Social Entrepreneurship - 921 Words

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP When I was a kid, I could have been what people would now call a social entrepreneur or socialpreneur. A lot of people would have fallen into this category. To help your school or church or youth group, you may have sold chocolate bars door-to-door. People bought them, even if they didnt like chocolate; because they knew the money would go to support a worthy cause. Both the seller and purchaser are examples of social consciousness in action. Now my own children, bring home their school fundraisers from school and we too buy the over priced products, not because they are great products, but because it supports their school, a good cause. Todays socially conscious entrepreneurs,†¦show more content†¦In 1994, Time Magazine named Wendy among the 40 Most Promising Leaders Under 40. Wendy was named one of Americas Best Leaders by U.S. News and World Report in 2006. As Ian Huschle, one of Wendy Kopp’s first employees said I heard a great definition of an entrepreneur yesterday, as someone who looks at the calculations, sees that they dont add up, and goes forward anyway, on the conviction that theyll work out. Thats what Wendy does. Quoted by Ms. Kopp herself, she said I look at where am I going to have the most impact -- if I do this for three years or if I teach for three years, Ms. Kopp, now 33, said when asked why she never tried the classroom herself. I think Teach for America has suffered from the fact that I did not teach, in a major way. I also think if I had taught, I wouldnt have started Teach for America. The bottom line in summarizing this analysis of social entrepreneurs is that they recognize a social problem and use their entrepreneurial principles to achieve social change. 3 As John Kenneth Galbraith said, â€Å"All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership. This is exactly what Wendy Kopp did. Contributers: Social entrepreneurship. (2011, February 11). In Wikipedia,The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved fromShow MoreRelatedSocial Entrepreneurship1768 Words   |  8 PagesAssess the importance of social entrepreneurship in the local context. 1.0 Definition of Social Entrepreneurship A social entrepreneur identifies and solves social problems on a large scale. Just as business entrepreneurs create and transform whole industries, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss in order to improve systems, invent and disseminate new approaches and advance sustainable solutions that create social value. Unlike traditionalRead MoreSocial Entrepreneurship2389 Words   |  10 PagesWhat is social entrepreneurship? The animation is made to explain the concept of social entrepreneurship to the general public and raise awareness of the importance of this type of business.... Social entrepreneurship  is the attempt to draw upon business techniques to find solutions to social problems.This concept may be applied to a variety of organizations with different sizes, aims, and beliefs. Conventional  entrepreneurs  typically measure performance in profit and return, but social entrepreneursRead MoreSocial Entrepreneurship And Social Innovation1502 Words   |  7 PagesSocial Entrepreneurship The term â€Å"social entrepreneurship† first appeared in the scholarly literature over 35 years ago in a publication titled The Sociology of Social Movements (Banks,1972). However, Social entrepreneurship has its origins in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when philanthropic business owners and industrialists like Robert Owen, demonstrated a concern for the welfare of employees by improving their working, schooling and cultural lives. Since then, social entrepreneurshipRead MoreSocial Entrepreneurship : A Social Entrepreneur1929 Words   |  8 PagesSocial entrepreneurship is a new term that has increased in usage over the last twenty years. I can remember being a child and hearing individual’s talk about becoming an entrepreneur nothing related to becoming a social entrepreneur. When conducting research on this topic I found two names that were a reoccurrence in who developed the term social entrepreneurship and they are Vinoba Bhave who founded India’s Land Gift Movement and the second being Robert Owen who founded cooperative movement, FlorenceRead MoreWhat is Social Entrepreneurship?2052 Words   |  8 PagesSocial entrepreneurship is a term that is looking