Analysis Of The Movie Lincoln - 1411 Words

Lincoln Alyssa Allison 26 December 2015 The film, Lincoln, opens with the Battle of Jenkins Ferry at the Washington Navy Yard. In the next scene, it is a dark and rainy night. Two black soldiers converse with Abraham when two white soldiers join them and start talking about the Gettysburg Address. In the following scene Lincoln and his wife, Mary, are in their bedroom, talking about the probability of the abolishment of slavery, in the push for the Thirteenth Amendment. After giving a short speech, Lincoln and his Secretary of State, Seward, discuss the Thirteenth Amendment. There conversation continues as they reach the White House. Then Mr. and Mrs. Jolly from Missouri enter, and Seward uses them to italicize a point regarding the Thirteenth Amendment. Later that evening, Lincoln discusses with Preston Blair the chance of having a peace negotiation with Richmond and the Thirteenth Amendment. During a cabinet meeting, the discussion included the previous attack on Fort Fisher. After a bit of conversation on the attack, th e conversation turned to a discussion about the suggested Thirteenth Amendment. The discussion was composed of numerous protestations from the Secretary of Interior. Later in the afternoon, following the heated discussion that morning, Lincoln, Congressman Ashley, and Seward try to arrange plans to have the Thirteenth Amendment brought up for a fresh vote. To Lincoln’s surprise, Ashley completely opposed the idea,Show MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Movie Lincoln 962 Words   |  4 Pages Actually, Steven Spielberg’s film named â€Å"Lincoln† starts during the time of the Civil War, when President Abraham Lincoln was requiring this war’s end. From the initial scene the cruelty of the war is clearly shown, mostly against African American soldiers. In fact, racial discrimination was a significant problem at that time and that was one of the biggest struggles of Abraham Lincoln, as he attempted to maintain the whole nation as one union. The film describes the situation occurred in the 1860sRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie Lincoln Essay1910 Words   |  8 PagesINTRODUCTION I attended Fuddy Meers on Thursday, October 13th, 7:30pm at the Studio Theatre in the Temple Building. This play was written by David Lindsay-Abaire and performed here in Lincoln by the Johnny Carson School and directed by Dustin M. Mosko. Other people who played a part in this astounding play are Interim Director Harris Smith and Associate Director Sharon Teo-Gooding. When I first read about the play I was unsure if I would enjoy it but by the end of the play I thought it was one ofRead MoreLincoln Movie Leadership Analysis1380 Words   |  6 PagesCommunication 4008 8 December 2015 Lincoln Essay The year is 1865 and the Civil War death toll has risen just over six-hundred-thousand men. The freedoms sought out by our nation’s founders, now jeopardized by the secession of eleven states from the Union. The fate of The United States of America now laid upon the broad shoulders of our nations sixteenth commander-in-chief, President Abraham Lincoln. In a term marked by the burden of complete social upheaval, Abraham Lincoln was our nation’s foremost leaderRead MoreFilm Analysis Of The Movie Lincoln897 Words   |  4 PagesOne of the main points the movie Lincoln discusses is the 13th amendment and the war leading up to it, as well as all the behind the scenes action that needed to take place in order for the amendment to be passed. The movie Lincoln gave me a new perspective on Lincolns presidency as well as his personal life. It is easy to forget that people with a lot of power or fame are still humans with families and feelings. The movie helped show how much gri ef Lincoln and his wife had over their deceasedRead MoreServand and Transformational Leadership1593 Words   |  6 PagesAnalysis of Leadership behavior from selected characters In terms of the Servant, Transactional and Transforming leadership model, what does Lincoln, Leo, and Dr. Stockman do well and why? To start with, I want to write about Abraham Lincoln. Most of the articles I read in regards to Lincoln suggest Lincoln as a follower of the â€Å"Constitutional Leadership Model†. Since I have to write in concern to the three styles mentioned above, Transformational Leadership is the one that fits best for LincolnRead MoreMedia And Its Effects On Society1236 Words   |  5 Pagesbehavior. On one hand, some argue that the information is not processed by the people watching and therefore has no impact on behavior. The skeptics say this has no impact on people’s action, pointing out the fact that people rarely watch an intense movie where many women are harmed, then proceed to go out in public and duplicate those actions. Though I concede that our society does not directly act on what they have seen, the information diffuses into their subconscious. The constant bombardmentRead MoreAnalysis Of Film The Filmmaking World1197 Words   |  5 PagesDirector Comparative A nalysis In the filmmaking world, the different uses of cinematography are endless. In many cases, a director’s editing techniques and narrative are so distinct that one might differentiate the film’s director just by examining its cinematic language. For example, Steven Spielberg uses signature works in many of his films that allow viewers to categorize them as his own. Spielberg, a famous Hollywood style director, was born in Ohio. He kicked off his Hollywood career afterRead MoreA