Latin America

Our classmates brought Andres Velez as a Speaker to start the presentation talking about Brazil. He explained why the country is different from Latin-America and its relation with it. Andres told as that one of the most multicultural cities is Sao Paulo and how it has products from Japan than expire in less than a week. The south part of Brazil is mostly inhabited by Europeans, the northwest by Indians and the northeast by Blacks.

The girls gave an explanation of the different races that subsist in the region. They told us that there are a lot of mixtures like mulattos –black and white mix-, mestizos –white and Indian mix- and zambos –black and Indian-. They also said that in Latin-American speaks mainly three languages like Spanish, Portuguese, French and Dutch.

As we can see there is a lot of diversity in Latin-America and that the region is not as isomorphic as we think. It is really important to understand the differences between countries in order to make more profitable businesses. Brazil is a strategic ally because it is one of the fast-growing economies and has one of the biggest populations which could be a great market to exploit. 

Latin-America is getting importance in the international arena, all the countries are focusing in the region due to the great natural resources that are located in the area and because the Latin-American market and labour force are spreading all over the world.

As we have the freedom to choose any topic that we want, I would like to talk about the diverse political ideology that he has to faces. The region has been passing through difficult situations of political instability because there are such as opposite parties and ideas. On one hand, some of the countries are rule by democratic and liberal government which promotes free speech and equality between citizens. On the other hand, there are some governments that called themselves as a socialist and are part of the left side groups. Those groups are the one that complicates the relation between all the states of Latin America because they do not agree to have United States near the area and they think that everyone is a slave of the empire

Those different political ideologies are confronting the countries and delaying the economic development due to the barriers that are being approved to stop the trade between countries that not share the same ideas.

In my opinion, we need to know how to separate businesses from political stuff in order to continue growing. Diversity as I said before contributes to the development of the region because it brings creativity and different ways of solving problems. 

References

• Photo taken from www.fayerwayer.com on May 19th, 2010

North America

The North American presentation consisted of several topics. They first compared the American and Canadian culture and how theses cultures influence the way they do business. They described Canada with the Canadian backpack flag metaphor and United States with the American football metaphor. They also talked about the different values that each country has and how they are reflect within society.

They brought the case of Disney which is an American company and how it has adopted the national culture of United States. One of the main similarities between the company and the country are that they identify with dreams. United States is famous because everybody wants to go there and achieve the American dream while Disney is well known because guest and employees live their dreams with the company.

Another similarity is that both of them always work to the continuous improvement, they learn through mistakes and they do not believe in perfection. They work not just for money, work recognition is very important for them, work defines who they are.

Last but not least, diversity plays a fundamental role in both parties. They say that managerial diversity brings innovation and creativity. Disney and Unites States also share the value of aggressiveness. They give a lot of importance to competition; they always want to be the best. Disney has a philosophy of “aggressively friendly” which means helping customer when they need it and always do more than what it is expected.

Questions:

List and explain 3 strategies used by HP in order to develop and sustain a strong organisational culture - "The HP Way".

The first strategy that I identify in the paper was used by HP in order to build and maintain a strong organizational. The stories are told during trainings, management meetings, speeches from company leaders and through all the global operations. The purpose of the stories was to make employees know more about HP and receive a message of how the company does things.

Another strategy is the open door theory, in which the company encourages employees to communicate and look for advises from any HP manager. The communication can be formal or informal, about a personal or work issue, and between the most new employees and the senior managers. For example the informal communication takes place during the coffee breaks and “beer bust”, where managers and employees talk, knowing more about each other. With this communication strategy, values can be communicated and the corporate culture is transmitted and maintained.

The last  strategy was implemented in order to assure that all the values are shared through the organization and preserve the strong corporate culture, giving to employees the same terms and conditions of employment and establishing flexible hours, casual outfits and first names. Hence, HP wants to reach close relations between managers and employees because they don’t want to create divisions among different sections that could damage the company’s culture.

 By 2001, Carly Fiorina was facing a huge dilemma in terms of organisational culture.   "Should Fiorina try to revitalize the HP way or attempt to replace it with a “better” culture than the one established by Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett in the 1940’s?" Explain your answer.

Replace the organisational culture won’t be a good idea because the one established by Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett brought a lot of benefits to the company and the employees, everybody interiorized the corporate culture and feel identify with it. So trying to replace it would be time costly and unnecessary. The culture was successful and has brand knowledge so she should continue with the same organizational culture.

