domingo, 8 de mayo de 2011

Managing Diversity

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As the word itself says it, in todays entry I would like to change my weekly activity, to an excellent exercise proposed by our Cultures and Organizations teacher, dealing with diversity.

You work within a company specialized in high-tech devices that is going to enter a new market based in Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

1.      Design the company's diversity policy towards employees, customers and suppliers.

·         Employees:
Committees of employees will be established, involving always at least one person from each minority group. These committees will be assigned subjects individually, where each group will have to concentrate on their task, working together as a team and, expecting participation from each person and giving equal rights to each one. Subjects to be treated will range from new business ideas to management styles, to even interpersonal issues: conflict resolution, new product studies, customer/supplier relationships, marketing, company recreational activities, management styles, business orientation, and so on.
In addition to this, each person is to play a double role inside the group: acting as a representative from his minority group and acting as an only member of a multicultural group.
As a second activity, each minority group will meet and plan an activity for all the company: this activity should embrace the positive and specific aspects of each minority group. With this, each minority will TEACH the company where they come from and who they are, ensuring personal and group growth, acknowledgement of diverse groups and acceptance to diversity.

·         Customers:
Market research plays an important role in this section. The company will make monthly studies on what the market consists of, where is it going and what do customers want, focusing on what segments are important for the company to attend.
Even though the company decides to attend only specific groups, study will be made on how to attend other groups and how to avoid clashes.

·         Suppliers:
Adhere to local chambers of commerce, social groups and market studies to widen the perspective of who to do business with.
List needs for the company about raw materials, equipment, and so on, not discriminating suppliers but always seeking the best materials and services needed for the company.

2.      Write a classified ad for new recruits that support the company's commitment to diversity.

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·         Our company is constantly recruiting people that will increase our biggest asset (our people) by bringing in the best they have and fulfilling the job requirements. You can find our ads on TV, radio, newspapers and our website; in the last one, you can find the option to apply to a job that describes your profile with the option to set the language that suits you best (we have our website translated into 7 different languages: Spanish, English, Italian, German, Chinese, Portuguese, and French) or if you have some hearing incapacity, you can click on the option to listen to the offer.
We seek out people that qualify for the job description, basing our selection on previous study, job experience, informal work, nontraditional skills, and so on. Job training is done according to what knowledge is none and unknown to the person who gets the job.
So hurry up and sign in to our job applications; we only look for the best, no matter where you come from.

3.      Describe the activities that the firm does as part of commitment to their community’s programs.

·         Adherence to local colleges, schools, universities and teaching institutes to mold and shape people that are productive in their lives, and at a same time, seeking out the best for our company’s profile.
·         Adhere to local chambers of commerce to have access to the best suppliers, always seeking the best as the input for our top quality products.
·         Work alongside with the city council, teaching other companies that diversity is always positive to companies and applying it to our own company. 

Images:

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jueves, 28 de abril de 2011

Migrant Workers and Expatriates

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"If the universal visa is extended
the day we are born
and terminates at death
why are they chasing you "mojado"
if the consul of heaven
has given you permission"
Lyrics taken and translated from the original song "Mojado" by Ricardo Arjona

Although barriers against migration are one of many topics that concern us as Latin Americans, and especially, Colombians, countries that impose them certainly have some right to do it and look for certain benefits with them (as much as that hurts me to say it), but many times they go beyond human behaviour and use them as an excuse to mistreat some of us.
In todays topic, I would like to mention some barriers (either physical or symbolic) used to stop migration, to later on discuss some arguments in favour and against them.

Just to keep in mind, please watch the following video. Its lyrics are very deep and I think many of us have close relatives or personal stories that can relate to what Ricardo Arjona says in this sad but true story.
 Some good examples of physical barriers to immigration are:
  • The big fence and wall built by the United States on its border with Mexico to keep out latin immigrants, especially from countries such as Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.
  • Although some see the Great wall of China as a historical monument, some say that it represents today a barrier against immigrants coming in from Mongolia and parts of Siberia.
  • Greece is planning to build a huge fence on its borders with Turkey, in order to avoid illegal immigration from Africa and Asia.
Some examples of symbolic barriers are:
  • The famous embargo placed by the United States on Cuba.
  • Spain, in our case as Colombians, is one of the top five destination for migrants. This country is seen and known as one of the most resentful against immigrants. We have witnessed many attacks in that country on fellow Colombians and people from other latin countries as a sign of protest and unacceptance.
  • The statue of liberty is probably the best example of them all. It simbolizes freedom upon which that country was created, but today it can only be seen as a tourist site.
  • The Darien gap, as many of us know, is a natural barrier that limits Colombia from Panama. Many people think that the US promotes its preservation so much because it is a huge lung for the planet and has a big biodiversity (yeah right, a country that doesnt even belong to the Kyoto Protocol could believe such a thing); what we really dont know is that the US interests on it is to avoid creating more access for more immigrants (stating that it would be a lot easier for people in South America to pass by land) to get all the way to the "land of the free".
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Why could I say that im in favour of them...

