| Managing business culture in global companies is receiving increasing attention since the economic trend toward globalization. Cross-cultural management, communication media channels, communication style, and understanding of the relationship between organizational and national culture are critical elements for organization success. Diverse work environments are no longer a rarity; increasingly they are the norm. Managers working in intercultural contexts, such as global organizations, need to understand aspects of other cultures to build the necessary teamwork, to establish appropriate communication channels to avoid misunderstandings, and to increase organizational effectiveness. The purpose of the study was to find out the preferred communication media channel to be used in different culture based on Hofstede's initial four Dimensions of Culture and to determine whether perception of media richness and preferences as defined by the Media Richness Theory (MRT) for situations vary and differs across cultures. The study found that the ranking order across the four culture dimensions are face-to-face, email, phone, voicemail, and memos, which is a different order than the MRT ranking order which is face-to-face, phone, email, voicemail, and memos. Based on that finding, the four hypotheses are rejected. |