References

• Forster, Nick. 2002. “Managing excellence through corporate culture: the HP way” The Management Case Study Journal 2(1): 13-25.
• Photo taken from http://www.census.gov/econ/www/natf/cover.gif May 12th 2010

Australia and Oceania

The presentation made in class was about Australia and Oceania. They gave a brief detail of both countries. Our classmates based their presentation in the concept of egalitarianism, openness and individualism. Egalitarianism refers to a society that avoids differentiation between individuals, openness is the way people think, they value directness and encourage lively discussions, and individualism is the importance of personal privacy.

The corporate culture was influenced by Europe. Australia has a decentralized and flexible management. All the employees has the right to express their creativity and are involve in the decision making process. Business in Australia has a high tolerance for risk, a high readiness for change, a post planning culture, and they value the hard work and the difficulties.

They also explained the concept of tall poppy syndrome which is a tendency used in Australia that tends people to be jealous about the success of others. This syndrome is seen as an obstacle for entrepreneurship. New government rules and globalization has led to some change with it.

Rabbit Proof Fence Film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB-jkydqADg

We watched a movie about the problem that Australian has with aborigines. It shows how half-caste children –Australian father and aborigine mother- have been taken away in order to gives what the government belief is a better future for them.

The movie shows how three girls were taken away from them mothers and sending a thousand of miles away to a boarding school which they supposed to have a better life.  After some days the girls escaped and began the walking to meet with their moms. The girls walked from several months and finally two of the three girls manage to get together with their mothers. These three girls are part of what is referred to today as the Stolen Generations.

The movie was based on a true story of a young black Australian girl who leads her younger sister and cousin in an escape from an official government camp, set up as component of an official government policy to train them as domestic workers and integrate them into white society.

Question:

When removed from their families, the children were prepared for “a better life”, how is that true or false when considering different perspectives?

In my opinion removed the children from their families is not a way to prepared them for a better life because the cultural values are not taking into account and they are violating the “free developing” of a person.  That kind of procedures will just only creates resentment and it does not assure a better quality life.

As we watched in the movie, there was a girl who was re-educated and she was the maid of an Australian family and she was being rape by an old man. Then, how this condition would be “a better life” for a girl? I think the concept of quality of live depends of the point of view of each person. The girls could be happier living with their moms, learning and practicing their costumes than living in an industrialized city with strangers. 

References

• Photo taken from http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Uploads/Graphics/001-1013202344-Australia-logo.gif  may 12th 2010

Europe

Our classmates explained us the economic, social and political aspects of the European Union. They talked about the cultural similarities and differences that each country has and how they feel identify as an entire community. Although, there are some cultural clashes; like the cases of gypsies and Turkish.

Turkey has been a candidate to enter to the European Union since many years ago, but there are some issues that prevent the others members to include Turkey. First of all, the country has a big population which is a problem to the others members because the European parliament is occupied depending of each country population, meaning by that, Turkey could be a threat to the power of the biggest countries in Europe. Another issue is the borders, as Turkey is located between Europe and Asia, some its neighbours are considered as Islamic terrorist which is a big worry to the security of the union. Internal conflict is also a negative point because they do not want the violence to spread among the other members. And the last issue is regarding the culture, the major religion in Turkey is Islam whereas in Europe is Christianity. These form an invisible barrier that forbids people from the union to accept the inclusion of this state.

In the other hand, the problem with the gypsies consists in that they are judge by their culture. Europeans think that they do not like to follow the rules, they seen gypsies like lazy and dirty people, opportunist and thieves. However, the European Unions is implementing some laws to protect those people from xenophobic attacks.

To finalize, they showed us the case of Wal-Mart in Germany and The United Kingdom. How it has succeeded in England and failed in Germany and explained the possible causes of the outcome in both countries.

References

• Photo taken from http://www.ucc.ie/en/eurostudies/undergrad/  May 12th 2010

Middle East

Islamic banking is based on the principles of Sharia. The fundamental goal of Sharia is to establish an ethical social and economic order in which a pluralistic government can check the power of the ruling authority. It standards are communicated to Muslims through the Koran and are meant to serve as a source of guidance for the ummah as it strives to formulate the community’s fiscal and public policies (Askari et al, 2005).

