¶ … Tourism Management
The impact of technology and the increase of international travel and exploration, the global environment has provided a landscape that depends on the knowledge of other culture. The differences among the human race are everywhere and the denotation of such individualities create challenges for those wishing to attain a successful career based in international exposure.
The purpose of this essay is to explore various themes and ideas that relate to cross-cultural management theory applied in a practical and pragmatic manner. This essay aims to answer the following question:
Which international skills, knowledge, behaviours and experiences will be advantageous in the development of my future career?
My future career selection is not quite clear at this time but I have narrowed it down to becoming involved in hotel management in Central America. This essay will first examine the basics of culture to help give a theoretical background to my proposed set of characteristics that involve the successful execution of my career. The essay will then describe and highlight how to practically apply those skills etc. To the situation at hand to eventually produce an argument that suggests that a firm understanding in the ideas and theories related to cross cultural management are integral to becoming proficient and successful in their practical application.
Understanding Culture
The subjective nature of culture is at the heart of this discussion and provides many of the varying approaches to its definition. In order to understand the idea of culture, the word itself must be further analyzed to determine the root impulses of its application. "Culture" stems from the Latin root "cultura" meaning cult or worship, (Branine, 2011). So what is a cult? A cult can be defined in many aspects but essentially there are several key characteristics of a cult.
Cults are based upon a single idea or guiding point that directs the nature of the cult. Cults are products of groups and collective ideas. Cults are insulated and contained abstract organizations that attain to principles and ethics that are based upon a certain item or not. Some cults are materialistic and worship real and hardened material items. Other cults are more spiritual in nature and worship certain gods or deities or sets of gods and deities.
The impact of religion and culture is an area that is strongly enforced in approaching an understanding of culture. The mysterious nature of life itself and the unknowable forces that surround us need to be incorporated in our lives and religion as a cultural expression allows this irrational and often emotionally charged human impulse. The ability to understand the similarities in all of these approaches attempts to standardize culture in some ways as well.
Culture can exist at many different levels and cults may be large, small or even personal. The cult or worship of oneself is a practice that can be displayed in the overly-narcissistic attributes that are part of Western culture in many ways. Regions and geographical areas all are blending or protecting their cultural barriers from one another and viewing this from a macro-view, national cultures eventually develop and produce a somewhat useful model to apply theory and ideas towards practically approaching the cultural differences that are to be expected within an international career.
National culture provides and interesting viewpoint to examine the inquiry that is the subject of this essay. Mead & Andrews (2009) explained this concept to help in approaching such a task. They wrote "the relationship between internal and external factors is complex, and problems of responding to external factors are further complicated when the company is making international investments and is operating in more than one national environment. National culture is only one of the factors involved, and the manager needs skills of distinguishing when it is, and is not, significant."
Culture cannot be understood as a thing itself. It is merely a reference frame in which to generalize a certain group of people. The nature of culture is to collectivize and then normalize certain behaviors to a desired ideal or principle. These end game principles are the key to understanding how a group of people can identify with the culture. These points of interest contain the emotional and attitudinal influences and controlling factors of the group in question. This baseline fact is important to understand when delving into any new culture or environment that one is not familiar with. This type of awareness is essential to developing useful skills that will provide value and worth in an international career situation.
Culture can be applied in many ways and its flexible nature...
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