Discuss the American manager's attitude toward objectivity in decision-making.
The very strong belief in the United States that business decisions are based on objective analysis and that managers strive to be scientific has a profound effect on the U.S. manager's attitudes toward objectivity in decision making and accuracy of data.
Although judgment and intuition are important tools for making decisions, most U.S. managers believe decisions must be supported and based on accurate and relevant information. Thus, in U.S. business, great emphasis is placed on the collection and free flow of information to all levels within the organization and on frankness of expression in the evaluation of business opinions or decisions.
In other cultures, such factual and rational support for decisions is not as important; the accuracy of data and even the proper reporting of data are not prime prerequisites. Furthermore, existing data frequently are for the eyes of a select few. The frankness of expression and openness in dealing with data, characteristic of U.S. businesses, do not fit easily into some cultures.
Learn More :
- List the government agencies that are involved in promoting foreign investment and international business.
- Whoville (made up country), as a country, would like to increase its control and ownership of foreign investments in its country. However, Whoville does not want to cut off or discourage foreign investment. Cite and describe a political risk strategy that Whoville could follow that would meet the aforementioned objective.
- What are the conditions under which relations between governments and MNCs are generally positive?
- Discuss the threats posed by cyberterrorism or cyberattacks with an example.
- Briefly discuss the role of PSAs and NGOs.
- List and briefly discuss the various economic risks that international companies must face when they seek to market abroad.
- Discuss and compare the terms confiscation, expropriation, and domestication.
- Describe the concept of nationalism and list some of the ways it manifests.
- Discuss stability of governments and list the main political causes of instability in international markets.
- Describe the characteristics of a sovereign state.
- In the context of business ethics, distinguish between bribery and extortion with examples.
- Why do U.S. multinational companies hesitate to offer women international assignments? Is this prejudice justified?
- Describe the popularity of a marketing orientation as compared to a product orientation.
- Distinguish between the two time systems in the world, as defined by Edward T. Hall - M-time and P-time.
- What is the fundamental notion of Western management practices? Is it universally acceptable?
- Suggest some cautions that an individual from a high context culture should take when dealing with someone from a low-context culture. Do the same for low- to high-context situations.
- Briefly describe the different types of business customs.
- How important is adaptation in international marketing? What are the basic criteria to deal with foreign firms?
- In the context of planned and unplanned cultural change, discuss the methods used by marketers to overcome resistance to change in an international marketing scenario.
- How does cultural sensitivity lead to successful foreign marketing?
- In the context of the elements of culture, illustrate the differences in "Asian and Western" thought as discussed by Richard Nisbett.
- In the context of the elements of culture, briefly discuss the concept of linguistic distance.
- Describe the relationship between Uncertainty Avoidance Index scores and stress.
- List the four dimensions of cultural values as given by Hofstede in the book and the 2 other dimensions introduced on the Hofstede website.