Management- New Cultural Experience - Assignment Example

?Management Table of Contents Activity New Cultural Experience 3 Overview 3 Analysis 4 Linking with Contact theory 7 Activity 7: Ethical Dilemma Analysis 9 My case of ethical dilemma: 9 Ways of resolve the ethical dilemma 11 Reference List 12 Activity 1: New Cultural Experience Overview Culture can be defined as the “socially transmitted behavior patterns” (Steers, Runde and Nardon, 2013) beliefs, arts and other forms of human work and thoughts. It is different in different countries and it also identifies the development and the improvement of the human being through education and also by trainings. Culture of a certain country characterizes the beliefs and behaviors of particular ethnic or social age group or community (University of Oxford, 2011). I am a resident of United States and have gone to China for my job in a multinational company. There I have experienced a different culture altogether, which does not match with the culture of China. At first I was very much excited to embrace a new culture but slowly I understood that it is very stressful to get adapted and embrace a totally new culture. The first problem that was faced by me was the communication problem. But what really made me survive in the new country and saved me from my work and personal life complications, is the Zen meditation. I first came to know about the practice when one day a meditation class was arranged for the team members of the company. The meditation concept was decided by our employer, who understood our stressful condition and gave us the opportunity to improve our mind state and concentrate on our work. I was very much excited about the concept as I have never experienced such classes. The meditation class was held after the working hours. After attending the class I liked the whole concept of the activity and was very much interested to know more about the activity (Thorby, 2011). Analysis Zen meditation is developed within the Japanese Zen Buddhism. The Zen practice is very effective to human body as it provides deep relaxation both physically as well as mentally. The meditation connects us with the subconscious part of our mind and assists us to link with our consciousness with the inner world of our mind. Thus, the practice helps us to connect with the inner garden of our mind in time and reduce stress to give us easiness. It takes us to that level where we can reduce our daily tension in our work and non-work life. When we are contended with our action, behavior and have reduced stress that we are going through, we improve our connection with the outside world. This increases the joy and vitality of our life and makes us more creative. This will increase the vitality and joy of our life and makes us concentrate on the creativity. The regular practice enhances and strengthens the self concentration, brings improvement in the balance of our body and helps to increase our mental strength. It assists in integrating those parts of our body, which has blocked vitality and perception that provides us with safer platform in life. The meditation practice mainly focuses on the central part of our body and mind. The practice is very easy and can be exercised easily be practiced without having any religious inclinations. The concept was first developed in Soto School and in this school Zen means sitting. The practice is also called ZaZen which gives us the meaning true sitting (Stevenson, 2012). It is totally a new culture to me and following the Soto tradition and meditating in the same way as they do is quite impossible if not practiced well. We all know that as an instrument of feeling and perception, our body is the main focus of our mind. If our body is relaxed we are bound to stay happy. Any type of stress or tension disturbs our relaxed minds and thus it also harms our thought process and thus we become irritated very fast. Thus, it is very important to make our body relaxed, so that it does not affect our mind and thought process. Another critical activity of our body is breathing and apart from body it is also an important part to be concentrated upon. As we all know that breathing has been the anchor between our subconscious and conscious mind. The Zen practice is very simple and easy to learn. It does not require the practitioner to be psychologically or spiritually ambitious. I was amazed to know that anyone can learn it whoever wants to achieve the deep level of relaxation. It does not need any goal; it can be practiced by anyone who is interested in the practice. The reward that is got from the practice is more relaxed life and improved health condition. The members of the mediation team, who taught us the practice took me to be one of them and assisted me to follow the instructions. Though I am an out-group member but they treated me as if I belong to their group. That made me more comfortable and happy that in a new place I have been recognized as the member of a new culture of that place. The continuous classes helped me to know about the practice and examine the advantages of the same. I have also learned about the benefits of Zen Meditation which I have elaborated below: 1) It helps in improving health condition: a) Reduction of stress: The practice assists in reducing stress of human being and keeps them fit and relaxed. The practices also help in overcoming anxiety disorder including PTSD. It has shown that it reduces the recurrence of depression in patients. Stress affects the immune system, thus the practice will help the individual to overcome the situation and lead a normal life. b) Heals Chronic Pain: The practice helps to reduce pain up to 50% and it maintains its results for 4 years to some researchers. They have proved that any type of meditation or relaxation therapies have tremendously improved the low back pain problems, headaches and arthritis (Stevenson, 2012) c) Helps the Insomnia affected patients: It has been examined that about 75 % of the insomniac patients can go to deep and comfortable sleep after practicing Zen. d) Improves Mental Health: According to the surveys done by the health researchers, it has been found that there has been reduction in psychiatric symptoms up to 50% and decrease in anxiety among the residents, who are affected from depression, chronic pain, diabetes, anxiety, and hypertension (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel, 2005). 