Carles Martin in Uganda - Case Study Example

?Charles Martin in Uganda Charles Martin in Uganda QUESTION Culture is the beliefs, values, practices, customs or social behavior of a particular society. Different people in various countries adore different cultures which may not be in line with other people. The cultural and social meaning regarding communication in the same community is easily understood as they are intended. The proximity of two cultures although they might be different determines the relationship between the two cultures because there are few misunderstanding cases between the members inclined to those cultures (Ferrell, 2010). Uganda as a country has many cultural attributes than can hinder a viable business from being transacted and this is as a result of it having many tribes with different religious affiliations. According to USA international publication the Ugandan society developed the bribery culture during the dictatorial rule of Iddi Amin Dada whereby bribery decided your success or your failure (2009). For a foreign company that is not aware of this might end up stagnating in every step of the project if they don’t bail their way out, this involves even the awarding of the tenders which are usually based on whom you know in the government. The situation deteriorates if the policies of the company cannot go in line with these expectations of the Ugandan people. Uganda has had many problems with leadership of the country which has been tainted always with the overthrow of legitimate governments through the use of orthodox means like the army. As a result of this it’s not a miracle in Uganda to find the change of leadership any time without following a clear channel. This change usually comes with insecurity which leads to widespread looting of property which is fueled by the wide spread unemployment. The worst can be termination of the contract prematurely by the new government in place. As a result of this any foreign company will be at risk of conducting business in this country. There are many tribes in Uganda with different cultural affiliations. For example the Karamojong in the northern part of the country are nomadic pastoralists thus moving from one place to another, this means taking a project to such a place where land belongs to the whole tribe that is not static can be really risky because you have to wait for them or look for them before doing anything on their property. Taking in mind that due to their culture many of them are totally not educated and that attracts language barrier. Ugandans use English as the official language alongside Luganda that is mostly used in the capital Uganda and Kiswahili is mostly used in business. Accessing political and economic power depends on how one is acquainted with these languages. The local language of the site where the project is being undertaken is also important so that the local workforce enforced there should learn the language generally. There are many religious affiliations in Uganda with Christianity being the dominant one with almost 80% followed by the Muslims with 12 % and the rest are traditional practices that depend on the tribe its affiliated to. This means that the company should take caution and keep off from anything that can cause religious divisiveness which might affect the efficiency of the workforce (Stanwick, 2008). The people of Uganda take the religious matters seriously than anything else and therefore anything that might offend any religious group must be avoided like preparing pork as part of their meals and yet some of them have religious norms that bar them from even smelling pork. The worst situation comes in when involving traditional religious believers who believe that in everything that should be done their ancestors must agree first, the appeasing of the ancestors will involve sacrificing of animals and the costs land on the company involved. Any company should be ready to bear the burden for it to gain their confidence and support. Business in Uganda usually moves at a slow pace and this is usually as a result of every stage something passes through expects to be bribed because it’s a norm in Uganda, the slow pace can also be as a result of the fact that Uganda is a land locked country meaning everything has to pass through Kenya from the port of Mombasa bearing in mind the poor road network in the area. Conniption exists in every office and even in the common citizens in the ground; this means that any company must be ready to incur more miscellaneous expenses to appease the locals and the governmental officers. The Ugandan administration is among the highly corrupt in the universe (Velasquez, 2005). Engaging in these corrupt deals can be very risky for the government because the moment it comes to the light, the company will immensely lose and even be persecuted by senior government officers who will feel that the name of the country is being dragged into muddiness. Uganda is a male chauvinistic country, like any African country, the women are usually not involved in decision making and certain tasks driving or building are seen as meant for men. The women even greet men while kneeling down as a show of respect. The women are not expected to wear long trousers as an African norm; such an act can attract a heavy punishment. This means that any company having intentions of working in Uganda should avoid sending women to negotiate on behave with the local communities because that can be considered an insult to them, having a woman manager in charge of the operations will mean that the locals will be unwilling to cooperate as workers in the site and this can even lead to them revolting. Any company should bear that in mind although it sounds discriminative to women. QUESTION 2 Martin’ s attitude is geocentric, this goes back to his area of study while in college having majored in the field of African studies and his participation in Kenya under the peace corps gave him an upper hand in dealing with business procedures around the sub-Saharan Africa. He even developed a negative attitude towards people who are not ready to learn, appreciate and respect the cultures of other people. Through his experience and line of education HG gave him the Ugandan task as and he did it perfectly because of his respect and understanding of how things were being run in Uganda, although he took his respect for culture to the extreme by participating in a ritual with locals to appease their ancestors, an action that was considered to be against the company’s culture