Archives for April 2019

For Blog #4, I have decided to focus on the culture of communism and its effects on financial development in countries that have transitioned out of communism.  Culture has a significant impact on financial development, and I was able to review a study that suggests that different cultures of Central and Eastern European influence the financial and economic development of their respective countries.

As it has been stated throughout our lessons, “Culture encompasses people’s attitudes, beliefs, values, and norms that are determined by ethnic, social, and religious groups and passed down from one generation to the next,” (Klein & Klein, 2017).  Culture changes slowly over time and Central and Eastern Europe have been greatly influenced by 45 years of communism (Klein & Klein, 2017).  Under communist institutions planning took place at both the micro and macro levels.  Communism was about controlling people’s lives and changing their beliefs and feelings about it was done through communist propaganda and adapting to the harsh life of communism.  Those who did not follow the system were punished.  The people decided it was best to void criticizing or challenging the institution.  The system relied on informants that created distrust in the population.  In turn, this influenced the attitudes and expectations of the people.  The population became more passive as many people lost interest in politics and a loss of ambition.  They also began to expect the government to provide jobs and basic accommodations creating a reduced sense of responsibility for actions.  This was known as paternalism (Klein & Klein, 2017).  There was no incentive to innovate and there was little promotion of intellectual autonomy.  The study confirms what we learned in our lesson, that while culture is not homogeneous throughout all of Europe after the fall of communism.  Those countries that are now under the category of Western Europe have moved forward towards democracy and parts of their culture have changed, this has not been the case of Central and Eastern European countries.  The people of Eastern Europe have similar values when it comes to religion, politics, and relationships with the West.  They also place less value on appreciation for “initiative, hard work, and responsibility for work outcomes, which is a consequence of the communist system, (Klein & Klein, 2017).  Interestingly, the study points out that while Central and Eastern Europe have a lot in common, there are still significant differences between them that influenced their economic success transitioning out of communism.  Another study from 1992 states that those countries that showed a strong resistance to communism had more economic success during the transition (Klein & Klein, 2017).

The study collected data on the financial development of Central and Eastern Europe by country and region, and data on cultural values.  The countries were grouped according to their exposure to communism.  What they study concluded was that while there is an association between culture and financial development, there are no results to prove causation.  There is the possibility that other factors influence culture and finance.  For example, religion can play a role in culture, as well as economic, financial, or institutional development that was in place before communism (Klein & Klein, 2017).  It is possible that those old institutions could affect the culture which would in turn affect the financial outcome.  The study does show, there is a strong connection between institutions and culture.  Because communism shaped the cultural values of Central and Eastern Europe, it also influenced their financial development.  A culture that values trust, tolerance, and control (markets and banks) is associated with superior financial development.  This “better” culture is also synonymous with decrease in a country’s transaction costs (Klein & Klein, 2017).

While communism is not an ideal form of government, there are still many things we can learn from the negative effects communism that can inform our thoughts about government and culture in the future.  For example, as we learned from the study, tolerance, trust, and control of certain markets are important to financial success.  We need to look at our values and culture to understand how they influence our government.  Will we be able to continue economic success with our values and culture today?  Will we let our personal values influence our decision to take rights away from another?  How does our culture affect our government?

Klein, A. F., & Klein, R. F. (2017). Communism, Culture, and Financial Development. International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 7(4), 575-578. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/krist/Downloads/Communism,_Culture,_and_Financ.pdf.

There are benefits to treating others as unique individuals. One of which is the development of individualism within the party themselves. When a person is treated as an individual and takes on the individualist mindset, they are more likely to fight to remain true to one’s self and one’s unique set of needs and desires (Fiske, Kityama, Markus, & Nisbett, 1998). They will hold true to their convictions and remain consistent in their views. This is in opposition to collectivism, where self-esteem is not derived from idiosyncratic behavior or from calling attention to one’s own unique abilities (Goncalo & Staw, 2006). In this regard, individualism helps to foster creativity.

Why is creativity so important? Creativity is the driving force behind innovation. When you can think outside of the realms of traditional practices and tap into that creativity, you have the ability to develop solutions to problems you never even knew existed. That is why encouraging individualism can be an extremely powerful tool.

I got the sense that Russia has been trying to mold their own distinct identity politically since the end of the dissolving of the USSR into modern Russia in 1991. With the devolving of the governing body came the search for new means of technological, agricultural, and industrial advancement. Communism had prevailed in the country for decades following World War I, meaning that all of the advancements being made were through a communist lens; every person equal and interchangeable. When that system failed, they appeared to be seeking to mold their own identity.

