In general there have been hopeful signs of Pan-American synergy in the twenty-first century.  The reduction of trade barriers and fiscal deficits, the increase in economic and social collaboration for the development of human rights and the overall peace between the nations has laid the groundwork to decrease the poverty gap and increase the awareness of the effects of globalization.  (Moran, Harris & Moran. 2011)

Pan-American synergy has a long history starting with the creation of the OAS through a series of Pan American Conferences from a US sponsored effort cumulating in the OAS Charter being signed in Bogota, Columbia in 1948.  Its general principles were established from the Monroe Doctrine and it sought to establish peace, collective security in and for the Western Hemisphere, and encourage economic, social and cultural matters (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014).  During the early 1900’s, the United States expressed their sincerity of being a collaborative member of the Pan American Union by withdrawing Monroe Doctrine as applied to Latin America and repealing the Platt Amendment. In 1939, Roosevelt declared that the United States would work with all Latin American peoples to establish economic solutions and prior to World War II, the US implemented it’s “Good Neighbor Policy” in order to offset any possible influence by Germany. It must have had some effect as we entered World War II, the United States and Latin America were a very much aligned but unfortunately when the groups came to the table in 1947 to sign a pact of military defense the common objectives of economic, social and culture matters promised earlier by the American government were forgotten(Padilla, 1954).

Padilla, 1954 claimed that the root of Latin America’s great evil was poverty.  In his declaration of the Meaning of Pan Americanism he wrote of the importance of the creation of the economic cooperation with investment accountability and responsibility of an Inter-American Bank which could create and maintain the interest needed to maintain trade agreements (import/export) which had been affected by both African and Asian undercuts.  The United States at the time was trying to fight the global efforts of the Russian and Chinese government and some Latin American countries like Argentina viewed this as a threat to their existence and further disassociated them for fear of Soviet regime.

The OAS continued to try and create and maintain Latin American and Caribbean socioeconomic and cultural development.  They worked hard in the early half of the 20^th century help maintain peaceful accord in Latin America through various efforts such as the resolution of the Soccer War between Honduras and El Salvador, supporting Kennedy and the US by revoking Cuba’s membership, and promoting democracy and trade with efforts to monitor and safeguard fraud and the creation of the Alliance for Progress.  In 1971, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights was established (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014).  Today the OAS has a four pillar approach to helping their member countries maintain a level of cooperation and accountability.  Through democracy, human rights, security and development they develop tools to impact legislation and cultural education.  Moran et al, argues while the OAS has created a ground for synergy, globalization in today’s world has brought increased support for the South American Community of Nations (SACN) and could potentially be a more effective organization.  Still, the OAS continues to give voice to civil society and through its various strategic partnerships like PADF and private sectors should remain a positive force for the Latin American states in encouraging human rights and economic prosperity.

The Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) was established in 1962 as an affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS). Created with private enterprise to provide an NGO to assist the least advantaged people in Latin America and the Caribbean in support of the Alliance for Progress initiated by the Kennedy administration (PADF, 2014), its pioneered one of the first micro-lending programs and over the past 50 years it has helped to strengthened thousands of Latin American civil society groups and expand alliances with government and corporate donors to facilitate human rights, community help and support victims of natural disasters.  PADF’s programs have generated thousands of jobs, saved lives and property, protected vital natural resources, upgraded skills training and medical services, and improved conditions for thousands of disadvantaged Latin American and the Caribbean people(PADF, 2014). Another affiliate of the OAS is the “Trust for the Americas” which promotes the social and economic development of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Contemporary leaders have to be able to build bridges between the realities of both past and future in order to fully cultivate a synergistic mindset (Moran, 2011).  They need to be able to envision and translate hemispheric solidarity.  They must recognize the national and international differences and be able to accept cultural transformation that is beneficial for the greater good of the Pan-American culture, whether it be indigenous people or the corporate private sector in order to guarantee multinational sustainable solutions (PADF, 2014).  Without this general cooperative approach and acceptance to change all areas of need will not be addressed.  Education and the spread of technology, multinational corporate responsibilities and the overall care for humanity must continue to be at the forefront of organizations trying to accomplish goals for the common good (Moran, 2011).

