Managing Change and Conflict

In todays business world, it is very easy to find cross-cultural settings in many companies; people from all types of countries sitting together at a meeting or discussing the future of the company, but what happens when cultures collide and people find themselves trapped in a conflict situation?

On this blog, I will try to give some examples of other alternatives that might be effective when dealing with conflict situation, different from talking or the use of visual aids.

1

• Simply Listen: as we have seen in many courses and probably in our personal lives (including work experiences), I think that the majority of the conflicts that arise in a company are because the manager, the CEOs or the people in charge dont even take the time to listen to their employees; they arent aware if they are sick, if they are having personal problems, if there family is ok, and son, they only see their employees (most of the time) as any other asset that has to make money for the company. As a personal experience, I had the chance to work in a cake factory, where the CEO was an uneducated man who had a lucky shot in life. He every single day entered the office and gave the "good morning" to everyone, but he never took the time to ask his employees (and their were only 20 employees by the way) how they felt or what was going on in  their lifes. As a consequence, many of them quitted claiming mistreatment and the others work because they really need the money; was does this translate for the owners? a sad employee is a nonproducent employee (as we have seen, employees who are happy and motivated with their jobs tend to do better perfomance). So whats the message for the CEOs of a company: TAKE THE TIME TO LISTEN TO YOUR EMPLOYEES, THIS WILL PROBABLY ATTACK A CONFLICT AT ITS ROOTS.

2

3

• Avoidance: some times, conflicts arise for stupid reasons or no reasons at all; inproper comments, a bad look, envy, jealousy, and so on can be the triggers to launch a conflict. In this case, it would be proper to keep an open mind and analyze everything before reacting (COGITO ERGO SUM, Descartes), that way, conflicts can be avoided at all costs. How can a CEO or a manager intervene in this? probably by turning fellow employees into FRIENDS, that way, they can integrate more and avoid resentment towards others.
• Measure Emotion Properly: even before thinking of involving some type of emotion into a work area, try to analyze and forecast what could be the probable results that can come from that. Sometimes conflict can arise because one party sees the other one as to cold or to mellow, so things start to escalate.

As a final conclusion, I think that talking can solve it all; maybe it can sometimes be a mistake and things could get resolved better by using other means, but solutions can also be obtained by simply discussing things out. It doesnt mean that we have to talk just to do it, we have to thnik hard what is the proper thing to say.

Bibliography

• Tourims Curriculum Framework, 2002. Deal with conflict situations. Accessed on 29/03/2011. http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/tourismb2003/THHGCS03B.pdf

• Bellafiore, Donna. Interpersonal conflict and effective comunication. DRB Alternatives, inc. Accessed on 30/03/2011. http://www.drbalternatives.com/articles/cc2.html 

• Burton, Charlotte. Difficult relationships at work - dealing with workplace conflict. Conflict911. Accessed on 30/03/2011. http://conflict911.com/guestconflict/diff-relationships-work.htm

• McKee, John 2009. 10 tips and tactics for dealing with conflict. TechRepublic. Accessed on 30/03/2011. http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-tips-and-tactics-for-dealing-with-conflict/995

Images

1. Accessed on 29/03/2011. http://mm89.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/different-cultures.jpg
2. Accessed on 30/03/2011. http://thepeoplegroupllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/unhappy-employee-2-199x300.jpg
3. Accessed on 30/03/2011. http://bestuff.com/images/images_of_stuff/210x600/cogito-ergo-sum-50505.jpg?1176161768

Organizational Learning

Our teacher let this blog entry pass for some of us who assited to class on march 14...it was a reward for responsibility!!!

Leadership

Manager to assistant: “assistant, please make up false numbers for the quarterly report we have to present to the shareholders”.

Manager to assistant: “assistant, please jump off a 50 story building”.

How should followers react when they do not agree with their manager’s directions?

1

In today’s topic, I would like to talk about how employees should confront their manager’s decisions when they don’t agree. If many of you have seen or had a job, sometimes you disagree with the decisions imposed from your superiors, but why? Because you can consider it harmful for some other person, because you think there is a better solution, because it is the wrong thing to do, or simply because you just don’t agree. So the question that comes to mind is: how should I react to the order I was given? Should I express my opinion? Should I execute the order? WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO?