Movie Review on El Presidente1626 Words   |  7 Pagesunderstand Filipino, but then all of a sudden he understood it. That is just an example of the lack of continuity of the script. III. Direction The Director in this movie did a decent job of portraying the life of Emilio Aguinaldo. I said decent because I was quite disappointed with the way the movie played out. I expected so much from this movie, but in every scene, I don’t know if the director overlooked it, but I really am discontented with every scenes. IV. Cinematography The Cinematography wasRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book Future Of Reputation 1176 Words   |  5 Pagesand a route for an informed society to achieve better citizenship. Postman begins with addressing the importance of print media. Feasibly nowhere more significant is the influence of the typography culture exhibited in politics than in the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates. For the audiences attending these events had the remarkable ability to understand long, convoluted, complex sentences when hearing them. Do not misunderstand, though, it is not that these audiences in the mid-nineteenth centuryRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie Crash And A Proverbial And Literal Essay1527 Words   |  7 Pagesresults, mostly as a result of individuals being purely self-oriented and due to a singular perspective on issues. The movie Crash presents such characters and brings them together in a proverbial and literal â€Å"crash† in an effort to show how their self-perceived differences are manufactured and how the characters have much more in common than they originally thought. This movie is unique because, instead of showing characters at their best, like most popular movies do, the characters are instead

Freemark Abbey Winery Case - 1013 Words

Baur Bektemirov BUSF 36106: Assignment 5 Freemark Abbey Winery Assume that under no unusual circumstances (no storm), Jaeger sells 1,000 cases of Riesling. Consider diï ¬â‚¬erent cases: 1. Jaeger harvests grapes in anticipations of storm. Then the total revenue will be equal to 12Ãâ€"1000Ãâ€"$2.85 = $34200. 2. Jaeger doesn’t harvest and there is no storm with 50% chance. 2.1. With 40% chance, sugar concentration is 25%, then the total revenue is 12 Ãâ€" 1000 Ãâ€" $3.50 = $42000 2.2. With 40% chance, sugar concentration is 20%, then the total revenue is 12 Ãâ€" 1000 Ãâ€" $3.00 = $36000 2.3. With 20% chance, sugar concentration is below 20%, then the total revenue is 12 Ãâ€" 1000 Ãâ€" $2.50 = $30000 3. There is storm with 50% chance 3.1. Storm causes botrytis†¦show more content†¦MicroPharma will receive 75% of sales in the U.S. and only 10% from sales overseas. v. A ï ¬ rm receives proï ¬ t for the 10 years after if launches its product in 2003, starting from year 2004. During ï ¬ rst years, the sales are increasing in an arithmetic progression starting from 0 in 2003 and reaching the peak in 2008. Since all numbers are in constant dollars, the total sales equal to the sum of sales in each year. If MegaPharma decides not to buy rights or license from MicroPharma, there is 50% chance of successful Phase 2 and 80% chance of successful Phase 3 (conditional on success of Phase 2), and 100% of success in FDA Review. Thus, MegaPharma has 40% chances that the the compound will be approved. If it passes Phase 2, Phase 3, and Review, MegaPharma will spend $52 million. Total MegaPharma’s anticipated sales of the compound are equal to 100 + 200 + 300 + 400 + 500 + 500 + 500 + 500 + 500 + 500 = 4000 million, total revenue is 75% Ãâ€" 4000 = 3000 million, if MegaPharma is the only supplier. If both MegaPharma and MicroPharma are on the market, the anticipated revenue is only a half: $1500 million. Total MicroPharma’s anticipated sales in the US are equal to $3660 million, and the revenue is $2745 million; anticipated sales overseas are equal to $3660 million and the revenue is $366 million, thus, 3111, if MicroPharma is the monopoly and 3111/2 if it has to share the market withShow MoreRelatedCase Study : Freemark Abbey Winery2635 Words   |  11 Pages Case Study Freemark Abbey Winery Dallas Baptist University Leah Bynum Megan Bynum Harrison Daniels III Brandon Decker MANA-6302-N1â€Æ' Case #21 Freemark Abbey Winery The partnership, which owns the Freemark Abbey Winery, is faced with a dilemma. The winery is located in the Napa Valley region of California, an area known for producing some of the finest wine on the planet. Freemark Abbey is located in the ideal central and southern areas of the valley. The climates, as well as decisions made during

Effects Of Outsourcing On The Customer Service In Barclays Bank

Question: How does outsourcing affect Barclays bank customer service? Answer: Introduction The term outsourcing is not a novel concept in the business world. Since decades now the companies around the world are incorporating the strategies of outsourcing in their business to primarily reduce the overwhelming operational costs. To remain at competitive edge within their industry of operations, companies outsource the peripheral activities, keeping only the core functionalities in house. However, with increase in technological advancements and advent of latest information and communication mediums, the recent decades have seen huge surge in outsourcing of even the strategic services like customer-services. Specially in the banking sector, where the interaction with customers is one of the core functionality of the bank official, the outsourcing has