...Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies When East and West Meet, Page 1 When East and West Meet: An Essay on the Importance of Cultural Understanding in Global Business Practice and Education S. J. Chang Illinois State University ABSTRACT As today’s business decisions and choices are increasingly influenced by the diverse cultural backgrounds and perspectives of various corporate stakeholders, it is critical for business managers to have multicultural understanding. This motivates us to refine our business perspectives and approaches in global arena as well as our educational philosophies on global business management. Based on casual yet experiential discussions, this essay presents some cohesive points on comparative cultural understanding and business implications thereof between the “West” and the “East,” which is presupposed by the cultural contrasts between America and Korea. It can hopefully serve as a practically meaningful guideline for business practice and education on multiculturalism. Keywords: multiculturalism, global business management, comparative cultural understanding Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies When East and West Meet, Page 2 INTRODUCTION Thanks to the rapid and continuous expansion of large global businesses, today people, capital, information, and technology travel more freely, rapidly, and widely than ever. The everexpanding scope and scale of large global firms over the recent decades have...
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...and interpret the passage below, backing up your reading of these lines with apt cultural examples, relating, too, to other literary texts: OH, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat; But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth! There is quite possibly no greater reason for artists' trepidation and anxiety than being misunderstood and misinterpreted. Yet, it is still a common occurrence, even in modern times. First published in 1889, Rudyard Kipling's famous and extremely complex poem “The Ballad of East and West”, and more specifically its four opening lines, is one of the works that have been freely quoted and, probably to Kipling's great disappointment, very often misquoted, therefore misinterpreted in the opposite sense of Kipling's intentions, creating a spurious and misguided reputation of its author. The four lines opening Rudyard Kipling's poem, “The Ballad of East and West,” are a reflection on the topic of equality and possibility of mutual understanding and respect of polar opposites. Let us break down the quatrain into two parts. The first two lines imply that the author believes in absolute contrariety of East and West. They suggest that there is no possible way of reconciliation of the two, that seemingly they are like day and night, black and white or oil and...
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...primarily West Coast customers. The company has experienced steady growth since starting up in 1970 and now has annual sales of $50 million. PFM has patents covering over 200 types of machines, but typically only sells 30 different types annually. These machines are purchased to increase capacity or replace old equipment. PFM’s promotion and selling activities in the West Coast market are handled by six sales representatives; costing about $880,000 per year including salary, bonuses, supervision, travel, and entertaining. When the sales reps are close to making a sale, they are supported by two sales engineers—at a cost of about $130,000 per year per engineer. Any sales contact outside the West Coast market is handled by manufacturers’ agents who are paid 4 percent on sales, however these sales are very infrequent. PFM spends up to $100 000 in advertising; much of it appearing in trade journals. Occasionally PFM will use direct mailings and trade-show exhibits to feature its products. They also have a simple website. PFM’s promotion of its products is primarily through personal selling. There are 12 US-based firms in the US plastic-forming manufacturing market. This market is segmented into three geographic regions – West Coast, East Coast and the Midwest. In the West Coast market, PFM competes against one other competitor, which is based in Tacoma, Washington. There are four competitors active in the Midwest market and six competitors active in the East Coast market...
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...1. The documentary Brave New World discusses East German justification for the building of the Berlin Wall. Compare and contrast the description in the documentary to the primary document “1962 Brochure Defending the Berlin Wall.” The brief understanding people could learn from the documentary is that the life in East Berlin was pretty hard. As in the early years, the east section of Berlin was under Stalin’s control. It turns out that currently East Berlin was governed under communist. The primary document “1962 Brochure Defending the Berlin Wall” is more like a self-defense from the German Democratic Republic. By answering ten questions, it gives us a view about how German Democratic Republic was seeing their action, which was built up the Berlin Wall. After the Berlin Airlift, two different parties were formed. They were the German Federal Republic, represented the western allies, which was better known as the West Germany; and the German Democratic Republic, which was the response given by Soviet Union, better known as the East Germany. While the West Berlin always has better living condition and much more freedom, people from East Berlin were trying to escape all the time. These people, who escaped from East Berlin, were highly qualified workers which worth nothing to West Berlin but were very important to East Berlin. As this population flow happened all the time, German Democratic Republic decided to take an action. At the summer of 1961, German Democratic Republic...