Depending on the cultural aspects of each country, people may work and face low power distance or high power distance (Hofstede). When facing low power distance cultures, it may be very easy for followers to react to managers decisions because the latter are more open to hearing out its subordinates. These employees have the chance to react almost in any way possible (of course, being positively and without any kind of violence) without facing any type of negative reaction from their boss; they can express freely their desires, their needs, their problems, their troubles, and of course, their opinions on managerial decisions. In my opinion, these type of cultures have a small advantage from high powered distanced ones because not only are employees more free of saying what they want to say without fearing the worst, but also, managers are open minded and are always receiving feedback from employees, finally to make a better decision, or improve the one already made.

2

  On the other hand, people facing high power distance cultures have more trouble reacting and confronting their bosses; they fear a negative reaction such as yelling, humiliation and even getting fired. In my personal labor experience, I have found myself caught in this situation: I face a very cranky and mean boss, who ALWAYS reacts negatively to any feedback given from any employee. But for me, it was a learning experience. I found that the problem was merely a communication one; when confronted personally, he did not like to hear anything, but when confronted via email, he would respond in a polite manner and would later talk to you correctly. People facing these types of boss should look for a solution that doesn’t compromise their integrity. For example, seek out more people that feel the same way you feel; to try to talk to another person that has a same level as your boss, but is more open minded; look to see if your boss is more a telephone person than an upfront person; and so on. It is not impossible to communicate with them; it’s just a bit harder.

As a conclusion, I think each person lives a different experience with their boss and the only way to find out on how to react according to what he says is by empirical analysis; the analysis made on Hofstedes studies according to power distance are merely a macro analysis on the cultural patterns that might govern a company.

Bibliography

1. Nollaig 2010. Embracing your workplace resistors. Heffernan Consultancy Ltd. Accessed 06/03/2011. http://www.heffernanconsultancy.com/?cat=1

2. Leadership styles. www.nwlink.com. Accessed 06/03/2011. http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadstl.html

3. King, Scott 2011. What great leaders do to get devoted followers. Manager cheat sheet. Accessed 06/03/2011. http://managercheatsheet.com/2011/01/08/what-great-leaders-do-to-get-devoted-followers/

Pictures:

1. Accessed 06/03/2011. http://reviews.in.88db.com/images/how-to-manage-your-boss.jpg

2. Accessed 06/03/2011. http://www.careerrocketeer.com/wp-content/uploads/Managing-Your-Boss.jpg

Decision Making and Ethical Behaviour in an International Context

In today’s blog, I am going to change a little bit the methodology; I am going to focus on answering the following 5 questions based on the article:

The republic on a banana peel from The Hindu Newspaper. Published: December 3, 2010 by P. Sainath.

1

1.    What does the statement “all capitalism is crony capitalism” refer to? First, we have to define crony capitalism: it makes reference to the relationship between the success of corporations and their (when we say their, we refer to CEOs, management, or even shareholders) ties to governments (banks, the media, and other actors could be included). When the author says that “all capitalism is crony capitalism”, it means that every single corporation has in one way or another, some tie, some connection to a governmental official that can, in some way, help that company succeed. 1
Do you agree with this statement or not? Give an example. I totally agree with this statement, not only because of what we learn in college, but of what we see in the news, and what we experience in our personal professional lives. I think that every corporation has some access to benefit from crony capitalism; what we don’t know is to what extent some use it in an ethical manner and some don’t. It is hard to define this in a moral sense.
We can find hundreds, if not thousands of examples of crony capitalism:

·         Chaebols in Korea are huge business conglomerates that take advantage of this type of capitalism. 2

·         The famous scandal about Creekstone Farms with the mad cows is probably one of the greatest examples in crony capitalism. 3

2.    What is a banana republic? It is, according to Christopher Hitchens, “overweening state and certain favored monopolistic concerns, whereby the profits can be privatized and the debts conveniently socialized”. 4

Why is the author comparing India with a banana republic? Because, as he shows us, cronyism in that state is leading corporations to be guilty of many bad things that are later blamed on a few innocent people; because companies get away with anything, taking advantage of political ties they have, but at the end of the day, someone has to pay for the broken dishes; because corporations are in charge of making a few people wealthy and making sure they are safe, while those in charge of making them wealthy are paying all the damage caused.

