Religious Implications for International Bussines

Religion is:

Shared beliefs and rituals concerned with the realm of the sacred.

Moral principles or values used to guide and shape behavior.

Shapes attitudestoward work and entrepreneurship and can affect the cost of doing business.

Sociologists concluded that every religion separates the sacred from the profane.
The particular things considered sacred vary from culture to culture.

Religion gives formal approval to existing social arrangements.

Karl Marx believed that once people have created a unified system of sacred beliefs and practices, they act as if it were something beyond their control. Religion words against social change.Max Weber suggested the religion sometimes encourages social change.

Christianity
 

Max Weber suggested that the Protestant work ethicand its focus on hard work, wealth creation, and frugality was the driving force of capitalism.

Islam

A society based on social justice, equity, & moderation.

Businesses that are perceived to be making a profit through the exploitation of others, by deception, or by breaking contractual obligations are unwelcome

Hinduism

Practiced primarily on the Indian sub-continent, focuses on the importance of achieving spiritual growth and development, which may require material and physical self-denial
Hindu asceticism is said to undermine entrepreneurial activity

Buddhism
 

Buddhismis also seen as a religion whose focus on spiritual achievement undermines wealth creation.

Confusianism

Interest of collectivity is higher than that of individual (Fang 1999).

Confucius taught that salvation is attained through right action based on three key teachings:Loyalty to one ifs superiors .Reciprocal obligations of superiors to subordinates (guanxi) Honesty These teachings may lower the cost of doing business in Confucian societies

Question

What is the dominant religion in Colombia? What are the religious implications for doing business here? Give examples.

The dominant religion in colombia is catholic religion, but doing bussines here in colombia the religion has no implications, if there was any implications, it was in the past but not now, you can be
catholic and if you steal in the bussines, you commit a sin, but nowadays sadly nobody cares about that.


References

Fang, T (1999) Chinese Business Negotiating Style, London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Hill, C. (2007) International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace. 7ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Weber, M. (1958) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, New York: Scribner's Press.

Organizational Diversity

Diversity is:

The variation of social and cultural identities among people existing together in a defined employment or market setting (Cox 2001).

Groups made up of diverse personnel do a better job of analyzing and attacking problems (ibid).

Diversity can be an advantage if it is valued and well managed and that diversity is not to be simply tolerated butencouraged, supported and nurtured.(Jamieson and O’Mara 1991). 

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Group

Two or more people with common interest, objectives, and continuing interaction.

Team

A group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common mission, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.

Group Behavior

Norms of Behavior: The standards that a work group uses to evaluate the behavior of its members. 

Gropu Cohesion: The “interpersonal glue” that makes members of a group stick together. 

Social Loafing: The failure of a group member to contribute personal time, effort, thoughts, or other resources to the group.

Loss of Individuality: A social process in which individual group members lose self-awareness and its accompanying sense of accountability, inhibition, and responsibility for individual behavior.

A group member cab contributein different ways this drives intellectual discuss and promotes problem resolution, the styles are:

Contributor: data driven supplies information.

Collaborator: big pictures focuses team on mission

Communicator: listens facilitates and promotes collective effort.

Challenger: devils advocate, question missions, purpose, ethics.

Diversity managment is a way of creating an environment that will enable all people to use full potential to accomplish the mission.

Question

Since diversity is a source of competitive advantage, what could be the recruitment strategies to  effectively target to diverse groups? What would be the consequences of ignoring diversity?

Well, in my experience you dont have to do an special strategy to recruit diverce groups, you can not put in the recruitmet request, "please diverce people", the people come to you, and if this persons are different dont throw them away here is the clue, if the person is different but it has enougth capabilities it will be able for the job.

References

Cox Jr., T. (2001) Creating the multicultural organization. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Ely, R. and Thomas, D. (2001) “Cultural Diversity at Work: The Effects of Diversity Perspectives on Work Group Processes and Outcomes,” Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 2, 2001, pp. 229–273.

Jamieson, D. and O’Mara, J. (1991) Managing workforce 2000: Gaining the diversity advantage.

Organizational Communication

Communication: The words their pronunciation and the methods of cobining them used and undestood by a group of people.

Organizational communication is nowadays very important to manage bussines information, managment information and mass communication. In the communication will be speakers ams liseners.

Reflexive Lisening: the skill of listening carefully to another person and repeating back to the speaker the heard message to correct any inaccuracies or misunderstandings.

There are types of communication:

One way communication: comminication in wich a person sends a message to another person and no question feed back and interaction flow.

Two-way communication: a form of communication in which the communicator  and reciever interact.

Non verbal communication: all elements of communication that do not involves words.

• Proxemics:
• Kinesics
• Facia and eye behavior
• paralanguaje

One of the most important is proxemics, this concept consist in the space extending outward from de body, this space depend of the culture.

The communication also have barriers, this barriers are:

• Physical separation
• Status differences
• Gender differences
• Cultural diversity
• Language

                                                          http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2008/01/18/virtual_teams_best_practices_when.htm

Today the communication has become easier thnks to the communication revolution as internet, facebook, mobile phones, blogs and virtual teams.The most important and the most revolutionary of the is the virtual teams, because it allows groups and time dispersed workers brougth together by information technologies and accomplish one or more tasks for an organization. And today the information technologies is providing more and more resources to improve this type of communication and culture that is becoming revolutionary and is becoming the worplaces flexible and responsible.

Today and in the future the tendency is to adopt the virtual teams culturem but others dont agree with this affirmation because they said that the virtual teams dont provide confience and ae very vulnerable comunnication breack downs, conflict, and power struggles.

Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1NyIBiYuFQ

Question

Accroding to Kuruppuarachchi (2009), what benefits and problems arise as a consequence of the creation of virtual team? Identify five each. Based on this, explain how to make the transition from a more traditional team structure to the more distributed team structure?

Virtual teams offer great benefits as cost savings, flexibility it enables teamwork in situations where people are not sitting in the same physical office at the same time,cut travel,relocations, help build global prescence and meny other benefits. But also with virtual teams other kind of ploblems arise as lack of project visibility,failure to see emotional aspects of members, dificulty in contactsa, technology constraints and misundestanding most od them are associated with comunication.

The transition of traditional teams to more distributed team structure as virtual teams can be made with mentoring and coaching, and selecting the rigth people, because a good manager not always will be a good manager througth a screen, and many times the same managment charge if its going to be related with virtual teams will need other types of capabilities, the best solution is to research how a type of managment for example ris managment is better comunicated by a virtual team.

References

Time Managment Guide.com. "Virtual team benefits and challenges." Personal time management and goal setting guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 May 2011. <http://www.time-management-guide.com/virtual-team.html>. 

Kuruppuarachchi, P. R. (2009). Virtual team concepts in projects: A case study Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/218750033?accountid=45662

Nelson, D and Quick, J.C. (2009) Organizational culture. In Organisational
Behavour: Science, the real world and you.

Migrant Workers and Expatriate Assignments

 Today migrations or expatriates are very popular around the world,when you talk about migrations it involves movement of people from one country to another, or from one region to another, among professionals, students or ethnic communities, and why they are migrating? Most of them to looking for better opportinities, and other for pleasure or knowledge.

When we said that migration is for better opportinities we are talking about migrant workers in the most of the cases, one clear example is the workers migration in china, they migrate inside their country to look for better opportunities and they are millions.

When migrants or expatriates came in to an organization the have to go to a socialization procces and acculturitation process thar affect their carrer entities, this people need to be reskilled to fit in the host contry.

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When migrants or expatriates arrive there is a integration two process, they are adaptation of the migrants and from the hosts of the new contry. 

Expatriates are productive persons in firms they are recognized for their work ans potential, but they always have mentors with carrer coaching and social support.

Question.

 

Explain how easy is it  for Colombian companies to employ expatriates locally? Give exmples o suggest what could be done. 

I think  for Colombian companies is easy to employ expatriates locally, because here is easy to enter from everyone in the world, and if they are people with talent they will be  recieved very easy here.

A clear example is in Haceb, they employ a know person, from chile because he is a very good engienner, and haver do all the papers to keep him here in the country.

References.

 

Kram, K.E. (1985) MentoringAt Work, Scott, Foresman: Glenview.

 

Expatriate. (n.d.). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved March 11, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/expatriate

Expatriate. (n.d.). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved March 11, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/expatriate

Organizational Culture in Merging Process

Organizational Culture:

A pattern of basic assumptions that are considered valid and that are taugth to new members as the way to percieve, think, and feel in the organzation.

Mergers and Acquisitions:

Mergers and Acquisitions are when a firm renew its market position at a speed not achievable thougth internal development, merging implies the construction of a new social identity. the mergers create value in the companies implied.

The organizational integration variables are particulary relevant in the acquisition procces, there is a motive of the acquisition, and there is a precces of implementation.

Acculturative Procces:

Is when to groups adapts to each other and resolve emergent conflict, it occurs when conflictive groups have cultural differentation, and organizational forces reject integration.

The succes of a integration process depend primarly on, the managers ability to reconcile the need for strategic interdependence between the two firms, the need for organizational autonomy, amd the existence of cultural fit.

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Managing the ultural differences has been proved as a more realistic and succesful strategy in integration proccess than finding the ideal culture fit.

Question:

Acording to the case studies what are the practical steps to minimize the feeling of uncertainty normally expected by employees, and also to facilitate the learning proccess to occur between the two groups of people in their process of cultural and behavioral integration?

The practical steps are, create  positive atsmophere for capability transfer before initiating any actual consolidation of human and physical assets. Appropiate integration strategies implementation can facilitate the learning and acculturitation proccess resulting in minimising the uncertainties in the work place, and increasing the willingness to cooperate and to be part of a new culture entity.

References

Salama, Alzira, Wayne Holland, and Gerald Vinten. "Challenges and opportunities in mergers ans acquisitions. ." Journal of European Industrial Training 27 (2003): 313-321. Print. 

Organizational Learning

Knowledge: is the capacity for effective action.

Learning: a process of aquiring knowledge or a skill

Social learning Theory:

Explains human behavior in terms of continous reciprocal interaction between cognitive,behavioral, and enviromental influences.

Goal Settings:

Procces of establishing desires result that guide and direct behavior.

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Learning Organizations:

Places where people continually expand their capacities to create the results they truly desire.

Why Learning Organizatios?:

Organizations that experimented with new ways of conduction bussines in order to survive in turbulent higly competitive markets.

To obtain and sustain competitive advantage, organizatiosnmust enhancetheir learningcapability and must be ableto learn better and faster from their successes and failures from withing and from outside.

How Organizational Learning Works?:

As competitive advantage organizations should have the capacity to collect new information and transfer in to action.

Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uneo8xWUeq4

Question:

  

What is the relationship between organizational learning and individual satisfaction?

The relationship consist in that the individual satisfaction, is a prerequisite of organizational learning, if there is an individual satisfaction there will be learning and evolution with the organization, each person is a part of the organization, and if each person is not satisfied with what are he doing he will not participate and share iside the organization. 


References.

Singh, Kavita. "An Analysis Of Relationship Between The Learning Organization And Organization Culture In Indian Bussines Organization.." