Charles Martin in Uganda Essay

Charles Martin, a 29-year-old American who had worked for Hydro Generation (HG) for 2 years before embarking on the Ugandan damn labor movement. Martins educational experience, a detail in African Studies from the University of Wisconsin as well as a MBA from the University of Maryland coupled with his experience functional through the Peace Corps made Martin unambiguously qualified to work for HG in their untested venture in Africa, a hydro-electric damn in Uganda. During Martins tenure in Uganda , his assignments were to, gain support from local authorities, set up offices and insure the smooth movement of the office, overseeing operations including hiring, keeping inventory and keeping method of accounting records as well as logistical aspects such(prenominal)(prenominal) as cuding with customs. Martins job also include helping revolutionary expatriates settle into living and operative in Uganda. Describe Ugandan cultural attributes that great power affect operation f or external beau monde run there? Uganda, a multilingual culturally different artless of a little more than 25 million people poses many a nonher(prenominal) challenges to a foreign company operating there.In addition to what whitethorn con officered mostly normal challenges Uganda holds challenges that may not be found in separate countries. With a considerable history of political instability and political turpitude that continues into the present companies doing furrow enterprise there ar approach with the stark reality that their business transactions maybe tainted because with such corruption ones place among the stiff is never apprised. Nepotism is the norm in Uganda. Nepotism, the cause of allowing relatives to construct jobs or promotions, even when undeserved thrives in Uganda. With jobs organism awarded to family members, mostly through word of mouth connections lecture is very important to a business dealing in Uganda. Although English is the official l anguage, many other languages are spoken throughout Uganda.The use of many languages thorough different cultural venues annoys for a fractious a foreign company to carry on business successfully, as one is never assured what language will be preeminent consequently communications are not always the easiest in Uganda. .Uganda many religions also make for challenges in business dealings. Although much of the population is Christian there are many tribal religions that are a lovesome influence, a foreign company would exhaust to be accepting of their practices in articulate to successfully deal with the local peoples. In general, business is much laggard moving in Uganda and it is not uncommon practice to pay off or tip officials to make things progress more quickly, a practice unhearable of in the United States. How would you describe the respective(prenominal) attitudes of Martin and car park ethnocentric, polycentric or geocentric? What factors do you suspect of having infl uenced their respective attitudes?Martins attitude was one of polycentrism. Polycentric thought is such that Martin would conduct business in such a way that would conform to and accept the customs of the solid ground in which the business was. Martin showed his polycentric attitude by salaried tips, living in the middle class neighborhoods sort of than with other expatriates, participating in tribal ceremonies and exploitation nepotism in his hiring practices. Greens attitude was of geocentric thought. Ptolemaic thought accepts that received differences of thought are equal in order to ensure successful business dealings. Depending on the individual circumstances, the company adapts to either the new purification or working to integrate the sentiment system of the home estate. Greens attitude was influenced by his appetite to incorporate the belief system of the company into the business in Uganda while Martins main touch was to fulfill the requirements of the project r egardless of the fallout from the stepping outside(a) from the corporate values.Who was right, Green or Martin, about the contentious actions? Martin took in the Uganda an operation. What might have been the results if he had not taken those actions? Martin was correct in his actions. With Martins introductory knowledge of what actions would be required in order to succeed in business in Africa and his desire to complete the required tasks in a seasonably fashion adapting to local customs such as nepotism helped insure the success of his project. Although successful Martin did take risks when utilizing a polycentric approach to his work, at any point his association in various activities such as tribal rituals could have back fired due to change magnitude pressure from an unstable government and corrupt officials talk advantage of their increased leverage to exact higher(prenominal) and higher prices for continued cooperation. These problems coupled with the possibility of c ertain actions being illegal in HGs home country directly conflicts with corporate polity.Despite these increased perils, if Martin had not undertaken this approach to business in Uganda increased delays, would for sure have occurred, local collaboration would have been decreased, expensed would have been increased due to either longer handgrip periods or the eventual abandonment of the project due to lack of progress. In the future(a) phase of the project running the power plant-should HG employ psyche whose main function is that of a occasion among its corporate culture and the culture of its host country? If so, is Martin the right person for the job?In the next phase of this project, the running of the power plant HG should employ someone whose main function is to be a liaison between the corporate culture and the host country of Uganda. If there is, no liaison similar problems of cultural mis perceptiveness will drop dead over again. Martin would be the most capable of understanding the various nuances of the continuing project, as he already has an extensive knowledge of the inner workings of side project. HG, as the sponsor of the project could further its policy by working with Martin and other from corporate to ramp up firm guide lines of what is acceptable policy when dealing with projects that are in foreign countries.