2

3.    Why is it problematic that in the business world “The Media” becomes a corporation?
It is simple. A corporation’s ultimate goal is to make its shareholders wealthy by eventually reducing costs and selling more. If a media becomes a corporation it will DEFINITELY have the same goal. How will it achieve it? By posting, saying and/or stating whatever, that is, of course, according to who pays more for it? 

4.    In this situation, what behaviors are considered unethical for corporations, journalist and the state?
Corporations: for them, taking advantage of family ties, friend ties, and so on, with political officers, for their personal interests. Some examples could be begging for lesser taxes, tax evasion, privileged information, etc.
Journalism: taking advantage of the capability of broadcasting public information, that is, according to what they analyze. They could defect easily if offered a great deal of money, twisting delicate information into what the sponsor wants them to say.
State: lacking transparency and equality to everyone and every corporation; by levering some corporations, others are being left behind, and it eventually damages the entire system.

5.    What can The Media, Corporations and the States do in order to behave ethically and in the benefit of the people and not their own interest. Give at least 5 good ideas.

·         Increase democracy in the states. By making decision making more segmented, the chances that corruption will arise are less. This will eventually avoid crony capitalism because more people would have to be convinced (this would work based upon that at least one person in that group plays as an ethical character).

·         To not concentrate the media in only a few people; if diversification exists in media, controversy could avoid false and misleading statements.

·         Companies that are transparent are more honest; making a company transparent to society (that is, in certain ranges. Not everything can be transparent) makes it harder for them to do bad things. By showing society what they are doing, they will create a barrier for themselves to not use crony capitalism.

·         Making a company based on low power distance creates participation and democracy: if many levels of the company can participate, decisions could be narrower and much more ethical, given that people will have to decide on a collective and legal goal.

·         More power should be given to a Medias stakeholders (that is, all society); a transparent media is a clean media.

Bibliography 

           1. Sanger, David 2002. The world; the global cost of crony capitalism. The New York Times. Accessed 06/03/2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/21/weekinreview/21SANG.html?todaysheadlines  

2.      2003. Unfinished business. The Economist. Accessed 06/03/2011. http://www.economist.com/node/1697767?story_id=1697767

3.      2006. Mad cow watch goes blind. USA Today. Accessed 06/03/2011. http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-08-03-our-view_x.htm

4.                   4.  Hitchens, Christopher 2008. America the banana republic. Vanityfair. Accessed 06/03/2011. http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/10/hitchens200810

      Pictures

      1. Accessed 06/03/2011. http://www.hermes-press.com/enron_ken.jpg

      2. Accessed 06/03/2011. http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Corporate-News.jpg 

 

The Rise of Multinational Corporations

CORPORATION: An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility (Ambrose Bierce. The Devils Dictionary, 1911)

In many countries (especially developed ones), parents are responsible for the actions that their kids commit e.g. in New York (USA), if kids are found skipping class, parents may even end up paying huge fines. But why are parents responsible for what another human being is or does? Why should they be blamed for committed actions that aren’t theirs? Even though they are their children, to what degree is a parent responsible? Is "being a child" a sufficient excuse to blame his/her parent?

Stepping aside from the previous statement, we can concentrate on Corporations. If we compare what a corporation IS to the previous statement, I think we could say that it relates: if parents can be held responsible for their children’s actions, shouldn’t corporations "parents" respond for their "children’s" actions? IS IT correct to address companies as "children"? If a corporation is considered as a person (juridical person, but still a person), it must have parents from which it came from, or is it a mistake to think such a thing? In this blog, I would like to try to analyze the following question:

Should individuals (directors, employees, shareholders) bear any responsibility for the actions of a corporation? If so, to what degree?

1

Im Juan Pablo and Im a CEO for XXX corp. Should I focus on what is right or should I just keep making Money?

ALL corporations state to have different goals (according to their economical activity, the sector they move around in, the country they belong to, and so on), but at the end, they all converge with the same goal: to make the shareholders richer. How? By doing what they do best, finally translating to "reducing costs". I think we are all fed up from hearing this over and over again. But what we don’t here so often is who’s to blame when in this process something goes wrong, when a felony is committed, when a crime is made. If we were to answer this question, we could see it from the legal aspect and the ethical aspect:

If we were to blame legally a corporation, the person responsible for its actions would be the CEO, the manager or the representative. Why? Because that person swore to pay for what its company did.

