Six Dimensions of Cultural Differences Essay

One: Two very different cultures exist at the investment firm that I work for. In the individual office setting, the culture in my role is characterized by traditional masculinity. In the offices that I oversee, the Financial Advisors are men and their assistants are women. These men, for the most part, are “assertive, tough, and decisive” (Nelson & Quick, 2019). They are the face of their business for clients whose investments they oversee and are naturally confident individuals. The women are the voice. They answer every call, listen to personal problems, and comfort their clients in times of need. They cower when a Financial Advisor is voicing their displeasure and quietly look for solutions.

At the corporate headquarters, the culture is shifting to traditional femininity, where “men and women are expected to assume both assertive and nurturing roles”. (Nelson & Quick, 2019). Our executive leadership team, department heads, directors, and managers consist of both men and women. It is the expectation that everyone treat each other with respect and as a partner, regardless of job level, race, gender, beliefs, etc. I have worked in both locations and the cultural differences are incredible, considering it is all the same organization.

Similar to Saint Leo University’s core value of integrity, are many organization’s core values and commitment to ethics. Eventually, I do think that ethics and social responsibility with continue to become more similar across cultures. With continuous enhancements of technology, communication, and the ability for individuals to instantly connect around the world, I feel that it will be demanded. Social responsibility and ethics are now a part of company’s brands and images. Some consumers choose who to do business with based on company’s behaviors. For example, consumers called for boycotts of Jimmy John’s after photos of CEO Jimmy JohnLiautaud surfaced that show him posing with a dead elephant and dead leopard that he had hunted and killed. These photos have resurfaced over the years and caused additional calls for boycotts of the restaurant. This is a great example of social responsibility and the impact that poor decisions, in the eyes of consumers, can have. Nelson and Quick (2019) discuss that the Four-Way Test is now used in over 166 nations, which also shows how important ethical behavior in business truly is.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.