References

Moran, R. T., Harris, P. R., & Moran, S. V. (2011). Managing cultural differences: Leadership skills and strategies for working in a global world. New York: Elsevier.

Organization of American States (OAS). (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/20243/Organization-of-American-States-OAS

PADF.  Date N.A. About Us. Retrieved at: http://www.padf.org/pages/about-us

Padilla, E., (1954) The Meaning Of Pan Americanism. Foreign Affairs. The Council on Foreign Affairs.

Pennsylvania State University. (2014). OLEAD 497B: Lesson 8:  Chapter 11: Doing Business in Central and South America.  Retrieved at: https://cms.psu.edu

Fig 1.1 OAS provided by OAS.com

Fig 1.2 Good Neighbor provided by GDC.gale.com

 

Early in my career when I was a new manager I had a young employee who was of Middle Eastern descent, he himself was born in Houston, TX but his Mother and Father were from Pakistan.  He was a decent employee, not necessarily the best of the bunch and not the worst.   On my team was another older man that was from Egypt who had immigrated to America as a young man in the early 1970’s.  We had a very culturally diverse team ranging from Indians to Africans & Middle Easterners to New Jersey natives.  I called our team the melting pot and we often discussed cultural aspects of one another’s backgrounds to learn how to work better together.

One of the employees was a young man from Pakistan who was a devote Muslim who followed the “Pillars of Belief” (Moran, Harris & Moran, 2011).  He was very loving of his father who was sick with Alzheimer’s and often left early on Friday’s from our office in Dallas to care for him and his mother in Houston.  When I first met this young man he was reserved but boastful about accomplishments but not to the point where he was arrogant or hubris.  He enjoyed movies and the arts.  His wife (who was a Dallas girl that he met in college) was a young girl of Christian descent that stayed at home and took care of their newborn.  I’d often find that he was tardy to the office and because we were a 24 x 7 operations and performance team, it tended to slightly disrupt the synergy of the team as there were runway and preflight checks (these were our terms for checking the alarms and performance of the network).  Although, it wasn’t optimal for the team, I typically let it slide as I knew he had a sick Dad and a young newborn and I remembered the balance of life and work that my manager had given to me when I was in the same situation.  His life was highly influenced by his Islamic religion and philosophies and we spoke about it often so I could learn more about him.

The older gentleman from Egypt was a Coptic Christian and was also very devoted to his church and his religion.  His family was his life and he was often taking time off to spend it with his wife or children on vacation days to help at church outings.  He enjoyed studying and teaching (he taught math at the local community college).  He was very proud and extremely focused on how well he was perceived by me, the team and strangers as well.  He typically operated better as an individual than a team player.  Again, like the younger employee he was often tardy and overall had a very laissez faire attitude about deliverables.

Both of these employees I inherited from another manager during an organizational change and were based in Dallas, TX and sat close by in cubicles and because they supported a specific geographic of the network they had to work closely to support different initiatives and were required to back each other up on all runway and pre-flight activities.  This in itself created a manager’s worst nightmare team dynamic; both employees who back each other up are tardy!

During the first summer that I had the team I noticed that there appeared to be conflict between the two.  I immediately called the old manager and asked him if he ever witnessed this and if it was ever an issue and if so why didn’t he disclose it.  His answer was exactly how I thought it would go, something like, “Oh Yeah, those two….ha ha….Good Luck with them, they’re like two old ladies bickering constantly.”  I thanked him for being so forthright when the team was transferred to me.  Quite honestly he was a terrible leader and I was given his team as part of his demotion so it wasn’t a surprise at all.   He gave no me no background on what fueled their contempt for each other but my gut told me to dig in with the two guys and get it squashed before it got out of hand.