and Christian background (Stanwick, 2008). He even went to an extent of involving in corruption to get thing run smoothly and finish the project in time, although this was unethical and unlawful with the parent country. Green, the vice president of HG group, takes an ethnocentric attitude concerning their period in Uganda. He is not familiar with the African business culture because he had not conducted any business prior in the African soil. He takes an objective opinion while trying to maintain the American policies of conducting business in the Ugandan context since he believed in the fact that upholding the policies of the company was very important (Porter, 1998). Although Martin restricts to the Ugandan culture, Green has his primary focus on the American and the company policies as well as taking into account the cultural differences but not allowing them to interfere with company’s procedures and values. At times it can be effective to employ ethnocentrism to avoid extremism like the one of Martin. Martin portrays polycentricism by exercising his autonomy well. Although the company was based on Christian values, it was conducting secular business and the workers were allowed to do what they thought was right but be held responsible at last, so Martin chose to live in a middle-class level to relate well with the Ugandan and look like one of them (Ghillyer, 2009). He paid the locals extra for any services rendered; he allowed relatives to employ their own and participated in traditional ceremonies. This shows he was able to integrate his culture and the Ugandan culture thus blending well with it. QUESTION 3 Martin went against the American and the company’s policies which offended Green, but in the long run he did his work satisfactorily. This qualifies Martin as being right concerning his controversial actions that helped the company. Although Martin was young, he had enough knowledge about African affairs than Green because he had majored in African matters that spun up to the pre-colonial period; this gave the chance to understand the complicated culture of Africans, political aspects and the economic aspects too (Roo, 2012). His mission in Kenya with the Peace Corps involved starting small businesses meaning he had an idea how a business venture should be run in Africa. His paying of tips in advance sped HG’s requirements such as licenses for various fields like supplies and import clearances, he even hired the laborers through the customs officers to appease them. Participation in the traditional ceremony of appeasing the ancestors showed his respect to the tribal believes of the respective community and thus their confidence on him. Martin’s choice of middle-class lifestyle was interpreted by Green as giving the company undesirable image although that had pleased the locals (Rajagopal, 1995). The other religious groups mostly the majority might have taken Martin’s participation in a ritual as a mockery to them or neglect and thus a conflict start to boil. Even the close connection between the government officials and the locals meant attracting more sums of money to maintain their loyalty and this might attract corruption which goes against the company’s values (Bahemuka, 2005). If Martin could not have taken his actions the company couldn’t have met the deadline for the project and most properly it could have fallen behind the scheduled time. This means that if it wasn’t for Martin the company’s operation must have stagnated and move at a slow rate thus more funds being needed, since nepotism is a norm in Uganda avoiding it could have led to the difficulty of hiring the needed staff (Shaw, 2010). Without the participation of Martin in the ceremony, the villages couldn’t have left thus crippling the company’s plans. Martin did well for the benefit of the company and that means he was right on what he did although controversial. QUESTION 4 The same problem that occurred at the beginning that compelled Martin to accommodate the Ugandan culture will still reappear if the company intends to employ liaison between the company’s culture and the people’s culture. This is because culture involves the people’s way life including beliefs and values and they vary from one place to another. Considering the size of the project and the huddles involved while implementing it, it’s only logical to employ a well versed individual who understands both culture of the company and the people’s culture (Jennings, 2001). This qualifies Martin as the right person to take the job because he did all he could for the sake of the company. It’s not compulsory for the company to consider Martin for the task but at least the HG should consider its policies to reflect both the American laws and corporate guidelines to guide the company’s foreign projects managers. Conclusion From the case study, it’s important to accommodate different cultures and business standards when it comes to doing business in a foreign country, respect for host country is very vital for the project success, the company should consider recruiting geocentric individuals for foreign businesses and finally there should be thorough research on the host country’s culture before venturing in the business itself. Summary The Ugandan culture is very complex especially to a foreigner because Uganda is a home to many different tribes with different cultures than can hinder progress of a business unless it’s well understood. This means that it’s good for a company to get to know about the culture in advance. Geocentricism should be uphold by any manager who would like to succeed on a foreign country, the manager should shun ethinocentricim because it makes the area culture look inferior thus inviting collision with the locals, for a manager to even succeed further, he/she should be polycentric so that he can make sound decisions that can benefit the company at last including integrating one’s culture with the foreign culture where possible to please the locals. This qualifies Martin as potential manager to excel in his work than Martin and therefore the best suited for the Ugandan job. References Bahemuka, P. (2001). Income tax in Uganda. Cambridge, C: Fountain pub ltd. Bradlow, D. & Salman, S. (2006). Regulatory frameworks for water resources management: A comparative study. New York, NY: World Bank publications. Ferrell, O et al. (2010). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. London, L: South- Western college pub. Ghillyer, A. (2009). Business ethics. 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