Dear freinds,
I open the blog today with a concrete example of the cross cultural implications of corporate social responsibility. This example is drawm from my work with corporations. There is a multinational corporation whose international headquarters are located from the corporation's beginnings, in the USA. Culturally, as understood through application of some of the lenses that are part of learning one's own culture, the USA is one of the nations in our world that values the individual and his/her individual accomplishments. The USA also values and functions in a manner that is farily comfortable with a short distance between the source of power and the individuals that the source of power is responsible for in the work setting. The USA is also considered to be masculine, although not as masculine in its cultural values as some other national cultures. This means that the USA cuture does value some of the feminine charactieristics, as understood in one of the lenses through which culture is understood.
The USA multinational corporation has chosen to open manufacturing operations in southern China, in response to an impetus by the Chinese government to bring manufacturing there. The Chinese culture values a collectivist outlook on individuals, meaning that the value of the individual is not as strong as the value of the group as a whole. This is quite a contrast to the USA value of individualism. The Chinese culture values a long distance between the source of power and those for whom the power source is responsible. Again this is in full contrast to the USA value regarding power distance. Finally, for this brief example, the Chinese culture highly values the masculine set of charactereistics, with very little if any value of the feminine characteristics in its culture. This measure is not totally opposite to the USA value here but is on a continuum, quite far from the more middle fo the road USA value of masculine characteristics with some feminine characteristics worked into the USA point of view.
If the USA corporation wishes to contribute in a meaningful way through its corporate social responsibility policy to the area where its southern Chinese operation is located, then the USA multinational must come to understand and to respect the Chinese values, as seen in its Chinese practices that will be part of the Chinese operation on a daily basis.
To the point, this example clarifies the importance of the First Best Practice for minimizing risk of all forms in managing successfully global contracting operations. Effective corporate social responsibility policy, effective for both the corporation and for the national culture where the corporation is working, should reflect a functional knowledge of the corporation's culture as well as that of the national culture where the corporation wishes to operate efficiently and effectively.
I look forward to hearing from you with your thoughts and or experiences on this blog topic.
Warm regards,
Jane
Jane E. Smtih, Esq.
LiSimba Consulting Services, Inc.
Building Relationships for International Business Success
www.lisimba.com
jsmith@lisimba.com
Monday, February 22, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Continuing Cross Cultural Implications of Corporate Social Responsibility
Dear friends,
We continue this topic today by beginning to look at the various lenses that are available for understanding one's own culture and then the culture of each person with whom we may be working, within our own nation or on a global contracting site. These lenses are discussed in more detail in my chapter, "Minimizing Risk: Best Practices for Managing Cross Cultural Concerns in Global Contracting", THE ABA GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS NEGOTIATIONS, Third Edition, May 2009. For in depth appplication of each lens, please contact me directly so that we can work together to learn your specific concerns. I can then custom design the lenses to resolve your cross cultural conerns, at this First Best Practice level.
The lenses have been created by cultural researchers through the past many decades in an attempt to better understand and then to function effectively in differing cultures. Some of the lenses ask questions and your answers to these questions give you guidance to your own culture and then as always to the other cultures where you may find yourself working. Once you have identified your core cultural values in ways that give you a functinal understanding of the choices that you make on a daily basis, the also a functional knowledge of the cultural practices you choose, like the cultural heroes that you have, the rituals that you perform and the cultural symbols that you value, you can then begin to gain the same understanding of each person of another culture with whom you may be working.
The First Best Practice, gaining an awareness of what is a cross cultural concern, by learning through the use of the various cultural lenses, about your own culture and that of each other co-worker, lays a strong foundation for effective, meaningful and participative corporate social responsibility. When a corporation knows its own native culture well enough to be then able to have working knowledge of the foreign cultures where it has chosen to support global contracting work, then the foreign work sites begin to work toward minimizing the many forms of risk that they encounter on a daily basis. Minimizing risk in this manner clearly supports meaningful corporate social responsibility initiatives.