I flew to TX in August of that year and met with each one of them and asked them to bring me up to speed with their workload and how they were generally doing.  We of course did this during weekly team meetings but this was more to see if I could get to the bottom of their strife.  Both one of them spoke poorly of each other and although they both had the same overall level of responsibility and about the same level of output, both told me that they thought that they had exceeded the other in performance and results.  Neither one of them mentioned any issues about their own performance except for the older gentleman who told me that he thought he probably could create a less stressful environment by not letting things aggravate him so much.  Well, the alarms were going off in my head and I knew that there was certainly something going on at a much deeper level than what they had told me.

Next I brought them into the room together and asked them if they could both present the current state of their geographic area.  It was probably the coldest, non-synergistic exchange of information that I had ever seen.  When they were done, I asked them to sit down and express to me how they thought the presentation went.  The young man went first and he spoke very highly of the older man and showed him a lot of respect and conversely the old man showed the young man the same level of appreciation and kindness towards his presentation and work.  Next I asked them to tell me about their interaction on a day to day basis and if there was anything I could do to help them.  Not a word was spoken and then I asked if they minded if I spoke to them openly and candidly behind shut doors.  They obliged and I proceeded to discuss what I perceived to be some sort of conflict between them and it was obvious to me and to other members of the team.  They warmed up to the conversation when I engaged them further by stating that it’s become so evident that I think it’s beginning to affect the team results. I kept it high level and didn’t accuse anyone or embarrass anyone as this is typically not effective in managing resources.  I backed it up by encouraging constructive dissent and getting things out in the open was good for the soul and typically solved issues.

The flood gates didn’t exactly open but it seemed to create a safe place for both of them to remove their embedded cultural limitations and to start having helpful dialogue about what was bugging them.

The young man told me he often felt pressured to fix issues that were the older gentleman’s responsibility when he was out and that he was always late.  I almost choked but kept my thoughts to myself.  The older gentleman angrily responded that the younger man was always taking time off and that he didn’t have an appreciation for urgency and, “who the heck is going to do all the work when (name redacted) goes to Hajj!”.

Again I had to keep my face straight to make sure I wasn’t influencing the conversation but for me that was the point.  They both went back and forth on some other things and I asked them if there was any resolution that they could recommend.   I reflected on what they said and asked them if they had any other comments or suggestions before we finished.

After a few minutes I saw a smile appear on the young man’s face.  He said, “You know, I’m late sometimes and I could be more urgent at times.”  I still didn’t say anything.  The older man’s face relaxed from the stress of the conversation and he said, “We’ll I guess I could be more punctual as well and I’m sure that I can cover you when you make your pilgrimage”.  It was the ‘ah-hah’ moment.  I looked at both of them and without batting an eye said, “My work here is done!”

Six Months Later…

The two men created a system by which they worked a process whenever they knew that each other had a holiday or personal time off and made sure that if they were both scheduled to be out that I was made aware of the need for further coverage by my other teams.  The rest of the team noticed an overall improvement in their day to day interactions with both of them and although their individual output or their method of approach didn’t change much they improved as a team and consequently brought more success to the overall team and me as a manager.  Interestingly, Moran 2011 citing R.D. Lewis on page 257 reminds us that the Muslim religion expresses open tolerance for other faiths and enrichment of coexistence is the rule rather than the exception.  I still can’t wrap my hands around whether there was a cultural issue, personality issue or some buried availability heuristics, but in the end it didn’t really matter because the overall course was corrected.  The dynamics between the two were good and the dialogue was open and healthy and made them closer.

References

Pennsylvania State University. (2014). OLEAD 497B: Lesson 7: The Middle East:  Focus on Saudi Arabia. pg. 2 Retrieved at: https://cms.psu.edu

Moran, R. T., Harris, P. R., Moran, S.V. (2011) Managing Cultural Differences Leadership Skills and Strategies for Working in a Global World. Oxford:Routledge. pg. 257

 

In previous lessons we learned about the Hofstede and the effects of what we learn as children through our environment and how they affect how we are today and how we interact with other cultures. There are some interesting theories and practices about how to identify different cultures and how to engage and interact with them in order to achieve results. s’ dimensions of national culture and the relationship between organizational culture helps us to understand how we can’t easily change the way we may react to difference and conflict they are embedded in our unconscious; suggesting that the need to be cognoscente of how to potentially “unlearn” things in order to be successful in dealing with foreign cultures.

