Japan is a nation comprised of four main large islands along with roughly 4,000 smaller islands in East Asia. Estimates of how long the civilization has existed vary, but its current culture has been around for at least 2,000 years, with evidence that people have been inhabiting the islands for at least 32,000 years, and there are signs of human culture emerging roughly 12,000 years ago (PSU, 2021, p.1, para. 1). In the past Japan was very traditional in a cultural sense. Even today in business they respect authority, and are deferential to their superiors.

Historically Japan is commonly and stereotypically known as a land of nobility and chivalry, with values such as honor, pride, and perseverance. These form a moral code of everyday living that has permeated Japanese society for generations, even centuries (Abramson & Moran, 2018). With this kind of mindset one can begin to understand how Western influence can appeal to younger generations. Especially as it relates to pop-culture, music, and even food and drink!

An article I read recently spoke to this sentiment, and how Japan was embracing certain cultural aspects, and enhancing them with their take. For the longest time it was fast food, movies and chain stores but now that is changing. Recently “Osaka-based Suntory, a Japanese conglomerate best known for its whiskey holdings, announced that it was buying Beam Inc., thus acquiring the iconic American bourbon brands Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark” (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-japan-copied-american-culture-and-made-it-better-180950189). With that move Japan has embraced a decidedly American brand, and yet is creating new cocktails, and version of the liquor. By doing this they are making it either better, of maybe even their own.

Much like their traditional past, in the food and beverage world the Japanese are pursuing a mastery of sorts. The younger generations are taking something that was not theirs at all, and putting a unique Japanese spin on it. This recreation has extended to Jazz, clothing, and food. While they have always produced some of the greatest Kobe/Wagyu beef on earth, the meat can now be found in American style burgers.

Some people would argue that an element of cultural appropriation is happening, but I see the flowering of globalization! I love the idea that because the world is getting smaller, and communication/ideas flow more freely, that other cultures mimic and expand on creations that were not theirs. I look at this as a positive, because you now have others enjoying aspects of American culture. And even possibly showing Americans a different spin, whether it be creating new food/musical sounds/clothing etc.

In my opinion this class is teaching us to respect different cultures, and to embrace different elements. While I think their is line between what is appropriate and what is not, this version is potentially taking something and making it better. And for me that is wildly positive, and in a sense more inclusive!

Has anyone in the class been to Japan and experienced this firsthand?

And do anyone have a differing opinion on this not being positive, but looking at this as a culture vulture?

Thanks,

Bill Egan

References

Abramson, N. R., Moran, R. T., Moran, S. V. (2018). Managing Cultural Differences (10^th ed.). Oxford: Routledge. New York, NY.

The Pennsylvania State University, (2021). Lesson 11: Asia: Focus on Japan. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2146712/modules/items/32847706

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-japan-copied-american-culture-and-made-it-better-180950189/

Latin America comprises all of South and Central America, and Mexico which is part of North America (PSU, 2021, p.1, para 1). It has a variety of distinct cultures mostly due to distance between civilizations, rugged geography, and former colonial influence. While Spanish is the most widely spoken language, countries like Brazil officially speak Portuguese, while some others have a variety of official languages like English, Dutch, and French (PSU, 2021, p.1, para 2).

Many of the countries in Latin America have traditionally lagged behind other parts of the world (North America/Asia/Europe) with respect to their economies and how developed those economies were. “Despite their natural beauty and resources, the Latin countries have been plagued by poverty, despotic governments, bloody revolutions, and profound social unrest. Part of this has been caused by the financial mismanagement of their enormous natural and human resources, and partly by the unequal distribution of wealth and power that is concentrated among less than 5 percent of the total population—the upper-class, educated “elites” (Abramson & Moran, 2018, p.405).

In recent years this has been changing in a positive way, as many economies in Latin America are now growing at a tremendous rate (PSU, 2021, p.2, para 1). This is due to the various countries tapping into their natural resources, modernization, and expansion of wealth for more than just an elite few (PSU, 2021, p. 2, para. 1). This growth has led an increase in foreign influence, as well improvements in education and technology (PSU, 2021, p. 2. para. 2).

