Historical cultural integration once sought in Russia from Asia but was always considered physically difficult created a geographical and cultural lean towards Western Europe.  Another result over time naturally was a genetic disposition towards Western Europe, leading to Genetic Social Psychology towards European. “Traditionally, there has been limited migration from Asia because of vast geological barriers, such as the Siberian tundra, the Mongolian desert, and the Caucasus and Sayan Mountains. Those areas are not only basically uninhabitable but also stretch for such large distances as to make passage across them treacherous if not impossible during certain times of the year” (PSU).  The geographic barriers caused migrations south and away from what is Russia from Asia.  Interestingly, in the modern times mixing became common. I would like to explore and make some assumptions and predictions of what is possible against what is likely (due to the created Cultural/genetic factors which have led to social separation).

Eurasian makeup genetically has increased in recent times due to economic factors at the borders of Asia and Russia as well as implementation of travel and business factors.   It is of my opinion, the factors that make Russia similar to Asia, especially China, are strangely co-habitable but likely unable in modern times to form a co-existence for their advantage in the world stage.  To Clarify, Russia’s Western European cultural/genetic factors in history have created a classification to a primarily white genetic makeup against Asian genetic makeup primarily in Mongolia/China.  The alternative could have been a closer genetic median or regression line at their borders seeping East or West much stronger kept from being possible due to geological and geographic barriers.  Today with migration over time this has become more apparent in reality.

The dark purple areas are in the heart of Russia and south into Kazakhstan where it is apparent the representative higher Eastern Asian mixture.  “The Russian Far East is becoming China’s safety valve, much like Mexico lets off population pressures with migration into the United States. China has more than 1.2 billion people — more than eight times Russia’s population. Only 7.4 million Russians populate the entire Russian Far East, versus more than 70 million in northeast China. The Russian Far East is comparatively empty, with only 1.3 people per kilometer. China’s Manchurian population has increased 13 percent in a little more than a decade.” (Zeihan)

Social Psychology states people are more likely to be attracted to those closer like themselves.  Cultural appropriation and social factors as well as history such as two world wars shifts the Social economic idea despite changing genetic disposition of Russia as a country towards Western Europe.  China’s economic rise and Russia’s economic difficulty could make the natural migration a key into identity changes. “It is possible that over time local authorities will formally or informally manage to establish closer ties, producing greater opportunities for population movement. If the economic crisis, ongoing in 2009, eventually leads to greater regional independence, the Far Eastern governments might find ways to expand cross-border ties. But thus far, economic conditions on both sides make large-scale migration unlikely. There is a path dependency in existing patterns that can be altered only by purposive action. The failure to establish solid networks during the boom years will have a lasting impact even if economic recovery is rapid. Even without more intensive regional development, changed attitudes, particularly on the Russian side, could help to establish an environment more conducive to labor migration. This would require a cognitive shift on the part of Russian political leaders. But as we have indicated in the present paper, there is not much basis for believing such a change is imminent.” (Repnikova, Belzar)

Barriers into change have to do with Power Distance and Individualism of Russia created over history, genetics and cultural differences.  The strategy to align with Eastern Europe initially is common, per Russian culture.  ” Russian culture places a high value on the homeland and on family, according to Talia Wagner, a marriage and family therapist with a specialty in cultural dynamics. “The Soviet rule left its impression on the culture, creating a fundamental fear and mistrust of those outside the family, extended family and other close familial connections,” she told Live Science. The Communist Party ruled Russia and neighboring territories for more than 70 years, uniting them into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The Soviet Union broke up in 1991.  The challenges families faced under communism left individuals highly dependent on family support, which oftentimes required the combining of resources to survive,” Wagner continued. “This created a culture that highly values extended family and maintaining close friendships.”(Bradford)

I believe the changes in modern times are subtly underestimated.  Each day it seems the integration of cultures in every country: racially, geographically and culturally is shifting and being leveraged politically as well as instigating internal changes in families and people.  There is a school of thought adjustment towards the classifications in an ethnic manner will always be enforced by the ethnic countries themselves, but today with the communication such as the internet, gives a manner of creativity into other countries not before seen.  Many such as communist countries like Russia/China have censored this communication, but with the natural knowledge into other peoples and cultures, will always be the natural assimilation into the whole.

