International Management

Insights from Fiction and Practice

Sheila M. Puffer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Topic: Business
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317467472
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Exploring topics covered in international management courses, this book pairs business articles and fictional short stories to provide practical guidelines and concrete examples and convey cultural subtleties and shades of meaning.

PART I

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PHASES OF CROSS-CULTURAL EXPERIENCE

SECTION 1. CULTURAL AND COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES

The images we create in our minds of life in other cultures can be intriguing, exotic, or curious but not necessarily well informed or accurate. Even with careful preparation and keeping an open mind, the actual experience of other cultures can be confusing and can hold many surprises. In “Name Six Famous Belgians,” a well-intentioned Philadelphia couple take a vacation in Europe in search of “a certain degree of insulation from the abrasions of life.” Instead, they encounter a series of bewildering and irritating situations. Compounding their confusion and distaste are unpleasant past experiences that keep them from seeing other cultures in a positive light.

“American Dreams” recounts a young Australian boy’s fantasizing about America, “because we all have dreams of the big city, of wealth, of modern houses, of big motor cars: American dreams, my father has called them.” In contrast, “for our town, my father says, we have nothing but contempt.” Life changes dramatically when the town becomes a tourist attraction that Americans come en masse to visit.

Language is a key to understanding and functioning in a culture. Written by an English instructor, “English as a Second Language” is a testimony to the fortitude and determination of immigrants coming to America to build a new life. For them, learning English is a matter of survival. The story portrays immigrants who practice their new language skills by recounting incidents from their lives of extreme hardship and violent conditions in the developing world. One of them, Maria Perez from Guatemala, “is an inspiration to her classmates. Not only has she learned to read and write in her new language, but she initiated an oral history project in which she taped and transcribed interviews with other students, who have told their stories from around the world.”

“The Awful German Language” is a playful account by a famous frustrated language student, the American humorist Mark Twain. Attempting to learn German more than a century ago, he drolly complains, “Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp.” Rather than make the effort to master its complexities, Twain declares that the German language needs reforming and offers eight suggestions to simplify it.

SECTION 2. SETTLING INTO NEW SURROUNDINGS

Living abroad is often a family affair, with adjustment to the new culture being difficult for both accompanying family members as well as the employee on a foreign assignment. In “Saree of the Gods,” a young Indian couple tries to adapt to life in New York City by inviting two American couples for dinner. The husband’s objective is to build closer relationships with his work colleagues, but his newly arrived wife has difficulty accepting the cultural differences. An accident that damages her prized dress causes her to resent the guests and blame her husband for “lavishing food and liquor that they could scarcely afford on the people that were yet to be called friends.”

“How to Be an Expatriate” is written in a no nonsense style that reads like a how-to manual of practical advice for people about to embark on an international assignment. In fact, it is a diary of the ups and downs of a young British man who leaves home for a year to study in Boston, with his anxious parents trying not to interfere. He stays in the United States for several years, making occasional trips home, and questions his identity when “your best friend tells you you’ve changed.”

SECTION 3. COMING HOME

An overseas assignment is a life-changing experience, and coming home can be traumatic in its own way. Exposure to another culture alters a person’s perspective and prompts questions about one’s own culture. In “Yard Sale,” the culture of Polynesia “clearly got into the bones” of a young Peace Corps volunteer in Samoa. Returning to Cape Cod after a two-year assignment, he nearly drives his aunt to distraction with incessant stories about how life in Samoa is better than life in the United States. Greater sensitivity to his aunt’s point of view would have helped smooth the young man’s reentry and made her more receptive to his experiences.

In “Letter from Gaza,” a young student explains to his friend who moved to California that he is declining the opportunity to study civil engineering at the University of California. Instead, he has decided to stay at home after visiting his thirteen-year-old niece who has been wounded. He vows, “No, I’ll stay here, and I won’t ever leave.” He then asks, “What is this ill-defined tie we had with Gaza which blunted our enthusiasm for flight?”

SECTION 4. MANAGERIAL INSIGHTS

As the stories “Name Six Famous Belgians” and “American Dreams” illustrate, beginning the cross-cultural experience can be daunting and confusing. With little information to guide us, we often rely on imperfect stereotypes of another culture. It can be puzzling, however, when people do not behave according to these stereotypes. In such cases, cultural paradoxes arise. “Beyond Sophisticated Stereotyping: Cultural Sensemaking in Context” provides a model for identifying the sources of cultural paradoxes and for understanding how certain cultural values take precedence over others in specific situations.

Learning a foreign language requires patience, practice, and a willingness to make mistakes. “English as a Second Language” and “The Awful German Language” touch on the pitfalls of expressing oneself in another tongue. Although English is the major international language of business, “‘Englishes’ in Cross-Cultural Business Communication” points out that many variations of English exist that are accepted as standard in different parts of the world. Miscommunication can occur because of differences in English usage and misunderstanding of cultural meanings. Tips are offered to reduce the incidence of bypassing in cross-cultural communication.

