The Indisputable Truth About Persuasive Essay Outline Samples That Nobody Is Sharing With You

The Indisputable Truth About Persuasive Essay Outline Samples That Nobody Is Sharing With You New Step by Step Roadmap for Persuasive Essay Outline Samples If you wish to figure out how to compose a decent persuasive essay, you're looking in the proper place! Following that, you must recognize the use of the topic. To begin with, it's important to pick a topic that it is possible to take a stand for. As soon as you settle on the subject and pick the position on which you will base your essay, the remainder of the job can then begin. What Persuasive Essay Outline Samples Is - and What it Is Not Confusing order or unrelated evidence is only going to convince your readers you don't understand what you're speaking about. Any superior persuasive speech outline example consists of the problem that must be solved or a need that must be fulfilled. An outline should include your principal points, together with the supporting evidence below them. An outline may also be put to use as a brain storming tool, assisting you to develop your thoughts so that you understand just what it is which you need to write. What is Truly Going on with Persuasive Essay Outline Samples After completing all steps of the pre-writing procedure, you're prepared to proceed to produce the outline. For one, you require excellent time management abilities. An individual must find the exact time, personal excellent custom made essays storytelling essay why community service is particularly relevant when we re likely to feel that the difference between both public universities, nus and ntu. Tell our experts what sort of homework help on the internet you will need to get. It would be considerably more difficult to align your arguments to coordinate with the thesis, and it could diminish the worth of your assessment and the validity of your arguments. Technically, the thesis statement is part of your introduction, but as a result of its crucial value in the essay itself. Typically, a structure of essay includes three primary sections, in other words, introduction, body, and conclusion. When compared to other kinds of literature out there, a persuasive college structure is distinguished by its effectiveness and concentrate on convincing the readers of somebody's point of view. The value of research in persuasive writing may not be overstated. Do a little research about your topics and discover out which one inspires you the most. You don't need to research or argue. Research, analysis and organization are just some of the elements that will be able to help you compose an effective essay. Formally, it helps the writer to categorize the major notion and idea, to organize a paragraph into an essay and to make sure each paragraph with each concept is totally organized and developed. So far as essay structure goes, a 4 or 5 paragraph essay based on the number of points you might want to argue is an excellent start. Your paragraphs ought to be composed of sentences that are short and adhere to the major point. Every paragraph ought to start with sentence that supports the thesis and offers an argument for your perspective. Getting able to provide compelling and persuasive speeches appears to be a pure present. You may be unfamiliar ideas. Before you c ommence writing your outline, you are going to need a few things. To begin writing a persuasive essay, the very first point to do is to get an intriguing topic that you get a keen understanding on. Essay writing can appear to be an extremely simple task when reading somebody else's paper. Sample persuasive essays can also give inspiration on topics to write on in addition to serve as examples about how to compose your essay. Students may take assistance from the essay outline templates readily available online and find a very good idea how to start the essay. An essay outline sample provides ideas about how to make your own outline and is very useful if it's in precisely the same subject as your assignment. Before you create an outline, you need to gather all the crucial data and odds are, you need to do it again once you've written the outline. An outline is going to keep you grounded and remember to make smooth paragraph transitions and keep on topic. Preparing an outline can take some time, but whenever you are finished, you'll be in a position to compose the rough draft of your essay more quickly than if you didn't have an outline. While each particular criterion has its specific directions, to find a fantastic grade, you will need to learn how to properly combine them. The very first thing which you should do so as to form a productive outline is to highlight or underline the vital terms and words you see in the directions. Use the very best terms you can imagine!

The New England And Chesapeake - 935 Words

In the 1600s, America began colonization. Each colony had a specific goal or aspiration that it planned to achieve. These colonies were separated into different regions among America. Two specific regions that many historians tend to articulate about. Consisting of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, the New England region presents many intriguing ways of achieving their goals. Likewise, the Chesapeake Bay, which contain Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and part of South Carolina, also have their own ways of achieving different goals. While many focus on the differences of each region, others focus on the similarities that each of the regions possess. Using common knowledge and the historical documents that have been stumbled on over the past number of years, the reader will be able to understand the differences and similarities between the New England and Chesapeake regions as well as determine whether the differences or similarities benefit the colonies. Of the two regions, the New England colonies represent a civil and denominated society. The founders portray those who seek to escape religious victimization that Britain brought down on them. The colonies are obvious companions of God as document 2-2 says, â€Å"For the persons, wee are a company professing our selves fellow members of Christ.† The law of New England strictly bases itself on God’s law. Its political structure consists of the lower level and the colonial level governments. At theShow MoreRelatedThe New England And Chesapeake Colonies1471 Words   |  6 Pagesalong the North American east coast. These colonies are generally divided into New England, Middle and South or the Chesapeake regions. Most of these colonies were settled by the British, yet they developed differently as the years went by. Some developed into more egalitarian colonies and some not. The greatest differences could be seen in the New England and Chesapeake regions. Even though the N ew England and Chesapeake regions were settled originally by The British, they had their own differencesRead MoreThe New England And The Chesapeake Colonies Essay1476 Words   |  6 Pagesvigorously began to take over the newly discovered Americas throughout most of the 16th century leading into the 17th century. England was very forceful in pushing out multiple groups of people to the eastern coast of what is now known as North America. At that time there were only two prominent regions in North America, they were known then as the New England and the Chesapeake colonies. These two colonies would eventually band together to stand as one nation, but that was toward the end of the 17thRead MoreThe New England And Chesapeake Colonies1290 Words   |  6 Pagesfurther exploration of this new world opened to many countries in Europe including England, Spain, and France. While France conquered present day Canada and Spain dominated both Central and South America, English mostly settled in the east coast of present day United States. During the seventeenth century, a large influx of immigrants came to the New World from England for many different reasons. Due to differences in motive and geography, the New England and Chesapeake colonies developed unique societiesRead MoreThe New England And Chesapeake Settlers1028 Words   |  5 PagesDespite the fact that they both came from England, the New England and Chesapeake settlers displayed different characteristics in their societies. The cause of this development originated back to the reasons why they came to America. The Chesapeake settlers came looking for a religious safe haven while the New Englanders were on a quest for raw materials. With two distinct outlooks, their societies grew with differences in foundations, social formation, and economic systems. In the early 1600s,Read MoreThe Colonization Of The Chesapeake And Then New England768 Words   |  4 PagesAs English settlers arrived in the Chesapeake and then New England in the seventeenth century, they disembarked their boats and marveled at the seeming abundance of the landscape. They arrived with hopes of recreating their â€Å"old world† and prospering from the merchantable commodities that were lying before them. However, English colonization did not occur in a vacuum, and the settlers soon discovered that their survival would be dependent upon a forged coexistence with the native inhabitants. SurroundedRead MoreThe New England And Chesapeake Colonies1490 Words   |  6 PagesThe people of the New England and Chesapeake colonies, although came from the same people, turned into very different cultures. For example, in New England, Puritanism was favored while in the Chesapeake region Christianity was practiced. Often times, religion would dictate a certain peoples w ay of life. Although both religions were strict, both had different ideas. Also, there were disagreements that occurred between the people within a colony. Many other ways of life were established in each ofRead MoreThe New England Area And The Chesapeake Area845 Words   |  4 PagesThe English were early settlers in America. Two of their areas of settlement were the New England area and the Chesapeake area. Even though these two places were settled by the same country, both of their societies were very different. The main reasons for their differences were their motives for colonization, slavery, and religion. The main motive of New England was to serve God, and to be a â€Å"City upon a hill† as said by John Winthrop in the Mayflower Compact, document A, â€Å"We must consider thatRead MoreChesapeake And New England Colonies Essay1819 Words   |  8 Pagescity to fall into the extremes of poverty and wealth. The New England community was so strong and so supportive in comparison to that of the Chesapeake Bay, that it is no wonder they developed into two distinctly different cultures before the year 1700. The Chesapeake region developed into a land of plantations and money-driven owners, with the elite wealthy, almost no middle class, and those in poverty creating the population. New England, on the other hand, had developed into a religion and familyRead MoreEssay on New England Vs. Chesapeake DBQ1306 Words   |  6 PagesNew England vs. Chesapeake While both the people of the New England region and of the Chesapeake region descended from the same English origin, by 1700 both regions had traveled in two diverse directions. Since both of these groups were beset with issues that were unique to their regions and due to their exposure to different circumstances, each was forced to rethink and reconstruct their societies. As a result, the differences in the motivation, geography, and government in the New England andRead More1993 Dbq New England vs. Chesapeake1314 Words   |  6 PagesNew England vs. Chesapeake While both the people of the New England region and of the Chesapeake region descended from the same English origin, by 1700 both regions had traveled in two diverse directions. Since both of these groups were beset with issues that were unique to their regions and due to their exposure to different circumstances, each was forced to rethink and reconstruct their societies. As a result, the differences in the motivation, geography, and government in the New England and