References:

Pennsylvania State University. (n.d.).  Lesson 13:  Eastern Europe and Russian Population.  In OLEAD 410: Leadership in a Global Context:  Spring 2019 [Class module].  Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1964331/modules/items/25821740

Repnikova, M., Belzar, H.  China Migration to Russia: Missed Opportunities Retrieved from https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/No3_ChineseMigtoRussia.pdf

Zeihan, Peter  Analysis: Russia’s Far East Turing Chinese  ABC News  Retrieved from  https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=82969&page=1

Bradford, A.  Russian Culture:  Facts Customs and Traditions.  Retrieved from: https://www.livescience.com/44154-russian-culture.html

During my readings on Focus on China and India I had couple assumptions made about China in terms of their reputation as a growing economic superpower as well as their business dealings.  Generally, in possibly a naïve assumption as a person who has no real personal or experience level knowledge in the China or Asia, I have a couple broad thoughts on China’s economy labor and how workers are viewed individually.   China in the news has a reputation for historically providing cheaper skilled labor such as the with manufacturing Apple I-phones as well their known communist government stifling entrepreneurship for skilled professions.  The former also in the news reporting the cheaper labor goes hand in hand with difficult and in western eyes breaking of worker labor laws such as age restrictions as well as wage equality,  the latter being a skilled profession for manufacturing such as an engineer cannot individualize their work for example into their own company,  they must turn over their work to government controlled due to communism.

China has a Power distance rating of 80 but strangely has an individualism score of only 20. Recall that collectivistic cultures, such as China, tend to put group needs ahead of individual ones so that the group processes in place already will be very group focused.  (PSU)  As a result of my reading,  I will say that I was very surprised to read many of my assumptions came to be true,  but there is a mix of national pride and loyalty of China’s people to their government despite Western world influence towards communism, as well as a unity of corruption to growth that for me is difficult to understand but seems to be prevalent over the last 10 years in China.  The main driver of Chinese optimism is the country’s consistently impressive economic development. The equation is simple; China gets richer, its people remain optimistic. As anyone with even cursory experience in mainland China knows, this economic development has nonetheless gone hand in hand with a range of challenges, none greater than dealing with endemic corruption. (Hough)

My further thoughts based on China’s skewed edge range for Power Distance and Individualism would lead me to believe, as well as seems to be the current media sentiment,  that China cannot sustain their economic growth since entrepreneurship and individual innovation as tenets of Capitalism create a competitive growth that is handed down to newer and changing business in the long term.  This opinion is marked by of course Western historical growth and sustainment but is creeped in doubt with the media displaying the sprawling modern cities that have sprung up in China in areas known such as Hong Kong as well as making other cities more known today such as major cities like Shanghai and Beijing.  How is is this possible?  Here we find the rise of areas of the people making up for areas of needs missing in such of model by means of corruption leaning into government wants.  “It could certainly be the case that corruption abounds in places where rogue officials in public sectors simply find it lucrative to levy bribery… the heterogeneous effects of corruption on firm performance are best explained by the heavy-regulation nature of the Chinese economy and distinct reactions to government regulation from firms with different ownership types”(Jiang 2014)  The thinking being bribery and bargaining are acceptable means towards the government to achieve goals.

