Management under globalization

MANAGEMENT UNDER GLOBALIZATION
Name:
Course:
Professor Name:
(May 31, 2012)
Management under Globalization
Living in Abidjan, Ivory Coast was in the real sense a roller coaster ride. After my first arrival, I was actually very lost. Everything was being carried out in French. To be honest, this was quite overwhelming for me basing on the fact that I was from Canada. I could not communicate with the majority of the people who mostly spoke French. In addition, my immediate neighbors could not even pronounce any word in English. Thus, as this course illustrates, my relationship with other individuals was greatly halted. Initially, I resolved to make use of gestures in order to make my point. This included buying any stuff from shops and other markets where the medium of communication was predominantly French. As it was mandatory for me to stay in that country for some period as I was on official duty, I had to make attempts of coping with the situation. I had to try and learn French just to ensure I fitted into the culture. As we all know, learning another language past the age of ten is difficult, I had to keep this notion behind and learn the language as first as I could. Consequently, after staying in Abidjan for one year, I was capable of speaking French to my neighbors. This was the case although my French was not that fluent. I could comfortably bargain at the local shopping malls and understood well where to get all the fascinating things I required. I could communicate perfectly with my neighbors without having any barriers on the basis of culture. The problem of walking around with an interpreter ceased. I now felt like I was part of that culture.
Actually, the cross cultural changes I went through in Ivory Coat were quite stressful. Most of the adjustments I had to do consumed a lot of time, money and effort. Furthermore, the adjustment called for a lot of interest and patience. In fact, it reached a point where I had to reconsider my decision to remain in Ivory Coast. In addition to the language barrier, I experienced a lot of difficulties when it came to understanding the behaviors and values of the Ivorian people. I was in what is called cultural clash. Relating this to the course materials, I realized that because of globalization and vision of most countries and cultures, there is the acknowledgement of expatriate inflow in most of these countries. This is normally done to meet the demands for professional and skilled manpower (Elashmawi & Harris, 1993).
To make my stay in Ivory Coast effective, I had to follow the three aspects of adjustments which included psychological, work and socio-cultural adjustments. In addition, I had to attend various cross-cultural trainings (CCT) in order to reduce the cultural shock I had accumulated (Foster, 2000).
In the real sense, I had to be increasingly optimistic and tolerant in my attitude to the differences in culture which occurred within the Ivorian cross-cultural environment. Actually, I learnt to be very acceptable to new lifestyles discovered in Ivory Coast and increasingly, towards the Ivo...