Urban Cultures :: essays research papers

Abstract For those of us located within the United States, we often take or granted the nornal day to day business operations. Though the United States has a mix of several distict cultures, most companies operate in the same manner. In fact, Americans often make the mistake of assuming that standard business models are the norm in other countries as well. For the corporate executive charged with creating an overseas operation, lack of local culture understanding and its influence on business methods will most likely result in greater start-up dificulties if not complete faliure. This paper hopes to develop a better awareness of various cultures and their influence on business methods and models. It will focus on the challenges in dealing with people from two different countries, Moroco and Pakistan, and offer some insight as to developing solutions to cultural differences. Literature Review Several sources of information were used in drafting this report. Due to the internet I was able to obtain current articles on both countries. Also, I even went so far as to log onto chat rooms specifically created for and attended by Pakistanis and Moroccans. There I asked questions regarding the motovations, beliefs, and values of the people from both countries. The repose was postive in that Moroccans and Pakistanis were more tham happy to answer my questions. Both parties seemed to be very nationalistic and pround of their countries. It is interesting to note that most of the people I was chating with were expatriots, most of whom are located on the United States. Though I found the chat rooms an interesting place to speak with Pakistanis and Moroccans, the information I gathered was limited. I attribute this to chat room formats that only allow a person to respond with short sentences. I later found a Pakistani chat room that allowed real time voice data transmission (www.pakiso n.com) which functioned like a two way radio. There people were able to express their thought and opinions regarding their home countries in more detail. The next couple of sections will detail the main differences between the cultures of Morocco and Pakistan. As I was conducting my reasearch on the two nations I quickly came to the conclusion that Morocco and Pakistan are more similar to each other than they are different. Though they have many commonalities, this does not mean that the challenges are any less for the international manager.