International Business Take Home Exam

Take-Home Exam
International Business
2/18/20114
When I look over the few months that has already been this semester I realize
that I have indeed learned a lot from my International business course. All of it started
with globalization which was a concept that I was already pretty consistently aware of
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just through discussion of major companies such as McDonalds, Nike, Adidas, and
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probably the most notable one Apple. In this class though I really learned a lot about
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listening to what the professor had to say when they weren’t talking about the topic
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specifically such as how to study, time management, and basically how to work for a
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good grade in the class and ultimately how to learn. Initially probably one of the first
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papers we wrote in this class was a paper on the importance of learning and how
learning something doesn’t mean you just memorize for a test, you have to continue to
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apply the knowledge and keep relearning it for yourself so that it sticks with you. That
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was something that I really took to heart this semester, and have worked countless
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more hours to ensure that I’m really learning my material so that I can really apply it my
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life.
In both the book and class discussion, we were taught about globalization we
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learned that globalization is basically when a company expands itself into the global
market. A very key point of globalization is the globalization of production, which is when
organizations will have different pieces of their product made in the most efficient
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country and then brought together in a different factory that doesn’t necessarily have to
be within the nation that the company has been founded in. This concept has taken off
across the globe, and now world trade has grown much faster than world output and
competitive industries are being challenged on a regular basis. Globalization has also
changed the requirements to be a manager in such companies involved in the
international market and that includes a heavy awareness of cultural differences and a
respect for them. Ethnocentricity is not a desired quality to have because no one likes
doing business with someone who thinks they are better than everyone just because of
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where they are from. Also, managers are encouraged to have a very good
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understanding of the political differences that are to be accounted for in each company
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that the organization does business in, because without that knowledge certain rules
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might be broken, different people could be disrespected, and people might just not be
understood. With this political understanding also comes a very keen understanding of
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the country’s economic system because with that knowledge comes a reliable
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awareness as to what assets can be gathered from that company such as level of
employees that can be found, different resources that can be found common in that
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area, and how much money a company will need to put forth to really do business in
that location. However, probably my favorite subject which I have already discussed and
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the one that has easily come up the most in class discussion has been culture. Culture
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is certain traditions, ideas, and beliefs that are shared within a society, and a culture can
be anything from a boys locker room to the entire country of Africa. Either way, cultures
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are to be respected and not to be judged. If I am to get involved in international
business I cannot be one of those people who expects everyone to have my way of
understanding things, I need to have an open mind to learning about how things are
done in other cultures so I can make my business partners and fellow employees feel
comfortable so that we can all do our jobs with understanding and respect.
1. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is a statement made by that United States
government that refuses to allow bribery to be accepted and used by American
companies in order to benefit them and to alter things in their favor. It also requires that
all publicly traded companies to keep detailed records that would reveal whether a
violation of the act was taking place within that company. Now one might say that this is
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a fantastic law that equals the playing field a little bit because America has one of the
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most abundant economic systems in the world and with all the globalization being done
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from our nation in would almost be unfair. We have some companies that have grown
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so much that they could almost buy their way to anything they wanted; property, rights,
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freedoms, homes, and even government politicians. Initially this law was created in the
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1970’s after several U.S. companies had bribed government officials in foreign countries
in an attempt to win lucrative contracts that didn’t do anyone else besides the
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companies any real good. Later on in the 70’s, the violation of this law by bribery of any
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foreign officials was to be made a criminal offense. However, there is still some wiggle
room within this law because small payments are still allowed to be made in order to
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speed up processes that are already in motion but those processes’ have to already be
in motion. This wiggle room, however, isn’t very substantial but corruption still takes
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place because no matter what there will always be corrupt officials because humanity as
a whole are selfish beings and corruption exists in us. It is this fact that makes it takes
an extremely moral and ethical person to be a manager in some multinational firms
because they need to recognize that just because things may make sense to their
company and even in their home country, it may go against the belief of many members
of the community involved and even harm them. Some economists, however, would
argue that to make bribery a criminal offense is not a positive thing because there are
without a doubt countries that are existing in a struggling economy where bribery and
good business would do nothing but benefit the area and would really help provide the
people living there with job opportunities and better living conditions. This point is
without a doubt a hard one to argue with or accept because if bribery is made legal than
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it wouldn’t be just those areas where economic gains are needed would be affected, it
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would be everyone. And other economists argue that corruption such as bribery lowers
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the economy, so it’s honestly a very hard thing to have generalized and to even choose
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a side with. Personally, I would have to say that corruption is wrong and I am in favor of
the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act because it keeps companies like Walmart from doing
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whatever they want without really putting that much work into the community that they
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will be affecting. There are five key things that an international business and its
managers should do to make sure ethical issues are considered in business decisions.
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The first one is to preferably favor hiring people with a well grounded sense of personal
ethics, and the second one would be to ensure that they’ve built an organizational
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culture that values ethical behavior very highly. The third point would be to ensure that
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the leaders within the business are acting in a manner that is consistent with the ethical
behavior that they are putting out for their employees to follow. The fourth is to put
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decision making processes into a perspective that requires people to consider the
ethical dimension of business decisions. The fifth and final one is to develop moral
courage within the people you work with, and that means making it a personal goal to
be able to grow individually as an ethical person as well as a group.
2. Amartya Sen’s concept of development isn’t judged off the material output measures
such as GNI per capita of a nation but instead by the more capabilities and
opportunities that the people can enjoy. He believed that development means getting rid
of major impediments to freedom such as poverty, tyranny, poor economic systems, and
systematic social deprivation. Sen emphasized greatly the importance of health care
and basic education for women and children. This ideology of determining development
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has been handpicked by the Human Development Index (HDI) to measure the quality of
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life in different nations. There are three factors that are measured that the HDI use to
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decide how developed a country is and they are life expectancy at birth, educational
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attainment, and whether average incomes are sufficient for meeting the basic living
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requirements.
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Hugo Chavez appeared very much to me to be a money hungry man whose only
real way of gathering money was through the corruption of his power. He gained power
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through manipulation of his government because it really had to have had a weak set up
if one man and his followers could give themselves so much power. I would have to say
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that the political environment made it somewhat difficult for other nations to really enjoy
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doing business with him, however, due to the incredible economic advantage he held
while being an incredible source for oil most countries really had to cater to his wishes.
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Now legally I would have to say that Chavez’s only rule that he may have broken would
be bribing certain government officials within his state however I’m not very well
educated on the matter so this is hard to really make a good call. After his death in
March of 2013 the country will without a doubt be more favorable for doing business
with because of the undeniable movement of change. Powerful people who did not like
the way Chavez handled things the wrong way will without a doubt want to bring about a
change in the way things are done in Venezuela, because that’s the way politics work
when someone loses power, that means there’s “power/decisions” that are left to be
made by people and in this case there’s undoubtedly a lot of people, that have been
watching Chavez make decisions that could have been made better. That is why
Venezuela is changing their political system to better appropriate themselves with the
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global economy that they are a part of because that is where the success of their
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economy lies.
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Now personally I would advise Proctor and Gamble Incorporated to go with India
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because it is new and it has so much more potential then China. It is true that China in
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the past has proven to be a very safe option and has been very consistent in their rise
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to economic success but India has just begun and even though they are relatively new
to the global market they are definitely nearing the top of the list as well. Who knows
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where India will end up? They may end up having a few fall backs and falling off the top
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of the list but I would have to say there is an even better chance that they’ll keep doing
what they’ve been doing, and that is growing. India’s taken a few small steps into the
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global market and already they are a contender, my moneys on them, if they can do this
good with hardly having a Walmart then imagine where they’ll be in ten years. Their
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political laws are even starting to be slightly adjusted to help their people not only join
the global market, but also learn from it.
4. Culture according to Geert Hofstede, who was an expert on cross cultural differences
and management viewed culture as a collection of values and norms that are shared
among a group of people and that when taken together create a design for living. He
came up with five cultural dimensions that are; power distance (focus on how some
people are better at things than others), individualism versus collectivism (relationship of
an individual and his fellows), uncertainty avoidance (which is the extent to which
uncertainty is tolerated), masculinity versus femininity ( which is the focus on the
relationship between genders and work roles), and Confucian dynamism (which is a
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focus on the attitudes toward time, persistence, status, and respect). This last
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dimension Hofstede came up with more because of his interaction with cultures that
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have a profound respect for Confucianism and how it helps create a fantastic learning
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mindset.
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Cultural competence is a cultural awareness or comprehension. It is when a

