in foreign companies in Thailand [11]. In
this research the biggest challenges were problems related
to mentality and accountability, task assignments, time
management, language deficiency and personal/work
relationships which are quite similar with this research.
V. CONCLUSION
The objective of this research was to discover the
challenges of CCM at hotel industry and understand why
foreign managers has faced these challenging situations
and also to provide tips to foreign managers how to avoid
earlier presented challenges in a diverse environment in
Thailand? Seven non- Asian foreign managers (two from
107
Journal of Advanced Management Science Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2015
©2015 Engineering and Technology Publishing
Finland, one Norwegian, French, Columbian Canadian
and English) were interviewed for this research.
Researcher found out that the four challenges listed
below were most common among conducted interviews.
? Different expectations and observation in
communication challenge
? Language cap between foreign managers and Thai
employees’ challenge
? Task efficiency challenge
? Conflict avoidance challenge
Based on these collected data, researcher provided
guidelines how to overcome these challenges. It can be
said that based on this research cultural-awareness,
openness, deep understanding of cultural differences and
patience are the keys to the effective cross-culture
management.
It is hoped that this study will inspire people to have a
further discussion about cross-culture management and
make people understand cultural differences more deeply.
Researcher hopes that further research about this topic
will be conducted by scientific way in the future.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was made under the sincere guidance of
Dr. Martin Goerlich, who showed the author the right
direction and helped to conceptualize this project. The
author also would like to thank all committee members,
teachers, interviewees: who gave all the data for the
research, classmates and friends: who gave excellent
hints and tips how to improve this research and family for
support and help. Special thanks to Jussi, who has helped
the author to think outside of the box during this journey.
REFERENCES
[1] G. Hofstede, G. J. Hofstede, and M. Minkov, Cultures and
Organizations: Software of the Mind, United States of America:
McGraw-Hill, 2008.
[2] M. Huijser, The Culture Advantage a New Model for Succeeding
with Global Teams, Amsterdam: E-book Publication Ayn Press,
Haarlem 2013.
[3] Dubrin, Principles of Leadership, 7th ed. Erin Joyner, 2013, pp.
22-23, 38-40.
[4] S. M. Aghazadeh, “Managing workforce diversity as an essential
resource for improving organizational performance,” International
Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. 53,
no. 6, pp. 521–531, 2004.
[5] F. Luthans and J. Doh, International Management: Culture,
Strategy and Behavior, Mc Graw Hill Companies, Inc. 2012, pp.
116-118, 122-133.
[6] P. B. Evans, The Global Challenge International Human Resource
Management, Mc Graw Hill International Edition, 2011, pp. 260.
[7] K. Weiermair, “Tourists' perceptions towards and satisfaction with
service quality in the cross-cultural service encounter:
Implications for hospitality and tourism management,” Managing
Service Quality, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 397-409, June 2000.
[8] T. I. Kawar, “Cross-cultural differences in management,” Jordan:
International Journal of Business and Social Science, pp. 3, 2012.
[9] M. J. Browaeyes and R. Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural
Management, England: Pearson Education Limited, 2008.
[10] N. Holden, Cross-Cultural Management: A Knowledge
Management Perspective, Pearson Education, 2002.
[11] R. Sriussadaporn. (2006). Managing International business
communication problems at work: A pilot study in foreign
companies in Thailand. Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok,
Department of Speech Communications and Performing Arts,
Thailand. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. [Online]. Available:http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=1352-7606
[12] G. Yukl, “Leadership in organizations (7 Edn.),” Pearson, pp. 450-
465, 2010.
[13] K. M. Lievre, Cultural Others: A New Conception of Cross-
Cultural Management, the University of Melbourne, pp. 6, 2011.
[14] M. H. Bond, "Reclaiming the individual from Hofstede's
ecological analysis-a 20-year Odyssey: Comment on Oyserman et
al," Psychological, 2002.
[15] G. Hofstede, “The archimedes effect,” in Working at the Interface
of Cultures: 18 Lives in Social Science, M. H. Bond. London,
Routledge: pp. 47-61, Bulletin, vol. 128, no. 1, pp. 73-77, 2002.
[16] G. Hofstede, “Dimensions do not exist: A reply to Brendan
McSweeney,” Human Relations, vol. 55, no. 11, pp. 1355–1361,
2002.
[17] O. Furrer, B. S. C. Liu, and D. Sudharshan, “The relationships
between culture and service quality perceptions: Basis for cross-
cultural market segmentation and resource allocation,” Journal of
Service Research, vol. 2, pp. 355-371, May.
[18] A. B. Glenn, Preparing a Qualitative Research-based
Dissertation: Lesson Learned, 2005.
[19] A. J. Robbins, “Organizational behavior (15 Edn.),” Pearson,
2013.
Ms. Suvi J. Jäämaa (born in September,
1984) grew up in Hämeenkoski, Finland. In
2008 she got a degree in financial
management from Lahti University of applied
science in Finland. Now she studies master's
degree in business administration in Bangkok
and this article was part of that degree. She
will graduate at the end of year 2014. After
her bachelor’s degree she spent six years
working in financial sector in different
positions such as FINANCIAL ASSISTANT
and CHIEF ACCOUNTATN in Finland. Now she is working as a
FINANCIAL ANALYSIST in Finland but she hopes that she can
continue her research about cross-culture management in the future.
You may contact her by mail: [email protected]
108
Journal of Advanced Management Science Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2015
©2015 Engineering and Technology Publishing
doc_319779717.pdf