Chapter+Outlines


 * Chapter Outlines

October 28, 2011

Chapter 5: Governmental and Legal Influences
-Income tax -Sales tax -Excise tax -Payroll tax -Value-added tax -Trade sanctions -Expropriation -Economic nationalism -Political turbulence -War || * Different legal systems in different countries: -Common law -Civil law -Theocratic law -Minimum wage rates -Length of the work week and overtime -Hiring, firing, and layoff policies -The age at which a person can work -The right to form a labor union -The right to strike -Litigation -Mediation -Arbitration
 * Section 1: Governmental Influences on Trade || Section 2: Legal Influences on Trade ||
 * * Legal systems regulate trade.
 * Democracy is a gov't system in which the nation's citizens hold political power.
 * 1) Freedom of opinion, expression, press, and freedom to organize.
 * 2) Elections in which voters choose officers of the gov't.
 * 3) Limited terms of elected officials.
 * 4) An independent and fair court system with respect of individual rights.
 * 5) A non[political bureaucracy and defense infrastructure.
 * 6) Access to the decision-making process available to citizens.
 * Totalitarianism is a type of gov't system in which citizens have no influence on the gov't's policies and laws.
 * Theocracy is a type of totalitarianism gov't whose leaders claim to be inspired by divine guidance.
 * Two main factors guide governmental actions: 1) Isolationism 2) Conservative or liberal attitudes.
 * International Taxes:
 * Free trade zone is a place where people can buy goods from other countries without paying extra taxes.
 * A free trade agreement is a treaty b/t countries in which the countries agree not to charge taxes, duties, or tariffs on goods that they trade.
 * Political risks include:
 * Common law is a set of laws based on local customs, traditions, and precedent.
 * Civil law is a set of codes based on broad legal principles.
 * Theocratic law is a set of laws based on religious teachings.
 * Liability is legal responsibility for the financial cost of another person's losses or injuries.
 * Labor laws regulate:
 * Intellectual property is an original work fixed in a tangible medium of expression that can be copyrighted, patented, or trademarked.
 * Three methods for resolving legal disputes:
 * Litigation is a legal process used to resolve a dispute through the court system.
 * Mediation is a process of intervention b/t conflicting parties that promotes resolution of their conflict outside the court system.
 * Arbitration is a process to resolve disputes in which each side presents its case to an independent individual, the arbitrator, who makes decisions that are binding. ||

November 8, 2011

Chapter 6: Economic and Geographic Influences
- Market economies - Command economies - Mixed economies - Skilled - Workers who are well educated - Unskilled - Workers who have minimal to no education prior - Physical - Jobs that require physical labor more than education - Mental - Jobs that require special knowledge, negotiation skills, and creativity. - Gross domestic product - Cost of living - Inflation rate - Interest rate levels - Levels of unemployment - Purchasing power parity - Balance of trade - Level of foreign debt - To consumers - By business - From the gov't - To other countries - Underdeveloped - Developing - Industrialized - Post-industrial || * Role of geography in international trade:
 * Section 1: The Economy and International Trade || Section 2: Geography and International Trade ||
 * * Economics is the study of how society chooses to use resources to produce and distribute goods and services for people's consumption.
 * Three types of economic systems:
 * A market economy is the economic system in which economic decisions are made in the marketplace.
 * Supply is the amount of goods and services that producers provide at various prices.
 * Demand is the amount or quantity of goods and services that consumers are willing to buy at various prices.
 * Profit is the money that you make after the expenses of the good or service is taken out.
 * Two other forces drive market economies:
 * 1) Private property rights - Individuals able to buy land, machinery, etc.
 * 2) Relatively free and competitive marketplaces - Nothing interferes with price or sales activities.
 * A mixed economy is an economic system in which the marketplace determines some economic decisions, and the gov't makes some decisions.
 * Two kinds of natural resources:
 * 1) Renewable
 * 2) Nonrenewable
 * Employee labor can be:
 * Capital is the term for money.
 * Infrastructure is that large-scale public systems and services necessary for economic activity.
 * The term scarcity is used when there is a limited about of a commodity.
 * Factors that describe the well being of a country:
 * Gross domestic product = GPD
 * To calculate GPD, economists add total value of goods and services sold:
 * 4 cycles of an economic cycle:
 * 1) Recession/Depression
 * 2) Rising
 * 3) Peak
 * 4) Decline
 * 4 Stages of economic development:
 * 1) Geographic features
 * 2) Geographic advantages
 * 3) Geography and trade alliances between countries.
 * 4 basic geographical features:
 * 1) Topography
 * 2) Desert and tropical forests
 * 3) Bodies of water
 * 4) Climate
 * Topography is the physical surface features of a geographic area.
 * Cartography is the science or art of map making
 * Population density is a measurement of the number of people living in a geographic area
 * Proximity is the physical nearness of one thing to another.
 * Geographic advantages - being located near bodies of water is one of the greatest advantages for international trade.
 * Time zones also affect international business and how people would communicate or assimilate.
 * A nation's economic status largely determines its ability to trade. ||

Chapter 6: Quick Check pg 146


 * 1) What four major geographic features have an impact on international trade? **

The four major geographic features that have an impact on international trade are topography, deserts and tropical forests, bodies of water and climate.