Warm regards,
Jane
Jane E. Smith, Esq.
LiSimba Consulting Services, Inc.
Building Relationships for International Business Success
http://www.lisimba.com/
jsmith@lisimba.com
We continue this topic today by beginning to look at the various lenses that are available for understanding one's own culture and then the culture of each person with whom we may be working, within our own nation or on a global contracting site. These lenses are discussed in more detail in my chapter, "Minimizing Risk: Best Practices for Managing Cross Cultural Concerns in Global Contracting", THE ABA GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS NEGOTIATIONS, Third Edition, May 2009. For in depth appplication of each lens, please contact me directly so that we can work together to learn your specific concerns. I can then custom design the lenses to resolve your cross cultural conerns, at this First Best Practice level.
The lenses have been created by cultural researchers through the past many decades in an attempt to better understand and then to function effectively in differing cultures. Some of the lenses ask questions and your answers to these questions give you guidance to your own culture and then as always to the other cultures where you may find yourself working. Once you have identified your core cultural values in ways that give you a functinal understanding of the choices that you make on a daily basis, the also a functional knowledge of the cultural practices you choose, like the cultural heroes that you have, the rituals that you perform and the cultural symbols that you value, you can then begin to gain the same understanding of each person of another culture with whom you may be working.
The First Best Practice, gaining an awareness of what is a cross cultural concern, by learning through the use of the various cultural lenses, about your own culture and that of each other co-worker, lays a strong foundation for effective, meaningful and participative corporate social responsibility. When a corporation knows its own native culture well enough to be then able to have working knowledge of the foreign cultures where it has chosen to support global contracting work, then the foreign work sites begin to work toward minimizing the many forms of risk that they encounter on a daily basis. Minimizing risk in this manner clearly supports meaningful corporate social responsibility initiatives.
Warm regards,
Jane
Jane E. Smith, Esq.
LiSimba Consulting Services, Inc.
Building Relationships for International Business Success
http://www.lisimba.com/
jsmith@lisimba.com
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Continuing Cross Cultural Implications of Corporate Social Responsibility
Dear friends,
The very idea that a corporation has a social responsibility wherever it functions in the world inherently demonstrates that the various cultures that work together, wherever that work is done, can have differing cultural practices based upon differing core values. The First Best Practice highlights this fact as the First Best Practice asks that each person in a global contracting work opportunity know the cultural practices and the core cultural values of his/her own culture. He/she must know who he she is culturally, and what the cultural practices and the cultural core values are of the home nation of the multinational that is leading the global contracting work opportunity. The next step for the First Best Practice is to then become aware of the cultural practices and the cultural core values of each national culture that will be living and working together on the global contracting site. There is always a strong liklihood that the various cultures that are coming together to work and to live in fairly close proximity, will have great variances in how they value life practices and great variances in the core values that drive each individual's daily choices.
LiSimba has an excellent assessment tool that can assist each individual to gauge his/her own understanding of his/her cross cultural awareness. Knowing one's own awareness level of cross cultural issues that exist within a day on a global work site is the beginning of minimizing the risks that are inherent in all global contracting operations. This is also the beginning of adhering to Best Practice Number One.
Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in using the LiSimba assessment tool for a present or future global contracting opportunity. Effective corporate social responsibility begins when mutual cultural respect and understanding are part of the foundation of a global contracting opportunity.
Warm regards,
Jane
Jane E. Smith, Esq.
LiSimba Consulting Services, Inc.
