...Coming from Mali, one may think their culture is completely different and unaccepted in America. But one might be surprised. Talking about an American culture isn’t that easy : indeed defining what is the American culture, what it reflects and how one lives it in an everyday basis are still unclear and need clarification and further definitions need to be established in order to live or survive in here. When contrasting, it is always interesting to compare America to a kaleidoscope of cultures : a nation in constant movement, immigrations that changed the core of the country, that got built throughout the years, and definitely a perpetual change and development of multiple different cultures that, nevertheless, share common values. Knowing...
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...[pic] Undergraduate Thesis An analysis of English pragmatic failure from the perspective of culture Luo Qing Supervisor: Prof. Gan Chengying Major:English Student Number:20065805 School of Foreign Languages and Cultures Southwest University of Science and Technology June, 2010 [pic] 本科生毕业论文 从文化角度分析英语语用失误 罗情 指导教师:甘成英 专业名称:英语语言文学 学 号:20065805 西南科技大学外国语学院 2010年6月 Acknowledgement I want to express my heartfelt thanks to my supervisor professor Gan Chengying, who accompanied me through all the processes of choosing the topic, selecting useful materials and finally finishing my draft. Without her help, this research paper can not be achieved. Also I want to extend many thanks to my teacher Tu Chao who gave me a lot of precious tips on how to achieve standard language in paper as well as how to avoid mistakes in delivering information. Apart from my teachers I still own much gratitude to my fellow friends. You helped me rectify grammatical mistakes that appeared in my paper and gave me a lot of encouragement in finishing this paper. Abstract According to the current situation of English teaching, the cultivation of the students’ cultural understanding is not paid so much attention to as the basic English knowledge teaching. Due to this fact, many foreign language students nowadays have a good command...
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...Examining a Business Failure - Tyco International Ltd Organizational behavior is defined as the study of the behavior of individuals, groups and structure and the impact to an organization. Organizational behavior uses the information gathered from this study to improve the organization’s effectiveness (Robbins, 2011). Organizational behavior focuses on a number of areas including the behavior of leaders, inter-personal communication, processes and structure within the organization, conflict and employee motivation. The behavioral disciplines of psychology, social psychology, sociology and anthropology form the basis for the study of organizational behavior. Psychology and social psychology studies the impact of conditions in the workplace and the impact to the employees’ performance. Within these sciences, learning theorists also studies the impact of change and how to reduce the challenges of change in the work environment [ (Robbins, 2011, p. 12) ]. According to the authors, sociology, and anthropology contributes to the study of organizational behavior by focusing on the relationship of employees as a group and the impact to the organizational structure. The culture and group dynamic of the employees will direct the level of motivation that in turn will negatively or positively impact the performance of the organization [ (Robbins, 2011, p. 12) ]. Psychology evaluates changes in individuals’ behavior and the impact to learning, Emotions, leadership, and decision-making...
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...Vol 4. No. 1 Mar 2009 Journal of Cambridge Studies 6 Why Do Change Management Strategies Fail? ---Illustrations with case studies Xiongwei SONG∗ Department of Politics, University of Sheffield ABSTRACT: Change management is crucial to the survival and development of organizations, the more effectively you deal with change, the more likely you are to thrive. However there are a large number of failures of change management. Organizational change itself is a considerably complex activity; any tiny mistake in change management could lead to the failure of organizational change. Consequently this paper is impossible to encompass all factors that could result in the failure of change management. This paper attempts to explain why change management strategies fail from four perspectives (leadership, culture, people issues and quick response) that are major factors to determine whether change management is successful or not. INTRODUCTION Change for organizations both large and small, whether in the private, public or voluntary sectors has been inevitable for the past decades or so. Such trends of organizational change are increasing in frequency, pace, complexity and turbulence under current situation, and there appears to be no sign of abatement. The concrete purposes of change management for different organizations are probably not the same, but the ethos of change management is the same, that is, making the organizations more effective, efficient, and responsive...
