Tuesday, November 26, 2019

5 Differences Between Italian and English Capitalization

5 Differences Between Italian and English Capitalization While there aren’t a ton of differences between Italian and English when it comes to areas like punctuation or writing style, there are a handful you should know about in the realm of capitalization. Many words that are capitalized in English are not capitalized in Italian, and while knowing this won’t increase your spoken conversational ability, it will make your written communication, like emails and text messages, feel more natural. Differences in Capitalization Between Italian and English Italian and English capitalization differs in these areas: Days of the weekMonths of the yearProper adjectivesTitles of books, movies, plays, etc.Personal titles such as Mr., Mrs., and Miss. Days of the Week Here are some examples with the days of the week.   Arriva domenica. - He is arriving on Sunday.Ci vediamo lunedà ¬! - We’ll see each other on Monday! / See you Monday!Sei libero giovedà ¬? Ti va di prendere un aperitivo? - Are you free on Thursday? Do you want to get an aperitivo with me?A mercoledà ¬! - To Wednesday! (This is a common way to tell someone that you’ll be seeing them for the plans you made. In this case, the plans are on Wednesday.) Months of the year Il mio compleanno à ¨ il diciotto aprile. - My birthday is April 18.Vado in Italia a gennaio. Sicuramente si geler! - I’m going to Italy in January. It’s going to be really cold!A marzo, ho appena finito un corso intensivo di italiano. - I just finished an intensive Italian course in March. TIP: Notice how the preposition â€Å"a† goes before the month. Proper adjectives Proper adjectives are the descriptive form of the noun. For example, she’s from Canada (proper noun), which makes her Canadian (proper adjective). Lei à ¨ russa. - She’s Russian.Penso che siano canadesi. - I think they’re Canadian.Riesco a capire dal suo accento che lui à ¨ italiano. - I can tell from his accent that he’s Italian. Titles of Books, Movies, Plays, Etc. If you’re writing about a recent book or movie that you just read, you won’t capitalize the beginning of each letter in the title (excluding articles and conjunctions). Abbiamo appena visto â€Å"La ragazza del fuoco† L’hai visto anche tu? - We just saw Catching Fire. Did you also see it?Hai letto â€Å"L’amica geniale† di Elena Ferrante? Ti à ¨ piaciuto? - You read My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante? DId you like it? Personal titles such as Mr., Mrs., and Miss. Il signor Neri à ¨ italiano. - Mr. Neri is Italian.Il mio nuovo capo si chiama signora Mazzocca. - My new boss’s name is Mrs. Mazzocca. TIP: You can use both forms with personal titles. In a formal context, like an email or a reference letter, you’ll want to capitalize all of the titles, like Prof. Arch. Dott. or Avv. minuscole a b c d e f g h i l m n o p q r s t u v z maiuscole A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T U V Z

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Mark Twains A Letter From Santa Claus

Mark Twain's A Letter From Santa Claus In 1875, Mark Twain wrote a letter to his daughter Susie, who was 3 years old at the time, which he signed Your loving Santa Claus. You can read it in its entirety below, but first a little bit of pretext. Twain was very close to his daughter, all the way up to her untimely death at age 24 in 1896, and that year she had written her first letter to Santa Claus. Twain, being a writer, couldnt stand for his young daughter to feel like her work went unheard, so he decided to pen the following letter to My Dear Susie Clemens from The Man in the Moon himself. The story has been widely shared since in anthologies as a cute reminder of the spirit of Christmas and the love of parents for their children, who year after year don bright red suits and leave out milk and cookies to keep the magic alive. A Letter From Santa Claus by Mark Twain My Dear Susie Clemens, I have received and read all the letters which you and your little sister have written me...I can read your and your baby sisters jagged and fantastic marks without any trouble at all. But I had trouble with those letters which you dictated through your mother and the nurses, for I am a foreigner and cannot read English writing well. You will find that I made no mistakes about the things which you and the baby ordered in your own letters- I went down your chimney at midnight when you were asleep and delivered them all myselfand kissed both of you, too...But...there were...one or two small orders which I could not fill because we ran out of stock... There was a word or two in your mamas letter which...I took to be a trunk full of dolls clothes. Is that it? I will call at your kitchen door about nine oclock this morning to inquire. But I must not see anybody and I must not speak to anybody but you. When the kitchen doorbell rings, George must be blindfolded and sent to the door. You must tell George he must walk on tiptoe and not speak- otherwise he will die someday. Then you must go up to the nursery and stand on a chair or the nurses bed and put your ear to the speaking tube that leads down to the kitchen and when I whistle through it you must speak in the tube and say, Welcome, Santa Claus! Then I will ask whether it was a trunk you ordered or not. If you say it was, I shall ask you what color you want the trunk to be...and then you must tell me every single thing in detail which you want the trunk to contain. Then when I say Good-by and a merry Christmas to my little Susy Clemens, you must say Good-by, good old Santa Claus, I thank you very much. Then you must go down into the library and make George close all the doors that open into the main hall, and everybody must keep still for a little while. I will go to the moon and get those things and in a few minutes I will come down the chimney that belongs to the fireplace that is in the hall- if it is a trunk you wantbecause I couldnt get such a thing as a trunk down the nursery chimney, you know...If I should leave any snow in the hall, you must tell George to sweep it into the fireplace, for I havent time to do such things. George must not use a broom, but a rag- else he will die someday...If my boot should leave a stain on the marble, George must not holystone it away. Leave it there always in memory of my visit; and whenever you look at it or show it to anybody you must let it remind you to be a good little girl. Whenever you are naughty and someone points to that mark which your good old Santa Clauss boot made on the marble, what will you say, little sweetheart? Good-by for a few minutes, till I come down to the world and ring the kitchen doorbell. Your loving Santa ClausWhom people sometimes callThe Man in the Moon

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Liturgy Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Liturgy Religion - Essay Example Reading the verses from the Gospel has been a tradition observed by the churches for centuries, where it is performed while standing at the seats, though the Bible is listened to by the people attending Liturgy while sitting on their seats It has frequently been witnessed that churches follow different religious traditions while delivering sermon during liturgy; sometimes, the priests deliver sermons, called homily, by concentrating upon the verses recited from the Gospel (Chadwick, 1975, p.259) . Similarly, many a times, the priests select the verses from one or more of the sixty two Books of Holy Bible to include in the church service as homily. Although the church ministers and priests had established the church decorum in the aftermath of Paul’s first letter to the church of Corinth (Latourette, 1975, p.196) , yet apostles and saints had not defined one specific rule to be applied related to homily. Consequently, both these traditions are followed by the ministers and prie sts at the churches. ... Consequently, homily in the UK churches contains the parts of Gospel already read by the attendants while standing. The supporters of applying the verses from Gospel in homily are of the opinion that since Eucharist is not complete without Gospel reading, and thus reading the same is compulsory and mandatory, continuation of the identical part of the Holy Scripture would be beneficial in understanding the verses already studied en masse earlier. Secondly, it is actually the Gospel, which could be stated to be narrating the sacred life of Jesus Christ, which the Old and New Testaments are unable to give account of. Moreover, being the sum of the message of the Christian Faith, according to Damascene, and especially the good news that Christ has saved mankind from the eternal consequences of sin, that He has overcome the central problem of the world—death, both bodily and spiritual—by means of His Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection, all have been described in the four b ooks of Gospel (2009, p.223)5. Since the is no other source more authentic, powerful and accurate than the Gospel, which could provide a detailed account of the life, sayings and journeys attributed to Christ, reading the same is the best possible way of communicating Christ’s holy message to his followers (Littleton, 2001, p.106)6. For instance, the Bible is unable to provide a detailed overview of the Sermon on the Mount, on which the foundation of the basic moral teachings of Christian faith is erected. Hence, the Christians have to consult chapter 5, 6 and 7 from the Gospel of Matthews7 in order to get acquainted with the sacred message the Holy Christ has communicated to entire humanity. Furthermore, it is Gospel that elucidates his noble mission, astounding miracles,

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Japan's Miracle Economy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1

Japan's Miracle Economy - Research Paper Example This paper will discuss the contributing factors to the economic recovery in Japan after the WWII. The paper will look into the details of each contributing factor to shed the light on the cause of the fast and remarkable recovery in the nation’s destroyed economy after the war. While Japan’s miracle economy can be attributed to many factors, the American contribution was the greatest factor to the fast economic recovery. America played a great role in the recovery of Japan’s post war economy. The US was in a position to help in the recovery of Japan’s economy since they did not suffer huge post war economic damages. One of the greatest contributions of the American government to the economic miracle was opening up trade channels between the two nations. After the war, Japan had suffered great inflation and the unemployment rate in the nation was at an all time high. America signed business treaties with Japan for its exports to the US and the return imports. The trade process was in favor of Japan and it led to a fast growth in the GDP. The US government imposed restriction policies on Japan’s imports hence providing big loans to the Japanese government. The US also sent economic experts to campaign for personal savings and capital investment in Japan which subsequently increased the rate of local and foreign investment in the nation. The American government piloted a recovery p rogram for Japan which boosted the implementation of the new economic policies that the Japanese government had put in place after the war1. The US offered top-level support for Japanese postwar democratization was through protecting Japan by the Seventh Fleet and support of the Japanese export drive. The US government policies favored the penetration of American market by Japanese corporations. The US had emerged from World War II as a major

