International Business and Cultural Diversity - Assignment Example

International business and cultural diversity By Question 1 Business communication is a term that can be defined as the contact between the people in an organisation for the intention of carrying out the business activities. It is used to promote a good, service, or a business as well as pass on information within a business or work as an executive statement from a corporation. Culture is a set of manner, behaviors and traditions of a community. Members of a particular community coach one another on the cultural cues so that they are maintained, accepted as part of the society. The common cultural essentials are inclusive of social structure, language and religion. Beliefs on models of business and how business activities are carried and their understanding of culture beliefs falls in this category, since business stakeholder intermingle within their personal cultural context. An instance of cultural predilections in commerce might include the pacing of discussions, standard of formality between business partners and subtle versus direct conversation about money. Cultures openly influence business communication, both by word of mouth and nonverbal. Some cultures, including Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany, place high connotation spoken word rather than the non spoken as compared to Japan and Arab cultures, that still put importance on the word of mouth, but also place much importance on the written conversation. Silence also has an impact in all cultures, and this may be understood in diverse ways during cross-cultural business meetings. Ignoring culture in big business communication can lead to problems and communication disruptions. Internal business communication may upset or misinterpreted if employees do not understand the business goals, expectations and processes in the same way. Understanding a culture can help businesses look forward to indentifying potential challenges or obstructions in the implementation of new policies. For instance, some business cultures activities may flourish in a dialogue-based communication system while other cultures such as, Japanese and Arabs depend more on subtext communication systems. If new thoughts are unexpectedly obligatory on workers familiarized to a more mutual vocation culture, there may be deficience in of buy-in and the plan will not succeed. In some cultures, citizens are loud, direct or even blunt and have a propensity to cut short others process of a tête-à-tête. In other cultures, the populace is in general soft-spoken, use flowery or indirect language and remain uncomplainingly for others to finish whatever they are saying. In the duration of a company meeting, these differences are expected to come forth. It is advisable to try to adjust to the way your business associates are communicating, e.g. when addressing and greeting your business associates, your boss and your colleagues. It is advisable to use the last names and titles except when instructed to do otherwise. Hierarchies may have a great influence on the communication style in your new surroundings, so it is important to keep an eye on this the most senior business partner may be the one who is making the decisions at a meeting. Failing to acknowledge their status within the company or to greet them with due respect can leave a bad impression Cultural differences also become apparent in differing concepts of time is the scheduled time frame for a meeting set in stone, or does it allow for some flexibility? Will you jeopardize a business deal by arriving late, or is it perfectly acceptable to let family matters, for example, take precedence over business appointments? A popular example: Everyone would agree that Germans are well-known for their punctuality. In many African and South American countries, however, scheduled appointments are often treated like a general guideline rather than something one has to strictly abide by Seeing how some cultures are more time-conscious than others, it is always best to be punctual at first and simultaneously adopt a relaxed attitude towards time management. Even if you are always on time, your business partners may not take the appointed time for a business meeting as seriously as you do after a while, you will learn to adjust to your business partners’ unique pace at work Question 2 Individuality is the act of expressing ones personal views and likes regarding specific topic. The role of individualism has to do a lot with diversification, independent thought, and freedom of emotion it colors each person with a unique shade, and it allows for others to follow suit into looking for what they really like and believe in when you practice individualism you are creating a canon for your own use. You have the joy of knowing that you are operating under your own system of wants and needs, and that nobody can tell you that you are wrong because, after all, you are unique How does one define individualism and collectivism? Broadly defined, individualism emphasizes personal freedom and achievement. Individualist culture therefore awards social status to personal accomplishments such as important discoveries, innovations, great artistic or humanitarian achievements and all actions that make an individual stand out collectivism, in contrast emphasizes embeddedness of individuals in a larger group. It encourages conformity and discourages individuals from dissenting and standing out Platteau (2000) for example illustrates collective culture in the context of African development. Specifically, he documents that productive individuals are seen with suspicion and are coaxed into sharing their surplus with the community collective punishments exist to penalize the rich. They take the form of social ostracism, loss of status, or even violence. Communities have for example frequently used accusations of witchcraft to punish greed and acquisitiveness as well as aspirations to move to other places Individualist and collectivist culture are likely to have various economic effects which have only started to be explored here we report on some of our work examining the economic and institutional effects of individualism and collectivism. Because individualist culture gives social status rewards to people who stand out, it may give a special, culturally motivated, incentive for innovation that is separate from the standard monetary incentive, on the other hand, individualism can make collective action more difficult because individuals pursue their own interest without internalizing collective interests collectivism, in