...Ondaatje’s novel as a “mystery of identity” (449). Similarly, Aritha van Herk identifies “fear, unpredictability, secrecy, [and] loss” (44) as the central features of the novel and its female protagonist. Anil’s Ghost, van Herk argues, presents its readers with a “motiveless world” of terror in which “no identity is reliable, no theory waterproof” (45). Ondaatje’s novel tells the story of Anil Tessera, a Sri Lankan expatriate and forensic anthropologist working for a UN-affiliated human rights organization. Haunted by a strong sense of personal and cultural dislocation, Anil takes up an assignment in Sri Lanka, where she teams up with a local archeologist, Sarath Diyasena, to uncover evidence of the Sri Lankan government’s violations of human rights during the country’s period of acute civil war. Yet, by the end of the novel, Anil has lost the evidence that could have indicted the government and is forced to leave the country, carrying with her a feeling of guilt for her unwitting complicity in Sarath’s death. On one hand, Anil certainly embodies an ethical (albeit rather schematic) critique of the failure of global justice. On the other, her character stages diaspora, in Vijay Mishra terms, as the “normative” and “ exemplary … condition of late modernity” (“Diasporic” 441) — a condition usually associated with the figure of the nomad rather than the diasporic subject — and thus raises questions about the novel’s regulatory politics of diasporic identity. In contrast, Anita Rau Badani’s...
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...category of cultural identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck Dr Elizabeth Jackson University of the West Indies St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago Having begun my academic career, not so long ago, as a postcolonial scholar, I have become increasingly critical of postcolonial theory on the grounds that for an increasing number of literary texts by so-called postcolonial writers, postcolonial theoretical approaches may have outlived their usefulness. One example is the Nigerian-born writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s collection of short stories The Thing Around Your Neck, published in 2009. My paper will examine the ways in which these stories explore the limits of diaspora as a category of cultural identity and move toward a more flexible conceptualization of the impact of globalization on people’s sense of themselves and their place in the world. Although the main characters in these stories are of Nigerian origin, few of them fit easily into the limiting categories of ‘Nigerian’ or ‘Nigerian diaspora’. This is not only because their geographical placement is often in flux, but also because their sense of identity is not based on nationality, national origin, or even a sense of belonging to a Nigerian diaspora. On the contrary, they can arguably be described as ‘cosmopolitan’ – not in the old elitist sense of the term, but in the sense of transcending the limitations of nationality or national origin as a category of cultural identity. Indeed...
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...Identity based views of the corporation Insights from corporate identity, organisational identity, social identity, visual identity, corporate brand identity and corporate image Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider advances in corporate identity scholarship on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the first special edition of corporate identity to appear in the European Journal of Marketing in 1997. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes the form of a literature review. Findings – The notion of, what can be termed, “identity-based views of the corporation” is introduced. Each of the ten identity based perspectives that inform the above are underpinned by a critically important question which is believed to be of considerable saliency to marketing scholars and policy advisors alike. As a precursor to an exposition of these ten perspectives, the paper discusses five principal schools of thought relating to identity and identification ((the quindrivium) which can be characterised as: corporate identity (the identity of the organisation); communicated corporate identification (identification from the organisation); stakeholder corporate identification (an individual, or stakeholder group’s, identification with the organisation); stakeholder cultural identification (an individual, or stakeholder group’s, identification to a corporate culture); and envisioned identities and identifications (this is a broad category and relates to how an organisation, or group...