Islamic Banking functions and has the same objective as any other financial entity except that it runs accordance with the law of Sharia. These philosophies are commonly accepted all over the world. The two key principle of the Sharia are: forbids the payment of interest charges for the lending and investment in activities that could be opposite to its principle.

So if they prohibit interest how they make profit?  They charge an operative fee and they do not act as lenders but they become shareholders of any project finance by them, meaning by that, they have the right to receive a percentage of the profit. Hence the revenue comes from the ethical investments and not from the interest.

An ethical investment does not go against the Sharia’s principles; those investments are harmonized with the Koran. The ones who decide whereas a investment is ethical or not is the Sharia Supervisory Board which is a committee of academic and religion advisers responsible for reviewing and approving the acceptability of an investment.

The Islamic Bank System influences the Middle East in the way that as they share almost the same religion, it is important for people from there to follow Muhammad rules. The Islamic banks are generally profitable as conventional banks. Therefore if they could make profit and please their religion at the same time, it will be perfect for them.

It is kind of hard to predict the future of Islamic banks, but in my opinion they would continue to be successful and they would gradually expand around the world. Because Muslims are too conservative and attached to their customs, as they are spread everywhere, the model would be also broad with them.

References

• Hossein Askari, Roshanak Taghavi. The principle foundations of an Islamic economy. Rome, 2005.
• Taufic Hassan et al. Efficiency of conventional versus Islamic banks: evidence from the Middle East. Bingley, 2009.
• Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance. www.islamic-banking.com
• Photo taken from  www.yahyasheikho786.wordpress.com May 12th 2010 

South Asia

Our classmates explained the general characteristics of the countries that composed South Asia. The nations located in this region are: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan. Islam and Hinduism are the dominant religion in the area. Their presentation was focused in India that is perhaps the most important country in the region.

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and is consider to be one f the powerful nations of the earth in the near future. Its population has over 1 million people which make it the largest democracy in the world. The government has friendly relationships with the overseas companies; as a consequence it is one of the most attractive markets for outsourcing of products and services from other countries.

They also described the pharmaceutical industry which is one of the most important sector in India because the country has achieved great progress in science and technology. It is consider to be global powerhouse of generic drugs. However, the lack of protection for products patents has a significant impact on the Indian pharmaceutical industry.

To give a clear explanation, our classmates explicated a case about the Acquisition of Ganga by a foreign company. With that case they want to show how mergers and acquisitions are taking force in the country and how it has a direct impact on the culture.

In a nutshell, South Asia is gaining importance in the international arena. We have to acknowledge the cultural differences and the diverse managerial style in order to make successful negotiations. This region is now recognize due to the immense improvement in technology and services industry, every time more organizations are outsourcing its operations to countries like India.

Question:

What do you think are the reasons behind the fast-growth outsourcing industry in India?

India has become an outsourcing attraction because it is the second most populated country in the world and the advantage is that a big part of the population is young which translate in workforce. Also, India invests a great portion of the GDP in science and technology. The country counts with the most sophisticated software and infrastructure to provide services which allow them to offer low cost with high quality.

Indian Government has friendly relationships with companies overseas, so that encourages other companies to settle down its operation in the country. Another considerable advantage is that most of the population speaks English which is the universal language that make them lead comparing the others developing countries.

In a brief, Indian fast-growth outsourcing industry is due to these main factors: Low cost, language and workforce. Hence, India provides a great opportunity to companies to cut cost and maximize their profits.

References

• Photo taken from http://www.edupics.com/en-coloring-pictures-pages-photo-3-sadhus-hindu-holymen-in-nepal-i10944.html  May 12^th 2010
• Agarwal, Sanjeev, Thomas E DeCarlo, Shyam B. Vyas, & Source:. 1999. Leadership Behavior and Organizational Commitment: A Comparative Study of American and Indian Salespersons. Journal of International Business Studies, 30(4): 727-43

Africa

We explained how different Management styles have been implemented in Africa and the diverse consequences that those approaches generated in an organization. We also analyzed how the cultural environment affects the relations between managers and employees.

Management in Africa is a cross-cultural issue both internally and externally because of the existent multiethnic and socioeconomic differences, but also because of the great influence that foreigners had have on the continent. Since decades ago, Africa has been conquered by Europeans who imposed several values and practices that changed the culture.

To explain in a better way, we focused in two main countries (Nigeria and Kenya) in order to make clear how the western style has influenced the African style, affecting the way they behave and organize themselves. According to Georgie Tasie (2009) the problem in the managerial system of Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Kenya is deeply rooted and widespread; they share some characteristics in terms of cultures and have been affected by different management styles that have an effect on the way of managing resources.

