Managing Challenges of Cross Cultural Differences in International Essay

Managing Challenges of Cross Cultural Differences in International Business - Essay Example Overview of National Culture & Cross Cultural Differences Culture is a key factor in gaining an insight in to how people behave in different countries, their preferences, attitudes, values and beliefs (Cundiff & Hilger 1988). Their can be implicit and explicit elements of culture embodied in rituals, symbols, gestures, traditions and mannerisms which results in diversity in communication and interaction process within a cross cultural setting (Trompenaar, F. & Hamden-Turner, C. 1998). It is therefore important to understand the underlying national cultures which shape each nation’s interrelations including business dealings (Ohmae, K. 1982). As per Hofstede, culture is â€Å"collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another† (Hofstede, G. 1984. Page 21). While there are various models and theories, which attempts to explain cross cultural differences, some well established explanations of national culture can be found in Fons Trompenaar & Charles Hampden-Turner’s model of Seven Dimensions of Culture; Geert Hofstede’s Indices of Work Related Values and The theory of Silent Languages of Culture proposed by Hall. 3. Overview of the Countries in Context United States Of America As a forerunner in business and trade, political affairs and social change, United States of America is a country which has a diverse and multicultural social environment.Driven by cultural values such as innovation, independence and individualism, (Hill 2003) American society allowes for social mobility depicted by the â€Å"American Dream.† ... Analysis of Cross Cultural Similarities & Differences While there may exist certain cultural similarities between nations, the implications it carries for business may vary. The analysis focuses on identifying cultural similarities and differences, which exists between USA, Japan and India. 4.1 Treatment of Agreements and Legal process This can be assessed within the dimension of Universalism vs. Particularism, where universalism places greater importance upon the rules in the society while the particularism focus on the circumstances involved when making decisions about what is right and wrong (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner 1998). USA, which is a highly universalistic culture, places greater emphasis upon business contracts, rules and regulations but in contrast, Japan and India which are more particularistic cultures considers circumstances and relationships more in making decisions. Halls language of friendship can also be used in assessing this cross-cultural aspect. The Americans tend to make friends easily and quickly but these are of transient nature. The Japanese tend to take time in forming relationships but their commitment to the relationship is high. Even if disputes arise, Japanese try reconciliation process while Americans resort quickly to litigation process (Weiss 2001). Indians too choose more in formal means of resolving issues than litigation but are generally quick in establishing relationships.

CGS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

CGS - Essay Example An African’s survival depended on perpetual migration and adaptation to the conditions one found in the new destination. On the slave ship, she depended on her skills in midwifery that she had learned from her mother to survive. Her destination in America was South Carolina where she was auctioned off to an indigo plantation. In this plantation, she has to adapt herself to her environment by learning the Buckra language (Hill 345). The aspect of migration here is not only physical and geographical but also mental and psychological. Aminata was forced to migrate from the native challenges of Africa to those of new diseases and illnesses. Aminata was forced to migrate from the indigo plantation when her master took away her baby. She abandoned her duty of working on the farm, which was the reason her master’s decision to sell her off to Lindo. Her new master treats her as a servant, which is better than a slave was treated. Under this status, she has to pay rent and take care of her own expenses. She has to relocate to Charles town where her new master resides. The outbreak of the American Revolution brings with it an opportunity for Aminata to escape from Charles town. Her master returns to the Carolinas while Aminata goes back to midwifery for survival. Her knowledge of many languages comes in handy to help her survive in Nova Scotia where she is involved in the writing of the book of Negroes. The book contains the names of blacks who have agreed to fight for the British army. The British were beaten during the American Revolution and they had to retreat out of the 13 colonies they had in America. They carried with them the black slaves who had fought alongside them in the war. These were the names contained in the book of Negroes. This serves as a reminder of the history of the black community in the USA and a unification factor. Her ability to adapt to different situations is one of the

