Cultural Challenges

Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2009

Cultural challenges in a global workplace are enormous. One needs to understand and accept cultural differences at work and experience working life in different countries.

The cultural challenges, social and cross-cultural challenges of internet technology are not being given due importance. The Internet is like a public place in a terrorized world. The Internet is an entertainng, informative, enticing and explicit place which one could adore, despise and fear all at-once. The Internet enables children to communicate with friends and strangers exposing them to beneficial and harmful cross-cultural knowledge.

Cross Cultural Challenges to British Business
[kwintessential.co.uk/.../cross-cultural-challenges.html]
Some interesting statistics captured in the report, Language and culture in British business, highlight some of the main countries with which British firms are facing cross cultural challenges. The book draws upon surveys of British businesses looking at language and culture in trade, among which are the seven LNTO/CILT audits undertaken between 2000 and 2003.
From the results it was discovered that companies felt the major cross cultural challenges were with Japan, France, the Middle East, China and Germany. The graph below illustrates the complete results.

Cultural Challenges to Biotechnology: Native American Genetic Resources and the Concept of Cultural Harm
Rebecca A. Tsosie, Arizona State University - College of Law
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Vol. 35, p. 396, 2007
Abstract: This article examines the intercultural context of issues related to genetic research on Native peoples. In particular, the article probes the disconnect between Western and indigenous concepts of property, ownership, and privacy, and examines the harms to Native peoples that may arise from unauthorized uses of blood and tissue samples or the information derived from such samples. The article concludes that existing legal and ethical frameworks are inadequate to address Native peoples' rights to their genetic resources and suggests an intercultural framework for accommodation based on theories of intergroup equality and fundamental human rights.

Overcoming the cultural challenges of company successions
[rsmi.com/.../overcoming-the-cultural-challenges-of-company-successions.aspx]
Growing numbers of family-owned and closely-held enterprises in Europe, North America, and other regions are undergoing leadership successions as company founders depart and new owners assume control. These transitions raise a variety of financial, operational, and strategic challenges that underscore the need for careful succession planning.

Strategic Opportunties & Cultural Challenges [Routledge]
Book by Dean McFarlin, Paul Sweeney
McFarlin and Sweeney provide students with an accessible, application-oriented approach to international management, focusing on key challenges including motivation, leadership, and communication across cultural boundaries. The book gives students a global perspective on the process of hiring, training, and developing employees, as well as strategic decision making in relation to foreign markets. Questions, case studies, examples of creative problem solving, and testimonials from real-world managers operating in the international arena are just a few of the tactics McFarlin and Sweeney use to help students begin to think about applied theory on a global level. All chapters have been updated with recent articles from leading business sources and academic journals, and new case studies have been incorporated.

Immigrant Academics and Cultural Challenges in a Global Environment
Femi J. Kolapo
ISBN13: 9781604975680 Pages 308 Cambria Press
Description: This edited volume brings together the voices of different academics to illuminate the role of culture in determining the character and quality of the social and professional lives of mobile academics. The book examines specific issues on cultural diversity and the management of the heterogeneous classroom and diverse teaching/learning contexts. Teaching, learning, and research are processes carried out in situated contexts and within constructed, inherited, and negotiated cultural milieu, contexts that invariably affect the performance of the immigrant academics in their new homes and host academic institutions. The chapters in this volume provide analyses, reflections, and synthesis of intercultural and cross-cultural experiences. They include how migrant and expatriate scholars or students negotiate their cultural identities in new environments, how they engage with issues of differences in language accents, and how they navigate issues of minority versus majority status.

Cultural Challenges In Offshore Outsourcing
by Stephanie Moore with Adam Brown
forrester.com/go?docid=35336
Executive Summary (Document excerpt)
Misunderstandings and problems stemming from cultural differences are part of every offshore outsourcing project. In fact, in a recent CIO Magazine survey, 51% of the CIOs said that the greatest offshore outsourcing challenge is overcoming culture differences. Fortunately, the cultural divide can be conquered by understanding what the differences are and altering processes to accommodate them.

When Rites Are Rights: Cultural Challenges To Marriage Laws
Alison Dundes Renteln
Human Rights Dialogue: "Cultural Rights" (Human Rights Dialogue (1994-2005) Series 2 No. 12 (Spring 2005)
[cceia.org/resources/publications/.../2_12/.../5147.html]
Marriage is a social institution designed to regulate sexual relations, preserve family ties, and protect the offspring of legal unions, depending on the cultural context. While many think of marriage as an individual choice motivated by romantic love, in many cultures marriage is conceptualized differently, such as a way to forge alliances between groups.

Cultural challenges in end-of-life care: reflections from focus groups' interviews with hospice staff in Stockholm
Authors: Ekblad, S.; Marttila, A.; Emilsson, M.
Source: Journal of Advanced Nursing, Volume 31, Number 3, 1 March 2000
Abstract: Cultural challenges in end-of-life care: reflections from focus groups' interviews with hospice staff in Stockholm
During the past few decades, Swedish society has changed from a society with a few ethnic groups to one with over a hundred groups of different ethnic backgrounds, languages and religions. As society is becoming increasingly multicultural, cultural issues are also becoming an important feature in health care, particularly in end-of-life care where the questions of existential nature are of great importance. However, cultural issues in health care, especially at hospices, have not been studied sufficiently in Sweden.
The purpose of this study was to gather reflections about cultural issues among hospice staff after a 3-day seminar in multicultural end-of-life care, by using a qualitative focus groups method. The 19 participants (majority nurses) were divided into three groups, one per hospice unit. A discussion guide was developed with the following themes: 1) post-training experiences of working with patients with multicultural background; 2) experiences gained by participating in the course of multicultural end-of-life care; 3) post-training reflections about one's own culture; 4) ideas or thoughts regarding work with patients from other cultures arising from the training; and 5) the need for further training in multicultural end-of-life care. One of the study's main findings was that to better understand other cultures it is important to raise awareness about the staff's own culture and to pay attention to culture especially in the context of the individual. The findings from focus groups provide insight regarding the need for planning flexible training in cultural issues to match the needs of the staff at the hospice units studied.