Dates
Wednesday, March 6:
Wednesday, March 13:
Wednesday, March 20:
In-class
Cross-cultural management
(Outsourced); Forum due by NOON
on MONDAY
NO CLASS, watch film on own.
Personal values (Rogue Trader);
Forum due by NOON on TUESDAY
Political landscapes (Invictus); No
forum this week
Introduce final project
Wednesday, March 27:
Wednesday, April 3:
Wednesday, April 10:
Political landscapes (Invictus)
continued; Forum due by NOON
on MONDAY
Business ethics (Thank You for
Smoking); Forum due by NOON on
MONDAY
Socioeconomic landscapes (City of
Men); Forum due by NOON on
MONDAY
Wednesday, April 17:
Guest speaker on the business
culture of Brazil
Corporate culture and change (In
Good Company); No forum this
week
Wednesday, April 24:
Or time to work in teams?
Presentations and pizza; Global
Citizen group projects due
Out-of-class
Forum #1 (see below)
Forum #2
Watch 2 Ted Talks (one on doing
business in Africa; one on
emerging economies – links
below) and complete the
Reflection on culture (below)
Forum #3
Reading: Global Corporate
Citizenship
Forum # 4
Forum # 5
For extra credit, they can see Rio,
100 Degrees F., at the IU Cinema
the following Sunday (deals with
poverty in Brazil)
See Final Project instructions
Ted Talks
•

Emerging economies: http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_neuwirth_the_power_of_the_informal_economy.html
Want to Help Africa, Do Business Here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/ngozi_okonjo_iweala_on_doing_business_in_africa.html
Reading: Schwab, Klaus. "Global Corporate Citizenship." Foreign Affairs 87.1 (2008): 107-18. Print.
Forum prompts
1. Outsourced
Answer the following prompts and respond to at least 2 other posts from your classmates. (Click on the thread, and hit
"reply.") Remember to complete your online discussion by Monday at noon for participation credit.
1.) Give three differences from the business culture in India from the United States (or where you’re from. If you’re from
India, you can still compare/contrast business in the US).
2.) What do you think is the reason for one of those differences? Where does that difference stem from? What is it about
the culture of India (the history, the primary religion, the economic state, etc.) that leads to one of these differences?
(So we are getting at the WHY here, not just the what. You might have to do some research here, but the movie also
gives some answers.)
3.) How do you think you would have handled it if you were to be put into Todd's position? What could Todd have done
to prepare for his immersion into India? What overall advice would you give to Todd? What did you learn about crosscultural management from this movie?
2. Rogue Trader
This week you only need to answer the prompt. You may respond to others, but it’s not required. I’ll give you until Tuesday
(after spring break) to post.
1.) Read this short interview with Nick Leeson:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/fameandfortune/9483379/Barings-rogue-trader-Nick-LeesonMoney-is-not-my-motivation.html
2.) The first question asked of Mr. Leeson is “How did your childhood experiences influence your attitude to money?”
How would you answer that question?
3.) After watching the movie, what would you say that Leeson valued? What was important to him?
4.) What do you value? What is important to you?
3. Invictus and Business in emerging economies
Watch the two Ted talks under the Resources tab and read the Global Corporate Citizenship article. Then answer 3 of the 4
questions below. You do not need to respond to others, but you certainly can!
1.) Did you realize the power/enormity of the informal economy before seeing this video? What were your reactions to this
video? What are your thoughts and concerns?
2.) Nigeria’s first female Finance Minister believes that truly sustainable support doesn’t come from sending money, food, or
clothing donations, but rather investors helping businesses get started. What were your reactions to this video? How can the
negative perceptions of doing business in Africa be overcome so that more people and companies will do business there? (By
the way, I hope one team chooses a country in Africa to present over, and I even have a resource for you!)
3.) The article states that "A study... found that fewer than half of the senior executives surveyed in the US believed that they
or their peers should take the lead in shaping the debate on major issues such as education, health care and foreign policy."
What do you think? (By the way, this article is the starting point for your final project!)
4.) General thoughts on / reactions to Invictus? If you don't know the history of Apartheid and Mandela, a quick Google search
will help put the movie into context. What are your thoughts on Mandela as a leader? When you go into other countries to
conduct business, you may have to deal with political and racial strife. Does this movie help you think through what those
challenges might look like?
4. Thank You for Smoking
Answer the questions below and respond to one other person's post by Monday at noon.
1.) What do you think about the idea of having a “certain moral flexibility”? Nick justified what he did as a way to “pay the
rent.” Did you think that was honest? What things would you do, or not do, to “pay the rent?”