Building Relationships for International business Success
www.lisimba.com
jsmith@lisimba.com
The very idea that a corporation has a social responsibility wherever it functions in the world inherently demonstrates that the various cultures that work together, wherever that work is done, can have differing cultural practices based upon differing core values. The First Best Practice highlights this fact as the First Best Practice asks that each person in a global contracting work opportunity know the cultural practices and the core cultural values of his/her own culture. He/she must know who he she is culturally, and what the cultural practices and the cultural core values are of the home nation of the multinational that is leading the global contracting work opportunity. The next step for the First Best Practice is to then become aware of the cultural practices and the cultural core values of each national culture that will be living and working together on the global contracting site. There is always a strong liklihood that the various cultures that are coming together to work and to live in fairly close proximity, will have great variances in how they value life practices and great variances in the core values that drive each individual's daily choices.
LiSimba has an excellent assessment tool that can assist each individual to gauge his/her own understanding of his/her cross cultural awareness. Knowing one's own awareness level of cross cultural issues that exist within a day on a global work site is the beginning of minimizing the risks that are inherent in all global contracting operations. This is also the beginning of adhering to Best Practice Number One.
Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in using the LiSimba assessment tool for a present or future global contracting opportunity. Effective corporate social responsibility begins when mutual cultural respect and understanding are part of the foundation of a global contracting opportunity.
Warm regards,
Jane
Jane E. Smith, Esq.
LiSimba Consulting Services, Inc.
Building Relationships for International business Success
www.lisimba.com
jsmith@lisimba.com
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Cross Cultural Implications of Corporate Social Responsibility, continued
Dear friends,
I am picking up the above topic today by introducing the First Best Practice for Minimizing Risk in Managing Cross Cultural Concerns in Global Contracting as found in THE ABA GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS NEGOTIATIONS, Third Edition, May 2009. As I said in my initial blog entry on Corporate Social Responsibility, as found in the Winter 2010 edition of the INTERNATIONA LAW NEWS, my thoughts shed light on how corporate social responsibility has clear, natural, cross cultural implications.
The First Best Practice asks that for all global contracting situations, all participants in the global operation create within themselves an awareness of what is a cross cultural concern. Every time that a multinational corporation or a national corporation invests in a business opportunity that will bring individuals from many different cultures together to work and to live in close proximity, in a nation that is outside of the national headquarters of the founding corporation, cross cultural concerns exist. The culture of the multinational will be that of the nation in which the multinational has its headquarters. Then the question arises, what are the cultural backgrounds of those who will be working at the foreign location, and what is the culture of each person who will be supporting the multinational operation? The necessary awareness begins with each participant learning what his/her national culture is, meaning learning the practices ( as discussed in the earlier blog entry on this topic) and the core values (as discussed in the earlier blog entry on this topic) of his/her native culture. Each participant must enter the First Best Practice, creating the necessary awareness of what is a cross cultural concern, by building a knowledge of the cultural core values that each perticipant carries within him/herself.
Tomorrow I will begin the discussion of how to use the knowledge of one's own cultural core values as the beginning step in minimizing the risk in the exposure that a muntilnational experiences when investing outside of its native country.
Warm regards,
Jane
Jane E. Smith, Esq.
LiSimba consulting Services, Inc.
Building Relationships for International Business Relationships
www.lisimba.com
jsmith@lisimba.com
I am picking up the above topic today by introducing the First Best Practice for Minimizing Risk in Managing Cross Cultural Concerns in Global Contracting as found in THE ABA GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS NEGOTIATIONS, Third Edition, May 2009. As I said in my initial blog entry on Corporate Social Responsibility, as found in the Winter 2010 edition of the INTERNATIONA LAW NEWS, my thoughts shed light on how corporate social responsibility has clear, natural, cross cultural implications.
The First Best Practice asks that for all global contracting situations, all participants in the global operation create within themselves an awareness of what is a cross cultural concern. Every time that a multinational corporation or a national corporation invests in a business opportunity that will bring individuals from many different cultures together to work and to live in close proximity, in a nation that is outside of the national headquarters of the founding corporation, cross cultural concerns exist. The culture of the multinational will be that of the nation in which the multinational has its headquarters. Then the question arises, what are the cultural backgrounds of those who will be working at the foreign location, and what is the culture of each person who will be supporting the multinational operation? The necessary awareness begins with each participant learning what his/her national culture is, meaning learning the practices ( as discussed in the earlier blog entry on this topic) and the core values (as discussed in the earlier blog entry on this topic) of his/her native culture. Each participant must enter the First Best Practice, creating the necessary awareness of what is a cross cultural concern, by building a knowledge of the cultural core values that each perticipant carries within him/herself.
