...competence. Individuals who find themselves in foreign cultures need to be themselves for the partnership to work. Therefore the reconciliation of differences is essential, and further, a look at how the other cultural perspective can be of help. In organizational culture, the structure of the organization is used to analyze its culture. In the business context, the differences in various cultures from around the globe in most organizations is increasing, therefore the firms have to develop a strategy to address the cultural diversity. In addressing this issue, we can refer to the work done by Adler with Gundersen (2008, 2002), where they described four kinds of organizational phases of development in going global. We also learn the importance of cultural diversity in these organizational structures. Corporate cultures are determined by two key criteria; the business environment and the national cultural setting. These two has an influence in shaping corporate cultures and how companies manage their business. Culture is applicable in many aspects of management, it determines a lot of key areas which includes but not limited to strategy of business, marketing performance, human resource management, finance and accounting systems etc. it is important to note that culture is of interest to management because it offers the possibility of increasing efficiency at various levels. To further classify the types of organizational culture to provide a clear view of cultural awareness, we adopted...
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...conflict and misunderstanding (Schneider, 2003). Over the last decades globalisation has led to diversification of workplaces within businesses. Today, international managers cooperate with business partners inheriting different national cultures. National culture can be defined as “historically evolved values, attitudes and meanings that are learned and shared by the members of a community and which influence their [...] way of life” (Tayeb, 2003, p.10). Hence, the crux for every international manager is to understand the differences in the ways employees, suppliers and clients think, feel and act in different business settings (Hofstede, 1997, p.4). International managers, being capable of managing this challenge, possess a set of intercultural competencies, allowing them to turn cultural diversity into a competitive advantage (Browaeys and Price, 2008, p.215). This information pack provides substantial information about Danish and Brazilian business practices. The subsequent analysis is based upon the theories of the Dutch anthropologists Geert Hofstede and Fons Trompenaars. In particular, Hofstede’s “Uncertainty Avoidance” and Trompenaars’ “Ascription vs. Achievement” have been applied. 2. Theoretical Background Hofstede and Trompenaar are proponents of the ‘etic’ approach. They hold that culture is linked to people’s values. Furthermore they argue that these values can be transferred into universal cultural characteristics. Underpinned by empirical and experimental...
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...investment and creation of an international cooperate culture. Sony Corporation implemented this training program in hopes of preventing a High Job Turn- Over rate. Job Turn-over is where a percentage of workers who leave the organization and are sometimes replaced or not. The program was implemented in desire to prevent this from happening. Sony’s change in region and employees was a very drastic move since there would be a mixing of various cultures and groups. Conflict was due to occur within this branch of the organization, thus leading to employees wanting to leave the organization. The implementation of special global training programs helped to reduce the possibility of a high job turnover rate. This is possible because Sony uses coaching to reduce conflict. When conflict occurs, cross- cultural consultants would coach the conflicted sides to overcome their misunderstandings. Through the implementation of this training program, Sony expected to have a return on investment. Return on investment is one of the primary consideration when implanting a training program. In the case of group training, detailed information is provided in a condensed time format, which can eliminate or reduce costly and sometimes lengthy, on the job training. All these efforts placed within the training returned with positive results both for employees and the company as a whole. Sony’s training program helps in the creation of an international corporate culture. It improves employees’...
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...Assignment 14.10.2015 Since globalization have forced global companies work and cooperate across geographical borders, their employees must travel and work in different countries and therefore have to deal with variety of cultural differences. Ellen Moore, an experienced consultant from Systems Consulting Group despite some warnings that woman is not prefered as manager only if she is high qualified, was sent to Korea to work as a manager of korean consultants. Ellen's advantage why she was elected for this position was her experience in project management and her international experience from work in Bahrein. As Ellen arrived in Korea, she takes every possibility to learn language and to understand local culture, lifestyle and values and soon she realized that there are remarkable differences from Western countries in the everyday live and also business environment, mainly based on historical evolution and impact of Confucianism which properties were affecting and reflecting in social and work environment: Complete loyalty to structure Duty to parents expressed in loyalty, love and gratitude Very strict rules of conduct (parents / children; old / young; male / female ; teacher / student) In Western countries good manager and leader has to express positive emotions public and some negative remarks are prefered to announce in private in order not to reduce person's public confidence. In Korea manager should express disappointment about person’s performance public,...
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...Problems in outsourcing 1. Executive Summary Outsourcing is the way of distributing the work in an organization to the other companies, in case the parent company is not having the expertise in handling the situation. Hence, the companies are entering into different business opportunities, even though they are not having the expertise and thus outsourcing the work in the organization to the other potential companies. The outsourcing may be national or international. Generally the outsourcing will be highly seen in the service industry rather than the manufacturing industry. When the work is being distributed to other companies, there will always be a scope for the cultural variations which will affect the efficiency of the organization. As the service outsourcing deals with the different cultured people involved, it is highly discouraged to tie up the performance of the company with the cross cultural management of the organization. Hence, the companies are adopting the cross cultural management such that the different cultured people, processes and the operations will be run under a same hierarchy which will be monitored by the management of the organization. In this document, the effect of the cross cultural environment will be discussed in the outsourcing department and how they have faced problems in designing a global strategy to handle the outsourcing. The management theories like Trompenaars will be specified in this document to enhance the knowledge of these theories...
