My Experience of Learning and Living In Overseas Countries - Essay Example

 REFLECTIVE ESSAY The Experience Of Learning And Living In Various Overseas Countries subjects an individual to different kind of learning methods, subjects, cultures and even eating habits. This is crucial for the contemporary business environment when then world has become a global village. This is an era which one has to prepare to meet people from all over the world to ensure that they can co-exist with a diverse work population. From a personal experience, I have lived in Korea, China and UK, which has given me the privilege of understanding different cultural patterns and understanding different teaching approaches. However, it is always a challenge to move from one region to the other and to adapt to the new learning methods and cultural behaviours (Sakarya& Soyer, 2013). One has to take their time to understand the people and to change their original mentalities that emanate from the culture that one comes from. At the same time, I feel that this has been a great opportunity for me as it has given me the confidence of working in any region in the world and the skill to adapt quickly to the methods and cultures that apply in the international scope. in the UK, I had an opportunity to acquire crucial learning that is important for the contemporary business environment. Some of the lectures that I attended include managerial finance, change management, e-marketing, consumer behaviour, international marketing, business accounting and many others (Miller& Washington, 2014). The UK is more sensitive to inclusive teaching and prefers to teach modules that are crucial for the international business market. This can be linked to the push of many UK business organizations to embrace the international market since the domestic market has been saturated. One of the crucial learnings that I acquired in the modules is the benefits and challenges of international market (Siau, Lim, and Shen, 2001). Particularly, the modules focussed on the proliferation of the internet and the changes that have come along. In the 21stcentury, the internet has become a more common feature that business systems cannot ignore if they have to survive in the competitive business markets. The economic perspective of social media was an issue of interest in the international marketing module. With many analysts fearing for a global inflation, they have been keen to weigh how business can be supplemented. In the opinion of many, social media has become a marketing avenue to help organizations to push their business into the international scope and increase their range of customers. While many find that Social sites such as Facebook and Twitter have worked well in business optimization, there are those who feel that the organizations need to focus on different strategies through which they can tap social media for the benefit of the business. Samsung is an electronics company that has profited from the development of a concrete online presence. For instance, they have targeted African countries through social media sites such as Facebook, and this is the reason that the company has remained competitive in the market (Harper, 2011). The controversy on the use of social media for economic development within the companies is an issue that has been ignited by the analysis on the way people use social media. Statistics show that the greater percentage of social site users use this avenue to connect with family and friends and only less than 20% use these sites to follow trends and find product information (Elder, 2014). Therefore, it is clear that the social sites have not yet achieved significant benefit for the organization that uses them for marketing. Therefore, many companies are still in the fear that their connection with potential customers is still falling despite the proliferation of the social media in the internet era. From this point of view, many authors are of the opinion that social media has been of little help to economic development since it has served as an avenue for people to meet rather than companies to meet customers. In my own opinion, the reason why social sites have not optimally benefited companies is because the companies have yet to leverage this avenue for their marketing strategies. The company has to find the right strategies to market their products on social media, which is a sensitive platform. While the social media may be an avenue to roll out products into the market, it is a sensitive platform that needs to be used effectively. The reason why the social media has not yet benefited many companies is because the organizations have not yet specialized on it use (Qian, Cao& Takeuchi, 2013). The organization needs not only to advertise their products but also find ways of using the feedback that they obtain from the customers. Filtering of information is crucial as social media provide people with the liberty to express both negative and positive opinions on the products (Chand, Cummings & Patel, 2012). To use the feedback appropriately, the organizational managers have to evaluate the economic impact of the social media taking into account of the opinions provided in this platform. Therefore, I believe that the economic value of social media will come because of its optimized use. Online shopping is an important aspect of international marketing in the contemporary business environment. As compared to China and South Korea, UK is more conscious of online business strategies. The companies in the UK focus on the concept of online shopping as they have a tendency to target the international business arena than the latter two countries (Hu,Chand& Evans, 2013). This is the reason why modules in UK emphasize on this concept of business. In the UK learning modules, I learnt on the advantages and challenges of selling products in