Good How Big Global Businesses Compare Term Paper Example

The three basic models of national culture are the Hofstede model of national culture, the GLOBE project, and the 7d culture model. With the Hofstede model, the cultural values of an organization can be determined through management’s application of human resources management, leadership styles, motivational assumptions, decision making and organizational design, and strategy (Cullen & Parboteeah 2013, p. 52). With the GLOBE national culture framework, much of the Hofstede model’s cultural dimensions apply, but they also look at performance orientation (how much a company is motivated to perform) and human orientation (how much people are motivated to behave ethically) (p. 64). The 7d cultural model follows seven dimensions, each comparing continuums of cultural differences, such as universalism vs. particularism, collectivism vs. individualism, and so on (p. 66-67).
In the video game console industry, there are three major competitors: Sony (with their Playstation), Microsoft (with their Xbox), and Nintendo (with their Wii). Taking a look at Sony, the type of cultural model that could be used to describe them is the GLOBE model – their organizational culture carries with it a high performance orientation, with a great deal of emphasis on ambition, individual development and merit, and blunt, direct communication. Conversely, their humane orientation is low, with a greater emphasis on self-interest as opposed to results (Lin, 2010).
As all three companies operate largely within the United States or Japan, economies with their own biases and various market elements, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo all fall into a mixed economic system, which mixes components of market and command economies. Mixed economies feature both capitalist and socialist elements, as the state plays a mild to moderate part in the means of production and distribution, while allowing a degree of freedom for private ownership and enterprise. In both nations, the United States and Japan allow for a combination of government oversight and unregulated economic behavior, thus making it a mixed system.
The effects of a mixed economic system on the video game industry are many; for instance, the government can engage in regulation of video game content (e.g. the ESRB ratings system, censorship), as they use their power to supercede the desires of these companies. Also, mixed economies lead to higher competition between companies, due to the slightly freer level of market force they can exert on each other; in the case of Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, this leads to the ‘console wars’ in which each company must release a new generation of console in order to compete with each other (Cheng et al., 2007). Also, there exists a generalized governmental oversight of a mixed economy that can affect overall market climates – the regulation of markets can lead to overall economic upturns and downturns that affect the ability of their consumer base to invest in products like video game consoles.
There are many reasons why some nations have lagged behind others in economic development. Most notably, many developing countries lack the resources to capitalize upon in order to make themselves economically viable and provide commodities to the rest of the world. Furthermore, societal upheavals and conflicts can lead to a certain lack of economic development, such as recovering from wars (e.g. post-World War II Germany, Middle Eastern countries) and revolutions (e.g. the Arab Spring). Some countries fall under the rule of authoritarian dictators, such as Egypt and many other African nations, who keep societal progress low in order to maintain a foothold on their power. Other reasons can include simple market oversaturation, making it difficult for developing nations to influence markets that are already being covered.
Video game companies like Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft can certainly take action to address the lack of economic progress in many of these countries. For instance, they can move manufacturing or development facilities and resources to those countries, providing much-needed investment money and jobs to native citizens. Furthermore, they can lobby other companies to do the same, providing a greater sense of global economic integration if the nations in question can be given the right resources. Finally, these companies can sponsor education efforts in the fields of computer programming, manufacturing and more, using their own money to increase their exposure in these developing nations while also cultivating loyal, well-trained workers who can then turn around and improve the economic status of their nation through skilled work.
Of the three companies I have mentioned, I would like to eventually attain a leadership position at Microsoft – they are an industry leader in the field of video games, as well as an historically famous institution in the world of computing, thus making them a lucrative and popular choice. To get there from where I am today, I would need to undergo a series of changes. First and foremost, I would need to receive the necessary education to learn management and organizational culture at an electronics company at an advanced level. Also, I would need to have an advanced knowledge of computing and video games technology in order to achieve the appropriate level of understanding of my industry.
I would need to develop language skills both in my corporate culture – learning how to speak specifically to those in the video games field – and fluency in Japanese would be quite useful for such an East Asia-derived industry (Cheng et al., 2007). I would need to integrate myself cleanly into the Microsoft corporate culture, attending electronics conventions and events in order to immerse myself in the industry, as well as learn the appropriate conflict management skills for working with Microsoft’s unique worker set. All of these factors should prove useful for allowing me to advance quickly within the ranks of Microsoft’s power structure to gain a leadership position.
If I were to become the CEO of Microsoft, there are two major global changes I would make in order to advance the company’s profile while still operating ethically. First and foremost, I would put forth even more work into marketing the company’s chief product – the Xbox One – in order to allow it to overtake Sony’s Playstation 4, which currently outsells Microsoft due to its higher profile (Liu, 2010). Marketing the vast array of console games that are currently available more aggressively, as well as boasting the Xbox One’s media playing capabilities (such as streaming via Netflix) in a more concentrated way will appeal not only to gamers, but to anyone seeking new ways to stream media from the Internet.
In addition to that, I would work to improve Microsoft’s cloud technology, which still lags behind those of other consoles and electronics companies (McIntyre, 2015). Currently, the Xbox still mostly relies on memory cards and hard drive storage to allow customers to store games and content they buy online, which is not cost-effective for the consumer or large enough to handle all the content the average user wishes to hold on to. To that end, greater marketing and development of cloud technology will be made as a central feature of Xboxes to make the product more appealing to consumers.

References

Cheng, J., Freeman-Aloiau, M., Guo, X., & Pullen, A. (2007). Sony: Maintaining Dominance
with PlayStation 3. White Paper of California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
Cullen, J.B. & Parboteeah, K.P. (2013). Multinational management. Cengage Learning.
Liu, H. (2010). Dynamics of pricing in the video game console market: skimming or
penetration? Journal of Marketing Research, 47(3), 428-443.
McIntyre, D.A. (January 31, 2015). Microsoft is worst Dow stock of year. 24/7 Wall St.
Retrieved from http://247wallst.com/technology-3/2015/01/31/microsoft-is-worst-dow-stock-of-year/.