Case Assignments (1) Uganda on Page 79 1. Uganda has had negative experiences with powerful leaders starting with IA who committed mass murder. Also, there has been a recent influx of immigrants settling in Uganda after fleeing from bloodshed in Rwanda, Zaire, and the Sudan. The government supports nepotism and is concerned to be one of the most corrupt countries in the world. There are few government regulations on the conduct of business which creates a favorable climate for doing business there. Also, electricity is not widely available. The religious terrain includes Christians, Muslims and various animistic religions. 2. With regard to a company, ethnocentrism describes the belief that the methods which work for a company at home will be equally effective abroad any cultural influences. With regard to a company, polycentrism describes the belief that an organization should behave like a local company. A geocentric attitude is one taken by a business wherein it bases its operations on informed knowledge of the needs of both home and host country. M and G: Martin’s attitude is polycentric because he believes in accommodating Ugandan ways of doing business regardless of the conflict with his company’s method of doing business. Green’s attitude is ethnocentric because he believes that the company’s methods should work equally well in Uganda as they do at home. The factors that influenced their respective attitudes are as follows: Green was influenced by the values of L. He knew he would be held accountable for the results of Martin’s decisions and the impact of the company. Green was influenced by Martin’s success in dealing with local issues as well as performing in the culture and making new engineers comfortable in the company and culture. M was influenced by his education in African studies as well as his experience in the Peace Corps while working in Kenya. Martin developed a disdain for western management styles and was determined to respect the local culture. 3. With regard to a company, ethnocentrism describes the belief that the methods that worked for a company at home will be equally effective discounting any cultural influences. With regard to company, polycentrism describes the belief an organization should behave like local companies. A geocentric attitude is one taken by a business wherein it bases operations on informed knowledge of the needs of both home and host country. M and G present both sides of cultural attitudes that resolve solely around either business or national needs. G was a representative of HG and its interests, values and behaviors and had an ethnocentric attitude towards business in another country. M as an employee should have taken HG’s culture into consideration when representing it in the host country. Instead, M went naïve and adopted a polycentric attitude towards all business and personal behaviors in the host country. Both M and G were partially right and partially wrong. The best attitude that would have balances the needs of the business in deference to the needs of the host country is geocentric. M’s actions may have been controversial according to HG’s ethics and standards. However, it was the standard operating procedure in the host country. The project would have taken much longer to reach without M’s bribes, hiring of local relatives, and knowledge of local issues and customs. The project would be over budget and vey late in deference to the timeline for completion. HG would be spending much in time and money more to complete the part of the project in the case. 4. A geocentric attitude is one taken by a business wherein it bases its operations on informed knowledge of the needs of both home company and host country. In the next phase of the project GH should employ someone whose main function is that of liaison between its corporate culture of its host country. This is because they are different enough to open the possibility of unintentional offense between HG and Uganda. The cultures of HG and Uganda are very different, each believing that their methods are the best for conducting business. The strict guidelines adhered to the managers of HG do not coincide with the way that the Ugandan officials do business. M is not the right person for the job because he has gone completely native. While it is important to employ cultural liaison, Hg needs the employee to be geocentric so that he may perform the duties with an informed knowledge of the needs of both home company and host country.