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...organization development. Expatriate are the person who goes to the foreign country on the international assignment. When a MNC open its new subsidiary in the new country, then it might not find the local person who has the specific skills that are required by the company, so, it send an employee from the host country to that new subsidiary. As this employee is aware of the working, business culture and all other process of the company and help the employees of new subsidiary to follow and understand them. (Lee and Croker, 2006). For selecting an Expatriate, MNEs has two type of selection approach. The company can do it by: 1. Ethnocentric approach which means parent company makes the important decisions, employees from the parent company hold key position & the subsidiaries follow all the culture and practices of the parent company (Brewster, 2007). 2. Geocentric approach. The organisation that applies the worldwide incorporated business strategy, manages and recurit employees on a global basis (Brewster, 2007). Since the expatriate is more familiar with the business and the working culture of the parent company, hence he or she can assure the better job performance and follow the organisation’s policy that are used in every subsidiary. Advantages of Expatriate Companies appoint the expatriate as he or she is likely to have tacit knowledge of global operations and help the local employees to identify and meet the company’s objectives. They are the means of applying...
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...Is it good to foster a culture that reinforces failure? (Chapter 8) The fact that failure is something that most businesses have a difficult time accepting, does not mean it is not a blessing in disguise. In this reading selection, the reader can understand more thoroughly the importance of accepting failure in a product’s life cycle and its silver lining for companies. It takes a very skilled leader-manager to recognize the benefits of failure. Whether a failure costs a company almost everything it has, or it is done inexpensively, it is one of the most vital components of a company’s growth. To be innovative in a world where products become obsolete in almost the same moment they are invented, failure needs to be looked at through the perspective of, “How can we benefit from this not working?” Many companies take even more risk by presenting the fact that failure with new products is likely when presenting to potential investors. It is extremely important to do so because many will not take that concept into consideration when analyzing a new product, it may even be overlooked altogether. Some may take the viewpoint that speaking of failure before a new project is initiated would be detrimental to the product, and furthermore, the company’s success. However, failure needs to be recognized as part of the risk-taking, innovation process. It allows a company to understand its customers and their needs on a much greater scale. It also provides what needs to be reinvented...
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...for Learning from Failure – Amy C. Edmondson – Strategy Failure is being looked at the wrong way (Edmondson, 2011). Failure can be an important learning tool for organizations around the globe. If analyzed correctly and quickly, but also implemented effectively, failure can transform negative situations into positive growth. Failure is generally discouraged and instinctively passed onto someone else if possible; this is called the Blame Game (Edmondson, 2011). The Blame Game (discovered at childhood) discourages people from taking the blame for a mistake or failure. It leads to unsolved problems and lessons unlearned. Leaders must combat the Blame Game with the construction of a learning culture. A learning culture “makes people feel both comfortable with and responsible for surfacing and learning from failures” (Edmondson, 2011). To build an effective learning culture a leader must strongly encourage a realization of what happened or caused the problem-not who did it (Edmondson, 2011). A learning culture deals with failure in three ways: detecting, analyzing, and experimentation (Edmondson, 2011). Detecting failure is important because the longer it remains unsurfaced the worse the damages will be. It’s also crucial to effective analyze failure. Companies shy away from this because it makes everyone uncomfortable and harms self-esteem (Edmondson, 2011). Analyzing failure obtains wisdom from the situation, and the lesson is learned. Finally, promoting failure through experimentation...
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...Examining a Business Failure The Chrysler Group LLC was established from a not so successful merger between Daimler and Chrysler in 1998. It was in 2007 that Damiler sold Chrysler to Cerbus Capital Management. After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Chrysler Group LLC, formed in 2009 to establish a global strategic alliance with Fiat S.p.A., produces Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, Mopar, SRT, and Fiat vehicles and products. With the resources, technology, and worldwide distribution network required to compete on a global scale, the alliance builds on Chrysler Group’s culture of innovation, first established by Walter P. Chrysler in 1925, and Fiat’s complementary technology that dates back to its founding in 1899 (Chrysler Group LLC, 2012). This paper will show what organizational behavior theories could have been used to predict the company's failure. Reasons For The Chrysler Failure A partnership is a mutually beneficial and continual relationship between seller and a buyer. Partners prefer to be based on dependence to each other than to behave as adversaries. Both will lose if any of them would abandon the partnership (Gherasim, 2001). Partnerships came in various forms such as mergers, acquisitions, or joint ventures. A company in trouble may utilize any given one as an option to achieve organizational growth or a global presence. Chrysler's reason for failure was that the partnership began solely on financial and economic information. What was not taken into account...