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...2010 Chen and Miller 17 E X C H A N G E West Meets East: Toward an Ambicultural Approach to Management By Ming-Jer Chen and Danny Miller Executive Overview In the aftermath of the recent economic crisis, the world is looking for fresh ideas and new perspectives. Business reality has transformed from “West leads East” to “West meets East.” A thriving Chinese business culture represents not only a source of economic partnership but a potential fount of managerial wisdom that can help renew Western economies. Unfortunately, the cultural distance between East and West makes Chinese examples too different, and at times inappropriate, for Western firms to emulate. Outstanding entrepreneurs such as Stan Shih, who have taken the best managerial practices from the East and the West while avoiding the shortcomings, represent ideal “intermediate” role models. By employing such an “ambicultural” approach to management, Shih provides a model for both bridging cultures and instructing organizations in the East and West. In this essay, we discuss these linkages and some of the useful lessons for managers from both cultures. Indeed, “Chinese” as a way of thinking, with its emphasis on balance and self-other integration, offers the promise to bridge global divides and facilitate the formation of global-minded executives. T he global economic crisis has destroyed vast amounts of wealth— both public and private— and eliminated tens of millions of jobs...
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...Historically, Asian and Islamic nations have been regarded as East, while Australia, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, Latin America and the United States are regarded as West. Rudyard Kipling says in the Ballad of East and West: “East is East, and West is West; and never the twain shall meet.” Yet, he never expected that with the technological development in transportation and communication, the Westerners and Easterners that have quite different cultures respectively would meet so frequently nowadays in international settings. However, in a sense, Kipling is absolutely correct in that people with different cultural patterns (including beliefs, values, attitudes, norms, customs, and material aspects), especially those from East and West, do encounter communication difficulties, breakdowns, misunderstandings and even conflicts and confrontations just because they fail to understand each other in their intercultural communication. Therefore, understanding these cultural patterns or orientations which underlie most common behavior of the Easterners and Westerners helps us to see beneath the surface to find out why people from East and West act as they do. This discovery may lead us to appreciate the rich diversity and genius that exist in different parts of the globe, avoid potential intercultural problem and become successful communicators in the interaction between East and West. Cultural awareness becomes central when we have to interact with people from other cultures, so...
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...Abstract This assignment is submitted as partial requirement of Global Trade. This report depicts the sequences of Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall, erected November 13, 1961, served to separate communist East Germany from Western influences. Intended to "protect" East Germans, the wall actually was erected to prevent them from leaving the country. The Wall finally came down August 13, 1989, reuniting families and symbolizing the end of the cold war was near. The initial plans for Allied occupation of Germany were prepared in 1944 in London by the European Advisory Commission. In this agreement, Germany would be divided into four occupational zones governed by Great Britain, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union. The city of Berlin, which would be in the Soviet occupational zone, would be divided among the four powers as well. By the time of the blockade, there was a major contrast between the East and West Berlin. West Berlin was a thriving democratic, capitalist city, while East Berlin was in drab poverty. Trying to escape the forced collectivization of goods and agriculture, numerous shortages, and a police state, many fled to West Berlin. To maintain the stability of the communist regime, the East German leaders felt that these floods of people had to be stopped. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………..….3 1.1 Summary...
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...to determine how to allocate funds and specific headcount and quota allocations. He tried to give the director of each region the flexibility to use the quota allocations as they saw fit. When assigning quotas and headcounts he specifically considered past performance. He tried to be as fair as possible, but of course with any change, they are going to be road bumps and people are always going to feel they are not getting fair treatment. a. Which region would likely yield the most profitable investment of headcount in H1 2006: East, West, Federal, or Latin America? I honestly felt like the East would be the most profitable. Garton felt he was being picked on and it caused him to go above and beyond to meet the goal. He could have chosen to given up, but once a salesperson reaches that level of achievement within a company, they are more likely to rise to a challenge just to prove they can do it. b. Should the East and West regions be equally profitable (i.e. achieve the same revenues per unit)? On paper, they should be equally profitable but in reality that would be nearly impossible. You are looking at different management styles between Garton and Hall. The west and east do have slightly different markets as well. What is important to a consumer in California may not meet the needs of someone in Virginia. Though the numbers are similar, the regions have completely different mind-sets. c. Force-rank Jacoby, Garton, Hall, Cheng, Chapas, and Dreyer in order of...
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...of Subcontinent Researches University of Sistan and Baluchestan Vol. 3, No.7, summer 2011 (p.p 31-52) East meets West: a Study of Dual Identity in Mohsin Hamid’s the Reluctant Fundamentalist Abstract This essay will present a postcolonial study of how Eastern identity and Western identity clash in The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, the Pakistani- American novelist, and make the character of the protagonist a glocal one, (A mixture of global and local), a term newly coined by Postcolonial scholars to show the ever clashing mixture of global and local dualities in immigrants’ personalities. The basis for this research paper is the postcolonial theories of Edward Said, Fanon and Homi K. Bhabha. The aim is to question simply and sardonically the human cost of empire building, moreover it is discussed how the people in a totally alien culture are faced with different cultural predicaments, dilemmas as well as contradictions threatening their identity. Identity is supposed to be stable, while as this novel indicates, it is more of glocal identity which is at risk due to the cultural conflicts, as a result of which identity and ethnicity are subjected to change for the benefit of the hegemony. In line with Edward Said’s: “the East writes back” it is shown how this novel is a reaction to the discourse of colonization from the Pakistani side (which stands for the East) and welcomes de-colonization. Moreover it reflects the laments of the author for the terrorist label ascribed...
