...Han Mingyi-------CWID:11682799---------Section(350-001) South Korea, Switzerland and United States Power Distance: The first time I saw the phase “power distance”, I thought it must mean the ability that government control the whole country; however, it means to what degree that a person can influence others’ behaviors and ideas. Compared the score of power distance in United States, Switzerland and South Korea, we can easily conclude that South Korea is a much more hierarchical country. In South Korea, people tend to influence by others, thus prefer a central organized society without so many arguments about the inequalities exists. On the contrast, United State and Switzerland all have lower ranking of power distance. It indicates that people in that two countries try to minimize the inequities in the society. They are independent and not believe in superior control. Individualism Individualism is highly associated with power distance. In United States and Switzerland, they are much more independent so the score of individualism is relevantly high. Countries like United States and Switzerland are defined as individualist societies, in which people tend to only care about themselves and their direct family. A case in point is that Americans always pursue “liberty and justice for all”, which indicates that they emphasis everyone born equals in the society. Examples lie in various aspects of Swiss and American’s life. For instance, the relationship...
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...size. These barriers significantly impact on the activities of a business in a foreign country. Pankaj Ghemawat categorized all barriers into four distances: cultural, geographic, political, and economic distances, which form CAGE framework. He emphasizes that the types of distances influence different businesses in different ways. For example, culture distance determines consumers’ product preferences while geographic distance influences the costs of transportation. Obviously, the future and the success of internationalization in any company depend heavily on the company’s ability to master and reduce barriers, specifically, the four distances. Any company that underestimates their importance or simply ignores the distances may incur a big loss, yet failure. In the retail industry, the failure of Wal-Mart in South Korea is a typical example. After eight years of disappointing sales in South Korea, in 2005, the America’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, announced to leave the country. A year later, the company quietly transferred all 16 of its South Korean stores to Shinsegae Group, a domestic retailer, for $882 million and officially withdrew from Kimchi (Olsen, 2006). While Wal-Mart has had impressive success in other foreign markets such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and Mexico, Wal-Mart experienced a shameful failure in South Korea, which is mainly because of its neglect in...
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...Vicki Graves 8/2/2015 Short Paper 1 INT-600 High-Context vs Low Context South Korea & U.S. Edward T. Hall created the phrase high-context culture to describe a country/culture’s communication style. A high-context culture, like South Korea, is one where “there are many contextual elements that help people to understand the rules.” (Hall’s cultural factors). That being said, because of the “unwritten rules” or nonverbal communication it can be confusing for an individual to fully understand the communication. A low-context culture, like the U.S., is one where “very little is taken for granted meaning more explanation is needed and there is less chance of misunderstanding particularly when visitors are present.” (Hall’s cultural factors). There is more of a focus on verbal communication than nonverbal like body language. Between a high-context culture like South Korea and a low-context culture like the U.S. there are many similarities and differences when it comes to cultural dimensions. Hofstede’s model of national culture uses five dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, and long-term orientation. Power distance focuses on how power is distributed and the extent to which subordinates accept how power is distributed unequally. It focuses on the belief that superiors and subordinates are different kinds of people. In South Korea power distance is high, receiving a score of 60 according to Hofstede, and embraced by all. It is and...
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...Edward T. Hall created the phrase high-context culture to describe a country/culture’s communication style. A high-context culture, like South Korea, is one where “there are many contextual elements that help people to understand the rules.” (Hall’s cultural factors). That being said, because of the “unwritten rules” or nonverbal communication it can be confusing for an individual to fully understand the communication. A low-context culture, like the U.S., is one where “very little is taken for granted meaning more explanation is needed and there is less chance of misunderstanding particularly when visitors are present.” (Hall’s cultural factors). There is more of a focus on verbal communication than nonverbal like body language. Between a high-context culture like South Korea and a low-context culture like the U.S. there are many similarities and differences when it comes to cultural dimensions. Hofstede’s model of national culture uses five dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, and long-term orientation. Power distance focuses on how power is distributed and the extent to which subordinates accept how power is distributed unequally. It focuses on the belief that superiors and subordinates are different kinds of people. In South Korea power distance is high, receiving a score of 60 according to Hofstede, and embraced by all. It is and has always been a norm in society. Everybody has a place starting from birth, although that place can...
