Jameson Defined Geography Components Global Business

(Jameson (2007) has defined geography as one of the possible components of cultural identity needed for cross cultural communication in global business. Discuss how a company might take this component into account in managing their business.

Over the last several years, globalization has been causing firms to begin establishing operations in different areas of the world. Part of the reason for this, is because many regions can offer them significant benefits such as: lower labors costs and the ability to maximize their profit margins. Evidence of this can be seen by comparing labor costs of many developing countries with the United States. As, the below table is illustrating how they are significantly lower in comparison with the U.S.

Table 1: USA Labor Costs vs. Developing Nations

Country

Hourly Labor Costs

USA

$7.25

Bangladesh

$.25

China

$.69

India

$.57

Mexico

$2.30

Kenya

$.62

South Africa

$2.17

(Greenway, 2009, pg. 157)

These different figures are important, because they are showing how the low costs of labor in the different regions of the world is encouraging firms to establish operations in these areas.

As a result, a variety of corporations have been forced to begin adapting to the cultural traditions of a particular nation. This is designed to improve communication and help to ensure that the company is able to effectively motivate everyone. To determine how to improve cross cultural communication requires focusing on the cultural geography and how it can impact the productivity of a particular location. Once this occurs, is when it will be clear as to how this will affect the business model of corporations over the long-term.

Cultural Geography

The cultural geography is when you are examining how the natural features of particular regions are influencing the way that someone will react to different events. This is because the terrain of the landscape and weather conditions will have an effect on how everyone is living their daily lives. A good example of this can be seen with someone who is living in New York City and an individual that is living on an island in the South Pacific. The person who is living in New York will be affected...

This will impact how they are reacting to a host of events through: influencing their attitude and the way that they dress. Furthermore, they will have different tastes in food based upon the kind of resources that are available. (Jameson, 2007, pp. 213 -- 214)
While someone who living in the South Pacific, will have access to food that can grow in warmer environments. This will impact their daily lives, by giving them a taste for certain kinds of spices and flavors found in a particular region. At the same time, they will dress differently to account for the tropical conditions. These different elements are important, because they are showing how the geography of a particular region will affect the local population. (Jameson, 2007, pp. 213 -- 214)

To take these kinds of views into account there are several different approaches that can be used. The first one is to utilize technology to address possible cross cultural communication issues. The way that this can be accomplished is by having everyone regularly interacting with each other through various applications such as: chat rooms, message boards and email. This will establish a basic foundation of continuing interaction with different personnel. (Whatmore, 2006, pp. 600 -- 609)

Once this takes place, is when technology can be used to teach new employees to a particular region about the different cultural geographic factors they will encounter. As this can be used, to help them to understand how this will influence the way that they are reacting to a host of events. At the same time, technology can educate workers in a particular region about various geographical traditions of particular nationalities and regions they live. These elements are important, because if this can be used on a regular basis it will help to reduce misunderstandings. This is the point that managers can begin to embrace these factors to increase productivity in a particular region. (Whatmore, 2006, pp. 600 -- 609)

The second approach is when you will have both groups of people interacting with each other on a regular basis. The basic idea is to be able to address issues that could lead to cross cultural communication problems by: having everyone socialize with each other. This kind of technique is important, because it can allow a corporation to quickly train executives and staff members about geographic differences. Once this takes place, it means that any kind of possible stereotypes…