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...of relaxing safety standards to meet financial and time constraints. The agency’s “broken safety culture” would lead to tragedy again unless fundamental changes are made. NASA has made a critical mistake in its culture the space agency’s attitude toward safety hasn’t changed much since the 1986 Challenger disaster, which also killed seven along with the Columbian disaster. NASA lacks “effective checks back to the basics of understanding their operation and does not have an independent safety program and has not demonstrated the characteristics of a learning organization, NASA fell into the habit of accepting as normal some flaws in the shuttle system and tended to ignore or not recognize that these problems could foreshadow...
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...Comm101 Tutorial 1) What were the individual factors that contributed to the failure of Enron? Briefly explain two key factors. Enron collapsed in large part because of the unethical practices of its executives. Egoism (Self interest) was one of the major factors contributed to the failure of Enron. Enron’s executives put their own interests above those of their employees, company and the public, and failed to exercise proper oversight or shoulder responsibility for ethical failings. They allowed themselves to be motivated much more by what would benefit themselves than what would truly benefit the company. Money, greed, arrogance and hubris led company executives to lose focus on working for the good of the company and to act unethically (Gini,2004). Abuse of power to make decisions which were beneficial economically and politically to themselves and the company, was one of the key factors that led to Enron’s failure. Company leaders used insider information and traded millions of dollars in company stock, borrowed from subsidiaries with no intent to repay the loans (Wilke, 2002) , and avoiding federal taxes even though some of its subsidiaries, like Portland General Electric, collected tax payment from customers (Manning & Hll, 2002). Such behaviors of moral failure at the top and irresponsible behaviors led to the collapse of Enron. The unethical behavior of Enron’s leaders appears to be the product of both individual and situational factors. Greed was the primary...
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...Question 1: Evaluate and discuss how the organization’s culture facilitated the failure. The organization that I will examine is a former organization that I worked for many years ago. Because of the culture of the organization, the organization lost many customers and eventually, had to lay off employees. When I first started working for the organization, sales were high, and some of the employees had been there for many years. Over the next 3 years, the management changed and so did the culture of the organization. What was once a fun place to work, rapidly became a very stressful environment. The organization’s new management became known for finding a reason to terminate employees who spoke up about matters that were wrong, or made recommendations for change that management did not agree with. Many of the managers felt recommendations or suggestions from employees meant they were not doing their jobs, therefore, they continued to operate as if everything was fine. When the monthly newsletters came out, often times, there were articles that mentioned decisions were made based on input from employees. As new employees came on board, they quickly learned the culture of the organization and followed suit to avoid being terminated. Due to the fear of being terminated, many employees stayed silent as problems began to develop. Some of these problems included problems with customers, lack of training and experience of new employees, outdated technology, and internal...
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...Reasons of joint venture failure Nowadays, there are so many researches indicated the failure of joint venture. In fact, joint venture leads a huge advantage and benefit. Ironically it is a tough job, and there is only a little amount of successor. The most common failures toward joint venture business are insufficient planning, lack of communication, difficult to integrate different organizational culture and wrong strategy used. There is often a joint venture plans consisting of nothing more than a statement of each party’s intended contributions to the project and their respective share of the profits. Failure in planning indicated an incomplete plan. Objective, mission and vision for a company would not be achieved without a concrete plan. Apparently, in order to be successful, a joint venture business ought to ready a written document, which is consisting of entire plan throughout an organization, and it must be agreed by all parties. Lack of communication would be another common failure to joint venture. Communication plays an important role in order to bond everyone within an organization as an individual. What if an organization does not communicate their objective, goal clearly? It may lead misunderstanding even worse situation. Different culture among individual within organization is a main cause to misunderstanding. Lack of communication with other due to different background of people because they are using different language, will finally convey a vague message...
