Introduction (290)
In this era of rapid globalization, international businesses are getting a lot more intense among the countries. International business is basically defined as a comprised of all the dealings between two or more countries and regions such as sales, investments, logistics and transportation and others. To operate an international business, it is necessary and is very important to understand not only the domestic culture and also the culture of the host country (Piepenburg, 2011). Different countries have different behaviors. For example, the way of Japanese people to greet someone, they make a bow in order to say hello. However, Americans usually shake their hands with people who they meet. Moreover, different countries also
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In collectivist cultures, people not only looking after themselves and also group that they belong to in exchange of loyalty. Collectivists tend to work towards collective rather than personal goals and are responsible to the group for their actions. Moreover, success and failure tend to be shared among the work place rather than any particular individual’s one.
Masculinity versus Femininity
Hofstede described masculinity as the degree to which culture value aggressive goal orientation, personal achievement, competitiveness, assertiveness and their wealth accumulation whereas femininity is the degree to which culture value quality of life, relationship and cooperation in the society. Countries that have high side of this dimension such as Japan, Italy and Germany are masculine society. People in masculine society tend to be very decisive and put more attention on their career. Work is clearly prevails over the family and it is an acceptable excuse to neglect family but not for family.
However, people in feminine society, whether men or women, try to balance family and work. In such a culture, women are encouraged to work and take care of the family at the same time. In feminine society, family comes first before work. Therefore, femininity demonstrates passive goal behavior. The examples of feminine culture of countries are Norway, Denmark and
Collectivism is the idea that a group 's needs must be put before the needs of oneself and the society functions as “we” rather that “me”. Throughout the stories one sees how each author portrays the use of a collectivist society though uniqueness, equality, and transgression. There are many similarities between the novella Anthem by Ayn Rand and the story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. In Anthem and “Harrison Bergeron” one could see that a similar theme is that going against the grain causes consequences. According to “Harrison Bergeron” a ballerina states that “ ‘Harrison Bergeron age fourteen,’ she said in a grackle squawk, ‘has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government.
Life comes with the difficulty of trying to manage family and career at the same time. In the article, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” the author Anne-Marie Slaughter is explaining how tough it is to balance family and career together. You have to take out time for your kids or else they will drift away from you, but you also have your job to handle or else you will lose that. Women have not yet received the fairness with men in workforce. I believe that it is tough for a women to handle her family and career together, and men get recognized more than women in the workforce.
A major idea presented about the society in Ayn Rand’s Anthem is “we are all in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever” (19). The collectivist society presented in the novella suppresses and outlaws any who consider themselves individuals. As these suppressions grow in the future, they eventually evolve into a dark age. In Anthem, society’s control is used to represent collectivism.
Women and the battle to maintain a work-lifestyle balance has been consistently debated and toyed with by society for ages. Anne-Marie Slaughter, Professor of Politics and author of “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” explains the continuous hardship of balancing a career and a family; as well, Stephen Marche, writer and author of “Home Economics: The Link Between Work-Life and Income Equality” combats Slaughter’s article and the many gaps present in society. Slaughter and Marche compare and contrast the differences of the leadership gap between men and women, the strategies of maintaining a work-balance lifestyle in regards to family, and the type of dialogue representing men in articles written by women. Anne-Marie Slaughter and Stephen
Dorment’s informal tone ranges from mocking to serious. Dorment argues that neither women nor men can equally balance work and family life. A separate, authoritative essay, “Working
The First chapter of the book, Anthem states,“It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil.” In the collectivist society Equality 7-2521 lives in, there are many rules put into place. In this society all must live as one and one must function as all.
Each culture has their own expectations, reactions and expectations. For example, in certain cultures speaking to loudly isn’t appropriate but in other cultures speaking to quietly isn’t appropriate as well. Some gestures that cultures do isn’t appropriate to other cultures. Kissing women on the cheeks is common but is unacceptable to many other cultures. Another gesture is handshaking, it may seem like a common thing to do when you meet someone or even greet someone.
Women and children are socialized to be submissive to male authority and the women’s role is clearly taking care of the home, the husband and the children (Coltrace, Park & Adams,
In her conventional view, a woman must support her husband by creating an organized home and nurturing him. Women are not only in charge of doing the housework and childcare, but they have their own individual dreams they want to reach. It is discriminatory towards women when they live under the social expectations of being uneducated and a supported wife. From the textual support, it is evident that women struggle to reach their individual goals under a male-dominant society that require women to be
The women were expected to create a happy home, guard the religion, and the morality of her family. The unmarried and married women who tried to seek work outside the home faced limited employment opportunities because of their gender. Women were expected to only focus on domestic duties and her role were limited to continue living in the man’s world. Women roles were expected to be in line with the culture and norms set by the society. The American culture perceived that women were not intellectually and emotionally stable to be involved in the complex world of work and, therefore, women did not take up leadership and political roles.
Most American people conserve eye contact while communicating, and also they are expertise in showing enthusiasm and compassion. When greeting in social situations women pat each other on the right forearm or on the shoulder, rather than shake hands where as men shake hands until they know someone well, at which time they progress to a more traditional hug and back slapping. conversation take place in close physical distance when stepping back may be regarded as unfriendly. generally, people refrain to use first names
Normally a Singaporeans greeting is looking at the person eyes and having a firm handshake. The Japanese greeting is lowering their eyes and bows the person with a firm handshake. Some Japanese they are aware of our handshake, so they will only greet us with a normal handshake but often to be a weak handshake. In Singapore to achieve high position in the company we have to base on our education and hard work but to the Japanese their age is equal to their rank. Both country use same professional title in formal situations, for us Singaporean we use Mr and Mrs, but for Japanese there use the word San as Mr and Mrs. Exchanging of business cards is common in both culture, as we Singapore business men we should prepare our business cards both side is printed in English and Japanese.
For example, consumers are becoming more similar in terms of lifestyles, income, aspirations and education. In order to clarify my statement, I would like to apply Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture. Masculinity and femininity is one of the Hofstede’s dimensions. The dominant values of masculine culture are achievement and success while dominant values in feminine cultures are caring for quality of life and others. The country that possesses the most masculine culture is Japan, which scores 95 (Geert and Mariake de, 2002).
However, it is not as collectivistic as most Asian neighbors. The most popular explanation for this is that Japanese society does not have extended family system which forms a base of more collectivistic societies such as China and Korea. At 95, Japan is one of the most Masculine societies in the world. However, in combination with their mild collectivism, you do not see assertive and competitive individual behaviors which we often associate with Masculine culture.
Masculinity versus femininity This dimension doesn’t correlate directly with gender roles or behaviours. Instead this is more orientated towards specific traits that Hofstede has defined as masculine and low masculine (femininity). A high masculine culture is characterized by focusing on money, possessions, and traditional family values. Feminine cultures are said to be relationship oriented, focused on quality of life, and failing is generally more accepted. This is best describe by the commonly used phrase “Americans live to work, while Europeans work to live.