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Benefits of Employee Collaboration Essay Example for Free

Benefits of Employee Collaboration Essay Within the modern workplace, there is an ongoing debate as to if traditional problem solving or employee collaboration produces the best results. Even though some people see employee collaboration as a waste of time, employee collaboration should be encouraged because not only can it benefit the company, it gives employees the opportunity to grow. When an employer encourages open collaboration with its employees in order to solve a problem, many positive outcomes can occur. In his article Improving Efficiency by Improving Employee Collaboration Brian Middle stated â€Å"Tasks can be completed more effectively since individuals are concentrating on areas that they are well versed in and not in areas they struggle with. † This thought process takes the pressure off of one individual to have all the answers to every problem in front of them. Yes, it is up to the person in charge to ultimately make the final choice as to how to handle a problem, but expecting them to have all the information at any given time is not good business practice. Bringing together a team to solve a problem creates an atmosphere of individual and company growth by giving each employee an opportunity to succeed, and having a more effective way of completing the tasks. At my own place of employment, a lot of the decisions are solely made by one individual on a day to day basis. This individual, while he is a fairly good leader is in no position to make choices concerning my work. As required by the state I live in, in order to perform my duties as a Wastewater Operator, a large amount of schooling and licensing must be obtained. With my job, I must make decisions about what to do when a large amount of rain has fallen in a short time frame. The process, in my opinion should be a combined decision by me, the other operator, and the Town Manager. The operators should be able to give him the vital information about what would happen with each scenario, our professional opinion as to how to best handle it, and then discuss it. This process would take roughly 10 – 15 minutes, and wouldn’t affect the overall plant performance. However, this is not the case. We are told what he wants us to do without our input, and this has at times led to bad outcomes. The mine-is-better habit seems to be the issue within our organization. Working with a lot of older gentlemen, I have noticed that any suggestion given to someone is immediately shot down due to egos. Instead of taking a little bit of time to review all the information from individuals with a more knowledgeable background on the subject, a decision is made from one persons point of view. Luckily, for all major decisions that do not need immediate attention; we have a Town Council who must put it to a vote. As simple as this seems it should be, there are some mine-is-better habits within the council as well. There are many routes I could take in order for my manager to overcome his habit of mine-is-better when making decisions. One of the approaches I can take would be to encourage him to take a moment to listen to what options we have, and how it would best suit him and the town to think things through. Giving him all of the information at hand, even if he hasn’t asked for it plants the seed within his own mind to consider everything before coming to a conclusion. The other option I can think of, is taking it solely out of his hands by involving the Department of Environmental Management. Having them simply explain to him that it is up to the operators themselves to draw the conclusion on what is best based upon the professional standing they have may help him realize that his way is not always the best way of doing things. The town I live in and work for would greatly benefit from open collaboration with its employees. Many of us our highly trained individuals, who take great pride in their field of choice. With so many different departments, no one person can expect to know how everything operates and works within the entire town. Many laws and regulations confront us daily while we perform even the simplest of tasks. Being able to talk to each other, to know how each decision made can affect the other departments and their processes can help us avoid unwanted extra paperwork and fines.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Magical Realism in Seventh Heaven :: Seventh Heaven Essays