China seems to have developed a culture of acceptance towards corruption,  government corruption, individual growth economically against cultural inequality from that growth.  As a whole it is a balance to nationalism as well as government checks and balances on the people.  “Nevertheless, there is a deeply structural element beneath widespread corrupt practices in China which needs to be ultimately eliminated in the long-run: the “unruly” rule of the Communist Party over the economy and the alternative political hierarchies (factions) active within. It is clear that Chinese authorities need to appeal to political and institutional reforms, since administrative precautions cannot combat all kinds of corruption—as demonstrated by the current situation in China. There are no well-established checks-and-balances over the Communist Party’s authority” (Sakaoglu)

In conclusion,  as a summary to my readings.  China is a very large country which due to their Communism government,  has a unique methodology that is successful and attractive to world investors.  Being a “corrupt” country and “fast growing” country is right now being sustained.  World investors are still attracted to the Chinese economy.  The attraction is actually a part of my initial assumptions of cheap labor, diverse business and strangely does not affect the risk one may assume investors would not want to make on a world stage in China.  A more deep dive into areas of growth may help answer more questions I have in terms of known technology companies such as Alibaba outside of just the Power distance and Individualism disparity question.

References

Sakaoglu, Emre Corruption and economic growth in China.  Retrieved from

Jiang, Ting and Huihua Nie. (2014) “The Stained China Miracle: Corruption, Regulation, and Firm Performance.”  Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/44872735/2014_The_Stained_China_Miracle_Corruption__Regulation__and_Firm.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1553509639&Signature=OJgfUakvoB3fr6MwIoW%2FWOw7kBY%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DThe_stained_China_miracle_Corruption_reg.pdf

 

Hough, Dan (2017) “Can China curb endemic corruption before its economy slows and people lose faith?  Retrieved from https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2110084/can-china-curb-endemic-corruption-its-economy-slows-and

Pennsylvania State University. (n.d.).  Module 10:  Cultural Comparison of China and India.  In OLEAD 410: Leadership in a Global Context:  Spring 2019 [Class module].  Retrieved from  https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1964331/modules/items/25821723

Social Learning in terms of attention, retention, motivation and reproduction greatly has an effect in my daily life in terms of a professional career and managing family obligations.  The video in our reading of the Bobo doll hit home as a new child caregiver especially in areas such as modeling and aggression,  I have seen much socio emotional similarities as well as learning where children at early stages without maturation of certain senses very explicitly show extreme areas of expressions.  I have experienced watching delays in socio emotional learning where it did come to the way the retention, motivation are modeled and their aggression in things like being frustrated can be very upsetting.

 

I have been able to try ways to view aggression and modeling of a childs behavior.  “One group saw the model’s aggression being rewarded (being given sweets and a drink for a championship performance, another group saw the model being punished for the aggression (scolded), and the third group saw no specific consequences (control condition).  When allowed to enter the playroom, children in the reward and control conditions imitated more of aggressive actions of the model than did the children in the punishment condition.” (McLeod)  I have tried to watch and be more cognizant of childrens behavior and reward them in ways that can help create more positive responses as well as creating a better emotional response from my child.

In going to work in a large city (Washington DC Metro) as well distance learning while being from a small town.  I have experienced many stereotypes as a minority and in our current society have been interested in the religious perspective of Islam especially in keeping up with Hezbollah and Hamas in Israel and how the USA perceives that relationship.  It’s a very controversial subject where personal viewpoints as well as expert and non-expert opinions collide.  For example the rejection of Hamas as a terrorist state and why many Muslims cannot do so,  as a result Americans label them terrorists as well,  or condemn the religion as a whole for things at least I don’t really understand.  In my view,  the religion is seen as promoting a view of terrorism against a country(Israel) but the aspects from the Israel perspective are not full clear to me.

On a personal level,  those same Muslims who have shared that viewpoint are outwardly peaceful.  I have included an except from a researcher who is pointing out college student Muslims as possible terrorists which I believe to be horrifying: “Calling things by their right names is a prerequisite for seeing them as they really are. Last spring I spoke at more than half a dozen universities, including Ohio State and Stony Brook, where I was confronted by mobs of students cheering Hamas, a terrorist organization whose declared goal is the extermination of the Jews. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. On virtually every major university campus in America organizations exist whose leadership is dedicated to spreading the propaganda lies of Hamas designed to weaken and delegitimize the Israeli state, and promoting Hamas campaigns like Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) whose goal is its destruction” (Horowitz)

These type of writing seem to be suggest and imply a group as dangerous,  which I think is an aspect that creates danger.  I believe in our studies it is vital to understand the importance of Middle East study, their government and their society in our times since anyone may encounter the chance to be affected in todays society.

