The purpose of this assignment is to try your hand as an international business consultant.

The purpose of this assignment is to try your hand as an international business consultant. The exercise provides practical application of many of the course objectives including identifying cultural patterns, demonstrating how these patterns influence business situations and researching foreign cultures.

Read the following cross-cultural scenario. (adapted from the textbook)

Lily Feenan, an associate in an internationally known architectural firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was assigned to head up a project designing public housing units in Nairobi, Kenya. With a small team of colleagues, Lily spent about three months designing and preparing the schematics for a large, nine-building project consisting of over 200 separate units. The various units were laid out in much the same way that public housing units would be designed in Philadelphia, Atlanta, or Chicago—that is, with two bedrooms, a large bathroom, a living room, and dining area with an adjoining open kitchen. Once completed, the units were rented (with substantial government subsidies) to needy families. Unfortunately, many of the new residents, while grateful to live in new housing with modern conveniences, were not at all satisfied with one particular design feature shared by all of the units in the project: every unit came with a dining room which opened up into the kitchen.

How could local Nairobi residents possibly take issue with an open kitchen design?

In this example, a basic cultural conflict occurs among the parties involved. Using the textbook, Hofstede Insights Country Comparison, GoinGlobal Country Career Guides, State.gov, etc., identify the source of the conflict and suggest how it could have been avoided or minimized.

In at least 300 words answer the following questions:

Be specific and use the language of the course to support your position. For example, is this conflict related to Power-Distance? Uncertainty Avoidance? How do you know?