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...Asian attributes defines the identity of Asian women and thus, creates an image of the sacrificial and submissive Oriental women. Moreover, the historical backgrounds of Hwang’s Butterfly and Puccini’s Butterfly are, in fact, the extension of gender tension to international power struggle. Cho-cho-san’s love story happens in the Meiji Period in which Japan first opened its door to foreigners; while Gallimard and Song Liling begins having an affair in the 1960s, in the midst of Cold War. Hwang’s M. Butterfly parodies Puccini’s Madama Butterfly by reversing the conventional narrative on the gender identities and the power relationship between the West and East. In other words, M. Butterfly dissolves the constructed identities of male and female as well as projects the shifting gender identities onto the fluidity and mobility of the East/West power relations....
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...eastern culture begins to change the dime store novel version of the Old West. The marshal, Jack, is concerned that the town’s folks will be angry that he did not include them in his wedding celebration, typical of small Old West towns where everybody knew each other and their business. The symbolism associated with the private wedding, the bride’s new fancy clothes, Jack’s “new black clothes,” and the “watch” show how Jack is growing up and away from the Old West’s ways. Scratchy, the drunk, displays both the Old West’s wild attitudes and eastern clothing trends, showing how the two cultures are intersecting. In “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky,” setting exhibits a major role in symbolizing the changes taking place as the East flows into the Old West. The historical significance of the train to the settling of the West brings to life the images of the East meeting West in Crane’s tale. Trains helped civilize the West by bringing commerce and creating towns along their routes. Transportation that was more comfortable and safe brought increasing numbers of women to the towns, which began to tame the West. Trains also brought eastern culture and people across the plains to the Wild West. The refinement of the train foreshadows the domestication of the West, “the environment of the new estate”(341). In part one, Crane describes the progress of the train across the plains bringing civilization to the Wild West and creating the allusion of the new culture moving westward. Crane describes...
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...football team. Oil has made college education available for everyone. When oil was first discovered it caused more and more people to invest in trying to find oil. After a short time there were 17 major oil wells in Big Lake Field. This lead to the University of Texas to become very wealthy. As the school became more wealthy, it made education available for people that weren't very wealthy. In 1931 the oil money was split between the University of Texas and Texas A&M University. Two thirds of the money went to the University of Texas and the other third to Texas A&M. in 2008 the oil fields produced $4.4 billion for the two universities....
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... | |SECTION: ASIAN AGENCIES, Pg. 31 | | | |LENGTH: 1218 words | | | |The difference in the business cultures of Asia and the West can take time to get used to for new staff. Vicki Rothrock | |considers the East-West divide | |A big presentation is looming. The manager gathers his team together for an old-fashioned brainstorming session in the | |boardroom. Once everyone gets settled, though, he...
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...and acquiescent, in order to feel wholly male. Although he seeks to confine Sole within the context of his fantasy, Gallimard poster vulnerability and need actually free Sole by providing her with an outlet to flee the Orientalist representation of Asian people. Gallimard transforms Sole into a butterfly, boots instead of transforming him into one of the butterfly. Whereas Gallimard, is actually the one who eventually ends up trapped by his own fantasy. Through an analysis of Gallimard practice cultural, sexual, and personal relationship with Sole Liling, this person is a reflection of the Western rape mentality toward the East, a philosophy that is ultimately self-destructive. Orientalism was the term that referred to the study about the East culture, but, according to the colonial theory of Edward Said, also could express the West strength and the East weakness - like that was seen by...
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...Essay POL372 “Islam and the West” Question 4: Is the apparent conflict between Islam and the West based in religion or in politics? The conflict between the West and the East is a result of a myriad of factors between both civilizations. The tensions that have existed between the Muslim and Christian world have threatened the general stability of world peace and progress. The ideological, religious, and political reasons, all cover the fact that there is a general lack of understanding between both sets of people. Islamists have gained a bad reputation in the west because they are seen as the sworn enemies of Christians, and the same applies to how Muslims view people from the west. On the whole, the war between the West and East has something to do with the world's political order, and this will form the basis of discussion in this paper. The war that exists between West and East is a result of politics and not the religious differences. Political ambitions have always been at the forefront of the existing conflict because different countries have always had diverse ambitions of controlling the rest of the world. A key moment in the history of the East was the deal that was made by the British at the end of the Second World War concerning the people of Palestine. The establishment of Israel in 1948 further escalated tensions and conflicts with the west, and the problems that exist today, almost have nothing to do with religion (Tausch...
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