 

 

 

References

 

McLeod Saul Bobo Doll Experiment. (2014)  SimplyPsychology. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/bobo-doll.html

 

Horowitz David  When Students cheer jihad  WashingtonTimes  Retrieved from

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/5/david-horowitz-tracking-pro-terror-campaigns-on-us/

Models of communication as a process fascinated me in terms of how communication is so important in affecting ideas and the presentation of ideas, as well as the significance of when a message or the importance of a message can determine the success of business. I took a particular interest in the Communication process diagram and the sender encoding, message decoding to receiver flow.  I imagined ways where in the development of software where the communication model mirrors the same in models for systems such as email or chat applications, and the importance of transforming dropped messages or handling possible errors as well as the system challenges of encoding, filtering noise and processing in an application much the same was as the model displayed a real-life system of communication.

 

In a system, the data within a system in traditional sense cannot atone for biases such as from ethnocentrism since human factors are a hard problem to simulate.  “At its basic level ethnocentrism is an inability to take on other people’s perspectives. If one isn’t able to take on another perspective, it is difficult to see what they want or need, but also to shape a message that they understand. Now, egocentrism sounds like someone else’s problem now doesn’t it? There’s no way I could be like that, right? Well, it’s actually almost everyone’s problem. Humans are programmed to be somewhat self-serving” (PSU, 2019).  Possibly Machine learning and AI can one day create applications that can identify egocentrism in workplace actions or outcomes.

 

Another area is in the miscommunication of systems versus the actual intent of our message can be lost due to missing nonverbal cues.  Hence, egocentrism plays another role as our perceptions plus the missing cues create misinformation.  Such is case in our modern virtual workplace.  The understanding of errors in communication due to egocentrism is a start in providing a solution to these problems.  “Finally, encourage everyone to expect problems. At the start of any virtual project, experts recommend a “meta communication” of basic guidelines, such as how quickly people should respond to e-mails and what media should be used for which purposes (for instance, all team meetings will take place through videoconferencing). A major component of that document, according to Pam Brewer, a professor at Appalachian State University, should be a mechanism for resolving such communication problems as the volume of e-mail becoming unmanageable. Setting the expectation that there will inevitably be problems makes everyone much less hesitant to raise an issue. In fact, the team leader could emphasize that point by adopting the attitude of, “If no one has any communication issues, it’s a sure sign that we really do have problems. (Ferrazzi 2013)”

 

HR systems in the workplace are a means to help with communication as well as a place for application designers to focus on HR process models to help with the human factors of communication.  But HR systems are limited, and many areas of employee concerns slip through cracks.  “When something has gone wrong at work, people may feel that they did not have the information they needed to make a decision. It might be information about the health of the company, the status of projects in other business units, or the quality of their work. Because people sense that they were missing needed information, they blame lack of communication for the problem.” (Markmann 2017) In this way, new systems and models are needed to fill in the gaps.  Going back to the diagram relating to encoding and decoding, the need to encode and decode the company communication to employees is of importance but also implies many more areas to add flows in a new model which needs to try and avoid complexity.

 

 

References

 

Ferrazzi, Keith How to avoid Virtual Miscommunication. (2013, April). Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2013/04/how-to-avoid-virtual-miscommun

 

Markman Art  Poor Communication is often a symptom of a different problem (2017, February. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from  https://hbr.org/2017/02/poor-communication-is-often-a-symptom-of-a-different-problem

 

Pennsylvania State University. (2019). Errors in Communication. OLEAD 410. Retrieved February 2, 2019 from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1964331/modules/items/25821686

 

Moran, R.T., Moran, S. V., & Abramson, N. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences: Ninth Edition. New York, NY: Routledge.