Cross- cultural Communication This page intentionally left blank

Communication
There needs to be an established communication system, for example, 
by holding regular meetings to discuss day- to- day progress in the transfer 
system, with reports to senior management to ensure that problems are 
anticipated and solutions are found before they become a serious issue.
Government and bureaucratic interference
Some governments, such as those of China and Russia, retain the right to 
have the controlling interest in FDI or IJVs in what are considered key indus-
tries, such as telecommunications, defence, financial services, petroleum 
and chemicals. This is, in effect, a form of protectionism and runs counter 
to the concept of trade liberalization as encouraged by the WTO. Excessive 
bureaucracy may also pose problems, for example, in areas such as work 
permits, customs regulations, taxation and repatriation of funds.
Inappropriate technology
The proposed technology transfer may appear too complex and too expen-
sive for the objectives of the project, which may be mainly acquired for 
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252 Cross-Cultural Communication
prestige purposes in the recipient country. It is important to stress the expected 
benefits to the receiving culture, for example, more jobs, increases in the 
local skills base and economic benefits to the local economy. Eagerness to 
adopt the foreign technology may be tempered in some cases by the reali-
zation of the need to introduce technology which may be more culturally 
appropriate and thus avoid potential resistance by the labour force that the 
new foreign technology would have entailed.
Environmental concerns
The long- term effects of pollution, both to the atmosphere through excessive 
carbon emissions and to the local area (including water supply contamina-
tion), must be considered. Here the providing culture has a duty of care to 
keep any long- term damage to the local environment to a minimum.