Effect of Ethnocentrism on Multinational Corporations - Essay Example

This paper elaborates my understanding of the terms Ethnocentrism and ethnocentric and their effects. For gaining a deeperunderstanding of these I chose a movie from a completely different culture from mine. As I watched the movie I understood how the judging behavior of a person belonging to a certain culture could label him as ethnocentric while witnessing other cultures’ scenarios. I began the paper with defining Ethnocentrism in my words and then exploring its effects on individuals, society and multinational companies. I did use instances from the movie to elaborate the effects on individual and society. Whereas, the effects on the multinational companies I gathered from general knowledge. INTRODUCTION Ethnocentrism is used to define the cultural biased approach when viewing or judging other cultures and ethical systems. The world is wide and constitutes of a number of cultures and belief systems that vary from one another to a smaller or greater extent. Some actions considered normal in one culture may be viewed as offensive or unacceptable by the other one. For example, in Arab countries it is mandatory for all females to cover their head otherwise they face punishment. Now, such custom may be viewed as offensive to women belonging to other cultures and countries. Different ethnic groups can be defined on the basis of caste, religion, language, customs and value system or geopolitical boundaries. So, an ethnocentric person would consider one particular culture most important and superior than others and would measure all other cultures using his preferred culture as benchmark. More often than not the individuals consider their own culture as the most important. Hence, ethnocentrism can be viewed as an attitude that shows lack of acceptance of other cultures, and a feeling of contempt for people belonging to other cultures. Effect of Ethnocentrism on Individuals All individuals who grow up in certain society with its own unique belief system tend to view their values as the right one and the highest one. They tend to identify with those set of values and customs and may fiercely resist any attempt to devise any changes in such ideals. As, it amounts to altering their identity of which every human tends to be protective of. The same was the case with the various characters in the movie that I selected for a unique cultural experience, a bollywood movie named ‘Devdas’ released in the year 2002. This movie depicted how the family members of the lead actor named Devdas refused to grant permission to him for marrying the girl of his choice (named Paro) and also a childhood friend. Only on the grounds that his friend belonged to a different caste. Here Devdas’ family adopts a fiercely protective attitude towards their identity as zamidaars. The movie shows how the girl’s mother is insulted and laughed at by Devdas’s family members for cultivating the idea that her daughter, Paro and Devdas who were childhood friends and lovers, would eventually get married one day. The reason his parents give to Paro’s mother for refusing the proposal was simply that they belong to high caste whereas she belonged to lower caste and this marriage would mar their family’s reputation. Hence, the conclusion that is reached; The ethnocentric attitude may make an individual totally selfish and blind to the needs and wishes of others. In order to protect their so called status the family sacrifices the relationship to the only son. This movie demonstrated a person’s own parents’ cruel behavior caused by ethnocentric attitude towards their son that ultimately leads to death of the young man. Effect of ethnocentrism on societies The societies today are becoming multi-cultured as a result of globalization and immigration of people to other countries either on the context of higher studies or business or job allocation etc. Ethnocentrism may led to misunderstandings and reduced levels of inter-cultural communication ( Dong & Day 2007) which may further led to formation of isolated groups based on different belief systems within a society. Also, a number of studies has shown that ethnocentrism has the potential to led to negative stereotypes, negative prejudice, and negative behaviors against ethnic/minority group members ( Dong & Day 2007). This may result in fragmentation of a society and increased chances of conflicts and social unrest. This fact was demonstrated in the movie when Devdas rebels against his father who took to adopting English culture and criticizes him (the father) for his ethnocentric behavior calling him unpatriotic. This leads to the conclusion that the problem cannot be solved by denying own culture and adapting other one. The solution lies in accepting other cultures the way they are and adapting a tolerant behavior while keeping the self values intact. If we look back in history, it can be seen that the world war II was a result of ethnocentrism. The solution concluded above is not very easy to apply. The Nazis who considered themselves as the superior most took to war with the aim of enslaving the other groups of societies. They started executing Jews on the ethnocentric grounds that Jews were inferior and had no right to existence. So, the cruelty based on ethnocentrism is not limited to individual level, history stands witness for this. Effect of ethnocentrism on multinational corporations Ethnocentrism promotes the limited view or in other words narrow-mindedness and its effects can also be seen in multinational corporations. One of the many ways in which an MNC may display ethnocentrism is by designing a common set of rules and regulations for all its branches, worldwide. This may lead to complex situations. For example when setting up an office in a country with a reserved kind of culture, new rules may be required to be introduced. So that the local employees are not offended by the open attitude or behavior of the companies other employees. A policy adopted by MNCs that displays ethnocentrism is assigning key positions exclusively to officials belonging to the companies’ native country, no matter the country in which the branch is situated (for e.g. McDonalds). This policy can make the local employees feel discriminated against and may affect their loyalty towards the company. Another instance of such behavior is usage of same kind of ad campaigns, promotion and marketing policies, worldwide. This may led to a major setback to the corporation as a country with great patriotic and conservative values may view such companies as threat to their own cultures and may rebel against opening of the MNCs branches there. Many MNCs have, as a result have learnt to adapt to the different cultures by accepting the fact that culture has a close relation with trade and business practices and it’s only by respecting and embracing the culture of the others can they bloom in other countries. REFRENCES 1. Dong & Day 2007, Human Communication, A publication of the Pacific & Asian Communication Association, Vol. 11, No.1, pp 27-38 Retrieved online from : http://www.uab.edu/Communicationstudies/humancommunication/11.1.3.pdf Read More