Africa-style management has been influenced by many different theories from diverse parts of the globe. The problem with these theories is not the management procedures by themselves, it is a matter of adaptation to the internal culture of the specific country, which means, if a practice works in one country, you cannot implemented in another one without any modification because each place has different backgrounds.

In a nutshell, Africa-style management has been influenced by many different theories from diverse parts of the world. The problem with these theories is not the management procedures by themselves, it is a matter of adaptation to the internal culture of the specific country, which means, if a practice works in one country, you cannot implemented in another one without any modification because each place has different backgrounds.

Questions:

What is Ubuntu? How was it applied to support the merger process of the two companies?

According to Miles Recounts, the concept of Ubuntu is premised on the philosophy that one finds one’s own humanity in helping others to find theirs. In other words, I am a human because you are a human. They adopted the Ubuntu philosophy to serve as the foundation for their outgoing commitment to create a working environment that is beneficial to the company and the employee.

Within a Company, Ubuntu is used in the sense of unity concerning the well being of each other and when decision must be taken. The African Bank Miners Credit employed Ubuntu to harmonize the business and the work of employees due to the several internal and cultural differences that they had. Examples of the Ubuntu process applied inside the company:

• The tale of the bird and the badger was utilized to explain how teamwork would make growth the company; they stated that what is good for us is good for you and vice versa.
• The tale of the elephant became so big was used to clarify that the organization has a commitment with the community. Hence the company selects and train people from the area in order to improve the lifestyle standards.
• The tale of the bird that learnt to fly was used to give an explanation on social responsibility, how the organization helps the community through education and training to enhance the live of the village

Investor in People (IIP) is an international standard that aims at improving companies’ performance by investing in people. In the global business scenario, is this standard useful, relevant and likely to become as important as international quality standards?

As Miles said the IIP process has focused a lot of attention on the need to develop staff. “Investors in People has taught us that it is very important to ensure that employees at grass level understand what we are doing”. IIP make staff feel part of the organization and work with more enthusiasm because they are been treat more like a human being that like a worker.

References

·        Mangaliso, Mzamo. 2003. Building competitive advantage from Ubuntu. In Thomas, David Clinton, editor, Readings and cases in International Management:  A cross-cultural perspective.

·        African Bank Miners Credit – Case Study

·        Photo taken from  http://www.portalwallpaper.net on May 12^th 2010

Recommendation

I recommend the blog of Juliana Vergara, because I think she has explained in a clear and easy way the different topics explain in class. The design of her blog is pretty nice with light colors and great images that allows a peaceful reading. She used appropiatte tools like photos, paper references and give a practical analysis of each topic. To conclude, just check it out !!!

http://wwwjulivermar-juliana.blogspot.com/2010/03/east-asia.html

China

The paper proposed to study the China topic was about the Guanxi and the role of MNE’s. In Chinese societies guanxi can be defined as “a friendship with unlimited exchange of favours”, which means if two people share a guanxi relationship they feel fully committed to each other (M. Orru, 1997). This kind of relationships brings harmony to society, reciprocity and high commitments are the basis of the concept.

The social statute the rules the social and business interactions is known as renqing, which means that an individual emotionally reacts to the many situations he or she has to deal on the daily basis.

The Guanxi was influenced by Confucianism. This ideology emphasizes the value of harmony, urging individuals to adapt to the collective to control their emotions, to avoid conflict and to maintain internal harmony. Social relations should be conducted in such a way that everybody’s face is maintained and face is a key component in the dynamics of guanxi (M. Chen, 1995). The appliance of guanxi can be presented through two perspectives: the horizontal relationship –related to competitiveness- and the vertical relationship –related to human resource management-.

The paper discussed a research made with some Taiwanese MNE’s, these organizations build a strategy to enter to the UK market base on the Guanxi approach, although they have some trouble trying to implement this method, due to the lack of commitment and efficiency of UK employees.


Questions:

Discuss in your blog the relevance of Guanxi and the existence of Chinese business networks as supporting factors to the internationalization process of Chinese companies.

The Guanxi philosophy is very practical to an organization as well as to society, because its values and beliefs are focused to find harmony. The guanxi approach could make a friendly and cooperative work environment, which allows employees to care about the interactions with their colleagues. These actions could avoid emotional conflicts or disrespectful behaviours that could affect the productivity and the efficiency of companies.