If we were to see it from an ethical point of view, I think that ALL the people involved inside the company, would have to pay for its actions. Some might think that it isn’t fare, but of course it isn’t; how can we compare the responsibility of a CEO to that of a janitor from the same tobacco company? Who is guiltier? In my personal opinion, the CEO.

Let’s make things even clearer:

If I own a motorcycle, I know that I’m responsible to keep it clean, keep it tuned, and keep it nice and pretty. Let’s say that someday, that bike gets stolen and a felony is committed by another person but riding my bike. Do you think that I won’t be blamed for anything at all? Because of a mistake, should I pass unpunished? I think that it’s the same thing for corporations: if a group of people own a company (they together have all the shares of that company), shouldn’t they be always aware of what the company does? Shouldn’t they pay for the actions committed by their own assets? But let’s say that a problem started because of one employee. Who should pay? I think that both, but the owners have more responsibility.

2

I think that we are not far away from this reality...

As a final conclusion, I think that the way corporations, technology and societies grow, there’s not a chance for ethics and morality to keep up; it is not easy to judge something that isn’t fully regulated. These aspects have to be considered quickly, because corporations can go unpunished just because there isn’t a specific law for it. And if not, why should a person who kills another person is incarcerated if a CEO passes unpunished for killing slowly and painfully the entire planet? Isn’t it the same when a person steals a thousand pesos to when he steals a bank? Why blame at all?

THINK ABOUT IT!!!

Bibliography

Soulpancake. Accessed on 21/02/2011. http://www.soulpancake.com/question/51793/who-is-morally-responsible-for-the-actions-of-corporations-seeing-as-theyre-granted-the-rights-of-individuals.html

Pictures

1. http://knowledge.asb.unsw.edu.au/images/archive//post_crisis_ethics_large.jpg

2. http://www.laprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Corporate-vote.gif

Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkygXc9IM5U&feature=relmfu

Motivation

“The motivation of a person covers all the reasons for which he chooses to act in a certain manner” (Adair, 2006).

1

are you THAT person? is money you carrot?

I´m currently working at a company that makes commercializes and exports cakes. I began to work half time on 11 January 2011, but I´ve been coming since last semester to assess the company on how to deal with international commerce. Since the day I began until today, I have noticed a certain pattern in the CEO´s behavior and how it affects the employees motivation: given that the CEO has only studied until the 6th grade, he is not familiarized with the different motivation theories there are, he does not understand how a company is driven besides making money, he does not realize that employees are just more than expendable assets. The reaction that I have seen amongst employees is that they work because they have to, they joke A LOT about quitting, they complain about the CEO, they don’t feel committed to the company, they don’t seem happy, etc. 

2

MONEY ISN’T ALWAYS THE SOLUTION; SOMETIMES IT’S NOT EVEN A SOLUTION

Thanks to the lecture with our teacher Gina, to our readings on this subject and my experience in this company (and in other ones), I have noticed that motivation plays a VERY IMPORTANT ROLE in the success of a company; a great leader is not only the one that punishes the hardest, or the one that makes the most money. A great leader is the one that knows how to get to his employees, looking finally to achieve as a team, the company’s goals. So the questions we have to ask ourselves (if someday we want to be leaders [and this applies to everything, not only companies, but also community leaders, family leaders, sports leaders, and so on]) are:

Is economic retribution enough to motivate employees? Does enough money make an employee work harder?

In order to answer these questions, I think that we have to base first on the theory:

• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs states that we have a pyramid of needs and that we fulfill the top levels when we have satisfied the lower levels.
• Frederick Herzberg’s two factors theory states that when a job is executed properly, the employee will be motivated.   
• The equity theory states that people are most motivated when treated equally.

And so on, there are a lot more theories that talk about motivation.

If we analyze closely these theories, many of them state that money is merely ONE of the MANY motivations sources there are. Money is a motivation factor that works only in the short term. Why? Because an employee will be happy once he is announced a raise and will probably be as happy when he receives two or three payments, but when he starts to get used to this income and accommodates his spending according to this money, he will return once again to square one, and eventually will want more and more. On the other hand, a bonus can be quite enthusiastic but the continuity of this method could probably create bad rivalry inside the company.

