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How can it provide someone who would need to deal reforming an erring worker. In some countries, this is
extensively with the Japanese who follow a collective considered useless exercise and only a strict and
or participative approach to everything they do in their severe punishment is demanded.
workplace? Japanese also had other cultural I have experienced a young male employee, fresh out
peculiarities. As Akio Morita has mentioned in his of the management institute, offering a hand shake at
book Made in Japan, the first batch of his Japanese introduction to an Iranian lady who was here as a part
executives were simply horrified to see the American of a garment purchase team. The lady took it as an
culture of hire & fire. The message here was simple. insult and had a few caustic remarks to offer which
Different cultures deal with situations differently. actually conveyed, “Gentlemen, if you don`t know us,
Globalization brings in different executives who have how will you do business with us?”. In another case,
different cultural upbringings to work closely together another young management graduate was praising the
and even creates their interdependency for the purpose Mumbai Pune Express way to a visitor from Shanghai,
of organizational interest. It is necessary that the as if that road is one of the greatest national
Management education provide a base to the students achievements of India, with little heed to the fact that
to accommodate these differences and also equips even nondescript roads in Shanghai are better.
them to reach solutions in situations dictated by The issue is not related to only interactions in meetings
diverse cultural forces. or conversations. People have to lead teams, deal with
When faced with a situation that warrants governmental systems, carry out the CSR initiatives,
disagreement, the Germans would just keep quiet and handle HR and do much more in strange lands.
give hostile stares. The Italians, Greeks and Israelis Management education of the day must make
would be loud and the Japanese may say “Hi” which provisions for incorporating this in their deliverables
literally means “yes” but is indicative of saying, “I’ll to students.
get back to you on this later”. Are management institutions providing enough inputs
If an expat CEO is explaining a business strategy to a to make their students aware of the changes in business
team of Americans in his US unit, he has to make it environment triggered by the process of
crystal clear and as clearly understandable as possible. Globalization? Are the fresher out of these institutes
It then will be greatly appreciated. If he does it in aware of learning they need to go through to become
Germany, no one will be impressed because Germans capable of dealing with this multicultural
like to look at things which are complex and challenge environment?
their mental abilities to decipher through them. A Seriousness of this subject is of course much beyond
leading international management consultant, Ichak such remarks and stray incidents. These can at best
Adizes was conducting a Marketing work shop in only be indicative. On a much larger scale a manager
Delhi. Subject was related to beating the competition. would need to handle issues like Resource
He put forth all his theories throughout the day’s Management which are much more important for any
session. At the end when they had the tea break before venture. While dealing with it in a different Geography
summarizing, one fellow approached him and is far more challenging than doing so in a known and
commented, “All this is crap. In India all you need to highly predictable environment. There needs to be a
know is how to handle Government. Bass…if you conscious effort to acquire knowledge of how this can
know this you can beat any competition.” be handled in a different country.
Ichak also points out the case of some African The big question is how are we equipping the young,
countries where the life-saving aid received from UN would be managers to handle these challenges.
and the friendly nations just languishes in the Management institutes can create a serious awareness
warehouses because they have no trucks to carry those of this need and can provide a base on which the
because the truck parts are frequently stolen, which students can build the knowledge.
renders the trucks useless and also the thieves are
protected by the police because the police are partners
in sharing the booty. Now, what use is the modern
theory of supply chain management to this scenario?
The HR policies of many MNCs give stress on

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