discussion

Do you agree with the importance of communication given below? What would you do different in negotiation global marketplace?

Glocalization is a term that combines two phenomena: globalization and localization. I would define it as a phenomenon where a company, mostly a multinational corporation diversifies its investment and expands into a local market. Moreover, this company can either merge or acquire a local company and delves into that local market (Balaji, 2018). The firm invests both internationally and in the local market (Pearl, 2012) courtesy of the merger or acquisition. In glocalization, unlike globalization where a firm focusses on expanding into other markets and continuing with its operations. Glocalization entails a firm adapting to another local culture and adapting to the new environment with its product. For instance, given a global company like ExxonMobil (Texas-based) which operates in more than 200 countries. If this company considers investing in a new market in another country like in Mexico where there is a local company, for instance, ALFA TEK, ExxonMobil blends with ALFATEK and sells the product. That is termed glocalization.

Question 2

Communication Theory involves the channel and flow of information from the source to the recipient. Kahn (2015) mentions the construction, disseminating, and processing of information as the major aspects involved in communication theory. In business management, it is important because it facilitates decision making-which is highly reliant on proper information. It involves such things as cross-cultural communication, cross-border, and communication among many people working for a given firm. For instance, vertical communication between managers and staff (top-bottom) and bottom-up where feedback is given to the management on certain issues. Communication theory is important in passing information. The ease of communication depends on the language, verbal and non-verbal cues, and the signs and symbols of a given community, and as well as sign language. Communication theory helps encode and decode information that may not be relevant until society attaches meaning to it. Through communication theory, leaders and managers can leverage the cultural differences to design communication models for various markets thus maintaining the synergy in the firm (Abugre, 2018).

Question 3

The success of leadership in the local cultures is highly reliant on its ability to adapt to the new local culture. Because of the existing cultural diversity (Kahn, 2015), effective leadership means proper management of communication strategies. Furthermore, Kahn (2015) maintains that culture exerts a lot of influence over language.  Given the local culture, there is a high likelihood of miscommunication and misunderstanding that may negatively affect the team spirit and the operation of the firm. Communication theory enables leaders and managers to learn the dangers of not learning the local culture and thus failing to effect proper communication models and strategies (Gratton & Erickson, 2007, Kyvik, 2011). For instance, there are societies like in Southern America where people are hierarchical. To get the best out of such, leaders and managers must ensure they maintain a top-down model of communication and learn to use more official communication in writing than verbal (which does not appeal as written does).

Question 4

Woodrow Wilson once said that “the ear of the leader must ring with the voice of the people”. The art of communication is the language of leadership. In any given firm, the style of communication is dependent upon several pertinent issues that influence the encoding and decoding of information. Some of these factors that affect the style of communication include the signs, symbols, and language of the people within a given culture. For instance, in Eastern cultures, people often use non-verbal cues to convey messages while in the US and most western countries as well. In that case, leaders in the western countries will utilize verbal communication and written-both of which are taken at face value while in the East, a leader while focusing more on non-verbal cues (Szu-Fang, 2013). Moreover, in hierarchical societies like in the East, leaders can decentralize the conveyance of information by using department heads while from the western countries much of the information can be done from a central unit.

Question 5

, the East and the West are polarized in terms of their culture. In educational terms, western culture majorly stresses creativity (elevation of different approaches to solving issues) while eastern culture is all about hard work and struggle. Notably, Asians tend to use a lot of non-verbal cues as opposed to saying something directly as it is done in the US.  For instance, in agreeing to something, and Asia would nod and express it facially while an American would say "Yes". People from the East prefer using subtle inferences prompting one to read between unlike in the West where things are taken at face value. Moreover, in terms of business mentality, for instance in India, one would not easily do business with you until some good relationship is formed. These people do not easily work with strangers. Besides, they focus more on groups than the individual to preserve harmony in the work environment. In the West, business people rely more on contractual agreements as opposed to already built relationships. Most relationships formed are superficial as it is based upon the work and the work alone.

Question 6

There is a marked ideological difference between the 19th and the 20th centuries. The major differences between these centuries are on matters economics, politics, business, culture, among others. Communication in the 19th century was majorly using letters and the telegraph because of the inventions of that time. This is unlike the 21st century where innovations in technology have led to the use of mails and mobile phones. The 19th century was marked by a lot of significant innovations (computing power-Steve Jobs and Wozniack), software tools (Bill Gates of Microsoft) which edged out the then "big iron" computing firms like IBM. Communication has been made easier. Some other conspicuous ideological differences include globalization and glocalization which have made the world be reduced to a global village. Various companies have been able to diversify more their investment in foreign cultures. The 21st-century entrepreneur is more customer-oriented compared to the 19th-century capitalists who focused on the accumulation of wealth- as highlighted by Karl Marx.