brought tremendous change in the common perception of banking industry. once a highly personalised and customer specific industry, banking is now turning more into a factory-like setup, driven by mass delivery of financial service s. The outsourcing of customer service has its own share of positive as well as negative influences on the company business. Barclays bank is a large bank with its operations across the globe. The organization has to manage the customers from different cultural and social background. Barclays has been using outsouricng to manage its customer service. There are both advantages and disadvantages of outsouricng for Barclays bank. This report concentrates on the literature review of the effects of outsourcing of customer services with respect to the Barclays Bank. The analysis of advantages and disadvantages of the process of outsourcing is thoroughly conducted in this report. Analysis of Literature Outsourcing According to the management literature there are various different approaches adopted for defining the outsourcing. The words outsourcing is formed by the combination of words, out and sourcing, where it literally means the action of sourcing or transferring, responsibilities, work and decision rights to an entity which is outside the company administrations (Power, Desouza, and Bonifazi, 2006). Mainly companies outsource those activities which could be done by some other party with lower cost, in lesser time or in a much better way (Mudambi and Venzin, 2010). Another important definition of the term outsourcing is that it is a process of allocation of responsibilities and risks for completion of certain duties or services to an outside party (Ashley, 2008). In short the outsourcing could be understood as the act of job or function delegation to the third party, with the understanding that it would do it in quicker, cheaper and better way. Outsourcing can be classified as internal ou tsourcing and external outsourcing, according to the extent of control on the performance of the job which is outsourced. The outsourcing is said to be internal outsourcing when there the job is relocated within the business organization in order to ensure control on its performance. The external outsourcing however, is complete delegation of performance of certain distinct or mutually connected jobs to the entity outside the business organisation (Yakhlef, 2009). In the literature of management, there is lot of misunderstanding in how outsourcing is perceived. From the point of view of the external entities, outsourcing could be perceived as the important contribution by external entities and vendors to the specific jobs associated with the core functions of the company (Loh and Venkatraman, 1992). From the suppliers perception, the outsourcing is considered as the supply of goods or services by the autonomous suppliers to multinational companies and its extent depends on the components or the complete finished goods supplied by the separate autonomous suppliers (Kotabe, 1992). Further the outsourcing explains the high reliance on exterior sources for completion of various internal activities that generates value for the company (Lei, 1995). Thus the outsourcing is viewed and defined by various scholars and researchers in different perspectives. Nevertheless, outsourcing cannot be only seen as the function of procuring activity from external sources. It has long term business implications and hence the is important in strategic management decisions. Among various types of outsourcing, the most common one is the based on the fundamentals of substitution. In this type the service or production job in-house is discontinued and given to some external entity. Another type of outsourcing is based on the fundamental of abstention. In this type of outsourcing services or products are essentially obtained within the company but in case of lack of funds or expertise they are obtained from outside vendors. The decision to reject or outsource an activity is one which needs to be taken considering its impact on the overall performance of the organization (Goles, 2003). Outsourcing is also seen as a contractual agreement between a party and supplier for goods or services for the supply of which was being done by the party itself till now (Jones, 1997). Outsourcing in Banking Industry The outsourcing in the banking industry is not a novel concept. However, the traditionally the Information Technology and back end related work of the banks were outsourced. Various banks working in the international banking industry have outsourced their IT related work to the companies which might be geographically across the world from their area of operations. Such as the multinational Barclays Bank PLC conduct all it IT related business by its on-shore facilities situated out of Radbroke Hall, London, and Manchester. Barclays employees its company permanent employees as well as contractual employees for such work. As early as the 1970s, banks all across the world have made use of the outsourcing process for functions which were not directly related to their core business. The functions like, IT, record keeping, clerical work, data processing, accounting, plant maintenance and security. The companies doing the outsourcing work do these internal tasks at higher speed, lower cost a nd with greater efficiency. Thereby ensuing that the outsourcing of industry grows further (O Donnell, 2016). Barclays Bank and outsourcing Barclays Bank PLC is a British international financial