With that said, in order to become an effective leader in Russian settings, you must aim to treat them as a completely unique subcontinent from Asia; being treated as a completely separate entity from both Eastern Europe and Asia. If we expect to see any type of significant advancement from Russia as a nation, they need to be treated as individuals forging their own path, rather than appearing to be piggybacking the accomplishments of the surrounding nations in a collectivist manner.

Sources

Fiske, A.P., Kitayama, S., Markus, H.R., Nisbett, R.E. The cultural matrix of social psychology D.T. Gilbert, S.T. Fiske, G. Lindzey (Eds.), The Handbook of social psychology (4th ed.), McGraw-Hill, NewYork, NY (1998), pp. 915-981

Frost, P.J., Egri, C.P. The political process of innovation B.M. Staw, L.L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior, Vol. 13, JAI Press, Greenwich, CN (1991)

Goncalo, J.A., Staw, B.M. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Individualism-collectivism and group creativity, Vol. 100, Ithica, NY (2006)

The United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain are two countries who have remained allies for the better part of two hundred years. The similarities between these free societies are often readily apparent. Many times, when an attack is perpetuated on their societies, it is considered an attack on all of western culture. However, just because their cultures seem so similar doesn’t mean we choose our leaders the same way. The values the United States and the United Kingdom hold are often most apparent when picking a new leader. The United States and the United Kingdom pick leaders in a different way and for different reasons.

The United States has three basics requirements all Presidential candidates must meet. All U.S. Presidential candidates must be natural-born U.S. citizens, be at least 35, and have lived in the United States for the last 14 years (Government, 2018.) Anyone who meets these requirements may run for President in the United States, but unfortunately it is nearly impossible to become President all on your own.  The United State has always been a country rife with political parties, but it has only been the last hundred years or so, that two major parties have run the show. Currently the United States is run by the right leaning republicans and the left leaning democrats. It has been over 100 years since a someone not affiliated with those two parties was elected President. President Millard Fillmore was a member of the Whig Party and served as President from 1850-1854 (White House, 2019.) Once someone has decided to run for President, they decide which party to align themselves with, if they haven’t already done so. While the United States sees challengers from a litany of different political parties only democrats and republicans are considered to have a true shot at the Presidency.

After aligning with a political party, the candidate must win that parties’ nomination. The nomination is given to the candidate who secure the highest number of delegates. Delegates are secured by winning the votes of specific caucuses and states. Many of these elections are closed to members outside their political party, so republicans don’t have a say in the democratic nominee and vice versa. Finally, once a candidate has won the nomination of his party they will run in the general election. The general election sees all different parties running against one another, but once again it is only ever really a race between the democrat and the republican contenders. Unfortunately, the general election is not as simple as the person who gets the most votes wins. Twice in the last twenty years America has seen the winner of popular vote lose the election. A candidate wins the Presidency by getting 270 of the possible 538 electoral votes. Electoral votes are assigned to states based on population and other factors. A state like California carries 55 electoral votes, where a state like North Dakota carries only carries only 3. Therefore, a candidate can have the most votes overall, but not winning the most valuable states will result in a loss. Once a candidate reaches 270 electoral votes the other candidate concedes, and the winning candidate becomes President-Elect. The President-Elect is sworn in and becomes President the following January.

Becoming Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is slightly different and represents some of the differences in values between our two countries. The requirements all candidates in the U.K. must meet are much different. Strictly speaking there aren’t any fully defined requirements, but it is generally accepted that you must be a member of Parliament to become Prime Minister. Members of Parliament must be 18 and citizens of the UK. They do not have to be born in the UK therefore, the UK Prime Minister could be born outside the UK, which has happened before. The leader of the party with the most members in Parliament is asked to be the Prime Minister (Fun Kids Live, 2019.) This would be akin to the process by which America picks the Speaker of the House. Elections are much shorter in the UK, but they usually happen more often. The rules say Parliament must be voted on once every 5 years, but it often happens more often because of votes on specific referendums and votes of no confidence. A vote of no confidence means 2 weeks into a Parliamentary term the members of Parliament can decide they no longer have faith in the current government. This then triggers the general election (BBC, 2019.) The general elections in the UK are more based on party. When you vote in the UK you are voting for a specific party and the leader of that party rather than the individual on their own merits. This is similar in function to the United States, but the United States candidates often run on a platform of being an individual rather than just a tool of their party. In the UK you are voting strictly for a party not a person. Many would argue you do the same in America, the UK is just more honest about it. Like America the UK has two major parties the left leaning Labour and the right leaning Conservative. These parties have controlled Parliament since David Lloyd George left office in 1922 as a member of the Liberal Party.