Sports Event Tourism

Question: Write an essay on "Sports Event Tourism". Answer: 2.0 Introduction Sports management is the sector that discusses about the possibility of business relating to sports and refreshment (Qi 2012). Sport is an activity which is famous in every part of the world. Countries compete with each other in Olympic and state level tournaments also takes place every year all around the world. Golf is an internationally famous sports and it is often projected as the game of luck. It is one of the expensive sports to play but transformation is taking place in peoples perspective and they have started to value the game than the expenses that one has to confront while buying sportswear. Golf can operate as a catalyst in the life of a person who plays golf. People enjoy playing sports everywhere; it has a crucial influence on society and social culture. Research study tells about the advantage of sports is that it rejuvenate the souls of the player and increase attention span (Masterman 2014). Golf is a motivational game; the golf players can connect themselves with t he nature as golf courses have semi natural space. The sport reflects how conjugation of business and sports can take place through this game. The game has both sociological and economic aspect. But the discussion will project the economic value of the sport in business. Adidas is a sport brand that has extensive men wear collection for men. The event management team has to follow certain methodologies to assess the feasibility of the sport in certain country and it also discusses about the prospect of effective selling of sports wears in different country. 3.0 Market research: Market research is a methodical that is implemented by the marketers to get a perception about what consumer desires and what are their preferences. It is a performed analysis which is designed and most importantly interpreted component of business that defines the market status. Researchers scrutinize the target market in order to gather information about the customers. Marketing research in Sports and most importantly in golf is the metrics that measure the competitive potentiality of the business in market of Golf sportswear like polo tee shirt. Polo tees are the standard uniform of golf. Adidas is associated with sports like cricket, football and volleyball which have great demographical significance in the market. According to the journal published byYoshida et al. 2015, the market analyst always goes through the statistics to gain profound knowledge about the market status of sport. It assists in obtaining idea as to how the Sport can be made marketable. But Adidas needs to cre ate market acclamation for golf sportswear also. A journal published by Freeland 2015 says that focus groups are interviewed deeply to collect data to know about the demand of the sport in concern and what changes the target audience wants to see in coming days. Depending on the audience surveys and market popularity of the sport the research report is made. Secondary data is the most important portion of this research because the surveys that are made is based on the past researched market reports and data that are available in the market from before (Burke 2013). Primary consumers comprises of the sponsors, ticketing department and the department of marketing. They have to do extensive study of global market to sell sportswear also. A third party partner usually acts as a source for the researcher to collect, analyze and interpret the data available in market to promote the sportswear. They are mostly academically trained on the art of collecting data from the market place. Golf is a business which has limited data in the market as its popularity in past years has not been much; the sport started flourishing its business from the later part of the year 2010. 3.1 Segmentation According to Yan-Xia Lin and Qiang 2013, market segmentation involves the long term target of the organization which can be gained by country wise division of the market, consumer and businesses. The market strategy that is involved with the market division is to target the consumers and businesses from all the countries that have similar needs and then considering that analysis the target market is set. Golf is completely piloted by the consumers (Wang and Zhang 2014.). Consumers metamorphoses from time to time in respect of place, demography and income. There are clubs of the countries that are managed by local municipalities as they entertains low budget. But the private clubs offers high quality and meticulous facilities. The market feasibility of the game depends on the positioning of the sport in the market pace. Geographic segmentation elucidates the approach of the research where the marketer asses the nation, region and culture. Golf is a game that is multicultural. This kind of research helps in reflecting on criteria that the game needs to flourish internationally. Demographic assessment reveals the market need of the product according to age, generation, sex and religion (Apostolescu, Antony and Srinivasan 2015). Golf is a luxurious game and it is well liked by the elites and affluent people. Man golf tournament will be very popular in countries that are patriarchal in nature. Psychographic segmentation is the study of how people spend their leisure. According to Grunig 2013, sports management largely depends on the lifestyle that people follow. The country in which people follow extravagant life style and like to play mentally stimulating outdoor games like shooting and golfing. Marketers of Adidas need to be very particular in their assessment in order to make sure that the event of golfing acquires profit and audience (Prentice and Arnheim 2013). This is why demographic dissection is needed it helps to evaluate the value and respect the game gets from the country in which the tournament is taking place. A country that likes the game would definitely invest their money to enjoy the sport. 3.2 Competitor analysis: The sport golf is a well known game but not in every country. Different countries have favoritism for different sports. Countries like Brazil and Argentina is a country that likes football, they rarely play other games. While setting up an event this are the criteria that need to be pondered. A game of golf in a country which is full of football enthusiast will never get the desired attention. Sports like football, cricket and rugby are adrenaline pumping games whereas golf is a game that needs combination of strength and patience. Event manger has to be very meticulous about the target group and ethics that the society follows. The countries like Great Britain can be prospective country for the sport of golf as it is a developed country and many prosperous personages live there and they would simply love to watch the game. Golf is famous in Germany so it will prospective for the event company to do set up an event of golf in Germany. There are many golf courses in Germany; there are over 800 golf courses in Germany. Marketer should keep in mind the product and on the basis of the product the market should be surveyed. Marketing is all about serving the right kind of service to the right place. Countries like Asia and Europe has many golf enthusiasts. The marketer needs to measure the profoundness of the market and depending on that calculation decision are taken where to structure the event. If the product is promoted or featured in right place then the product will gain profit(Billings 2012). Golf is a game that lacks the popularity that the games like football, cricket or tennis have that is why the sportswear also lacks popularity. Event manger has to pay attention to the target market to understand who is ready to pay the right price for the commodity. Cricket uniforms and football jerseys sale more than golf wear. A country where sports like cricket, football are in leading position in the list of sports, golf cannot attract that many audiences. Apparentl y that will be loss for the sport enterprise. The event manger that is why highlights the country where there is equilibrium in sports preferences. The pie chart shows the percentage of population in 4 countries that likes the game of golf. Brazil has only 24 percent of the population likes this sport, in Argentina it is 45 percent, Europe it is 70 percent and in Asia 75 percent. 3.3 SWOT analysis: Strengths Weakness Weakness Internal In Asia and Europe have over 450 million fan following. They provide large number of golf products and also have great golf courts. Geographical diversity and technological diversity advances in prominent. Retention and attracting of budding golfers Innovations for the games are not made, invention of new rules and regulation has not taken place. The products are too expensive. Brand centric Opportunities Threats Threats External Golf lessons are being provided. Many training centers have opened and they also promote brands. Beneficial prospects for men. New products are demonstrated Global market is competitive in respect of golf. Due to high value of the products of the game, people may harbor misconception that they are not getting the desired deal game is seasonal that is why the product sale is low Taste and preferences changes quickly 3.4 Position of product Product positioning is a crucial element which defines how a marketer will interact with the target consumers about their product depending on their needs (Berridge 2014). Competitive pressure can drive a marketer to plan the target market by determining the attributes that they will project to the customers while discussing about the product (Pedersen and Thibault 2014). Effective marketing can assist the organization gain the desired acknowledgment that they want from the target market. Product positioning can be initiated by determining the age and sex of the target audience. Men golf tournament is popular among both men and women but sportswear has to be kept in mind in order to promote the sports wear brand. Taylormade and Nike are the two market competitors of Adidas. Market research has shown that over 270 million men all over the world watch golf and nearly 170 million women are interested in game and around 60 million people buys polo tee shirt around the year. Tiger Woods, Nicklaus and Graeme Mc Dowell have million of fan following. In Asia there are nearly around 60 80 million fans of the game, in Europe it is 200 million. The chart shows the positioning of the companies around the world. The graph shows the rise of popularity of the sport in past three years in 4 countries. Competitive element of the product should inspect before structuring the event in the country (Tedeschi 2013).Marketers need to stand out so study of the consumer needs should be effectively commenced. Interaction with the target audience is necessary. Marketers should generate a team in order to accumulate necessary data for the company, studying which the marketer can decide how they will promote their product (Duffy 2013). To promote men golf sportswear attributes of the product and its recommended value are to be discerned by the research made on the target audience. Position of the product in world market also adds credibility and it helps sport to gain desired demand in the market. 3.5 Competitive advantage Competitive advantages can be accelerated by the focusing on the beneficial and the positive points of the sports (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014). The perspective of the marketer is very much important to understand the competitive advantage of a product. If a player is amateur then he or she will not have much of an opportunity to compete in a game. Similarly the business related to sportswear can face the same consequences if it is does not have competitive value. The competitive advantages of golf wears are as follows. Golf is improving day by day and is gaining more and more fans following in the global market that means golf and golf are at last getting desired value in market. It is a unique game that needs concentration and mental capability. Golfers do not have to be bulky or indulging into heavy exercises is not needed in order to play this game. This is the reason golf is gaining prominence among those who does not like adrenaline rushing games. Adidas is acquainted with promotional programs to make the game famous like cricket and football. There is no age division available for this sport. Age is just a number for this game. Jack Nicklaus is 76 years old he is still acquainted with this game. Every sport has age limit but golfing has none. It is noted as one of the marketing advantage of the sport. The sport will attract people from every age group. The world wide growing fame of the golfers like Tiger Woods and Nick Faldo has achieved worldwide acknowledgement and has influenced a lot of people to take up this game professionally. Great personalities are approached by brands to make them brand ambassadors and raise brand value of the product. 3.6. 4ps Marketing involves mix of four components product, place, promotion and price. These are the four elements that determine the market value of the product (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe and Jackson 2012). It is the mixture that determines what the product is contributing to the customer. Todays market requires a combination of both creativity and sensibility. In sports polo tees also new designs are implemented in order to gain market of polo tees. The tools like marketing and sales are changing day by day and the goals are becoming harder and harder to achieve. Social media can be used for effective marketing of the product it also gives illustrated platform so that the marketers can communicate with their customer (DRURY 2013). Long term relationship should be established instead of short term sales. Geological targeting of the audiences can be beneficial and in return they can achieve more than they have invested. Attractive schemes and offers on sportswear can influence public in buying the products. Sports tee can also be used in casual purpose Organization should support free short time learning courses for people so that they can discover their love for this game (Pedersen and Thibault 2014). With videos and varied software coaches can give lessons to students sitting miles and miles away. This marketing technique involves the mix of three ps such as product, promotion and place. The picture shows the percentage of polo tee shirt that was supplied in 2014 by Adidas in America, China and Asia. 4.0 Organizational chart: Adidas 5.0 Sales Forecast Adidas is rated as the number one company that has worldwide fame. Adidas promotes in two times a month in Golf tournament and it their polo tee shirts have great popularity. They are very costly but the demand polo tees are constant as it is very comfortable to wear. It is a company that has great market value and every sport chooses them to promote their sports. Event manager of Adidas has used their brand fame to their advantage and has expanded their company in every country. There are over 125 companies all over the world. It was established in 2001. The organization started with only 6 members. The organization has accumulated an amount of $50 million in sportswear in 2013; in 2014 the sales went down to $33.5 million and in 2015 it increased up to $ 55.5 million. 6.0 Future recommendation: The organization should promote their product in different states. Male sportswear like polo tee shirt will gain fame if the marketers target markets or countries that have greater market demand for the sports. They should promote themselves as non profitable organization. Advertising should be done to attain the attention of other market. Choosing potential public figures for advertising purpose is necessary. Assistance of social media should be taken to promote their new initiatives. Manufacturers, retailers and golfing bodies need to be contacted in order to accumulate information about the consumers. Marketing surveys should be extensively done on catalogues available for research related to golf including with bespoke researches of different other clubs, retailers and publishers. 7.0 Conclusion: Marketing plans are like the blueprints of sales and revenues for an organization. Marketing plan can be made through marketing strategies which can be formulated by studying different marketing criteria such as return of investment, customer response and sales number. For expanding the marketing reach of a company effectiveness of plan is very important. The organizational money that is being invested in golf tournament should multiply or it will be evident that the strategy is not working. The organization should keep in check their sales while organizing an event, over expenditure may lead to breakdown of the company. 8.0 Reference: Apostolescu, P., Antony, J.M. and Srinivasan, P., Novell, Inc., 2015.Security event management apparatus, systems, and methods. U.S. Patent 9,111,092. Berridge, G., 2014. The Gran Fondo and sportive experience: an exploratory look at cyclists' experiences and professional event staging.Event Management,18(1), pp.75-88. Billings, A.C. ed., 2012.Sports media: Transformation, integration, consumption. Taylor Francis. Burke, R., 2013.Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA. DRURY, C.M., 2013.Management and cost accounting. Springer. Duffy, J.R., 2013.Motor speech disorders: Substrates, differential diagnosis, and management. Elsevier Health Sciences. Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. and Jackson, P.R., 2012.Management research. Sage. Freeland, B., 2015.Impact of Faculty Characteristics on Student Satisfaction in an Online Sports Management Program(Doctoral dissertation, NORTHCENTRAL UNIVERSITY). Grunig, J.E., 2013.Excellence in public relations and communication management. Routledge. Haimes, Y.Y. ed., 2015.Risk modeling, assessment, and management. John Wiley Sons. Hill, C., Jones, G. and Schilling, M., 2014.Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning. Masterman, G., 2014.Strategic sports event management. Routledge. Pedersen, P.M. and Thibault, L. eds., 2014.Contemporary Sport Management, 5E. Human Kinetics. Pedersen, P.M. and Thibault, L. eds., 2014.Contemporary Sport Management, 5E. Human Kinetics. Prentice, W. and Arnheim, D., 2013.Principles of athletic training. Mcgraw-Hill Education. Qi, F., 2012. Research on the Comprehensive Evaluation of Sports Management System with Interval-valued Intuitionistic Fuzzy Information.International Journal of Advancements in Computing Technology,4(6). Tedeschi, J.T. ed., 2013.Impression management theory and social psychological research. Academic Press. Wang, Y. and Zhang, H., 2014. Design and Development of Sports Management Information System based on Acceleration Transducer.TELKOMNIKA Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering,12(11), pp.7876-7883. Yan-Xia, L., Lin, L. and Qiang, W., 2013, November. Research and Development of the Integrated Management System of the College Sports Based on the Network. InIntelligent Systems Design and Engineering Applications, 2013 Fourth International Conference on(pp. 440-443). IEEE. Yoshida, M., Gordon, B., James, J.D. and Heere, B., 2015. Sport Fans and Their Behavior in Fan Communities. InSports Management and Sports Humanities(pp. 89-101). Springer Japan.