The family members of expatriates described in “Saree of the Gods” and “How to Be an Expatriate” might have fared better in their new surroundings had they benefited from the findings reported in “When Managing Expatriate Adjustment, Don’t Forget the Spouse.” A key to successful adjustment of spouses is how well the spouse can reestablish his or her identity in the new culture. Surprisingly, spouses who believed they had good social skills were actually somewhat less likely to adjust successfully.

Maintaining loyalty to both the home office and operations abroad is a delicate balance for managers in international assignments. “Adapting to a Boundaryless World: A Developmental Expatriate Model” identifies the Stressors and coping responses in the various stages of expatriate life. Accepting the paradox of two cultural identities is an essential coping mechanism. The characters in all the stories in this section exhibit various Stressors and coping responses that can be analyzed with this reading.

Section 1

——— Cultural and Communication Challenges ———

1.1 NAME SIX FAMOUS BELGIANS

David R. Slavitt

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What they give you when you check into the Villa Igiea is a little card to carry with you—but not in your wallet, presumably—to certify that you are a guest in the hotel and that you are insured. The pamphlet that comes with the card explains the insurance policy the hotel carries that covers you in case your pocket is picked, your wallet stolen, your purse snatched, or even worse. If you have a mind to, you can read through the impressive document until you get to the clause about how, if you are hospitalized, your next of kin will be brought to Palermo from anywhere in the world. Or about how, if you are killed, your body will be shipped home at no charge to your estate.

Bad as it is back in Philadelphia, it has not yet come to this. But then Palermo has had a couple of millennia headstart.

With a straight face, Harry thanked the desk clerk, but when they got up to their room, he and Joan made nervous jokes about it. Out through the double doors of their balcony they could see the glassy Mediterranean, more pacific than the Pacific. They simply couldn’t believe it—not that there could be such lawlessness as the insurance company’s document implied, but that it could be so taken for granted. Harry supposed it was remotely possible that this could be a gesture the management made to give the tourists a pleasant frisson of fear, to suggest without seriously inconveniencing anyone the depredations either of the Mafia or merely ot the desperately poor. It would be going too far to subject their guests to the disagreeable business of an actual mugging.

Far from the center of town, the Villa Igiea is secluded in its own gardened enclave. From the balcony of their room, Harry and Joan could look left to the open sea. A little to the right, they could see a couple of giant cranes of the port. The city itself, though, was out of sight, even farther to the right and behind them. Harry’s idea had been that a certain degree of insulation from the abrasions of life in a strange and poor city would be a good thing, especially on the first days of their visit when they were still acclimating themselves not only to local customs but also to the water and the time of day. Recovering from jet lag, they wanted at least the possibility of respite from assaults by Sicilian exuberance.

And it looked as though it would work out just as they’d hoped. The only trouble was that, being a little way out of town, they had to drive to do any sightseeing or to eat anywhere except in the hotel dining room, and the map Avis had given them was almost useless. It did not show one-way streets, which was essential in a place like Palermo. Navigation was further complicated by the absence of any systematic posting of street signs. It was one thing to find a street on a map, but quite another to find it out in the real world. This was Joan’s job, and she complained a lot. Harry complained, too, about the stick shift of the underpowered and overgeared Fiat Uno they’d been given and the erratic driving habits of the Sicilians, who slowed down for red lights but did not feel obligated to come to anything as deferential as a full stop. And people on motor scooters wove through the traffic in a demonstration of a death wish, the fulfillment of which was occasionally celebrated by a blare of sirens from ambulances and police cars, which in their haste contributed to the excitement and general sense of peril.

It was in an attempt to circumvent the busy center of town and save themselves a little time and stress that they got lost on the morning of their second day. And perhaps they were a little crabby with each other, too. Joan kept insisting that Harry pull over and stop so that she could find where they were on the wretched Avis map. Eventually he did so, but gracelessly. He stared through the windshield, making no effort to hide his impatience with her. Hers was an easier job, after all, and if he could do the driving, then she ought to be able to keep track of where they were and where they wanted to go. He waited while she pored over the tiny print of the map on her lap, and then quite suddenly she screamed. Harry turned toward her, not yet thinking anything, but shocked, this being an excessive display of her frustration with the map and with him. He was startled and puzzled, and not quite certain that he’d seen what he thought he’d seen—the blur of a disappearing hand.

“He tried to grab my purse,” Joan said. Her voice was high, not shrill but unnatur...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Part I. Phases of Cross-Cultural Experience
• Part II. Values and Ethics
• Part III. Power and Group Dynamics
• Part IV. Doing Business Together
• About the Editor