This assignment is designed to integrate the reflection of personal experience and the information covered in the textbook. Assuming you are Ludmilla responding to a recent email from Juanita, answer the following questions:

It has been a year since Juanita finished her degree and about two years since she has been promoted to HR Director status. As part of her training her boss has offered to send her to their HQ in Uzbekistan for one year. The office is staffed with several Americans and English speaking Uzbeks. She has spent some time studying the people and culture and thinks this will be an “adventure of a lifetime”. Of course, she knows that it will be a very different world for her. She intends to be a student of the culture and apply all that she has learned in the last few years.

Juanita has asked for a week to do research on the culture and how it has impacted the way their organization fulfills their mission. This is a former Soviet country that is populated with mostly Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Uzbeks and Tajiks. She has learned that they think of themselves as European but are primarily Muslim in their religious beliefs but motivated by pursuing material wealth.

As she contemplates how little she knows about this country and its people, some anxiety begins to creep in along with the excitement of the challenge of the unknown. To ensure she is reasonably well prepared before she goes, she decides to communicate with the Uzbek Director, Ludmilla Kovalenko.

Ludmilla, is Ukranian and has offered to provide her insights into the areas Juanita is interested in. In her first email she told Ludmilla that she will be sending some emails with questions related to the cultural context and other issues that may impact how work gets done and the mission accomplished.