Culture, Economy, And Working Style In The United States Essay.

Location and Population

Question:

Discuss about the Cross Cultural Comparison of Nonverbal Cues.

The country of the United States is located mainly in the central part of North America. In the north, there is the Canada and in the south is the Mexico. Moreover, it is bordered by on the west by the Pacific Ocean as well as to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. The country has a total population of about 304 million. This country covers a vase area on the earth that accounts to 9,629,000. It is interesting to know that researchers include this country as one of the world’s most culturally diverse nations (Klabbers, 2015). It comprises of about 50 states along with the federal district. The country of the United States is stated by business stalwarts as one of the most highly industrialized country. It is seen to boast proudly of a full fledge modern economy. Researchers also consider it to be one of the most powerful economy which is present in the world. Hence, any individual with an aspiration to look himself as an expert business professional can reach his objectives if get a chance for working in such modernized industries of the country (Nikomo & Hoobler, 2014). The country is also abundant in different types of natural resources. It has huge amount of reserves that include coal, petroleum, iron ore, natural gas and also sylvite thereby ranking among the topmost positions of the world. In the decade of the 1990s, a robust growth was recorded in the United States when the new economy along with the information as well as the biotechnology industry started playing a leading role. This made the country enjoy the unparalleled economic growth in that period (Ethier, 2016). However in the year 2001, the economy of the country slumped into a period of brief recession but it showed the capability to stand and turn around after the fall. It again returned to prosperity. In the month of July in 2007, the subprime mortgage crisis broke out in the United States. Since then, it had been spreading to the different parts of the world. The country is now starting to emerge from its longest recession period from the time of the World War 2. For example, the two countries of US and China are now found to be each other’s second largest trading partners who had a bilateral trade which had been reaching for about 333.74 billion U.S dollars in 2008. Therefore it can be easily seen that united states are continuously on the progress of making more international bonding and developing industrial projects which takes them to a more economically powerful nation of the world (Buchelli & Wadhwani, 2014). Economists are now agreeing that the economy if the country is finally putting in a broad based recovery from the disaster of the 2008 Great recession. After thorough analysis of the job market, it has been found that the nation is now being able to create jobs for millions and the wage growth is also picking. The foreign trade is also gradually getting pace although it is now standing to 30% of the nation’s GDP. These signs are indicating a prosperous recovery as well as a healthy and self sufficient economy. All these signs are showing how the country has geared up for the development of the economy providing more scope to new business professionals who are aspiring to become big in life (Shwab, 2017). US have been successful to hold on to the trend of  energy renaissance all due to the advancements in technology mainly in segments like drilling as well developed extensively. The industry’s growth had reached 168% between 2010 and 2013. Manufacturers had been found to be contributing about $2.09 trillion to the economy. This is also an increase from $1.73 trillion in 2009. This sector accounts for about 12% of the GDP an support for about 17.6 million jobs in U.S. transportation sector, healthcare sectors, agriculture and many others all are flourishing tremendously (Kaldor, 2013). Therefore, it had developed scopes for individuals to get new jobs in the country. Therefore choosing United States as the country for this assignment is quite justified.

Industrialization and Economy

Researchers suggest that by the term “culture” it means the wide domain which encompasses the food, religion, how one hears, what that person wears, how they sit at table, how visitors are greeted, how one behaves with loved one and many others. This had been stated by Christina De Rossi who is an anthropologist who works at Barnate and also Southgate College in London. This country is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world (Scott & Davis, 2015). The English had colonized the country in the year 1600s. At that very time, they had incorporated some of their cultures in the making of the United States. Besides, cultures of Native Americans, Latin Americans, Africans and Asians also make US culture. Nine percent of the US population speaks English and most of the business is conducted in English. Besides English, other languages which are also spoken are Chinese, French, Spanish as well as German. Census bureau had successfully reported that more than 300 languages are spoken in US.71 % of the population are Christian and about 23% had no religious affiliation at all (Stromquist, 2016). Around 6% is made up of non Christian religions. The style of dressing mainly varies by social status, occupation, climate as well as region. Jeans, sneakers, cowboy hats, boots, baseball caps are some of the interesting clothing styles. Fashion of this region is mainly influenced by celebrities and the media and many like to wear branded clothes. Coming to the culture of diet, the diet of UA is largely influenced by the European and Latin American eating styles. They mainly prefer hot dogs, hamburgers, hot dogs, cheese and macaroni as well as meat loaf (Spring, 2016). Southern style cooking is specific that reflects the menu which includes dishes like fried chicken, collard greens, corn bread as well as black eyed peas. Again Tex-Mex is cooking style famous in Texas and southwest that incorporate Spanish and Mexican cooking styles. These involve food items with chili and burritos as well as jellies heavily shredded on cheese and beans. Jerky dried meats are also as snacks. In section of art, United States is famous for being the leaders is mass media production. This includes television and movies. Hollywood has a very vibrant movie industry. California as well as American movies worldwide earn a huge revenue which can reach to $ 771 billion by 2019 to the US Department of commerce (McWilliams et al., 2016). They have a rich theatrical history. Moreover, the folk art is an artistic style. This is seen to be with quilts and other hand crafted items. Music is also very diverse with many styles like bluegrass, rock 'n' roll, hip hop and also blues, jazz, gospel, country and western. Moreover they are sport minded country with millions of fans following football, hockey, basketball and other sports. The favorite sport has however remained baseball. A large number of holidays are also celebrated in the country. This involves the Independence Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, thanksgiving, president’s day and many others. However symbols of social stratification are noticed (Acuna et al., 2015). Data suggests that the gains made by the topmost 1% of the population made by the rich classes can never match with the low socioeconomic classes who have made no such gains in the last year. Although a strong cultural belief in the reality of equal opportunity and economic mobility is believed in by the nation but it hardly gets reflected in the social scenario.

