International relations and global systems

Business

International

Describe Ugandan cultural attributes that might affect the operations of a foreign company doing business there.

The Ugandan cultural attributes that might have an effect on the operations of a foreign company doing business there are many. In this country nepotism is the norm and the government is considered to be one of the most corrupt in the world. Business in Uganda is known to move at a very slow pace and it has been found that things can be speeded up for the right price. This country also has a problem with unemployment so when there are jobs to be had they usually get filled by relatives of government officials. Although all of these practices are normal and legal in Uganda they are borderline unethical for a U.S. company.

How would you describe the respective attitudes of Martin and Green: ethnocentric, polycentric or geocentric? What factors do you suspect of having influenced their respective attitudes?

The attitude of Green is one of ethnocentrism. He has the attitude that the cultural ideas that he is used to being his own are natural and correct and what goes on in the Uganda culture is unnatural and incorrect (Sinkovics & Holzmuller, 1994). The attitude of Martin on the other hand is one of polycentrism. Martin believes that the workforce should consist of as many local people as possible. He believes that the local people know best the host country's culture, language, and work ethic (International Management, 2011).

It is likely that both of these people had the attitudes that they did because of the way that they had been brought up and because of the things that they had been exposed to in their lives. It is well-known that Martin had a lot of expose to different cultures, especially of those in Africa. Because of this he had a very good understanding of how things were done there and the culture of the people. Green on the other hand had probably not had much exposure to cultures that were different from him own and because of this he was not as accepting of the culture in Uganda as Martin was.

3. Who was right, Green or Martin, about Martin's more controversial actions in facilitating the project? How might things have turned out if Martin had not been a member of the project team?

Both Green and Martin where right about the more controversial actions surrounding the project. A company that does business in a foreign country must be able to balance the experience between their own culture and the foreign one. When going abroad to do business it is very important that a company understand the culture of the place in which they will do business so that they can be as successful as possible. In this case the company had to learn to do things and conduct business in a fashion that fit into the culture in Uganda without comprising too many of their business cultures. It is often a very fine line for a company to walk. But any company that decides to do business aboard must be willing to walk this line.

The things that Martin did in order to make this project successful may have not been the way things would have been done if the project would have been in the U.S. But these were things that were perfectly normal and accepted in Uganda. Green needed to have a conversation with Martin and tell him what a good job that he thought he was doing and together they should have come up with some guidelines and rules for how things were going to be done. If there was a business practice that Martin was doing that Green did not agree with then he needed to find out if there was any other way that this could be accomplished. It may have been that Martin did not feel that he had any other choices but to do it the way he did in order to make the project successful.

With the knowledge that Martin had with African culture he was definitely the perfect fit for his job. He did a very good job and managed to lead the project to successful. If the company had not had Martin in this position is it likely that it would not have gone as well as it did. It is not often that a person can be dropped into a foreign culture and adapt to it as well as it seems that Martin did.

4. In the next phase of the project -- running the power plant- should HG employ someone whose main function is that of liaison between its corporate culture and the culture of the host country? If so, is Martin the right person for the job?

It would definitely be a good idea for HG to employ a liaison between its corporate culture and the culture of the host company. Because there is such a cultural difference between the two countries in order to be successful there will have to be someone in the middle to help smooth over any differences or issues that might arise. Because of the success that Martin has had with the first phase of the project and his report that he has built with the natives he is the perfect person to fill this position.