services and banking company with its headquarters in London, U.K. Barclays has a universal presence and operates in wholesale, retail and investment banking, it also operates in the sector of mortgage lending, wealth management, and credit cards. The Bank has its offices in more than 50 countries around the globe and a strong customer base of about 48 million. The company maintains a steady record of growth and increase in its profits over years. The management of the company effectively control the operational costs by using the strategic outsourcing for its non-core business activities. Since early 2000s, Barclays Bank started to employ the cheap labour available in India and other similar developing countries. As per the Chief Operating Officer of Barclays, David Skillen, the initial force for outsourcing the tasks at Barclays was the labour arbitrage. This outsourcing provided up to 40 percent of savings when the same functi on was compared to the labour used in the U.K. The early outsourcing at Barclays to the Intelenet company in 2003, included back-office services which were essentially non-voice services. These outsourcing activities were related to banks retail as well as commercial banking. Along with the decrease in operational costs, the off-shore outsourcing of tasks allowed Barclays to be able to serve its global customers on a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year basis. This gave the bank a great competitive advantage. Specially the customers of the bank using the credit cards, required assistance on holidays, weekends and festival times, when the usual working hours of the bank offices were not available or available on higher costs from the internal call centres. Soon Barclays began to outsource some of its tasks related to accounting, technology, finance, human resources, and other backend office jobs to various service providers in India. Gradually, Barclays began to outsourc e more complex business functions such as fraud management, underwriting, and payments processing (Rosenthal and Writer, 2010). The company also outsources customer service specially for its telebanking, credit card and online banking division. The operational areas where face to face banking meetings were not necessary were being outsourced by the bank to various external interties in India and other countries. This extensive outsourcing though has great cost saving for the bank, but because of interaction of customers of bank with the service providers with vast cultural differences. Lets say an Indian executive of the bank is serving a London based consumer by means of information and communication techniques, might give rise to various misunderstandings and confusion. The language barrier and specially accent in the language often create embarrassing situations for the outsourced companys employees doing customer services as well as the consumers too. The point of sales of the c ompany outsourced for customer services for petty complaint handling has also given rise to various issues which dealt with mismanagement, non-cooperation and ill-treatment of the customers of the bank. This eventually leads to loss of business as well as the market reputation of the bank. Thus the outsourcing has its own advantages as well as disadvantages specially when applies to sensitive fields such as customer services. Advantages of Outsourcing The literature present on the topic of outsourcing has recognised various probable advantages of it. Among various advantages most widely accepted advantage of outsourcing is enhanced non-financial aspects like implication on the companys core competencies along with higher financial performance of the company. The firms which outsource gains the higher cost advantages as compared to vertically combined companies (D Aveni and Ravenscraft, 1994). The operational costs of the company decreases by the use of well-planned outsourcing. Also the cost of investment in office, equipment, machinery and man-power decreases because of outsourcing (Bettis, Bradley, and Hamel, 1992). The reduction in investment has the capacity to lower fixed costs and leads to a lower break-even point. The short-run cost improvement swiftly reinforces the outsourcing decision. Hence, it is an attractive proposition for companies which are looking for improving their financial performance, however, in the short r un. The in-house provision of services and goods rises the company commitment to a definite type of technology and may coerce flexibility in the long run (Harrigan, 1985). While with outsourcing a company can switch between different suppliers of goods or services offering the higher cost effective technologies than the previous one. Also, outsourcing enables the company to response to the environmental changes in a speedy way allows for quick response to changes in the environment (Dess et al., 1995). Therefore, it could be said that the long term advantages of the outsourcing exceed when compared to the companies which rely on itself for managing all the tasks. It is also notes that the other than the core activities, all other backend and value creation activities can be outsourced to be done by the companies with higher expertise and cheaper rates (King, 1994). By doing so the companies gets greater time and effort to be put on its core competencies (Weeks and Feeny, 2008). Disadvantages of Outsourcing One of the major disadvantage of the outsourcing is point that the complete dependency on the external sources, which might cause