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...you are in college, in school, or at work, the most important key that will lead you to a successful life is being respectful to others. If your intent is to show respect to the people around you, then they will show you their respect and treat you with kindness. In addition, to explain the question of how important social responsibility is to the America society America has a significant international population. Many people that live in America are from a different environment, culture and lifestyle. They have left their country, and their family to travel across the oceans to seek a better future; they not only bring their intellect to the country, but also their cultures and knowledge to help develop the country. Therefore, it is the people’s responsibility to treat each other with respect and kindness. To live in harmony with others is to improve and to create a better community. Conversely, if a person is living a life only to judge others’ backgrounds, then that person doesn’t want to cooperate with other people. However, to create a world with kindness and to treat others with respect, we will not only receive the love from the people, the country will become stronger as the people become united as one and the communities within the country will become healthier and more colorful with happiness. That way, not only will you be able to get rid of the harms in the country, by working together and adapt...
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...Diversity Strategy for My Organization Managing Diversity and Conflict September 18, 2012 Abstract Diversity in the workplace increases not only as the result of emigrations, but also as a significant expansion of globalization in the market place. These moves allow companies to identify, recruit, and train professionals from a diverse blend of backgrounds, cultures, and styles. Peter Senge in “The Fifth Discipline” states that only learning organizations can sustain in a high level in this highly competitive world. Today’s leaders who work in the global business must create and force the need for change. The task is not to eliminate tension associated with this process, but rather minimize its effects. This paper addresses the subject of diversity. The purpose of this paper is to provide an objective reflection of existing conditions at The Fallen Branch Studio where diversity has made significant improvements in the company’s condition. Diversity Strategy for My Organization The United States of America is the most diverse country in the world. For this reason, diversity is discussed more here then it is in the Europe. Diversity presents both challenges and opportunities for all organizations to compete for an advantage in the global marketplace. Every company looks at diversity from a different perspective. People usually associate diversity with things that they see on the surface such as age, race, ethnicity, language, religion, or sex. However...
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...company was faced with. As IKEA’s Russian country manager Lennart Dahlgren stated; everything that was not assumed to be a problem turned out to be a problem and everything that was assumed to be a problem was in fact not one. IKEA dealt with many problems relating to culture during the launch in Russia but dodged them all surprisingly well. I believe that the most important factor why IKEA could solve these problems was because of their smart way of adapting their concept to the Russian market and because of the company’s strong organizational culture. Below I will present the main problems I have identified and find most relevant relating to this case and continue the discussion relating to relevant concepts in the course literature, “Understanding Cross-‐Cultural Management” by Browaeys and Price. The main issues IKEA encountered when...
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...true or false. An exact definition would be a logical relation between two propositions that fail to hold only if the first is true and the second is false (Merriam-Webster.com, 2010). As for cultural a great number of people have their own ideas on how to define cultural. Most of the time the primary thought is nationality, but the word cultural is much bigger than that. There is teenage culture, sexual culture, artistic culture, child culture, cooperate culture and the list goes on and on. Understating the variety of cultures will help clinicians and human services professionals provide a better service and an impressive practice to contribute to the community. In addition, it will also help the workforce of today with the way the economy is with being bias and taking advantage of downsizing officially known today as restructuring. “Restructuring” in corporate America is happening every three to six months. In a world that is very culturally diverse experiencing, living, learning, and understanding the uniqueness of diversity make life worth while. It is argued that the difference in cultures make a problem for many to adjust and accept that the world is evolving to be in the future, but as every generation grows and sees past the ignorance, coward ness and vile ides of the past, a great amount of people will see people for who they are more then what they are. The world will be able to make better circumstances out of every situation. Within the context of the world of work...
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...themselves as social beings, it is essential to cooperate properly in the society. It is general knowledge that every single culture has its own, characteristic for this particular society customs as well as language. The language of every society reflects its, individual features. Therefore, the way in which language is used and the entire context depends on the society, again. The question that arises is whether it is the lingo that changes our way of thinking or maybe our way of thinking changes the language we use? Every human being’s way of thinking and behaviour stems from the society one lives in. it all has its beginning in a family a person lives with. A child repeats sounds, words and observes certain patters of behaviour. All those elements become obvious for the child to be used in particular situations. The infant starts using different phrases in situations he or she noticed them. While observing their family members and other people, the child encounters different social situations and learns in what way one should react or behave. Another vital aspect to be mentioned is the fact that language is only a tool to communicate in the world we live in. Every single world’s language is used for the same purpose; to exchange some information. The aim of using language is unchanged in each culture, however the situation in which it is used and in what way, is the main difference. People from far cultures very often encounter a kin of obstacles during the...
