Scarborough, Jack.

The Origins of Cultural Differences and Their Impact

on Management.

Westport, Conn.: Quorum, 1998. Print.

The Origins of Cultural Differences and Their Impact on Management

considers the differences that each culture has. It relates back to my
inquiry question, because according to the book culture drives
behavior. Each culture places a value on different items, for example
tastes for different types of food. An interesting concept pointed out by
the book, is that culture drives self-actualization. Some cultures might
consider money, wealth and praise to be important, while another
considers contributions to society to be of the most importance. This
will in return drive the person who we become. A recurring term for this
was cultural conditioning. In fact, culture condition not only drives
peoples actions, but it drives how that society and culture acts. A
persons identity, the meaning they place on life and what they believe
all drive culture. While not stated in the book, I instantly though of Italy
when considering how an individual drives culture. Italy has a rich
religious history, which was put into place, because of the value a large
group of citizens, placed on the Catholic Church.

Changing topics to how geography effects social development, the

book had a sentence that I found extremely useful. the physical
surroundings of a people help shape the nature, intensity, and

longevity of their values. It goes on to state how the degree of

isolation or interaction with others can greatly effect how a culture
functions. This has a lot of validity to it when you consider something
as widespread as Internet. A remote village in says Africa, probably
does not have access (or cares) to Internet.
In conclusion, if found this book to have some useful information inside
it. Unfortunately the useful information only consisted of the
introduction. The book was created for international business, but had
a short synopsis of the origin of culture development.

Safa,HelenI.,andBrianM.Toit.MigrationandDevelopment:ImplicationsforEthnic
IdentityandPoliticalConflict.ProcsConfOshkoshAugust1973.S.l.:Mouton,
1975.Print.

Ichosethisbook,notsomuchforfindingasignificantamountofinfo,butforsettingan
underlingfoundationformyresearch.Iwantedtounderstandwhatprovokedlarge
groupsofpeopletomigratetoanotherlocation.Inaddition,Iwantedtolearnwhycertain
citieshaveprosperedandwhyothershavefailedmiserably.Isitpearlyeconomic,oris
theresomethingmoreatwork?Wellinshort,thebooksaysthatyes,itisdueto
economics.Astrongeconomynotonlyfostersahappyandprosperouspopulation,it
drivesmigration.Accordingtothebook,moderndayimmigrationisduealmostalways
toeconomicfactors.Thiscanbeharmfultoaculturethough,becauseifitisnot

prosperousnobodywantstostay.Inreturnthatsaidculturecouldbelostforever.This
seemsalittleextreme,butinrealityhowdoweperseverecultureinanothersociety?Also
howdoesthisaffecttheothersociety?
Aproblemthatconsistswithinaforeveradaptingsocietyisculturaladaption.Thisis
especiallycommonamongstnewlyimmigratedcitizens,whomightbeuncomfortableto
certaincustoms.Theymightcarrythesecustomswiththemandthiscouldchangethe
societyinwhichtheyhavejustimmigrated.
Insummary,Ifoundthisbooktonotbeasusefulasplannedorhoped.Thetopicof
immigrationandmigrationoffersverylittlehelporusefulinmyinquirypaper.Withthat
said,itwasinterestingtoseethatalotoftheissuesraisedinthebook(thatwaswrittenin
the70s)isstillviableandpresenttoday.

White,PaulE.TheGeographicalImpactofMigration.London:Longman,1980.Print.

Migrationoccursbecausemigrantsbelievethattheywillbemoresatisfiedintheirneeds
anddesiresintheplacethattheymovetothantheplaceinwhichtheycome.Noticethe
wordbelieve,thisasstatedinthebookisthesinglemostdeterminingwordofmigration.
AsstatedbyThe Origins of Cultural Differences and Their Impact on
Managementacultureisdefinedandshapedbythepeoplewhoinhabitit.Ifalarge
groupofindividualsareunhappy,thatcancreatedadominoeffectandbecomeinfested

ontoothers(figurativelyofcourse).Thisinreturngetspeoplebelievingthatanother
locationwillsolvetheirunhappiness.
Unfortunately,thiswastheonlyusefultopicIcouldfindthroughoutthebook.Thisbook
wouldbemoreusefulforhistorypurposes,insteadofmyinquiryproposal.Althoughnot
touchedoninthebook,Ihadaquestionthatarosefromthereading.Doespersonaldrive
affectimmigrationmorethanculturalinfluences?