a loss of overall market performance (Kotabe, 1992). As seen in the case of Barclays, while its customer service outsourcing hampered the overall service performance of the company. Another grave issue is stemming from the high dependency on outsourcing is deteriorating innovation by the company which is outsourcer. It is also believed that outsourcing would eventually cause loss of competitiveness in research and development (RD) of the company in long-run (Teece, 1987) as outsourcing generally substitute the innovation. This causes the companies to lack sight of latest technological advancements in its products and services which are outsourced, and hence the chances of future innovation become bleak (Kotabe,1992). Also while the company which is serving as an outsider support gets a deep insight into the operations of the parent company and might in tim e emerge as the competitor for the parent company (Shieh, 2011). There are many other hazards associated with outsourcing. Primarily the chief aim of cost savings related with outsourcing may not be as huge as it looks, particularly with respect to the foreign suppliers. Conclusion It could be concluded that the outsourcing has its own share of advantages and disadvantages. The Barclays Bank has used outsourcing extensively in past. Barclays Bank started to employ the cheap labour available in India and other similar developing countries. This outsourcing provided up to 40 percent of savings when the same function was compared to the labour used in the U.K. Barclays outsourced some of its tasks related to accounting, technology, finance, human resources, and other backend office jobs to various service providers in India. Gradually, Barclays began to outsource more complex business functions such as fraud management, underwriting, and payments processing. It gained cost advantage and also faced various challenges of outsourcing customer service vertical. Some of the important lessons learned by the Barclays Bank as that the it takes patience and time for a great outsourcing relationships. With time the trusts could be developed among the parent and outsourcing company. However, in cases where there is interaction with the customer, a service provider generally has greater chance of giving higher strategic value to the customer when the end to end process control lies with the company itself. In outsourcing relationship both sides have to contribute in give-and-take. With international outsourcing at Barclays on one hand, it was to be able to serve its global customers on a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year basis, on the other hand has to face several complaints regarding cultural differences, language barriers and other interpersonal characteristics of people of wide variety of ethnicity coming together for problem solving. Outsourcing when done for the non-core peripheral activities are supported by the banking indus try, however, the core competencies functions like customer interactions and services must be done in-house within the company itself. It appears that Barclays would continue to use outsourcing to manage its business operations. It is important that the decision of outsourcing should be based on short-term goals and long term vision of Barclays. References Ashley, E. (2008) Outsourcing for dummies, with CD. Chichester, United Kingdom: Wiley, John Sons. Bettis, R.A., Bradley, S.P. and Hamel, G. (1992) Outsourcing and industrial decline, Executive, 6(1), pp. 722. D Aveni, R.A. and Ravenscraft, D.J. (1994) Economies of Integration Versus Bureaucracy Costs: Does Vertical Integration Integration Improve Performace?, Academy of Management Journal, 37(5), pp. 11671206. Dess, G.G., Rasheed, A.M.A., McLaughlin, K.J. and Priem, R.L. (1995) The new corporate architecture, Academy of Management Perspectives, 9(3), pp. 718. Goles, T. (2003) Vendor capabilities and outsourcing success: A resource-based view, Wirtschaftsinformatik, 45(2), pp. 199206. Harrigan, K.R. (1985) Exit Barriers and Vertical Integration, Academy of Management Journal, 28(3), pp. 686697. Jones, W. (1997) Outsourcing basics, Information Systems Management, 14(1), pp. 6669. King, W.R. (1994) Strategic Outsourcing Decisions, Information Systems Management, 11(4), pp. 5861. Kotabe, M. (1992) Global sourcing strategy: R and D, manufacturing, and marketing interfaces. New York: Quorum Books,U.S. Lei, D. (1995) Strategic restructuring and Outsourcing: The effect of mergers and acquisitions and LBOs on building firm skills and capabilities, Journal of Management, 21(5), pp. 835859. Loh, L. and Venkatraman, N. (1992) Determinants of information technology Outsourcing: A cross-sectional analysis, Journal of Management Information Systems, 9(1), pp. 724. Mudambi, R. and Venzin, M. (2010) The strategic nexus of Offshoring and Outsourcing decisions, Journal of Management Studies, 47(8), pp. 15101533. O Donnell, S. (2016) The next phase of outsourcing: Change the bank with digital transformation. Available at: https://www.bankingtech.com/296122/the-next-phase-of-outsourcing-change-the-bank-with-digital-transformation/ (Accessed: 24 September 2016). Power, M.J.J., Desouza, K.C. and Bonifazi, C. (2006) The outsourcing handbook: How to implement a successful outsourcing process. 55th edn. Philadelphia: Kogan Page. Rosenthal, B.E. and Writer, S. (2010) How an Offshoring relationship grew from a low-cost provider to strategic partner. Available at: https://www.outsourcing-center.com/2010-08-how-an-offshoring-relationship-grew-from-a-low-cost-provider-to-strategic-partner-article-37309.html (Accessed: 24 September 2016). Shieh, C.-J. (2011) Management innovation, corporation core competence and corporate culture: The impact of relatedness, Applied Economics Letters, 18(12), pp. 11211124. Teece, D.J. (1988) Capturing value from technological innovation: Integration, strategic Partnering, and licensing decisions, Interfaces, 18(3), pp. 4661. Weeks, M.R. and Feeny, D. (2008) Outsourcing: From cost management to innovation and business value, California Management Review, 50(4), pp. 127146. Yakhlef, A. (2009) Outsourcing as a mode of organizational learning, Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal, 2(1), pp. 3753.

