Intersoft Argentina Essay

Intersoft was founded in 1983 and was one of the fastest growing high tech companies in latin America. It holds 30% of the Argentine open systems software market. In 1994 since the market was moving from procedural programming and character based interface design which was Intersoft’s traditional strength toward object oriented and programming and GUIs. So since orgland had extensive experience in Graphic user interfaces (GUI), it was a perfect fit to work vit was a young and dynamic team. Even though Russians and Argentines have similarities in their culture there are some key differences which poses a challenge for them to work together. Russians are more anarchical and hierarchical and more rebellious towards authority. Whereas Argentines don’t rebel against authorities, they simply ignore them. Russians don’t think its right for a peer to share views with a boss if there’s a possibility of agreement at the peer level whereas Argentines donot respect those boundaries. This was one of the main reasons of disagreement between Hernan and Alexey. Also the language interpretation was one of problems that increased the misunderstanding. The resistance by both individuals to discuss the problem face to face and resorting to emails did not help the situation either. To diffuse the situation Emilio should meet with Alexey and Hernan and take into consideration both their view points about the disagreement. All three should work collaboratively and resolve to a common ground where they all agree. Emilio should also discourage communication via emails which increases tension among employees in situations of disagreement. When different cultures are brought to work together, leadership plays a critical role to ensure team work. International businesses are facing new challenges to their internal communication structures due to major reforms brought about through internationalization, downsizing, mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. Lack of investment in cross cultural training and language tuition often leads to deficient internal cohesion. The internal conflicts, poor working relations, misunderstandings, stress, poor productivity and lack of co-operation are all by products of poor cross cultural communication. Training – Emilio has to adopt various trainings to promote effective communication and teamwork. Individual development – the executives should be trained on different cultures. Their knowledge of different cultures be constantly be upgraded. Encourage strong intercultural relationships. Language training – all employees should be trained on language together. The Russians and Argentines should be trained on English language together so that communication becomes easier among them. Encourage discussions between them and ensure they maintain strong eye contact. Bring in outside experts – Use training content and delivery by specialists with direct experience and indepth knowledge of both Argentine and Russian cultures as well as expertise in the field of cross-cultural communication. Integrate training into new employee orientation – for both Intersoft and Orgland integrate training of Argentine and Russian cultures a part of regular induction processes for new employees. Reinforce the training with mentoring – ensure that training is effective by a continued effort of mentoring by forming teams of argentine and Russian counterparts to work together on projects and office activities like organizing an event or party, etc. Incorporate the best of both cultures: Emilio has the advantage to adopt the best aspects of both cultures into Intersoft. Office environment – The layout of Intersoft did not promote team work as the Argentines were seated together and the Russians sat together.