My very first international job assignment was in 1992, when I was responsible for Tender sales contract negotiation. I was required to travel frequently to Iraq, Libya, and Turkey in order to negotiate tender sales with local institutions. I took that job because I love traveling. But soon, I realized that it is more than simple travel, it needs to travel from country to country in one trip which means that you will away from your home and family for one week or more. The challenges were in meeting people from different cultures and each culture has their own norms when you interact and communicate. For Example, in Turkey the language was a barrier for me. It was difficult to deal with their high hierarchical system in Iraq and Libya. I was …show more content…
Are there any other experiences that you think helped prepare you for international management?
One of the main experiences that foster my passion for international work was built during my educational experience when I was studding my MBA in the U.S. This experience helped me to discover my personality characteristics, such as openness and being more comfortable with different cultures. Also, to cope with unknowns and ambiguities, and being extrovert and collaborative. I was able to know different cultures as I was surrounded by student from all over the world with high diversified cultures. That helped me to developed my passion as international professional.
5. Who was the person from whom you learned the most about managing in an international setting? What did you learn from
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In the international assignments you need to acquire new knowledge and skills about the culture and the market the you plan to work in. You need to know their laws and regulations. Sometimes you need to adapt your strategy according to the local norms. In general, the competition in international work is more dynamic and complex than domestic work. having a global work is riskier than domestic’s, as the possibility of failure is higher. Developing global leaders is more complicated than domestics leaders. In addition to the differences in languages, religion, weather, and food, there are difference in the role and the goal of your work. Unlike domestic work, most of the times, companies send international professionals for a specific goal, such as implementing new policies, fixing a problem, and doing business turnarounds. And most of the times international work assigned with a limited time. If I have to choose a person for international work, I look for a person that have both the talent and the experience in addition to have a good knowledge of different cultures. I will look for one who is creative in solving different challenges, who has the know-how, who has the ability to deal with an ambiguity, and has the curiosity to know and interact with different cultures and has the humility in dealing with different people. In the same time, I should avoid “just like me” bias in choosing the right person,
The modern world has experienced tremendous changes, which have contributed to changes in people living in the global world. These changes have mainly been brought by globalization, which is a major phenomenon in the 21st Century. Leaders across various professions, businesses, and governments need to cope with globalization since it forces them to cross borders more often and communicate or conduct business with people from other cultures. This process involves developing necessary skills for working effectively in the modern complex world. Actually, the ability of these leaders to work effectively not only requires the development of essential skills but the application of leadership principles in the global work environment. In essence, leaders must develop their ability to apply leadership principles across culturally diverse workforce in today’s global work environment.
Hollander (1985) defined leadership as the process of influence between a leader and followers to attain group, organizational, or societal groups. Some leaders are innate, however now a days most of the leaders develop himself/herself by education. Education system takes a great place to develop leadership quality in context of globalization. “Students are now consumers who define quality education from a global perspective” (Drucker, 1995). Current education system has been changed in Asia basically in Thailand to create more efficient and effective leaders. There are lots of multinational and international organizations that are operating their businesses all over the world. Because of globalization cross-cultural workplaces has become a challenge for the organization. The culture of multinational or international organization has shared by the members of the organization. The individual level, the intra-organizational level and the inter-organizational levels are the three levels of contrast for cross-cultural organization. (Rhein, 2013)
In addition to my work experience, I have completed a 14 day trip to Malaysian Borneo to carry out aid work. This involved helping the local community to build clean water tanks and refurbish their homes. I was able to build relationships with members of the team to reach our common goal. This gave me a positive belief in my own ability while operating in an unfamiliar environment. This experience also helped me to foster my ambition to help
Constant technological and global changes create challenges that forces leaders to manage different cultures in different countries. People, goods, services, and ideas are moving today at greater speeds which mean our labor force is becoming more diverse and multicultural by the day. Effective leaders need to understand such global dynamics in order to successfully manage organizational cultures. The cultures of leaders and their core assumptions might be different from the values and assumptions of employees in a different country. Two managers working for the same global company might see things differently due to their backgrounds and cultural values. The different countries, in which the organization operates, will have different cultures depending on the social, economic, and political history of the country. Managing and understanding these differences need an effective cross-cultural thinking leader (Yukl, 2013). Some research questions that Yukl, 2013 suggests are: 1) how behavior differs across cultural values and for different countries? 2) How values and behaviors are influenced by personality across company and country? 3) What types of traits, skills, and experience are most useful to prepare a leader being assigned to a new country? 4) How does the fast-changing culture in developing countries affect and relate to
In the past few years I have managed to work in a various governmental and non governmental organizations. During my time at every single company and organization that worked, I met diverse group of people and each one of them had their on story and history.
