Question

Imagine that you own a mid-sized casino in Las Vegas. You want to open up a casino in Japan. What elements of the national business environment might help or hinder an American manager who only knows how business is done in America and not in Japan? How will managing your company be different in managing your new employees?

Answer 1

There are various elements of national business environment that can hinder an American manager in foreign countries. Some of them are internal and some are external. The external elements include political views, social structures, economic condition, technology available, environmental concern, and legal aspects of the foreign country. On the other hand internal elements include the likes of organization cultural, policy/practices within the organization, cross-cultural differences among diverse employees, etc. In terms of external elements, we know that they are not in our control and hence we cannot do anything much. However, in terms of internal control, we can control various elements and this is where we should focus. Especially elements such as cross-cultural issues and company policies can cause conflict within the organization and thus should be cared for.

Managing an organization and managing employees cannot be differentiated directly. In many cases managing a company means managing its employees. In all cases, a manager cannot handle a company efficiently if the employees are not managed efficiently. However, a company’s management includes various different aspects as well such as finances, operations, plans, strategies, etc. These are also handled by people and thus managing employees become important.