 * 2) How does geographic location affect international trade? **

Topography is the physical surface features of geographic areas. The topographic features include mountains, plains, and the region's relationship to sea level. The mountain ranges for example makes it harder for trading to occur because it separates the people. There are high transportation costs in deserts and tropical forests than it would cost other people. Fewer people live in these areas and this affects the population density. The higher the population density, the more people live there and this may increase the demands of a certain good or product.

**3) How does time affect doing business with companies in other countries?**

The further away from a country you are, the greater the time zone difference. The date actually changes when you cross the International Date Line. When conducting business in other or with other countries, you have to know the time difference to be able to make arrangements and appointments. You always want to contact a foreign company within the parameters of normal business hours and you have to understand the time differences to be able to do so.

**4) List six types of bodies of water and give an example of each one.**

The six types of bodies of water and an example is listed below:


 * **Body of Water** || **Examples** ||
 * Rivers || Amazon River, Mississippi River, Missouri River ||
 * Lakes || Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Ontario ||
 * Oceans || Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean ||
 * Peninsulas || Wan Tsai Peninsula, San Francisco Bay, Tampa Bay ||
 * Harbors || Boston Harbor ||
 * Inter-coastal waterways || Cape Cod Canal, Gulf Intracoastal Waterway ||

November 19, 2011

Chapter 7: Currency and Risk Management
-Cash in Advance (CIA) -Letter of Credit (LC) -Bill of exchange -sale on account -promissory note -Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)
 * Section 1: Currency and Currency Exchange || Section 2: Risk Management ||
 * * Money is anything that people accept as a form of payment. To be money, it must be an item that has five characteristics; acceptability, scarcity, durability, divisibility, and portability.
 * Money has has 3 main purposes; 1) a measure of value 2) a medium of exchange 3) a savings mechanism
 * Barter is an exchange of goods or services without the use of money.
 * The form of money used by a specific country or region is called currency.
 * The currency exchange rate is the rate at which one country's currency can be traded for another country's currency.
 * A hard currency is a currency that can be exchanged for other currencies at uniform rates in financial centers around the world.
 * A soft currency is an unstable currency that is not exchanged at major financial centers.
 * Currency value fluctuation is the change in value of one country's currency when it is traded for another country's currency.
 * Factors that affect exchange rates and cause currency fluctuations; Balance of payments, Economic conditions, Political conditions.
 * Economic conditions are reflected in four statistics; interest rates, inflation rates, economic growth and declines (GDP levels), unemployment rates.
 * National gov't take two approaches to making sure exchange rates are at least a neutral factor in business transaction.
 * These approaches are; 1) market measures 2) nonmarket measures.
 * Various international organizations that assist countries to create and participate in trade are International Monetary Fund, World Bank, European Economic and Monetary Union, and more
 * The IMF tries to help these countries by doing 3 things; 1)monitors purchases and sales of goods to observe the balance of trade 2) Suggests economic policies that might help improve trade 3) make loans
 * Capital is money needed to establish a business and operate it for the first few months, or to expand an existing business.
 * Ways to obtain capital: Intercompany financing, Equity financing, Debt financing, Local currency financing || * A risk is the possibility of loss when there is uncertainty associated with the outcome of an event.
 * Commercial risk or trade risk is present in everyday buying and selling processes between companies; three types of commercial risks: exchange rate risks, transaction risks, insurable risks
 * Exchange rate risk is a risk that occurs when the currency exchange rate fluctuates as a transaction takes place.
 * A transaction risk is a risk associated with the buyer making installment payments on a purchase.
 * An insurable risk is a risk that insurance companies will cover, including an "act of God" and other less-random events.
 * Insurance is used to cover a few specific types of risk such as damage from fires, weather or storms, earthquakes, and natural catastrophes.
 * Two major forms of risk that are insured in international trade are loss and liability
 * An invoice is a written statement of what was sold, the term of the sale, and other details ||