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...ENTRY 3 Two (2) paragraphs with introduction paragraph in two (2) different locations 1) DEFINITION / EXPLANATION Culture is the common denominator that makes the actions of the individuals understandable to a particular group. That is, the system of shared values, beliefs, behaviours, and artefacts making up a society’s way of life. Culture can either be represented fin form of material or non material culture. The definitions and specific traits of each of them are discussed below. Source : http://www.customwritings.com/blog/sample-essays/essay-culture-society.html 2) PROBLEM-SOLUTION Robberies in housing estate is becoming a serious issues nowadays.The robberies crime has become from bad to worst in malaysia.The local media,especially the press,has been replete with reports of robbers crime in our beloved country.There have been many reports of robbers which has given a great impact to society.Police statistics on these crime indicate that they are on the rise.Thus,we have to take the action in avoid from being one of the robbers victim. Source : Module English for communication ii semester two 2014/2015 , Mohd Hasren Bin Yusuf ENTRY 4 Two (2) paragraphs with conclusion paragraph in two (2) different locations 1) SUGGESTIONS In conclusion,to discuss the issue whether schools or parents play a more important role in educating the children is indeed difficult.However,since children nowadays spend more time in schools in which they are...
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...What Holds Modern Companies Together? * Some ideas for your discussion include how might each of the four cultures identified in the article affect your daily job? Can you disregard culture when interacting with your employees? I determined that my company was “networked” organization. Relationship was strong among our coworkers. They seemed like family. And even they know each other’s family. Our company was informality. Almost half of workers related to other workers. So we can be more flexible in term of how we manage our employees. * What if you disagree with the culture and think it should change? It is difficult to defy their organizational culture. Employees should adapt to their internal culture. * What if you and your supervisor have a “culture clash”, what will you do? Conflict will occur in any organization, but managers should take steps to minimize its effects. Offer seminars to your employees on cultural differences and how to overcome them. Employees who become more accepting and knowledgeable about other cultures will recognize and resolve cultural conflict on their own. I am trying to understand its origins. Maybe it comes from different styles of working. Different cultural norms can lead one employee to think another is being impolite when he's really following the norms of his own culture. According to the article, there are useful steps to increase sociability: * Promote the sharing of ideas, interests, and emotions by recruiting...
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...Employees will be staffed around the country in management positions. All of these managers will be promoting the headquarters cooperate culture. We will be promoting our corporate culture while still being sensitive to the host company overall culture when it comes to business itself. The employees will have a strong working knowledge the company’s policies and procedures. This is a great way for our company to start off globally. In the beginning it makes sure that our company’s vision is not derailed by other countries values (Johnston, 2012). Later on in expansion a more local approach can be looked into. When comparing France and Japan I would choose France. When looking at the data I can see that even though Japan had a higher entry salary, Japan has a higher cost of living than France. In 2008 France had a higher pay increase than Japan. Another attractive thing is that people working in France get 5 more days off in the year than Japan (Bhagat, Kashlak, & Phatak, 2012). When looking at the perks for both countries I can see how Japan’s perks could look more interesting because of the extra money provided but that all depends on the size you tour family. I personal y will take the extra 5 days off with lower cost of living and the perks that France provides. I believe that the common mistake in when dealing with different cultures is managing the diversity. The diversity can come in the different forms such as managing the differences between men and women...
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...Organizational Concepts and Terminology The concepts and terminology of an organization is important for any organizations success. The concepts and terminology will include organizational culture, diversity, behavior, and communication. All are important and link with one another in a well organized company. There are written and unwritten rules and assumptions that will define the culture of the organization (The Sergay Group Ltd., 2011). Culture plays out in an organization in many different ways. It can identify the specifics of how information is communicated and how performance is managed. The concepts of culture also specify how projects are coordinated within the organization, and sets up the hierarchical levels and job titles ((The Sergay Group Ltd., 2011). Organizational culture and behavior contribute to the psychological environment of an organization. The culture of an organization is comprised from the organizations past and current assumptions, their experiences and the companies values. The actions of the company and employees towards the company and coworkers define the behavior of the organization. An organization that is successful has a behavior that is friendly and functional, flowing to a hierarchy level of management (The Sergay Group Ltd., 2011). Diversity can be defined as a characteristic of a group of people suggesting differences among those people on any relevant dimension (Hitt, Miller, & Colella, 2006). Key concepts of diversity...
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...Although giving back to society through volunteering is something I used to do when I was back home, this service learning project has been different in many aspects. In a different culture from Saudi Arabia like the USA, I liked the cohesion of people to voluntarily help each other without asking for something in return. The USF School of management has different charitable services that clearly amazed me besides being aware as a foreign student about the importance and beauty of their outcomes. Inspiring others and leading them to a better life were great goals I felt in this project. When we had our first meeting with April, an African American owner of Auntie April’s, I felt her passion to expand and improve her business but she wanted help. She does not know how to get that private fund or investment whose process is a hard row to hoe. Not less important , the other party we worked with “Rising Sun” whose initiators are a father and his daughter have astonishing objectives like training locals, providing affordable houses to minorities, and creating jobs. Working within a team to cooperate in assisting those parties to reach their goals had thrilled my eager to learn more about working collaboratively. Working under pressure, communication skills, multi-tasking, understanding each other cultural different norms in business field, and managing responsibilities and delegation are some fruitful outcomes I learned from this experience. Based on the Rocket Model for team formation...
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