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person takes it upon themselves to not only have an open mind about the cultures that
they are exposed to but they are able to learn to thrive in those cultures because that is
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how they are wired. I believe that to some level it can be taught, but only to a certain
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level and that level is really not that great. Some people, based off their upbringing or
genetic makeup are a lot more culturally competent than others and are able to put
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themselves in the shoes of another culture to understand why pinky’s out in one culture
is consider polite while in another culture it is considered a great offense. If I was

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advising someone going into the global market economy I would highly recommend
getting out into the world, not even leaving the country but more just leaving the comfort
zone that we have lived in for so many years of our lives. Also, take time to invest in
someone that comes from a different culture so you can learn about their point of view
and also develop a comfort ability with being around people who aren’t necessarily as
similar in views as yourself. Finally I would tell them that above all else remember
respect. Respect is something that is understood in every culture, there are millions of
different ways to show it in different cultures and then some ways are universal, try to
respect everyone around you no matter where you go, and really appreciate their
perspectives and input and you will undoubtedly go places in the global market
economy.
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Take-Home Exam

changed the requirements to be a manager in such companies involved in the

are to be respected and not to be judged. If I am to get involved in international

government that refuses to allow bribery to be accepted and used by American

an extremely moral and ethical person to be a manager in some multinational firms

be able to grow individually as an ethical person as well as a group.

the global market, but also learn from it.

uncertainty is tolerated), masculinity versus femininity ( which is the focus on the

Cultural competence is a cultural awareness or comprehension. It is when a

is consider polite while in another culture it is considered a great offense. If I was

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