Difficulties in cross cultural communication Case Study

Difficulties in cross cultural communication - Case Study Example 2001). As such, this paper is mainly concerned with analysing a case study that is related to difficulties experienced in a situation that deals with cross cultural communication. The paper starts by analysing the case and this will be followed by problem identification and presentation. The main part of the paper will analyse the measures that can be implemented in order to deal with the problem in an amicable way that is not likely to create more problems. A summary of the major points discussed will be drawn at the end of the paper. Case analysis Leary is the manager of a thriving financial company, Merrill Lynch, and she uses people oriented strategies to manage the company. She prefers to engage the employees in their work so as to try to get the best out of them. She also closely monitors the performance of the employees so as to be in a position to effectively manage them so that the goals of the organization can be achieved. There are about 45 financial consultants who carry out the work in the company. Of notable concern is the fact that the company has an employee, Ted Chung whose primary origin is Taiwan. Chung is specifically meant to target Taiwanese people since this segment is comprised of affluent people who can bring meaningful business to the company. Indeed, Chung brought a whopping account worth $6 million, one of the highest in the history of the company. Chung states that he has to use the Taiwanese tradition in order to attract these targeted people and there is no other financial consultant with the exquisite skills to perform this particular task. Problem identification For quite some time, Leary has noticed certain behaviour in Chung which she thinks is a cause for concern. For instance, Chung is a self centred person and he does not like to interact with others. He does not want to share his things with others and he is also short tempered. All these factors worry Leary. The other problem is that Chung has requested a private office b ut regardless of the fact that he brought one of the largest accounts to the company and he is performing well, he is still too junior to get a private office. Of the 45 financial consultants, only eight have private offices. Therefore, the problem in this case is twofold: if Leary gives in and try to appease Chung, this is likely to attract the wrath of other senior financial consultants who can also demand the same favour. This will certainly impact on the morale of other employees as well as their performance. It can also be seen that the problem is culture based. By virtue of being Taiwanese, Chung thinks that he deserves special treatment since he is dealing with a niche group of customers that has potential to bring a lot of business to the company. As such, a holistic approach ought to be taken when dealing with this case since it can negatively affect the whole organization if care is not taken. Measures that can be taken to resolve the problem identified According to Korac- Kakabadse et al (2001), the difficulties that arise in cross-cultural face-to-face encounters may be addressed with a better understanding of communication styles utilised by different cultures. In this case, it is imperative for Leary to understand the culture of Chung before taking a decisive step. People who come from different cultural backgrounds have different communication skills and this fact impacts on the way they interact with others. It can be noted that Chung is a sort of withdrawn person but this may not be his fault as may be thought by other people within the company. A closer reading of the case study shows that

Effect of Concentration on an Enzyme Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Effect of Concentration on an Enzyme - Essay Example Introduction Enzymes are substrate specific. They bind up with active sites on which they act upon. The by- product hydrogen peroxide is extremely toxic to living organisms cells. Aerobic respiration uses the oxygen produced from the reaction for oxidation of nutrients. Hydrogen peroxide is produced from the conversion of amino acids to lipids and from conversion of lipids to carbohydrates. Enzyme catalase is found in abundance in plants and in human beings. Without this enzyme most of the biochemical reactions in the cells will be extremely slow (Oslo, 2011). The major function of catalase in living organisms is to prevent accumulation of toxic substances such as hydrogen peroxide from accumulating in the body. According to Michaeli’s Constant principle (Catalase kinetics) the rate of a catalyzed increases first during the first stages of reaction then it slowly levels off regardless of how much the concentration has been used in that experiment. This further implies that an enzyme reaction is slow at low substrate concentration because after releasing products the molecules of the enzyme become free. At very high concentrations the reverse happens. In this experiment, filter paper is immersed into an enzyme and then placed into hydrogen peroxide. Oxygen is produced during this process and it is trapped and measured using the buoyancy disk. Time is measured from the time the buoyancy disk is from the bottom of the container until the time it will reach the surface of the solution. The reaction proceeds as follows; 2H2O2 catalase 2H2O + O2 This equation shows enzyme catalase converting hydrogen peroxide into hydrogen and water. Because enzymes are proteins, they can be denatured by high temperatures. They are also inactivated at low temperatures. Material and method used Potato, gram balance, blender, ice insulated ice bucket or water cooler, water bath at 10?, 30? and 40?, 500ml 1% H2O2, 1ml distilled water, 1ml adjustable pipettor, filter paper disks, forceps, 5 50ml beakers, 100ml graduated cylinder, thermometer and 1.5 ml plastic micro-centrifuge tubes. Procedure Six reaction tubes are prepared each containing distilled water and citrate buffer. H2O2 with higher concentration is used. The six tubes are then labeled according to their respective temperatures. The tubes are then placed in appropriate water bath and left for 10 minutes in order for them to reach equilibrium of their respective temperatures. The enzyme is then added and shaken well taking the reading at 0.00. The reading is maintained as a control reading for her remaining five experiments. Hydrogen peroxide is then added and the test tubes quickly returned to the water baths. The test tubes are allowed to stay in the water for as long as possible but taking the readings at every two minutes time interval and the data recorded. The spectrophotometer should be as close as possible to the water baths in order to end up accurate readings and the tubes should be wiped out with a tissue paper before they are placed in the spectrophotometer (T, 2006). Results and analysis 50g freshly peeled potato cubes are placed in 50ml cold distilled water. Crushed ice is then added to the mixture, which is then placed into a blender. The mixture is homogized for 30 seconds at a very high speed. The potato extract is then filtered into 100ml graduated cylinder. After this, cold distilled water is added into the mixture to fill it to the volume. The solution is then mixed properly. This solution acts as our