issues and Opportunities Facing Global Communications

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Please see response attached, as well as one supporting article to consider. I hope this helps and take care.

RESPONSE:

1. What are the issues and opportunities facing Global Communications? Make sure that you take into consideration all stakeholder perspectives and ethical dilemmas that may be present.

This question is fairly straightforward. In the following discussion, I will point out potential ethical issues (capital letters and bracketed). Global Communication (verbal, written and non-verbal) involves all avenues of business, as that is the medium of every business transactions:

Opportunities and Challenges in Global Organizations

- The marketplace as well as the workplace is increasingly multicultural and diverse. Never before have people been required to work together with colleagues and customers from so many different countries and worldviews. More products and services are being consumed outside of their country of origin than ever before, thus increasing global competition. In addition, organizations are outsourcing offshore in order to stay competitive. Many functions are being shifted to India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Russia and other countries because of low labor costs, the availability of highly educated workers and the stabilization of technology.
- From the U.S. alone, Forrester Research predicts the migration of 3.3 million service and knowledge-based jobs overseas by the year 2015, 70 percent predicted to move to India.
- As opportunities for global expansion increase, so does the trend toward more diversity in the workplace. Successful companies are recruiting professionals with different backgrounds, cultures, styles and motivations. Yet this great resource presents increased possibilities for misunderstanding and cultural blunders. It is obvious that organizations will need to expand the capacity for people to handle the challenges of working with other cultures if they are to participate successfully. Those companies that continue to struggle with domestic diversity will find themselves even more challenged.
- Leaders must be flexible and be able to adapt to this diverse workforce and global consumers. This requires an understanding of the historical, political and economic references of people. Leaders must understand differences in worldviews, communication styles, ethics and etiquette of the people they deal with, both internally and externally. (ETHICAL DILEMMA IF THEY DO NOT TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO UNDERSTAND THESE DIFFERENCES).

A. Education: Learning about culture diversity:

-According to Richard D. Lewis (When Cultures Collide: Managing Successfully Across Cultures, 2000), the world's several hundred national and regional cultures can be put into three groups:

Linear-active: These are the task-oriented planners such as the Germans, Swedes, Swiss, Americans and the Dutch. In these cultures, people focus on a scheduled timeline and like to do one thing at a time.

Multi-active: These are people-oriented cultures that are more focused on interactions and dialogues, such as the Italians, French, Spanish, Mexicans, Portuguese and Arabs. They don't care as much about schedules or timelines. Meetings may run long; the priorities are the relationships that come from them.

Reactive: These are the more introverted cultures. They are respect-oriented listeners such as the Japanese, Chinese, Finns and Southeast Asians. They like to concentrate on what a speaker is saying and rarely interrupt. They often speak in monologues and may express ideas using a passive voice.

This simple perspective can help one to begin to understand basic differences in ways of doing business in foreign countries. However, one must be cautious to avoid working with unverified assumptions. (ETHICAL DILEMMA - IF ALL STAKEHOLDERS COMMUNICATE BASED ON PRECONCEIVED ASSUMPTIONS).

-According to Charles M. Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars, in their book Building Cross-Cultural Competence (Yale University Press, 2000), there are six dimensions to consider when doing business with a foreign culture (OTHERWISE, POTENTIAL ETHICAL DILEMMAS OCCUR ACROSS ALL STAKEHOLDERS AT EACH OF DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS MENTIONED BELOW).

1. Universalism versus Particularism: This is the degree to which a society emphasizes sameness or not. Those that do, value following rules, codes and laws. Those that don't value sameness believe that laws may or may not apply, depending on mitigating circumstances and friendships.

Of 46 countries surveyed, respondents in predominately Protestant, stable democracies (Switzerland, the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Australia, the U.K., and the Netherlands) stated that it is more important to follow the law than to protect a friend. Respondents in Catholic countries (Brazil, Spain, Poland, France, Mexico, Cuba and Venezuela) stated that it is more important to help a friend than to uphold a law when the two are in conflict. Those in Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu and Shinto countries (South Korea, China, Indonesia, Nepal, Japan and Singapore) side even more towards defending a friendship than upholding the law.

2. Individualism versus Communitarianism: This is the degree to which a society values competition, self-reliance, self-interest and personal growth versus cooperation, social concern, altruism, public service and societal legacy.

Individualist business cultures ...