Holfstede’s Cultural Constraints Essay Example for Free

Holfstede’s Cultural Constraints Essay In his article â€Å"Cultural Constraints in Management Theories,† G. Holfstede (1993) argues his main point that there is really no universal management theory, such that the means to manage organizations greatly vary across countries and cultures. For instance, the concept of management in the United States is different from, say, Asia or Europe, let alone apply to the two latter regions. A specific management concept or practice may be accepted in America but it does not mean that it is also accepted in some other part of the world. Holfstede begins by exploring the origins of the concept of management in cultures in varying times and notes the differences in the management theories. For example, managers are said to be cultural heroes in British and American regions while Germans see the engineer as the one having a heroic role precisely because German presidents and CEOs already have mastered their specialized skills and, hence, does not call for a manager. In Japan, the permanent worker group bears the ‘heroic role’ and that these workers are controlled not by managers but by their group. French people, on the other hand, do not have the notion of managers as Americans know of them. Rather, French workers think of one another as cadres, cadres being a social class obtained by learning at the proper schools and a social class maintained for a lifetime. Another case is that of Holland where the practice of managing people rests on the need for a consensus among all the involved individuals. These practices are established neither by contractual relationship nor by class distinctions but by an open-ended balancing of interests and exchange of views. In essence, Holfstede firmly maintains that the American concept of management theories vary from nation to nation and culture to culture. That being said, no management theory unique to a certain country or culture can perfectly apply to another culture and country precisely because of the variations among these cultures and countries. Reference Holfstede, G. (1993). Cultural Constraints in Management Theories. Academy of Management Executive, 7(1): 81-94.

Congo :: essays research papers

Desperate Battle Defines Congo's Warlike Peace At the southern extreme of a ragged front line that winds 1,400 miles across Congo lies a ferry, dirty pink and half-submerged in the muddy Luvua River. Facing it on a gravel ramp stand the burned-out husks of 33 military vehicles -- armored personnel carriers, trucks, an ambulance -- waiting in a line that never moved forward. Unopened syringes lie underfoot, amid charred tires and a trampled note that a fleeing Congolese junior officer left behind: "Attaque," reads the neat cursive French. But by the time Rwandan forces approached Pweto on Dec. 3, the Congolese government army was in no position to attack. It was in panicked retreat, leaving a tableau of ruin on the riverbank and opening a rare window on a war usually fought out of sight. In two months of back-and-forth fighting here in the southeastern corner of Congo, all the elements that make this country's 21/2-year-old war such a dangerous puzzle came into play: foreign armies, ethnic militia groups, remote terrain and villages utterly emptied of civilians who, from the safety of refugee camps in a neighboring country, repeat matter-of-fact accounts of massacres. This is the "situation on the ground" that has kept the U.N. Security Council from dispatching 5,500 peacekeepers to monitor a cease-fire that appears to exist only on paper. This lightly populated, mostly forested stretch between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Mweru had been one of the few corners of Congo where both sides had essentially honored a peace agreement signed 18 months ago. The Lusaka Accord, named for the Zambian capital where it was signed, was meant to arrest the cycle of advance and retreat that has marked a sprawling conflict that pits the Congolese army and allied troops from Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia against an assortment of rebel forces bolstered by Rwandan and Ugandan troops. But Congolese President Laurent Kabila, who signed the Lusaka pact in a moment of military disadvantage, has swept it aside whenever he spied what looked like a military opening. Last spring, his forces pushed back rebels sponsored by Uganda in Congo's far northwest, only to lose the same ground months later. And on Oct. 15, Kabila's armies launched a massive assault on Rwandan-held positions in the southeast, striking 100 miles north of Pweto at the town of Pepa. Six weeks later, just as happened in the northwest, Kabila's forces once again lost far more than they gained.