Human Resource Management at McDonalds

Human Resource Management at McDonalds Human resource management is the basis of all management activity, but it is not the basis of all business activity. The basis of management is always the same: getting the people of the business to make things happen in a productive way, so that the business prospers and the people thrive. Torrington et al (2005:4) Human Resource can be say to be the strategic and coherent approach management of an organisations most valued assets. The people working these individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. Human resource is one of the important parts of any organisation management in the 21st century and up still date. Any corporate firm can get competitor advantage by human resource. The term Human resources can be viewed in two contrasting ways. Placing emphasis on the word Human implies that an organisations assets are valuable human beings with feelings and aspirations that should be respected and nurtured. Highlighting the word resource may have the effect of devaluing the human element by relegating people to a mere resource that is to be deployed as effectively and efficiently as possible, like a piece of machinery. These associated have been embodied as soft and hard HRM (storey, 1992). Soft HRM is often associated with quality-enhancing and value-adding measures, whereas hard HRM is linked to cost-cutting and cost minimization strategies (Schuler and Jackson, 1987). Importance of Strategic Human Resource Management Strategy human resource management is very important because it help to resolve the problems that affect people management programs in the organisation. In every organisation, the employee and customers are very important and the try to listen to their employee and resolve whatever complains from them or the customer. This will help to increase the performance of the organisation. Strategy human resource management also help to improve a business performance and foster an environment of innovation and flexibility among employees. Strategy human resource management help about assessing the companys internal strength and weakness. This is very important as the strengths and weaknesses of the companys human resources have a direct effect on the future of the company. It also helps to check whether the expectations of the employee are addressed properly. The management of Strategy human resource management try to provide the right strategy that will enable the employee to work in a very safe environment and make sure those employees expectation are look into one after the other. Strategy human resource management help to develop the maintainer of competency among workers and it also help to motivate workers to perform their job properly and increase productions. From the above we can see that strategic human resource is now coming to play a very important role in todays business word. Strategy human resource management is all about strategically managing a businesss human resource in a manner that works to the overall benefit of the business. Strategy human resources deal with organisational performance and systems of practice and human resources management deal with an individual employee performance. The role of strategy human resources management or human resources management is to establish a system of human resources management practices that transforms middling work performance to human assets and sustaining the heightened work motivation, expanded job opportunities, and unique skill, knowledge and abilities. http://www.smallbusinessbible.org/strategic_humanr_management.html Comparison of SHRM with HRM The difference between strategy human resources management and human resources management is that strategy human resources management is strategy and human resources management is not, although some resources suggest that strategy human resources management is actually one of the applications of human resources management within an enterprise. The key feature where the two ideas are connected is that they are precisely in approach toward people management. BRIEF HISTORY OF MCDONALDS McDonalds started as a burger brand in 1940 and it was formed by two Brother Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California. It progressed from a hotdog stand into one of the worlds leading restaurant chain. By 1953, McDonalds brothers began franchising their restaurant and the first was taken by Neil Fox who opened in other parts of California. McDonalds Corporation came into existence in 1954 after an entrepreneur and milkshake mixer salesman Ray Kroc acquired the franchise of McDonalds outside California after which he bought the business rights from the McDonalds brothers for $2.7 million in 1961. By 1974 the first restaurant in the UK opened and 1988, they had opened in the communist country in Belgrade, Yugoslavia later in Moscow, China and India. In 2003, the Im loving it campaign was launched and by 2005, McDonalds started a Mc Delivery service in Singapore. McDonalds has been looking for a growth strategy for a very long time. And their foreign operation amount for more than half the companys revenue. McDonald has over 30,000 restaurants over 100 countries in the world today. And they maintain the top position in the fast food industry for the past 50 years. Amongst the award bagged by McDonalds is the Catalyst award for its program for fostering leadership development in women and McDonalds has been backing the summer Olympics since 1984. Business strategy of McDonalds in the UK Employment planning: McDonalds try to make the right plans in employing the right number of staffs that the organisation need at the right time. This is the process by which the organisation