Referring to internationalization process of Chinese companies, Chinese business networks are an essential supporting factor, because the networks could give important tips to enter to new markets, reach contacts, and provide practical ideas to develop a useful strategy to consolidate the company in the new environment.

Taking into account that networks requires a broader perspective of interaction between managers, employees and customers. The Guanxi is a functional approach which enables the different organizations to manage their relationships in a better harmonizer manner.

References

Taken from www.thecontractrecruiter.com/.../guanxi-con-rel1.jpg, March 17th 2010

Chen, I Chun Lisa and Easterby-Smith Mark. 2008. “Is Guanxi still working, while Chinese MNCs go global? The case of Taiwanese MNCs in the UK”. Human Systems Management 27: 131-142.

East Asia

This topic was presented with an explication of the countries which compound this area and the cultures that belong to these countries. The states located in East Asia are China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. All these nations have many things in common like the geographical proximity, religion and invasions.

The main religions are Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and Shinto. Religion plays a fundamental role within societies in East Asia and regulated the most important aspects of the individual’s life. They also have a long invasion history among them, because of the diverse empires which rose in those areas. All these share past have created various similarities and differences that could affect the business environment.

Our classmates also explained the Japanese and Korean management model, and the Samsung group case. Those tools give us good ideas to negotiate with people from that part of the world. The Japanese and Korean management style has been one of the most successful methods and has influenced many organizations around the world.

To conclude, East Asia has some of the more powerful economies in the world. The international arena is now focusing in those countries and some experts have predicted that the new superpowers states are located in this region. For that reason is very important to understand and know how to deal with those cultures in order to have prosperous negotiations. Cultural intelligence could be a great skill to analyze and solve possible conflicts originated from cross-cultural interaction.

Questions:

List the main similarities and differences of Japanese and Korean management styles.
Japanese Management Style:

-Growth strategy
-Aggregate pricing, economies of scale
-Supplier relationship
-Participation low-middle level management
-Right kind of customers
-Flexible manufacturing
-Corporate values

Korean Management Style

- Grown oriented

-Japan economic model
-Government intervention

References

Photo taken from http://www.uppermidwest.org/, March 17th 2010

Expatriates Assignment & Overseas Experience

Our classmates explained the differences between an expatriate assignment and an overseas experience. Expatriates assignments refers to people who go to another country, hired in most cases by transnational companies, in order to work effectively in an international scenario. After a period of working outside of his or her home country, the person might return to his or her country and share with coworkers all the knowledge and the skills acquire in order to improve the company at its domestic market. While overseas experience is more related with young people who go abroad for a prolonged period for several purposes like study, travel or work. An overseas experience begins with the person’s individual decision of going abroad.

There are different kinds of expatriates which are long-term expatriate assignments, short-term expatriate assignment, international commuter, and frequent flyer. Also, there are several strategic reasons for international assignments like professional development, knowledge transfer, fulfillment of scarce skills, control, and coordination.

The main characteristics of an overseas experience are cultural experience as important as work, geographical mobility, curiosity-driven, personal learning agendas, individual is self-supporting, and weak company attachments. There are also several experiences like self-directed experimentation, self-designed apprenticeships, cast off negative past legacies, find occupational industry identity, develop confidence and self-reliance, return with clearer career focus, increased interest in self-employment, and gives to individual the opportunity to find their own learning.

In a nutshell, Expatriates assignments are made to professional and are directed to increase the productivity of the company. While overseas experience is more a personal development that could be useful for the individual in the academic, work and cultural field.

Questions:

Explain one of the causes for expatriate assignment failure and provide 3 recommendations to address it:
One of the big issues regarding expatriate assignments is the family matter. In some cases the person has to leave his or her family behind which results in the early return of the expatriate due to emotional involvements that impede him or her to do their tasks in an appropriate way. In the case that the employee could leave with its family, other problems arouse like that they could not adapt to the new environment. Another important issue concerning expatriate assignments is the inadequate selection criteria, when a manager choose the wrong person to go abroad the feedbacks of the experience could be lose as a results of the insufficient competences of the employee to assimilate the procedures.
The best ways to avoid these situations to happen with an expatriate assignment are:
Managers should develop a proper selection process which allow him/her to identify the different skills need to take advantage of the situation. Taking into account that sends a person overseas is not a cheap procedure, managers should be aware of the selection criteria which permit them to pick the most capable employee.
Make the transfer easier to the employee as well as to the family, meaning by that, having a previous investigation of the host country which let he family know the conditions and life standards of the surroundings. Also, provide them with the basic needs that a family necessitates to adapt to a new environment like house, schools, medical insurance and a good remuneration.