The increase in the level of technology has been specifically important during the Covid-19 pandemic which is still affecting people across the globe. Citizens of the world have had to adjust to how they typically went about their daily lives, and find new ways of doing business. With Latin America’s continued emergence as a growing market, we saw a huge increase in e-commerce there. Specifically in retail e-commerce which rose by 37% in 2020 (https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/news/how-covid-19-triggered-latin-american-e-commerce-boom).

Prior to Covid-19, e-commerce activity was comparatively low across Latin America. Some of the issues that held it back were by the “region’s substantial unbanked population, complicated logistics connections and general lack of trust in online methods” (https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/news/how-covid-19-triggered-latin-american-e-commerce-boom). As with the rest of the world, people had to change the way their daily lives operated, and this led to a positive effect as it relates to online shopping. Simply put many of the traditional brick and mortars would not have been able to survive had people not transitioned to buying online.

A few interesting statistics I came across were that an estimated 13 million people in Latin America purchased something online for the first time. “Retail e-commerce grew by 36.7% to around $85bn, according to data company Statista. On a national basis, particularly significant growth was seen in Argentina (79%), Brazil (35%) and Mexico (27%)” (https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/news/how-covid-19-triggered-latin-american-e-commerce-boom).

These numbers still fall behind traditionally strong economic centers like Asia/Pacific, Europe, and North America, but it does show that Latin America is an area to keep an eye on when thinking about business strategies, and trade in the upcoming years. A number of local players like Mercado Libre and Rappi have shown tremendous growth since the onset of Covid-19. And that has led to greater foreign investment from companies like Visa, and Japan’s Softbank (https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/news/how-covid-19-triggered-latin-american-e-commerce-boom).

While the pandemic has slowed business worldwide for everyone, Latin America’s recent growth in the past twenty years as an emerging market, and specifically during the pandemic, shows that as business leaders we constantly need to readjust to circumstances. And Latin America in particular is showing the world the importance of not always relying on what has been, but looking for opportunities in the future!

References

Abramson, N. R., Moran, R. T., Moran, S. V. (2018). Managing Cultural Differences (10^th ed.). Oxford: Routledge. New York, NY.

The Pennsylvania State University. (2021). Lesson 8: South America: Focus on Brazil. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2146712/modules/items/32847689

https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/news/how-covid-19-triggered-latin-american-e-commerce-boom

 

 

 

As globalization continues to happen, and shows no signs of slowing down in the near future, as business leaders we need to understand how to operate effectively in different cultures. In this case specifically in Saudi Arabia, who has been an military ally, and a business partner especially as it relates to oil. We currently have five military bases throughout the country (https://militarybases.com/overseas/saudi-arabia/). And from an oil standpoint Saudi Arabia is the largest producer in OPEC, and account for 7% of the petroleum products the United States imports in a given year (https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/oil-and-petroleum-products/imports-and-exports.php). With not only a strategic partnership in place, but also an economic partner we as a country need to understand how to work through differences, and understand the needs of each other.

Part of doing this is to understand their culture ,and create synergy. This includes precursors which are knowledge of differences, communication, learning, and the ability to change (PSU, 2021 p.1 para 1). Synergy is commonly defined as a cooperative or combined action, and occurs when diverse or disparate individuals or groups collaborate for a common cause (Abramson & Moran, 2018, p.266). In this case the collaboration between the United States and Saudi Arabia as it relates to shared interests.

In my opinion to truly reach a point where we can have a level of cultural synergy, we need to understand the differences we have, and build a bridge too understanding.  This idea of cultural synergy is an extension of synergy, but just at a cultural level as opposed to an individual level (PSU, 2021, p. 1, para 1). As a business leader we need to recognize that we are different but also look to use those differences as potential learning points.

Saudi Arabia as a country has existed since only 1932 and was founded by ABD AL-AZIZ bin Abd al-Rahman Al SAUD after a lengthy campaign to unify most of the Arabian Peninsula (CIA, n.d.). Although the country has a long standing Islamic culture which dates back over 1,400 years. The house of Saud has ruled since 1932, with a succession princes from the royal family of over 30,000 (Abramson & Moran, 2018,  p.391). The family essentially holds all the important positions of power and is estimated to have a worth in the hundreds of billions of dollars (Abramson & Moran, 2018, p.391).