Neptune Essays - Neptune, Proteus, Triton, Natural Satellite

Neptune Andrea Rhodes P.1 11/5/01 NEPTUNE I have been selected as one of five people to go on a mission to Neptune; we are to attempt to gather rock samples from two moons, Triton and the very irregular shaped moon Proteus. We also must gather samples from, the rings of Neptune and we need to gather readings on the three major storms on Neptune (the small dark spot, the great dark spot and scooter. Its December 30, 2007 and we took off today. With new technology we should reach Triton on August 2, 2008. Take off was fairly rough but once we got out of the atmosphere it was smooth and beautiful. We were given enough rations to last nearly four years. The next nineteen months we will be preparing all the necessary items for the arrival at Triton, and making sure navigation is precise. Its August 3, 2008 and weve started gathering the rocks from Triton our long journey is nearing the half waypoint. In our travel to Triton we experience some navigation trouble due to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. We had to do some reconfiguring but we managed to make it here on schedule in a few days we should be heading towards Proteus to gather rock and other samples from there. Its now November 15, 2008 and we are orbiting Neptune its the one of the greatest sites Ive ever seen. With its diameter of 49528kms and a mass of1.02x10^26kg,its absolutely enormous its practically unfathomable. I have seen the three storms and they are immense in size, the great dark spot is near the same diameter as the earth. The most stunning part of Neptune is its rings. There are five distinct rings and one of the rings is twisted. Today November 20, 2008 we launched three probes to descend in to the great dark spot to gather information. We are planning to send down three more 2 for the small great spot and one in scooter. After we have gathered information and observations, we will gather some ring samples we got permission for. Due to the fact that little is know about the composition of Neptunes rings NASA like us to do research on the various rings. Its now December30, 2008. One year ago we started this voyage and now we will start our trip home. After this long journey we have learned that Triton gets its pink color from a slowly evaporating layer of nitrogen ice, that Proteuss shape is due to impact cratering, the composition of Neptunes rings and that the three storms are like huge hurricanes the small dark spot rotates clock wise the large dark sport rotates counter clockwise and scooter has strong east ward winds. Bibliography Bibliography 1. http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/welcome/neptune 2. http://www.seds.org/billa/tnp/neptune.html 3. Websters illustrated encyclopedic dictionary published by Tormont publications Inc. 1990. pg 1138. Science Essays

Consejos para casarse como turista en Estados Unidos

Consejos para casarse como turista en Estados Unidos Si est en Estados Unidos como turista y est considerando la posibilidad de casarse y le asaltan las dudas sobre si puede hacerlo, la respuesta es que sà ­, es posible casarse con una visa de turista en Estados Unidos. Otra cosa muy distinta es poder quedarse legalmente en el paà ­s y conseguir la tarjeta de residencia por matrimonio. Si esto es lo que se pretende, es altamente recomendable leer con mxima atencià ³n este artà ­culo y evitar errores que pueden costar muy caro. En este artà ­culo se explica cules pueden ser los problemas para los extranjeros que entran a Estados Unidos con una visa de turista y se casan con un ciudadano americano. Asimismo, se hace referencia a las opciones legales para evitar problemas.  ¿Quià ©nes son turistas desde el punto de vista migratorio? Esta pregunta puede parecer una tonterà ­a, pero no lo es. Son turistas los que entraron con esa visa, pero tambià ©n  los espaà ±oles y los chilenos que viajan a Estados Unidos como turistas y sin visa, por formar parte del grupo de paà ­ses para los que rige el Programa de Exencià ³n de Visados. En estos casos espaà ±oles y chilenos, en la mayorà ­a de los casos, solamente  tienen una autorizacià ³n electrà ³nica que se conoce como ESTA que les permite estar en el paà ­s por un mximo de 90 dà ­as, que jams se pueden extender.   Tanto los turistas con visa como los que sà ³lo tienen la ESTA pueden casarse en Estados Unidos.   Otra cosa distinta es que el matrimonio, à ºnicamente por sà ­ mismo, produzca efectos migratorios. Requerimientos civiles  para casarse y que el matrimonio tenga efectos migratorios Hay que cumplir con los requisitos del estado o, en su caso, el condado o municipalidad  en el que se celebra el matrimonio.   Destacar que en todos los estados de Estados Unidos asà ­ como en los territorios que componen la Commonwealth -como por ejemplo Puerto Rico-  es legal el matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo. Por otra parte, en ninguno est permitido la bigamia, es decir, estar casado al mismo tiempo con ms de una persona. Asuntos y precauciones migratorias que deben tenerse en cuenta En teorà ­a, cuando un extranjero que est en Estados Unidos como turista y un ciudadano estadounidense contraen matrimonio, el cà ³nyuge extranjero deberà ­a salir del paà ­s antes de que expire su autorizacià ³n para quedarse legalmente. A continuacià ³n, si asà ­ lo desean, el ciudadano pedirà ­a a su cà ³nyuge mediante un procedimiento consular y mientras esperar fuera de los Estados Unidos a que llegue el  momento de la entrevista en el consulado y se obtenga la visa de inmigrante. Pero lo cierto es que en la prctica en muchos casos eso no ocurre asà ­ y el cà ³nyuge extranjero decide quedarse en los Estados Unidos mientras se tramita los papeles. Para evitar problemas migratorios muy serios es aconsejable tener en cuenta la siguiente informacià ³n: Primero: evitar problemas relacionados con la intencià ³n, o lo que en inglà ©s se conoce como intent.   Cuando persona que entra en Estados Unidos como turista debe tener necesariamente esa intencià ³n: pasear por el paà ­s y antes de que se le acabe la visa o el periodo de estancia legal debe regresar a su paà ­s. Y nunca debe ingresar al paà ­s con la intencià ³n de contraer matrimonio. Cosa muy distinta y que puede admitirse es que dos personas decidan en un instante casarse. Es decir, que cuando el extranjero llegà ³ a USA no tenà ­a esa idea pero el amor a veces es impulsivo y se puede cambiar de opinià ³n. Pero,  ¿cà ³mo evitar problemas y estar en condicià ³n de poder demostrar que la intencià ³n de casarse no existà ­a antes de entrar al paà ­s? Hasta hace poco, eso se garantizaba  siguiendo la regla 30/60 que una norma del Departamento de Estado que el USCIS solà ­a  aplicar en los casos de matrimonios entre extranjeros y ciudadanos americanos y que deberà ­a entenderse asà ­: Cuando se pedà ­a  un ajuste de estatus por matrimonio en los 30 dà ­as siguientes a la llegada del extranjero, se presumà ­a que se estaba actuando de mala fe. En otras palabras, que su intencià ³n fue siempre casarse y que, por lo tanto, no debà ­a concederse la peticià ³n de  ajuste de estatus. Cuando se solicitaba entre el dà ­a 31 y el 60 habà ­a y una fuerte sospecha de que puede haber habido una intencià ³n de contraer matrimonio desde el principio. En esos casos habà ­a que esperar un examen muy exhaustivo del matrimonio y de sus intenciones. Sin embargo, la cantidad de dà ­as ha cambiado recientemente con la Administracià ³n Trump. Segà ºn un comunicado del Departamento de Estado, se considerar salvo raras excepciones que los matrimonios con el objetivo de pedir un ajuste de estatus celebrados en los 90 dà ­as siguientes al ingreso a Estados Unidos son un fraude de ley. Y la consecuencia de ello es que no se aprobar el ajuste de estatus, no se renovar la visa, que podr ser cancelada, no se aprobar ningà ºn cambio de visa y, si el extranjero permanece en Estados Unidos, se convierte en elegible para la deportacià ³n. Este es un cambio importante y muy serio. Es importante entender que no importa que familiares y amigos no tuvieron problemas por este asunto en el pasado. Las reglas han cambiado y lo que importa es lo que se aplica en estos momentos. Segundo: tener claro el proceso de  residencia por matrimonio  y todos los requerimientos.  La tramitacià ³n costa bsicamente de dos partes. Por un lado la peticià ³n per se y por otra el ajuste de estatus. Pero antes de comenzar asegurarse de que se cumplen requerimientos bsicos como, por ejemplo, el de ingresos mà ­nimos para patrocinar. Tercero: es muy importante tener en cuenta que mientras dura este proceso, la estancia del cà ³nyuge extranjero probablemente se encuentre por varios meses no cubierta desde el punto de vista migratorio por una visa o por la ESTA. Es por ello que no se debe salir de Estados Unidos. Lo recomendable es permanecer dentro del paà ­s o bien hasta que reciba la tarjeta de residente o bien un permiso que se conoce como advance parole. Si sale antes o sin esa autorizacià ³n, se arriesga a que cuando quiera regresar se le prohà ­ba la entrada en la frontera de EEUU. Incluso es recomendable consultar con un abogado si conviene salir aà ºn teniendo el advance parole. Cuarto: tener muy claro que en este artà ­culo siempre se habla de matrimonio con un ciudadano americano y nunca del caso de una pareja conformada por extranjero turista y residente permanente. Y es que estos casos son muy diferentes ya que si el turista se queda sin la proteccià ³n legal de la visa o de la ESTA porque permanece en el paà ­s ms tiempo del permitido no va a poder ajustar su estatus y, por lo tanto, no va a poder obtener la residencia dentro de los Estados Unidos. Esta es una gran diferencia desde el punto de vista migratorio. Quinto: tener en cuenta que siempre se habla de turista que ingresà ³ con visa o con ESTA. Nada de lo que dice este artà ­culo aplica a los migrantes que llegaron a los Estados Unidos sin pasar por un control migratorio, es decir, aquellos que ingresaron ilegalmente por la frontera. Estas personas no pueden nunca ajustar su estatus por matrimonio. Sexto: no olvidar que los problemas pueden comenzar en el control migratorio. Es perfectamente posible que el oficial de Inmigracià ³n en la frontera de Estados Unidos (puerto, aeropuerto o frontera terrestre) prohà ­ba la entrada de un extranjero con una visa de turista cuando sospeche que su intencià ³n es venir al paà ­s para casarse. El oficial de Inmigracià ³n siempre tienen una pequeà ±a conversacià ³n con la persona que procesa (y se recomienda no mentir) y  puede llegar a la conclusià ³n de que viene a casarse. Adems, pueden abrir el equipaje y descubrir cosas sospechosas como el traje de novia, regalos, muchà ­simas maletas para un viaje en teorà ­a de sà ³lo un par de semanas, etc. En estos casos, Inmigracià ³n est en su derecho de prohibir la entrada del extranjero, por mucha visa que tenga. Y es que es muy importante entender que para obtener la aprobacià ³n de una visa no inmigrante, como es la de turista, o su renovacià ³n o la garantà ­a de ser admitido al llegar a un control migratorio de los Estados Unidos es necesario ser, en todo momento, elegible para la visa y admisible para ingresar a USA. Estas son  20 causas que convierten a una persona en inelegible  y estas son  22 que la convierten en inadmisible.  ¿Quà © pasa si migracià ³n  no aprueba el ajuste de estatus por matrimonio? Es muy raro que el Servicio de Inmigracià ³n y Ciudadanà ­a (USCIS, por sus siglas en inglà ©s) niegue la aprobacià ³n del I-130, es decir, la parte inicial de la tramitacià ³n donde realmente lo à ºnico que se confirma es que el que pide es un ciudadano y est casado legalmente con la persona pedida. Nada ms. El problema surge en ajuste de estatus. Las razones pueden ser muy variadas. Por ejemplo, que se considere que se ingresà ³ a Estados Unidos con la intencià ³n de casarse. Eso puede ser considerado un fraude de ley, ya que implica una mentira cuando se solicità ³ la visa de turista o cuando se cumplimentà ³ la ESTA. Otro problema es cuando se considera que el matrimonio es falso y su à ºnica finalidad es que el cà ³nyuge extranjero obtenga asà ­ los papeles. Esto puede dar lugar a castigos legales, adems de no aprobarse la green card. Finalmente, puede negarse la tarjeta de residencia por cualquiera de estas ms de 40 razones que aplican a todos los casos de solicitudes de residencia. Demoras en la tramitacià ³n de los papeles Aunque las peticiones de green card por matrimonio con ciudadano se encuentran entre las ms rpidas, lo cierto es que pueden demorarse varios meses. Es posible aprender cà ³mo verificarlo. Opciones migratorias para pedir al novio o cà ³nyuge En primer lugar, si la pareja no est casada, el estadounidense puede solicitar una visa de prometido o de novia cuando à ©ste todavà ­a no est en los Estados Unidos y que es  conocida como K-1. Con esta visa podrn entrar al paà ­s los prometidos y los hijos de estos. En los casos en los que un ciudadano est casado con un extranjero y à ©ste est fuera de los Estados Unidos puede pedirlo mediante un I-130 y luego un procedimiento consular o, en casos muy especà ­ficos puede merecer la pena solicitar una visa K-3, pero es recomendable consultarlo con un abogado migratorio. Por à ºltimo, si el ciudadano vive fuera de los Estados Unidos y est casado con un extranjero y deciden mudarse a USA tener en cuenta que pueden surgir problemas a la hora de probar ingresos. Asesorarse antes de iniciar los trmites. Informacià ³n relevante para evitar problemas Para evitar problemas es fundamental estar informado. Este test sobre visas de turista contiene informacià ³n esencial sobre cà ³mo obtenerla y cà ³mo conservarla. Este otro, sobre la autorizacià ³n que se  conoce como ESTA para los ciudadanos de paà ­ses que pueden viajar sin visa. Asimismo, este sobre la tarjeta de residencia permite tener claros puntos fundamentales para obtenerla y para conservarla. Finalmente, tener en cuenta que la informacià ³n de este artà ­culo no aplica a los extranjeros que ingresan ilegalmente en Estados Unidos, ya que no podrà ­an ajustar su estatus por matrimonio con ciudadano. Y en el caso de matrimonio con residente permanente es siempre requisito imprescindible que se està © legalmente en el paà ­s para poder ajustar su estatus. No ser posible tanto si se entrà ³ ilegalmente como si se ingresà ³ con visa y se quedà ³ ms tiempo del permitido. Este artà ­culo es informativo. No constituye consejo legal para ningà ºn caso concreto.

