...Where Growing Minds Go Global… What is Cultural Awareness, anyway? How do I build it? “A fish only discovers its need for water when it is no longer in it. Our own culture is like water for the fish. It sustains us. We live and breathe through it.” Becoming aware of our cultural dynamics is a difficult task because culture is not conscious to us. Since we are born we have learned to see and do things at an unconscious level. Our experiences, our values and our cultural background lead us to see and do things in a certain way. Sometimes we have to step outside of our cultural boundaries in order to realize the impact that our culture has on our behavior. It is very helpful to gather feedback from foreign colleagues on our behavior to get more clarity on our cultural traits. by Stephanie Quappe and Giovanna Cantatore Cultural Awareness is the foundation of communication and it involves the ability of standing back from ourselves and becoming aware of our cultural values, beliefs and perceptions. Why do we do things in that way? How do we see the world? Why do we react in that particular way? Cultural awareness becomes central when we have to interact with people from other cultures. People see, interpret and evaluate things in a different ways. What is considered an appropriate behavior in one culture is frequently inappropriate in another one. Misunderstandings arise when I use my meanings to make sense of your reality. Projected similarities...
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...the competencies in the document. Today's companies are doing business more and more in a global context. The people that count in any business from the suppliers to clients to employees are increasingly based in remote locations in foreign countries. People should be able to understand the historical, cultural, economic and political forces that build a particular society. The need for effective and clear intercultural communication is becoming vital in securing success in today's global workplace. Global competencies are required for business success, but determining which competencies are most important is difficult. There is often a temptation to begin training without thoroughly analyzing the instructional needs of those to be trained. For leaders to be successful in multicultural interactions abroad and domestically, they must be globally literate. To be globally literate means seeing, thinking, acting, and mobilizing in culturally mindful ways. It’s the sum of the attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed for success in today’s multicultural, global economy. To be globally literate, leaders must possess the following competencies: Personal literacy (understanding and valuing oneself) Social literacy (engaging and challenging other people) Business literacy (focusing and mobilizing one’s organization) Cultural literacy (valuing and leveraging cultural differences) For most outsiders, Saudi Arabia is a land of contrasts and paradoxes. It has...
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...1 McGraw-Hill/Irwin International Marketing 14/e Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. What Should You Learn? • The changing face of U.S. business • The scope of the international marketing task • The importance of the self-reference criterion (SRC) in international marketing • The progression of becoming a global marketer • The increasing importance of global awareness 1-2 Global Perspective: Global Commerce Causes Peace • Global commerce during peace time – Commercial aircraft and space vehicle industries – Mobile phone industry – Individuals and small companies • International markets are ultimately unpredictable – Flexibility means survival 1-3 Events and Trends Affecting Global Business • • The rapid growth of the World Trade Organization and regional free trade areas The trend toward the acceptance of the free market system among developing countries in Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe The burgeoning impact of the Internet, mobile phones, and other global media on the dissolution of national borders The mandate to properly manage the resources and global environment for the generations to come 1-4 • • The Internationalization of U.S. Business • Increasing globalization of markets • Increasing number of U.S. companies are foreign controlled – $16.3 trillion in foreign investment in the U.S. – $2.6 trillion more than American overseas investment • Increasing number of foreign companies building...
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...Introduction Most businesses have developed to be global businesses and operate in various countries in the world. Different regions have different cultures, and therefore, expanding businesses have to deal with people of diverse cultures. Managers who operate in these regions need to be trained about cross-cultural awareness. These cross-culturally competent managers are able to relate and manage people from various cultures effectively in contrast to people who are not cross-culturally aware. This paper aims at developing a training program to raise cross- cultural awareness among a group of global managers in our organization. Culture will be define, then an understanding of cross cultural awareness , what cross cultural awareness entails and the impact it makes on organizations in multinational corporations and the importance of the training program will be discussed. Cross Cultural Training for Junior Level Expatriate Managers in IT Field Developing culturally competent program is an on-going process, there appears to be no one recipe for cultural competency/ awareness; it is a continuing evaluation, as we persistently adapt and re-examine the way things are done. Our organization participates in a management training program which requires all junior level managers to go thru a two year rotation program in our countries of operation; USA, China, Nigeria, UAE and India. These managers are expected to spend 1 year in their first country of assignment and then 3 months...