Many companies are seeking individuals who have study abroad experience. Intercultural exchange is important in our growing economy. We are connected through various countries. Most of the stuff we consumed is imported from a different country. Therefore, it is important for individuals to travel to a different country to understand the connection between cultures. I believe studying abroad will lead us to be a more wholesome individual. It is a nice break from your daily routine in your home community. It will give you more time to reflect on your self and the
My time in Australia was limited, but not easy. Mornings came fast which means work started at six a.m. This help, structured my body to easily become more up and effective when handling my checklist of what needs to be handled during the day. I loved being in a new country because it taught me how to connect with people who had different ideas, opinions and views towards how businesses run across the world. Even though, many citizens spoke clear English there, there were many dilate and languages that formed throughout the country. I knew that when I came back to America that it would be highly important to learn new languages because a business should relate worldwide with many types of people and their preferences in language. Working and talking to the richest business leaders of Australia influenced me to become a leader in the business world. Running a business is not just telling people what to do or how to do something. It is more about how a person can connect companies together to better the world around
A major challenge of doing business internationally is to adapt effectively to different culture. Such adaptation requires an understanding of cultural diversity, perceptions, stereotypes, and values (Hodgett &Luthans, 2005). Doing business overseas has its challenges as well as it rewards.
... might be regarded upon as international, is the fact that job seekers and employers looking for suitable employees, can be found all over the world.
I received two awards for my participation in cross-country. The first one I received as a junior, and it was the domestique award, which coach Heath named the award after a biking term used in the Tour de France. The domestique is a term used to describe a rider who works for the benefit of his team or leader instead of trying to win outright. Although I wasn’t our fastest runner, I was almost always at practice, and willing to help push my teammates to greater heights. Later that year I also became a member of the National Honor Society, since I had shown commitment to scholarship, leadership, character and service. The following year I received the excellence in leadership award for cross-country. To be honest, it was completely unexpected on my part. I felt stunned, as if I had just jumped into icy cold water. From my point of view I had merely done what was necessary, and I would expect the same from anyone else. Despite my initial shock, I feel honored to have received this award, and I hope to bring respect to my program no matter wherever I go.
With the proliferation of the internet international Business transactions are more common today than ever. Globalization is now a key factor when creating a business strategy for most companies whether they are small family own businesses or huge corporations. Globalization however does not just involve selling a product in other countries. There are legal and cultural concerns that must be addressed. The legal aspects are fairly simple because in most places the laws are spelled out. It's the local customs, and regional way of doing things that can be tricky. Research on globalization has shown that it is not an omnipotent, unidirectional force leveling everything in its path. Because a global culture does not exist, any search for it would be futile. It is more fruitful to instead focus on particular aspects of life that are indeed affected by the globalizing process. (1). In this new economy, as it has been in the past, it will be the people not the machines who will determine a company's success. Having an effective Human Resource Management team that effectively analyze your company's current and future personnel needs is key in any business organization.
In international business, having the right leadership skills and approach are important to ensure success. Whether it is Entrepreneurial business venture or managing a corporate organization, the skill sets may be slightly different based on the culture. There are several different theories of approach and skill, but all of the theories agree that cultural intelligence and appropriate education are important for all global leaders.
In the past few decades, the world has experienced heightened globalisation. During this period, organisations have prioritised setting up leaders capable of dealing with the ever-increasing involvedness of running their global operations. Overseeing global talent along with career paths is consequently a decisive challenge in lots of multinational organisations. Individuals as well as organisations perceive International assignments as a constructive way of developing global occupational competencies (Brewster & Suutari, 2005).
Kealey, D. J., & Protheroe, D. R. (1996). The effectiveness of cross-cultural training for expatriates: An assessment of the literature on the issue. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 20, 141-165.
...nternational business and working for global company it provide the advantages to students relative to working for a small firm, but it may also lead to some challenges and while each international company is different, it helps to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of an international culture before accepting a job with a multinational enterprise. If the student international business working for a multinational enterprise it offers more job opportunities, but a multinational company provides access to jobs around the world. For example, an assistant engineer may have the opportunity to transfer to a position in Abu Dhabi, Europe or other locations where the company has offices at the location. The certain of jobs are available in multinational company that don’t exist in small company such as international sales, foreign division management position and else.