References

Photo taken from www.krishnanco.com/Stock/Expatriate.jpg, March 14th, 2010

Exploring Diversity

The following topic was Exploring Diversity. Cristina explained different concepts like: the characteristics of diversity, dimensions, and cultural issues. We also saw different situation in which diversity played an essential role and discussed the possible solutions to the cases.

Diversity is a fundamental component within organizations today, because globalization has increase the number of people moving from one place to another. Managers must deal with employees from different race, religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, cultures among others. This diversity could transfer into advantages to the companies, because there would be different points of view and several approaches to solve a possible trouble. It is more likely to individuals or groups that differ form other groups or individuals in matters of religion, race and political orientation to enter in conflict. These conflicts often occur as a consequence of discrimination.

According to Cant, there are some competencies to understand diversity that could be useful to mitigate the impact of cultural issues. These competencies are: flexibility, resourcefulness, tolerance for ambiguity, vision, cultural self- awareness, cultural consciousness, and multicultural leadership. Also an important skill to deal with these conditions is cultural intelligence which is the ability to operate in a variety of situations.

In my opinion, diversity is an important part of ours lives nowadays. It depends of how we manage the different circumstances in which we need to interact with people from diverse races or ideologies. Through these situations, we can learn and have more tools that we can implement in different negotiations or in our day life.


¿Do you think the entry and integration of new members to the European Union are processes that promote diversity? or, on the contrary, ¿strive to homogenize the European Society?

I think that the integration of new members to the European Union are processes that promote diversity, because all countries from Europe have different races and cultures, that means, that with the incorporation of one state they are allowing diverse people which came from another background and customs.

According to Toggenburg, The European Commission recognizes that European societies are multi-cultural and multiethnic. The degree of that diversity depends to a significant level on the kind of immigration policy implemented. As a result, the control of borders, the decision who can enter a territory and reside there lays at the core of the management of ethics and cultural diversity.

The moment of integration covers a broad range of ambitious measures accommodating migrants and minorities within a society. With respect to European Union citizens who moved to another stated and form minorities, the Union did not adopt a distinctive integrative policy. The overall prohibition of any way of discrimination on the basis of nationality is meant to cover these groups. Therefore, the fundamental freedoms and EU citizenship assure discrimination-free access to social and economic rights. The law also covers the right of preservation of cultural identity. (Toggenburg 2005)

As we can identify in the document there are a lot of policies that protect migrants and minorities in the European Union assuring the same rights to nationals or migrants. Hence they are encouraging cultural identity within the countries that belong to the Union and they are not trying to shape a uniformity society.

References

Photo taken from http://www.gettyimages.com/, March 10th 2010

Toggenburg, Gabriel N. 2005. “Who is managing ethnic and cultural diversity in the European Condominium? The moments of entry, integration and preservation”. Journal of Common Market Studies 43 (4) 717-38.

Migrant Workers

Our classmates explicated the concept of migration which consists in a person who is to be engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a state of which she or he is not a national. Another definition for migrant workers is a voluntary or involuntary movement of people from one place to another.

This movement of people is not new; it has been happened for ages. Migrant work initiates at the same time to the conquest of the empires and the discovery of new land. During the European Colonization 27 million slaves were trade as migrant work. This ended in the ethnical mixture of culture in every region of the world.

There are several motives for a person to migrate and in the same way there are different types of migration: internal migration, external migration, chain migration, step migration, seasonal migration and impelled migration. People migrate for two causes: the push –few opportunities, slavery, political fear, pollution, among others- and the pull –aspects to get out of the country like job opportunities, better standards of lifestyle, education, and etc-.

The principal destinations to people to migrate are: North America, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand and the main sources of migrant workers are: Asia, Latin America and Africa. The primary causes to people to move from one country to another are: social and economic exclusion, the attraction generate by developed countries, the need of these countries of counting with migration, the internal armed conflicts and the natural disasters.


Questions:

¿Do you think the Points System in Canada is meant to protect the country’s sovereignty? or ¿is it just a deliberated form of discrimination? ¿why?