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...Ted Baker is a Global clothing retailer, which was established by Ray Kelvin in Glasgow, Scotland 1988. At the start, Ted Baker sold men’s shirts. In the subsequent years, Ted Baker established itself as a global lifestyle brand that continued to develop and attain significant growth and development. Ted Baker has operations in Europe, Middle East, North America, and Australasia. Ted Baker has managed to gain a high geographical cover even in depressing economic periods. In 2014, Ted Baker had expanded into 35 countries and had expanded its range of products from a single product – men’s shirts – to womenwear, Lingerie and childrenwear among other offerings. This essay will critically evaluate the factors behind the rise and increasing globalisation of the Ted Baker retail brand. In its efforts to become a global firm, Ted Baker sought to expand its product offerings from men’s shirts specialisation to womenswear, accessories, sleepwear, and children wear (Holland, 2013). The product portfolio expansion is essential in improving the firm’s profitability as new customers are targeted across the firm’s markets. To depict the growth of the retail brand, the expansion is observed as an aspect of product development that involves selling new products to the existing markets (Lamb, Hair, and McDaniel, 2010). However, the product portfolio expansion is also supportive of a market development strategy and diversification strategy since Ted Baker further sought to sell its products (existing...
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...only what the UW offers for study abroad programs, but also what I must do in order to have a successful and safe experience. I became interested in the UW’s exploration seminars and decided to participate in the Art London Exploration Seminar this past summer. London is a multi-cultural capital and an ideal place to experience other ways of life, giving me an open mind and respect for different cultures. I was able to overcome the challenges of living in a foreign country and mature into an independent, flexible, and adaptable person. Studying in Prague will allow me to mature and experience personal growth by being immersed in a new culture and independently taking on the challenges of living in a foreign country. My personal growth will be channeled through the variety of CHID and PolSci courses the program offers and also engage in intellectually stimulating international field trips. Although I will not be dealing with a language barrier in my classes, I will come across people of many ethnicities and customs throughout Prague and Central Europe. From now until my departure, I plan to research Prague’s numerous cultural aspects to increase my respect and understanding of its social and cultural norms and not confuse them with my own. I am qualified to participate in the CHID Prague Program since I have had much success in taking analytical and critical thinking business classes here at the UW, maintaining a 3.58 cumulative GPA....
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...LO3: The scope of the international marketing task • LO4: The importance of the self-reference criterion (SRC) in international marketing • LO5: The increasing importance of global awareness • LO6: The progression of becoming a global marketer 2 Thursday, 27 February 14 LO1 Global Perspective: Global Commerce Causes Peace • Global commerce during peace time – Commercial aircraft and space vehicle industries – Mobile phone industry – Individuals and small companies • International markets are ultimately unpredictable – Flexibility means survival 3 Thursday, 27 February 14 LO1 Global Perspective: Global Commerce Causes Peace Basil pesto from Israel + raw materials and glass jars from Arab partner = Moshe & Ali’s Gourmet Foods http://www.peaceworks.com/press/libraryArticleMakingPeaceByMakingPastaSauces.html COOPERATION NEVER TASTED SO GOOD!™ 4 Thursday, 27 February 14 LO1 Events and Trends Affecting Global Business • The rapid growth of the World Trade Organisation and regional free trade areas • The trend toward the acceptance of the free market system among developing countries in Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe • The burgeoning impact of the Internet, mobile phones, and other global media on the dissolution of national borders • The mandate to properly manage the resources and global environment for the generations to come 5 Thursday, 27 February 14 LO2 The Internationalization of U.S. Business • Increasing globalisation of markets • Increasing number...