for a steady definition. The use of the term is currently vague and pretty much useless. The lack of a definition raises many questions about which topics fall underneath the idea of social entrepreneurship. To become of importance in the entrepreneurial world, SE needs to be properly defined and requires a subjective foundation. According to Brouard and Larivet (2010), social entrepreneurship represents a variety of activities and processes to createRead MoreSocial And Institutional Barriers Of Social Entrepreneurship2039 Words   |  9 PagesSocial entrepreneurship is the method used by startup corporations and other entrepreneurs to recognize the social problems and achieve a social change by employing entrepreneurial principles, processes and operations to create, fund and implements innovative ideas with the potential to solve social, cultural, or environmental problems. It is the process of focusing on the improvement of existing conditions. It is seeing an opportunity to remove social and institutional barriers while addressingRead MoreEntrepreneurship And The Economic And Social Development2207 Words   |  9 Pagesdecades, it has become clear the importance of the entrepreneurial phenomenon in the economic and social development of the regions involved in its creation, and their contribution to mitigate the problems of unemployment, and the improvement of competitiveness within the productive sectors. Consequently, from the political, business and academic fields it has been a growing interest towards entrepreneurship, and especially for everything that contributes to promoting and encouraging the creation of newRead MoreSocial Entrepreneurship1926 Words   |  8 PagesEveryone describes social entrepreneurship differently. While many have been able to describe the traits and features of a social entrepreneur there doesn’t seem at all to be a consensus about the definition of what constitutes the field of social entrepreneurship. Susan Davis and David Bornstein in their book, Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know define social entrepreneurship as â€Å"a process by which citizens build or transform institutions to advance solutions to social problems suchRead MoreSocial Entrepreneurship Within New Zealand Essay1808 Words   |  8 Pages1. Introduction Social entrepreneurship within New Zealand, is a relatively new sector. Thus, it is largely an undeveloped field, and highly lacking in literary writing. The aim of this report is to clarify social entrepreneurships’ characterization and how it is defined within the New Zealand sector. Furthermore, it aims to examine constraints that an independent investor, wanting to start-up a social enterprise, in New Zealand may encounter in the current environment, including funding optionsRead MoreThe Idea Of Social Entrepreneurship2201 Words   |  9 PagesOn the idea of social entrepreneurship The idea of social entrepreneurship implies diverse things to various individuals and analysts (Dees, 1998). One gathering of scientists alludes to social enterprise as not-revenue driven activities looking for option financing methodologies, or administration plans to make social worth (Austin, Stevenson, and Wei-Skiller, 2003; Boschee, 1998). A second gathering of analysts comprehends it as the socially mindful routine of business organizations occupied

The Central Value Connecting Mrs. Dalloway And The Hours

The central value connecting Mrs Dalloway and The Hours is an affirmation of life. Although suicides feature in both Stephen Daldry’s film and Virginia Woolf’s novel both texts echo Woolf’s words from her 1922 diary: ‘I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual.’ Both Woolf’s modernist 1925 novel and Daldry’s 2002 postmodernist film focus on women whose rich inner lives are juxtaposed with their outer lives constrained by the contexts in which they live. The characters are placed in their respective context, to reflect on, or respond to, the consequences of war and AIDS, the difficulties of personal relationships, class, gender and sexuality. Mrs Dalloway seeks to narrate the inner life of characters in a single day, Wednesday, 13th June, 1923, while in The Hours, the action takes place within the span of a single day in three different years, 1923, 1951 and 2001. It communicates 3 parallel narratives with the focus on three different women, alternating between them throughout the film. In Mrs Dalloway, the chiming of both the grand Big Ben and the gentler St Margaret’s symbolise the significance of time in life, despite a representation of time as mutable – Big Ben, ‘a warning†¦then the hour, irrevocable’, reminding Clarissa of mortality, while St Margaret’s chimes in a little late, gliding ‘into the recesses of the heart and buries itself, to be, with a tremor of delight, at rest.’ Woolf seems to say a full life is one that accepts the moment isShow MoreRelatedComparing The Film And Virginia Woolf s Mrs. Dalloway1244 Words   |  5 PagesDespite the fact that suicides feature in both the film and Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway, both texts echo Woolf’s words from her 1922 diary: ‘I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual.’ Both Woolf’s modernist 1925 novel and Daldry’s 2002 postmodernist film which has Mrs Dalloway as a pivotal point for its three interwoven stories can be seen as life-affirming texts – with their major focus on women whose rich inner lives are juxtaposed with their outer lives constrained

Case Study Mcdonalds free essay sample

It operates over 35000 restaurants in more than 100 countries on six continents. 5 It has an unparalleled global infrastructure and competencies in restaurant operations, real estate, retailing, marketing and franchising. McDonald’s website says that it is a leader in the area of social responsibility and is committed to protecting the environment for future generations. 7 Strong and wide communication channel in the market. (deng, 2009) 8 Play areas for children. 9 Large target markets. 10 Recession resistant (Birchall, 2008) 11 In September 2003 successful backing up of new products was launched with MTV’s advertising campaign featuring the new tag line, â€Å"I’m Lovin’it†. (Jennifer, 2004) WEAKNESSES 1 McDonald’s has not achieved its growth expectations in past several years. Narrow Product lines. (deng, 2009) 3 McDonald’s brand association as a junk food. (deng, 2009) 4 Few option for healthy eating 5 High employee turnover rates. (macy, 2012) 6 McDonald’s also have some bad effects on environment. (ltd. , 2006) 7 McDonald’s also faces many types of legal actions on many issues. OPPORTUNITIES 1 Product packing for McDonalds now features QR codes for customers to get nutritional information. Mcnamara, 2013) 2 Opportunity to enlarge market, the consumers who care about health issue. (deng, 2009) 3 Slightly changing market brand image of McDonalds. (deng, 2009) 4 In 2009, McDonald’s launched its hefty Angus burger in all U. S. A locations. 5 Introduction of trans-fat-free French fries in all restaurants in the U. S. A and Canada. 6 Introduction of McCafe. 7 Testing marketing fruits and vegetables as happy meal at some outlets. 8 McDonald’s franchises overseas became a favorite target of people and groups expressing antiglobalization sentiments. Entry into new and highly popular product categories. THREATS 1 Public attack about obesity issue. (deng, 2009) 2 Changing taste of consumers. (deng, 2009) 3 Unable to keep patrons as special order sandwiches offered by rivals Burger King and Wendy’s. 4 Promotional plans like McDonalds game found conspiracy with 51 people charged in a part of scam winning $24 million by stealing winning McDonald’s tickets. 5 McDonalds showed a delayed effect than other restaurants operators in switching over to zero trans-fat cooking oil. In 2001 McDonald’s was sued for hurting religious sentiments by vegetarian groups for not revealing its flavors in French fries as it added beef extract to vegetable oil and showing it as veg in menu. 7 Consum ers began filing law suits that eating at McDonald’s had made them over weight. 8 Competition from burger kings and Wendy’s. (Thomadsen, 2007) MARKET SEGMENTATION TARGET MARKET| BABY BOOMERS| GENERATION X| GENERATION Y| GENERATION Z| DEMOGRAPHICS| 45-65+| 35-44| 19-34| 0-18| GEOGRAPHICS| URBAN| URBAN| URBAN| URBAN| PSYCOGRAPHICS| More concerned with low cholesterol food| More concerned with low fat food| More concerned with physical fitness food products| Generally eats taste oriented food products| BEHAVIOURAL| Mostly concerned with good quality of food products| Requires access with quick and fresh food service| Generally catch-up food by themselves by reaching out| Check out with friends and family| ISSUE ANALYSIS In 2004,Morgan Spurlock’s documentary film Super-Size Me gave very criticism to McDonald’s fast â€Å"nutrition†, in which he shows how he gains fat and destroy his health by eating McDonald’s. 2 In 1998 McDonald’s started â€Å"Made for you† System but it was not successful. There was a decrease in growth of sales in stores. 