December 14, 2011

Chapter 14: Human Resource Management
Concepts Review:
 * Section 1: Managing Human Resources || Section 2: Union-Management Relations ||
 * * Human resource management (HRM) - The process of finding, selecting, training, evaluating, and helping employees.
 * An employee or manager who travels to a host country to live and works is called an " expatriate ."
 * Strategic human resource management (SHRM) - A company decides which form of management to use:
 * Ethnocentric management
 * Regiocentric management
 * Polycentric management
 * Geoccentric management
 * Ethnocentric management is the preference of an employer to use its own workers, both at home and abroad.
 * Polycentric management is the preference of an employer to use natives of the host country to manage operations there, but home-country residents to manage in the home country.
 * Regiocentric management is the preference of an employer to employ managers from a variety of countries in a region.
 * Geocentric management is the preference of an emplyer to hire only the best managers, regardless of their citizenship.
 * Finding and preparing employees through vaious activities: (1) Recruiting (2) Selection (3) Orientation (4) New employee training
 * Recruiting is the process by which a company actively looks for qualified people to fill jobs.
 * Internal recruiting is the approach of seeking to fill positions by advertising only within the company.
 * Job-Related Issues - The same job may be performed differently in another country.
 * Company Styles - While the overall global leadership iss the same company's operation may be modified for another country to match local conditions.
 * Language Training - Workers learn a few key phrases (or more) of the unfamiliar language. Ideally, managers are fluent in the host country's language.
 * Cultural Training - Cultural training addresses religious awareness, eating habits, methods of greeting people, personal space distance, clothing, and manners.
 * Spousal Training - Some international companies offer training for the expatriate worker's husband or wife. || * Stats describe general living and working conditions in a country:
 * Gross national income (GNI)
 * Per capita income
 * Purchasing power parity (PPP)
 * Human developing index
 * Gross national income - the total annual income received by residents of a country.
 * Per capita income - The average number of dollars earned by each individual citizen
 * PPP - Used to adjust for the cost of the living.
 * Purchasing Parity Index (PPI) - Buying power is different than a person's salary
 * Human development index (HDI) - A measure comparing the quality of life in different countries, using 3 measures: (1) life expectancy at birth, (2) educational attainment, (3) income, measured by PPI, to cover basic needs
 * Paternalism -A system in which an authority fulfills the needs and regulates the conduct of the people under its control
 * A collective bargaining agreement is the contract created by a union and management that covers these agreements
 * Affirmative action is a program designed to increase participation of various underrepresented groups in the workplace and government
 * Accomodation - The approach toward labor disputes in which unions and management are expected to cooperate. ||

1) Define strategic human resource management.

Strategic human resource management helps define and focus a company. It is a program that carefully plans strategies that lead to the hiring os home, host, and thrid-country employees.

2) Identify three of the four human relation tasks.

Recruiting involves actively looking for qualifies people to fill jobs. Selection involves deciding which qualifies applicant to hire. Orientation includes paperwork, tours, and introduction before a new employee begins the job.

3) Describe the difference between autocratic and democratic management styles.

4) Explain why international business must adjust to local labor conditions and practices.

5) List factors that determine managerial abd leadership styles.

6) Identify factors HR managers should know about life and work in a country.

January 5, 2012

Chapter 15: International Career Planning

 * Section 1: Career Development || Section 2: Career Planning ||
 * * Five key employee assets:
 * (1) work experience
 * (2) Education
 * (3) Special skills
 * (4) Personal characteristics
 * (5) Personal contacts
 * A mentor is a personal coach or counselor who helps an individual with his or her career.
 * Manager training consists of four steps: (1) Setting goals (2) Selecting candidates (3) Choosing training programs (4) Follow-up
 * Typical manager training goals are found in five areas: (1) Technical skills (2) Managerial skills (3) Conceptual skills (4) Socialization (5) Internationalization
 * Superior-subordinate syndrome is a situation in which a manager will "have a boss" and "be the boss"
 * Incremental manager training is a form of training that gradually adds more managerial duties to a person's job
 * Job-rotation manager training is a form of trainign in which the trainee learns different jobs by moving around in the company.
 * Lateral-promotion manager training - is a form of job-rotation training that is enhanced by rewards for the trainee || * Dual-career family is a family arrangement in which both partners work.
 * Four main activities to cope with stress:
 * Placing employees in jobs they can handle
 * Detecting people with stress related problems
 * Teaching stress-management techniques
 * Reducing the stress levels of individual jobs
 * Advance preparations for travel include:
 * (1) Learning about the destination country
 * (2) Obtaining key documents
 * (3) Working with government agencies
 * Basic issues:
 * Safety
 * Living conditions
 * Immunization requirements
 * language barriers
 * Local currency
 * Time changes
 * Other local arrangement
 * Travel itinerary is a document that spells out travel times, transportation methods, and hotels or places where one will stay on a trip.
 * Passport is a government document used to prove a person's citizenship in the country that issued it.
 * A visa is a stamp of endorsement that allows the holder of a passport to enter a country.
 * A work visa, or work permit is an official document that allows an individual to work legally at a jb in a host country.
 * Planning a career involves:
 * (1) Deciding what you want to do
 * (2) Analyzing your options
 * (3) Researching a career ||

1) Describe 5 assets an employee can offer to a company

The five key employee assets are: __Work experience__: The time and type of work that you experience or conduct in your career.

__Education:__ The level of education that you have received, the variety of classes that you took, and the extracurricular activities that you participated in. Some examples include clubs, sports, and extra classes regarding to your career choice.

__Special skills:__ Skills that make you more suitable for the career. International business skills for example include sensitivity to cultures, adaptability, and language skills.

__Personality characteristics:__ Characteristics that make you more qualified than others and will be able to help you achieve success.

__Personal contacts:__ People who help you with your career, they are people who can refer you to employers and inform you about job openings.

2) Identify the steps of manager training

3) Explain on-the-job and off-the-job manager training programs.

4) Identify different career challenges

5) Explain the necessary preparation for international travel.

6) Identify 3 steps for career planning.