Urban Cultures

Abstract

For those of us located within the United States, we often take or granted the nornal day to day business operations. Though the United States has a mix of several distict cultures, most companies operate in the same manner. In fact, Americans often make the mistake of assuming that standard business models are the norm in other countries as well. For the corporate executive charged with creating an overseas operation, lack of local culture understanding and its influence on business methods will most likely result in greater start-up difficulties

if not complete faliure.

This paper hopes to develop a better awareness of various cultures and their influence on business methods and models. It will focus on the challenges in dealing with people from two different countries, Moroco and Pakistan, and offer some insight as to developing solutions to cultural differences.

Literature Review

Several sources of information were used in drafting this report. Due to the internet I was able to obtain current articles on both countries. Also, I even went so far as to log onto chat rooms specifically created for and attended by Pakistanis and Moroccans. There I asked questions regarding the motovations, beliefs, and values of the people from both countries. The repose was positive

in that Moroccans and Pakistanis were more tham happy to answer my questions. Both parties seemed to be very nationalistic and pround of their countries. It is interesting to note that most of the people I was chating with were expatriots, most of whom are located on the United States. Though I found the chat rooms an interesting place to speak with Pakistanis and Moroccans, the information I gathered was limited. I attribute this to chat room formats that only allow a person to respond with short sentences. I later found a Pakistani chat room that allowed real time voice data transmission (www.pakison.com) which functioned like a two way radio. There people were able to express their thought and opinions regarding their home countries in more detail. The next couple of sections will detail the main differences between the cultures of Morocco and Pakistan.

As I was conducting my research

on the two nations I quickly came to the conclusion that Morocco and Pakistan are more similar to each other than they are different. Though they have many commonalities, this does not mean that the challenges are any less for the international manager. The next couple of paragraphs will provide informaiton on the similarities of both nations and the potential challenges the international manager may face in each nation.

The most obvious similarity is that both nations are dominated my the Muslim faith. Pakistan's population is 97% Muslim and Morocco is 98% Muslim. This poses specific issues and challenges for the internatinal manager. Muslins view the world differntly. For example, during an annual pilgrimage to the Muslim holy city of Mecca in 1990, a tunnel collapsed. Over 1,400 pilgrims were crushed to death in the panic. Saudi officials insisted that "the will of God" rather than sabotage or incompetence was responsible (Mead p.24). What conclusions can the international manager draw from such a response? If a company is lacking in sales and bankruptcy

is on the horizon will the Muslim worker throw his/her hands in the air claiming that "it is the will of God"? Will the Muslin worker believe that the company in question was destine to fail anyway? Another potential problem for the international manager is that Muslims must pray to Mecca five times per day. If one is managing a factory where workers needs to be on the factory line as much as possible the ritual of prayer may become a significant problem as production will suffer. A factory manager form Japan or China assigned to manage a factory in a Muslim nation such as Pakistan or Morocco would have the most potential