the online platform. In the era of internet technology, online shopping has become a popular term within the business environment (Boadi, 2006: Harper, 2011). With the proliferation of the internet technology in the public, organizations have used this avenue to target more customers across the world and to provide the customer with a convenient way to purchase products from the internet. The advantage of this process is that the customers can buy products from the remote locations and they can access adequate information about the products without having to move from shop to shop. However, cybercrime is one of the greatest challenges that face online purchasing as shoppers and organization become victims of identity theft. Currently, organizations are engaged in effort to provide a secure e-shopping framework that will help the people to access these services without any financial risk. The consumer behavior is a crucial aspect of business development that the UK lecturers dwelled on. As organizations start to internationalize their business, they have to be aware of the challenges of meeting new cultures and behaviors that are unique to different market segments. In brand management strategies, I learnt that customer based brand equity is a concept that has gained a lot of relevance in the contemporary business environment (Gamble& Thompson, 2013). In the 21st century, the customer has become the main focus of the business organizations and the determiner of the market demand. The competitive nature of the business market makes it critical for organizations to focus on the customers, and to make products that are designed by the customer feedback. As competition sets in, the organizations are forced to design products that suit the customer tastes. The effect of market competition is that it leads to an increase in the customer’s bargaining power, while that of the organizations reduces. As Keller (2008) puts it, the customer based brand value is equity is value of a brand that is obtained from the customers’ perception. Unlike in the traditional business set where the organization designed the products and the public formed the part of the consumers, the modern business environment has reversed these roles. The organizations have to focus on the customer’s tastes and strategies through which they can satisfy the specific customer needs. The ability of an organization to remain profitable both in the short and long-run depends on their ability to satisfy the consumer tastes. Another crucial feature of customer based brand value is the understanding of the customer preferences in the international market. The complexity of international market is a factor that a multinational company cannot ignore. Most companies venture in the international market to broaden its geographical coverage and to benefit from the increased number of target customers. The company has to consider diversity within the international markets as part of letting the people design their products. For instance, colour preferences of automobiles vary from one person to the other and from place to place. For instance, in Africa, the majority of citizens prefer dark Mercedes models rather than silvery ones. As such, colour diversity of the Mercedes brands is an important idea of making products that are appealing to the customers (Kamel,2006). From another point of view, the size of the colour is an issue that affects the customer tastes. For instance, majority of women prefer to use small cars while majority of men prefer large cars. The most crucial learning is from the UK teaching methods is that there is value in using customer based value models in designing products that satisfy the unique tastes of the customers in different market segments. In Korea, there was a greater emphasis on business investment and operation management within organizations. This is unlike in the UK where the main focus of the learning modules was to manage products for the international business market. The possible reason for this difference is the fact that business in Korea is less developed than in the UK. The teaching methods and the design of the modules seem to depend with the prevailing market conditions. Korea is one of the developing business environments and the domestic market is nowhere close to getting saturated. As a result, the international business is a less relevant issue as companies are still investing on the local market. The major motivation of the institution is to encourage the students to become initiators of business investment plans within the local markets. In this institution, I learnt the value oftaking advantage of local markets and positioning one’s business before the onset of competition (Lyn, 2002). The learning in Korea is much similar to that in China. In china, there is emphasis on brand management for local markets and less coverage of the international business. ` Cultural differences are a crucial aspect in the international business environment as this defines the ability of the people to live together. The culture in China and Korea varies greatly when compared to that in UK.China and Korea is among the most conservative countries that have maintained their cultures for a long time now. For instance, the people in China and Korea believe in male superiority, which is a culture that they have upheld since their past. Therefore, females are not expected to work in some positions or take up some roles in the society (Hyun-key, 2013). In the learning institutions, the proportion of males is 70% higher than that of female students. This is completely different from the situation is experienced in the UK (Sungjoo& Chun-Oh, 2014). In the UK, there is a greater level of female empowerment as there has been diffusion of the traditional cultures. For instance, the female to male ration in the UK learning institution