I think the Points System in Canada is intended to protect the country’s sovereignty and is not a deliberated form of discrimination, because the Point System replaced another criterion which was based on religion and race. This new criteria emphasized the skills, education, and training of the independent immigrant rather than his or her ethnic or confessional background. The efficacy of the Points System, with its emphasis on immigrants of a skilled or professional occupational profile, has been mitigated by the number of individuals admitted to Canada as dependents, family members or refugees. The admission of dependents as economic or business class immigrants has been justified as both humane and practical. The government maintains that the ready admission of dependents has enhanced the country’s pull in its competition for the truly skilled. Canada can choose to relax its restrictions on immigration in order to maintain current or desired levels.

Canada implemented this policy in order to contend the old problem of brain drain. Canadian professional were moving to United States, these brought economic consequences to Canada. The Points System was created to equilibrate the previous situation.

In my opinion, this system is a useful tool for Canadian government, because they can control in a better way the people who are travelling to their country. The measure is not discriminatory because they are not basing on religion, ethnic or cultural backgrounds. By the contrary, they are basing on certain skills that could be acquired with some degree of education and training.

References

Photo taken from www.gettyimages.com, March 15th 2010

Verbeeten, David. 2007. The Past and Future of Immigration to Canada. Journal of International Migration & Integration, 8(1): 1-10.

Managing Diversity

This was the first topic presented by students. Mauricio and Daniel explained the importance of diversity in a company and how it may affect the decision, atmosphere and status. They gave explanation about how diversity spreads through many layers of human complexity. Managers should view multiculturalism as an opportunity to maximize innovation and communication skills.

Managing diversity can increase the good performance of the staff of an organization, using the teamwork as an approach of support and creativity. It is important to deal with diversity, to be more productive, the entire individuals have different capacities that the company could use to improve its efficiency.

According to Chevrier, diversity cannot be an obstacle in the organization, the cooperation between companies is necessary to be more competitive. The alliances are a key part for businesses for that reason is important that the students be open-mind and expert in topics like managing conflicts, communication, accepting authority and cooperation.

Diversity benefits individuals, teams and organizations. In the individual increase employee self-awareness of biases, stereotypes and prejudices, enhance worker tolerance for people who are different, and form employees who are more flexible and able to deal with change. In the teams maximizes innovation and productivity on complex tasks, counter with different approaches to thinking and problem-solving, and improve communication skills and the ability to work productively in groups. In the organization augment flexibility, adaptability and pro-activity within the organization, access to a diverse range of markets, customers, suppliers and distributors, translating into bottom line results.


Questions:

Is diversity management at IBM a source of competitive advantage? Why?
Management diversity at IBM is a source of competitive advantage for several motives. To start, the approach permits IBM to have a broader perspective of customer, understanding the range of diversity and multicultural aspects that could be found within the market. This helps to make their products more accessible to new markets and legislations in order to generate more profit. Another important fact is that the strategy facilitates IBM to integrate all the employees and understand the different values that each culture brings to the company.
In a nutshell, having a diversity management contributes to understand and be prepared to compete in global markets due to the fact that societies are pretty different around the world, and be aware of diversity make easier to the company to adapt to new environments.
Do you think the IBM case reflects a strong organizational commitment to diversity?
IBM case reflects a strong organizational commitment to diversity because they are implementing a strategy that consists in creates eight tasks forces that people with different appearance and characteristics like: Whites, Asians, Blacks, handicaps, and people with different sexual orientation. The purpose of the tactic was to understand differences among groups in order to gain knowledge of it and make improvements. IBM strategy was successful because all the people were involved in it, from the highest levels to the operators. Thanks to this plan the number of executives with disabilities has increased more than three times.

References

Photo taken from http://www.gettyimages.com/, March 16th 2010

Sylvie, Chevrier. 2003. "Cross-cultural management in multinational project groups " Journal of World Business 38:141-149.

National And Organizational Culture

The second topic was national and organizational culture. Cristina explained that organizations are groups that have the same objective, whether its economic or social, and control their objectives. She also made clear different concepts like: culture, organizational culture, functions of culture, the difference between national culture and organizational culture and functions of culture within an organization. We also saw how a nation could be similar/ different to a culture and discussed different definitions of culture and which factors could affect an international company.