attempt to ensure that it has the right number of qualified people in the right place and at the right time. Selection: McDonalds involves in choosing from the available candidates the individual predicted to be most likely to perform successfully in the job. They select but the skills and unskilled individual and try to train them in other to make them understand the objective of the organisation. Selection is not always the best process of employing staffs in the organisation because skills will be lack. Training: McDonalds also used the training strategy to improve and develop the skills of the workers in the organisation. Although training is very important in most organisation but its better to bring the right people with the right skill and then give them the right training so they will understand better and know the objective of the training. Education: The management of McDonald provide education for some staffs that are really willing to retain in the organisation. This education is to improve their performance and to give them more ideas about the economic and how the business is operating. Performance: The Company always chose a right time to check the performance of their workers. The performance of the worker can help the company to make the right changes at the right time and the right department of the workers. These has help MacDonald to build a better services. Pay: Macdonald is a big restaurant with so many branches around the world and helps to reduce the unemployment around us. The Company give a good pay to their staffs and encourage them to work. Staff retention: Macdonald tries to keep their staffs and give them promotions to enable them become a manager of a branch someday in the future. Staff retention is very important to most organisations. This will help the staffs to know what really is happening within the organisation and try to suggest a best opinion to fight that out. Contribution of Strategy Human Resource in McDonald Staffing- McDonald should try to get people with the appropriate skills, knowledge, abilities, and experience to fulfil the organisation objectives. Rewards McDonald need to give reward to the staffs who work very hard in development of the organisation. Employee development- the organisation should also help in developing the staffs through providing training and knowledge for them in other to perform a good job. Employee maintenance- maintaining staffs is important in the development of the company. The administration is should try to encourage the staff and reward them in the good job done. Many organisations try to establish why people leave by conducting exit interviews but these are rarely sufficiently accurate, as many people will not give the full reason why they are leaving for fear of jeopardising future reference requirement or because they may wish to return to the organisation at some later stage. There organisation should make sure they try to maintain and look after their staff in other to keep them happy. Employee relation McDonald should develop the relationship between the staffs and the management in other to bring up a smiling environment within the work place. CONCLUSION McDonalds is seen as a global restaurant offering a range of products in a highly competitive and fragmented market. The company must positively respond to both internal and external issues to avoid losing sales and market share. They have been able to achieve a broad scope of business activity as they adopt the cost leadership strategy. There offer food prepared in the same high quality manner worldwide, tasty and reasonable priced delivered in a consistent low key and friendly environment. The opportunities and threats present in the environment enables managers to look both internally and externally to direct their strategy from the information given as it allows them to know their weakness and guard against them as well as make use of opportunities available to them. SHRM NEW MANAGER IN MCDONALDS As the manager of McDonalds, the percentage of highly skilled labour/ talent recruitment will be increase, but low skilled will be reduce as they are the ones directly involved in preparing food and serving customers. Human resource strategy in McDonalds encourage employee involvement and engagement to improve customer service but recruitment and selection in McDonalds is of little emphasis as the nature of the job is mechanical hence most of their recruits are fast learners who can learn on the job rather quickly. There is a rare case of training and development of staff as they are low skilled and the need for the need for developing them would not be beneficial to the corporation. The strategy of McDonalds is based on concept of Michael Porters differentiation and low- cost leadership as their products are mass produced and cost can be reduced by doing this, the threat this can cause is that its competitors like Burger King and KFC can also mass produce at a low cost. Differentiation can be described as marketing technique used by a McDonalds to establish strong identity in the restaurant business. It can also be called segmentation strategy. In McDonalds, there is a huge number of unskilled labours whose employment contact are mostly on short term basis, hence the need for a huge pension budget will not be necessary, this will be seen as an opportunity for the corporation to save revenue. Also in areas of training and development, since they train on the job and there is no series of further training carried out, the corporation does not lose skill and revenue when such employees decide to terminate their employment. (McDonalds Strategic Human Resources Management available at http://www.scribd.com/doc/26247206/Mcdonald-s-Strategic-Human-Resource.