The country is considered Arabic, and is the birthplace of Islam, founded over 1400 years ago by the Prophet Mohammed . As a country the religion is 100% Muslim, with a demographic breakdown of 90% Arab, and 10% Afro-Asian (Abramson & Moran, 2018, p.390). Islam is intertwined into daily life, as it is not only a religion but also a way of life. Sharia law is a guiding force in how one lives their life, but also how the country itself operates.

This extends to traditional male/female roles and historically has limited opportunities for women in the past. “Islam limits the number of wives a man may have by imposing restrictions on divorce, and ensuring a woman’s rights to property and inheritance from her husband or father. Men may divorce their wives with a simple oath, while women must plead before an all-male, extremist Wahhabist judiciary, and mothers have no right to custody of the children. Husbands may deny wives the right to travel, work, or study at university. Following the impact of the first Gulf War with Iraq, women began a quiet revolution” (Abramson & Moran, 2018, p. 391).

Though with some recent changes, and the country being forced to moved towards the modern world, Saudi women have begun to enter the business world and the professions, especially teaching, along with social and public services. They currently make up more than half of university enrollment, but still number only a fraction of the workforce. Despite social limitations on women, as well as bans on driving, travel, and political activity, Saudi women are slowly forging ahead (Abramson & Moran, 2018, p. 391).

As a country the Unites States has a great deal of differences with Saudi Arabia. Many of the points above are in stark contrast to what we as Americans experience in our daily lives, the religions we practice, and how male/female roles are laid out. With that being said when conducting business in Saudi Arabia, we as leaders need to understand that we can’t simply dictate what we believe to be correct. Culturally we need to understand the differences and work towards fostering relations that respect those differences.

With the discovery of oil, and the thirst for the product worldwide, the Middle East has experienced an influx of foreigners to their lands. As the world continues to move in the direction of globalization, we need to learn about our counterparts, and how we view them, as well as how they view us.

These are some of the common thoughts from Middle Easterners as it relates to people coming from outside their world (Abramson & Moran, 2018, p. 399).

-Many foreigners express superiority and arrogance. They know the answers to everything.
-Many do not want to share the credit for what is accomplished by joint efforts.
-Many are frequently unable or unwilling to respect and adjust to local customs and culture.
-Some fail to innovate to meet the needs of local culture, preferring to seek easy solutions based on the situation in their own homeland.
-Some individuals refuse to work through the normal administrative channels of the country, and do not respect local legal and contractual procedures.
-Some tend to lose their democratic ways when on foreign assignments, becoming instead more autocratic and managing by instilling fear in subordinates.
-Westerners are often too imposing, aggressive, pushy, and rude.
-There is frustration over American and European imbalance in support and aid for Israel, in contrast to the Palestinian cause and human rights.

Most of what I gather from this is the need for clear and concise communication. In my opinion for us to continue to partner with people from countries like Saudi Arabia, we need to foster more communication. This extends to not only how we speak to our counterparts, but also understanding them from a cultural standpoint. We have learned their is always distortion when sending messages from encoder to decoder, but what I also see is potential for breakdowns in the communication process (PSU, 2021, p. 1, para 1). These breakdowns relate to differences in cultural diversity, and only when we understand our differences can we begin to bridge the gap (PSU, 2021, p. 1 para 5).

As leaders what are some of the ways in which you think we can open up more opportunities with a culture that is much different than our own?

Thanks,

Bill Egan

References

Abramson, N. R., Moran, R. T., Moran, S. V., (2018). Managing Cultural Differences. (10^th ed.). Oxford: Routledge. New York, NY.

Pennsylvania State University (2021). Lesson 3: Diversity–OLEAD 410. [Online course lesson]. Retrieved from: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2146712/modules/items/3

Pennsylvania State University (2021). Lesson 6: Cultural Synergy–OLEAD 410. [Online course lesson]. Retrieved from: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2146712/modules/items/3

Pennsylvania State University (2021). Lesson 7: The Middle East: Focus on Saudi Arabia- OLEAD 410. [Online course lesson]. Retrieved from: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2146712/modules/items/32847683

https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/saudi-arabia/#people-and-society

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/oil-and-petroleum-products/imports-and-exports.php

https://militarybases.com/overseas/saudi-arabia/https://militarybases.com/overseas/saudi-arabia/

“At its most basic level, communication is about the exchange of information between individuals” (PSU, 2021, p.1, para 2). This exchange of information in the workplace can come in a variety of forms. This includes verbal which can be written or oral, as well as non-verbal which would include gestures, facial expressions, body language etc. (PSU, 2020). “For our purposes, we will define communication as interpersonal acts that exchange meaning and information” (PSU, 2021, p. 1, para 2).

