Business Culture and its Implications for Teaching

This research proposal investigates the literature on business culture and how they can be applied in the practice of teaching. Since the success of any business transaction is largely dependent upon the quality of communication between the business partners, teachers must begin to incorporate these studies in to business and economic classes to make it easy for the students to participate in global trade later (Baldrige, p.709). As such, it becomes quite very essential to critically investigate the different aspects of business culture that have historically been regarded as successful and see what portions can be taught at the various levels of learning. This research proposal draws a lot of relevance as it seeks to impart to the students the necessary knowledge that would enable them do business anywhere in the world (Richard, p.11)

Method of the Proposal

The intended research is projected to include administration of questionnaires as well as conduct wide ranging interviews among leaders in both the business and academic institutions. The questionnaires would be the open ended type that would allow the respondents to express their personal opinions in a more explanatory way (Brown, 2004). In particular, the research intends to engage employees of the Care Partners Limited and the McClure’s Maple Syrup Limited. Besides, the research intends to interview the top management teams of the Richie & Co Limited together with the two earlier companies, Care Partners and McClure’s in the business institution category. On the category of academic institutions, the research intends to cover Triton Academy and the Golden Elites University of Arts and Agriculture.

Participants

The personalities targeted for the interview include the project directors, a member of the board of directors and two departmental heads selected at random. This is in view of the fact that their positions in the various institutions give them a perfect view of the overall business cultures that have been adopted by their firms. On the part of the questionnaires, the research intends to consider fifteen employees from the two firms all chosen at random. However, caution would be taken to ensure that the participants are of diverse backgrounds including race, tribe and religion. (Baker, 1999) As such, the most probable thing would be to obtain the statistics of the employees’ backgrounds so that this can be used to assign the questionnaires. For instance, if there are five blacks among the employees then three questionnaire papers will be reserved for the blacks so the five of them can choose at random. This strategy would ensure that the research does not only obtain good policies, but also sets out to perfectly implement them in the most effective way.

Design and Apparatus

The proposed research intends to incorporate the best methodologies that would yield reliable information worth implementing. The questionnaire in particular would put forward questions that are rather intended to extract information from the respondents rather than leading kind of questions. For instance, the overview of the questionnaire would be as follows: (Rocco, 2011)

1. What is the kind of relationship that exists between the management team and the employees in general considering their diverse backgrounds?
2. Given a chance in the managerial position of your firm, what aspects of this relationship would you change and why?
3. What do you consider as the local public perception of the firm being a foreign institution and why?
4. What factors, in your opinion, have contributed significantly to this perception? And to what extent do you agree that this perception is a true representation of facts on the ground or it’s simply the works of competitors?
5. What aspects of this business culture would be taught at the college or university levels? And how soon should they be implemented, if indeed they are relevant?

Besides this, the research would target the management teams in an in-depth interview. The interview would strictly seek to obtain professional information concerning the business culture. As such, the interviewer would start by asking the type of business culture that the institution has come to adopt with time and why. (Moos, p.54)  Besides, to the management teams of the academic institutions, the interviewing panel would seek to find out what aspects of business culture are being taught to students today and why they have not been successful. (Osborne, 2001)

Procedure

The researcher would book an appointment with each of the interviewees. Preferably, the interview would be scheduled for the morning hours before they head to any meetings. This would be in respect of their positions that require them to be engaged a shuttle diplomacy moving from meeting to meeting late in the day. (Duening, 2009) On the part of the questionnaires, the respondents would be given the questionnaire paper to carry home and fill in every detail away from the work place. This would not only save them any vindication from their supervisors, but would also ensure that information obtained is as diverse as possible and that the individual respondents do not influence the responses given by each of them. (Johnson, p.127)

Data Analysis

The findings of this research will all certainly put some emphasis on the global aspect of business culture. For instance, it would stress the fact that any business conducting their operations in the global commercial environment would require a perfect knowledge of the cultural differences across the globe and their potential impact on their businesses. Regardless of whether the business falls into the finance, technology or the computer category, there would be a direct impact of the global cultural differences on the profitability of the entire business. As such, focus on improving the cultural awareness should be targeted as a prompt way of building international competencies as well as ensure that the business and its managers become more globally sensitive (Martin, p.858).

For instance, if a business wishes to penetrate the murky waters of the African business environment they must put in place the right measures to enable them overcome the real challenge paused by the dragon of corruption. As such, it should not surprise them if the clearing departments at the ports demand financial favors from them before their goods could be cleared. Instead, they would likely seek legal or expert advice on the real possibility of success if they fall to the whims of the corrupt individuals. In most cases, it would suffice if they seek direct close relations with the top management considering that the people more often involved in such acts of corruption are junior officers. Besides, the business environment in the third is in most cases regulated by the outdated laws that were inherited from the colonial governments. As such, a foreign institution would come across several unnecessary legal constraints. Such a business must fully understand the legal roadblocks early enough so that they can plan to evade them as they roll out their operations in the new business environment (Whitmore 2005).

The business culture in the Muslim world is more often marked with ethnic rivalries that define how business owners relate to one another. As such, ethnic background of the local people becomes an important factor in choosing the employees especially at the managerial levels. More strategically, the business must be keen not to include two individuals belonging to rival tribes in rival positions within the business. This would be quite detrimental; as it would see the real crude manifestations of ethnic tensions take toll within the premises of the institution. Although the individuals could be way above these rivalries, the individual members of their ethnic groups would have a false feeling that they represent their tribes and as such any punitive measures taken against them would be targeting their tribe and favoring the rival tribes (Bernard 1990).

In the same manner, a business people from the third world who intend to operate in the Western countries must prepare themselves for a completely new pace of doing things. For instance, the popular say that Africa has no hurry would certainly cause a clash of cultures for an African entrepreneur in the United States. For instance, businesses in America have the culture of drawing their plans in a way that takes care of the long term events. This may not be true of the African setting. This implies that the businessmen would have to make a complete adjustment to their way of life and become more proactive rather than being reactive. This would be significant especially on a partnership between persons of the two different cultures (Jago, 1982).

Conclusion

This research would yield information that could shape the entire business education sector for the next several decades. As such, it should be sufficiently supported so that it does not only yield good findings, but also obtains the best ways of implementing the findings in the most realistic way. Further, business leaders of tomorrow should use this knowledge to gain greater confidence that would enable them venture into any cultural settings of the world.  This is the only way business partnerships across cultures would have a stronger sense of mutual trust that is the essence of business success (Whitmore 2005).