Fons Trompenaars is an organizational theorist and author. He and Charles Hampden-Turner were co- authors of the Trompenaars’ model of national cultural differences.  Through their simple approach below in Fig 1.1, they help people in organizations understand the business value of understanding cultural differences and how to integrate them into a common purpose.   They suggest that learning to recognize cultural differences, respect those differences and how to reconcile the cultural differences will help people to realize the full potential of a diverse organization.

Fig 1.1

One of the crucial underpinnings of how to do be successful in communication across organizational cultures is to realize the fundamental gaps in between these cultures. Rather than trying to decode “why” they do it, which is something that we typically try to accomplish in order to justify our own assumptions; Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner suggest that it’s more important to learn what affect our beliefs have on a culture in order to understand how to communicate and interact in such a way that you realize who you’re talking to before it’s too late.

Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner have suggested that there are four corporate culture models that can help to identify and clarify emerging organizational structures and is based on two specific dimensions – people vs. tasks and the egalitarian vs. hierarchical nature of the organization. Once again to use this effectively in communications one should study how each model can affect the way you interact and help you to avoid cultural gaffes that could prove to be detrimental to your business by allowing your own cultural beliefs to get in the way of the message.  The cultural models are based on the data collected and defined by the seven key dimensions or what they call “dilemmas”. In the second edition of their book “Riding the Waves of Culture” they presented the basic types of corporate culture and how to interpret the intercultural relations.(See Figure 1.2)  While I will not get into each of the dimensions of culture it’s important to recognize the basis for their data and how it helps to define the 4 different models.

Fig 1.2

The first model is called the Guided Missile.  It describes companies that are managed mostly by objectives and that nothing can stand in the way.  It also employs matrix management structure with balanced score cards.   It gives the individual a great sense of ownership and potential satisfaction of a “win”.  On the down side it can foster the pursuit of separate agendas and stressful targets and matrix management structure may work for some let’s say in the Netherlands and US but not for Italians or Parisians.  People who want to communicate effectively with organizations that exhibit this behavior need to think tactically and align themselves with project goals.  They shouldn’t lose sight of the big picture and they must think realistically about setting expectations.  Change is typically embraced as tasks and reporting structure is constantly evolving.

Second is the Eiffel Tower and is likened to typical hardened bureaucracy where the infrastructure’s power is directly related to the importance (and/of) the position. Task and accomplishment outweigh the concerns for relationship and adherence to the rules and recognition of hierarchy are extremely important.  Strong and effective, these company cultures are typical in France and Germany.  The downside of this corporate culture was evident when Volvo and Renault car companies attempted to merger.  Volvo sent their most senior staff to get the job done and because the Swedish counterparts were treated as upper management by the French engineers instead of collaborators the deal fell apart.  This could have been easily avoided had the research been done to understand the different communication necessary to make this successful.

Familial cultures, evident in South America, India and the Far East and employs a respect not only for family but for anyone that has a deep roots in their successes.   Managers tend to make decisions not only on their bosses recommendations but also on others who have influenced their careers and whom they honor.  It’s built on reputation.  Someone that is familiar with this culture stresses loyalty and seldom expresses disloyalty as they are frequently rewarded not necessarily for job performance but remaining loyal to their management.   When communicating with this cultural group one needs to be able to communicate using examples rather than by instruction, interweaving in stories and celebration creating high context.

Finally the incubator model which is the most revolutionary of the models deals with self expression. This culture is the most egalitarian style of management and is often a very loose structure with ideation being a key performance indicator.  Companies in Silicon Valley, like Google use this approach.  They reward on merits of thinking about the next best idea and are typically composed of Gen X and Gen Y employees.  Remember that low-synergy cultures tend to be highly individualistic, which can lead to more creativity and freedom of expression (Redmond, 2014).   To talk to these folks, it’s imperative that you don’t BS them.  You need to tell it like it is or don’t say anything at all.  Although this cultural model is great for ideas, there is a downside to this methodology.  If you have ever been in a room with these people and been lucky enough to be the main focus of communication; you probably called it “herding cats”.

