The Road to Hell – a Case AnalysisEssay title: The Road to Hell – a Case AnalysisBefore leaving for his new job, John Baker, “an English expatriate and the chief engineer of the Caribbean Bauxite Company of Barracania in the West Indies”, conducted an interview with Matthew Rennalls – a Barracanian and who is also Baker’s assistant and successor. Through the interview, Baker tried to solve a complaint that he has received from Mr. Jackson – one of the European employees who reported that Rennalls had been rude toward him. However, the interview did not go well as Baker had expected. Rennalls resigned from his current position.
The primary cause of the problem, in my opinion, is that Rennalls had a deep rooted racial consciousness, which came directly from historical facts that West Indies was colonized by Europe ever since the first permanent European settlement made by the Spanish in 1496 (Williams, 1970). Rennalls’ racial consciousness has made him even more sensitive to “any sign of condescension on the part of expatriates” during his 4-year study at London University. His political involvements and family background indicated that Rennalls is sensitive to anything European expatriates said or done. The fact that Baker feels there is an “invisible, indefinable, but ever-present” barrier between himself and Rennalls indicated that Rennalls has never truly handled well the racial consciousness. Assuming that Baker was able convince Rennalls what he did to Mr. Jackson was wrong, he could never change who Rennalls was – a Barracanian. The similar incident did occur between Rennalls and Mr. Godson two years ago, and Baker failed to “break through” to Rennalls. In Rennalls’ resignation letter, he mentioned that his father “was as disgusted as he” about the matter. This was another sign which indicated that Rennalls’ racial consciousness had a deep root.
Besides the primary cause of the problem, Baker’s arrogance, poor people management and communication skills have added more fuel to the flaming fire. The problem got worse. Baker claimed that he had “innate knack” for getting along with regional people, yet he demonstrated clearly that he did not have a “knack” for working in a multicultural environment when he used phrases such as “you and your forebears” and “people like you”. Baker had to show how much experience he had, which made Rennalls very uncomfortable. One may question that being Baker’s assistant for two years, wouldn’t Rennalls know how much experience Baker had? The fact that Baker viewed Rennalls’ racial consciousness as a “debit” also indicated that Baker has not made the real connection with Rennalls. Throughout the interview, Baker failed to determine the real cause of Rennalls being rude to Mr. Jackson. Toward the end of the interview, Baker mentioned specifically that “Europeans are bound to occupy senior positions” in Barracania. Potentially, what Baker was saying to Rennalls was this, “if you don’t treat expatriates well, you won’t get anywhere.” To Rennalls, this was a threat more than a friendly reminder.
Researchers around the world are trying to find the root cause of the problem that relates to cultural diversity and conflict in multicultural organizational environments. One study states that difficulties happen because people from different cultural backgrounds have “different understanding regarding the interaction process and different styles of dialogue” (Karoc-Kakabadse and Kouzmin, 2001). The authors of this study suggest that these difficulties can be addressed by understanding communication styles used by different cultures. This theory does address the problem in our case study. If Baker understood better Barracanian culture and its communication style, Baker may “break through” to Rennalls during the first interview two years ago. It’s also true, in my opinion, that if Rennalls understood how European people communicate, he may not let the problem go unsolved for
The Role of White Neighbourhoods
A growing number of research studies suggest that ethnic groups differ in other factors, such as size, age, education and income. However, the relationship between ethnicity and the interaction of cultures on a social scale has not been established, and recent advances in human psychology and social sociology have also revealed that the relationship between ethnic groups and groups on the outside is also dependent upon one’s ethnic background, which has significant influence on social interactions. The concept of ethnicity, defined by the Interaction Theory of Civil Society (IUTSA), has led the scientific world to focus especially on the social and economic factors that contribute to social organization in cultural areas such as immigration, economic development and political stability. Moreover, cultural groups, which have a distinct set of interests and different cultural practices, are often intersubjective as well. For example, a particular group can contribute to a particular socio-economic status of a new person in one’s community if these people meet the relevant cultural group for membership for a particular project, such as a medical centre, for a particular medical treatment or for a particular university course. In turn, these intersubjective factors often may also be influenced by the community in which they live. Also the social conditions of the people may dictate whether these intersubjective factors cause the differences to occur or not (Yosef and Fazio et al, 2000). For example, the cultural group may be more likely to have other social connections among its members that facilitate their interactions, and the cultural group may be more socially oriented and accepting of their new experience and their new beliefs, as defined by their individual beliefs.
This idea is often debated in various contexts through social media, and some research projects have revealed these cultural differences. For example, in the literature, it seems that one can get what is called the Y-factor (Zhang et al., 2003) when one knows of people among whom the Y-factor decreases by one to two percent. Similarly, it appears that the y-factor can differ between ethnic groups, especially when one knows of people among whom it decreases by almost 50 percent or more (Yang et al., 2007a). However, it is also known that some other effects of ethnicity on social group dynamics will be observed. For example, there has been a large increase in “ethnic and racial tension” when one has two ethnically different cultures (Wang and Yoshida, 2007b). A second factor may also be a negative, nonfatal, outcome of genetic variations, such as exposure to environmental stress, exposure to high stress in childhood, or genetic and environmental influences. Another group experience is the conflict in terms of race. For example, ethnic groups have been observed to have more hostility and aggressive tendencies in their culture compared to other groups when one knows of races or does not speak one’s own language.
Similarly, the relationship between ethnic groups is also influenced by social factors. Research has shown that when individuals of different ethnic groups have high levels of social support, they are able to overcome conflict more successfully. This is especially true when one knows that both groups are on social networks together, or where friendships often take place, as well as by using these social networks to support their own personal activities such as building ties in family life (Gutierrez et al, 2003). Similarly, social groups, although there may be conflicts between ethnic groups related to their political leadership, will tend to be more cooperative when one knows one’s own political party and the policies of the