3 In 1999 before the implementation of â€Å"made for you â€Å"scheme ,McDonald’s planned to provide about 190 million in financial assistance to its franchisees ,but the actual cost of implementing the system ran much higher than the corporation had estimated. In 2001, 51 people were charged conspiring to rig McDonald’s game promotions over the course of several years, revealing that $24 million of winning McDonald’s game tickets had been stolen as a part of scam. 5 In 2004, McDonald’s was sued for extracting a small amount beef added in to the vegetable oil used for cooking French fries. 6 Many people still complain that the food served by McDonald’s is not hot to eat. RECOMMENDATIONS PRODUCT :- 1 McDonald’s should provide hot food to eat because many customers complaint that their food is not so hot to eat otherwise it will affect sales. McDonalds should bring some new healthier products for all ages because bad effect on health is one of the weaknesses of McDonald’s and bringing some healthier food will help to overcome this image. 3 McDonald’s should provide some free snacks because it will help it compete with its competitors and increase sales. 4 McDonalds should make their products in fat free oil because it will have good effect on health. 5 McDonald’s should also provide some regional food because in this way some rural people will also start accepting its products. Launching of new fried and bone in treats in Chicago. PRICE:- 1 The price of products should be affordable because if they will not be affordable to small income group then its sale will be affected and it will also give the opportunity to competitors to increase their sales. 2 The prices of products should be regularly checked so as to compete with competition because people will buy those products which they can get in low price. PLACE:- 1 McDonald’s should open new franchises in small cities also . It will help them to expand its business and increase growth. McDonald’s should increase the number of its franchises in all countries in order to expand its business. PROMOTION:- 1 McDonald’s should provide some discount on more products purchased because in this way people will buy more. Because some people will start purchasing more items if they can get discount. 2 McDonald’s should provide home delivery service because sometimes some people can’t go to store in order to pu rchase them. It will increase sales. 3 McDonald’s should provide online sale because in this way people can place their orders online. McDonald’s is working on new salads and wraps . (wong, 2013) 5 McDonald, s will test the new fried and bone in treats in Chicago. (wong, 2013) 6 Success of mighty wings in Atlanta. (wong, 2013) BEST RECOMMENDATIONS PRODUCT:- McDonald’s should provide some healthier food for all ages because health obesity is the major problem with McDonald’s . In this way they can get good image regarding health. PRICE:- Prices of products should be regularly checked in order to compete with competition because people will cheapest product. PLACE:- McDonald’s should open new small franchises at small cities also because it will help him to expand its business and increase growth rates. PROMOTION:- McDonald’s should provide home delivery service because sometimes people can’t go to store in order to purchase product. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bibliography Birchall, J. (2008). McDonalds claims fast food sales fighting off slowdown. Financial times. deng, t. (2009, may). McDonalds new strategy on changing attitudes and communication. International journal of marketing studies, 37-42. Jennifer, R. (2004). online branding :the case of McDonalds. ritish food journal. ltd. , n. m. (2006). ICCR sponsered proxy resolutions on genetically modified organisms gain recognition among shareholders at wendys McDonalds . financial wire. macy, a. (2012). financing a remodel:a case of McDonalds Franchisee. journal of case research in business and economics. Mcnamara, B. (2013). McDonalds give the people what they want. Nutrition business journal. Thomadsen, r. (2007). product positiong and competion:the role of location in the fast food industry. Marketing science. wong, V. (2013). will McDonalds mighty wings fly? Business weak.