Fig 1.3

The research provided by Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1998) suggests that when two cultures blend, they will have to figure out ways to manage the disparate perspectives and self-organize to develop synergistic solutions which allows global businesses to communicate and compete better. Stated another way, it’s imperative to find a key operational model that creates synergies between the groups in order to meet the challenges and opportunities that a multicultural workplace presents.  It’s necessary to collaborate and have cultural alignment.  Multinational changes are happening at such a rapid rate as companies look to be more efficient and reduce overall costs and a failure to understand the social, political and cultural issues will prevent growth, learning and overall synergy.

References

Pennsylvania State University. (2014). OLEAD 497B: Lesson 6:  Cultural Synergy pg. 4 Retrieved at: https://cms.psu.edu

Schmidt, W., Conaway, R., Easton, S., Wardrope, W., (2007) Communicating Globally. Chapter 3:  The Concept of Cultural Synergy and the Global Organization. Sage Publications.

Trompenaars Hampden-Turner. (2014). Website: About: Retrieved at: http://www2.thtconsulting.com/about/#about-approach

Wright, M., (2007). Cultural Barriers to Internal Communications Retrieved from: http://www.simply-communicate.com/news/cultural-barriers-internal-communications-0

Figures 1.1 and 1.2 reprinted from Trompenaars Hampden-Turner. (2014). Website: About: Retrieved at: http://www2.thtconsulting.com/about/#about-approach

Figures 1.3 reprinted from Schultz (Date n.a.) Quizlet Website on Management Retrieved at: http://quizlet.com/12500879/info

 

Errors can occur in the communication process, especially when trying to communicate across cultures.  There can be simple misunderstandings that can lead to simple solutions and there are simple misunderstandings that can lead to grave results (Moran and Moran, 2011, pg. 48).  In 1999, I’d traveled in and around Latin America and the Caribbean on various efforts to remediate program code in various accounting offices for a major logistics provider.  The accounting programs were written in various types of program languages with syntax written in different languages.  Overall I think the multilingual, multi-country project incorporated over 25 different languages or variations, 20 different programming languages and almost 40 countries.  Let’s just say that the practical guidelines that (Moran and Moran, 2011, pg. 47) propose to follow for more effective intercultural communication were challenged on a daily basis.  As discussed in the opening paragraph, the simple error in translation highlights that “communication does not necessarily mean understanding” and the story behind it will prove that as cultural variables and differences increase the number of communication understandings also increase (Moran et al, 2011, pg. 48).

Speaking Spanish wasn’t easy.  As a kid I took five years of French and used it about once a year when I flew to Montreal to play hockey; but living in South Florida and working in Miami I was encultured by the Latino community and forced myself to learn how to speak various dialects and variants with phonetic and grammar differences.  This helped certainly when immersed in a foreign South American country for the first time meeting a 65 year old programmer that had used a version of code that we typically learn as seniors in high school to help maintain the shipping manifesto and customer data for billing verification.

While the challenges were many, I am reminded of a particular cultural gaffe that happened to me in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  The accounting office in Argentina was in a terribly poor area outside Buenos Aires and you typically didn’t leave the gated compound during the day unless it was to the 2 hour lunch accompanied by your peers and bodyguard and so we became very close.  I would travel there for a few weeks at a time and work through the challenges of translating the code to see if we needed to remediate it for Y2K compliance and our days were long and boring and so we’d typically break out at 2PM and have tea or what the locals called Mate (pronounced Mah-te it was a caffeinated beverage made from the yerba mate plant).  Well this wasn’t any tea break it was a ritual social gathering where we would all exchange stories and take a break from the day.  Mate is typically enjoyed in a social setting and one person prepares the drink and it is served in a gourd like container with a metal straw from which each person around the social group takes a sip and passes it on.  What I witnessed the few times before I engaged was each person took a sip on the first round and talked about what was on their mind and as it went around the circle more and more discussion resulted from the social and the polite listening turned active listening (Moran et al, 2011).  By sharing meaning while being engaged in this social atmosphere created great communication and helped break down the gaps, whatever they may have been.  After witnessing this for a few days I asked politely if I could engage and they complied; and after checking online various times that night to confirm what Mate was and how to drink it I was all prepared for the next day.

