AFRICA! AFRICA! AFRICA!

December 2, 2018 by Madeline "BigAngel" Escobar Leave a Comment

AFRICA AFRICA AFRICA

I must share with you that I put everything into music in my head and when I think of Africa, in the back of my mind I hear the group Toto, as they sang “I bless the rain down in Africa”… It’s a very old song, but a very nice one. If you have moment you should listen to it, it’s kind of catchy. Come to think about it, it was Africa who brought us the music better known today as the blues, jazz, R &B, rumba, reggae and hip hop! Nice!

Moran (p.500) says that one of Africa’s nicknames is “the continent of beginnings”. As it turns out, almost everyone comes from a lineage of ancient Africans, as many can trace their DNA heritage to Africa. I recently had my DNA tested and discovered that I am 2% Mali and 1% Congo, Cameroon & Southern Bantu. It is a small percentage, but meaningful to me. Take a look at the breakdown, isn’t that fascinating? 🙂

Reality is not many of us know much about Africa, I personally did not know much about Africa until I took this class. I was always intrigued about Africa, but unfortunately, was not exposed to much because in my day to day life, I was occupied with other sources and life experiences. It’s funny, but I find that when one does not know about a particular subject or place, we seek deep into the archived files of our minds in search for data stored from our experiences (like I immediately started to Sing, Africa by Toto ha ha). To some people what comes to mind are songs or movies like the Lion King and Madagascar (sorry, I am a kid at heart!) or the amazing beautiful animals in the jungle (see below an actual photo my daughter took last week in Africa).

As an aspiring global leader, I am so pleased to have had the opportunity to learn more through the course of OLEAD – Leadership in a Global Context and the reading of “Managing Cultural Differences” by Robert T. Moran, et al. (9th Edition). I submerged myself in the case studies of this immense continent of Africa along with its fascinating four geographic regions and the many states within in. There is so much we can do to contribute to the development this beautiful country.

What about Africa?

Culture in Africa is so rich, and tend to be more human-oriented. Value is placed on family, let’s take a quick look at the American culture vs. the African culture. Did you know that the United States is a low-context culture? Low-context puts the emphasis on individual achievement instead of group participation. When communicating low-context culture will concentrate more on the exam verbal description of an event and people will rely mainly on the spoken word. How interesting it is when we compare that to the Africa’s high context culture, where the meaning of the words do not come from the words, but from the environment and the relationships between ideas expressed in the communication process. In order words, high-context cultures are more human-oriented. The most important unit of African society is the family, the tribe is of the utmost importance. The family tribe establishes the guidelines for what is deemed acceptable behavior and the village elders are highly respected and often become judges, mediators and leaders. (Moran, 511). However, we must not make quick cultural generalizations because there is not just one culture in Africa. Africa cultures are diverse, and dynamic. In Northern Africa you will find the states of Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Libya and part of Sudan which tend to be closer to the Middle Eastern cultures. There is Central West Africa on the Atlantic side, which is in the midst of an oil boom. This section is comprised of 14 states known as republics, and to name a few Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d’loire, Equatorial Guinea Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Togo. South Africa is comprised of 11 nations, some of them are Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique and Madagascar. (Moran, 520)

Doing business in Africa

Africa is a land of great potential and amazing natural beauty, however, it is still underdeveloped. Africa is classified as a third world country, the World Bank classified 39 countries worldwide as being deeply indebted and 33 of those 39 are in Africa! Africa only contributes 1% to the global economic output. It was shocking for me to learn that less than 10 % of the land is legally owned and that 1 in 10 Africans have deeds or titles to their properties. So how do how do we help make changes? How do we do business in Africa? We must first learn about the people and the beautiful country.

One of the most important aspects of doing business in Africa is building trust and developing friendships because in order to have a successful enterprise in Africa trust and confidence is absolutely necessary and crucial. One must take the opportunity to get to know their co-workers as individuals first before exchanging in any business activities. One important factor to remember when doing business in Africa is that friendship always comes before business. Africans want to sit and talk, they want to get to know the person before discussing any business matters. Time is often flexible, people will always come first, then time, anyone in a hurry will be considered a person who is untrustworthy and suspicious. Interestingly, this is common in the Hispanic culture as well. Similarly to Latin America, it is important for a global leader to learn about the cultural trends before learning about the of specific areas. Africans are very warm and friendly people, a smile means that you are welcomed and they trust you. I find that smiles are contagious. There is a unspoken comfort in a smile, an automatic welcome is speaks loudly and clear at the glance of that first smile.

A NEW AFRICA?