Magical Realism in Seventh Heaven      Ã‚  Ã‚   The book Seventh Heaven was written by an American author by the name of Alice Hoffman. Seventh Heaven was published in the year of 1990. Seventh Heaven was a book based on life in the suburbs and the spiritual essence of the people who lived there. The author who wrote this story seemed to make the essence known that magical realism was definitely about these people and that they lived it everyday. Magical Realism lived everyday and will keep living as long as there is life on earth. Wendy B. Faris is an author that has written many stories. During the course of this story, things happened physically and magically that no one could explain    Magical Realism was first thought of within the years of 1870 and 1880 according to Ludwig Meidner. Over the years, many different authors have their own opinions of when magical realism began. Some of these are as Franz Roh, Irene Guenther, and Luis Leal. During the course of this story things that happened and physically and magically that no one could explain.    The magical elements in the story were so apparent. The houses were identical, the families got lost on the streets that they lived on, and they went into other peoples homes; thinking that they were in the right house. The smells of the berries cooking and the smell lingering even after the women had been gone for quite some time is another magical element. Then as soon as the house was sold and the house was occupied, the smell was gone. To have an odor, that had been there for so long seems unreal.    The realist element in the story was the teenager who was killed in a car wreck whom no one seemed to care about. The father seemed not to have any emotions and that situation is what life is like today. For example, a boy walking past the girls; home heard a dog barking and he asked the girls father; whose dog was barking. He said, "Oh it's just that damn girls of mines dog the damn thing won't shout up since she died and I put the damn thing outside for good." Realist elements seem to be real not imaginary or fantasy. The mother in the story seemed to be real, a hard working single mother of two children who was trying to make ends meet.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Analysis and Comparison of Iranian and American Management; the Cultural Dimensions and Values Essay

