Management in

globalised context
NAME : SARA BENDIDANE

STUDENT NUMBER : M00798015

Contents
Part A: Ethical problem recommendation through Carroll’s CSR Pyramid ........................................... 2
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 2
Defining ethical problem .................................................................................................................... 2
Recommendation ................................................................................................................................ 3
Part B: Addressing challenges of cross-cultural management with reference to social cognition or
scripts ...................................................................................................................................................... 5
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 5
Identification and discussion of cultural groups ................................................................................. 5
Overview of challenges....................................................................................................................... 7
Summary of overcoming challenges ................................................................................................... 8
References ............................................................................................................................................... 8
Part A: Ethical problem recommendation through Carroll’s CSR Pyramid

Introduction
Ethics is related to the set of business practices and guidelines which organizations undertake
in order to guide them through their decision making process about finances, deals, operations,
and CSR. Ethical issues in organization refers to the conflict faced by the organization against
their adopted policy and guidelines which is being challenged (Crane and Matten, 2015). The
ethical standards in UK fashion retail industry are a matter of concern with supposition of
clothes being marketed as sustainable and use of recycled elements for clothes manufacturing.
The purpose of the report is to advise the chosen organization of Primark on the ethical problem
which is faced by them by making recommendations. The report would contain an outline of
the ethical problem which Primark is facing. It includes the backlash which Primark has
suffered form the social media users for marketing few of its fashion range as being sustainable
and ethical. Further, the report would suggest three specific recommendations which the
organization can adopt to overcome the ethical issue of sustainability through the use of
Carroll’s CSR Pyramid.

Defining ethical problem

Primark as a renowned fashion retail brand is experiencing problem as they faced social media
backlash for marketing their range of clothing apparels as ethical and sustainable through their
shared picture of a model wearing a cloth with slogan “Love our planet”.

Recently, the multinational fast fashion retail brand of Primark has been facing with an ethical
problem. The retail fast fashion clothing retailer of Primark stated that the hoodie which is
being featured reflects about an illustration where the earth is being cupped by the hands of
Mickey Mouse (Becker, 2019). The hoodie is part of their now collection which is made from
organic cotton and recycled polyester which Primark is marketing ad being sustainable and
ethical.

However, the organization suffered backlash as the social media followers of Primark raised
doubt about the ethical and sustainability claims made by the brand. The social media followers
raised question about the false marketing of the now clothing range as ethical and sustainable
and termed it as green washing as the social media followers of the organization perceived
Primark to be unsustainable and their big claim through the hoodie saying to Love our plant
was pointless. The ethical fashion watchdog, Good on You has rated Primark to be Not Good
Enough based on the research they have conducted (Griseri and Seppala, 2010). The report
stated that the business model of Primark is based upon creation of short lived and poorly made
fast fashion products in huge amounts which contradicts with the ethical fashion values and
has a negative impact upon the environment, animals and its staff. Although Primark claimed
that all the products which belonged to the Care Range featuring Disney is made from
sustainable fibres which includes organic cotton grown by farmers under the Sustainable
Cotton programme and recycled Polyester. Yet the brand suffered backlash from its own social
media followers who claimed it as green washing and has nothing to do with being ethical or
sustainable as the business practice and model adopted by the brand is still unsustainable.

The effect of the ethical issue upon Primark is that it has hampered the brand name and
customer perception about the organization. Social media is the most popular digital medium
platform which is used by organization to connect with the customers and backlash in the social
media has led to negative Word of Mouth marketing about Primark (Trevino and Nelson,
2021). Moreover, the customer acquisition has also been affected by 5% due to spread of the
news of ethical issue faced by Primark.

Recommendation
The recommendation will be proposed through use of Carroll’s CSR Pyramid which denotes
for how organization like Primark should take on social responsibility while meeting their
economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic expectations.

To overcome the ethical issue being faced by Primark in terms of being termed as an ethical
and unsustainable brand it is important to adopt appropriate CSR strategies by the brand to
become an ethical brand. According to Tabrica, et al., (2019), Carroll’s CSR pyramid includes
a framework which state how organization should adopt CSR policies so that they adapt their
business behaviour and activities to be ethical, economically profitable, and socially supportive
and legally complaint. The first dimension includes economic responsibility under which the
organization should focus upon adopting practices which h would help to attain long term
business growth and meet the legal and ethical standards which includes not making profit at
the cost of environment. The second dimension incudes the legal responsibility under which
includes obligation of the organization to follow the relevant laws and compliance with the
legal regulations (Favorada, 2016). The third dimension includes ethical responsibility under
which organization need to do things correctly, maintain fairness and avoid doing harm to the
people nor the environment. The fourth dimension includes philanthropic responsibility under
which the organization would return back to the society in form of volunteer work, community
development programs, donations and other philanthropic initiatives.

