Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

able to have training in different aspects of life, culture, social and political systemsof the countries. Many mixed companies (40%), go bankrupt in the first 3−4 years(Karrigan, 1987). This is largely due to mixed management, different cultures andvalues systems. On the other hand effective management of multinational companiesneed managers who should understand the necessities and expectations of people inthe different countries. Manager style and motivation methods in USA, Great Britainor Canada for example, will not work in Mexico, Africa or South America. People’sneeds vary in different countries. It is for that reason some companies create “culturecamps” for managers. Within these camps, advisers train managers in cultures andtraditions of countries. These advisers should be geographers. If managers haveknowledge of cultural geography, geography of religion or ethnogeography, it willbe easier for them to establish the necessary “cultural bridges” between businessplaymates. For example, there are many differences between eastern and westerncultures. Individuality and straightforwardness are characteristics of western culture.Eastern culture appreciates belonging to and in society. They think that individualityhurts people and they don’t demonstrate anger (Rapoport, 1990). When businessmenfrom the East want to make business, they asked for the families of their partnersfirst. In contrast to Western culture, in the East to be late for an appointment is nota big problem. In many cultures everything is family, not the prosperity.These are some of the reasons for our thinking, that good managers must havespecialization in geography. Only geography can give them this knowledge. Wethus consider that it would be useful to create a course “Geography for Managers”.There we could include such subjects as: Business Geodemography (Slaveykovand Iankov, 1997), Geo-marketing, GIS, Physical geography, Human geography,Ethnogeography, Confessional geography, Social geography, Economic geographyand others. This course could be developed to suit different regions in the world,such as “Geography for European Managers” or “Geography for Asian Managers”.Alternatively individual courses for specific company needs could also be created.References1. ALDEN V. 1984. “Who Says You Can’t Crack Japanese Markets?” Harvard BusunessReview.2. DONNELLY J. et al. 1992. “Fundamental of management”, IRWIN, Boston.3. HERBERT T, 1984. “Strategy and Multinational Organization Structure: An InternationalRelationships Perspective”, Academy of Management Review.4. KVINT V. 1990. “Go east, Young Man”, Forbes.5. KARRIGAN K. 1987. “Joint Ventures That Endure”, Industry Week, NY.6. RAPOPORT K. 1990. “You Can Make Money in Japan”, Fortune.7. SLAVEYKOV P., IANKOV, R. 1997. “Geography of population and settlements”, Faber,Veliko Tarnovo.8. THACKRAY J. 1985. “Much Ado about marketing”, Across the Board.182