In my personal experience, I have found good reactions when I walk into the office and say “hi”; I have seen that talking to other coworkers that are below you (in staff position) in a friendly environment instead of a work environment, can allow them to open up and express what they truly feel and think; and so on, I have analyzed inside the company I work in that a happy employee is a motivated employee, and a motivated employee is a triumph oriented employee.

As a conclusion, I think it is evident to say that money is one of many methods to motivate an employee, and sometimes, it could be the least preferred and resourceful.

According to the needs of the company, there are many factors that motivate employees in the short, medium and long term such as:

• talking to each employee in a non employer way.
• offering possibilities to study and work at the same time.
• arranging a day where every employee brings one or two family members.
• and so on.

IMAGES:

1. http://www.businessballs.com/images/jim_barker_cartoons/carrot_motivation_cartoon.jpg
2. http://www.zealise.com/images/prp_cartooncopy.gif

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• Accel team 2010. Employee motivation: theory and practice. accel-team.com. Accessed 02/02/2011. http://www.accel-team.com/motivation/
• Motivational theory. Businessballs.com. Accessed 02/02/2011. http://www.businessballs.com/motivation.htm
• Chapter 4 - organizational motivation. The international development research centre. Accessed 02/02/2011. http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-28365-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

National and organizational culture

Although corporate culture is a very influencing factor in companies today, many of them dont take it into account (i.e. no one identifies with the company) and many others push it to its limits (i.e.people that LIVE for their companies). Issues like these make me ask myself if companies really want their employees to be free of what they think and believe about or if they really try to hide ones true ways of being buy putting a "corporate uniform" on them?

1

In todays entry, I would like to discuss a very important question about corporate culture: is it a way to manipulate employees?

• If you go over to the company Quala S.A., you will see how all the employees talk about their company as almost a religion; they sing the corporate anthem every morning, they wear uniforms, they cheer each other every time they can, etc.
• Instead, the so famouse Wal-Mart uses a different strategy: instead of calling superiors by Mr. o Mrs. and their last name, they encourage people to adress to others by their first name. This strategy is probably used to diminish the barriers of employee/employer or boss/subordinate.
• HP is famous for treating each employee as a family member: the trendto hire and fire doesnt exist; people are allowed to leave early from their jos in order to spend time with family; remuneration goes beyond money awards, instead they offer scholarships for employees and family members.

These types of behaviors could probably be seen as strategies that the company imposes in order to grow and sell more. They impose the common thinking, beliefs, values, etc., in order to establish common goals. But it is almost logical to think that a company has to do it, because a work team that has a smiliar culture will probably try harder to acheive a common goal. But what happens when a new person enters the company? from the interview, that person is evaluated and tested ir order to find out if he fits into the company´s culture; if he is accepted, he will probably have to adapt to the culture imposed by the company.

I believe that in all cultures certain ranks of power are imposed wether they are inforced or not. By establishing who is higher or lower in power, people can have more influence over others, and eventually being able to manipulate them. I.e. a new person comes into a company and even though everyone treats each other as equals, that new person knows that he is below some people, so he will be easily influenced by his superiors, and could potentially by manipulated under the circumstance that the corporate culture establishes that everyone is equal.

Finally, I think that corporate culture has its pros and cons. Under this case, it is always a win-win situation. Why? because the company has more motivated employees that seek harder their goals and the employees are retributed with money, breaks, less labor hours, scholarships, etc.

2

IMAGES:

1. http://graphicsfile.finaldownload.com/screenshotimages/changing_organizational_culture_software-93589.jpg - image accessed on 02/02/2011
2. http://www.funonthenet.in/images/stories/forwards/corporate-culture/corporate-culture-1.jpg - image accessed on 02/02/2011

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• Waring, Peter. The paradox of prerogative in participative organisations: The manipulation of corporate culture. Accessed 02/02/2011. http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/departments/Strategy%20and%20Human%20Resource%20Management/Airaanz/old/conferce/wgtn1998/PDF/waring.pdf
• Dr. El-Nadi, Fathi. http://www.evancarmichael.com/. Accessed 02/02/2011. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Human-Resources/840/Examples-Of-Strong-Corporate-Cultures.html
• Groeger, Martin 2002. The HP way - an example of corporate culture for a whole industry. http://www.silicon-valley-story.de/. Accessed 02/02/2011. http://www.silicon-valley-story.de/sv/hp_way.html