is almost balanced. Another cultural difference is the social background of the people. Unlike in Korea and China, the people are friendlier to strangers in UK. This learning is in line with the Hofstede’s cultural model that refers to the concept of femininity and masculinity with different cultures (Nakata, 2009). The argument of this psychologist is that the sexuality inclination of a culture defines the social relations within that country. Cultural diversity is an important aspect of diversity management strategies that I feel is important in the modern business environment. Diversity management is one of the global strategies that organization uses to address cultural difference within the organization. The different cultural attitudes within a society influences the way employees form teams within a business entity (Bridgstock, Lettice, Özbilgin & Tatli, 2010: Tatli, 2011). Thus, the human resource managers have the mandate to identify the various cultural differences that influence the way employees relate during their daily duties. My experiences in the three countries have shaped my understanding of the international scope. I have come to appreciate that I have to meet different kinds of people within any organization where I will work, and that I must be prepared to work with them to ensure that I can fit in the organization (Lee and Benbasat, 2004). In the three countries, I was able to make friends easily after sometime, and this was crucial for my academic development in this country. I feel that my experience in these countries is crucial especially as I prepare to take up a management position in an international company. The Chinese nationalists have remained conservative in their culture and especially referring to their attitude towards the naturalistic way of life. From their traditional culture of farming as the main economic activity, they have adopted the virtues of patience. This is quite different from the dynamic culture in the UKand the negativity attached to conservatism. Research has shown that the Chinese people are more tied to socio-emotional attitude in their job place than the nationalists of the UK. This relational schema has a negative influence on the work group formation among the Chinese people. The intercultural communication methods in China workplace have no major difference as compared to the ones applied in the UK. Just like UK, the Chinese people have managed to wage a successful war against negative Hoftsede work related values that have been found to negatively influence work attitude in many countries (Yolles, 2006, pp. 8-14). In a nutshell, it is possible to conclude that the work attitude in China has been moderated though the levels have not met the standards that have been set by the UK. In the three countries, the Chinese people were more attached to their cultural and social functions as compared to the Koreans and the people UK. For instance, the Chinese had frequent tea ceremonies, which comprised part of their social perspective. They head tea ceremonies during times of wedding, apology or family gathering(Yolles, 2006). It is a cultural believes that tea parties were form of social functions that connected the people of the same culture. In the UK, although the institution initiated a program to appreciate different cultures, it was not embedded in the culture, but only a strategy to promote diversity within the learning institution. In China and UK, I lived within the school hostels and did not have a chance to interactwith the outside communities. This is different from thecase in Korea where I lived in Goshitels rented from a Korean. Leaving outside the school premises gave me the opportunity to interact with the outsiders. This explains why I had a simple time in learning the Korean language. Learning different languages is crucial especially in companies that intend to launch their business in foreign markets. In general, the labor market in China is dominated by male workers most of who are nationalists of this country. This structure of the labor force can be attributed to the fact that there exist more nationalists that the immigrants and the male dominance can be linked to the dominance of males in the academic field. The educational achievement of most immigrants lies within the middle level while the nationalists have a greater specialization especially in regard to the demand of the labor market in this country. Research has not revealed any form of segregation based on gender or cultural background either in terms of promotion or even a salary award in the UK. However, In South Korea, there exists evidence that the majorityof the workers come from the same culture. Other forms of prejudice in the labor market are manifested by the rules set to regulate height in the employment of some job positions. This is completely different from the case in South Korea. In South Korea, there is more equal treatment of the people, though much hostile as compared to the situation in UK (Nankervis, Fang &Chatterjee, 2013, p. 143). For this reason, I felt safer in the UK than in all the other regions that I visited. However, I learnt the importance of diversity management within the learning institutions and the employment sector. In conclusion, my experience in the UK, China and Korea have contributed a great deal to my understanding of the international market. I acquired skills on brand management, marketing, technological integration in business and development of investment plans. While some countries such as UK have a diffused culture, Korea and China are conservative and less appreciative of the changes in the international culture. My experience in the three countries has given me adequate preparation to work within a diverse work force and to live with different kinds of people. 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