This report is aimed to represent a brief description of the Iranian management values today and compare the results with a developed country like Unites State. First it will give a description of some of the characteristics of Iran management and culture, then it is tried to categorize these characteristic base on Hofstede’s Dimensions (1980) (power distance, avoiding uncertainty, masculinity/femininity, individualism/collectivism) and Flower’s dimensions, Flower 1975, (tribalistic, egocentric, conformist, manipulative, sociocentric, existential). In the next step will be presenting of relative information about United State and at the end the comparison between the results. Most parts of this report is focused on Iran management. IRAN The name ‘‘Iran’’ was used as early as the third century BC by a ruler who described his empire as Iran-shahr and himself as the ‘‘King of Kings’’. The country is highly diverse from every point of view, especially in topography and climate. The population of Iran is estimated at some 70 million, 12 million of which live in the capital Tehran and its suburbs. The official language of Iran is Persian (Farsi) which is an Indo-European language derived from Sanskrit. The country has one of the world’s most diverse ethnic groups ever assembled in one country: Persian (56 per cent), Turk (Azari) (24 per cent), Gilaki (8 per cent), Kurd (8 per cent), Lur, Baluch, Arab and Turkaman. The religious groups are Shiite Muslim, Sunni Muslim, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian and Bahaii. At the present, Iran is an Islamic republic, ruled according to a constitution providing for executive, legislative and judicial branches. The political system comprises both elected and un-elected institutions. Iran’s economy is a mixture of central planning, state ownership of oil, large enterprises, village agriculture, small-scale private trading and service ventures. All large industries and the majority of medium-scale enterprises are run by the public institutions particularly the foundations which were set up during the revolution. These entities own some 20 per cent of the country’s assets, and contribute 10 per cent of GDP (Khajehpour, 2000), however, they are generally mismanaged. Management in Iran Iranian management today is interesting firstly because the country is slowly opening up to the West after two decades of ignorance on the part of Westerners as to sides of life in Iran other than the political and religious aspects. Up till quite recently, the political discourse was dominated by the belligerent official language and images of mobs demonstrating in the streets against â€Å"the devils in the West†. Now after twenty years of austere clerical regime, the reform movement is gradually gaining momentum, especially among young people who have not known life before the Revolution. Secondly Iranian management is interesting because most people confound Iranians with Arabs, believing that what they learn about Arab countries is also valid for Iran, and this obviously is a misunderstanding. We begin our discussion with bringing some insights into Iranian society and its culture. Based on Hofstede’s findings (1980) Iran is classified in near Eastern cluster including Turkey and Greece. A more recent research found that Iran is part of the South Asian cultural cluster consisting of such countries as India, Thailand and Malaysia (Javidan and Dastmalchian, 2003). For a newcomer these findings may seem very different from the image of Iran as a predominant Islamic/Middle-Eastern country which is often confused with its neighbours. The point is that as a country situated in the Middle East, Iran has many commonalities with its neighbour Muslim countries; however, due to its unique historical, linguistic and racial identities it has a different and unique culture. Collectivism A very fundamental issue in every society is the priority given to interests of individuals versus those of collectivity. Hofstede (1980) views an individualistic society as one in which beliefs and behaviours are determined by the individual; whereas in a collectivistic society the attitudes are determined by loyalty towards one’s group. The manifestations of collectivism and social networking are very common in Iranian management. Personal connections and informal channels seem more practical, whereas formal systems, official institutions and procedures are considered less efficient and even bothering. As a direct result, Iranian society tends to perate rather on the basis of personal relationships among people, than on the basis of impersonal and mechanised institutions. The use of informal channels may imply bending rules and taking advantages to which one is not formally entitled. The popular Persian term for this practice and other forms of nepotism and favouritism is Partibazi, which is a common practice in Iranian organizations. For instance, it would not be unusual for Iranian managers to hire a relative or acquaintance for a job vacancy, even though they could easily employ a more competent but unknown worker. Collectivism has also a significant influence on the communication. An outcome of collectivism is the implicit and high-context communication in Iranian culture. Iranians from an early age learn to be careful about what they say and are advised to use an indirect language for expressing their intentions (Javidan and Dastmalchian, 2003). Persian language and literature are full of nuances and metaphors which should be interpreted in their context and cannot be taken at face value. A particular and very common form of indirect language in Iranian culture is Taarof which can be translated literally as politeness, but has a much more profound significance. In fact, Taarof implies a wide range of complicated and highly polite expressions/behaviours, which should not be interpreted literally. This kind of context-bound communication is very common in Iranian organizations in both written and oral forms. Power distance This orientation concerns the extent to which the less powerful members of a society expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. This orientation concerns the extent to which the less powerful members of a society expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. Results from Yeganeh and Zhan(2007) about ‘‘hierarchy’’ reflect the high degree of hierarchical distance among Iranian managers. Hofstede (1980) considers these characteristic as power distance in his research. The antecedents of this high hierarchical distance are deeply rooted in many aspects of Iranian mythology, history, politics, religion and family structure. Manifestations of high degree of hierarchical distance are various and numerous in Iranian management. A very clear example is the over-centralization of the capital Tehran. Despite the diversity and largeness of country, all administrative bodies and decision-makings are concentrated in the capital and other provinces should obey the resolutions. Other examples include top-down management, authoritarian decision-making (Javidan and Dastmalchian, 2003) and hierarchical structure of reward systems. For instance, there is considerable gap between compensation packages intended for people working at the top of organization and those working at entry levels. Managers consider it normal that people at higher levels have more privileges than those at lower levels. An outcome of hierarchical distance, combined with effects of collectivism and family-orientation is the dominance of paternalism in Iranian organizations, which is encouraged also by Islamic virtues. Schramm-Nielsen and Faradonbeh (2002) reported that Iranian employees expected superiors to help them in a variety of issues such as financial problems, wedding expenses, purchasing of new homes, illness in the family, education of children and even marital disputes. Past-orientation Results from Yeganeh and Zhan (2007) indicate Iranian managers tend to be past- rather than future-oriented. The orientation toward past may be