  • Because it assures nationals progress and development given that they can have less immigrant competition. For example, they dont have to worry about an immigrant taking a job that they could occupy, just to get paid half as much.
  • Because the barriers limit people from moving from their national countries and goverments could at least try to figure out why their people are leaving. In the end, it could create certain pressure on the goverment to react to the countrys problems.
  • Brain drain, which is a huge problem for developing countries, could be reduced (or maybe fully stopped), so eventually these people would have to find a way to survive where they live and give back to the development of their country.
  • Transnational problems such as drug cartels, enslaving, prostitution, crimes, and so on could be eventually reduced.
  • Consciousness is created in the people trying to pass these barriers; they can learn that life is unfair (as harsh as it sounds, but still true) and that life isnt about taking the easy way out.
But why I oppose to them...

  • People are treated as animals and are victims of over empowerment of some agents (In my personal experience living in the United States, I have seen videos of many mexican families running through the desert on the frontier with Mexico and being shot at).
  • Opportunities are denied to those who deserve a better chance in life and that probably wont be granted in their national country.
  • -Being myself very religious- I think that God intended to create a planet where everyone and everything on it was an owner, but apparently, we are "victims" to the land we were born on.
  • High migration levels (lets say from Colombia to Spain) make the country and the rest of us look bad (if everyone us leaving the country, why would I like to go there?) to the rest of the world, reducing in a long term tourism, FDI and so on.
To the readers, some final questions for you to reflex on:
...are you a slave of your country? do you blame your country for who and what you are? would you be happier if you wouldve been born in another country? Think about it...

 Bibliography


Images
  1. Accessed 28/04/2011. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh290kdJ6dqu-gRh323vRlgagkfcflzqt7zVxgKinYUWQImZ7dD6gbg4qKTspl36fY8NrtHAkqpFC6rJvUxMLG4Er-QehST_QKfQwZDHJsTxGFYb1qfGvz4FiRIRuUIRjDT2v4Q4cn1TTF5/s1600/immigrationQ-7680632.jpg
  2. Accessed 28/04/2011. http://www.newbedfordguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Political-cartoon_on_immigration-tsunami-statue-of-liberty.jpg
Videos
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miércoles, 6 de abril de 2011

The Role of Organisational Culture in Merging Processes

 MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
http://www.confidentus.eu/images/CONFIDENTUS_Wisdom_knot.jpg
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A merger (although used together with the name Mergers and acquisitions), sometimes confused and resembled to an acquisition, means that two existing companies decide to go forward as a new company, sometimes taking a new name or probablly combining both of their names into one, cool name. 
In todays blog entry, I would like to talk about the positive and negative impacts that merging processes can bring to the already established corporate culture. Why? because besides from analyzing hows the process of mergers done, what it consists of, what does each company have to do, and so on, I think that it very important to analyze it from the humain point of view: what happens to a culture already present? how do people from each TEAM react? what are the consequences? These aspects are important to understand because people are a company´s most important asset.

Positive Aspects:
http://www.mysteryshoppinglive.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/istock_000005758296large.jpg
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  • Cultural synergies: given that a merger can consist of many cultures and subcultures, advantages could be taken from this aspect; taking advantage of the best things prominent from each culture could translate into a synergy that can take the proper pace of the company.
  • Learning and growth: people (especially those involved in international commerce) can learn from their new partners through proper integration; new ideas, religions, beliefs, habits, and so on can be learned from one culture to another, giving people the space to interact and learn from others, and possibly seek alternatives to their own culture.
  • Diversity in management: a wide variety of people could be very positive to managemente because different ideas, different concepts and strategies can be analyzed by a new formed team. Similar to the synergies, management can take the best out of each culture (that is, through its employees) and find a way to apply it to business.

Negative Aspects:
http://blog.mlive.com/chronicle/news_impact/2009/03/large_hospital_merger.jpg
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  • Frustration on the employees: a clash of cultures, a bad integration or the lack of appropriate training can lead employees from both sides to be frustrated and upset with their new jobs. Frustration then leads to bad performance, lack of motivation and underachievement. This translates to the company as less productivity and efficiency.
  • Organizational proliferation: a clash can occur when hierarchy is set on the table; people coming in from a culture where a sense of hierarchy is VS. people who sense it is low can create tension and arguments.
  • Hosfstede´s cultural dimensions: as we saw in intercultural management, each culture has its own grades in the 5 dimensions proposed by this scholar; when 2 companies decide to merge, they generally come from different countries (so, they have different cultures) and this is where problems happen without proper training. Space isn´t defined properly, time isnt respected at all, lack of emotion or excess of it is displayed, and so on.

Bibliography

Images
  1. http://www.confidentus.eu/images/CONFIDENTUS_Wisdom_knot.jpg
  2. http://www.mysteryshoppinglive.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/istock_000005758296large.jpg
  3. http://blog.mlive.com/chronicle/news_impact/2009/03/large_hospital_merger.jpg
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martes, 29 de marzo de 2011

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.
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  • 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.

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  • 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

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
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    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!!!
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    domingo, 6 de marzo de 2011

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




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    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.

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    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.
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    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
     

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