contrast, makes collective action easier because individuals internalize group interests to a greater degree. However, it also encourages conformity and discourages individuals from standing out. This framework implies that individualism should encourage innovation more, but collectivism should have an advantage in coordinating production processes and in various forms of collective action. To summarize, our research has found a strong and robust causal effect of individualism on innovation and long run growth, other cultural variables do not appear to play a significant role. Thus, culture is important in understanding long run growth but the difference between individualism and collectivism appears to be the most important dimension that is relevant to understand differences in level of development, the rich literature in cultural psychology may help us understand better the content of the individualism collectivism cleavage Question 3 Sociologists by and large talk about the socialization process, referring to the influence of parents, friends, education, and the interaction with other members of a particular society as the basis for one’s culture, these influences result in learned patterns of behavior common to members of a given society, two things are essential to remember about cultures: they are always changing, and they relate to the symbolic dimension of life The symbolic dimension is the place where we are constantly making meaning and enacting our identities cultural messages from the groups we belong to give us information about what is meaningful or important, and who we are in the world and in relation to others, Cultures are embedded in every conflict because conflicts arise in human relationships, cultures affect the ways we name, frame, blame, and attempt to tame conflicts. Whether a conflict exists at all is a cultural question, the American culture is generally perceived to be superior to other cultures in the globe. It therefore dictates the mode and style of performance by other culture, this leads to a lot of borrowing of the American culture abandoning the own way of doing things in the event of miss understanding or clash of the cultures at hand the American culture is given preference. The American dominance greatly affects the cultural diversification of ethnic communities. Given cultures important role in conflicts, what should be done to keep it in mind and include it in response plans? Cultures may act like temperamental children: complicated, elusive, and difficult to predict Unless we develop comfort with culture as an integral part of conflict, we may find ourselves tangled in its net of complexity, limited by our own cultural lenses Cultural fluency is a key tool for disentangling and managing multilayered, cultural conflicts Question 4 Materialism could be said to be one of the pillars of Capitalism in America today. Capitalism itself means that those who work the hardest obtain the most trade-able goods Another simple concept of Capitalism would be that everyone has equal opportunity to achieve the same goal. Some just work harder toward those goals than others Materialism differs from Capitalism. Materialism is simply a focus on or desire for material goods. Materialism could be a neutral idea which is made negative by its ability to push people to a crazed frenzy, without their being aware of it America has lost her focus because our society has become unbalanced toward the race for material goods. Pride, greed and the desire for power through money are some of the motivations behind American materialism. The desire to feed ones family does not constitute materialism, nor does the desire to provide a comfortable home environment for ones children; those are natural and normal desires. Materialism becomes a negative force when it causes people to lose sight of what is important, the conclusion that inequality is socially destructive is not novel; close observers of the human condition have often pointed to the apparent association between inequality and impoverished social relations, It is important to understand that the established relationships between income inequality and health and social problems are not trivial: there are ten-fold differences in homicide rates; six-fold differences in teenage birth rates, sixfold differences in the prevalence of obesity, fourfold differences in how much people feel they can trust each other, five- or ten-fold differences in imprisonment rates and three years difference in the average length of life. Many of these social problems, which are related to income inequality, are about human perceptions and behaviour; income inequality has psychosocial effects, probably as a result of chronic stress and the unpleasant experience of relatively low social status, rather than the absolute level of income (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2010). Research suggests that when people grow up in unfortunate social situations--where theyre not treated very nicely by their parents or when they experience poverty or even the threat of death," says Kasser, "they become more materialistic as a way to adapt. Materialism is also associated with more anti-social and self-centered behaviour, one of the effects of a materialistic disposition is a greater tendency to treat people as objects to be manipulated and used. Materialistic values conflict with making the world a better place and the desire to contribute to equality, justice and other aspects of civil society. Attitude surveys show that people highly focused on materialistic objectives show little concern for the wider world – they care less about protecting the environment and less about their fellow citizens (Kasser, 2002). Reference List Kasser, T 2002. The high price of materialism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. LeBaron, Michelle and Bruce Grundison. 1993. Conflict and Culture: Research in Five Communities in British Columbia, Canada. Victoria, British Columbia: University of Victoria Institute for Dispute Resolution. Hall, Edward T. 1976. Beyond Culture. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Lederach, John Paul. 1995. Preparing for Peace. Conflict Transformation Across Cultures. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, pp. 94. Hampden-Turner, Charles and Fons Trompenaars. 2000. Building Cross Cultural Competence. How to Create Wealth from Conflicting Values. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. Wilkinson, R & Pickett, K 2010. The Spirit Level: Why Equality Is Better for Everyone. 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