Culture is a set of traditional beliefs and values that are shared and transmitted. Values and perceptions differ according to the culture; misunderstanding culture could be costly to an organization. Organizational culture refers to the effect of national culture on ways of doing business. Knowledge of organizational culture, management attitudes and business methods existing in a country and the willingness to accommodate the differences are important to success.

The corporation

The film was about the evolution and impact of the corporation since early years until today and the cost of the exceptional wealth. The film began showing the diverse definitions of the corporation and how this legal person is the cause of poverty, death, pollution and exploitation. The Catholic Church and the Communist Party were pretty good examples of corporations nearly 100 years ago. The unethical behaviour of the Global Superpowers shows an anti-social personality not only with person but also to the environment, the corporations are psychopaths.

The documentary explains the concept of the corporation and showed how the industry manipulates the consumer and forgets the ethic of the market. The movie criticized the capitalist system, the advertising of the brands and some other topics. It left a difficult situation whether to be or not in the side of the corporation, or how to equilibrates both parts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pin8fbdGV9Y

Question: Do you think there is a corporate culture in every organization?

I think that corporate culture is inherent to the organization. Cultural organization is the mode how things are made, procedures, and norms within the company. Te corporate culture are adopt though the time pass by and are communicate from directors to their employees.

The problem is that in many companies they have one but it is not working properly. There is more to corporate culture than national culture, but it is hard to separate them. When entrepreneurs start businesses, they do what make sense to them in the context of values and assumptions they may had in mind since they were children. How they treat their people, and what they expect, may depend on national cultural assumptions so deeply rooted that few ever question them. (Millman, Gregory 2007)

Mergers and Acquisitions can fail due to incompatibility in their corporate culture. In many M & A’s deals synergy is not achieved.

References

Millman Gregory. Corporate Culture: more myth than reality? While business success and failure are often laid to “culture” the term is elusive and frequently misused. Experts in organization behaviour say it is difficult to alter a company’s culture, and when it does shifts, it is often the result of successful business performance changes. July 2007

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Ethnographic Research

The first topic in Organizations & Cultures was Ethnography. According to the document proposed to the subject, Ethnography is a social science research method which uses personal experience and possible participation as a study technique. The ethnographic main point could include intensive language and cultural learning, intensive study of a single field or domain, and a blend of historical, observational, and interview methods. The most common kind of data collections are: interview, observation, and documents.

These methods are a means of tapping local points of view, households and community funds of knowledge, a means of identifying significant categories of human experience up-close and personal.

Ethnography requires emic and ethic perspectives. Emic refers to the intrinsic cultural distinctions that are meaningful to the members of a give society. The native members of a culture are the sole judges of the validity of an emic description, just as the native speakers of a language are the sole judges of the accuracy of a phonemic identification. An emic constructs its correctly termed, if it is in accord with the perceptions and understandings considered appropriate by the insider’s culture (consensus). Ethic refers to the extrinsic concepts and categories that have meaning for scientific observers. Scientists are the sole judges of the validity of an ethic account. An ethic constructs its correctly termed, if it is in accord with the epistemological principles deemed appropriate by science.

As a set of methods, ethnography is not far removed from the sort of approach that we use all in everyday life to make sense of our surroundings. It is less specialized and less technically sophisticated that approaches like the experiment or the social survey.

Question: How Ethnographic research can be used for international business?

Ethnographic research can improve the legitimacy and reliability of business communication research by using both quantitative and qualitative methods and studying both real life and simulations. The research themes highly ranked by managers were teamwork, negotiations, and listening. A study made using Delphi panels illustrated that 41 international business people and 22 educators agree that the team communication, the media used and nonverbal patterns, such as silence and translation problems and diversity should be taught. Two of the top matters for a focused intercultural business communication course are attribution and negotiation. (Smeltzer, 1993)

The methodology used to describe the impact of these techniques in international business, is an abstract approach because ethnographic and sociolinguistic studies rarely focus on outcomes, tactics, and effectiveness of negotiations. Ethnographic analysis may use real life situations.
Interviews, observation, and documents can be used for international business in order that these tools could identify the needs of a group. Having enough information will have a positive impact in different situations of business like decide a proper strategy, recognize a possible difficulty and understand diverse cultures.

References

Innovation and International Business Communication: Can European Research Help to increase the Validity and Reliability for Our. The Journal of Business Communication, April 2000
Genzuk Michael. A Synthesis of Ethnographic Research

Photo taken from Jareaux Robin, Examining Hieroglyphics. March 16 ,2010