Tomorrow I will begin the discussion of how to use the knowledge of one's own cultural core values as the beginning step in minimizing the risk in the exposure that a muntilnational experiences when investing outside of its native country.
Warm regards,
Jane
Jane E. Smith, Esq.
LiSimba consulting Services, Inc.
Building Relationships for International Business Relationships
www.lisimba.com
jsmith@lisimba.com
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Cross Cultural Implications of Corporate Social Responsibility
Dear friends,
Today I read the Winter 2010 edition of International Law News, published by the Section of International Law and Practice of the American Bar Association. The topic for this edition is "Corporate Social Responsibility: 'What's International Law Got to Do with It?'" As the same Section of the ABA published my work on cross cultural concerns in its book, The ABA Guide to International Business Negotiations, Third Edition, May 2009, I am beginning today a series of blog entries discussing the cross cultural aspects of corporate social responsibility. I will continually relate the cross cultural concerns blog entries to the Winter 2010 edition lead article on Corporate Social Responsibility, offering new perspectives on CSR.
Each culture in our world is unique and deserves to be understood, respected and valued for how it functions. As we begin to look at cultures foreign to our own and our own as well, we should first of all look carefully at what makes up a "culture". In brief, every culture is experienced through the "practices" that the members of the culture follow. "Practices" include the symbols, which are the common words, behaviors, pictures or objects that members of the culture find very meaningful for them. Another part of "practices" are the culture's heroes. The cultural heroes can be living or dead, created through literature or the arts or real. The important aspect of cultural heroes is that they act as behavior models for the members of the culture. Rituals make up the final part of cultural "practices". These are chosen behaviors that the members of a culture find "socially essential" as Hofstede and Hofstede describe them in their work, Cultures and Organizations, Software of the Mind. All of the forms of "practices" rely on the culture's core which are its values.
As I begin to write about corporate social responsibility, please hold in mind these "practices" and their core, cultural values. If the core values of one culture, along with that culture's practices, differ strongly from those of an international coporation, whose culture often reflects reliably that of its parent nation, there is a strong potential for cross cultural conflict on the work sites located in the foreign culture.
In my next blog entry I will begin to discuss the Best Practices for Managing Cross Cultural Concerns in Global Contracting that can minimize the risk that a multinational corporation is exposed to when operating outside of its home culture.
Warm regards,
Jane
Jane E. Smith, Esq.
LiSimba Consulting Services, Inc.
Building Relationships for International Business Success
www.lisimba.com
jsmith@lisimba.com
Today I read the Winter 2010 edition of International Law News, published by the Section of International Law and Practice of the American Bar Association. The topic for this edition is "Corporate Social Responsibility: 'What's International Law Got to Do with It?'" As the same Section of the ABA published my work on cross cultural concerns in its book, The ABA Guide to International Business Negotiations, Third Edition, May 2009, I am beginning today a series of blog entries discussing the cross cultural aspects of corporate social responsibility. I will continually relate the cross cultural concerns blog entries to the Winter 2010 edition lead article on Corporate Social Responsibility, offering new perspectives on CSR.