There is so much to learn and share about Africa, I would like to go on and on. Let’s focus on how to learn to appreciate the country and the people. Let’s learn what are the problems in Africa. There has to be a solution we can all work toward, the life expectancy of 47 million South Africans is only 48 years! Africa is already making changes and strides in technology by improving their communication throughout the continent with the use of television and cell phones. An article in the New York Times “A South African Take on the Vision Fund May be Small, but it carries No Saudi Baggage” highlights an internet and media group called Naspers that plans to invest $315 million into tech start0ups in South Africa, which is only one part of a larger $8.2 billion fund with plans of massive growth in e-commerce ventures. Changes do not happen overnight, however, I see a fruitful future, it may not happen tomorrow, but slowly together we can make a change. do not happen overnight, however, I see a fruitful future, it may not happen tomorrow, but slowly together we can make a change.

Works Cited:

Cropley, Ed. (2018, November 5). A South African Take on the Vision Fund May be Small, But It Carries No Saudi Baggage. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.newyorktimes.com

Moran, R. A., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing cultural differences (9th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Penn State University. (2018). Lesson 14: Africa Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/24935460

CULTURAL SYNERGY – Is it possible when your co-workers are overseas?

September 30, 2018 by Madeline "BigAngel" Escobar 2 Comments

CULTURAL SYNERGY – IS IT POSSIBLE IF CO-WORKES ARE OVERSEAS?

CULTURAL SYNERGY

I make it a point to say “Bonjour” every morning. I also make sure that I am pronouncing it right. Does that create cultural synergy between me and my French co-workers? Or do they just laugh at my American accent?

Is it really possible to create or develop cultural synergy with co-workers that although work for the same company, are separated by miles and miles.

What is really cultural synergy? According to Moran, Abramson and Moran (2014) “cultural synergy is a dynamic approach to managing cultural diversity in a variety of ways” (p. 266). From my experience, it is extremely difficult to engage and fully interact in a global team when your team members are not able to meet with you face to face. How does one brainstorm with co-workers when there is a language barrier and a cultural barrier? In our organization we meet on a weekly basis with our co-workers in Paris and often have conference calls, that most often leaves us wondering what was said. Although one may not understand what was said we do not say so because we do not want to be the only one who will come across as the person who didn’t understand and more importantly you we do not want to make the other person feel uncomfortable or feel self-conscious about their accent. So what do we do? The truth is that there is a thick wall that separates and as much as we want to be in sync and it is quite difficult because we are so far away from each other!!!

My Co-workers are in Paris and I am in New York!!

This is a picture I took of the Eiffel Tower in 2016 during one of my trips to our parent office. I have to travel to our parent company every year to attend a Global Office. I always look forward to meeting with co-workers face to face. I brush up on my French and often practice the common words. However, it is so difficult to come to a country where you are unable to speak the language and hope that someone understands English. By the way, the French think that is extremely rude, if they make an effort to speak English why can’t we make an effort to speak French? My co-workers often tell me that I MUST learn to speak French. I would love to learn, but have not yet had the opportunity to practice what I have learned because in our satellite office in New York there are only a few co-workers from France and they want to practice English. That does not mean that I do not like the language, on the contrary, I would love to speak French and have been practicing common words. I make it a point to say “Bonjour” every morning. I also make sure that I am pronouncing it right.

Team Building in Cannes!!

This is a picture I took in Cannes during one of our company’s team building events during our annual global offsite. It is very important to build rapport with co-workers. A couple of years ago, we had a team building exercise in Cannes. That was lots of fun, however, I noticed that their was still an invisible wall that kept us from completely coming together. The language and cultural barrier is huge! The French culture is so different from Americans. Sometimes the French think that Americans are rude and there are times that Americans feel that the French are rude. Some of my co workers feel that the French have a lazy way about them. Interesting enough, I read an article in The Economist, titled: “The French Way of Work” where Schumpeter thinks that most outsiders believe that the French are lazy. In the New York office for example, there are some French employees that seem to never have much work to do. The American co-workers often ask what do the French do all day? But I ask myself, is it that the French are just more productive and get their work done easier and faster than the Americans? Or is it that they just have a very lax way about them and about work?

It seems that we are always trying to establish cultural synergy. Sometimes it feels as if we were just forced to work together and figure it out and it doesn’t matter whether you understand each other on a day to day basis as long as one always knows that the parent company is the ruler of all time. How do we create synergy? As we have learned in lesson 6 of our OLEAD 410: Leadership in a Global Context class, it is easier said than done! There is the risk of conflict because each culture are used to seeing the world from their own point of view and respond and seek resources in their own style and customs which sometimes can be viewed or perceived differently by the other cultures. That’s why it is so important, as Moran, Abramson and Moran (2014) suggest, to listen to each other and enter into each other’s private worlds to better understand each other and create synergy. As Moran, et al. (2014) say, “Total team perception and wisdom will then become more than the sum of the parts” (p.271).

