American Business in Western Culture

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Wal-Mart has very low prices and has a friendly atmosphere in the United States. American’s seem to enjoy the personal attention that the employees of Wal-Mart offer. It is hard to understand why anyone would not like the personal attention. Google and YouTube is very popular in the United States, but has failed in the western world because of their American culture ideas and the unwillingness to broaden their understanding of different cultures. Not being able to adapt to different cultures in the western world has created the downfall of Wal-Mart and Google. Google and YouTube failed in Japan because they did not take into thought the culture and their belief to privacy, while Wal-Mart failed in Germany because of their strict policy of being friendly.

With the innovation of Wal-Mart into Germany in 1998, was the hope of success as it was in the United States. The success was not sweet as it was in the United States. The Wal-Mart industry did not translate into German. While Wal-Mart was focusing on profit, the giant business forgot the most important selling point. This selling point was dominant ideology. The definition of dominant ideology is the culture and beliefs and practices of a culture (Schaefer, 2009, pg. 68). With the most important ideology overlooked, soon found trouble for the giant retailer.

The German society is known for their privacy and solitude. Wal-Mart is known for their friendly environment and has a policy in place to always smile and look the customer in the eyes and verbally asks if they need help finding anything (Schaefer, 2009, pg. 68). Using Wal-Mart’s American policy’s and advising German’s to enforce American-style of management created a hostile work environment in Germany. The dominant i...

... middle of paper ...

... attention is not universal. We as American’s find it hard to understand why anyone would not like personal attention. Society has different cultures and belief and understanding of simple gestures as a smile or verbal statements. Google and YouTube are very popular in America, but not all countries find American’s technology a need or a want. Unable to adapt to the cultures, and beliefs of the western world created the downfall of Wal-Mart and Google.

Works Cited

Schaefer, L. (July 28, 2006) Business World. World’s Biggest Retailer Wal-Mart Closed

Up Shop in Germany.

Schaefer, R.T. (2009) Sociology: A brief introduction (8th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw

Hill Companies, Inc.

YouTube fails to placate rights owners in Japan. (2007, September). Managing

Intellectual Property, 1. Retrieved March 27, 2001, from ABI/INFORM Global.

(Document ID: 1351683251).

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