I really didn’t know what to say when the Mate was given to me and when I took a sip (I was third in the circle) I realized that it was hot, like wicked hot!  So, without prevail I thought I would announce to the audience that it was hot!  So, being the cultured guy I was, I proceeded to say in my perfect Spanish, “Estoy caliente!”  Well, what I didn’t realize is that in Uruguay and Argentina that meant “I’m horny”.

And as I passed the Mate to the next person who was a female (around my age at the time) she blushed, said something in Spanish too fast for me to understand and everyone started laughing.  I’m not talking about just smirking and ha ha. It was pure belly laughing.  Finally, when the group calmed down the girl next to me spoke to me (in English) and told me what happened and what I should have said in Spanish was “Hace Calor” or “It’s hot”. Well you can imagine how red my face was when I found out what I really said and when I asked her what she said that had the group in stitches she told me that she had told everyone it was because of her and not the tea!

To make a long story short the story became folklore and every time that I visited the folks in Argentina over the next few years I was always known as the “hot” guy and in fact it was a great ice breaker when meeting new folks in the project as the story made it’s rounds.  Things get lost in translation all the time and the interesting part of the communication breakdown is that it could have gone in a different direction but because I was trying hard to learn the culture and how to communicate the team welcomed me and looked past my lingual shortcomings.  The “team” was a good bunch of people and they looked past my erroneous interpretation because I was conveying to them that I was trying to part of their team.

Communication Process, Figure 4.1 (based on Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2013, p. 234). and adapted & reprinted from PSU (2014) OLEAD 497B: Lesson 4 Global Communication

Pennsylvania State University. (2014). OLEAD 497B: Lesson 4 Global Communication. Retrieved at: https://cms.psu.edu

Moran, R. T., Harris,P. R., Moran, S.V. (2011) Managing Cultural Differences Leadership Skills and Strategies for Working in a Global World. Oxford: Routledge

As Redmond (2014) mentions in the PSU OLEAD 497B Lesson on Diversity that sometimes deep-level diversity can change based on a surface-level diversity experience and while they can certainly be difficult to change as we are creatures of habit and our familial upbringing and environments that we were surrounded by played a huge role in creating the way we act towards others.

Business has long suffered due to deep-level diversity issues as the makeup of the labor market can be disparate with the management creating a hostile work environment and failing to maximize employee potential because of the lack of education towards a diverse workforce. ¹

Migrant workers are a key example of how we can adapt and accept change and diversity to help get the job done. Global leaders who understand things like “root causes of immigration” and the push and pull factors that arise from it can help educate the audience of the host country to encourage them to be more humane and play a critical role in helping the common man work for a better life. Moran et al (2011) concludes that one of the global trends to recognize is the desire of peoples everywhere for the protection of their human rights, including at work.²

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, Inc. spoke to his employees in the 2014 Divesity in the Workplace report stressing the importance of transparency and committing to being as innovative with advancing diversity as they are at developing products.

If leadership can push middle management to implement diversity workshops and awareness to make sure the “satisfaction of our universal needs and concerns” are interdependently linked then it will make a more harmonious work environment and combat conflict. Also helpful are resolution skills that can be implemented when there is either stereotypical assumption of the other party or a conflict with disputes originating from some deep seated issue towards the diverse group. It’s also a moral issue that ties in the virtues that we should pledge to uphold as good corporate citizens. Subordinates watch leadership closely to see how they act; taking cues for how they should act and that influence on ethics can over time help to create the surface level diversity appreciation eradicating the deep-level issues towards diversity.³

Moran, R. T., Harris,P. R., Moran, S.V. (2011) Managing Cultural Differences Leadership Skills and Strategies for Working in a Global World. Oxford: Routledge