I believe we just need to try harder to overcome any language barriers and obstacles. Engage, engage, engage! Together we can create the cultural synergy we are so desperately seeking. By being specific to what are expectations are and not being afraid to speak up when one does not understand what it is said, will be the first few steps leading toward the road toward cultural synergy.

Works Cited:

23 things you don’t know about the French language until you live in France (2018) The Local, Image retrieved from: https://www.thelocal.fr/20180129/french-language-learn-things-you-dont-know-about-french-before-you-move-here

Desperately seeking synergy. (2015). The Times Higher Education Supplement : THE, (2185) Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/1644486867?accountid=13158

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. (9^th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Penn State University. (2018). Lesson 06: Cultural synergy. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1942644/modules/items/24935399.

Schumpeter. (2011) The French Way of Work: The Economist. Retrieved from: https://www.economist.com/business/2011/11/19/the-french-way-of-work

Diversity: A Tiny Crack on the Glass Ceiling

September 9, 2018 by Madeline "BigAngel" Escobar Leave a Comment

Diversity: A Tiny Crack on the Glass Ceiling

The attached cartoon Image from Flickr.com illustrates the disparity between women and men in the workplace. According to Inc.com, in an article titled: “Breaking the Glass Ceiling as a Female Entrepreneur” by Stephanie Chung, a reality we must face is that men are still exercising control over leadership roles. It is alarming to know that women make up only 15.4 percent of CEO positions and 33 percent of senior management roles. Women want to make a name for themselves, they are anxiously and fervently trying to break that glass ceiling. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median weekly earnings of full time and salary women workers is always a lot less than that of men, in every single profession. Take a look at the data of annual averages detailed by occupation and sex.

Can we crack the glass ceiling? Is there any hope for our future generation of women?

Diversity is really about all of the differences, it is so important that we include in our lives and workplaces the many different perspectives of the various groups of people. According to Moran et al. (171), diversity exists in different forms, of culture, age, gender, racio-ethnicty, nationality, personality, values, and attitudes. I will focus on the issues surrounding gender in the legal field.

The American Bar Association recently released a publication on January 2018 titled “A current glance at Women in the Law” which is very informative. We can easily see the gap in salaries among men women lawyers. In the legal profession, men hold 65% of the seats while women hold only 35%. The General Counsels of the top Fortune 500 companies are 73.6% male and only 26.5% women. We can probably go on and on and the list will be immensely long.

We have a problem, what are we going to do about it?

There are several organizations that are trying to make waves to create and incorporate awareness and changes. For example, The Minority Corporate Counsel Association – Advancing diversity, inclusion and Equity, released a survey about minorities in the law profession and (MCCA’s 18th Annual General Counsel survey of Breaking through the Concrete Ceiling, One Woman at a Time) while they document the progress that has been made since 1999, there is still a huge gap especially for minority women.

In Stepanie Chung’s in Inc.com, “Breaking the Glass Ceiling as a Female Entrepreneur” she suggests that we become bolder, network with other women, show passion for our work, try to promote ourselves and cultivate a variety of mentors. We must continue to move forward, continue to prepare and educate ourselves so that we can break the glass ceiling and pave a better furture for our daughters and granddaughters.

Works Cited:

Breaking the glass on the ceiling [Image] retrieved from Flickr.com (Sept 8, 2018)

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). Oxford: Routledge.

Chung, Stephanie, “Breaking the Glass Ceiling as a female entrepreneur”, Inc.com, Retrieved from: https://www.inc.com/stephanie-chung/breaking-the-glass-ceiling-as-a-female-entrepreur.html

“MCCA’s 28th Annual General Survey of “Breaking through the Concrete Ceiling, One Woman at a time”, Diversity & the Bar, Retrieved from: https://DiversityandtheBardigital.com (Sept 8, 2018)

United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey”, Retried from: https://bls.gove/cps/cpsaat39.htm (Sept 8, 2018)

A glance at Women in The Law, The American Bar Association, Retrieved from: https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/women/a-current-glance-at-women-in-the-law-jan-2018.authcheckdam.pdf (Sept 8, 2018)

Who Really Am I?

September 7, 2018 by Madeline "BigAngel" Escobar Leave a Comment

WHO AM I???