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...diversity initiatives have emerged as a core component of many companies’ mission statements and driving human resource practices (Andrulis & Sanchdev, 2009). As companies expand globally, there is one corporation that has expanded in diversity globally. Starbuck’s is one of the largest coffee companies in America and a cross the world that is diverse culturally. So, how does Starbucks utilize its cultural intelligence to increase the awareness of diversity in the workplace? Is workplace diversity important to employees at Starbucks? Starbucks’ believe that to operate successfully in a global marketplace, embracing diversity in every aspect of their business is absolutely essential (www.starbucks.com). Diversity is something that brings everyone together, race, gender, religion, cultural background, experience etc… Diverse workplaces do the same as well, learning from one another and being able to work in an environment with different ethnicities. Diversity brings opportunities within the organization and the learning capability increase from the many cultures. By Starbucks being a global corporation, the company has to maintain their diversity not just for the workplace but also for the community. In this paper I will describe and explain the foundation of Starbucks Company, and how diversity is implemented in the workplace. I will also discuss how diversity is implemented in my work organization and my opinion of the importance of diversity in a workplace. With supportive...
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...Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Leadership in Global Environment Context The differing opinions that exist on what is important in the examination of effective leadership are linked with theories of what has the biggest impact: whether it is personal traits, behaviour patterns or aspects of the cultural and organisational setting. When evaluating leadership, both emotions and social skills may be seen as a vital role in a process of influencing and gaining employees job satisfaction. However, the role emotions play in leadership needs to be considered alongside research. Ralph Stogdill, the early commentator on the subject highlighted three different dimensions of leadership: interpersonal process, social context and goal achievement (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2013). During the first half of the 20th century researchers have focused on identifying personality traits of effective leaders, also influenced by Great Person theory (Mullins, 2013). However, the research found only a weak relationship between them (Daft, 2014). Contradictory Ohio and Michigan studies concentrated on discovering specific behaviour patterns related to this matter (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2013). After all, organisational context and setting differ a lot, therefore, contingency theorists argued that leaders need to adjust their style of leading to a specific situation (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2013). In the late 20th century researchers have distinguished transactional and transformational...
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...CULTURE AND ETHICS IN BUSINESS LEARNING JOURNAL CHALLENGES OF MANAGER’S CULTURAL DIFFERENCES FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Introduction Business today has seen a high surge in globalization. This increase of international business all over has led to a number of ties and relations among people from different culture and nationalities. Managers who still haven’t adapted to the new age managerial skills and are still following the conventional route have found themselves extremely ineffective in the global platform. A need of global managers who understand multi-cultural competencies has arrived and most scholars debate that the working style, values and behaviour of a manager are directly a persona of their national culture. Thus in order to be competitive in this global market, the traditional approach by the managers must transcend to a global one. A global manager is one who has the ability to manage the complexities in a business which is conducted or laid upon multi-cultural diversities. A global manager has many challenges when managing people from different cultures; this includes the people from both High context society as well as low context society. Challenges Lack of communication: When a manager is working with his team members who have different native tongue, it’s most possible at time that the information flow is not constant. Adding to the woes are the multitasking employees and talking to employees over...
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...and Education Cross-Cultural Etiquette and Communication in Global Business: Toward a Strategic Framework for Managing Corporate Expansion Ephraim Okoro1 1 School of Business, Howard University, Washington, USA Correspondence: Ephraim A. Okoro, Department of Marketing, School of Business, Howard University, 2600–Sixth Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20059, USA. Tel: 1-202-806-1545. E-mail: eaokoro@howard.edu Received: March 22, 2012 doi:10.5539/ijbm.v7n16p130 Abstract The expanding scope of business corporations in the first decade of the twenty-first century is drawing much scholarly attention, and the trend has been described as a fact of life that defies the stretch of human imagination. The concept of global economy has expanded consumer awareness, defined new standards and rules of operations, and increased the need for national and corporate interdependence. Multinational organizations are exploring opportunities around the world, demonstrating sensitivity towards cultural differences in order to gain from the proliferation and growth of international enterprise. Recent studies indicate that while some corporations compete successfully in the global marketplace, others have failed to sustain their competitive advantage because of cultural imperialism or inadequate acculturation of their managers on international assignment. Corporate analysts argued that the key to global business success depends on effective cross-cultural etiquette and global workforce diversity management...
