Cross Cultural Management

Harry Siewe Ngassam

EXAM SUBJECT / GLOBAL BBA EMLYON

Cross Cultural Management

• Question 1:

You had the opportunity to prepare in advance the question 1 and you’re allowed to have your notes with you.

You selected one or several documents that best illustrate the course messages. You must explain why:

- Is your reaction now to the document any different to your reaction prior to the course? Why is this?

- Do you read/understand the document now at another level?

- Does the document implicitly convey the same messages as the course? Which ones? Why is this

important?

Expected approx. 400 words +/- 10%.

[pic 1] 

[pic 2] 

No, it is not because I am African, and I still meet new people who keep asking questions like this. I am a foreign student from Central Africa, more precisely from Cameroon. Since my arrival in France, either at a gathering with friend or even at school by other students, I very often received very cliché questions. Such as “did you saw lions and elephants on your way to school?” or “How did you manage to travel to France?”, which I can sometimes consider misplaced and sometimes disrespectful from people who have never visited Africa.

Yes, these documents show two big clichés on Africa: the assumption that all Africans are the same, that Africa is more like a big country and there are not many differences between all the countries and the lack of civilization of black people, therefore of Africans, and the "classic" cliché of the lack of infrastructure in Africa such as modern house or clothes for example.

Many people think that black people in Africa are uncivilized, that they lack education, or even that they are stupid. Often, we perceive blacks as uncivilized people, rude or even sometimes brutal like a wild animal. "Because only savages don't know how to behave."

Africa is often seen as a huge land of flora and fauna without any infrastructure or modernity. The show “Kirikou” emphasizes in the mind of non-Africans that the Safari is the only way of living in our continent. Some even think that wild animals are walking around freely in the street.

Sadly, a major part of the Western World truly believes those stereotypes to the point they are even convinced they are right. Even black people overseas, such as Afro-Americans, for the most part also believes in those stereotypes because they have only been exposed to images that depict Africa as negative from top bottom. Thus, leading to many disagreements and arguments when an African talk about his country or way of living to someone who has never been there.

Yes, I am based mainly on the part concerning stereotypes which designates the image usually accepted and conveyed of a subject within a given frame of reference; this image can be negative, positive, or otherwise, but can often be caricature. In social psychology, a stereotype is: a belief that a person has about the characteristics of the members of an outgroup or a generalization affecting a group of people and differentiating them from others. Stereotypes can be overgeneralized, inaccurate and resist new information.

In the course it is explained that stereotypes can be useful or harmful depending on how they are used which is very true. In this present case, it is clearly harmful because they pass a negative general judgment on the black community demeaning and denigrating them, especially the African community because Afro-Americans tend to not relate to those stereotypes, meaning that they do not relate to us. It is said in the course, that when we stay away from the stereotypes of a person belonging to a culture other than our own, it pushes that person to do the same. But in this case that is all the opposite and we are therefore witnessing an approval of cultural incomprehension which does not allow both sides to clearly discover the culture of others due to this feeling of judgment.

This is important because it allows to better approach people who are culturally different than themselves. This allows a good coalition between different people, and a better understanding of their culture. The fact that the western world approves and intentionally promote those stereotypes is one of the reasons why there is a clear division between Afro-Americans and Africans, which is a big problem in our community.

The 1st document shows a singular black face covering all Africa, this document is explicit because it represents the assumption that Africa is just a big country, that there is one language “African”, which we all speak and that we all look or dress alike. The 2nd document is very self-explanatory, it is from the show “Kirikou”. In a major part of Africa, our community lived this way and there is no shame in that, but Kirikou is not a show that insist on the era in which the story takes place, therefore a lot of kids in the western world assume that all Africans still lives like this to this day.  

Question 2:

You are on the phone with your friend Sam. After the conversation, you react on each point Sam mentioned (each point is followed by a number from (1) to (14))

For each point, you write a s comment (minimum 3 lines) that you must expand with examples and/or theories.

1. an exchange in 4th year:

It is very unlikely that a student can do an exchange in the 4th year. Furthermore, the exchange is a steppingstone meant for us to learn new languages, discover new places as well as discovering ourselves. So, this is a process that is more suitable in the 2nd or 3rd year but the after that it may be way harder to accommodate to the courses of year 4 while being in a foreign country for the first time as a college student

...