ABSTRACT - Cross Cultural Management Issues in the Contemporary World

The recognition of differences among cultures in a business setting is paramount to being a successful manager of a multi-national corporation. There has been extensive study in this field which suggests there are five dimensions of cultural values. These five dimensions are: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/feminity, and short/long-term orientation. Together these five dimensions can collectively determine the characteristics that an employee in a certain country will most likely share. The importance being that a manager will then be able to make certain assumptions in order to efficienty manage that employee.
Using these dimensions, further study is examined into different types of subcultures that have aspects of the above dimensions. Power culture, achievement culture, support culture, and role culture are examined and discussed and the connection is made to the five dimensions. China is used frequently throughout the discussions to give examples of how this culture differs from our own.

Internet usage

Hey all,

Quick survey:

How many of you are currently limited to what sites you can get to at work?
When I originally began my job at my current place of employment, there was no limitation to what sites we could visit. However, currently we are very limited to which sites we can visit with use of a program called Web Sense. Often, I find myself asking IT to unblock a site which I need to access for work related reasons. The folks who had frequently abused the sites before then chose to walk around the office and have loud chat sessions with others that always seem disruptive.
This ofcourse begs the question, does Web Sense actually do what it sets out to do and increase overall productivity by limiting what folks can do online? You can judge by the above that I certainly do not think so. I'd like to hear some other opinions.

Hug the Devil?

Hello all, I will be in Brazil next week on business. While in Brazil last year, I learned an expression that I thought was very interesting. The expression was, "when in hell, hug the devil." Obviously, this expression refers to having to make a decision that conflicts with your own personal feelings by embracing someone's decision that you don't agree with or by embracing a person that you don't agree with.

Have any of you encountered a situation in which you've had to make a decision that you weren't too happy about that conflicted with your own personal standards? If you don't mind sharing, I'd love to hear a story or two where you've had to capitulate with someone or something in order to get the job done.

Plan B?

Today was an interesting day at work. We had a tornado come within miles of our plant and I could think of nothing more than what we hinted at in class the other day - what would you do if a tornado came close to your factory? Is there a plan in place to have everyone be safe? I think its an interesting thought made real by today's events. Naturally, the power went out and we all sat around looking at each other. I thought of my current event article from last class that talked about what would your company do if it had to survive without computers for 10 days. Consequently, after 30 mins or so, we were told we were allowed to go home. Draw your own conclusions.
Have any of you put any thought into the two issues above?
Interesting site, could use some more work, but I think they are onto something.

Global language?

According to the latest wiki page on wikipedia there are approximately 1.8 billion speakers of the english language. How many of you have traveled to a foreign country and heard the english language spoken by someone? It has become increasing popular to speak a tongue that isn't your own (unless you are American). Do you consider english to be the world language?
I am not sure if I do consider it to be a language that one day will be spoken by everyone. The only universal language right now is mathematics (one of the reasons why I got into accounting to further understand numbers as seen by someone who doesn't speak english). I find that through mathematics I can understand what someone is trying to arrive at based off of other context clues which hint at what they are trying to say even if I do not understand what it is exactly they are trying to say.
I also wanted to wish all of you good luck writing your rough drafts this week.

Changing gears for a moment

As I just had my one year wedding anniversary this past weekend (wonderful time in Cape May btw). I wasn't able to do any additional research on my topic for my paper so I thought I would cover a different contemporary topic this evening.
Have any of you run into a situation in which you felt like you were "managing" your manager? Do you feel like you need to motivate them to do his or her work in order for you to do yours effectively? I'd love to hear a few stories (that won't get you in trouble of course).

Let's hope your story didn't make you want to do this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PJt0DXdZ0k&feature=related

How would you react?

You are put in a situation where you have to manage someone thousands of miles away. You don't speak their language and you don't know their culture or attitudes. Every question you ask them is met with another question asking you what you meant exactly. What would you do?
I alluded to a valuable tool in class a couple of weeks back that helps translate some major languages. Check out the link and give it a shot for yourself.
Do you think it is helpful to write someone in their own language to better explain what it is exactly you require of them? Do you believe the technology is that much further ahead that will translate phone conversations as you are speaking over the phone?

Which country would you like to visit?

I am not sure which countries you've all had a chance to visit, but I try to make my way to as many foreign countries to experience the culture and people as I can. I try to keep mental notes on how the people act and interact with each other.
On a recent trip to the Bahamas (unfortunately, it wasn't for work), I made it a point to try to interact with the locales and understand how the interact with someone from another country. I suppose coming from the U.S. I am not accustomed to friendly strangers so any act of kindness or gratitude is always noticed and appreciated.
What do you all think of this? Do you think we as Americans have become a society of individuals not concerned at all in how we interact with others? Is technology to blame for our woes or are manners and civility going the way of the dodo?

Technology replacing real life events?

I read an interesting article which talks about technology being possible better than real life events. This kind of goes with my topic about technology replacing human contact for management. Have a look and let me know what you think. The author does a great job and examining different sides of the story.
My feeling after reading the article that perhaps technology will never be able to replace that face-to-face contact with all of it's subtle nuances. Have any of you ever had a situation where you felt technology would replace your human interaction?

Managing employees in foreign countries from the US

Managing employees in different countries, per my experience, has been a difficult rewarding task. I currently manage local controllers in Canada, Brazil, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, UK, India, Singapore, and mainland China. As the international controller for my company I have both cultural differences to overcome as well as language barriers.
Technology has made it such that communication with affiliates outside of 9 hours is possible via email. This also helps with the languag barrier. However, when I visit these locations the personal face-to-face meeting provides quicker and more reliable results. Is technology the cure to communication issues? Will personal contact ever be replaced in certain circumstances?
I was considering broaching this topic or related topic for my research paper for the semester. What are your thoughts? I believe the research is out there to cover this topic easily.

Welcome to my page!

Welcome all, I hope that my blogs are both entertaining and fulfilling while you fulfill your obligations!