While America and the UK are similar in many facets, the processes by which they chose their leaders in different. Both are considered free societies, but both have a different way of deciding those freedoms. America has an election process that never seems to end and is dominated by two parties. The UK also has two prominent parties and the ability to frequently change leaders can lead to little getting accomplished. The UK doesn’t derive as much importance on where the Prime Minister is born, while the U.S. President is required to be born there. Both countries have their own intricacies, and both could learn from one another’s election process.

1. U.S. government. (2018, November 9). Presidential Election Process. Retrieved from https://www.usa.gov/election
2. White House. (2019). Millard Fillmore. Retrieved from https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/millard-fillmore/
3. Fun Kids Live. (2019). How to become US President vs. UK Prime Minister? Retrieved April 14, 2019, from http://www.funkidslive.com/learn/us-uk-slamdown/become-us-president-vs-uk-prime-minister/
4. (2019, January 16). What is a vote of no confidence? What time is it? Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46890481

Reading the topics of the past couple of weeks, interesting to me was the changes of self-awareness of people within the European continent. Many of the past events lead to the evolution of how people throughout Europe built a future. After 2 World Wars, most of Europe banded together creating the European Union or EU as it is called today.  Being a banded unit brought many advantages to the people and the countries surrounding them.

“The cultural effects of the European Union have been significant. For one, “(t)he EU seeks to preserve Europe’s shared cultural heritage—in language, literature, theatre, cinema, dance, broadcasting, art, architecture, and handicrafts, to name but a few—and help make it accessible to others” (“European Union,” 2013). So the cultures of the EU are afforded legal protections that many other cultures around the world do not have. That said, the EU does enforce several standard criteria for joining in the first place, such as human rights laws, democracy, protective laws for those from minority groups, and a market economy (known as the Copenhagen criteria) (“European Union,” n.d.).

As we see, have a multicultural environment brings out fewer differences but the common ground the European Union used to build what is today a combined power within the world. One amazing thing that fascinates me is transportation within the EU now.  Researching the UK personal for the upcoming move for the military, I have noticed that between all EU countries the ease of travel creates a dynamic flow that helps not only people move throughout the countries but the businesses and the trade between them. This did not just a line the countries but brought out the best in the individuals, making them more self-aware.

“So each joining country’s cultures do have to adapt somewhat to join in the first place, which helps create the shared cultural heritage mentioned above. But other side effects are that travel between countries is now easier without the barrier of different currency, which allows for the exchange of ideas to occur more easily. “Without the shift to self-awareness, knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses as a leader may never have become an option, as it would be assumed that divine rights, such as those bestowed upon royal families, were the only way to become a leader.” (Northouse, 2015). Being able to distinguish the traits of workers and leadership, current leadership might not be as in tuned to the surroundings as in today’s workforce. “Instead, we now often focus on fixing shortcomings and developing leaders through acquisitions of skills and specific behaviors”(Northouse, 2015).

Working as a unit to a common goal brings many of European business to expand. This expansion brings more work to the people across the EU and creates trade with counties outside the EU with control and an equal understanding. Self-awareness and multicultural working together not to separate but bring countries on an even playing field.

Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

European Union. ( n.d. ). European Union. Retrieved from http://europa.eu/index_en.htm

European Union. (2013, May 8). Culture. Retrieved from http://europa.eu/pol/cult/

There are several topics the past few weeks that have been interesting to me while learning about global leadership. One topic from Lesson 12 that intrigued me while reading about it is the European Union. To me, the European Union is an important thing to study because of the importance it places on certain topics in a global leadership sense. Some of these topics include human rights laws, protections for minority groups, and democracy (PSU WC, 2019, L.12).

In Lesson 12, we talked about the cultural effects of the European Union (PSU WC, 2019, L.12). To be a global leader, you have to understand that not only do differences exist, but that these differences are what make commerce between countries possible. Without global leadership and understanding what it is, companies have a lot to lose, more than just profits. The European Union rids itself of border controls between the 28 member countries (The European Union, How It Works, and Its History). This enables the member countries to obtain a free flow of goods between one another more competitively (The European Union, How It Works, and Its History). Under the European Union, a new leader is picked every 6 months (The European Union, How It Works, and Its History). I think this is a good thing in that new ideas can flow. Here in the United States, even though we are not a member, the European Union can be a good model to follow in some aspects in regards to how it operates such as limiting the time a leader has in office. Here where I work, some school board members have been in place for 15-20 years and a lot of problems and corruption has happened and new ideas are never brought up and put into place. Under the European Union, the currency they use is the Euro (The European Union, How It Works, and Its History). The trade structure has pull vaulted to the top just behind China for the largest economy (The European Union, How It Works, and Its History).

