Ethical Issues in my Profession:
Ethical Issues in My Profession: Recently there have been many companies moving their business manufacturing to China because of the less expensive labor. This seems like a very good business move for these companies from an American businessman’s standpoint but from China’s point of view it is not. From what we saw of China businesses they seem very similar to those in America but we didn’t get the full view. In China, the average workers wage is tremendously lower than American’s for the same hours and work. The working conditions aren’t better either. Recently there has been news of one Chinese electronic company that had such poor working conditions and wages that their workers were committing suicide on the job. After ten workers took their lives, the company finally decided to increase wages up 70 percent. You don’t hear of incidents like this happening in America. However on the other side, China is quickly growing to become more environmentally friendly with some of their businesses such as Tsinghua Solar. I just wish that America would learn from this and help adopt these ideas of using solar energy. Another difference we saw in Chinese profession was with Capital Bio. Capital Bio had living quarters so that workers would be able to devote more time to working and then just walk to the next building to sleep for a little. That is different from America because we tend to keep our personal and professional lives very separate. With all these differences I think an American company could make a lot more money producing the same materials in China and selling them in America, however this means a loss of American jobs in a time when we need them the most.
Educational Breadth as Professional Development:
Educational Breadth as Professional Development: I believe that the need for a broad education necessary to understand the impact of business solutions in a global and societal context is very important because it not only helps companies develop new solutions and products by sharing ideas but also helps unite the markets into one. I also believe that there are enough differences between China and the United States that students should expand their classroom experience to include learning about China. They are an entirely different country from ours and one I find extremely interesting. They are also quickly growing to become a international leader in the business world. For me personally, I decided to take the Chinese language because I want to go into international business, especially with China, because of the different opportunities it has to offer that America cannot. If the American economy in going to continue to be in such bad shape, and the Chinese economy is going to continue to grow it only makes sense to try and become a part of that growth while you can. In the future I plan to continue to take Chinese, along with more international business courses and a few Chinese cultural courses so that I can better understand why they do what they do.
Lifelong Learning:
Lifelong Learning, Continuing Education as Professional Development: In China the education standards are a lot stricter than in America. While there we learned of how many hours Chinese students put into studying for their one test to get into college. Some even start studying as early as ninth grade for a test they will take four years later. And when they start studying, it isn’t just looking over some things for an hour; some are up until 4am every night studying. Once they get into a school they begin learning the skills that they will need for the job they get into. However most of the time they can’t learn everything they need while in school. The education is a lifelong experience for them because as new technologies emerge they must learn these new technologies in order to keep up just as one would need to in America. I believe there is a need to engage in lifelong learning in order to compete in the future because it gives you the ability to keep up to date and stay on top of all the changes so that you can be a top seller of your product. In America another way to do this besides learning through your career would be to receive an MBA or a more specialized degree.
Social Environment:
In China, as I discussed earlier, we saw the connection between ones professional life and personal life in that at Capital Bio, some workers actually lived on site. However besides Capital Bio I did not see many other connections between the two besides that they were very dedicated to what they do and that they took pride in their jobs. We also learned that many Chinese people do keep up to date about the social and political issues in America. For one social, they are very big NBA fans and enjoying watching that along with other American sports and movies. We also learned that while studying, many of them also kept up to date with American news and events through NBC and the internet. However I believe it does not go the same with America. Unless they have a very severe incident or a well published event, we do not tend to keep up to date with Chinese news. While we were in China, a lot of what was covered on the news was the recent school killings. I believe it is important to have the knowledge of contemporary issues related to the global economy because we can learn from each other’s mistakes and success. A lot of economic issues are involved within business on a global scale because of trade and having production done internationally. It affects like and business in the United States in that jobs are moving overseas or being replaced and also that the power of being the world’s top economy is slowly beginning to change from America to China.
Functioning on a Multi-Disciplinary Team:
Functioning on Multi-Disciplinary Teams: Engineering and businesses students are thought to be very different types of students. We have different ways of looking at assignments or looking at problems and finding a way to solve them. Going into this trip I was very skeptical as to how well we would all be able to work together but I was proven wrong very quickly. When working together we first had to develop a form of effective communication and strategy. For me since I am in business I like to take the lead in order to get the ball moving and make sure everyone gets together and does their part. Once we were together we were able to divide up the topics to whoever’s professional area that covered. I believe that working with others in a different field and becoming a team with the engineers was very easy because they are extremely hard working and dedicated students. We did not have any problems in maintain effective communication throughout the trip, especially when we were on our company tour. We decided who was going to ask which questions, who was going to take notes and who was going to take pictures. All in all working in this cross-functional team was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.