North America

Canada, United States, and Mexico are the countries that belong to North American subcontinent, which includes total area of about 24'700,000 square kilometers and represents the 4,8% of the Earth's surface. It has a total population of 530 million people and its most common languages are English, Spanish and French.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

It has a total population of 307'656,000 people and its most prevalent religion is Protestantism, followed by the Roman Catholic. The main language is English, followed by Spanish and the currency is the U.S. Dollar. The USA is the forth largest country in the world in size and population and it is driven by a market oriented economy whose main industries are petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace and telecommunications. The government of the USA is a constitution-based federal republic with a strong democratic tradition and its legal system works based on the English Common Law and each state has its own legal system.

Culturally, the USA has always received a high amount of immigrants with extremely different backgrounds, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. This is why it is so difficult to describe an "american culture" but, at the same time, this characteristic enriched the USA with a very complex culture, giving it the name of "melting pot"

Organisational Culture

The organisational Culture in the USA is know to be individualist and competitive. By giving companies enough freedom, it is possible for them to act that way. So they have a wide flexibility concerning decision making , especially to expand themselves.

"Time is money" and results are to be delivered efficiently.

Although they like punctuality, commercial culture tends to be informal giving space for interruptions and suggestions. Eye contact shows honesty and open treatment and Bargain is not very common.

CANADA

Canada has a population of 33'091,228, but although Canada is the second largest country in the world in size, the 89% of its territory is uninhabited. Most of the population is concentrated in the zone that crosses the country east-west and within 200 km from the border with the U.S.

The currency is the Canadian dollar and the official languages are English and French.

Originally a French colony, it is now an independent federal country and part of the Commonwealth of Nations led by Queen Elizabeth II, which makes her the head of state.

Currently, the service sector is the largest in the Canadian economy, which has been able to maintain good macroeconomic trends: high GDP growth, reduction of unemployment and inflation, trade and budget surpluses and reduction of public debt.

The Canadian culture is mainly composed by indigenous, French and British traditions with influences from European and Asian migrations. However, each province has its own unique culture, religious background and sense of identity.

Organisational Culture

Canadian companies have been favoring leaner and flatter organisational structures as they establish closer to population centers. The management style is characterised to be rather informal but decisive and the most important skill for a manager to develop is the capacity to lead a team. Given the Canadian bilingualism, companies need to recognise this in order to be able to approach whoever they need to. Canadian communication patterns involve reserve, understatement, diplomacy and tact.

MEXICO

Mexico's territory extension is approximately 1'972,550 square kilometers and has a population of 11'211,789. The predominant religion is Roman Catholic as well as the language is Spanish. The country is very rich in energy resources like gas, petroleum and minerals.

According to the United Nations, Mexico belongs to Central America, however England, Spain, Portugal, other countries in Europe and Latin America consider it as part of North America.

Organisation Culture

Mexican organisations tend to have a centralised decision making especially within a few key individuals at the top of the company. The management style could be paternalistic in the way that managers look after the workers show him loyalty. The manager should be authoritative but not authoritarian.

AMERICA'S MELTING POT

As previously described, America has received a lot of immigrants throughout its all history. People wanting to achieve the "American dream". The first immigration was European that arrived with the Mayflower pilgrims in search of religious freedom. Years after, the French revolution and the European famines brought millions of Europeans to the New World. And during the 19th and the 20th centuries German, Chinese, Irish, Italian and Polish immigration took place.

However, after the year 1882 the American government started to restrict these immigrations by excluding prostitutes, alcoholics, Chinese people, criminals.

source: www.mimifroufrou.com

National origins quota system

It was established in 1921 and it consisted in letting a number of immigrants into America depending on the country they were born. This system lasted until 1965 leading the way to a new era of mass migration including now Mexico and Latin America.

In 1996 the Congress passed a legislation to adopt tougher immigration laws arguing the criminal nature of most immigrants. Since then, more than one million people have been deported. However, according to immigrant's campaigns, a country built by immigrants will fail to function without them.

There is a difference between the concept of melting pot and the new idea of Multiculturalism, where immigrant keep their own traditions but at the same time integrate into the new society.

However, Samuel Huntigton, Harvard political scientist, argues that the continuous Latino immigration could represent a threat to American identity and presents the Mexican case as the most grave, where immigrants do not seem to be willing to adopt American costumes and they rather feel too comfortable with their own. He concludes with the statement that America is splitting in two.

Douglas Rivelin, from the National Immigration Forum, discusses this statement by arguing that the same could have been said about the Irish in 1924, and it would still had been wrong. He believes that immigrant change America and are changed by America.

References

- "Melting Pot" America. 2006. Available at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4931534.stm Accessed October 29th 2009

- Class presentation on North America by Maria Isabel Cataño, Lenny Yuliana Luján and Isabel Cristina Gómez.