Fig: Carroll’s CSR Pyramid (Source: Favorada, 2016)

The three specific recommendations for Primark includes that in terms of economic
responsibility Primark the brand should ensure that the economic policies in terms of its pricing
strategies and payment mad to the staff should be such that it provide value to customers in
return of their price. For the staff Primark would need to provide the staff with increase in
bonus and pay scale based upon their performance and ensure extra pay for extra work done
by the staff. In terms of ethical responsibility, Primark should strictly adopt sustainability and
ethical business practices with producing minimum batches of products depending upon
market demand and strictly regulating their waste management and stocks to reduce carbon
footprint (Becker, 2019). Moreover, in terms of legal responsibility, Primark should
compliance with the Environmental law of UK and sustainability standards which the
organization operating in UK should maintain in terms of judicious use if natural resources,
ensure sustainable development and appoint an external consultant to produce annual report
upon the ethical working of the organization to identify loopholes in this regard.
Part B: Addressing challenges of cross-cultural management with reference to social
cognition or scripts

Introduction
In contemporary managing environment, managing diversified or cross-cultural individual
containing groups within an organization is a difficult scenario. Cross cultural management
refers to the approach of management which includes taking into consideration and paying
respect to the cross cultural differences and creation of knowledge which is necessary for
management of organization in the global environment successfully. The purpose of the report
includes addressing the cross cultural management challenge faced by the Spanish renewable
energy company for its new assignment of on shore farm project in Yorkshire, UK with
reference to the concept of social cognition or scripts. The report would identify the relevant
cultural groups and their differences in the now assignment and provide an overview of the
cross cultural management challenge. At last, the report would suggest how the cross cultural
management challenge faced by the Spanish renewable energy organization can be overcome.

Identification and discussion of cultural groups

For Spanish renewable energy company operating in Yorkshire UK, a new team comprising
has been done for the on-shore wind farm project. The key cultural group is consisting of the
Spanish expatriate senior managers supported by locally hired people from UK for fruitful
completion of the project.

However, the cultural attributes of the local people of UK and Spanish team members are
different. The power distance of Spain is 57 which indicates that the people of Spain accepts
the hierarchical order which reflects centralization, and acceptance of the orders by
subordinates. While in UK the power distance is 35 which indicates that the local people of
Yorkshire believed in reducing the inequalities. The culture of Spain has presence of
individualism (51) which includes that the Spain workers tend to think of individual
development rather than collective one (Browaeys, and Price, 2015). The local people of
Yorkshire, UK also believe in individualistic approach with a score of 89. With a moderate
score of 42 in the masculinity index the Spanish workers has presence of cooperation where
the managers tends to consult the subordinate to make decisions. While with a high score of
masculinity the local people of Yorkshire, UK are driven by competition and clear ambition of
performance.
 Fig: Hofstede of Spain (Source: Jackson, 2018)

The Spanish workers has high uncertainty avoidance index of 86 which reflects about their
culture to work in a systematic way by compiling to plans and rules and avoiding uncertain
situations. While the local people of Yorkshire with a low score of 35 in terms of uncertainty
avoidance are tend to take pragmatic decision and prefer to work in a flexible manner (Romani,
et al., 2018). The long term orientation score is 42 which indicates that the Spanish works
prefer to look for quick results and believes in working under rules to avoid pragmatic and
relaxed approach to things. While the local people has moderate approach towards long term
orientation as they score 51 and has no preferred dominance to either normative nor pragmatic
approach. The Spanish workers has restraint approach with little time of relaxation and are
workaholic. While the local people of Yorkshire has presence of indulgence culture. It indicate
their desire to work in relax manner without taking pressure and place High degree of
importance towards leisure time.
 Fig: Hofstede of UK (Source: Romani, et al., 2021)

While my culture which includes the culture of France is different from that of UK. French
people give importance to hierarchical culture of working with a presence of individualistic
society where individuals from childhood are brought up to be competitive. French culture
score high on uncertainty avoidance index and are pragmatic in nature which indicates about
their risk taking attitude while the restraint score is high which reflects that the French people
has less time to relax and are workaholic.

Overview of challenges
There is a cultural difference in opinion of two group of people – Spanish and British followed
by their socio-cognitive approach to cross-cultural management and thereby impacting over
the various decisions made by the team in terms of the project. The social cognition is used by
both the Spanish workers of the energy company and the local people of Yorkshire, UK. The
Spanish workers perceived the culture of local people of Yorkshire to avoid hierarchical system
as problematic as no systematic hierarchy can be created in the project management and
regularly the local people would need to be consulted before taking any decision. While the
Spanish people believe in working in cooperative manner with division of work and working
based upon the schedule (Thomas, David, 2018).

