Cross Cultural Perspectives
Cross Cultural Perspectives: Microsoft
Daniel St.Germain
Eth 316
June 25, 2013
Darci Drury
Cross Cultural Perspectives: Microsoft
This is the age of globalization. All across the world boundaries of culture, class, and country are traversed like so many steps taken to one’s mailbox. In this essay there will be discussion of one company, namely Microsoft, and the subsequent issues it faced in light of being a global organization. In addition, there will also be discussion of what a business can do to maintain ethical and social responsibility not only at home but abroad. “With the increasing globalization of business, more managers are finding themselves in an international environment full of ethical challenges. If managing for ethics and social responsibility is a challenge in one’s own culture, imagine how the difficulties multiply when the culture and language are foreign, the manager is under increased stress, and the number of stakeholders grows enormously” (Trevino, 2011). By 1995 Microsoft was a juggernaut in the global economy. The term windows was synonymous for personal and business computers the world over. Money was being raked in by the handfuls and had been so doing for many years. But as stated above, when dealing with different cultures, one miss-step can set you back a mile or millions, as it were. “When coloring in 800,000 pixels on a map of India, Microsoft colored eight of them a different shade of green to represent the disputed Kashmiri territory. The difference in greens meant Kashmir was shown as non-Indian, and the product was promptly banned in India. Microsoft was left to recall all 200,000 copies of the offending Windows 95 operating system software to try and heal the diplomatic wounds. ‘It cost millions,’ Edwards said” (Best, 2013). This is one example of cultural ineptitude that cost Microsoft millions; however, this wasn’t the only time they were caught with their pants down, so to speak. “Another
Daniel St.Germain
Eth 316
June 25, 2013
Darci Drury
Cross Cultural Perspectives: Microsoft
This is the age of globalization. All across the world boundaries of culture, class, and country are traversed like so many steps taken to one’s mailbox. In this essay there will be discussion of one company, namely Microsoft, and the subsequent issues it faced in light of being a global organization. In addition, there will also be discussion of what a business can do to maintain ethical and social responsibility not only at home but abroad. “With the increasing globalization of business, more managers are finding themselves in an international environment full of ethical challenges. If managing for ethics and social responsibility is a challenge in one’s own culture, imagine how the difficulties multiply when the culture and language are foreign, the manager is under increased stress, and the number of stakeholders grows enormously” (Trevino, 2011). By 1995 Microsoft was a juggernaut in the global economy. The term windows was synonymous for personal and business computers the world over. Money was being raked in by the handfuls and had been so doing for many years. But as stated above, when dealing with different cultures, one miss-step can set you back a mile or millions, as it were. “When coloring in 800,000 pixels on a map of India, Microsoft colored eight of them a different shade of green to represent the disputed Kashmiri territory. The difference in greens meant Kashmir was shown as non-Indian, and the product was promptly banned in India. Microsoft was left to recall all 200,000 copies of the offending Windows 95 operating system software to try and heal the diplomatic wounds. ‘It cost millions,’ Edwards said” (Best, 2013). This is one example of cultural ineptitude that cost Microsoft millions; however, this wasn’t the only time they were caught with their pants down, so to speak. “Another
References: Best, J. (2013, May). How eight pixels cost Microsoft Millions. Retrieved from http://news.cent.com Trevino, L. K. (2011). Managing Business Ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. (5th ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons Inc..