Assignment 2
Assignment Summary:-
The assignment briefs about how Sarah James, a student doing her International Major at Palm Lakes University (PLU), spend the summer at the Mexican Business School – Instituto De Negocios Internacionales (INI), faced cross cultural issues during the stay n Mexico at her host family. In an email to Dr. Jiminez, the Director of International recruitment for the Mexican University, she expresses her opinion on the learning and the problems she faced at with her host family. In the email the reader gets an impression that Sarah has negated the positive images Professor W.A. McGill of PLU and Dr.Jiminez of INI had about her. This case study emphasis the relevance of Hofstede Studies.
Through analysis of this case, we are required to address certain questions.
1. Should Sarah have moderated her diet to accommodate her host family?
Sarah is from USA, which has a high score of individualism ranking at 91. High scoring under “individualism parameter” indicates higher importance to their time, need for freedom and respect for privacy. This could be sensed from her mail to her professors complaining about the issues related to food she had at her host family. Most Americans see themselves as separate individuals, autonomous and self-reliant not as representatives of a family, community or other group. They dislike being dependent on other people or having other people be dependent on them. Some people from other countries view this attitude as selfish; others view it as a healthy freedom from the constraints of ties to family, clan or social class.
Sarah is a vegetarian and likes privacy in the matter of food. Hence she is offended about the comments by her family on her not eating meat and also caring too much about her special dietary needs. Sarah has every night to control her diet as she likes. However, she should not be offended about the opinions of others