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Uganda

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CHARLES MARTIN IN UGANDA
Purpose
How operations differ from country to country due to different laws and regulations internationally.
Discussion
Internationally other countries have different laws. In this article they discuss how using different ways to approach a company internationally works, by comparing Charles Marin and James Green. Martin had a taste of the Ugandan culture because he went to African after he graduated college for the Peace Corps where as James Green did not have a taste of the African culture and had more of a US based culture and was not open to both as much as Martin was.
Question 1: Describe Ugandan cultural attributes that might affect the operations of a foreign company doing business there.
Comment: For the most part business in Uganda would be very different. They have a much different working style then here in the United States. Uganda has a few cultural attributes that might affect operations of a foreign company operating in Uganda. Starting off language gets in the way because Uganda is a country that has various types of religions and languages. As indicated in the article on page two “English is the official language, but many people speak only an indigenous language—mainly Bantu or Nilotic languages.” This may result in miscommunication because the company may not be able to interconnect with the citizens of the area. Also religion results in numerous types of controversies around the world and Uganda has many different religions so it might play a factor in the work force relating to discrimination. Also a main concern would be in Uganda things move very slowly, due to the lack of employment. It takes a lot longer to get anything done so that would slow down a lot of work processes. A final cultural attribute would be the differences in laws. Uganda is a very corrupt country and they allow nepotism, this is favoritism of a family member or friend in the work force. This would be bad because it would not give people with better skills a chance at the job.

Question 2: How would you describe the respective attitudes of Martin and Green: ethnocentric, polycentric, or geocentric? What factors do you suspect of having influenced their respective attitudes?
Comment: Charles Martin has a attitude that leans towards geocentric where as James Green has an attitude that leans towards ethnocentric because ethnocentric deals with the individual thinking that his own culture is greater than any other country where as geocentricism deals with different kinds of forms not only from the home country. Martin was geocentric because he went to college in America, but after that he went to Kenya and served in a peace corp. This shows that he was open to different types of cultures later HG hired him as a project liaison specialist. He was making choices and judgments by adopting the Uganda way of thinking he was open to it and did not do things based on laws from his home country even if things were illegal in the US he grew accustom to using the Ugandan approach at the problem. Green had a different view he was more towards the geocentric side he never got to go to Africa like Martin did. Greens main goal was to follow procedures based on his home countries rules. I would say Green not being around African policies and Martin going to the peace corps dealing with the African polices for sure had an impact on both of their attitudes.

Question 3: Who was right, Green or Martin, about Martin's more controversial actions in facilitating the project? How might things have turned out if Martin had not been a member of the project team?
Comment: It is hard to choose a side but I would say Martin was right for the actions he took in Uganda. Martin was the one who had a bit of both sides before Uganda he went to the Peace Corps in Africa after he graduated college. This gave him an advantage when staring work in Uganda. The techniques helped better the project. If Martin were not able to do the actions he did things would have gotten slowed down. If he was not aware and did not tip the people the phone and supplies would have taken months to get started resulting in nothing getting accomplished on time. Most importantly if he did not use the Nepotism tactics when hiring people it would have been much more deficit because nepotism deals with hiring close family members and friends resulting in high family connections that can help benefit the company.

Question 4: In the next phase of the project—running the power plant—should HG employ someone whose main function is that of liaison between its corporate culture and the culture, of its host country? If so, is Martin the right person for the job?
Comment: Indeed HG should employ someone whose main function is that of liaison between its corporate cultures and culture because and Martin would be perfect for the job. It is exactly how Martin handled it in the article and it worked well. Considering that culture deals with norms in the society the way Martin handled the company by using attributes form the African society helped the company. Him tipping and using the nepotism helped speed up the process and would help in running the power plant too.

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