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...Romaine Smith Susan Doody ENG 111 02/14/13 Outline The positive impact music has on one’s identity In his musical lyrics, Bob Marley, a singer, songwriter and musician, motivates people across the world with his positive and encouraging music. In his biggest hi “One Love, One Heart, Let’s Get Together and Feel Alright,” created an atmosphere of love and exhilaration 2among people of different backgrounds and culture. After his death, Marley was venerated by people all over the world for his outstanding work and role model to the society. An icon had died. The positive influence of a song can reflect one’s character in different ways. One’s culture, attitude and appearance create an identity that can leave a positive impact on society. The cultural identity is those attributes, behavior patterns, lifestyles, and social structures that distinguish a person from another. Culture is learned and passed through generations and includes the believes and value system of a society. If we can examine the role of culture in a group formation, for example. If participants are told they share musical taste with an individual, they are more likely to appraise them positively and want to become their friend….. All these components of culture have an effect on one’s character. Music can have both positive and negative influences on one’s attitude. For example, a child that tends to listen more positive and...
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...RUNNING HEADING: CULTURAL DIFFERENCES University of Phoneix September 23, 2013 Dr. Victoria Anyikwa Culture refers to a set of shared values, beliefs, and norms held by individuals of a group. Culture includes customs, material artifacts, and language that is transmitted from generation to generation. In the United States alone, there are several cultural differences. People do not dress the same, have the same religion, people have different perceptions of the world around them, have different languages, and also have different ways of expressing their personality. Differences between individuals within a culture are much greater than differences within groups. A person's belief, personality, sexual preferences, social standing, education, among other factors affect human behavior and culture. Recognizing and understanding differences in cultural patterns provides a framework for interpreting goals and behaviors of others. The purpose of this paper is to analyze religion and sexual identify/ orientation and point out their significance in understanding cultural differences. Religion Religions throughout the world are distinct in differences and relationship, with some having faith in saints, some in sacrifices and some in multiple gods. Religion is observed throughout the world in unlike traditions in few factors or other and can affect an individual’s behavior in his or her own tradition. According to Santrock (2010), people in numerous traditions will carry...
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...which indicated that the ratio of consumers using online services has raised from 8 per cent in 2010 to 30 per cent now while call volumes are in a declining trend. Application of concepts There are some concepts related to socio-cultural environment and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in this action taken by Telstra. As the company stated, jobs cut is necessary and it is an aggressive push to costs cut, which caused by changes in customer preferences (Battersby 2012). Richard (n.d) outlined that a successful business must be aware of changes in cultures in societies in order to stay competitive advantage and stay in minds of customer preferences. Further, the growth of Internet use has become as abundant evidence leads to emerging of global culture; therefore global strategy should be revised as social cultural environment changed (Morrison 2008). According to Dani Rodrik (cited in Tan n.d), professor of international political economy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, the global integration of goods and services has not only reduced the barriers of trade, but also created conflict between nation's norms, institutions and collective preferences. CSR is demonstrated in offshore jobs may be difficult for the company because of cultural differences, as reported by Battersby (2012). Moreover, the Community and Public...
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...this goal. Unfortunately, the iCall did not bring the success that Taiwan Taxi hoped it would which left management questioning why the system worked so well in one country and not the other. The answer to this lies in the cultural differences and a lack of understanding of the Taiwan labor force that is currently working in the taxi industry. In order to successfully implement the iCall in Taiwan, management needs to tie value to the system in order to gain support from its employees and the public. This can be done internally through the use of incentive programs, as well as externally though marketing and advertising efforts focused on safety and efficiency. Problem Statement and Project Goals Management’s failure to understand cultural differences and their impact on the implementation of a GPS system in Taiwan has led to Taiwan Taxi’s failure in obtaining its 20,000 member goal. Analysis Management Taiwan Taxi based their implementation of the iCall after the success of a similar GPS system in Singapore. The company reasoned that since Singapore and Taiwan were similar in size and density that Taiwan would have equal success in the implementation of new technology in their taxi cabs. Management however, failed to realize that the severe cultural differences would play a significant role in the success of the iCall. Many subscribers felt that the iCall system added no value to their services. One user explained, “You know what; the GPS is actually useless. You...