2) Zen meditation helps to focus on a particular work and eliminates the distraction that affects an individual in their daily life. This practice also helps in calming down temper and helps to make one free from any anxiety and bad thoughts (TNN, 2011). 3) The practice helps in achieving inner peace and stillness: It shows the immediate impact of serenity and greater calmness. By practicing more, an individual can expect high level of serenity and the sense of inner peace. Serenity is the capability to become a neutral observer and examine things as they are and do not react to the aversions and cravings. 4) It helps in removing suffering: Suffering is the result of extreme attachment and desire for anything. The desire then leads to yearn for pleasure and when it is not fulfilled the individual suffers. The Zen practice assists the individual to understand experience and deal with the unlikable situations with calmness (James, 2013). 5) Meditation can also bring compassion and loving-kindness for the unknown people: The researches of neuroscience engaged the Tibetan Buddhist Monks for 10,000 hours of meditation. The research showed the fact that the meditation has deep impact on brain by developing compassion towards unknown people. The study also proved the fact that mediating for a long time makes an individual feel happy and compassionate towards other. 6) Zen practice develops the power within an individual to understand the recent happenings and eliminate out the past activities. It helps in cultivating the mind by giving moment-to-moment awareness of the events that are happening now and helps to calm down the busy and occupied brain. It has a big application in the daily life of an individual, which helps in becoming happier and living a calm and peaceful life. Before joining the company and coming to China, I had a misconception about meditation. But after knowing about the great practice of Zen meditation and practicing it I have found a way of remaining happy and calm in the daily robust life (Blumberg, 2001). Linking with Contact theory The contact theory has been noticed as the best way of improving relations among the group that is facing conflicts. The theory elaborates that under suitable condition interpersonal contact is the most efficient way of reducing the conflict between the majority and the minority group. If an individual get the chance to communicate with others then he/she may understand and also appreciate the different viewpoints of the others (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel, 2005). Due to the understanding and the appreciation that is developed by the individual towards others, helps to reduce conflict between the two groups. The five conditions of contact theory are the equal status, intergroup cooperation, and common goals, support of authorities and laws and personal interaction. Equal status: Both the groups are treated equally. The characteristics of the groups should be same along with the qualities. Intergroup Cooperation: There should not be any competition among the groups. Common goals: The group works on a single problem and shares it as their common goal. The goal can be achieved, if the groups work together harmoniously and put in effort to eliminate the problem. Personal Interactions: The contact should involve personal and informal interaction with the out-group members (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel, 2005). Support of the authorities and law: The contact should give the authority to the group to acknowledge the social norms that are supporting the interaction between the groups. Among the five conditions, in my case three conditions can be explained successfully. The three conditions are personal interactions, common goals and intergroup cooperation. I being a minority group in the meditation class expected cooperation from all the members of the class and also from the tutors. I was happy to get their responses and concern for me. Both the groups were concentrating on the main goal of the class i.e. provide relaxation to both the groups and eliminate work life and non-work life problem from their lives. The tutors and the other majority groups, who are my fellow team members interacted with me informally and shared their personal incidents, which have made them weak. Thus, I enjoyed the classes a lot and also felt huge changes in my life and health after few classes (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel, 2005). Activity 7: Ethical Dilemma Analysis The existence of the ethical business dilemma can be noticed in an organization, when the decision makers face difficulty in choosing between more than two conflicting options that can have severe impact on the competitiveness and profitability of the organization. Secondly, it can impact the stakeholders of the company. Ethical dilemma has the characteristics of conflict. My case of ethical dilemma: The most common and sever ethical issues are related to the phenomena of globalization. Globalization is identified as the worldwide method with the help of which social and economic systems have been connected in such a way that the services, goods, intellectual knowledge, cultural and social knowledge are traded across the international borders. The rate of transfer has increased over 20 years. Now a day’s Multinational Corporations (MNC) has been transferring huge volume of transactions to other countries and maintains the main administration in the parent country (Jenkins and Ambrosini, 2002). The manufacturing services and operations are being maintained all over the worldwide. The MNCs extract capital, raw material and human labor from anywhere worldwide, where they find the cost of labor and resources cheap (Lynch, 2006). Many MNCs like Ford, Nokia, Motorola has build their assembly operations and factories in third world countries, where the cost of labor are low and they are quite well equipped with advanced technologies. These underdeveloped areas improve their standard of living by getting employment in these companies, but the effort and skills are