The local people of Yorkshire, UK are less likely to follow the rigid working system and
finding it difficult to work in such a manner without a flexible and pragmatic approach to
things. There is lack of risk taking attitude of the Spanish staff while the local people of
Yorkshire, UK believes in innovation, and risk taking. They Spanish workers tend to provide
less break between works to the local people which is making it difficult to maintain work life
balance as they are not used to work in a restraint manner and has preference for indulgence
culture (Jackson, 2018). Moreover, it is also affecting the decision making process as there
occurs regular clash between the Spanish workers and local people as the Spanish workers
believe in working in restraint manner following the prepared schedule while the local people
of Yorkshire, UK prefer to work in flexible manner and take pragmatic decisions which leads
to cross cultural clashes.

My own culture of France would be difficult to manage with the culture of the Spanish workers
and local people of Yorkshire, UK. While I believe in hierarchical system of work where the
authority and commands flows from top managerial positions it would be difficult for the
Spanish workers who do not believe in inequality. The Spanish workers are not accustom to
adopt pragmatic approach and believe to follow a rigid schedule of working while it would be
easier to manage the local people of Yorkshire, UK but the workers of Spanish renewable
energy company. It would affect the script and social cognition as the mode of working, culture
and sway of operating is different among Spanish, French and UK culture. While the UK local
people would prefer to work in relax manner with indulgence culture with enough time for
relaxation. My French culture is adapted to work continuously with less time for relaxation and
breaks which would lead to clash among the team and would affect script and social cognition
due to clash for the cross cultural differences.

Summary of overcoming challenges

It is recommended for the manager to overcome the various cross-cultural challenges in relation
to social motives of employees while working together with expatriate senior management
team in the Spanish energy firm in Yorkshire as he takes up different steps induced to employee
socio-cognitive motivation level being uplifted.

To avoid cross cultural management issues between the local people of Yorkshire, UK and the
experts of Spain involved the onshore farm project need to be undertaken by me as a manager.
The language barrier need to be overcome by maintaining two way communication and
coordination in communication between thee workers which would facilitate team work
between them (Gehrke and Claes, 2017). Equal employment opportunities would need to be
provided as a manager by me to the Spanish workers and the local people of Yorkshire, UK
which would help the workers to avoid cultural biasness and promote compensation between
the workers in their way of working and perceptions about each other. Similarly, I would also
need to create a balance upon the cross cultural differences by effective communication and
interpersonal interaction which would help to create a trust building atmosphere among the
workers of different culture. Further, by effective conflict management, team work building
and establishment of emotional intelligence would help to overcome the cross cultural
differences. Regular address of cross cultural conflict by the company need to be undertaken
through facilitating effective communication, collaboration and discourage unconscious
cultural biasness as a manager (Chang, et al., 2021). It would help to enhance socio-cognitive
motivation to work in a harmonious manner by avoiding cross cultural differences.

References
Becker, C. U. (2019) Business Ethics: Methods and Applications, London: Routledge
Browaeys, M. and Price, R. (2015). Understanding Cross-Cultural Management),
3rd Edition, Harlow: Pearson

Chang, A., Wiewiora, A. and Liu, Y., 2021. A socio-cognitive approach to leading a learning
project team: A proposed model and scale development. International Journal of Project
Management, 39(6), pp.646-657.

Crane, A. and Matten, D. (2015). Business Ethics, 4th Edition, Oxford: Oxford
University Press

Favorada, B.G.F., 2016. CSR from within: An action research on a sustainable healthy working
environment.

Gehrke, B. and Claes, M.T., 2017. Global leadership practices: A cross-cultural management
perspective. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Griseri, P. and Seppala, N. (2010). Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility

Jackson, T., 2018. What makes cross-cultural management scholarship critical? It depends on
how we understand ‘culture’. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 18(3),
pp.267-270.

Romani, L., Mahadevan, J. and Primecz, H., 2018. Critical cross-cultural management: Outline
and emerging contributions. International Studies of Management & Organization, 48(4),
pp.403-418.

Tăbîrca, A.I., Ivan, O.R., Radu, F. and Djaouahdou, R., 2019. Qualitative Research in WoS of
the Link between Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Financial
Performance. Valahian Journal of Economic Studies, 10(1), pp.107-118.

Thomas, David, C. (2018). Cross-Cultural Management: Essential Concepts, 4th

Edition, London: SAG

Trevino, L.K. and Nelson, K.A., 2021. Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to
do it right. John Wiley & Sons.