Research Paper on Cross-Cultural Training Essay Example

Research Paper on Cross-Cultural Training Essay Cross-Cultural Training Research Paper Introduction Expanding abroad, a company inevitably faces the dilemma in human resource management. It can either hire local employees and train them in corporate culture and practices or rely on bringing expatriate workforce. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages. Considering the sales workforce, the company will most probably recognize the need to offer cross-cultural training to expatriates to ensure that they can function adequately in a foreign landscape. This paper will consider the relative pros and cons of expatriates versus local hires and outline training and familiarisation procedures for home-based expatriates. Home Based Expatriates versus Local Nationals In conducting sales abroad, the company can choose two fundamental ways to sell its products: Using home-based salespeople who will function from the head office, reaching out to customers overseas; Using the workforce in the area, hiring local people. The advantages of the locals are apparent: they have grown up in the culture in which they will be working and will find a common language with customers more efficiently. It means that they do not need the cultural adjustment that will include training for expatriates. Their interactions with customers will depend only on their qualities, and not on gaps in cultural knowledge. We will write a custom essay sample on Research Paper on Cross-Cultural Training specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Research Paper on Cross-Cultural Training specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Research Paper on Cross-Cultural Training specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Besides, experienced salespeople are more likely to have a developed network of contacts in an industry that will help them improve their sales. The importance of networking in sales can hardly be overrated, and it is imperative that the salesperson can either have it â€Å"ready-made† or can quickly develop it on the spot. This is more difficult in the case of home-based expatriates who will have only sporadic contacts with their clients and limited opportunity to attend local events. The downside of hiring local nationals is often lack of understanding of the culture of a specific corporation and the nation on which it is based. For example, a Japanese hire employed in a US company should have a clear understanding of American business culture to interact efficiently with superiors. For this reason, Gross Hewes (1997) recommend American companies to look for motivated and educated employees on campuses of American universities. These people will be trained in American culture, at the same time preserving connections with their homeland. However, in Japan, for instance, â€Å"returnees,† many of whom are in their 30s, have, will have, or believe they will have, a difficult time readjusting to the highly formalized Japanese way of doing business† (Gross Hewes, 1997). It is to be considered when hiring locals. In general, each nation will have its traditions to consider. In the case of expatriates, it is easier to do internal recruiting, selecting people who are already familiar with the company, understand the product line, and have experience in the industry. However, cross-cultural barriers can become a problem. Expatriates should be given intensive cross-cultural training before their assignments, which in turn can create extra expenses for the company and add to the costs of the workforce. Besides, cross-cultural training may not solve the adjustment problem and takes time, which may reduce the flexibility of the workforce. The geographical location of expatriates in the home office will most certainly be a downside to business as these people will have to travel to reach their assignments. It also adds to the costs of doing business via expatriates since the company will incur costs related to business travel such as airfare, hotels, etc. Overall, the company should strive to maintain an optimal employee mix, combining expatriates with local managers. A Global Human Resource Metrics model proposed by De Cieri and Boudreau (2003) may be of use when determining exact proportions. Training and Familiarisation Procedures Cross-cultural training can include a variety of various procedures aimed at familiarising employees with different aspects of the culture in which they are expected to function. In training, expatriates should acquire different competencies, including stable and dynamic ones, and obtain both factual and conceptual knowledge. Factual knowledge includes basic facts about the history and background of a certain country, its economic, political, and social