Miscommunication and Power Distance in Business world

Introduction Miscommunication and power distance causes business failure if left unchecked. High power distance leads to business complications as superiors are disconnected from the real goings on in an institution. Employees will refrain from telling their bosses about certain insights thus leading to undesirable outcomes. Additionally, employees will become demoralized and production will diminish.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Miscommunication and Power Distance in Business world specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Therefore, it is imperative to detect problems in these areas before they spiral out of control. The discussion will involve two case studies that did not perceive such challenges, and thus encountered dire consequences. The first is an Airline Company – Korean Air and the second is an automobile manufacturer – Nissan. Both organizations suffered immense losses and project failures due to miscommunication or power distance issues. Definition of terms Miscommunication refers to a ruined type of communication that arises when the message to be communicated is obstructed thus preventing its transmission (Kujal 24). Five main types of barriers exist in communication and they include semantic/ language, organizational, personal, emotional and physical barriers. Language barriers stem from â€Å"poorly expressed messages, faulty translations, technical language, and poorly clarified assumptions† (Griffin Pustay 15). On the other hand, organizational barriers stem from bad organizational policies and rules, the status of the employee in the firm and how the organization structures its management levels (Kujal 54). Additionally, some businesses simply have limited communication facilities. Griffin Pustay (92) adds that personal barriers emanate from a business leader’s attitude, fear among employees concerning negative feedback, overemphasis on bureaucrat ic channels, and lack of time. Some people may simply be unwilling to communicate and may ignore messages. Emotional barriers relate to premature evaluation of the message, mental distractions and poor information retention (Kujal 56). Physical barriers emanate from the proximity of the message sender and receiver. If no technology exists to facilitate communication, then miscommunication may arise. Businesses that succumb to miscommunication may experience difficulties in job assignments, implementation of work and accident prevention. These outcomes may lead to low employee morale, financial losses, legal suits and maybe even business closedowns. Therefore, organizations must avoid miscommunication at all costs.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Hofstede defines power distance as â€Å"the extent to which less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a coun try expect and accept that power is distributed unequally† (98). The notion also encompasses the extent to which people believe that their superiors have greater power than them. In countries with a high level of power distance, employees rarely disagree with their superiors. Gladwell (215) aggress with the above author. He adds that their bosses are autocratic and make all the decisions in the organization. High power distance undermines the real potential in a business. Problems of power distance will often arise when two separate cultures interact. The result is a â€Å"clash of cultures and instability† (Hofstede115). This may lead to reduced performance or even business transaction failure. Therefore, power distance discrepancies ought to be understood and dealt with accordingly. Case studies In the business world, cases of power distance have led to dire consequences in the past. A case in point is Korean Air in the 1980s and 1990s. This airline reported one of th e highest numbers of crashes in the air industry (Gladwell 180). In 1997, a flight heading to Guam from Korea’s capital crashed and killed approximately 228 people; only 26 passengers survived. This was not the first time that a crash had been recorded. In 1977, 1979, 1987, and 1998 other Korean Air flights also crashed. (Gladwell 180). These quick successions of accidents led to the suspension of Korean Air from Air France and Delta Airlines’ partnership list. Word went round that the company was undependable. Therefore, passengers refrained from using the Airline’s services (Gladwell 182). It should be noted that now Korea has a spotless flying record. It changed things in 1999 and has never looked back. Nonetheless, the company risked and lost people’s lives during this dark phase. It almost closed down because of these preventable disasters. The point of this report is to analyze the power distance issues that led to the problem, and how they could ha ve been prevented. At first instance, individuals imagined that the crashes were caused by poorly serviced planes or old infrastructure. Alternatively, they imagined the company’s pilots lacked the necessary training to handle a job of such enormous responsibilities.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Miscommunication and Power Distance in Business world specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, it was found that Korean Air did not have any of these technical problems. A deeper investigation revealed that there were â€Å"cultural issues that came in the way of proper performance† (Gladwell 207). The company sourced its plane from renowned airplane manufacturers; Airbus and Boeing. These institutions designed aircrafts that depended on transparent and equal communication between the pilot and copilot. In one particular scenario, of the Korean Air flight 801, the copilot was in a position to prevent th e crash but failed to do so. It is imperative to understand why this occurred Whenever an aircraft crash takes place, plenty of things can happen to propel the situation, which was true for Korean Air. The pilots often worked for extensive shifts, so most of them were not alert (Gladwell 213). Kujal (56) explains that emotional issues like lack of mental alertness cause miscommunication. In fact, an analysis of the crash reports found that 52% of the cases had pilots who worked for more than 12 hours continuously (Gladwell 213). Additionally, investigations revealed that the company kept lumping different pilots together. 