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...Question 1 Economic factors include economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and the inflation rate. These factors have major impacts on how businesses operate and make decisions.. There are economic differences that influence the relationship between the partners at Shui Fabrics. Chiu Wai operated Shanghai Fabrics LTC located in China, before it became a joint venture with Rocky River Industries in the United States. When the companies became a venture, Chiu Wai became the Deputy General Manager for Shui Fabrics in China and venturing company Rocky River Industries located in US. Ray Betzell who is the General Manager for Shui Fabrics came to China from Rocky River Industries. Many companies who do business in others countries and cultures fail miserably. Managers must do their homework and learn the business ethic and culture lifestyles before even considering venturing into markets in different counties. To me it seems like neither of the managers did their homework and are having problems maintaining the economic factors that influence their company Political officials are going to be a big part of the team because they have strong influence on economic life in China. Ray must reach out to them and understand their goals. Success will depend on the personal involvement of top executives. The partners differ dramatically in terms of what constitutes an acceptable financial return. Chiu Wai is happy with achieving a 5% to 6% profit and believes he is viewed as a local...
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...Journal of Intercultural Management Vol. 2, No. 2, November 2010, pp. 5–15 Barbara Mazur Politechnika Białostocka Cultural Diversity in Organisational Theory and Practice 1. Introduction Increasing globalization requires more interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds than ever before. People no longer live and work in an insular marketplace; they are now part of a worldwide economy with competition coming from nearly every continent. For this reason, organizations need diversity to become more creative and open to change. Therefore maximizing and capitalizing on workplace diversity has become an important issue for management today. Since managing diversity remains a significant organizational challenge, managers must learn the managerial skills needed in a multicultural work environment. Supervisors and managers must be prepared to teach themselves and others within their organizations to value multicultural differences in both associates and customers so that everyone is treated with dignity. Diversity issues are now considered important and are projected to become even more important in the future due to increasing differences in the population of many countries. Companies need to focus on diversity and look for ways to become totally inclusive organizations because diversity has the potential of yielding greater productivity and competitive advantages. Managing and valuing diversity is a key component of effective people management...
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...discrimination before achieving integration and dynamically constructed group identities while integrating. Before uncovering group identities, though, we must define so-called social construction. According to Nancy Foner, social construction refers to “how physical characteristics and/or putative ancestry are interpreted within particular social contexts and are used to define categories of people as inferior and superior” (12). In the U.S., a group of intolerant native-born Americans known as nativists have ranked immigrant groups as inferior and superior based on national origin, physiognomy, economics, religion, and language. From multiple scholarly perspectives,...
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...Keller graduate school of management, Gm591 Mamun Chowdhury (Research question: How do differing perspectives affect out views of workforce diversity?) Introduction: Diversity relates to gender, age, language, ethnicity, cultural background, disability, sexual orientation or religious belief, including that people are different in other respects such as educational level, job function, socio-economic background, personality profile, marital status and whether or not one has family. Diversity and demographic differences can impact individual behavior by creating conflict in the workplace. The success of an organization depends on the workforce of the organization. A workforce made up of diverse individuals from different backgrounds can bring the best talent to an organization. Today, there are more and more ethnic people joining the workforce of the United States. Since the United States is considered the land of opportunity, more people from different backgrounds have migrated to our country over the past 100+ years to obtain work. Now, due to an increase in globalization and companies becoming more diverse, we are seeing even more people of ethnic backgrounds relocating to the United States for opportunities. With the increase in education, this is bringing forth many individuals of whom tend to have a great deal of input into organizations that otherwise would not have happened. These individuals bring a vast array...