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...Most executives believe that failure is bad to learn from mistakes - just Ask people to reflect on what they did wrong and exhort them to avoid similar mistakes in the future X Failure is not always bad Learning is not straight forward * require to effectively detect and analyze failures; context-specific; go beyond superficial * > need to throw the old cultural beliefs and stereotypes of success & failure The blame game Old cultural belief: admitting failure = take the blame —> no psychological safety X a false dichotomy √ a culture that makes it safe to admit failure can coexist with high standards for performance. - why? the pic shows the causes of failures It is hard to find real blameworthy actions * e.g. Inattention - caused by lack of effort vs manager’s arrangement In many organizations, 2%-5% of failures detected by managers are truly blameworthy, but 70%-90% are treated as blameworthy. Not all failures are created equal 1.Preventable failures in predictable operations mistakes in processes and routine operations * ususally caused by inattention, lack of ability * Solution: 1.Checklist * 2.Toyota production system - build continual learning from tiny failures 2. Unavoidable failures in complex systems Often caused by uncertainty of work - combination of needs , people and problems never occurred before * e.g. emergency room in Hospital; start-up; complex system- nuclear power Can be averted...
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...International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume 86 – No 6, January 2014 Project Failure Case Studies and Suggestion Nilofur Abbasi Iqra Wajid Zahra Iqbal Fareeha Zafar, M.phill Business Administration, Kinnaird College Lahore, Pakistan M.phill Business Administration, Kinnaird College Lahore, Pakistan M.phill Business Administration, Kinnaird College Lahore, Pakistan Ph.D University of Derby, Currently Working in Govt. College University Lahore Pakistan ABSTRACT In this research paper three different case studies are taken under consideration. Step by step all three cases are described. These cases are about projects which had to face failure. Therefore, the reasons for failure of projects are identified and recommendations are given to ail failing projects. First case study is about British Petroleum which is oil and Gas Company had to face situation which was not just critical but new for any oil company. The incident occurred due to explosion in the deep-water horizon while BP technical staff was trying to drill a well. Moreover, BP was not able to stop oil flow for three months. Second case is about Chrysler and Fiat. Both were automobile companies and had to face failure. Marchionne was the one who saved both companies. The main focus of this case is merger of these two companies and the challenges faced by CEO due to organizational change after merger. Third case study is about Millennium Dome, one of the controversial projects in the history...
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...How Failure Breeds Success Even heard of Choglit? How about OK Soda or Surge? Long after ‘New Coke’ became nearly synonymous with innovation failure, these products joined Coca-Cola Co.’s graveyard of beverage busts. Given that history, failure hardly seems like a subject CEO E, Neville Isdell would want to trot out in front of investors. But Isdell did just that, deliberately airing the topic at Coke’s annual meeting in April. “You will see some failures,” he told the crowd. “As we take more risks, this is something we must accept as part of the regeneration process.” Warning Coke investors that the company might experience some flops is a little like warning Atlantans they might experience afternoon thunderstorms in July. But Isdell thinks it’s vital. He wants Coke to take bigger risks, and to do the, he knows he needs to convince employees and shareholders that he will tolerate the failures that will inevitably result. That’s the only way to change Coke’s traditionally risk averse culture. And given the importance of this goal, there’s no podium too big for sending the signal. While few CEOs are as candid about the potential for failure as Isdell, many are wrestling with the same problem, trying to get their organizations to cozy up to the risk-taking that innovation requires. A warning: it’s not going to be an easy shift. After years of cost-cutting initiatives and growing job insecurity, most employees don’t exactly feel like putting themselves on the line. Add to...
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