Culture Briefing of a country

The purpose of this paper is to brief colleagues who will be leading a new venture for your firm in this country.

The focus should be on analysis rather than description.  While your readers need to know about geography, language & politics, more important are the less tangible issues as addressed in the Adler text.  The Adler text has many constructs that you would use for this paper (e.g., Hofstede’s concepts of individualism/collectivism, power distance & uncertainty avoidance).

Select a country and offer a Culture Briefing of a country to include at a minimum:

• Identify your organization and the new venture product or service
• Location
• History
• Size
• Political System
• Economic System
• Language
• Traditions, Values and ethics
• Life Styles
• Characteristics of the Culture
• Business Practices
• Tips for leading in this country
• Conclusion (What is most important to remember about leading in this country).

 

Success TIP:  Don’t do a PPT presentation or simply provide a list of bullet points.  In part, your paper will be evaluated (as always) on your ability to write well, organize your points, and write a clear, coherent paper.

 

Your focus should be on the “practical” and “realistic”– what they need to know to be successful AND suggestions for how one might implement these strategies for success.   For example, if a recommendation would require additional resources, how should the organization acquire those resources?  Are your recommendations workable given the culture of that field of activity and the internal culture of the organization?  Papers thatsimply describe the culture and make lofty recommendations without practical strategies for implementation will not earn a grade of “A”.

 

The paper should be 6 pages in length.  Strive to be creative.   Give your business a name and identify the service/product your new business will offer.

Use appropriate and credible source material and integrate applicable concepts from the textbooks and course material. The bulk of your research should be done using the UMUC databases.  Remember, you are not expected to be an expert in the county/culture you select, but rather I am looking for demonstration of your new expertise in application of management, leadership, and organizational design in a global society.

NOTE:  The purpose of this paper is to apply the concepts you are learning in the course and demonstrate both your understanding and application.

It is recommended that you utilize important concepts from the course to organize your presentation and provide context for the exposition of your source material.

Post in the assignment area.

Conference Paper 1 (2 pages, 4 References)

You are leading a U.S. based firm with operations in several other countries as well. How will you ensure the firm’s local managers comply with the firm’s ethical standards? How will you deal with the differences in business practices?  What if something that is legal and an assumed part of doing business in another country (e.g., bribes, a/k/a “facilitation payments”) is illegal in the U.S.

 

Conference Paper 2 (2 pages, 4 References)

Many managers must work with people from other cultures; what can an organization do to train managers to communicate more effectively across cultures?