Critical Analysis of Golding’s Use of Tone in Lord Of The Flies :: Free Essay Writer

Critical Analysis of Golding’s Use of Tone in Lord Of The Flies When viewing the atrocities of today's world on television, the starving children, the wars, the injustices, one cannot help but think that evil is rampant in this day and age. However, people in society must be aware that evil is not an external force embodied in a society but resides within each person. Man has both good qualities and faults. He must come to control these faults in order to be a good person. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding deals with this same evil which exists in all of his characters. With his mastery of such literary tools as structure, syntax, diction and imagery, The author creates a cheerless, sardonic tone to convey his own views of the nature of man and man’s role within society. The use of diction is powerful, with the gripping use of words and description. Golding creates tension and reinforces his theme and tone with the use of specific words. Many are connotative and therefore create a story abundant in meaning and symbolism. Golding uses colors such as pink to symbolize particular things such as innocence, as shown in the piglets and the island. The word yellow makes the reader think of the sun, enlightenment and Ralph; the words black and red bring to mind evil, blood and Jack. With the use of words the author also creates the novel's own private symbols that are key to the tone. The conch comes to symbolize authority, democracy and order. Upon the mentioning Piggy's glasses, images of insight and reason come to mind. With this highly connotative language, Golding creates many contrasts as well to convey his underlying theme. He compares the dazzling beach's "pink granite" [Page 12], green feathered palm trees and endless sand [Page 10] to the "darkness of the forest", full of "broken trunks", "cables of creepers" [page 28], and dense vegetation. He also compares the day's "torrid sun" [Page 176] to the night which makes everything as "dim and strange as the bottom of the sea" [Page 62]. The lagoon's security and the dangerous open sea are also contrasted when Golding qualifies them as "still as a mountain lake" [Page 10], "dark blue" [Page 31] and "deep sea" [page 62]. Golding also uses dark and inherently bad words such as "dark", "Jack", "broken", "torri d", "coarse" and "splintered" to describe sinister things and euphonious words such as "feathers", "glittering fish" and "Ralph" to describe more peaceful things.

Counseling

Hello there! My name is Clement Benedicts Running or in short you can call me Clement. Clement comes from Latin, which I have made sure of directly from my parents, and has the meaning of mild, good, and merciful. Benedicts comes from Benedict and has a context of being blessed. Whilst Running is my family name. In the sense of being Curious of where my name came from or even thought of by my parents, I asked my mother once on why she named me Clement Benedicts.My oldest sisters name is Calamine Beatrice, the second being Scholars Benedicts, and hush, to make It rhyme, my mom thought of the name Clement Benedicts. And yes, all of us have the Initial of CB, which Is really adorable. My home country Is In Indonesia, an archipelago In south east of Asia. The one thing I'm In love with my home country Is Its traditional food; the diversity and variety of the taste reminded me of what home Is like. Rending, one of Indonesian traditional food, was even voted and declared as the best food I n the world according to Conn's pick of delicious food.Indonesia, in my opinion, is the best place for a luminary travel: the exoticness of street food will definitely blow your mind away. The one thing I also love about my home is country is that it is the place where my families are; being away thousands of miles from my family has jolted me that family is everything and I should always treasure it wherever I am. I chose foothill because of my friend's recommendation. He said that the school is located in the foot of a mountain and makes it really cozy for him to study.In love with the weather of mountains, I decided that foothill should be the best place to examine my study. I'm majoring at business administration right now because I like to study how corporations or firms do their things and how they circulate the economy. I want to transfer to University of Michigan, Ann Arbor to study either business or economy; the reason is that my sister is also there and Eve read that Ann Arbor is one of the best places to be a student which I'm planning to go there for my winter break.I don't really have a dream Job right now, but I do have a dream, that is to travel all ever the world and enjoy everything I see while meeting a lot of people from different countries and also different cultures. Counseling By Clement-Running the sense of being curious of where my name came from or even thought of by my oldest sister's name is Calamine Beatrice, the second being Classics Benedicts, and thus, to make it rhyme, my mom thought of the name Clement Benedicts. And yes, all of us have the initial of CB, which is really adorable.My home country is in Indonesia, an archipelago in south east of Asia. The one thing I'm in love with my home country is its traditional food; the diversity and variety of the taste reminded me of what home is like. Rending, one of Indonesian traditional food, was even voted and declared as the best food in the world according culinary travel; the exo ticness of street food will definitely blow your mind away. The families are; being away thousands of miles from my family has Jolted me that family I don't really have a dream Job right now, but I do have a dream, that is to travel all