Under the European Union, human rights are an important topic that is strictly enforced. This gives all people basic human rights. This is important because everyone should be treated fairly. Under the European Union, women, children, and minorities rights are endorsed (Human Rights and Democracy). We live in a day and age where some try to segregate certain groups because they are different. We see this in the Me Too movement and the Black Lives Matters movement. By backing all groups and mandating that all countries who are involved with the European Union, they are setting themselves up for total success in a business sense. They also oppose the death penalty and discrimination (Human Rights And Democracy). These are issues that have a stronghold here in the United States and have divided its people. When you look at other countries, they don’t have the issues we have and I feel it is because of the fact that they stand against it.

Even though the United States isn’t part of the European Union, there is a lot to be learned from how they operate and the things they stand for. They are a good model for other countries to follow. If only the United States could set the bar where others within the European Union have, what a difference we could see. Part of the total success of the European Union I feel can be seen in the strict laws they have in place when dealing with human rights. It is great that they place such a great emphasis on this very issue.

References:

Amadeo, K. (2019). “The European Union, How It Works, and Its History”. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-european-union-how-it-works-and-history-3306356.

European Union. (2019). “Human Rights And Democracy”. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://europa.eu/european-union/topics/human-rights_en.

Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2019). OLEAD 410: Lesson 12: Modern Western Europe: The European Union. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1964331/modules/items/25821737.

political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership and communal control of at least the major means of production (e.g., mines, mills, and factories) and the natural resources of a society. Communism is thus a form of socialism—a higher and more advanced form, according to its advocates (Ball and Dagger, 2019).”

To best explain the truth behind what “communism” actually is within the confines of Russia, historical context must be provided through both the history of communism itself as well as the rise of the Soviet Union. Through that context can the term be deconstructed, as Russia had done, to see just how twisted the ideology had become.

The concept of communism itself takes place from the works of Karl Marx, a noted political philosopher from the 19th Century. Living in exile in London with his family as a result of his rhetoric, he had published several works decrying the existing political systems and how they seemingly oppressed the lower class denizens in favor of maintaining the status of the wealthy. He felt that a new system was needed. In the third volume of his work, Das Kapital, he spoke of this new system by saying, “In fact, the realm of freedom does not commence until the point is passed where labor under the compulsion of necessity and of external utility is required. In the very nature of things it lies beyond the sphere of material production in the strict meaning of the term. Just as the savage must wrestle with nature, in order to satisfy his wants, in order to maintain his life and reproduce it, so civilized man has to do it, and he must do it in all forms of society and under all possible modes of production. With his development the realm of natural necessity expands, because his wants increase; but at the same time the forces of production increase, by which these wants are satisfied (Fromm, 1961).” Under the socialist system, the proletariats (or lower and middle classes) was to overthrow the bourgeoisie (or upper class) and established a system in which the class system would be abolished, resources and power would be evenly distributed, and the capitalistic system would fall in favor of a society where everyone would be treated equally without difference. Communism would be a transitional state in which “Socialism (in its Marxist and other forms) returned to the idea of the “good society” as the condition for the realization of man’s spiritual needs (Fromm, 1961).”