Each culture in our world is unique and deserves to be understood, respected and valued for how it functions. As we begin to look at cultures foreign to our own and our own as well, we should first of all look carefully at what makes up a "culture". In brief, every culture is experienced through the "practices" that the members of the culture follow. "Practices" include the symbols, which are the common words, behaviors, pictures or objects that members of the culture find very meaningful for them. Another part of "practices" are the culture's heroes. The cultural heroes can be living or dead, created through literature or the arts or real. The important aspect of cultural heroes is that they act as behavior models for the members of the culture. Rituals make up the final part of cultural "practices". These are chosen behaviors that the members of a culture find "socially essential" as Hofstede and Hofstede describe them in their work, Cultures and Organizations, Software of the Mind. All of the forms of "practices" rely on the culture's core which are its values.
As I begin to write about corporate social responsibility, please hold in mind these "practices" and their core, cultural values. If the core values of one culture, along with that culture's practices, differ strongly from those of an international coporation, whose culture often reflects reliably that of its parent nation, there is a strong potential for cross cultural conflict on the work sites located in the foreign culture.
In my next blog entry I will begin to discuss the Best Practices for Managing Cross Cultural Concerns in Global Contracting that can minimize the risk that a multinational corporation is exposed to when operating outside of its home culture.
Warm regards,
Jane
Jane E. Smith, Esq.
LiSimba Consulting Services, Inc.
Building Relationships for International Business Success
www.lisimba.com
jsmith@lisimba.com
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Cross Cultural Issues in the Newspapers
Dear Friends,
As I travel, I read newspapers wherever I am. In the last month I read The New York Times, International Section. I found an article, "Memo from Alexandria", November 26, 2009, "Harnessing Darwin to Push an Ancient Intellectual Center to Evolve" which was full of corss cultural concerns.
As I read newspapers I recall that every culture in our world is seen first of all through a culture's "Practices". Under the heading of "Practices" there are the culture's Symbols, which can be special "words, actions, pictures or objects" all of which carry a unique meaning fior thoses within a culture. (CULTURES AND ORGANIZATIONS, Software of the Mind, Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede, Mcgraw-Hill, 2005 p. 6, ) Also under "Symbols" can be the way the members of the culture dress, wear their hair or have special sayings that only members of the culture understand. Symbols are the most easily changeable aspects of a culture and so are understood as perhaps the most superficial aspect of a culture.
Next under "Practices" are a culture's Heroes. These people whether they are alive or dead, real or created, have the characteristics that a culture highly values. As a result a culture's "heroes" function as models for all members of the culture.
Finally under "Practices" are a culture's Rituals. These are normally a group activity which is considered "socially essential". Examples of cultural Rituals are the way that people meet and greet each other, business and social meetings and how they are held, and for a culturally valuable purpose like encouraging group togetherness or the leadership of an individual. (Hofstede, p. 8)
The central driving force of all cultures is the culture's values. These values inform all of the "Practices". When I am reading a newspaper article, a culture's Practices, supported by its values inform me on a deeper level of what a particular article is discussing.
In applying this to the "Memo from Alexandria", here the British Counsel, an individual or a group of individuals from a culture that values the individual over a group's values is functioning in the middle of the Eqyptian culture where the group's values supercede those of an individual. There are a few ways that have been researched and used by Hofstede for over 29 years to better understand and work with a culture. I use the value of the group compared with the value of the individual within a culture as this is one of the ways that a culture is understood.
With this in mind, the British Counsel has suggested holding an international conference on Darwin in the middle of Alexandria, Eqypt, which is a conservative Muslim country. In cross cultural understanding, an individual or a group -the British Counsel- which is from a strongly individualist country has suggested to a collectivist country where the value of the group supercedes the value of the individual, that a conference be held whose topic may challenge the group held beliefs.
The goal of the conference was to move the once stronghold for education and critical thinking, Alexandria, Egypt, to return to being a center for critical thinking. The inference is that the memorization that is the foundation of education recently in Egypt, be replaced with a move to more cricital thinking. Critical thinking in a collectivist culture can be a challenging value to hold. Here though as the value of the conference was to honor the once stronghold of higher education, Alexandria, the conference was held. A way was found with the help of an individualist group, the British Counsel, to hold a critical thinking conference, an individualist value, in the middle of a strongly collectivist nation, where thinking is more normally carried out through having memorized large amounts of information.