44% of all the crash cases had pilots who had never worked together, so they were not free with each other. Kujal (49) also notes that â€Å"discomfort with one’s superiors hampers communication†. In addition to these company policy issues, it was also found that a number of other smaller errors led to the final disaster. Usually, these began with one pilot knowing something important and keeping it to himself. The other pilot would realize that a problem existed but failed to catch it. He or she then compounded the situation by making his own mistakes. Additionally, a co-pilot may have known something and may have refrained to communicate it to the pilot for a number of reasons. One of these motives was the cultural problem of power distance. In addition to the many problems that Korean Air experienced, high power distance was one of the issues that had compounded the problem. A study was done among pilots around the world to find out which ones have the highest power distance; South Koreans had the highest scores (Griffin Pustay 40).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Given the above revelation, it is unequal power between the copilot and the pilot in the Korean Air flights that contributed to the crashes. The first engineers and co-pilots are meant to foresee problems before they arise. They should communicate these problems to the pilot clearly so that he may prevent occurrence of a crash. If a copilot places the pilot in high esteem, he or she may not communicate the issue candidly. He may try to go around it, and thus prevent the pilot from understanding the full repercussions of the danger. As mentioned earlier in the essay, persons from high power-distance cultures tend to deliver bad news to their subordinates and positive information to their superiors (JETRO 8). However, the case of flying an airplane is different because bad news usually emanates from a person of lower rank. The co-pilots of Air Korea were required to ignore their cultural inclinations and convey negative information to their superiors (Gladwell 214). It appears as thou gh most of them could not overcome this cultural barrier. If one reviews the transcript of the Guam crash in 1997, it is evident that some power distance issues led to the problem in that plane. First, the pilot revealed to the co-pilot that he was overworked and tired. Thereafter, he decided to a do visual landing before entrance into Guam. The copilot realized that this would be a problem because â€Å"visual landings require perfect weather† (Gladwell 191). The copilot knew that the weather was inappropriate for such an approach, so he should have told the pilot. However, instead of stating this explicitly, he only hinted at it by asking the pilot whether he thought that there was more rain in Guam (Gladwell 216). As the pilot continued to prepare for his landing, the flight engineer realized that there was a serious problem with the pilot’s decision, but he also failed to state this explicitly. He hinted at the pilot that the weather radar was quite helpful. What h e should have said was that the weather was inappropriate for visual landing as the pilot would not see where he was going. Therefore, the pilot should have thought of another course of action that did not depend on his eyesight. Instead of saying this, he chose to use indirect means to communicate with the pilot, yet the pilot could not understand him in those circumstances. These inactions caused the plane to crash into a hill. JETRO (8) explains that a â€Å"subordinate is expected to trust his or her manager’s judgment and not question his or her decisions†. Consequently, they only asked him questions about his opinion on the issue. None of them recommended straight forward actions. The high PDI (Power distance index) culture was detrimental to the lives of the passengers in the flight. It was incidences like these that created a poor corporate image for the firm and made it loose some of its most valued clientele. Furthermore, the company’s finances were in jeopardy because fewer clients were willing to use their planes. Korean Air could have prevented these challenges if it had dealt with the high PDI problem from the onset. Perhaps another reason, of less importance may have led to the crashes. The organization acted as a barrier to communication. It had poor communication policies, which emphasized a foreign language- English. Additionally no mechanisms were in place to ensure that subordinates openly tell their pilots everything (Kujal 55). These were all cultural problems in the institution. Miscommunication has also led to dire consequences in the business world, as well. A case in point was the alliance between Japan-based Nissan and French-based Renault. The two companies decided to come together to do business in a relatively unconventional manner. They needed each other for survival (Susini 239). They decided to maintain their autonomy and corporate cultures but still work together in various aspects of business. At one poin t, the firms needed to share components between each other; this became one of their projects. The major problem with this approach was that either company could have parts