For years on end, Marx’s words were heard but never implemented until the 1910s, when the Great War (or World War I as it is now known) took hold. As the globe was swept up in conflict, the Russian Empire under Tsar Nicholas II, the latest in the Romanoff dynasty, tried to seize the opportunity to make the country even more powerful and joined Britain, France, Italy, and (eventually) the United States in facing against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. The country was initially united in its desires to defeat its enemies in the name of Mother Russia, but “National unity, however, could only be built on victory and, in that regard, Russia’s hopes were dashed early in the Great War. At Tannenberg and the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes, in 1914, Russia lost two entire armies (over 250,000 men) (Smele, 2011).” As a result of complications from Russia’s loss in the Russo-Japan War of 1905, as well as the country’s far outdated economic system and technological levels, it was losing the war. With no end in sight and with losses continuing to rise, the Russian population revolted, leading to a violent overthrow of the Tsar in 1917. Lead by Vladimir Lenin, a new Communist government was formed as a means to reform Russia into a fair and equal system for all of its denizens. However, any hopes for a new era became dashed after Lenin passed in 1924, and a power struggle amongst the party saw Joseph Stalin emerge the victor. Ruthless and unforgiving, his contemporaries noted, “Stalin is a Genghis Khan, an unscrupulous intriguer, who sacrifices everything else to the preservation of power. He changes his theories according to whom he needs to get rid of next (Essay, 2018).” Under his reign, Stalin established a dictatorship that saw him enact economic reforms in the midst of deadly famines and mass purges of those who opposed his rule. The regime he established lasted beyond his death in 1953 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Now that all that’s been established, it’s become clear that Russia could never truly claim itself as a communist government, nor could it have been. The earliest essays laid out the definitions of this new government, and they specified that “Communism is the doctrine of the conditions of the liberation of the proletariat (Engles, 1847).” Everything that happens between the rise of the proletariat and the establishment of this new system will, “Above all…have to take the control of industry and of all branches of production out of the hands of mutually competing individuals, and instead institute a system in which all these branches of production are operated by society as a whole – that is, for the common account, according to a common plan, and with the participation of all members of society. It will, in other words, abolish competition and replace it with association (Engles, 1847).” That was the endgame of a communist society, which would only be started when the revolution overthrew the existing government. In Russia’s case, they followed the revolution step, but forgot to continue forward in building this associative society. Upon Stalin’s rise, he instead twisted the intended doctrine of communism for his own ends; his most notable crimes came about in 1929, with “Forced collectivization of rural areas, decided at the November 1929 Central Committee of the Communist Party Plenum, [which] led to the liquidation of the kulaks as a social group, a process also known as “Dekulakization.” The collectivization campaign supported a double objective: firstly, to extract (term used in confidential instructions) all elements prone to actively oppose forced collectivization and secondly, to colonize vast inhospitable regions of Siberia, the Great North, the Ural and Kazakhstan. The first objective followed the Bolshevik belief, which had been clearly stated ever since they had taken power, that the peasantry, abounding with class antagonisms, concealed capitalist elements (kulaks) and was thus irrecoverably hostile to the regime. The second objective was in accordance with the 1st Five Year Plan (launched in 1929) emphasizing development of unpopulated but resource rich regions with penal or deported labor. Dekulakization mainly consisted in expropriation followed by deportation of millions of farmers (Werth, 2008).”

Knowing these crimes is to know that “Communist Nations” are communist in name only. Instead, they are actually dictatorships designed to repress the population to ensure a long and prosperous reign for its leaders, going out of its way to eliminate any threat to their power. In Russia’s case, while the intentions to establish a communist government (which is the subject of debate as to whether or not that such a feat is even possible), a single individual took those intentions and threw them out the window. Thus, neither the Soviet Union nor China, Cuba, Vietnam, or North Korea could ever make such claims as to being a true “Communist” nation. Individuals like Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Kim Jong Un operated under a false front, hiding their desire to rule behind intentions to make a more equal society, then going out of their way to suppress those who resist their rule. Whatever each of these governments might have been if said individuals didn’t come into the picture is impossible to say. Regardless, it certainly isn’t communism in any sense of the term.

References:

1. Ball, T. and Dagger, R. (2019). Communism. Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/communism
2. Fromm, E. (1961). Marx’s Concept of Socialism. Accessed April 10, 2019.  Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/archive/fromm/works/1961/man/ch06.htm
3. Smele, J. (March 10, 2011). War and Revolution in Russia 1914-1921. BBC. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/eastern_front_01.shtml
4. Essays, UK. (November 2018). The Rise Of The Soviet Union. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/politics/the-rise-of-the-soviet-union-politics-essay.php?vref=1
5. Engles, F. (1847). The Principles of Communism. Accessed April 10, 2019. Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm#01
6. Werth, N. (March 14, 2008). Mass Crimes Under Stalin (1930-1953). Retrieved from https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/node/2653

A point that struck a chord with me from the lesson material was the information about how the history of Japan and their early economy led to strong work ethics and high creativity in the modern inhabitants of the nation as well as their sometimes insular nature that results from their fear of losing their cultural identities (PSU WC, 2019, L. 11, p. 3). The reason this information interested me is that my mother-in-law (Mieko) was born in Japan and lived there through her early twenties. She was in elementary school during WWII, and she has discussed that time period at length with me. The government messaging she heard during WWII was that they had to engage the United States in war because Americans wanted to take over Japan and destroy their culture. In addition, they were told that they had to fight because the Americans would systematically kill every citizen if they ever landed on Japan’s shores. As I’m sure you can imagine, the bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki did little to dispel these notions in the minds of the citizens. She also said that she remembers being shocked by the kindness of the American soldiers when they occupied the country after the war, and by the respect they showed to Japanese history and the buildings and artwork of the cities.