Pennsylvania State University. (2014). OLEAD 497B: Lesson 3 Diversity. Retrieved at: https://cms.psu.edu

Purcher, Jack. (2014). Apple Publishes their 2014 Divesity in the Workplace Report.  Retrieved at: http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2014/08/apple-publishes-their-2014-diversity-in-the-workplace-report.html

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While we strive to increase the world’s awareness of various cultures by education and training there are many challenges when building effective global managers. First, you need to understand that global managers are not born, they are made.¹ As Percy Barnevik, former President and CEO of Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), said “It’s not a natural process. We are herd animals. We like what we know”. ²We are often asked to determine whether people are born leaders or not but it’s very interesting to acknowledge that cultural global leadership comes from understanding of cultures cementing the fact that most aren’t born possessing the quality to understand the implications of ethnocentric behavior or why one needs to be copen to international collaborative solutions and sensitive to differences outside of their groups.

Knowing this, it’s very easy to comprehend the need for training and education for cultural immersion and the capability to absorb the intercultural expertise at all levels to help drive the bottom line. Managers with no prior experience need to be mentored by cultural savvy leaders who can use their gaffes and blunders to help push them through the challenges and potential mistakes that an ethnocentric attitude could have on an organization.

Professional development and leadership development also has to include an understanding of why managers should develop the cultural awareness. Without the line of sight that the company embraces they run the risk of not comprehending why it’s important to develop the global competence so that they can benefit as individuals personally and professionally. ³ If they understand the cultural differences and why it’s important to the organization they stand a better chance of developing the skill sets necessary as it’s tied back to their incentives and performance agreements.

Many organizations offer global management awareness as globalization continues on. Hofstede’s work on Management by Objectives (MBO) proves that leadership, decision making, teamwork and actually everything managers do is learned. It’s important that companies take the initiative to teach their management about the importance of culture not only at the national level but also at the organizational level as philosophies is different depending on the country. His four dimensions of national culture helped many to create influence and embrace cultural awareness in the workplace by helping people understand that the differences in management styles, cultureal uniqueness and systems aren’t less effective than others they are simply created by the collective culture from which they were born and have to be recognized and understood rather than assumed as less effective and significant in promoting synergies.

Reference:

Moran, Harris, Moran (2011) Managing Cultural Differnces, Global Leaders and Culture Pgs 18 – 27

PSU World Campus (2014) OLEAD 497B Leadership in a Global Contexst

Hofstede, G. & Hofstede, G. J. (n.d.). Dimensions of national cultures. Retrieved from http://www.geerthofstede.com/dimensions-of-national-cultures

Hello fellow classmates. I have created my Blog and it can be found at http://sites.psu.edu/porschevzw/

Below is a picture with me and “El Tiante”. Tiant pitched a 229–172 record with 2416 strikeouts, a 3.30 ERA in 3,486.1 innings. He was inducted to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1997. In 2013, a grass-roots campaign was started to get him elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as he was on the ballot from 1988 to 2002 but never received enough votes. He is also a member of the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame.

El Tiante was a three time All Star who played for 6 different ball clubs in America after playing for the Havana Sugar Kings and the Mexico City Tigers. He also played in Venezuala in parts of seasons from 1966 to 1982 and is a member of the Venezuala Baseball Hall of Fame. He and his family were affected by the Castro regime for many years until they were reunited in Boston in 1975.

The reason I chose to expose Luis Tiant is because he is a great ambassador for the game of baseball and embodies the characteristics of global leadership. Anyone that can play both for the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees understands the “notion of differences” (Redmond, 2014). His ability to adapt to difficulty was urther proven when he changed his pitching style after suffering an arm injury, creating his unorthodox delivery which cemented his winning record and made him one of the most respected pitchers in baseball history.

He is a pitching advisor today for the Boston Red Sox. I invite you to read more about him in the link below.

References:

Armour, Mark (Date Unkown) Luis Tiant Retrived from: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/2212deaf
Redmond, Brian (2014) PSU World Campus Lesson 1