Essay Editing

Essay Editing Essay Editing Essay Editing: The General Information Study process in the higher institutions presupposes that students should perform writing assignmentsand present the results before the group. As for the second aspect, there are a lot of publication and investigations how to take floor before the audience and to become a great speaker. But we follow the first aspect of writing. Among written assignments, there can be singled out the most difficult for understanding, such as an essay, a term paper, an article, a dissertation and many others. About all these types you may read at our site. What Are The Main Problems Of Essay Editing? We write all kinds of assignments and the most frequent order at our site is essay writing. On the second place we have a service of essay editing. You may ask, why this type of work is so frequently ordered. It happens due to the following: A student has written an assignment, but an instructor has declined it because of grammar, lexical or other kind mistakes. A student does not understand, how they may be corrected and address us, because our essay editing service is quick and professional: A student has ordered an essay at one of the writing services, but the chosen one appeared to have lack of experience and a writer has made many mistakes in the text. This site does not think obligatory to make some amendments and a student addresses our essay editing service for qualified help, as we have gained huge experience in writing and editing assignments. A student has English for the second language, and he is not sure, whether words are correctly used and put in order, and addresses our essay editing service, because our writers are native English speakers and have a degree in writing area. The Instructions To Essay Editing There can be many situations, when a student has to addresses sayediting. Anyway, our service is really efficient due to several arguments: We have written and edited many orders due to the fact, that we have been working since 2000, so the quality is polished, the terms are speeded up and the creditworthiness increased. We do not hire housewives, waiters, students and others because of their great knowledge of English. We take care of our customers. That is why only experts in writing are working for you here. They have MPh or PhD degrees in various spheres of writing. Our prices are not low, but ourservice of essay editing is not so expensive at all. Everything lies in terms, which you may specify. If you order essay editing before a week to submission, it will cost you nothing, and of course opposed to urgent tomorrow submission. We do presents for you indeed. If you have to pay for everything, so you should know, that we produce cover page, outline and list of references to you FREE OF CHARGE. So, from our side we specify everything that we may tell you about us, and now decision is up to you. However you should always remember that a miser pays twice, do not make a mistake. Contact our services and receive supreme results! Good luck! Read also: Story Critique Process Essay Persuasive Essay MLA Format Bibliography Critical Essay How to Write a Critical Essay

Muted Group Theory Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Muted Group Theory - Research Paper Example Thus, the female circle is neither invisible nor acknowledged-eventually, only a small part or rather, reflections of it are exposed.   Consequently, women’s experiences are felt only as â€Å"black holes† or reminiscences of society. Women’s on perspectives are restricted by this enforced tunnel vision, and their voices are not publicly articulated. Women, then, are   left with two choices.   They can attempt to translate their point of view into a masculine mode or try to detach alternate modes of communication. Both options are problematic. For one, the translation process can give rise to communication difficulties and an ensuing lack of communication satisfaction.   There are also structural barriers to the development of alternate communication modes, as men, whether conscious or not, will perpetuate their power by preventing other voices from being heard and acknowledged.   As a result, women’s voices are muted.   Working as a business a nalyst and meeting with business people who are usually male had been a challenging experience for me. Finding the right words , being articulate enough to sound straightforward like a man is just not of the female character that it posed a real challenge for someone working in a male dominated profession. There have been times I felt that my opinions were just solicited with my male colleagues just acting civilly in my presence, but not really listening and understanding what I was telling. I had to understand.... Working as a business analyst and meeting with business people who are usually male had been a challenging experience for me. Finding the right words , being articulate enough to sound straightforward like a man is just not of the female character that it posed a real challenge for someone working in a male dominated profession. There have been times I felt that my opinions were just solicited with my male colleagues just acting civilly in my presence, but not really listening and understanding what I was telling. I had to understand at those times that there are differences in the understanding and interpretations of men and women of the spoken words. That women usually tend to consider not only the literal meaning of what is said but also interpret meanings beneath it. Also, being with men made me somehow ‘lose’ my feminine identity because i had to act and sound like them for me to be accepted as a part of ‘their’ group. Note, however, that muting is not the same as silencing and that muting is only successful only when the non-dominant group (in this case, women) ceases to find and develop alternative communication styles to express their experiences and code their messages. When this happens, only traces are left of the original, a kind of palimpsest. Feminist communication scholars have documented the ways in which â€Å"masculine† language both inhibits and infects women’s forms of expression and how women are forced to double-code their messages through different rhetorical means. According to the muted group theory, women face a dilemma arising from the fact that their experiences and means of communication are restricted by their marginalization in society and their relative isolation within the private sphere-deemed not only irrelevant

Child observation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words - 1

Child observation - Essay Example Trish said â€Å"Hello!† and continued playing with blocks. Nate took some of her blocks from the tray and he also began to build something. Both children did not speak to each other and were very busy with what they were doing. I think Trish wanted to hold on longer to her mother because she is aware that they will be apart for the day. She was trying to assert her independence when she said â€Å"No!† which I believe is a powerful word for toddlers because it shows they can speak up for themselves. As her mother was walking away, I wonder what was running through Trish’s head. Is she afraid she will not see her mother anymore? Does she want to go with her mother? When the caregiver took her, it did not take long for Trish to stop crying as she was attracted to the toys on the shelf. I thought toddlers get distracted easily and they are fascinated with objects that stimulate their thinking. I think this is because they are in Piaget’s Pre-Operational Stage of Development when they begin playing with toys as symbols for something else. I believe she sees the blocks as tools to give life to her imagination. . I learned from Piaget that especially for very young children, they need concrete materials to help them learn better I think Trish felt comfortable with Nate because she did not mind him sitting beside her and taking some pieces of her blocks. Trish is still learning verbal skills and at her age, it is still very limited. I think if she had more verbal skills, she would engage in a conversation with Nate. I felt sorry for Trish when she clung to her mother. I just wanted to pick her up, comfort her and assure her that her mother will be back soon. As a mother myself, I feel her mother’s pain in leaving her at the centre but also understand that she needs to work. Trish was playing by herself at the play stove. The caregiver squatted near her and asked her what she was doing. Trish said

Gender differences Essay Example for Free

Gender differences Essay It could be said that to some extent the view that processes within schools may lead to gender differences in educational achievement is true. The theory of Interactionist looks at the individual rather than society; therefore it is a bottom up theory. Interactionist argue that the processes within the schools such as the hidden curriculum may lead students in gender differences in educational achievement, as what happens inside the school which is unwritten is what influences the individual in educational achievement, not the formal curriculum or what is written rule such as the subjects which is being studied influences the student to achieve. The sociologist Goffman explains that everyone in society is presenting the self in everyday life. What he means is that everyone is a puppet of society and not in control of what they say or do, but in fact they are attached in strings and act for example in play, such as a female may play the role of a mother at home but play the role of a student at school. Some argue that the structure and settings of schools, generally creates gender differences in educational achievement, for example the socialisation aspect is that the students are socialised into tolerable forms of behaviour pupils are given drill in how to move about the school, sit in desk, raise hands the puritan of hard work, sober living and good manners is continuously urged upon them. This socialisation naturally created gender differences as males are seen or expected to behave in classrooms in the manner of masculine while females are seen or expected to behave in feminine behaviour or otherwise it could be considered odd, and therefore the students who do behave odd are looked at differently or called deviant. The sociologist Postman and Weingartner, studied that the hidden curriculum consisted of discovering that; knowledge is beyond the power of students and is in case none of their business; secondly recall is the highest form of intellectual achievement and therefore the collection of facts is the goal of education; the voice of authority is to be trusted more than independent judgement; feelings are irrelevant in education; passive acceptance is a more desirable response to ideas than active criticism. This study proves that the individual does not play in an important role but rather how to survive the school and just pass the exams was important and therefore not keen on which gender is learning or how but on how they should just pass the time in school and move on as education is not about the self but on facts and memorising, and not understanding. As a result it could be said that the study of classroom interaction is the idea that the reality of the classroom is a negotiated reality. For students and teachers, the hidden curriculum consists of learning how to survive in the classroom.

