Article Review - Book Report/Review Example

A careful examination of these factors point out there are no exact ways on what works best, as the situation and the people in them can vary quite considerably based on external elements. In this paper, several articles on people management are reviewed that can offer useful insights. DISCUSSION Many companies today aim to expand their businesses not only within their local areas, but hope that one day, they can go global too like the giant multinational corporations. This is the buzzword in business circles, as entrepreneurs and managers look for new sources of growth and revenue streams in unconventional markets to promote and maintain continuous growth.

This is a laudable idea but firms going global have to cope with a number of issues they normally do not encounter when their operations are strictly local in nature only. Issues like diversity, gender and corporate politics caused by ethnic and cultural tensions within the organization require dexterity in managing people, so they will still be able to turn in an outstanding performance and work to attain corporate objectives despite their obvious differences. Human resources managers need to have people skills which are culturally-sensitive to the increased workforce diversity today.

The example selected for discussion in this paper is the organizational challenges in a Japanese subsidiary of an American corporation. There are special challenges for a Western firm to operate in an Eastern market like Japan, where customs and practices are vastly different. The general idea is for the Japanese employees to follow their American supervisors but the ways the Japanese culture interact with Western, especially American culture, present unusual situations. In doing business in Asian markets, Western companies must likewise make necessary and often difficult adjustments to get the best out of their people, from both cultures, and avoid clashes.

In her article entitled “Going Global” author Ellen Fuller pointed out the many issues associated with the challenges faced by globalizing companies as they tackle gender, diversity and cultural identity issues. The American way of doing things is vastly different from the Japanese culture of doing business, and in many situations special sensitivity is required to motivate people. In the said article, the author undertook her research on specific areas of management, such as how people react to the colleagues who got promoted and are now in positions of power or authority.

This may seem quite straightforward in an American setting, but things can get sticky if women are also promoted, and gender issues suddenly crop up, especially in an Asian setting where men are always considered to be the dominant gender. Racial and ethnic biases can show up in work environments, such as the emergence of stereotypes and biases with regards to gender. This can either lead to corporate clashes or turf wars, or it can be an excellent opportunity to promote and foster working relationships between two cultures, without compromising performance, if it is managed properly by a manager who is an expert on inter-cultural communications.

Despite a great advance in gender equality, Asian perceptions of women as co-workers still persist and the author did a good ethnographic study to illuminate international practices (Fuller, 2009, p. 3). Along this line, most managers are always