The process of communication is fairly basic idea, essentially you have a message, and it is conveyed by the sender, and interpreted by the receiver. This process is understood as encoding and decoding. With the sender being the encoder, and the receiver being the decoder. This process is extremely important because the message can easily be misunderstood because of noise and bias (PSU, 2021, p. 2, para 2). This noise is critical because it can consist of a variety elements that can distort the message. They can be a multitude of factors such as values, beliefs, vocabulary, interests, goals, mood etc. (PSU, 2020). With these factors in mind, a person can begin to understand how and why it is essential to be clear and concise when attempting to send messages.

When we communicate we are trying to create a shared reality. A situation where the encoder and decoder are able to understand a message, and have created a mutual understanding (PSU, 2020). Unfortunately this is not always easily done. More often than not egocentrism plays a huge role, in a lack of understanding during the communication process. Egocentrism is basically “an inability to take on other people’s perspective” (PSU, 2021, p. 3, para 1). Because of this messages are too often muddled, and not easily understood. And generally can create scenarios where colleagues are not able to understand each other, which leads to breakdowns in communication, and at times animosity within the workplace.

A recent example of the importance of communication, and how it relates to the workplace was on full display at my place of employment. I work in sales, but am more involved in the overall process because I am a department lead. Typically our sales people turn in a job, and then are hands off as it relates to the rest of the process. In my position since I oversee the sales team, I follow the process as it relates to scheduling, execution, report submittal, and then billing.

Last week when my colleagues were in the scheduling aspect of the process, I witnessed firsthand how important communication is at relates to the workplace. A colleague of mine sent an e-mail (verbal- written) to another colleague asking for her to update the the tracker with the correct scheduling contact. The tracker is simply a database where we house contact info, manpower for the job, cost etc. She stated that the scheduling contact was incorrect, and asked for it to be updated because she got an earful from the person she tried to contact. At the basic level a relatively harmless e-mail, just trying to get an update.

Unfortunately because of a lack of shared reality and bias, the person who received the message (decoder) responded in a negative fashion, and the entire communication process had a breakdown. My colleague who was the receiver was defensive, and responded in a manner that was inappropriate. What she perceived was a slight, was truly nothing more than a question. Her response was snarky, and even involved bringing the sales person into the issue as well. This highlights the importance of how you address someone in e-mail, the tone that can be perceived, and how this can hurt a team’s camaraderie, and a person’s feelings. Unfortunately a few more e-mails were sent back and forth before I got involved in the process. This transpired on Friday towards the back half of the day, and for my part led to me having to sit down with both of my colleagues, and discuss what happened.

Today my morning will be spent on follow up between my colleagues, and trying to continue to soothe a situation that got out of hand rather quickly. What started once again as a harmless question, turned into an employee getting defensive and escalating the situation from there. This example without boring everyone and getting into more details, highlights the importance of communication, and it’s importance in the workplace. What one person may perceive as harmless, another person may perceive as a slight towards them. In my opinion this ties directly back to egocentrism, and how it relates to taking on other’s perspective!

References

The Pennsylvania State University, (2020). Lesson 2: Communications in Organizations. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2085495/pages/l02-overview?module_item_id=29870127

The Pennsylvania State University, (2021). Lesson 3: Diversity. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2146712/modules/items/32847665

Hello everyone,

My name is Bill Egan, and I reside in West Chester, PA with my wife and two dogs. I am currently pursuing a degree in Organizational Leadership. Mainly just to keep a fresh perspective, as I am already 15 years into my career.

I work in the construction business, specifically Fire Alarm and Sprinkler inspection/service and new install. I work on the Sales side, but am a team lead, and decided to pursue another Bachelor’s in OLEAD just to enhance my abilities at work.

In my free time I enjoy working out, golfing, traveling reading, checking out my favorite sports teams.

Good luck this semester!

Bill Egan