The Ethical Concerns with Data Mining Essay example -- Computers

The Ethical Concerns with Data Mining Introduction to Data Mining and Warehousing With the advent of computer technologies that can store large quantities of data, cross reference that data, and compute patterns in the data, benefits abound in many applications. However, with it comes new ethical concerns regarding the privacy and security of the persons or entities in which the information was sourced. While permission may have been received with each bit of information, which may have appeared harmless to divulge, there are issues regarding the data's ownership -- its sharability in US or globally, its combination with other data, its accuracy, its security, and its overall end use [1] -- that could contribute to privacy or security "violations", where some kind of detremental harm could potentially be presented. Many questions exist. Should there be restrictions on what data can be stored? Should permission be required to be up front? How can the data collected be shared? Should there be a mandated set of rules on data collection and use in general for all businesses, governments, to uphold if they want to use data? What are the ethical evaluations of the issues, and would it be correct for a policy to be put in place to monitor the ethical issues? In this paper I will address how some organizations are dealing with the ethical approaches, but first, here is some background on the technology, its uses, benefits, misuses, and issues. What is Data Mining? What are its Uses? Data Mining, Data Warehousing, or Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining(KDDM), are technologies that encorporate computer hardware and software to store large amounts of collected data, usually about people, and then use the infor... .../30/2004 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/03/30/international0553EST0481.DTL 16. ACLU, "Group Calls for Investigation, New Laws to Restrict Data Surveillance", May 27, 2004, http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=15860&c=130 17. Leslie Miller, "EU, U.S. Sign Passenger Data Agreement", Associated Press, May 28, 2004, http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=4&u=/ap/20040528/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/airline_passenger_data 18. Amanda Holt, PR Ethics Resource Center 18. Amanda Holt, PR Ethics Resource Center 19. Utilitarian Ethics, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarian_ethics 20. Colleen McCue, Emily S. Stone, Teresa P. Gooch, "Data mining and value-added analysis", The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Nov, 2003. http://articles.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2194/is_11_72/ai_111496582