2.) There is a lot of information in the world today, and fact can be mixed with opinion. Businesses can always put forth a
sense of skepticism when it comes to particular data that does not benefit them. In some sense this is a good thing, as
it encourages people to think for themselves. However, it can also be dangerous if people are distracted from some
sort of healthy truth. Nick’s job was a lobbyist, but how would you describe what he did for a living? Was he a
defender of the right to choose or a professional deceiver and liar?
3.) When you hear “corporate responsibility,” what do you think of? In your opinion, what responsibilities do businesses
have to individuals and communities?
5. City of Men (We also had a guest speaker this night)
Please answer the two questions below. You do not have to reply to another person for full credit – but you are welcome to!
We’ll keep the questions short and simple:
1) What were your general reactions from the City of Men episode? What did you learn about the culture of Brazil from
watching this episode?
2) What were 2-3 things you learned/found interesting about Brazil from Shawn’s talk?
Personal reflection: What is your culture?
"Men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they were born, the city apartment or the farm in
which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended,
the sports they followed, the poets they read and the God they believed in." (W. Somerset Maugham. The Razor's Edge)
Read below and note the 5 questions throughout the reading (they are clearly numbered). Answer those questions (labeled by
numbers) in the text box in this assignment. This is due March 20th.
What does the word culture mean to you? We are looking at the values and systems of behavior that allow groups of people to
make sense of the world. This is complex stuff and trying to understand cultures, including your own, will mean examining
many aspects of life. Some of them are immediately visible, for others you may have to dig deeper:
• What is defined as "good" and "bad"?
• How are families structured?
• What is the relationship between men and women?
• How is time perceived?
• Which traditions are important?
• What languages are spoken?
• Which rules govern the consumption of food and drink?
• How is information shared?
• Who has the power and how do they get it?
• What are the reactions to other cultures?
• What is funny?
• What role does the religion play?
The list could be much longer and you can find other aspects to add. It is important to stress here that the answers to such
questions are, to a great extent, shared by the members of a culture - it's obvious, it's normal, that's the way it is. They behave
in similar ways, they share similar references and they judge things in similar ways. Such an observation is more obvious
when you are confronted with a different culture or go abroad. Cultures are not static, they change and so the answers and
even the questions themselves change over time.
1.) Take two of the questions listed above. How might your grandparents have answered? Would their answer differ from
yours?
The existing differences between cultures reflect the effort each society has had to make in order to survive within a particular
reality. This reality is made up of: a) the geographical background, b) the social background, that is to say, the other human
groups with which it has had contact and exchange; and c) the "metaphysical" background, looking for a sense to life.
2.) If there are different cultures, does this mean that some are better than others?
Even within cultures there are those who do not comply with all the usual norms and they may find themselves identified as
sub-cultures. Members of sub-cultures are often the victims of intolerance within our societies. Examples include people with
disabilities, gay and lesbian people, certain religious groups and the wide spectrum of youth sub-cultures. Their distinguishing
features may involve use of language, choice of clothes, music and celebration.
3.) Which sub-culture(s) are you part of?
We are born within a culture, and during the first stages of life we learn our culture. This process is sometimes referred to as
our socialization. Each society transfers to its members the value system underlying its culture. Children learn how to
understand and use signs and symbols whose meanings change arbitrary from one culture to another. Without this process
the child would be unable to exist within a given culture. To take a banal example, imagine what would happen if your children
could not understand the meaning of a red traffic light. There is no objective reason for red to mean 'stop', or green to mean
'go'. Parents and family, school, friends and the mass media, particularly television - all of them contribute to the socialization
of children and, often, we are not even aware that we are part of this process.
4.)
What have been the biggest influences in your socialization?
Culture is lived in a different way by each of us. Each person is a mixture of their culture, their own individual characteristics
and their experience. This process is further enriched if you are living with two or more cultures at the same time. For
instance, as a second-generation immigrant, you may be learning your culture of origin within the family and the culture of the
country where you live at school and through the media.
Identity
Who am I? What am I? Identity is like culture, there are many aspects to it, some hidden some visible. One way of looking at
this could be to imagine yourself as an onion (even if you don't like to eat them). Each layer corresponds to a different part of
your identity.
5.) What are the most important things which make up your identity? Write them next to the numbers 1 -5, with number
1 being the most important to you.
Some of these will be related to:
• the roles you play in life: a daughter, a friend, a school student, a baker, a banker;
• the parts of your identity you may be able to choose: fan of a certain type of music, member of a political party, style of
clothes;
• where you were born, where you now live;
• belonging to a minority or not;
• your gender and your sexuality;
• your religion
and, perhaps strangely,
• what you are not or don't want to be: not a woman, not a socialist, not French, not an alcoholic.
Adapted from http://eycb.coe.int/edupack/08.html.