Culture is a beautiful thing! Belonging to something and having a sense of identity is amazing! but what if you feel like you don’t belong in any specific culture? What if your own culture is foreign to you? What if your own culture treats you like an outsider instead of one of their own? Culture and diversity can be difficult to understand and interesting to learn about. In the book by Moran et al. he says that “Traditions express a particular culture, giving its members a sense of belonging and uniqueness.” (Moran, R., Abramson, N., Moran, S., 2014). But what was my culture, what Tradition?

Puerto Rican? New York Rican? Gringa?

In New York City, the hispanic community does not view me as a hispanic they claim that my Spanish is too well spoken (ha ha) and when I travel to Puerto Rico, the Puerto Ricans do not view me as a Puerto Rican-American. They call me “gringa” or New York Rican, because I do not speak the Puerto Rican “slang” that I really did not learn because I was not raised there. I did live in Puerto Rico for seven years and I learned about the culture and the amazing food! However, I always felt like an outsider because I was always treated like an outsider because I was different from them. The same thing happens when I visit the Puerto Rican neighborhoods in New York City, I feel like an outsider because I am not like them at all. I was not raised in the Puerto Rican neighborhoods. I do not speak the way they do, they call me a “white girl” So who am I? What culture can I identify myself with? So where do one belong when they do not belong anywhere? Moran et al. says that intentions are important and just like culture perceptions count. (Moran 29). There are different perceptions as to how people view you or interpret who we are. Depending where you are physically, what town, what country, the perceptions of you vary.

Moran says that parents influence their children (Moran 2), while I agree that parents do influence their children and they pass down to their kids what they learned from their parents and from their grandparents. The “vertical identities” as expressed in Andrew Solomon’s book, Far from the Tree, which is cited in Moran et al. (Moran 3). I agree with that point of view, however, I strongly believe that our environment plays a more dominant factor in our development as well, the acquired traits which Solomon refers to as “horizontal identity”.

I spent my childhood in New York City and my teenage years in Puerto Rico but never identified with either culture.!! I often asked myself

“WHO AM I?? where do I belong”?

I was born to a Puerto Rican father and my mother was descendent from Galicia, Spain. So what does that make me? They were so very different! It was so confusing! My mom was very light skinned and my dad had an olive complextion. My dad was a devout Catholic and my mother was a demure and conservative protestant. Growing up I didn’t know which religion was the right one! I just went with the flow. Being the oldest of five children I pretty much made up the rules as we went along. We weren’t allowed to speak English at home, so we basically spoke sign language all day long to avoid getting yelled at by our father. Since my brother was born deaf, it worked well because he was always included in all of our conversations. Our parents never learned sign language, they thought it was just too difficult to learn! The girls were taught to grow their hair very, very long long and never cut it. To wear dresses at all times, because pants were for the boys. We were taught that bicycles were for the boys and girls were prohibited from riding on them. Girls were not allowed to speak to other boys that were not your brothers or part of the family. We were expected to behave in a “demure” fashion and not overly friendly toward the boys. The boys were allowed to do pretty much anything and everything.

My father walked us all to school every single day! and we lived right across the street from the school!!! The kids at school used to call me a “mama’s girl”. Ugh!

When I turned 14 years old, I begged my dad not to walk me to school anymore because the kids made fun of me. So he said he would watch me from the window, as I turned the corner and he could no longer see me, there was a gang in front of the school and they put a knife to my throat and mugged me and I only had a dime in my pocket! They were going to stab me when the school security guard intervened and saved my life! After that I didn’t mind that my father walked me to school or that the kids called me “mama’s girl, however, my parents were afraid and decided to move to the a strange Island of they called paradise by the name of Puerto Rico shortly thereafter.

Puerto Rico was beautiful and the air smelled so good, but the people were strange. The people looked strange to me, they starred at us, spoke in a foreign language, and much too fast. I did not understand them. They laughed at my pointy shoes, they laughed at the way I spoke Spanish. Even my cousins called me names, something they always called others was “Jíbara” which were a class of unsophisticated class of Puerto Ricans who were often ridiculed for their peculiar dialect. Others thought that all five kids were all deaf mutes because we used sign language to communicate at all times.

Spanish, English or Spanglish?

We were afraid to speak Spanish so that we wouldn’t be made fun of and at home we were afraid to speak English because our dad would get mad, so we became experts at sign language. So what does this have to do with culture? Everything I guess, we became unique and different in our own way. Not belonging to any specific culture but creating a world of our own. How about a little Spanglish? (Alphaomegatranslations.com)

In search for a better understanding of the Puerto Rican culture I read a book titled “When I was Puerto Rican“ written by Esmeralda Santiago. It was very interesting, she also had the same experience but in the reverse. I could identify with most of it but not all of it. However, I saw some of the same trends, but I did not know what childhood would have been in Puerto Rico because I was grew up in New York as a child and did not know any of the children school songs or customs that everyone in Puerto Rico spoke about. While she yearned for a Puerto Rico that was home to her, I yearned for the New York that was home to me. How frustrating it was!