life. Theoretical experience, in contrast, reflects â€Å"an understanding of how the particular country views and values central concerns such as appropriate forms of behaviors, individual rights, and group membership and its associated obligations, and obligations to the state† (Leiba-O’Sullivan, 1999, p.79). Competencies will include conflict resolution strategies, self-maintenance skills, cultural knowledge, and others. The first procedure in cross-cultural training should be self-assessment. An employee should obtain adequate knowledge of his or her cross-cultural competence and ability to deal with foreign clientele. The managers in this process should get an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses when they interact with people of a different culture. In the process of self-assessment, â€Å"by identifying their attributes, managers can capitalize on their strengths and minimize their weaknesses† (Harrison, 1994, p.17). To learn about their attributes, managers can be required to do a variety of tests that will expose them to this knowledge. They can, for instance, be tested for the knowledge of factual information about a country or conceptual understanding of interaction mechanisms. Training programs should include the information-oriented component that will increase expatriates’ factual knowledge about a nation. This component is â€Å"characterized by cognitive acquisition through lectures, videotapes, and reading materials† (York, 1994, p. 102). An employee in sales will undoubtedly benefit from the knowledge of a country’s economy, income levels, consumption patterns. B2B sales are difficult without the knowledge of legal business forms in the nation, corporate structures, and similar information that can be delivered in the form of lectures or online presentations. Information training is a useful prerequisite for the development of relevant skills; however, on its own, it does not produce skills in employees and should, therefore, be used only in combination with other methods. No less important is training in cognitive-behavioral aspects of cross-cultural adjustments in which an individual learns â€Å"culturally conditioned systems of rewards and punishments that operate in the target culture† (York, 1994, p. 102). In cognitive- behavioral training, an employee can be given courses in conflict resolution that can be applied to foreign cultures. For this purpose, for instance, a cultural assimilator can be applied (Corhonen, 2003). This method involves an offer of several solutions to the same problem where only one answer is correct. For example, employees are given information about a corporate conflict that could have evolved in China or somewhere else and are asked to evaluate the options for dealing with this conflict. In the course of training, they have to select the correct solution out of the choices proposed. It is necessary in this case that the instructor provides explicit answers to the questions of trainees concerning the choice of an explanation. Employees should also be given a chance to experience interactive training â€Å"intended to familiarize trainees with the target culture by using experienced sojourners or target culture representatives to teach from their perspectives† (York, 1994, p. 102). The trainers can bring people with the relevant cultural background into the training room to show employees the details of their cultures. They can recount episodes where culture is especially strongly manifested, encountered differences and answer trainees’ questions concerning possible problems. It is ideal when the person addressing the audience has experience studying both the learned culture and source culture of trainees. For example, a Japanese executive who has long interacted with Americans would be in the best position to address a group of US salespeople to tell them about mistakes frequently made by their American colleagues. Finally, employees can go through experiential training that will probably be most effective as the final part of their assignment. This kind of training will include â€Å"interactive or immersion language training, role-playing techniques, cultural assimilators, and simulations, and site visits or training within the foreign setting† (Chadwin, Sum, Rogers, 1995, p. 517). Experiential training presupposes immersion in a foreign culture in which the person experiences it first-hand. It most closely resembles the real assignments that the person will conduct abroad. In the course of role plays, a person can train his or her skills in cross-cultural communication. A salesperson may find it useful to go through a role play that will replicate the sales negotiations with a foreign partner. Conclusion The importance of cultural adjustment to a new culture can hardly be overrated. The problems in this area frequently contribute to the failure of expatriate assignments in foreign nations. Employees working from a home-based office to conduct sales to foreign countries will also find themselves at a disadvantage compared to local nationals who are well aware of local cultural peculiarities. However, expatriates can often bring in many useful things in the functioning of the firm, having a thorough understanding of business and corporate policies. Therefore, they should be used in combination with local hires, maintaining an optimal mix between the two. In case of using expatriates, the company should provide extensive training to ensure their integration in society in which they will be working.