Conratulations to all involved for the success of this cross cultural event.
Warm regards,
Jane E. Smith
LiSimba Consulting Services, Inc.
Buildilng Relationships for International Business Success
612-802-1240
www.lisimba.com
As I travel, I read newspapers wherever I am. In the last month I read The New York Times, International Section. I found an article, "Memo from Alexandria", November 26, 2009, "Harnessing Darwin to Push an Ancient Intellectual Center to Evolve" which was full of corss cultural concerns.
As I read newspapers I recall that every culture in our world is seen first of all through a culture's "Practices". Under the heading of "Practices" there are the culture's Symbols, which can be special "words, actions, pictures or objects" all of which carry a unique meaning fior thoses within a culture. (CULTURES AND ORGANIZATIONS, Software of the Mind, Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede, Mcgraw-Hill, 2005 p. 6, ) Also under "Symbols" can be the way the members of the culture dress, wear their hair or have special sayings that only members of the culture understand. Symbols are the most easily changeable aspects of a culture and so are understood as perhaps the most superficial aspect of a culture.
Next under "Practices" are a culture's Heroes. These people whether they are alive or dead, real or created, have the characteristics that a culture highly values. As a result a culture's "heroes" function as models for all members of the culture.
Finally under "Practices" are a culture's Rituals. These are normally a group activity which is considered "socially essential". Examples of cultural Rituals are the way that people meet and greet each other, business and social meetings and how they are held, and for a culturally valuable purpose like encouraging group togetherness or the leadership of an individual. (Hofstede, p. 8)
The central driving force of all cultures is the culture's values. These values inform all of the "Practices". When I am reading a newspaper article, a culture's Practices, supported by its values inform me on a deeper level of what a particular article is discussing.
In applying this to the "Memo from Alexandria", here the British Counsel, an individual or a group of individuals from a culture that values the individual over a group's values is functioning in the middle of the Eqyptian culture where the group's values supercede those of an individual. There are a few ways that have been researched and used by Hofstede for over 29 years to better understand and work with a culture. I use the value of the group compared with the value of the individual within a culture as this is one of the ways that a culture is understood.
With this in mind, the British Counsel has suggested holding an international conference on Darwin in the middle of Alexandria, Eqypt, which is a conservative Muslim country. In cross cultural understanding, an individual or a group -the British Counsel- which is from a strongly individualist country has suggested to a collectivist country where the value of the group supercedes the value of the individual, that a conference be held whose topic may challenge the group held beliefs.
The goal of the conference was to move the once stronghold for education and critical thinking, Alexandria, Egypt, to return to being a center for critical thinking. The inference is that the memorization that is the foundation of education recently in Egypt, be replaced with a move to more cricital thinking. Critical thinking in a collectivist culture can be a challenging value to hold. Here though as the value of the conference was to honor the once stronghold of higher education, Alexandria, the conference was held. A way was found with the help of an individualist group, the British Counsel, to hold a critical thinking conference, an individualist value, in the middle of a strongly collectivist nation, where thinking is more normally carried out through having memorized large amounts of information.
Conratulations to all involved for the success of this cross cultural event.
Warm regards,
Jane E. Smith
LiSimba Consulting Services, Inc.
Buildilng Relationships for International Business Success
612-802-1240
www.lisimba.com
Monday, December 7, 2009
Cross Cultural Concerns in our Newspapers
Dear friends,
When I travel I frequently read a wide variety of newspapers. One that I read is THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL. In the November 26, 2009 issue, there was an article on "Harnessing Darwin to Push an Ancient Intellectual Center to Evolve". In this article cross cultural concerns were active. The British Council had decided to hold an international conference on Darwin. He was going to hold the conference in Egypt, a "conservative, Sunni Muslim nation.
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