Culture and Its Importance

Journal of Management Development Emerald Article: Do Cultural Differences Make a Business Difference? : Contextual Factors Affecting Cross-cultural Relationship Success Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Richard Ian Corn Article information: To cite this document: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Richard Ian Corn, (1994),†Do Cultural Differences Make a Business Difference? : Contextual Factors Affecting Cross-cultural Relationship Success†, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 13 Iss: 2 pp. 5 – 23 Permanent link to this document: http://dx. oi. org/10. 1108/02621719410050219 Downloaded on: 26-10-2012 References: This document contains references to 30 other documents Citations: This document has been cited by 26 other documents To copy this document: [email  protected] com This document has been downloaded 3632 times since 2005. * Users who downloaded this Article also downloaded: * Rosabeth Moss Kanter, (2004),†The challenges of leadership: Interview with Rosabeth Moss Kanter †, Strategic Direction, Vol. 0 Iss: 6 pp. 7 – 10 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/02580540410533190 Rosabeth Moss Kanter, 1997†³Strategies for success in the new global economy: An interview with Rosabeth Moss Kanter†, Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 25 Iss: 6 pp. 20 – 26 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/eb054603 Martin E. Smith, (2003),†Changing an organisation's culture: correlates of success and failure†, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 24 Iss: 5 pp. 249 – 261 http://dx. doi. org/10. 108/01437730310485752 Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by UNIVERSITY OF GREENWICH For Authors: If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service. Information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www. emeraldinsight. com/authors for more information. About Em erald www. emeraldinsight. om With over forty years' experience, Emerald Group Publishing is a leading independent publisher of global research with impact in business, society, public policy and education. In total, Emerald publishes over 275 journals and more than 130 book series, as well as an extensive range of online products and services. Emerald is both COUNTER 3 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. Related content and download information correct at time of download. Do Cultural Differences Make a Busines s Difference? Contextual Factors Affecting Cros s-cultural Relationship Succes s Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Richard Ian Corn Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts, U S A I think Turks are Turks, and they are very different from Canadians, or North Americans or Brits or whatever. But when I went to Turkey, I was dealing with some Turks who had been dealing with Canadians for 10-15 years; they understood us and had adapted to our ways.Yes, they were still Turks, but they knew what Canadians expected. And they knew Canadians very well, so they forgave us when we made faux pas, they understood that we like Christmas Day off. They were patient and gave us a year to understand them. Cultural Differences 5 Canadian executive, describing experiences in his company’s joint venture in Turkey Of course, initially there were apprehensions about being bought by foreigners. Foreigners to us is anyone outside the local community.American executive, describing his company’s acquisition by a British company In Search of Cultural Differences As economies globalize and organizations increasingly form cross-border relationships, there is a resurgence of interest in the management problems caused by national cultural differences – in values, ideologies, organizational assumptions, work practices, and behavioural styles – spawning research reminiscent of national character studies following the Second World War.Recent findings about the cultural propensities of major countries appear robust, replicated in surveys of the values of managers[1-3], as well as used to explain institutional patterns within countries[4]. Such findings are often consistent with stereotypes evoked by managers to explain others and themselves. Cultural generalizations roll easily off the tongues of people in our studies. For example: several Europeans predicted problems Volvo and Renault could have in combining Volvo’s Swedish egalitarianism with Renault’s French hierarchy.A German executive working in a French-American alliance commented that Germans and Americans had more values in common than either did with the French, invoking this as an Important contributions to the case studies and interviews for this paper by Kalman Applbaum, Pamela Yatsko, Madelyn Yucht, Paul Myers, Clau dia de Dominicis, Tom Hughes, Liska Ouellette, Saba Hapte-Selassie and Thuy Tranthi are gratefully acknowledged, as is the support of the Division of Research of the Harvard Business School. Copyright 1993 by R. M. Kanter and R. I. Corn. Used by permission. Journal of Management Development, Vol. 13 No. 2, 1994 pp. 5-23. MCB University Press, 0262-1711 Journal of Management Development 13,2 6 explanation for why an American sent to London to lead the integration team was viewed as incompetent by the French partner for failing to make authoritative decisions[5]. Furthermore, people often assume cultural heterogeneity creates tensions for organizations.Managers, even within a single country, often prefer homogeneity to heterogeneity, because shared experiences and culture are a basis for trust[6]. Yet, while national cultural differences clearly exist at some level of generality, it is more difficult to specify how the presence of such differences affects organizational and managerial effectiveness. Evidence and observations in a range of situations raise questions about the usefulness of the â€Å"cultural differences† approach for managers. For example: ?When people of different national cultures interact, they can be remarkably adaptable, as in the Japanese history of borrowing practices from other countries[7]. And even though it is supposedly more difficult for managers to operate outside their home culture, multinational companies have long succeeded even when expatriate managers make mistakes. Many industrial firms have operated successfully in foreign countries while showing insensitivity towards local values or treating host-country personnel less well than home-country personnel[8]. Technical orientation can override national orientation. There is evidence that similar educational experiences – e. g. for managers or technical professionals – erase ideological differences; those within the same profession tend to espouse similar val ues regardless of nationality[9,10]. At Inmarsat, an international satellite consortium owned by companies from over 60 countries and staffed at its London headquarters by 55 nationalities, differences between functions were a greater source of conflict than differences between nationalities.Although stereotypes abounded (â€Å"Spaniards are often late†; â€Å"Indians like to talk†), engineers who shared a technical orientation quickly adjusted to each other’s foibles – easily enough that a training programme on cross-cultural management was poorly attended[11]. ? Tensions between organizations which seem to be caused by cultural differences often turn out, on closer examination, to have more significant structural causes. A Scottish construction company had difficulty in its first international partnership with a French company.The failure was widely explained by employees as caused by differences between a â€Å"beer culture† and a â€Å"wine cu lture†. Its next partnership with a Dutch company was more effective, supposedly because of the greater compatibility with the Dutch. But in the first partnership, the companies set up many â€Å"dealbusters†[12], from letting lawyers negotiate for executives, to ignoring assumptions about future business strategy. In the second case, they learned from their mistakes and changed the way they worked with their partner. National cultures had little to do with failure in the first instance and success in the second. Cultural value issues – and issues of â€Å"difference† in general – are more apparent at early stages of relationships than later, before people came to know each other more holistically. And outsiders of any kind, even from the next neighbourhood, can seem different. But once people get to know each other beyond first impressions, relationship dynamics are often determined by power rather than culture. Resistance to the new American chief executive of a British retailer was resistance to change, not to culture differences.National culture issues were simply one more piece of learning as he moved from outsider to insider; they did not affect his ability to do his work of managing a fast and successful turnaround[13]. ? Central country value tendencies are often reported at a very high level of generality, as on average over large populations themselves far from homogeneous. Thus, they fail to apply to many groups and individuals within those countries. There are strong individual, regional, and ethnic differences within countries that are masked by the attempt to find country patterns.For example, an American who had served in Japan during the Second World War liked the docile women he saw there. He decided to marry a Japanese woman, only to discover after the marriage that she came from the one part of Japan that encouraged assertive, dominant women. And not only are there individual as well as ethnic differences wi thin countries, but individuals themselves derive their behaviour from many influences and can hold multiple identities. The chairman of Matra Hachette in Paris calls himself â€Å"a Gascon, a Frenchman, and a European†. Finally, group cultural tendencies are always more apparent from outside than inside the group. Indeed, people often only become aware of their own value or culture in contrast to someone perceived as an outsider[6]. The British writer George Orwell observed that national identity and cultural similarity is salient only for those returning from abroad or when the country is threatened; otherwise, people hold firmly to their individuality and are more aware of differences among those within the same nation.For these reasons, then, we wondered about the circumstances under which cross-cultural interaction would affect business performance. The Foreign Acquisitions Study To learn more about managerial issues provoked by cultural differences, we looked for situat ions in which cross-cultural interactions might produce organizational tensions. Kanter’s studies of international strategic alliances and joint ventures, reported in a series of Harvard case studies and articles[14], had uncovered a large number of strains between cross-border partners, but most of Cultural Differences 7Journal of Management Development 13,2 8 these involved strategic, organizational, political, or financial issues. But perhaps that was because the relationship between venture or alliance partners is assumed to be one of relative equality and independence; each partner retains its own cultural identity as well as control over its own operations, co-operating with the other for limited purposes while insulating core activities from the relationship. We looked for another test in the realm of foreign acquisitions, in which cultural differences would perhaps play a greater role.Foreign acquisitions of US companies increased over the last decade. In 1990, 446 su ch deals, valued at $46. 2 billion, were completed, compared with only 126 deals valued at $4. 6 billion in 1982. Foreign acquisitions of US companies accounted for 28. 1 per cent of the total value of merger and acquisition activity involving at least one company in 1990, compared with only 7. 6 per cent in 1982[15]. This acquisition situation, we proposed, would heighten American managers’ awareness of their own culture and its contrast to the acquirer’s culture, as they merged operations or shifted control over decisions.Since American companies were more accustomed to acquiring foreign operations than being acquired, the â€Å"reversal of roles† experienced when being acquired would perhaps exaggerate tensions enough to bring cultural issues to the surface. Therefore, we developed a pilot project with eight companies. T he Companies Approximately 75 interviews with senior and middle managers were conducted by Harvard Business School teams in 1992 and 1993 at eight mid-sized New England-based American companies which had been acquired by foreign companies in the period between mid-1987 and 1990 (with one exception acquired in 1984).All companies had enough experience with the foreign parent to provide time for cross-cultural contact to occur and any problems to surface; but the acquisition was also recent enough for managers to have fresh memories. The circumstances surrounding the acquisitions differed in some respects. One was a strictly arms-length financial investment in which a well-known sporting goods manufacturer was acquired by a Venezuelan financial group as its only US holding in a leveraged buyout from investors who had acquired it two years earlier; as long as profits were high, there was minimal contact with the parent.In two other cases, there was a history of relationships between the foreign parent and the acquired company prior to the acquisition: a familyowned retailer had developed a business partnership with a large r but also family-owned British chain four years before the acquisition as part of a succession plan; and a metals manufacturer had formed a number of joint ventures with a Japanese conglomerate beginning seven years before the acquisition, turning to its Japanese partner as a defensive tactic against a hostile takeover threat.Other acquisitions also stemmed from financial distress: an armaments manufacturer was bought by a British conglomerate after the US company faltered under a sequence of four different American owners; an abrasives manufacturer was bought by a French company as a â€Å"white knight† in a takeover battle with a British company; and a US retailer was sold to a Japanese retailer when it no longer fit its US manufacturing company parent’s strategy. In many of the cases, then, foreign acquirers were sought by the US companies to solve a problem.Two of the companies, given the pseudonyms Metalfab and Hydrotech, were observed by the second author in par ticular depth. Both were engineeringoriented manufacturing companies with operations primarily in the US and annual sales between $100 and $200 million. Both were previously owned by financially-troubled US parents whose core business was in a different industry, and both were bought by well-respected, internationally-experienced companies in the same industry.Corn conducted 30 interviews at Metalfab, a manufacturer of fabricated metal products acquired about five years earlier by Fabritek, pseudonym for a Swedish manufacturer in the same business. He also conducted 21 interviews at Hydrotech, a designer and manufacturer of hydraulic systems acquired about three years earlier by Gruetzi, pseudonym for a German-Swiss manufacturer of industrial energy systems.But while Metalfab was acquired by a company of similar size and was operating at a pretax profit, Hydrotech’s new parent was much larger and more diversified geographically and technologically, and Hydrotech was accumulat ing significant losses. Cultural Differences 9 Overview of the Findings The interviews at all eight companies focused on the history of the companies’ relationships, their business situations and business strategies, the amount and kind of cross-cultural contact between managers, difficulties and how they had been resolved, and any organizational changes which had come about as a result of the merger.We expected cultural differences to play a prominent role in the dynamics of the integration, especially because so many questions probed these issues specifically – from asking for characterizations of â€Å"typical† American and parent country managers to comparing managerial styles in concrete situations. (The study was thus â€Å"biased† towards finding cultural differences and tensions because of them. ) We expected many difficulties to arise, necessitating many organizational changes, and we expected American companies to resist learning from their fore ign company parents.We also expected some combinations to be more volatile than others, such as the Japanese-American interactions, either because of prejudice or because of values and style differences. We found, instead, that nationality-based culture was one of the less significant variables affecting the integration of the companies and their organizational effectiveness. We found that relatively few issues or problems arose which could be labelled â€Å"cultural†, even though managers were able to identify style differences easily that fit common cultural patterns.We also found that very few measures were taken to facilitate cultural integration. Only a moderate number of difficulties were encountered or organizational changes Journal of Management Development 13,2 10 necessitated, and US companies learned from their foreign parents. Furthermore, there was no discernable pattern of cultural compatibility; all nationalities worked well with their American acquisitions. In general, mergers and acquisitions create significant stress on organizational members, as separate organizational cultures and strategies are blended, ven within one country[12]. Differences in national cultures are assumed to add another layer of complexity to the merger process. But our findings suggest that contextual factors play the dominant role in determining the smoothness of the integration, the success of the relationship, and whether or not cultural differences become problematic. These findings lead us to conclude that the significance of cultural differences between employees or managers of different nationalities has been overstated.Cultural values or national differences are used as a convenient explanation for other problems, both interpersonal and organizational, such as a failure to respect people, group power and politics, resentment at subordination, poor strategic fit, limited organizational communication, or the absence of problem-solving forums. Such differen ces are invoked as explanations for the uncomfortable behaviour of others when people have limited contact or knowledge of the context behind the behaviour.Culture versus Context as an Explanatory Factor Most interviewees were able to identify a number of ways in which they differed â€Å"culturally† from their foreign colleagues in values, interpersonal style, and organizational approach. Many of these â€Å"fit† the position of countries on dimensions Hofstede[1] identified, especially power distance and individualism/ collectivism. The first difference issue mentioned, however, was an objective one: Language problems. A majority of Americans found the difficulty in overcoming language differences with all but the British acquirers to be the biggest â€Å"negative† surprise of their respective mergers.One American at Metalfab stated that â€Å"during initial meetings, we assumed that when we spoke English to the Swedes and they nodded their heads, they unders tood what we were saying. Now we realize the nods only meant that they heard the words†. Employees at Metalfab and Hydrotech also recalled meetings in which their foreign colleagues would agree to adopt some new procedure, â€Å"only to go right back to doing things the same old way as soon as they left the meeting†. American employees noted cultural differences in decision-making styles.Many argued that their foreign parents’ management team took a longer-term view. Americans at Hydrotech and Metalfab routinely expressed frustration with the unwillingness of German-Swiss and Swedish managers to make decisions without a great deal of analysis. Europeans noted the American reputation for fast, less thoughtful decisions. A British manager involved in the armaments company acquisition said, â€Å"Unlike American companies which manage by quarterly numbers, we at UK headquarters base our strategy and business policies on long-term positioning†.American intervi ewees also identified a number of differences in interpersonal style between themselves and their foreign