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...The Nature of Organizations and the Contemporary Environment TUI UNIVERSITY ABSTRACT The Nature of Organizations and the Contemporary Environment World English Dictionary states that culture is the shared behaviors and beliefs of a particular social, ethnic, or age group, and an environment can be defined as the external conditions or surrounding in which people live or work. Organizational culture is a system of shared meaning and beliefs held by organizational members that determines how they act, (Robbins & Coulter 2003). It also refers to working language and habits. Most times the environment will determine an organization’s culture but each environment is vastly different. One of the keys to being successful in a different environment with strong cultural beliefs is to be aware of the cultural differences within the environment. The right level of knowledge will determine success or failure. Cultural values, assumptions and beliefs affect organizational performance and management. The organizational culture affects employee and managers behaviours. Poor organizational culture affects the management of an organization negatively. Also, the business environment affects performance and management differently. Managers should understand culture and environment a firm operates in order to manage effectively (Green, 2011). Linda. Myers had what seemed to be all of the right credentials on paper that would make her the ideal candidate...
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...Case Study 2.1 SK Telecom goes egalitarian in a hierarchical society. Facts of the Case Korea is one of the most homogeneous countries in the world, racially and linguistically. It has its own culture, language, dress and cuisine, separate and distinct from its neighboring countries. Hard work, filial piety and modesty are characteristics esteemed by Koreans. They are proud of their traditional culture and their modern economic success. This paper documents a company which has a hierarchical culture and is attempting to adapt and practice a more egalitarian values. Problem 1) SK Telecom is attempting to distance itself from which South Korean cultural value? What indicators of this value are identified in this case study? What other artifacts of this cultural value would you notice while visiting a South Korean company that upheld this national culture? 2) In your opinion, why is this hierarchical value so strong in South Korea? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this value in societies? 3) Do you think SK Telecom will be successful in integrating a more egalitarian culture, even though it contrasts with South Korea's culture? What are some of the issues that may complicate or support this transition Discussion In this paper, SK Telecom is attempting to distance itself from strong hierarchical culture in their company and want to support a more egalitarian values. Such culture may be identified by the extent of how low-hierarchy employees are empowered. Employee...
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...to have rules for everything and change causes stress and confrontation is avoided. The Netherlands scores higher on pragmatism than Spain does. Spanish people like to live in the moment, without great concern about the future. Eventhough The Netherlands has a higher score on indulgence. Which means people in The Netherlands place a higher degree of importance on leisure time, act as they please and spend money as they wish. Whereas in Spain people want to control their desires. SPAINS VS SOUTH KOREA. Spain and South-Korea scores are both high scores. They both are hierachical societies and everybody accepts the order. Spain is a collectivistic country in comparison to Europe with a score of 51. South-Korea is even more collectivistic with a score of 18, this means South-Korea takes the commitment to a group even more serious than Spain. Commitment is everything and loyalty is important. If one groupmember makes a mistake, everybody is responisble. Spain and South-Korea share the same score on masculinity....
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...Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan’s name mean “sun-origin”, which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the “Land of the Rising Sun”. Japan’s current population is estimated at 126.66 million including approximately two million foreign residents. More than half of the non-Japanese population is of Korean descent. Power Distance At a score of 54, Japan is a mildly hierarchical society. Yes, Japanese are always conscious of their hierarchical position in any social setting and act accordingly. However, it is not as hierarchical as most of the other Asian cultures. Some foreigners experience Japan as extremely hierarchical because of their business experience of thoroughly slow decision making process: all the decisions must be confirmed by each hierarchical layer and finally by the top management in Tokyo. Ironically, the exact example of their slow decision making process shows that in Japanese society there is no one top guy who can take decision like in more hierarchical societies. Compared to the United States everybody is unique and not equal and it expresses the attitude of the culture toward these power inequalities amongst us. Power distance in the United States is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of societies and organizations within our country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally...