Related to the other point from the lesson about work ethic and creativity, Mieko’s family owned one of the silk factories in Kyoto. She was taught advanced sewing techniques at a very young age and when she emigrated to America, she opened a tailor shop. Her work ethic, skill, and dedication to her craft far surpassed that of any individual I have otherwise met. She has dresses displayed in the Smithsonian, has made garments for famous actresses and musicians, but devoted an equal amount of time and attention to more mundane tasks, such as hemming pants for local customers.

My anecdotal experience with Mieko is born out by research on the topic. The word for business in Japan is keiei, which is the combination two terms: Kei, meaning “governing the world in harmony,” and ei, which means “making ceaseless efforts to achieve” (Taka, 1997, p. 1499). Lipset (1992) found that Japan had the lowest rate of workplace absenteeism of all industrialized nations. (p. 50) In addition, Japan has the highest rate of employment among people aged 65 and older (Lipset, 1992, p. 50). It is interesting to note that the United States had the second lowest rate of workplace absenteeism and the second highest rate of employment among people aged 65 and older.

For managers of corporations who are considering expanding at the international level, this information could have significant meaning. Although there are many differences between the United States and Japan, the information on work ethic provides some basis for common ground between employees from the two countries. Beyond this similarity in work ethic, the two countries share the economic ideologies of capitalism which means there will be fewer competing ideologies that managers must resolve, as seen in the following chart:

(Ralston, Holt, Terpstra, & Kai-Cheng, 1997, p. 181).

Awareness of these similarities, if properly used, could provide managers with the strong base they need to resolve other ideological differences, such as individual- and group-oriented cultures. Finding common ground is always a good start when trying to blend disparate cultures into a single high-performing organization.

References:

Lipset, S. M. (1992). The work ethic, then and now. Journal of Labor Research, 13(1), 45-54.

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2019). POLEAD 410 Lesson 11: Asia: Focus on Japan. Retrieved from: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/canvas/sp19/21911–17997/content/11_lesson/printlesson.html

Ralston, D. A., Holt, D. H., Terpstra, R. H., & Kai-Cheng, Y. (1997). The impact of natural culture and economic ideology on managerial work values: a study of the United States, Russia, Japan, and China. Journal of international business studies, 28(1), 177-207. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490097.pdf

Taka, I. (1997). Business ethics in Japan. Journal of Business Ethics, 16(14), 1499-1508. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1023/A:1005850728406.pdf

One topic from lessons eleven through fourteen that I found compelling comes from chapter fourteen and must deal with something that has been more recent in the United States is that of immigration and labor exchange. The new European Union immigration regulations and job opportunities have attracted to their continent a host of external migrants, legal and illegal (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). These migrants who often come from Africa, the Middle East, and Turkey have created a “destination Europe” where there are over 47 million immigrants from abroad (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014).

Although Europe’s history has in fact been shaped by migration for centuries (Hall, 2019), non-European immigrants coming into the European Union Countries have increased anxieties of the cultural identities and values of those living there legally (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). From the viewpoint of immigration, here in the United States it has become a problem where millions of illegal immigrants’ floods across our border in search of a better way of living.

Like the problems faced in the United States, the governments of these countries fear that immigrants could steal jobs from the locals (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014).  One way to curtail this behavior would to create a better policy where these illegal immigrants could gain citizenship the proper way.

There are benefits to the immigration problem in the European Union, however. In Italy, for example, they are set to lose 28% of its population by 2050 (Hall, 2019). In order to maintain its working age population, Italy would have to start importing more than 350,000 immigrants per year or, alternatively, keep its citizens working until the age of 75 (Hall, 2019). Globalization and an aging workforce in Europe could eventually cause greater labor mobility that will prove beneficial, forcing more workforce flexibility among the EU member states (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014).

References:

Moran, Robert, Abramson, N., & Moran, S. Managing Cultural Differences. Ninth Edition. Routledge Publishing. New York, New York. 2014

Hall, B., Immigration in the European Union: problem or solution. Retrieved from: https://oecdobserver.org/news/archivestory.php/aid/337/Immigration_in_the_European_Union:_problem_or_solution_.html. Accessed 8 April 2019.