Cultural Differences

one of my electives this term was "intercultural management" which i thoroughly enjoyed, because the instructor was great (she's 67, born in switzerland, from paris, currently teaching in india) and because i really enjoy learning stuff about people - what makes them tick, why they do the things they do, etc.

which is why i majored in marketing and hr; it's all about figuring out what motivates people and then using that information to influence their decisions. realizing this made me a much better consumer as well.i did a presentation for the course about an issue that happened in france a few years ago. to summarize, an anglo-saxon tourist wanted to get off on the first platform of the eiffel tower, the elevator operator wouldn't let her, she complained, he lost his job, his colleagues went on strike, the eiffel tower shut down for a couple of days. it illustrated the misunderstandings that can happen from cultural differences. you can read some of the article here.

now i'm working on my 'comparison of north american and european work culture' essay and i found an article that i thought was interesting, particularly this part:

"The average American worker gets only two weeks paid holiday a year. As a result, he or she works around 350 hours more each year than the average European. But that's just the average. In many jobs, there is even less time off. Thirty per cent of all American workers never take a lunch break. In many jobs, days off for sickness are sometimes deducted from holiday entitlement."
you can find the rest of the article here.