Informational Memo Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Informational Memo - Assignment Example There are thousands of small islands surrounding the four main islands. There are a lot of mountainous regions in Japan. The weather in Japan experiences all four seasons with hot humid summers and cold winters. Japan has a high risk to natural disasters including volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis.The official language of Japan is Japanese, but in the business scenes the use of English is common as Japanese include English as part of the secondary education of young students. The two primary religions practiced by Japanese people are Buddhism and Shinto. Shinto stresses a person’s relationship to nature and its many gods (CultureGrams, 2011). The capital city of Japan is Tokyo. The city of Tokyo is considered the most popular metropolis in the world (Japan-guide, 2011). The US Embassy in Japan is located in Tokyo. The embassy’s phone number is 03-3224-5000 and its address is 1-100-5 Akasaka Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8720 Japan (Usembassy, 2011). The official currency of J apan is the yen. The current exchange rate between the US dollar and the Japanese yen is 1 to 78.6 (Xe, 2011). Japan’s has a sound economy that generates for its people a gross domestic product per capita of $32,600. The country is highly dependent on its manufacturing activities. Some of the industries that are thriving Japan’s economy include machinery, textiles, chemicals, and engineering.

Organisational Transformation in Practice Assignment

Organisational Transformation in Practice - Assignment Example The task requirement was to attempt the project in the light of the lectures and seminars attended on the subject matter within a period of 2 months. The project was to be done in groups that were made by random selection of people; meaning they were made by the instructor and not according to our will in order to ensure an even distribution so that all individuals of the same calibre do not form a single group. In my case, a group of six members were formed; two of which were friends already, while the rest of us barely knew each other. Moreover, the team leader assigned was a female. The main challenge was to cope and keep pace with the team members and complete the assigned task within time. Performing projects within the given time constraint had never been an issue for me, but what really served as a challenge for me while working on this particular project was the aspect of working with a team that were I was not entirely familiar with. And this aspect of learning how to deal w ith people I don’t know, which is especially crucial when it comes to team tasks, is precisely the most valuable thing that I take away from this experience. Self-Awareness Despite being a fairly social person, it has always been hard for me to adjust to new people. I always need some time to get comfortable while interacting with people I don’t know. So, during the first few weeks I felt very uncomfortable working with new team. Although, I have a friendly personality, but still I needed some time and space to get along with the new members. The group kicked off the work with small tasks such as role plays and brainstorming exercises; which encouraged us to speak up and to share our view points. These exercise helped us understand and get to know each other. But still the major task was yet to be done. Later, in third week we were directed to start thinking about a Multinational Company that we, as a group would choose for the project. This proved to be quite a diffic ult stage for all the team members as this is where conflicts started to arise because everyone had his separate opinions. I noticed that some of my team members were reluctant to share their viewpoint, while some members kept on bombarding their ideas. The most enthusiastic of the lot in giving their inputs were the two members that were friends already and who were of the view that the group should consider Red Cross for the study at hand. At that stage, I personally felt that those two friends were quite strong in our group due to their affiliation as the rest of us had still not opened up to each other and were therefore, a little hesitant at these initial stages of work. So, my leader asked every member to give their best shot regarding the company, which they thought was the best. Although, I did not like the company that was chosen for our study, but still I had to accept it as I was working in a team, the aspect of which can be related to the term referred to as â€Å"Chang e Management Iceberg† by Wilfred Kruger (Kruger, n.d.). Moreover, the most difficult tasks for me were: group working, and practical implication of applying knowledge and theories to the assigned task. I was able to deal with these two aspects only through talking myself into believing that it’s never too late to learn new skills be it human or technical, and by taking every aspect of that whole project