colleagues which they attributed to national culture. The Swiss were described as â€Å"very orderly and efficient†, the Swedes were universally described as being very serious. British managers were described as less emotional, less community-oriented, more deliberate, and much less likely to â€Å"shoot from the hip† than Americans. Europeans were described by nearly all American employees as being more formal, less open and outgoing, and slower to form friendships than are Americans.Japanese managers were described as very courteous and polite. Several Metalfab employees stated that the Swedes were much more likely to argue with each other publicly than were Americans. One American official recalled that in the early days of the merger, he and an American colleague would stare at each other in board meetings while the Swedes argued among themselves. The American manager claimed that his American colleagues would have been much more likely to discuss such differences privately.The Swedes were also described as having less respect for authority and greater willingness to confront their superiors publicly than are Americans – signs of low power distance in Hofstede’s terms. Other employees stated that Swedish managers are not as â€Å"results-oriented† as Americans when it comes to running meetings, ending meetings without a resolution or an understanding of the next steps. Swedes were described by several American employees as very critical, both of themselves and others.One American manager stated that â€Å"Americans are taught that it is more constructive to give pats on the back than to focus entirely on shortcomings as the Swedes are inclined to do†. In short, most of those interviewed found differences between themselves and their foreign colleagues to be clearly identifiable and immediately noticeable follo wing their respective mergers. Employees attributed a majority of these differences to national culture. But a closer analysis of these responses reveals a tendency for employees to attribute to culture differences which are more situationally-driven.For example, several employees stated the Swedes were unwilling or incapable of adjusting their planning and forecasting assumptions in light of changes in the environment, that the Swedes were more determined than are Americans, to meet old budget targets. This may reflect the fact that as parent, the Swedes and German-Swiss have the ultimate responsibility for financial results. Similarly, slower decision making may reflect the fact that the Swedish parent involves more people in the decision-making process than does its American subsidiary.Of course, the use of greater participation may itself reflect differences in values between Americans and Swedes, but it may also reflect differences in the organizational culture of parent and su bsidiary or in country-specific industry practices. Senior managers generally had more direct contact with the foreign parent and thus more contextual information. They were much more likely to identify differences in business context that explained apparent differences in â€Å"cultural values†. Senior executives at the American retailer acquired by a British company attributed differences in management practices to differences inCultural Differences 11 Journal of Management Development 13,2 12 business environments in the US and UK. For example, the British company appeared to be less interested in people and more interested in facilities. But this was because its operating expenses tended to be weighted more towards rent than to labour, because British supermarkets were typically located in expensive urban areas, whereas in the US supermarkets were generally found outside the commercial core of the city, and US chains had unions which drove up labour costs.There was also a tendency for American employees to attribute interpersonal difficulties with foreign colleagues to cultural differences without recognizing that Americans act in much the same way. There are recent public examples of American board meetings interrupted by public bickering. The popularity of the view that committees rarely accomplish anything similarly attests to the fact that Europeans are not the only ones who have difficulty establishing clear agendas in their meetings.Finally, in the US, American employees frequently complain about superiors who rarely hand out constructive criticism. In sum, Americans were routinely able to identify a number of differences between themselves and their foreign colleagues, but the attribution of these differences to nationality often seemed to be misdirected. Additionally, in many cases, these differences are more suggestive of perception than of reality. Perhaps it was more convenient to attribute differences to culture than to context because o f the popularity of national character stereotypes.The role of national stereotypes was made clear in contrasting what American managers said about their own foreign acquirers (whom they knew well) compared with other nationalities (which they knew less well). An American senior executive at the sporting goods manufacturer had highly positive things to say about his Venezuelan parent, calling Venezuelans â€Å"lovable, amiable, showing a high degree of concern for people†. In contrast, he said, â€Å"The companies you do not want to have take you over are the Germans and the Japanese. They feel they know how to do it better and just come in and take over†.But the companies in our study acquired by Japanese and German-Swiss parents reported just the opposite – that the Japanese, for example, were eager to learn from the American companies they acquired. In short, the greater the experience with managers from another country, the less reliance on negative stereoty pes. Furthermore, while many interviewees were able to identify behavioural style differences between American managers and their foreign parents, they also spoke of cultural compatibilities in values, business strategies, and organizational approach. Such similarities overrode style differences.Both retailers in the pilot study, for example, spoke of the common concerns and philosophies they shared with their foreign parent – one Japanese, one British. Finally, just because people could point to differences, that did not mean that the differences had operational consequences. Interviewees were asked to assess the extent to which cross-cultural differences created difficulties in the relationship between parent and subsidiary. Interestingly, many employees felt that although differences exist between their cultures, such differences did not create significant problems for employees.This finding cuts to the heart of this study’s central question: if cultural differences between a parent and subsidiary do not necessarily lead to significant inter-organizational conflict, what factors moderate the relationship between cultural heterogeneity and organizational conflict? Why do American employees of foreign companies feel that cultural differences between their own firm and their foreign parent have not been particularly problematic? Here, our findings suggest that a number of contextual factors act as mediators in determining whether or not these differences will be problematic.Contextual Factors as Key Determinants of Cros s-cultural Relationship Succes s Six factors emerged in the pilot study that accounted for the ease with which the merger was implemented and the relatively few difficulties attributed to national cultural differences: (1) the desirability of the relationship, especially in contrast to recent experiences of the acquired companies; (2) business compatibility between the two companies, especially in terms of industry and organizatio n; (3) the willingness of the acquirer to invest in the continued performance of the acquiree and to allow operational autonomy while performance improved; (4) mutual respect and communication based on that respect; (5) business success; and (6) the passage of time. Cultural Differences 13 Relationship Desirability The first issue sets the stage for whether the relationship begins with a positive orientation. When people are in distress, poorly-treated in previous relationships, have had positive experiences with their foreign rescuer, and play a role in initiating relationship discussions, they are much more likely to view the relationship as desirable and work hard to accommodate to any differences in cultural style so that the relationship succeeds. First, almost all of the companies in the pilot study were acquired by foreigners after a period of financial distress.A Hydrotech employee said, â€Å"Everyone here was aware of the firm’s financial problems at the time of th e acquisition. News of the purchase was viewed favourably. Gruetzi kept our doors from being padlocked. Everyone recognized that without Gruetzi, Hydrotech might not have made it†. While Metalfab did not have Hydrotech’s financial problems at the time of its acquisition, its employees took comfort from Fabritek’s strong financial condition at the time of the takeover. The abrasives company was rescued by its French acquirer as a â€Å"white knight in a takeover battle†. In all these cases, people were thus more likely to view their Journal of Management Development 13,2 14 acquirers as saviours than villains. Cultural problems were therefore not problematic.When asked to describe their initial reaction to the acquisitions, interviewees in several companies began with a description of how difficult life had been under its former parent. Several foreign parents in our study therefore compared favourably with each subsidiary’s former US parents. Hydrot ech and Metalfab’s former parents had neither understood the business of its subsidiary nor shown any desire to invest in their subsidiary’s long-term growth. The armaments company had four recent owners, several of whom stripped corporate assets and art collections, an experience one manager referred to as being â€Å"raped†. Under new owners who cared about them, employees were therefore more inclined to tolerate and adapt to cultural differences.In other cases, national differences were not a problem because the US and non-US companies had spent several years getting to know each other through joint ventures. The British retailer and the Japanese conglomerate had long worked closely with the American companies they eventually bought. Nearly every respondent at Metalfab and Hydrotech spoke with high regard for their parent’s technical expertise, manufacturing skill, knowledge of the international marketplace, and reputation for quality. As one employee commented, â€Å"Our concerns about the takeover were quickly put to rest. After all, Gruetzi was not an unknown quantity. They were an industry leader and we had worked with them on several projects in the past†.In contrast, respondents who were less familiar with the operations of their acquirer appear to have been the most concerned and apprehensive about the news of the merger when it was first announced. As one employee recalled, â€Å"At first I was sickened by the announcement, but when I saw Fabritek’s product line and the obvious potential for synergy, I became extremely excited†. Several respondents also mentioned that if the acquirer had a reputation for dismantling its acquisitions, they would have been far less sanguine about the takeover and the possibilities for success. Reputation was based not only on past direct experience but also on assumptions about how â€Å"companies like that† behaved. One Metalfab employee claimed that compared wi th other countries, â€Å"the Swedes are just like us†.The conventional wisdom at Metalfab was that Scandinavian firms had a history of keeping their acquisitions intact. Finally, the ability to choose made a difference. In several cases, the companies themselves initiated the search for a foreign partner. The element of surprise that creates anxiety and uncertainty was missing. A Hydrotech employee stated: â€Å"We wanted to be sold; I viewed the announcement as a real positive – someone wanted to buy us! † Business Compatibility Organizational similarities were more important to most companies than national cultural differences. At the time of their respective mergers, employees of Metalfab, Hydrotech, and both retailers in the study took immediate comfort rom the fact that their new acquirers were in the same industry as they, especially the retailer sold by an American manufacturer to a Japanese retailer. As one Hydrotech employee stated: â€Å"Our former p arent showed no commitment to, or interest in, our business. Now, there is a much better fit†. Another employee stated: â€Å"Everyone was initially apprehensive about the takeover but at least we were bought by a company which understands and cares about our business. This turned our initial apprehension into excitement†. Along similar lines, Metalfab employees reacted very favourably to the news that â€Å"a metal company was purchasing a metal company†.Organizational similarity meant that employees could feel that they play important roles in carrying out their parent’s strategy and believe that their parent values their contribution. As one Hydrotech employee stated: â€Å"Despite the fact that Gruetzi is a much larger company than our former parent was, it is easier to see how we fit into their plans†. Thus, at both Hydrotech and Metalfab, the benefits of the merger were transparent to employees. As one manager stated, â€Å"This was an easy a nnouncement to make; the merger spoke for itself†. Employees at Hydrotech and Metalfab felt that sharing a common technical orientation with their parent allowed both rganizations to more easily overcome national differences. Several employees emphasized what a pleasure it was to work with a parent organization that understands the business they are in. As one engineer stated, â€Å"our two firms are like twins that were separated at birth†. Employees at both Hydrotech and Metalfab also feel that their parents’ expertise and credibility in the industry has made it easier to accept them in the role of acquirer. One Metalfab employee’s comment captured the attitude of the firm’s employees towards foreign ownership when he claimed: â€Å"It doesn’t bother me in the least that our parent is a foreign company because we speak the same language, Metal! A majority of those interviewed concluded that they would now prefer being taken over by a forei gn company in the same business than by an American firm in a different industry. Cultural Differences 15 Investment without Interference Of all the actions taken by a foreign partner, none seems to have a more positive impact on morale and on attitudes towards foreigners than a foreign owner’s decision to invest capital in its subsidiaries. Fabritek spent $11 to 12 million upgrading the production facilities of its US subsidiary during each of the first two years following the acquisition and has invested an additional $6 to 8 million annually ever since.Gruetzi has similarly invested in new equipment for Hydrotech’s Ohio production facility. To most American employees, such investment demonstrated that its new parent was committed to the company’s long-term health. When investment was accompanied by operational autonomy, the relationship was viewed very favourably and cross-cultural tensions minimized. In three cases – sporting goods manufacturer acquir ed by a Venezuelan company and both the retailer and the manufacturer acquired by Japanese companies – feeling lack of cultural tensions was a function of the Journal of Management Development 13,2 16 minimal interference of the foreign company in its new US operations. â€Å"They et us do what we are good at†, said an executive at the sporting goods firm, â€Å"which is make money†. Employees at Hydrotech and Metalfab were surprised by the extent to which their parents allowed them to manage their own operations. As one Hydrotech employee stated: â€Å"Things have turned out much better than I originally expected. Gruetzi has not overmanaged us, they kept our management team intact, and we have not been forced to spend a lot of our time defending ourselves†. Metalfab employees were similarly pleased that their parent has allowed the firm to retain day-to-day control: â€Å"While our parent provides us with suggestions, they have allowed us to run the sh ow here†.We argue that American employees are less likely to view cultural heterogeneity as a problem when foreign management allows such autonomy along with adding resources. It should be pointed out that complete autonomy was not welcomed by all employees; a minority of employees (those dissatisfied with their firm’s policies) mentioned that they would be happier if the parent took a more active role in managing its subsidiary. At least one Hydrotech engineer wished that Gruetzi would force the company to standardize its designs and acquire better tools for its engineers to work with. At Metalfab, several employees expressed disappointment that its parent had not prevented the company from moving operations to Mexico.Furthermore, that high degrees of autonomy have possibly slowed down the speed with which the merged organizations develop a common culture. Several Metalfab employees reported that it has been difficult to â€Å"pull our two families together and get th e message out to customers that we are one firm†. Still, for the Americans autonomy generally meant that they did not feel foreigners were imposing â€Å"foreign ways† on them, which made them more tolerant of differences rather than resistant to them. Open Communication and Mutual Respect Nearly all interviewees agreed that open communication and showing mutual respect are critical to developing trust and ensuring a successful partnership.One retailer, for example, felt that its new Japanese parent wanted to learn from American practice, which made them feel valued and made rapport with the Japanese easy to develop. Tensions occurred, in contrast, when foreign colleagues did not show respect for American technology and expertise. At Fabritek, Swedish engineers and marketing personnel initially viewed Metalfab’s traditional, composite products as inferior to their own, all-metal product, which required tighter engineering and manufacturing tolerances in order to ensure a perfect seal. As a result, Americans said that the Swedes saw themselves as â€Å"the real engineers† in the company. But note here that the tensions were caused by technical differences, not cultural ones. ) Similarly, Hydrotech engineers described their German-Swiss colleagues as very arrogant and protective about Gruetzi’s products; there was a feeling that Hydrotech engineers should not â€Å"tamper† with their parent’s designs. Employee sensitivity to possible cultural differences played a significant role in reducing outbreaks of cross-cultural tension. One Hydrotech employee reasoned that cultural clashes had been avoided mainly because employees had been so concerned that such tensions could occur that they put more effort into trying to understand one another.Similar concerns led executives at Fabritek and Metalfab to schedule frequent meetings with each other soon after the merger; these meetings improved understanding and lessened tens ion between the two firms. Ironically, one senior American official recalled that he had rarely met with executives from the firm’s former US parent â€Å"even though they were located right down the road from the company†. Though formal cross-cultural training programmes were rare, open communication helped build relationships. Sensitivity to cultural differences and willingness to deal with problems directly minimized organizational tension. Cultural Differences 17 Business Success Nothing succeeds like success. People are willing to overlook cultural differences in relationships which bring clear benefits.But unsuccessful ventures produce squabbling even among people who are culturally similar. Creating opportunities for joint success between parent and subsidiary promotes acceptance of cross-cultural differences and creates support for the relationship. Several months before Hydrotech’s acquisition by Gruetzi, a company project had â€Å"gone sour† du e to a technical malfunction. After the merger, Hydrotech used Gruetzi’s technology to solve the problem. For the many employees who had suffered through the project’s difficulties, this single act sold the virtue of the partnership. Another Hydrotech