Question 7

The 19th-century revolutionists and scholars greatly impacted the world. The three main theorists who have been quoted today include Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim. Emile Durkheim, who was a French philosopher, impacted social interactions and made sociology legitimate in France. He always maintained that very social disorders such as theft, violence, among others could be mitigated through social reform (Giddens, 2016). These social disorders, according to him, could be caused by social changes in the society. Additionally, he argued that collective conscience played a big role in keeping communities together, for instance, the common beliefs and customs. Marx majorly advanced theories about labor and capitalism. He often expressed his views on competition which he believed dispelled cooperation. He also argued against the injustices meted by the rich against the poor who in a bid to accumulate more wealth (Ritzer & Goodman, 1996). Max Weber's rationalization theory was very popular in the 19th century. He argued that societies use to set rules, laws, and even regulations to maintain so that it remains dominant in the various sectors of the economy (Ritzer, 2018). These have informed many maxims especially in the legal system where statutes and codes of conduct are used to regulate operations in the market.

Question 8

The 21st-century theorists such as Noam Chomsky who is a linguist, Žižek and Douzinas with their theories on communism, and personality theories by Robert R. McCrae. Noam Chomsky has contributed to the postmodernism through his diverse approaches and teachings on the evolution and the relevance of languages. The cross-cultural differences and the importance of language on communication. Moreover, his theories on various languages have been much adopted in modeling communication strategies in the wake of increased globalization (Greenberg, 2019).  He is one of the few living scholars from the 19th-century group. Žižek and Douzinas' theories on communism have attempted to change people's way of doing things. For instance, they have advocated for voluntarism to run away from politicization (Douzinas and Žižek, 2010). This has impacted countries such as China and Russia. Behaviorism is a very important aspect of business and economics. That is McCrae's theories on personality which emphasize the pivotal role that evolved Biology plays in shaping human psychology (McCrae, 2011).

Question 9

Some of the roles of leaders in the global marketplace include:

· Managing diversity; given the complexity and increased diversity of people in the global marketplace leaders have a mandate of creating a conducive environment where the workers from diverse cultures can coexist. Additionally, leaders and managers are responsible for solving any conflict or misunderstanding within the firm as a result of the diversity.

· Developing and establishing proper communication models; ensuring that the firm, in the global market has developed a proper system for communication (both horizontal and vertical) to ensure that the operations run smoothly. This model also makes easy the reporting of key information on finances, meetings, customers, competitors, and any matters arising from the various jurisdictions (Driskill, 2018).

· Supporting and guiding team members; providing the members with reinforcement according to the cultural dictates of the given cultures where the business is operating. Members are also granted scholarships for further studies, health insurance covers, and pension plans, both maternity and paternity leaves, among others.

· Establishing and maintaining proper relations with the local companies; the management is mandated to ensure that the partnership, merger, or acquisition is successfully working by maintaining proper relations with the leaders of the local firms.

Question 10

The success of the business within the local culture is highly dependent on the aggression and the approaches are taken by the local leadership in conjunction with global leadership. That means that the role of the leaders conducting meetings in the glocalized marketplace is very key to its development. Some of the roles of leaders conducting a meeting in the glocalized marketplace include:

· Staff coordination: the leaders are supposed to plan and organize the staff to ensure the meeting is a success. Planning, in this case, involves organizing the venue, looking for interpreters, and ensuring the reasons for the meeting are properly communicated.

· Creation and building of the brand name within the local culture; the leader should ensure that the business brand is highly marketable and in synch with the global company. It should guard against the trademark and the patents associated with the brand.

· Ensuring the business culture is maintained within the local culture, instilling the business culture such as communication strategies, meetings, team-building, rewarding of hard-working employees, keeping the codes of operations, maintaining business ethics, corporate social responsibility among others.

Question 11

The process of negotiation involves two parties: one from the global company and another from the local company. Cross-cultural negotiations cause a lot of uncertainty and a high potential for misunderstanding and conflict (Wilson, 2015). This fact means that the leaders involved in the negotiation process must possess certain skills set necessary for the negotiation process.  The inter-cultural negotiator deals with critical osmosis between cultures, the one from the global company needs the following skills (Ibrahimov, 2011).

· Language and communication; should be able to understand the basic knowledge within the local culture to dispel the language barrier. He/she should also possess effective communication skills (verbal and non-verbal cues) and much about the tenets of effective communication (Wisankosol & Chavez, 2016).

· Awareness in anchoring bias; should be witty and be able to present the first offer to tilt negotiation's direction

· Planning proper timing for negotiation; clearly outlining the schedule for the negotiation.

· Organizational skills: should be very good at planning and arranging the meeting in terms of the venue, processing the necessary materials, and even have interpreters when necessary (Stagg, 2011).

The local marketplace leader, on the other hand, needs clear cut skills for a better bargain in the negotiation.  The skills include:

· Ability to adopt a win-win situation for the local company. The negotiator should be skilled at drawing the negotiation to a good conclusion that favors even the local company.

· Patience; remaining keen enough throughout the negotiation while exercising patience. It will help him/her think about the best strategies depending on the offer by the rival negotiator.