Culture and Gender issues in management

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTIONCultural Self –Awareness. Where is your culture located on Hofstede’s original four dimensions and on universalism/particularism? Howdoes your organizational culture differ from on each dimension?Cross-Cultural Awareness. Select a culture with which you have had contact. How does it differ from your own culture on Hofstede’soriginal four dimensions and on universalism/particularism? How might these differences show up in negotiations or ongoing businessrelationships?Cultural Self-Identify. In which ways are you a product of the culture in which you grew up? How does your personal culturalbackground affect your values, attitudes, thinking, and behavior ? How your cultural background make it easier fro you to workinternationally? How does your cultural background hinder your effectiveness in working internationally?Stereotyping. The most effective global managers use stereotypes. In what ways can you use stereotypes to our advantage when workingwith people from other cultures?Using Stereotyping. What stereotypes do you have about lawyers? About South Africans? If you had an appointment with two South AfricanLawyers, how you expect them to act? How would you prepare for the meeting?Communicating Across Cultures. Today many managers work with people from other cultures, both at home and when traveling abroad. Whatare some of the ways in which organization could train managers to communicate more effectively with people from other cultures?Communicating Nonverbally: Cultural Self-awareness. In seeking to understand the importance of nonverbal communication, we must startby examining ourselves. Describe four examples of nonverbal communication that you commonly use and what each means to you. Thenindicate how each might be misinterpreted by someone from another culture.Choosing an Approach. Select an organizational problem involving more than one culture that you currently facing or have faced in thepast. How you develop a culturally synergistic solution to the problem?Reducing Cultural Blindness. For many organizations, a major problem is a cultural blindness. In the organizations you know , whatfactors cause managers to remain blind to the impact of cultural diversity? What would you recommend to decrease manager’s work relatedcultural blindness?Creating Cultural Synergy. Select a cross-cultural conflict situation that is currently in the news or occurring in your organization.As a consultant, what would you recommend to help parties involved create a culturally synergist solution? Describe a potentiallysynergistic solution to the situation?Advantages of Cultural Diversity. What advantages do global companies gain by using multicultural senior management team? What are theadvantages of using homogeneous team of senior executives each type of senior executive team?Managing Team’s Cultural Diversity. As a team leader, what could you do to help a multinational team work more effectively than adomestic team? What major problems might occur and how might you best handle them?Multicultural team Dynamics. Think of the teams you have worked with or heard about. How have the group dynamics differed inmultinational, bicultural, token, and single-culture teams?Potential Productivity Losses. Identify some potential productivity losses caused by faulty process that had occurred in multiculturalteams you have worked with or observed. How might the team have minimized these problems?World Leaders. Publicly elected officials display the leader-ship values and behaviors of their culture. Select two prominent worldleaders and describe their behavior in cultural terms.Most Admired Global Leaders.Select global leader whom you strongly admire-known personally to you or not. List the qualities,characteristics, and behaviors that make you admire this particular leader. In what ways the qualities characteristics, and behaviorsthat you admired reflective of ether your own cultural background or that of the particular leader you have chosen.