employee stated: â€Å"We had not realized how quickly Gruetzi’s technology could be put to use.In only one year, our department was able to bid on two projects and win a $45 million contract†. Nothing could possibly send a more positive message about the benefits of partnership than winning business because of it. Ongoing financial performance affects the quality and nature of communications between parent and subsidiary, and thus plays a role in determining whether or not cultural differences are viewed as problematic. If success reduces tensions, deteriorating performance increases them. Employees noted that travel budgets came under increasing pressure during periods of poor performance, and thus, fewer meetings take place between American and foreign employees.In difficult times, communication between parent and subsidiary may deteriorate as employees in each organization focus on their own problems. Finally, poor performance leads to frustration, fingerpointing, and reduced trust. One Hydrotech manager noticed that as Gruetzi has encountered more financial difficulties, they became increasingly demanding of Hydrotech and focused more on the company’s short-term operating results than in the past. The Pas sage of Time Does time heal all wounds? Time, at least, reduces anxieties and replaces stereotypes with a more varied view of other people. The levels of cross-cultural Journal of Management Development 13,2 18 tension vary as a function of the stage in the relationship-building process.Anxieties at Hydrotech and Metalfab were highest during the days immediately following the announcement of each takeover. This initial anxiety declined as the merger entered a transition ph ase in which management showed reluctance to create conflict. Employees of both subsidiaries also reacted positively to foreign management’s willingness to discuss issues and listen to their concerns at that time. According to one employee, â€Å"these meetings made us feel good about the changes and made us realize how alike our philosophies were†. But during the transition phase, employees also underestimated the degree of cultural heterogeneity and the potential for conflict to erupt.As management began to focus on more substantive issues and the amount of communications between American and foreign employees grew, a new realization set in that the cultural differences between the two firms were greater than initially realized, which required more awareness and sensitivity to avoid conflict. It appears likely then, that employee perceptions of cross-cultural tension are affected by the passage of time and by the merger process itself. One might also expect that empl oyee attitudes towards cultural heterogeneity will change as Americans and foreign employees work together and become more familiar with each others’ customs and values. Mistrust is always more likely at early stages of relationships.People at Hydrotech and Metalfab felt their new foreign parents were particularly guarded in discussing their technology during the first months together. As one employee mentioned: â€Å"It was like playing poker during the first year. You always got an answer to your question but the question was answered as narrowly as possible – even when, by withholding information, the answer was misleading†. But another engineer recognized the significance of sharing technology noting that â€Å"when our parent provides us with technology, they are giving us their life’s work†. T he Negative Side of Cross-cultural Interaction: T hreat and Prejudice Positive views of the relationship between US company and foreign parent predomin ated, but they were not universal in the companies studied.Top management and those with the greatest day-to-day contact were most likely to be favourable. Those at lower ranks anxious about the implications for their careers were more likely to express negative views, including prejudice and resentment, reacting the most nationalistically to the news of a foreign takeover. One American reported how â€Å"sick† he was over the fact that â€Å"this country is gradually being sold off to foreigners†. Some higher level managers commented that they would have been more comfortable if their acquirer had been American, but this preference did not seem to affect the relationship. A manager at the armaments company reported: â€Å"We would rather have been bought by a US company.There is an element of national pride, especially in our industry. We are very patriotic. There is no one in the company that would say we are a British firm. We all wear and buy ‘made in USAâ⠂¬â„¢ products†. Still, nationalist sentiments did not prevent this manager from declaring the relationship a success and identifying very few crosscultural problems. The most significant factor in determining employee reactions to acquisition was self-interest: how the change would affect their own standing in the firm. Virtually all interviewees reacted to news of the acquisition with the same question: â€Å"How will this impact on my career in this organization? †.Those employees who were most likely to suffer a loss of prestige or power, or who had reason to feel threatened by the mergers were most likely to react unfavourably to it. However, the fact that the vast majority of employees in both companies did not react in this way attests to just how apparent the benefits of these mergers were to most employees. Therefore threat could work both ways; if the foreign company improved performance, jobs would be saved. A manager at the armaments company observed,  "The community and employees understand there are differences between us and the British. But for them, having good jobs is more valuable. When corporate survival is at stake, people cannot afford to have culture become an issue†.Attitudes were shaped by symbolic acts taken by the foreign parents as much as by more substantive actions. One Metalfab employee recalled the day that Fabritek’s president arranged to have group photographs taken of all employees in the US so that they could be shown to people back in Sweden. â€Å"Fabritek immediately impressed me as a very people-oriented company†. The Attribution of Organizational Problems to National Culture Our findings suggest, then, that contextual factors act to either fan the flames of intergroup conflict and cross-cultural polarization or encourage organizational members to accept these differences. In the pilot study, organizational and technical compatibilities overwhelm cultural differences.Cultural differe nces thus seem to be a residual category to which people attribute problems in the absence of a supportive context. Cultural differences do not automatically cause tensions. But when tensions do arise – often due to situational factors such as lack of communication or poor performance – people blame many of the organizational difficulties they encounter on cultural heterogeneity – on the presence of others who seem different – rather than to the context within which these problems took place. This view is consistent with Chris Argyris’s perspective on defensive routines in organizations[16]. Why do people blame culture for problems and scribe differences between their own behaviour and that of their foreign colleagues to dispositional factors (the kind of people they are) rather than to situational factors (the organizational context)? First, cultural heterogeneity presents a conspicuous target for employees to point at when looking for an explanat ion for their problems. Such differences are readily apparent in early stages of contact between people who differ in a visible way, such as race, gender, or language, especially when there are only a few â€Å"tokens† such as expatriate managers among many â€Å"locals†[6]. Pre- Cultural Differences 19 Journal of Management Development 13,2 20 onceived notions and prejudices which employees bring into the evaluative process increase the likelihood that people will attribute behaviour to nationality. In-group favouritism is evoked in situations of cross-cultural contact. Research has shown that people want to favour members of their own group (the in-group) over others. Motivational theorists hold that self-esteem is enhanced if people value their own group and devalue other groups[17,18]. Such favouritism leads to a set of cognitive biases which reinforce the distinction between in-group and out-group members. People expect in-group members to display more desirable a nd fewer undesirable behaviours than out-group members[19].As a result, people are more likely to infer negative dispositions from undesirable and out-group behaviours than from undesirable in-group behaviours, and are less likely to infer positive dispositions from desirable outgroup behaviours than from desirable in-group behaviours[20-23]. Furthermore, people tend to remember behaviour which is congruent with their expectations over behaviour which is inconsistent with their views[24,25]. Thus, memories reinforce in-group favouritism as well. In-group biases are especially likely to form when individuals identify strongly with their group and when in-group members view other groups as a threat[17]. During an acquisition process, employees who work for, and identify with their company for many years suddenly find that another firm, with its own culture vision, values, and ways of doing things is responsible for their future.Cross-border mergers offer a particularly favourable envi ronment for such biases to develop because group membership is clearly defined by national as well as organizational boundaries. At both Hydrotech and Metalfab, in-group favouritism and cognitive biases may have been the driving forces behind the tendency among Americans to attribute wrongfully â€Å"bad news† to their foreign parent (i. e. out-group members). In one case, Hydrotech management had frozen salaries and extended the required working week from 40 to 44 hours after the merger in an effort to â€Å"impress Gruetzi by showing a willingness to make a few difficult decisions†. Many Hydrotech junior employees attributed this unpopular policy to Gruetzi’s management.Ironically, according to one middlelevel manager, when Gruetzi found out about these changes, they gave Hydrotech’s president one month to reverse the policy. In another example, soon after Metalfab announced plans to transfer some of its manufacturing operations to Mexico, rumours began circulating on the factory floor that the Swedes were behind the decision. When senior management in the US found out about the rumours, the company’s president called a meeting with all employees and took full responsibility for the decision. But many blue-collar workers continued to blame the Swedes for this unpopular move. They also attributed the decision to downsize the American workforce to the company’s foreign parent.A second explanation for why cultural differences are inappropriately invoked is called the â€Å"fundamental attribution error†[26] – a tendency to attribute one’s own behaviour to the situation but others’ behaviour to their â€Å"character†. People attribute negative behaviour of foreign colleagues to their nationality or culture (dispositional factors) rather than to situational or contextual factors which are operating behind the scenes[27]. For example, Metalfab interviewees initially viewed their Swedish c olleagues as fractious (i. e. â€Å"the Swedes are a stubborn people†) before it occurred to them that language problems had caused many early misunderstandings.They attributed the fact that their Swedish colleagues were more engineering oriented and less marketing oriented to national biases (â€Å"Swedes design bulldozers for the kind of work a garden shovel could do†) rather than to differences in product features and to the requirements of the European market. For example, rigid engineering standards for Fabritek’s all-metal products required engineers in Sweden to play a more central role in the parent’s operations, whereas the competitiveness of the US market demanded that marketing personnel play a more critical role in US decision making. But those who had more direct contact with the foreign parent, such as senior managers, also had more contextual information and were less likely to make the â€Å"fundamental attribution error†.If in-grou p biases and the fundamental attribution error are behind the tendency to view cultural heterogeneity as problematic, what steps might management take to promote inter-organizational co-operation in cross-border mergers? Our findings suggest that actions which make the relationship desirable, reduce uncertainty, show respect for the other group, create communication channels, and ensure business success will encourage employees to identify with their foreign colleagues and view the company as one organization. Creating an atmosphere of mutual respect, promoting open communication, investing in the future, maximizing opportunities to experience joint success, and taking steps to familiarize employees with their counterpart’s products and markets reduce the likelihood that cultural differences will be viewed as a source of organizational tension.Conclusion These pilot study findings are only suggestive, of course. We have a small number of cases from one region. While none of t hem can yet be called a longterm success, they have survived a period of integration during which other companies which perhaps did experience debilitating cultural problems could have called off the marriage. We could be looking only at the â€Å"winners† that managed cultural differences well. Indeed, those companies experiencing problems were more likely to turn down our request to participate in the pilot study. But if tilted towards successes, then this research points to some of the circumstances that contribute to successful cross-cultural relationships.And since we â€Å"biased† the interviews towards identification of cultural differences and cultural tensions, the relative absence of tension gives additional weight to our argument that contextual and situational factors, such as technical fit, business performance, and abundant communication, are more significant determinants of relationship effectiveness. Cultural Differences 21 Journal of Management Develop ment 13,2 22 Employees at each of the companies studied were able to identify a number of cultural differences between their own organization and that of their parent. Nevertheless, few employees viewed cultural heterogeneity as a significant source of tension in their firm. Such findings lend support to the notion that national cultural differences do not necessarily increase the amount of tension between organizations or make partnerships among companies from different countries untenable.This article proposes that there are a number of factors which help to determine how employees react to foreign ownership. It calls into question the assumption that the larger the social distance or cultural gap between the national cultures of two merged organizations, the greater will be the potential for strain in the relationship between employees. The findings from our pilot study suggest contextual factors are extremely important mediators in crosscultural relationships. These factors infl uence how cultural differences are interpreted and whether they are viewed by employees as problematic. Indeed, they may even determine whether â€Å"cultural differences† are identified at all. References 1. Hofstede, G. Cultures and Organization, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 1991. 2. Kanter, R. M. , â€Å"Transcending Business Boundaries: 12,000 World Managers View Change†, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 69, May-June 1991. 3. Hampden-Turner, C. , â€Å"The Boundaries of Business: Commentaries from the Experts†, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 69, September-October 1991. 4. Lodge, G. C. and Vogel, E. F. (Eds), Ideology and National Competitiveness: An Analysis of Nine Countries, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, 1987. 5. Kanter, R. M. , Applbaum, K. and Yatsko, P. , FCB and Publicis ( A ): Forming the Alliance, Harvard Business School Case Records, Boston, MA, 1993. 6. Kanter, R. M. Men and Women of the Corporation, Basic Books, New York, NY, 1977. 7. Westn ey, E. , Imitation and Innovation: T he Transfer of Western Organizational Patterns to Meiji, Japan, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1987. 8. Starbuck, W. H. , â€Å"Learning by Knowledge-intensive Firms†, Journal of M anagement Studies, Vol. 29 No. 6, 1992, pp. 713-40. 9. Haire, M. , Ghiselli, E. E. and Porter, L. W. , Managerial T hinking, Wiley, New York, NY, 1966. 10. Wuthnow, R. and Shrum, W. , â€Å"Knowledge Workers as a ‘New Class’: Structural and Ideological Convergence among Professional-Technical Workers and Managers†, Work and Occupations, Vol. 10, 1983, pp. 471-87. 11. Myers, P. and Kanter, R. M. Inmarsat 1991 , Harvard Business School Case Records, Boston, MA, 1992. 12. Kanter, R. M. , When Giants Lea r n to Dance: M aster ing the Challenges of S trategy, Management, and Careers in the 1990s, Simon and Schuster, New York, NY, 1989. 13. Kanter, R. M. and Gabriel, L. , BhS ( A ): Opening Boundaries, Harvard Business School Case Records , Boston, MA, 1992. 14. Kanter, R. M. , â€Å"Competing on Relationships: How Companies Build Collaborative Advantage†, Harvard Business Review, May-June 1994. 15. M& A Almanac, Vol. 26 No. 6, 1992, p. 54. 16. Argyris, C. , Overcoming Organizational Defenses: Facilitating Organizational Learning, Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA, 1990. 17. Tajfel, H. and Turner, J. C. â€Å"An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict†, in Austin, W. S. and Worchel, S. (Eds), T he S ocial Psychology of Intergroup Relations , Brooks/Cole, Monterey, CA, 1979, pp. 33-47. 18. Turner, J. C. , Rediscovering the Social Group: A S elf-categorization T heory, Blackwell, Oxford, 1987. 19. Howard, J. W. and Rothbart, M. , â€Å"Social Categorization and Memory for In-group and Outgroup Behavior, Jour nal of Personal ity and S ocial Psychology , Vol. 38 No. 2, 1980, pp. 301-10. 20. Taylor, D. M. and Jaggi, V. , â€Å"Ethnocentrism and Causal Attribution in a South Indian Context†, Journal of Cros s Cultural Psychology, Vol. 5 No. 2, 1974, pp. 162-71. 21. Allen, V. L. and Wilder, D. A. â€Å"Categorization, Belief Similarity, and Intergroup Discrimination†, Jour nal of Personal ity and S ocial Psychology , Vol. 32 No. 6, 1975, pp. 971-7. 22. Allen, V. L. and Wilder, D. A. , â€Å"Group Categorization and Attribution of Belief Similarity†, Small Group Behavior, Vol. 10 No. 1, 1979, pp. 73-80. 23. Pettigrew, T. F. , â€Å"The Ultimate Attribution Error: Extending Allport’s Cognitive Analysis of Prejudice†, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 5 No. 4, 1979, pp. 461-76. 24. Hastie, R. and Kumar, P. A. , â€Å"Person Memory: Personality Traits as Organizing Principles in Memory for Behavior†, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 37 No. 1, 1979, pp. 25-38. 25. Srull, T. D. Lichtenstein, M. and Rothbart, M. , â€Å"Associative Storage and Retrieval Processes in Person Memory†, Jour nal of E xper imental Psychology: L ea r ning, M emor y and Cognition, Vol. 11 No. 2, 1985, pp. 316-45. 26. Ross, L. , â€Å"The Intuitive Psychologist and His Shortcomings: Distortions in the Attribution Process†, in Berkowitz, L. (Ed. ), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 10, Academic Press, New York, NY, 1977, pp. 173-220. 27. Jones, E. E. and Nisbett, R. E. , â€Å"The Actor and the Observer: Divergent Perceptions of the Causes of Behavior†, in Jones, E. E. , Kanouse, D. E. , Kelley, H. H. , Nisbett, R. E. , Valins, S. and Weiner, B. Eds), Perceiving the Causes of Behavior , General Learning Press, Morristown, NJ, 1971, pp. 79-94. Further Reading Locksley, A. , Ortiz, V. and Hepburn, C. , â€Å"Social Categorization and Discriminatory Behavior: Extinguishing the Minimal Intergroup Discrimination Effect†, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 39 No. 5, 1980, pp. 773-83. Maass, A. , Salvi, D. , Arcuri, L. and Semin, G. , â€Å"Language Use in Intergroup Contexts: T he Linguistic Intergroup Bias†, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 57 No. 6, 1989, pp. 981-93. Tajfel, H. , â€Å"Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations†, Annual Review of Psychology, Annual Reviews, Stanford, CA, 1982, pp. 1-39. Cultural Differences 23