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...The theory of individualism/collectivism developed by Harry Triandis (1990, 1995) emphasizes individual differences and cross-cultural differences in many of the same tendencies discussed by social identity theory. The theory of individualism/collectivism describes cross-cultural differences in the extent to which emphasis is placed on the goals and needs of the in group rather than on individual rights and interests. For individuals highly predisposed to collectivism, ingroup norms and the duty to cooperate and subordinate individual goals to the needs of the group are paramount. Collectivist cultures are characterized by social embeddedness in a network of extended kinship relationships. Such cultures develop an “unquestioned attachment” to the ingroup, including “the perception that ingroup norms are universally valid (a form of ethnocentrism), automatic obedience to ingroup authorities [i.e., authoritarianism], and willingness to fight and die for the ingroup. These characteristics are usually associated with distrust of and unwillingness to cooperate with outgroups” (Triandis, 1990:55); collectivist cultures are more prone to ingroup bias (Heine and Lehman, 1997; Triandis and Trafimow, 2001). Like social identity processes, tendencies toward collectivism are exacerbated in times of external threat, again suggesting that the tendency toward collectivism is a facultative response that evolved as a mechanism of between-group conflict. Groups: Process & Practice was...
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...Consequences of Social Categorization and Social Identity Theories Vernon Smith BA426 Managing Cultural Diversity vsmith003@regis.edu Consequences of Social Categorization and Social Identity Theories Introduction In the modern world, workforce diversity has developed to be among the most imperative elements. Many organizations including Apple Inc. and all over the world have employed diversity managers to help develop effective workforce diversification (Podsiadlowski et al., 2013). The increased interest in workforce diversity is not surprising. As organization move to develop organizational structures including teams and groups as well as multinational workforce, effective communication within diversified workforce becomes imperative for smooth functioning of organizations (Podsiadlowski et al., 2013). Diversity is often described in the context of the beneficial aspects of variety in the workforce. However, the definition of diversity still remains unclear. Van Ginkel and Homan (2013) state that the debate on diversity mostly confuses various forms of a variety of workforce. One way to achieve workforce variety is through social categorization, where group membership is determined by mutual characteristics such as race, sex, age, gender, and status. Legal provisions on diversity have continuously emphasized the creation of representative social categorization approach in the workforce of an organization (Podsiadlowski et al., 2013). In this context, the workforce demography...
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...– The use of teams in organizations given the current trend toward globalization, population changes, and an aging workforce, especially in high-income countries, makes the issue of diverse team building critical. The purpose of this paper is to explore the issue of team diversity and team performance through the examination of theory and empirical research. Specifically, the paper seeks to answer the question: “How might individuals with diverse characteristics such as culture, age, work experience, educational background, aptitude and values, become successful team members?”. Design/methodology/approach – A review of theories that are pertinent to individual differences and team formation, including social identity theory, mental models, inter contact theory, social comparison theory, and chaos theory, was conducted. Team formation and diversity literature were reviewed to identify ways of developing diverse and effective teams. Findings – It is a truism that working together in teams is a smart way of achieving organizational performance goals. This paper discusses the theories, research and practices that underlie the development of efficient and effective teams. It demonstrates that recognizing the underlying individual differences, mental models, and assumptions that team members bring to the organization can help build teams that...
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...Identity Assignment (25 points) Objective: To better understand how music reflects personal and social identities of an individual or group. Requirements: Write a 700–1000 word essay (roughly three pages) discussing a particular song or composition that you feel best expresses your personal and social identity. Include a tape or CD (label it with your name) of the example along with your essay. DUE DATE: To be announced _______________________________________________________________________ Music is a manifestation of the personal and social identities of an individual or group. The function of the music, the structure of it, the context in which it is performed, etc., all reflect the cultural environment that surrounds a musical performance and indicate significant values of the people who create it. Recognizing and understanding how music reflects the identity of a community is an important means of “getting to know” other people and how music expresses “who they are.” I want to “get to know you” and discover what music says about “who you are.” As music majors, I assume that you consider music an important element of your life. Undoubtedly, most of you listen to many kinds of music, i.e., classical, rock, rap, gamelan(?). Your task is to choose ONE example of music that you feel best expresses the many facets of YOU, i.e., your identity. This will prove more difficult than you think if you put some thought into it. Don't tell me what music means to you, explain how the example...
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