Linkage Between Diversity and Business Practices

I read a compelling article describing different ways a business can adapt itself to accommodate marketplace diversity (read the article here). Part of the reason why I was so intrigued was because I just finished one of my college essays, where I talked about the global nature of today’s business world. The business world is no longer local – it’s international. Thanks to technology, border lines cease to exist.

Another interesting part of the article was its focus on adapting a business to fit the new international theme. In the past, I saw making a few adjustments to a business as to reach more foreign investors reasonable, but this post took that to the extreme. It suggested completely re-vamping the traditional styles and structure of business companies, as to accommodate the quickening pace of the global society.

Another article, in USA Today, says that change for business to adapt to the global world is a must. “Today, though, as more multinationals race into the global economy, they're tailoring their diversity policies and practices to the new cultural and business order to a greater degree than ever before.”

Both of these articles made me ask the question, “What is cultural adaptation?” Beyond the business side, do we adapt ourselves, in everyday life, to better accommodate the new global world? My answer to this is yes. I belong to a program called the Academy at my high school, which was founded on fostering a global education and an understanding of the ever-widening global community. In our everyday studies, we incorporate the lessons from other cultures. I think it's important to recognize and understand that the world today is a mix of hundreds of different cultures.

For decades, philanthropists have suggested models on how the world community shifts and changes. One philosopher, Francis Fukuyama has foreseen the world moving towards one international community. In this article, Fukuyama explains his theory of the “homogenization of human culture”. This theory describes the world culture as moving towards one standardized state.

It’s interesting – the measures businesses are taking to accommodate this growing global society. I’m thinking of how I’ve tailored my own life to develop cross-border networking. As Fukuyama said, “it is culture that drives economics”. Perhaps Fukayama would make the best business-man of all.

3 Ways to Immerse Yourself in a Foreign Culture

1.) Become
Don’t hold onto pre-conceived notions, stereotypes, biases, labels or anything else about a culture. Chances are those assumptions aren’t true, and they prevent you from really plunging into the culture. For example, don’t go to France expecting everyone to be snobby and smelly – I’ve been there, it’s not true. The other day, my history teacher brought up one of his previous students, Connor, who had recently visited Vietnam. He talked about Connor’s unique approach to learning and his method of foreign immersion. He had simply gone to Vietnam and became Vietnamese. He didn’t go there as an American traveling to Vietnam, he went there as a blank slate, and returned with a Vietnamese identity. Follow Connor’s take on learning and you’ll find yourself experiencing the real culture, not just the touristic one. Break through the status barrier.

2.)Learn the Language
The saying “lost in translation” really holds some meaning here. In many culture’s, the meaning of one word often doesn’t translate perfectly into another language. Part of the beauty of the language is lost in translation, too - the way certain vowels sound, the rhythm of the words, how phrases roll of the tongue. It’s what I like to call phrase-ology. Can you imagine translating Shakespeare’s “to be or not to be” into Spanish? It’d be “ser o no ser”. It just doesn’t give the same effect, so let’s stick with English on that one. Thus, if you really want to immerse yourself into the linguistic aspect of a culture, learn the language.

3.) Go There
You can flip through pictures and read travel guides all you want, but it’s not nearly the same as actually going there and seeing it for yourself. There’s a certain something that surrounds you when you go to that foreign place. You can try to duct tape pictures all around your bedroom, but I know (I tried to do this with Disney World photos when I was five) that it’s just not the same thing. A lot of the times, it’s connecting with the land and the people that draw you closer to the culture- two things you can’t get from reading books or looking at photos. So duct tape all you want, but you have to go there to get the real thing.

The only way to really see another culture is to immerse yourself in it. Otherwise, the similarities and differences you find between your own culture and another one may just be superficial.

Amanda Knox – United States’ vs. Italy’s reaction

Plastered all over the media this week was the Amanda Knox case outcome. For those of you who don’t know about the case…

In 2007, Amanda Knox was charged with murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Italy during a study-abroad program. Knox, as well as her ex-boyfriend Rafaelle Sollecito, were convicted in the Italian courts and sentenced to over 25 years in jail. However, their cases were up for retrial this month, and after a highly media-tized hearing, Knox’s conviction was reversed and she added immediately returned to the US.

What makes this case different is the polar opposite reactions of the US and of Italy.

The United States has portrayed Knox as a young American teen, who was caught in a web of confusing testimonials and unreliable evidence that loosely found that she committed murder. She’s been portrayed as a victim and countless interviews from her family sets the response tone as sympathetic and apologetic. Its articles like this that put Knox in that light. US newspapers and magazines have harnessed onto the cliché idea of a young girl separated from her family. Conversely, the Italian response to the Knox case has been anything but positive, especially after she was set free.

American media portrayed Knox as the victim of the unkempt Italian judicial system

On the other hand, Italy sees Knox as a sex-crazed demon who brutally murdered her roommate in an act of rage. How Italian’s really saw Knox was most prevalent when she was released from her re-trial, after being found not-guilty. After she was freed, Italians and news crews stood outside the court room shouting “Vergogna! Vergogna!” (“Shame! Shame!”). Many Italian newspapers have equated Knox to satan.

Italian Media represented Knox as an outspoken, satanist murderer

One thing I find interesting is the role the media has played in the case. It’s all up to the media on how Knox is portrayed and it largely influences how the general public reacts. The US media set the case in one light, while the Italian one did in another.

Conversely, the central issue here may not be the legal case; it’s the difference in cultural priorities and ethics. “In the end, it was the trial of a different culture, a clash of cultures more than a legal case,” said Vittorio Zucconi in La Repubblica. The Knox case represented a larger problem; a clash between Italy and the US. A New York Times article said how Italian's were questioning how Americans perceived them and their justice system. In addition, on an Italian radio station, Il Sole 24 Ore Radio, callers complained how the US media was portraying Italy’s sentencing of Knox in such a harsh negative light, especially since the US has the death penalty.
The Knox case is a prime example of a cultural clash – two cultures seeing the same event through two completely different lenses. Whether these lenses are media-driven, or driven by some other factor, the way in which these two cultures see the case, and see one another has caused a rift.