I'm taking a course to enrich my understanding of how companies manage employees working in mutlnational and multicultural environments.
On the first night of class, we met our instructor at nearby George Brown College.
Rommel Shakil comes from Bangladesh and received his MBA from Houston, Texas. His full-time job is supply chain management with Telus Mobility.
The instructor challenged us with a Human Resource Management question: Should a company send a North American employee to manage in a foreign environment like Saudi Arabia or instead hire local talent? We were asked to consider family pressures, since spouses might insist on returning home.
Rommel contrasted the American culture which recognizes individual performance while Japanese focus more on methodical, one-step-at-a-time group activity.
Key course outcomes are to:
- Examine basic concepts, principles and sensitivities needed to manage businesses in key international cultures
- Explore different cultural markets
- Prepare for short- and long-term assignments to foreign markets.
- Examine working with multicultural teams of people.
- Demonstrate how to make effective international management presentations.
I was the only Anglo-Saxon Canadian among an international gamut of students. Three classmates are Brazilian, two come from the Philippines or Mexico. Two Chinese women were joined by a Russian mechanical engineer and students from Iraq and Bahrain. We also have an exchange student from France who wants to sharpen her English skills.
One final insight: Indian companies often insist on meeting with a vendor's CEO beforing signing contracts.
I must say, this learning experience should enrich our international trade articles with educated insights from around the world.