that experience delays or problems in performance (Susini 253). Expectations for performance were different in both organizations. At Renault, cooling systems needed to be silent and had a high rate of flow. Conversely, cooling systems needed to possess a low flow rate in Japan. Additionally, the spaces in which the systems were to be installed were quite different. The concerned teams needed to adhere to certain protocols when using the component parts and these were sometimes difficult to explain. The two organizations had a lot of difficulties in merging these requirements. They eventually abandoned the project due to harmonization challenges. Unlike Susini (255) who argues that the spare-part project was mainly hampered by â€Å"technical difficulties†, Treece (55) explains that business miscommunicati on led to project failure. The complications between members of staff in both organizations were created by cross cultural differences. Individuals from Japanese culture are collectivist while the French are individualistic. In Nissan, people used group think to make decisions. It is likely that this issue led to miscommunication between the two parties. Most Nissan employees kept sending ambiguous part specifications to their counterparts, and this frustrated the Frenchmen. Renault seniors regularly complained that it was rather difficult to reach any consensus with Nissan representatives (Treece 57). Furthermore, when the head of the project was looking for new ideas about harmonizing the project, Nissan employees rarely gave differing input. Their ideas were almost synchronized, so the project manager wondered why he could not get fresh input from them. It is likely that this problem came from the collectivist nature of the Japanese. They tend to favor groupthink and will create groups that think in the same manner (JETRO 10). Information miscommunication occurred because Nissan employees told the Renault project manager what they had agreed on, yet the manager expected to get independent ideas from all project members. This mismatch between the sender’s expectations and the receivers’ perceptions brought a rift between the two organizations. When a problem arose during the spare parts project, few if any Nissan employees took responsibility for the predicament. In fact, Renault seniors realized that shifting blame was rather common in this organization. The Japanese are a relatively homogenous group and they use a system called ‘ringi’ to make decisions. In ‘ringi’, an â€Å"idea is suggested and taken around to all the people who will be affected by it† (JETRO 10). When a person receives a document containing the idea, they will make a few adjustments and pass it to the next employee. After passing through al l the stakeholders, the final decision will be reached and this will give members a sense of ownership. The major problem with this approach is no single person will be held responsible for the decision (JETRO 11). While Nissan employees did not use the ‘ringi’ system directly during the spare parts project, they still used the same approach in deciding things. As a result, no one was to blame for shortcomings and unwanted results. The Japanese kept shifting blame from one department to another, which was very frustrating for the French team. It is likely that this problem also led to project failure. Harney (16) disagrees with the above authors by claiming that language problems between the two groups led to project failure. If a spare part needed to be attached safely to a fuel tank, the French had difficulties in translating this requirement to Japanese. Although the companies hired translators for this purpose, it was clear that some meanings were lost in translatio n (Harney 14). Information miscommunication is bound to arise when language barriers exist. Additionally, many of these problems were compounded by the technical language used in automobile manufacture. Conclusion Power distance and miscommunication can lead to dire business consequences as seen through the two case studies. In one scenario, high power distance caused a series of aircraft disasters in Korean Air. This company lost lives, experienced financial losses, lost partnerships, and even tarnished its brand image. All these problems stemmed from high power distance and lack of openness between a captain and his subordinates. In the second case, information miscommunication led to diminished employee morale, project failure, and financial losses. Differences in communication expectations and reality emanated from intercultural differences between Japan-based Nissan and French-based Renault. Businesses that want to avoid such consequences should work on communication and power distance issues among their stakeholders. Works Cited Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2008. Print. Griffin, Walter Mickey Pustay. International Business. NY: Pearson-Prentice, 2005. Print. Harney, Arnold. â€Å"Restructuring Gives Japan’s Workers Culture Shock.† Financial Times 2 Nov. 1999: 14. Print. Hofstede, Geert. Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations across Nations. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2001. Print. JETRO. Communicating with Japanese in Business. 1999. Web. Http://Www.Jetro.Go.Jp/Costarica/Mercadeo/Communicationwith.Pdf Kujal, Sri. Business Communication. Delhi: Vaibhav Printers, 2009. Print. Susini, Pamela. â€Å"The Determinants of Alliance Performance: Case Study of Renault and Nissan Alliance.† Economic Journal of Hokkaido 33(2003): 233-262. Print. Treece, James. â€Å"Ghosn To GM.† Automotive News Europe 11.20(2006): 55. Prin t. This essay on Miscommunication and Power Distance in Business world was written and submitted by user Caitlyn Q. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.