Historical events Essay

Depending on the political views of a reporter, columnist, author, or news agency, the facts can be reported in a variety of different ways. This can often cause controversy regarding the truth, as different sources report differing things as being true. This is also true when speaking of historical events, as different people will speak differently of different events, depending on their political affiliation and beliefs. By slating the information in a particular way, the reporter can further his or her own political agenda, by making his or her beliefs seem like the right ones. If a person is a conservative politically, it would not make much sense for him or her to report the news in a manner that would support liberalism and vice versa. This is apparent in the way that Fox News and CNN report the news on a daily bases. There are clearly some political biases that distort the fact, in order to best serve the beliefs held by the people at these agencies. In a historical sense, it would not make much sense for a government to re-tell history in a manner that makes it seem tyrannical or even blood thirsty, so based on these political goals, the government can simply choose to leave certain aspects of history out. This makes it possible for them to manipulate public opinion in the manner that best compliments their objectives. An example of how the manner in which a news story is reported can change the entire event is perceived is a recent story that was picked up by both Fox News and CNN. The story was about a tour that President George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld embarked on in order to increase support for the war in Iraq. While the exact same speech was covered by both news agencies, the information that was passed on to the public was different in each case. Fox News focused on the positives that had been accomplished in Iraq. It started by giving numbers on how many Iraqi soldiers had been trained to fight insurgents in the region. Rumsfeld was quoted as saying that â€Å"95 battalions, 50,000 of the 212,000 Iraqi force, are trained, equipped and in the fight against insurgents† (Baier). Fox also made a point of mentioning how Iraqi forces were taking an increased role in the stabilization of Iraq and they were well on their way to being able to defend their own country. Fox continued on by including Rumsfeld’s quote that withdrawing troops from Iraq would be counter productive to their anti-terror movement and would â€Å"put the United States ‘at still greater risk’† (Baier). Fox News did not forget to mention how George Bush said that he has a strategy for victory, despite the fact that no specific strategy is discussed. Lastly, Fox News included Rumsfeld’s claim that â€Å"most citizens in Iraq are not supporting their (the insurgents’) cause† (Baier). By comparison, CNN took this story in a completely different direction by adding negative views on the war to its coverage. CNN begins by mentioning that the war is becoming â€Å"increasingly unpopular† (Bush: No Iraq Pullout Without Victory) in the United States. CNN continues on with its unflattering views by saying, â€Å"About 159,000 troops are in Iraq, up from about 138,000 in the summer† (Bush: No Iraq Pullout Without Victory). This shows how unsuccessful the Bush administration has been at accomplishing its goal of getting the troops out of Iraq. The CNN articles also reminds the reader that the war began under the assumption that Iraq was in possession of weapons of mass destruction and that despite this claim, no weapons had been found in the country. This is something that the government would desperately like the people to forget, but CNN will not let them. CNN also gives figures on the death toll of American troops in Iraq. This is another soft spot, as those who oppose the war often bring up the fact that many American soldiers have died fighting in a war that has no point. A quick mention is also given of anti-war demonstrators that showed up while Bush was speaking. Fox made no mention of this because it is very anti-Bush. Finally, CNN’s coverage of this story included the opinions of Senator Jack Reed, who is a Democrat from Rhode Island. His opinions are anti-Bush, due to his political affiliation. Reed comments add to the negative picture this article paints of Bush. These two articles cover the exact same thing, but they are obviously spun in very different directions. While some of the same quotes are used in both stories, they are not used in the same manner. Due to their conservative viewpoints, which coincide with the Republican Party’s viewpoints, Fox News focuses on the positives that are coming out of Iraq. Since Fox News is seen as a supporter of the Bush administration, it will slant its stories to paint Bush and his associated in a positive manner. Fox also does not include any opposing statements or differing points of view in its article, which gives the reader the impression that what they are reporting is the only opinion of this subject matter. CNN, on the other hand, is better at exploring both sides of the story. This article is more centerist than anything else, as it presents both sides of the story, although perhaps not equally. CNN says a lot of negative things about the war in Iraq, due to its liberal ideology, but it also does include what Rumsfeld said about certain things. CNN’s coverage does not follow one particular political ideology but can rather be interpreted as anti-conservative which, in turn, makes it anti-Bush. Seeing as how a story that quotes both Bush and Rumsfeld would only give one political view, CNN brought in the help of a Democratic Senator, in order to give a differing ideology on the matter. Both of these networks take the events that occurred, and organize them in a manner that will appeal