Oceania is a commonly forgotten continent. It is composed mainly by islands; the biggest continental territory is Australia (which is also an island). Nevertheless a common mistake is thinking in Australia as the only country in Oceania, this continent is also composed by Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
In this blog we will
focus as usual only in one country: Australia. On its territory we can find a mix of cultures, mainly accounting for Europeans, Asians and Australian natives. Australian history comes from 40.000 years ago, when it was populated by natives coming from Southeast Asia, but its recent history starts in the XVIII century when Captain Cook discovered it in the name of Great Britain. It became a penal British colony until 1839, and finally in 1901 it became the independent country that we know today. On its beginnings Australia held a posture of discrimination by the name of “white Australia”, but during the 60s and 70s it took a more relaxed posture towards immigration and diversity. Today it is considered as one of the most diverse countries. They defend the key concepts of egalitarianism, openness and individuality.
Australian corporate culture has had a great influence from European models. It counts with a decentralized management with flexibility, soft skills and humanistic values. Creativity is very important and is the result of an individualistic management approach. As a consequence of these factors and the key values mentioned above we can notice that all people in the organization have an important role to play and the managers recognize all value the specialized knowledge that employees at all levels bring to the company. An important characteristic in the Australian management style is that the managers play a very participative role, meaning that they listen the opinions of the different levels implied and let them do part of the decision making process.
Australian style has a high tolerance for taking risk in the decisions and projects, and is able to adopt any change. They value the hard work and the time, so missing a deadline can be seen badly. They are direct in the negotiations and are open to discuss different perspectives. We can see after this the European influence, but we can also notice some major differences that can be explained by the circumstances they’ve lived.
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Class presentation
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