Natural Resources and Growth

The working culture of the United States is characterized by string work ethics. The business culture mainly provides heavy emphasis on the individual initiative as well as achievement. In this culture, personal competence professionalism as well as accountability for individual professional is highly valued. In this type of culture, the superiors of the organization are mostly consulted only when urgently required (Bolman & Deal, 2017). Most of the business is mainly carried out autonomously.  However in case of Malaysia, it is seen that it is the higher rank officials who mainly take the decisions and the working system is vertically hierarchical where less decision-making power resides in the subordinates. In the domain of business communication, the culture mainly provides a very direct communication style. The primary purpose of the communication mainly involves the exchanging of information as well as facts and opinions. They never form their decisions on feelings. More importance is given to what it is said than how it is said. Their explicit communication style allows them not to hesitate before saying no or to criticize others in the public.  However, Malaysians who are predominantly Muslims, Indians or Chinese rely less on empirical evidence and are driven more by feelings and emotions. In US culture, silent moments in conversations make them feel uncomfortable and therefore they take initiatives to fill the gaps. They are friendly with their bosses. However in Malaysia, relationship between subordinates and their officials are distinct and highly officials. In US, when any conflicts arise, it is dealt directly and openly. However sometimes, it is seen that direct ways of communication sometimes cause problems with people coming from other cultures where business is developed on personal bonds and conflict is handled indirectly and “saving face” is significant (Rallapalli & Montogeny, 2016).  A third factor which is also noticed is that time is considered money by them. While other cultures provide importance on relationship building, the working culture of this country remains preoccupied with time. Time is an intangible asset for them which they believe can be invested, spent, saved, lost, found and also waste. They believe wasting time is similar to wasting money. Punctuality is considered to be an important part of US business etiquettes (Evanschitzky et al., 2014). Lateness is considered rudeness and disrespectful. Schedules are important. Deadlines are also needed to be strictly adhered to. When officials conduct meetings as well as negotiations, importance is provided on  driving the best results in the least and quickest possible time. When meetings are conducted, it starts with a firm handshake which accompanies direct eye contacts. This signals interest, sincerity and confidence to the American business partner. In the first meeting, a professional of a separate background or of similar background should address the person with respective titles and their last names. They will in turn make it know how he wishes to be addressed. In Malaysia, professionals should be addressed with Mr. or miss or Mrs. followed by their surnames. First names are not preferred. In US, small talks regarding work-related matters to sports, weather, travel and others can be done to understand the ambience and for better networking (Jackson & Wang, 2013). However that should be short. Business cards are very less distributed. It is not distributed until any chance of contacting the person at later date arises. In Malaysia, business cards are very important. They should be handed with names on the upside and should be read before putting them in pockets. In US, dress code depends varying on the location and type of business. However wearing classic clothing mainly in the color of blue or navy in suits, ties and dress suits ensures a more confident and conservative appearance. American respects privacy as well as their personal space. In cases of negotiations and contracts, they want to get down to main points directly. They regard negotiations as problem solving skills which are based on mutual benefit as well as personal strengths with clear emphasis on the financial position and business powers (Maznac et al., 2015). Those values are only preferred which are straight forward and to the point. They want others to express their ideas by themselves only. The business language is full of idiomatic expressions that may come from touch base, ballpark figure, game plan, home run or others. This may become difficult for those who are not from same culture.