I couldn’t wait to go back to New York! I did not go back to New York until I had graduated from the University of Puerto Rico (I learned how to read, write and speak Castilian Spanish). By that time, I was already an outsider to my fellow New York Ricans, they claimed my Spanish was too proper. The Puerto Ricans in New York spoke broken Spanish (and broken English), I was and outsider once again.

I moved to a mixed and neutral neighborhood, and I focused on my music, performed Spanish songs at different events and then focused on raising a family. Puerto Rico became a place to spend Summer vacations on our favorite beach, “Crash Boat”. Swinging in the lazy hammocks at the rhythm of the ferocious waves of the ocean.

A new Identity?

So… with all that said a new culture and a forced new identity emerged not by intention, but by necessity. Never emphasizing on any specific customs, my daughters were taught to wear both dresses and pants, to ride a bicycle if they wanted to. They were taught to respect others, to embrace differences, they were taught that people communicate in many different ways. They were even taught sign language! Taught that there is no right or wrong way, but many different people and may different ways. We have learned as we are all different we can all be the same.

I wanted to learn more about my heritage so I had my DNA tested by Ancestry.com and as it turns out, I am 76% European, mostly from Spain (Galicia) , a little Italian, a little Greek and a little Irish and native American Indian. So many different cultures to learn about!

Works Cited:

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. (9^th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Who am I [Image] retrieved http://www.lovethispic.com/image/53167/who-am-i (Sept 5, 2018)

Keep Tranquilo and Habla Spanglish [Image] retrieved from : alphaomegatranslations.com/foreign-language/localizing-with-Spanglish/ (Sept 5, 2018).

DNA Summary, Retrieved from: http://www.Ancestry.com (Sept 5, 2018)

Santiago, Esmeralda, (2006) “When I was Puerto Rican” New York: Da Capo Press

IT’S MY TURN NOW!

August 26, 2018 by Madeline "BigAngel" Escobar 2 Comments

It’s my turn now!

Hi, My name is Madeline, and my friends call me Maddy BigAngel. I work in New York City and have lived most of my life in New York. However, I recently purchased a home in New Jersey and commute to New York City on a daily basis. My commute is only 30-40 minutes.

I have completed a Degree in Business Administration, a paralegal degree with specialization in litigation and recently completed an Investments Foundations certificate from the CFA Institute. I am now on a quest to go to law school. I have raised three amazing kids, I have put two through college, my youngest child is in her senior year in High School, she will be attending college the fall of 2019.

I have been waiting to go to law school for many years, and I put my goals on hold so that I can fulfill my children’s goals and it is my turn now! I plan to graduate in May of 2019 with a BA in Law in Society and enroll in Law School the fall of 2019 as well!

I have worked in the legal field for a long time, in areas of patent prosecution and corporate governance, I have always enjoyed the different facets of law. I also have a very social and creative side to me, I enjoy working with people and love being on stage so I decided to take a four year break from corporate America to become my own boss and explore other interests. I incorporated my own company and also became the chapter director for a group of 40 women at the Chamber of Commerce. It was fun, extremely demanding and exhausting. I owned my own Social Media company providing an online presence to many of my clients with brick and mortar businesses. I have done radio talk shows and presentations on several radio stations done presentations throughout the tri-state area and internationally coaching clients in Australia, Sweden, Mexico and Switzerland.

I am currently a Senior Contract Administrator and currently work for a French investment bank. I negotiate legal investment contracts such as (ISDAs, MSFTAs, GMRAs, MRAs, etc,).

One of my all time favorite quotes by Les Brown is ““Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.” I live by this quote because I learned that the things that I did not do or did not accomplish were simply because I created the obstacles. There is another favorite quote, “Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off your goal”. These are what I live by and what I try to teach my children to live by. I believe we are in control of our own destiny and we can do anything we want to do. I may not yet be ready to kick the bucket, but I am creating a bucket list of the things that I like to accomplish and great a legacy.

Interests?

I have many! I know sign language! I love photography, drawing, singing, traveling and meeting many different people. I love to learn about different cultures, customs and different languages. I travel to Paris every year to attend our legal offsite for my firm. Every time I go, I visit different places in France that I didn’t get to see the previous year. I am also trying to enhance my understanding of the French language and culture.

Unusual hobbies?

hmmmmm I like collecting old cameras!

It is so nice to meet all of you and look forward to sharing with you all!

Maddy B