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... Delnaz Kasturwala By INTRODUCTION: South Korea has a market economy which ranks 15th in the world by nominal GDP and 12th by purchasing power parity (PPP), identifying it as one of the G-20 major economies. It is ahigh-income developed country, with a developed market, and is a member of OECD. South Korea is one of the Asian Tigers, and is the only developed country so far to have been included in the group of Next Eleven countries. South Korea had one of the world's fastest growing economies from the early 1960s to the late 1990s, and South Korea is still one of the fastest growing developed countries in the 2000s, along with Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan, the other three members of Asian Tigers. South Koreans refer to this growth as the Miracle on the Han River. Having almost no natural resources and always suffering from overpopulation in its small territory, which deterred continued population growth and the formation of a large internal consumer market, South Korea adapted an export-oriented economic strategy to fuel its economy, and in 2010, South Korea was the seventh largest exporter and tenth largest importer in the world. Despite the South Korean economy's high growth potential and apparent structural stability, South Korea suffers perpetual damage to its credit rating in the stock market due to the belligerence of North Korea in times of deep military crises, which has an adverse effect on the financial markets of the South Korean economy.However, renowned financial...
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...MUJI Case Study in China, Korea, and Japan Professor: Chun Zhang Date: 03/15/2014 Team Member: Anqi Liu Jiayuan An Jing Zhou Rui Zhao Dongyang Zhang Table of Contents: Introduction……………………………………………………………………………3 Company and Product…………………………………………...……….……………3 Evaluating Market Attractiveness…………………………………………………..4 Country Identification…………………………………………………………………5 Political Risk………………………………………………………...………………..5 Environmental Factor………………………………….……………..………………6 Preliminary Screening…….………………….…………………….……………….6 Country Rankings……………………………….……………………………………7 Cost of Transportation………………………….…………………….………………8 In-Depth Screening Criteria………………….………….….………………………8 Market Size and Growth………………………..……………..………………………9 Competitive Intensity…………………………..………………...……………………9 Segmentation……………………………………………….….……………………10 Appendix………………………………….…………………………………………12 Work Cited……………………………………..………………….………………...14 Introduction MUJI is distinguished by its design minimalism, emphasis on recycling, avoidance of waste in production and packaging, and no-logo or "no-brand" policy. The name MUJI is derived from the first part of Mujirushi Ryōhin, translated as No Brand Quality Goods. If people say it is a brand, it is better to say MUJI is a philosophy of life. MUJI does not emphasize the so-called fashion sense or personality nor endorses popular brands should raise his status. On the contrary, MUJI is coming from the consumer point of view to develop products that "plain handy". ...
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...1. CQ: Is what happened to Ellen a surprise? Why or why not? Do you think what happened to Ellen would have happened to people like yourself, and from your background? Why? It is a surprise what happened to Ellen. Although she is from a country with different culture from Korea, Ellen is a high quality professional with international experience. She had put a lot of effort to adapt to Korea culture and know how to do business at that country. She took every free time to learn and be familiarized with the local language, business etiquette, mannerism and culture in order to have a better environment to work at. Therefore, even coming from a very different culture, Ellen made a big effort to behave as close as possible to her colleagues from Korea. What happened to Ellen would probably happen to any other person even with the members from our group. Despite some similarity of the culture style between Brazil and South Korea ,it looks like her co-worker Jack didn’t recognize Ellen’s as a co-responsible for the work, so from this point of view anyone in her place could have the same problem. What might help in this situation is if it was a man in Ellen’s shoes as Korean’s culture is more male oriented. But it is not clear that Jack would react better even with a man, as Jack had studied at an American university and it would be expected that he would understand the situation of working together with an woman co-worker. 2. CQ: Is Ellen a “typical North American female manager”...