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...shaznaum@yahoo.com CASE, Pakistan Maliha Elahi, PMP, MCT malihaelahi@yahoo.com SPO, Pakistan Zeeshan Ahmed Bhatti xeeshan@gmail.com CASE, Pakistan Umair Khalid umair.khaled@gmail.com Ericsson,Pakistan Abstract- In today's competitive global environment, projects in organizations consist of cross-functional teams that are formed to utilize individual expertise. A project manager whose primary responsibility is to achieve project objectives deals these individuals. Since the rational and emotional aspects of a project vary in complexity, the role of the project manager is critical to project success. The objective of this study was to demonstrate linkages between emotional intelligence and the challenges faced by virtual project managers. The study will also show that there exists a multi tier relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and challenges/elements of VPM. 1. INTRODUCTION Emotional Intelligence has its roots in the concept of "social intelligence", as first identified by E.L. Thorndike as early as in the early 1920s. The term Emotional Intelligence first appeared in a series of academic articles authored by John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey [1]. Goleman defined Emotional intelligence as a person’s self-awareness, self-confidence, selfcontrol, commitment and integrity, and a person’s ability to communicate, influence, initiate change and accept change [2,3]. In Working With Emotional Intelligence, Goleman applies the emotional intelligence concept to the...
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...Cultural Awareness Plan II: Training Plan Kemberly Watkins MGT/538 Managing in a Cross-Cultural Environment February 2, 2015 David Barlage University of Phoenix Material Cultural Awareness Plan – Template |Cultural Awareness Goals |The strategic goals of Coca- Cola are the foundation of the training guide : According to "Our Company" (2014), " To continue to | | |thrive as a business over the next ten years and beyond, we must look ahead, understand the trends and forces that will shape our| |Specify the goals of the organization’s cultural awareness plan |business in the future and move swiftly to prepare for what's to come.” (Mission, Vision & Values). The company is strategically | |and explain how meeting each goal will facilitate communication |moving towards focusing on the needs of the consumers, gaining access into new markets and gaining a world perspective. The | |and cooperation between the American team and their |cultural of different environments can impact the movement towards these goals in a variety of ways including; communication | |counterparts. |barriers (expressing the goals in a way everyone can understand), leadership abilities (the different ways leaders are trained in| | |different cultures could cause...
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...growing importance of visual communication in a global economy. This essay more specifically addresses and investigates the research question: “to what extent is visual communication becoming a profit enabler for companies acting in a global economy?” The research method used in this essay were questionnaires in which a number of anonymous p¬¬eople from different nations across the five continents (America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania) were asked personal questions about communication and their preferences in communicating with different people or machines. Articles and statistical data results from the Web and books in addition to anthropological data statistics that clearly validated the theory. The findings of the research showed that people, according to their ethnicity, cultural background and education, viewed the same message potentially in a different way. The results from the different questionnaires clearly showed that visual communication not only provided a quicker way for people to view and understand a message than text as it has a global understanding of a message, but it was also a global preference for most individuals to perceive a similar message. Thus the results of the findings can conclude that visual communication is efficient due to its possibility of communicating a message Internationally, and to its way of providing quick understanding. Marketing is about advertising, providing awareness to customers so it allows the business to sell the...
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...Modern Management & Cultural Intelligence Today is the global village prospering with globalisation. During this interactive communication age, it is critical for administrative managers to understand and accept a diversity of cultures and traditions for all the stake holders of different areas: staff, consumers, partners, rivals and local administration authority, as modern management concept. Utilizing cultural intelligence delicately can assist exploring endless resources, hidden in the social communication of the sophisticated nature of business. As every individual is inherited with different education, experiences and culture, accompanied by advantages and divergence, it is only necessary to properly manage them. Leaders should prompt to achieve the target goal by means of global cultures based on modern management capacity as well as religion, social customs: innovative management models based on integration of diverse culture: and adjusting existing practising principles with varied culture. Even though the development of all these approaches are some of the characteristics of each manager reflecting mutual understanding, inspiration and innovation, most of them heavily rely on the cultural quotient. In brief, beliefs, values, perceptions, expectations, attitudes and assumptions derived from IQ and EQ are on the other hand, getting along with Cultural Intelligence occurred in his or her social environment of regional, national, economic and livelihood. In general...
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