My Favourite Sportsman

My favourite sportsman Kimi Raikonnen is my favourite sportsman. He is a Finnish racing driver. When he joined the Sauber Formula 1 team he was only 21 and had raced in only 23 car races in his life. But he had won more than half of them. He won the Championship with Ferrari in 2007. Then he took a break from Formula 1 for a while and raced in rallies, but last year he returned back, driving for the Lotus team. Raikkonen is very calm, cool, and calculating in his race strategy and he is known for his absence of emotion which is why he is nicknamed ‘The Iceman'.Whether he wins a race or his car breaks down and robs him of certain victory, he stays cool and detached, showing little emotion of any kind. There is nothing that really makes him upset, angry or happy for more than for fifteen minutes or so. It was unbelievable how Kimi appeared already at the beginning. Before his first race – just half an hour before the start – his team was preparing the start, but Rai kkonen wasn’t there. They started to search for him and his engineer eventually found him, sleeping gently in a room at the back of the garage.He had to wake him up and he just said: â€Å"Jo, let me still sleep a bit. Give me 5 minutes. † Why do I like him so much? The answer is that he is a character and one who makes me laugh. Orszagod legnepszerubb sportja Although Hungary is a relatively small country, it has always been successful in several different sports.Football is one of the most popular sports in the country. Football is a sport played between two teams. The game is played on a football pitch. Each team has 11 players on the field. One of these players is the goalkeeper, and the other ten are known as â€Å"outfield players. The game is played by kicking a ball into the opponent's goal. A match has 90 minutes of play, with a break of 15 minutes in the middle. Players may not use their hands or arms, except the goalkeeper, who may use them within his own p enalty area.The most memorable game of Hungary was in 1953. The English team were unbeaten for 90 years at home, but in this year the Hungarian Golden Team defeated them with a final score of 6-3. Unfortunately Hungarian football is not the best nowadays. We had a very good team about forty years ago but since then we have had a bad period.Sometimes there are good times when we can beat strong teams but in general we lose. Every year we can see some individual talents but they go to foreign clubs to play. Sport event I’ve been to In 2005 I went to the Hungaroring to see the Formula 1 race. My father took me there with his car. He and my mother also came to see the race. The Hungaroring is beautiful. It is enourmous but it has a very good scenery because it was built upon a hill. Many people were there and waiting to get inside. We waited about half an hour at the gates to get in.After that, we took our places and watched the drivers’ preparation before the race. When t hey started their engines and got the green lamp to go, it was very loud. I was really enthusiastic, because my favourite driver was Kimi Raikkonen and I’d like to see him winning. I was very happy when in the half of the race he could overtake Schumacher and he lead until the end of the race. He and his team had a chance to win the world championship because of his first position, but unfortunately he couldn’t win it at the end of that year. All in all, I would say that it was a wonderful experience and I really enjoyed that day.

The Conceptual Foundations Of Psychology - 2268 Words

All sciences originally descended from philosophy and over the centuries the special sciences gradually became independent of this discipline, with Psychology being one of the last of the special sciences to separate from the parent during the 19th century (Banyard, Davies, Normal Winder, 2010). The questions and ideas in Psychology have been of interest since the time of the ancient Greeks, where philosophers inquired into how human beings know the world. Plato asked questions about human motivation (â€Å"Why do we act as we do?†) and Aristotle attempted to structure the human soul according to the five senses, imagination, common sense and memory (Leahey, 2004), which loosely reflect the study of perception and cognition in present day psychology. Although the conceptual foundations of psychology are to be found in philosophy, the inspiration for the creation of an independent science of psychology came from biology. The founders of psychology took a path to the mind throu gh physiology, while a bigger influence came from a younger branch of biology- evolution- which through a shift in focus from the contents of the mind to the function of the mind, eventually gave rise to the different fields existing in psychology today such as psychobiology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology and more recently evolutionary psychology. Although psychologists have traditionally revered William Wundt as the founder of psychology, the historical reality is more complex.Show MoreRelatedIs Conceptual Critiques Relevant for Psychology?1472 Words   |  6 PagesWe shall consider Skinner’s Operant Conditioning theory as another type of example on Conceptual Critiques (Skinner, 1963). His theory states that the best way to understand a behavior is to look at the association made between the behavior and the consequence of that behavior. 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The foundation of the process establishes a relationship anchored in trust, respect, communication, and conviction between both parties. The client may not be open to accepting what the coach has to offer or the client may have unrealistic