to their viewers the most, even though both of them leave things out and include outside resources that contribute to their goals. This trend, however, has led to the public becoming â€Å"increasingly cynical toward the news media, as reflected in the slumping credibility ratings for many outlets. More generally, a majority of Americans (53%) agree with the statement ‘I often don’t trust what news organizations are saying. ’ And while 43% disagree with that statement, just 9% completely disagree with it† (Attitudes Toward the News: News Audiences Increasingly Politicized). A historical event that that has been changed due to a particular political ideology is the happenings surrounding the Nicaraguan election of 1990. The American government had the ideology that the Sandinistas, who were in power in Nicaragua, were not good for American interests in the region. It was reported in the New York Times just after the election that this was a long overdue victory for the opposition party, as American political ideals did not agree with the Socialist regime in Nicaragua. David Shipler wrote, It is true that partly because of the confrontation with the U. S. , Nicaragua’s economy suffered terribly, setting the stage for the widespread public discontent with the Sandinistas reflected in Sunday’s balloting. But few governments become moderate during a war; the contra war strengthened Sandinista hard-liners and probably contributed to their oppressive policies. The way to resolution opened only when Congress suspended the war, in effect, to give the Sandinistas a chance to proceed democratically. . . . Thus, Nicaragua’s election has vindicated Washington’s fledgling program of providing public, above-board funding to help democratic procedures take root in countries with authoritarian regimes. (A. 27) Due to the slant that the American government wanted to put on this situation, they only released certain information to the general public, which gave the public a favorable opinion of how the situation was handled. The American government portrayed Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega as a vicious man who tormented his people for years and only lost the his power when he agreed to a democratic election. In reality, however, Ortega won an election in 1984 by quite a wide margin and had been making strides in Nicaragua, until a group of U. S. backed militants began a war with him and his troops. This is the dominant ideology as well. During this time period, the United States was able to use the fact that the Sandinistas are a left wing party, as the Communist Party in the Soviet Union was, in order to gain support for their actions in Nicaragua. The American government to this day continues to tell the people of the United States that U. S. policy aims to continue supporting the consolidation of the democratic process initiated in Nicaragua with the 1990 election of President Chamorro. The United States has promoted national reconciliation, encouraging Nicaraguans to resolve their problems through dialogue and compromise. It recognizes as legitimate all political forces that abide by the democratic process and eschew violence. U. S. assistance is focused on strengthening democratic institutions, stimulating sustainable economic growth, and supporting the health and basic education sectors. (Background Note: Nicaragua) A differing political view, however, is held by Noam Chomsky. He has reported much different happenings in Nicaragua, due to his political angle being much different than the American government’s and the New York Times’. He has reported that â€Å"Nicaragua was†¦exceptional in the strength of that government’s commitment†¦to improving the condition of the people and encouraging their active participation in the development process† (Chomsky 42) which makes the United States’ goal of keeping the Sandinistas out of power seem odd. The real reason why the American government did not want to have the Sandinistas in power was that they believed in distributing wealth evenly among its population. They had a steal from the rich and give to the poor-type of mentality. This goes against the capitalist society that the United States prides itself on. The American government saw that socialism had the potential to work in Nicaragua and was worried about what kind of message that would send to the rest of the world. As it turns out, reports Chomsky, the American government funded the insurgents that caused so many problems for the Nicaraguan government while they were in power. They were provided with American weapons and resources, in order to make the people of Nicaragua believe that the government was not in control of things, in order to make them vote for someone one. None of these things were reported very regularly in American newspapers because of political views and they have changed the way this entire situation has been viewed in history. Throughout history, politics have played a huge role in the way news is reported. The political ideologies held by an individual or agency can impact the story that the public hears. Many times, different agencies will report on the exact same story, but with different results. Other times, the real story does not make it to the mainstream media, but rather comes out later in books and journals. These political views change the way things are reported and also the way things are remembered in the future. It is entirely possible to have your entire memory of an event molded by the network you switched to in order to watch the coverage. Past, present, and future events have all been manipulated by media and this trend will continue because there will always be political bias. Because of this, it is important to get news from as many sources as possible, and make an educated decision on what the real truth is.