crystallized in honouring indigenous managerial styles and their underlying foundations. After the revolution of 1979, there was much emphasis on substitution of modern/western management by traditional/Islamic work-related principles. Therefore, Iranian executives were urged to realign their managerial styles and practices to religious, social and political values of revolutionary ideology. Not surprisingly, most of these managerial styles were not based on rationality and progress, but on old-fashioned and obsolete views which were not efficient and practical. The past orientation can be manifested also in terms of neglecting plans or setting short-time horizon and also relative high uncertainty avoidance. High uncertainty avoidance means that members of the society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity and thus support beliefs that promise certainty and conformity. Activity orientation (being versus doing) According to Yeganeh and Zhan(2007) , ‘‘Activity Orientation’’ corresponds to masculinity dimension as described by Hofstede (1980). It is argued that in a ‘‘Doing’’ culture, people tend to view work activities as core to their existence, and they attach much importance to achievement and hard work. In contrast, in ‘‘Being’’ cultures peace of mind is cherished and emphasis is placed on immediate and unplanned actions. In reality, it is possible to witness demonstration of both ‘‘Being’’ and ‘‘Doing’’ orientations in Iranian society. For instance, a good deal of Persian literature is devoted to peace of mind, pleasure and frugality. Moreover, affected by Islamic culture, Iranians tend to view the world as an ephemeral step which does not worth hard work and which should be considered as a transitional phase toward eternal life and salvation. While these manifestations correspond to ‘‘Being’’ orientation, Iranians are known also for ‘‘Masculine’’ qualities such as individual achiever (Javidan and Dastmalchian, 2003), militant, hard-working and efficient. Bargaining Whereas doing business always means trying to negotiate the best deal in terms of price and related conditions anywhere in the world, this does not normally in the Western world extend to everyday little purchases. The bargaining represents a tradition that goes back thousands of years. According to this tradition the choice of dealer or business relation is an important one. The tradition is also that you bargain with your usual suppliers. The Western custom of shopping around for the best price and the best conditions is not well accepted. The obvious reason is that it breaks with the golden rule of trust. It takes time to build up a relationship based on trust, and so you need to have a long-term strategy and a lot of patience. Uncertainty avoidance High uncertainty avoidance means that members of a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity and thus support beliefs that promise certainty and conformity (Daft 2003). According to Ali and Amirshahi (2002) results, the primary values of Iranian Managers are conformist. Flower’s dimensions Based on a research by Alishahi (2002) which was conducted through istributing twenty-two hundred questionnaires to a random sample of Iranian managers, the primary values of Iranian managers are conformist, sociocentric. Indeed, the outer-directed values (conformist, sociocentric, and tribalistic) are relatively dominant. This result may have its roots in the political and cultural reality. Since the Islamic revolution, Islamic values have been propagated. The emphasis has been on achievement and human dignity and on societal causes, rather than on personal material gains, in alleviating internal problems. Both dimensions reinforce conformity and sociocentric attitudes without discounting the existential outlook and personal growth. The Islamic regime constantly reminds the public about the outside threat and the need to sacrifice personal gains for the sake of society. In addition, the core philosophy of the regime is that the poor and unfortunate segments of the society must have access to political and economic opportunities. It should be mentioned too that the current Islamic regime condones both conformity and sociocentric outlooks. In an era of transition, managers may seek to avoid uncertainty by going along with the public pronouncements of the regime. Nevertheless, certain values differ across some variables, such as size of organization, ownership, managerial position, and father’s occupation. For example, manipulative managers were found in larger organizations and in the private sector. A typical manipulative manager relies on building a network of friends and supporters, and on careful political manoeuvres. Large corporations in Iran were public or had been nationalized after the revolution. Both have experienced profound restructuring in terms of power distribution and economic partnership. Perhaps this situation created opportunities for a new allegiance to seize power and gain influence. Sociocentric value is found among lower-level managers and those with peasant, working class, and clergy origins. Those with working and lower class origins, therefore, may have developed an awareness of the enormous social differences, and may nurture the feeling of belonging to â€Å"social classes† that have little or nothing in common with upper social classes. Perhaps this in turn creates a commitment to humanistic and community causes and strengthens the desire for a just society. United State management American culture is characterized by high individualism with loosely knit social frameworks. In individualistic societies, people are supposed to take care of themselves and their immediate families. Since individualism is high in the United States, work and accomplishments are viewed as person-centred. Thus, issues of individual meritocracy and perceptions of fairness are likely to be more pronounced among American employees. Materialism, according to Abdu K. (2004), conveys the idea that being affluent, prosperous and rich should be encouraged and suggests that a certain product or service will make the user well off. However, the simplistic approach, like in the USA, conveys the â€Å"just enough idea,† which emphasizes ego needs and self-actualization, rather than just material comfort. Pluralism refers to the degree to which national culture fosters simultaneous coexistence of different ethnic groups with strong identities. In a low pluralism culture, minority groups are completely absorbed by the dominant culture. The minority groups either completely replace their identities with those of the dominant culture, or retain weaker cultural linkages with the dominant cultural group. High pluralism on the other hand characterizes simultaneous coexistence of diverse ethnic groups with strong identities. Both Iranian and American culture is non-pluralistic or ethnocentric. Ethnocentrism means that people have a tendency to regard their own culture as superior and to downgrade other cultures. In both countries cultural differences are unified into a coherent, universal work culture. Diverse groups are absorbed into the mainstream work culture to create uniform work norms, beliefs and values. In such a non-pluralistic culture, minority communities have weak identities and legitimacy. Thus, the in-group–out-group ideology may not be as prominent in non-pluralistic cultures as in pluralistic culture. Rather than compete with minority cultures, the dominant culture aims at absorbing the minority cultures. Ethnocentrism within a country makes it difficult for foreign firms to operate. Based on a research by Alishahi (2002), prevailing dominant values in the U. S. are, (egocentric, manipulative, and existential; 60% inner-directed). United state is characterized by low power distance a relatively high tolerance for uncertainty and emphasizes shared power and authority, with team members working on a variety of problems without formal guidelines, rules, and structure. Many workers in Iran expect organizations to be hierarchy.