not rightly paid. By using these cheap labors and resources, the companies sell the products at lower prices (Berman and Evans, 2006). I have faced this type of problem in the organization in which I got employment in China. The company recruited skilled workforce at a very low price from outside, whereas the domestic employees were paid higher than the cross border employees and I was one of them (DeGeorge, 2011). Thus, I felt that the effect of globalization have been causing severe inflicting harms to the world. Therefore, globalization has been beneficial to many of the underdeveloped countries and the employees like us, but it has also exploited the human resources of the countries in a bad manner. I have felt the differences in the treatment of the employees i.e. the domestic employees are treated well, whereas employees like me who are hired from other countries are ill treated regarding any decision making. We are not given any importance, when we give any suggestion or face any problem related to the work (Poole, 2004). I had seen many cases like the MNC’s in order to access cheap labor have shut down their factories in home country and left thousands of workers unemployed. They have moved to the third world countries, where they get cheap labor and can exploit the resources at a much lower cost. The main ethical issues that are pointed out by me from this situation are the following: 1) Do the multinationals have an obligation for trying to improve labor, wage standards of the various countries and the environment in which they operate? 2) What are their obligations to displace workers in their home countries? 3) Should they have obligation to abstain from exploiting the workers or should they keep on taking advantage of their hard work at a lower cost? 4) Do the MNC’s have any obligations toward people of the underdeveloped countries that use their technologies and protect them from possessing the risk of these technologies? 5) How will the MNC’s behave when they are operating in a different culture? The final ethical issue relates to different moral standards in different parts of the world. Ways of resolve the ethical dilemma B Background (clarifying the background of the dilemma) E Estimate (Analyzing the problem whether it is qualifying as an ethical dilemma or not) L List (Framing the alternatives to resolve the ethical dilemma) I Identify (Identifying the effects of the alternatives for solving the dilemma) E Elimination (Eliminating the unworkable solutions) V Values (the solutions which are selected should be matching with the values) E Evaluation (the solution is ranked) (Hotes, 2011) Range of perspectives that could be employed while solving this ethical dilemma: According to me this type of ethical dilemma can be resolved by the following approach: 1) Endaimonism: The approach believes in human well being, so whatever is to be done must be for the benefit for the human beings (Gallos, 2006). Thus, companies before planning out a business plan should chalk out the initiatives that will favor the human beings in its home country as well as foreign country. 2) Deontological Reasoning Theories: A) Compliance refers to those approach, where result is important but whether the standard is maintained is followed is also important. Thus, the company should obviously look for profit but should also engage themselves in thorough review and audit of the manufacturing and operation process whether it is maintaining the standard or not (Fernando, 2010). . B) Rights: Positive and negative. Everybody needs to have certain rights to protect their self interest. Thus, the company must device rules and regulations in such a way that should protect the self interest of the employees working in their company. 3) Social Justice: Justice can be defined as an equilibrium factor or mechanism between victim and wrong doer (Johnson and Scholes, 2008). It works in two ways: 1) Manifestation of the justice is the distribution of justice i.e. if something is needed then it is the necessity 2) It should be distributive i.e. the benefits must be distributed equally. Thus, the company treats the labors equally and distributes the labor scheme in such a way that no one is dissatisfied regarding their wage (Mintzberg and Quinn, 2003). Reference List Berman, B. and Evans, J., 2006. Retail management, a strategic approach. London: Prentice Hall.  Blumberg, J., 2001. The ethics of corporate social responsibility. [online] Available at: [Accessed 4 October 2013]. DeGeorge, R., 2011. Business ethics. New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd. Fernando, A., 2010. Business ethics: An Indian Perspectives. New Delhi: Pearson Education. Gallos, J., 2006. Organizational development. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons Inc. Hotes, W., 2011. Organizational development in 21st Century. Bloomington: iUniverse James, M., 2013. Interculturalism: Theory and Policy. [pdf] Available at: < www.cohesioninstitute.org.uk/live/images/cme_resources/Public/documents/ICD%20toolkit/interculturalism.pdf > [Accessed 4 October 2013]. Jenkins, N. and Ambrosini, V., 2002. Strategic management: A multiperspective approach. Basingstoke: Palgrave.  Johnson, G. and Scholes, K., 2008. Exploring corporate strategy. London: Prentice Hall.  Lynch, R., 2006. Corporate strategy. London: Prentice Hall.  Mintzberg, H. and Quinn, J., 2003. Strategy process and cases. London: Prentice Hall  Mintzberg, H., Ahlstrand, B. and Lampel, J., 2005. Strategy safari: A guided tour through the wilds of strategic management. London: Prentice Hall. Poole, M., 2004. Handbook of organizational change and innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Steers, R., Runde, C. and Nardon L., 2013. Management Across Culture. [pdf] Available at: [Accessed 4 October 2013]. Stevenson, L., 2012. Turnaround: from breakdown to breakthrough with open space technology. Human Resource Development International, 16 (1), p. 118. Thorby, D., 2011. Economics and culture. New York: Cambridge University Press. TNN, 2011. Zen the art of meditation. The Times of India, [online] 5 Feb. Available at: [Accessed 4 October 2013]. University of Oxford, 2011. Life in a New Culture. [online] available at: [Accessed 4 October 2013]. Read More