Culture and Diversity

Individualism may be defined as the degree of the interdependence which a society or organization maintain among its members. Such people with high individualism only look after their own interests and over their direct families. Collectivism is present in societies where people belong to in groups which take care for each other on the platform of trust and loyalty. US scores very high on individualism for about 91. People in these organizations only look after themselves and their immediate families. They try to prove their merit by providing more importance on their own quality of work rather than developing goals which include assimilation of group members (Gelf et al., 2017). Malaysia scores 26 in individualism meaning that it follows a collectivist society. Such a society mainly deepens on formation of strong bonds among team members and colleagues. Here everyone takes responsibility for fellow members and loyalty is mainly placed as a foundation of such collectivist culture in Malaysia.

Power can be defined as the degree by which any particular individual is able to influence the ideas and behaviors of people. The attribute of power distance deals with the fact that all individuals in the societies are unequal and therefore it expresses the attitude of the culture towards these power inequalities among the individuals of society or origination. USA scores less on the power distance like around 46. This is because US is seen to have organizations where hierarchy is established mainly for convenience. Superiors are easily accessible and approachable and managers rely on the individual employees and teams for their expertise. As managers and employees expect to be consulted and information is ahead frequently at equal levels, therefore power distance is very low in US business culture (Baki et al., 2015). On the other hand Malaysia scores very high about 100 out of 100 which mean that business culture here accepts hierarchal order. It reflects inherent inequalities, subordinates are commanded about what to do, here the boss is the benevolent autocrat and centralization is popular.

This attribute mainly helps in describing the way which a society deals with any positive or negative future events which can never be known beforehand. It is actually the extent to which members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous situations as well as created beliefs and institution who try to avoid this. The anxiety associated with this attribute is handled by different countries in different ways. The extent to which a culture feels threatened by any unknown situations helps researchers to know how well they are prepare to properly handle it and avoid damage. This is measured by uncertainty avoidance. US scores very low for about 46. US show fair degree of acceptance of new idea, innovative ideas or willingness to try something new to avoid uncertainty. However they do not feel the necessity of rules and they are usually less emotionally expressive than higher scoring cultures. Malaysia shows far poorer marks about 36.  And thus have a low preferences or avoiding uncertainty. They follow more relaxed attitudes where people believe that there should be no more rules than required (Park et al., 2014). They also believe that if employees do not work or re ambiguous, they should be changed. They provide flexible schedules and also take hard work only when necessary. Innovation is also seen as threatening.

Art and Music

Achievement mainly comes under the dimension of masculinity where it indicates the society which needs to be driven by competition, achievement and success.  A low score on masculinity means high score on nurturing attitudes which reflect the dimensions of femininity. The later means that the organization where quality of life is the main sig of success. Masculine reflects organizations wanting to be best and femininity reflects what workers like to do. Malaysia shows a score of 50, which indicates that it, maintains a proper balance of both masculine and feminine traits in business culture. US show a score of 62. This shows high masculinity traits with most individualist drive in the world. This shows that they are more aligned to goal driven achievements and strategies to maintain the best quality performance rather than developing collectivist attitude and looking for everyone comfort in the work zone (Sharma et al., 2014).

The dimension mainly states that every society has to maintain some links with its own past while handling he different challenges of the present and future. United States scores low for about 26. This reflects that they follow normative societies who prefer to maintain time honored traditions and norms and view societal change with suspicion. They are more prone to analyze new information to check whether it is true. Therefore, this culture does not make them pragmatic. American business measures their performance on short term basis with profits and losses being issues on quarterly basis for striving quick results at workplace. Malaysia also score low for about 41. They are also normative and exhibit great respect for traditions with a focus on achieving quick results but not as much as that of the US (Acuna et al., 2015).

Conclusion:

United States has been described as one of the most successful nation in industrialization and conducting international business. Technological advancements in drilling and hydraulic fracturing, oil gas production, manufacturing industry, transportation industry, healthcare industry, agriculture and others are advancing at a very high space providing job to millions. USA had been successful in maintaining a mixture of varieties of culture along with its own distinct cultures of food, clothing, sports, language and others. Moreover their business etiquettes are also different and needs to be strictly followed by someone who wants to establish a professional relationship with them. In comparison to Malaysia, United States has low power distance, higher individualism; more or less similar levels of masculinity traits and long term orientation. All these information would help an aspiring business student to initiate his career in the business world of United States and become successful in his career.

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