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...Country report South Korea – Electronic Yu Ming Lin Country Profile In February 1945 the end of World War II, Korean Peninsula divided into North and South Korea. South Korea also name Republic of Korea, 99,392 sq. km, has a population of almost 50 million, and has its capital at Seoul, the largest city in Korea. The second largest city is Busan, which is the country’s main port, has wonderful nature harbor beside the delta of Nakdong River. The major industrial prior 1948 was agriculture in Korea peninsula, South Korea was in a sever environment of economic. The war damage and the refugee from North Korea keep South Korea inflation and unemployment. Korea is full of mineral source, however, most minerals concentrated in the North such as gold, coal, ore, iron and graphite. There are some tungsten, amorphous graphite, coal, and iron in South Korea and the distribution percentage is North 80%~90% to South 10%. International trade Balance Of Payment The table above is the South Korea’s balance of payments account and this table can track the payments to and the receipts from other countries from 2006 to 2010. As we can see the current account surplus in all five years and it means that these five years South Korea exports more goods, services, and income than it imports. (Data from world databank) The Current Account In October 2011, South Korea’s current account surplus US4000 Million. South Korea’s growing economy relies on exports, and the most important exports...
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...1GameStop brief profile of the firm The GameStop Company, an American video game and entertainment software retailer, ranked 262 on the Fortune 500. GameStop represent as GME on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2011, GameStop stock price is $24.70 ended January 27, 2012, a 23 percent growth compared to $20.05 ended January 28, 2011. Compared to many firms that restore its business difficultly from Financial Crisis, GameStop have significant growth for its overall operating. One of the major reasons that GameStop can quickly recovered from economic recession is its international business. Product GameStop Company major operations are selling new and used video game systems such as console, handheld video game devices, and mobile; software and accessories, PC entertainment software and related accessories. typical market for your product GameStop have its retailer store and online video game retailer. Detail how large the company is GameStop’s recorded $4847.4 million as company’s 2011 ending assets, and recorded $1807.2 million. Lower liability compared to its assets, lower risk to operating its business. Which can prove that GameStop have capability to doing business internationally. Data from GameStop 2011 annual report showed GameStop’s total revenue can be divided into 4 major parts. New video game software, which is $4,048.2 million, takes total 42.4 percent for its total revenue. New video game hardware took 16.9 percent. Used video game products took 27.4...
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...comparing business cultures South Korea Vs Spain Ivan Kuzevanov - Panagiotis Sarantidis – Jaime Carvajal Treschov Alexey – Maria Safarovic World Business Cultures [pic] Business culture in South Korea The Republic of Korea (South Korea) is a constitutional democracy, has a population of roughly 51 million people, occupies a land of 99,720 square kilometers, and its currency is called Won ($USD=1073,43KRW, 3/3/2014). About 50% of the population practices religion (10,7 mil. Buddhists, 8,6 mil. Protestants and 5,1 mil. Catholics). The country of Korea was occupied by Japan since 1910 and it was split up after the Japanese loss in 1945, under the agreement that the north part would be administered by the Soviet Union, while the southern part by the U.S.A., and is divided to North and South Korea to this day. Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Power distance At an intermediate score of 60, South Korea is a slightly hierarchical society. This means that people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. Hierarchy in an organization is seen as reflecting inherent inequalities, centralization is popular, subordinates expect to be told what to do and the ideal boss is a benevolent autocrat. Individualism South Korea, with a score of 18 is considered a collectivistic society...
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...INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT QUIZ NAME: CHALI MWAMBA QUESTION 1: Basic ideal types of political systems -explain each and give one country or region as an example to identify its political system. They are the following: ANSWER: A) Totalitarianism= a system where Only one representative party which exhibits control over every facet of political and human life -Power maintained by suppression of opposition -Dominant ideals include media censorship, political representation, denial of rights, and civil liberties An example is People’s Republic of China, North Korea, Burma, Cuba, Vietnam, Libya and Saudi Arabia as well as Kuwait. B) Democracy=a system of government in which all the people of a state or polity ... are involved in making decisions about its affairs, typically by voting to elect representatives to a parliament or similar assembly -Democratic society cannot exist without at least a two-party system -Once elected, representative is held accountable to electorate for actions (which limits power of government) Examples include -Germany, Ghana, Grenada, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kiribati, Latvia, Lithuania C) Dictatorship= A dictatorship occurs when one person has complete control of a nation. Dictators are often associated with brutality, violence and ruthlessness and typically use armed force and fear to keep citizens under control. -Examples include Belarus, Chad, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroun, Kazakhstan, Iran D)...
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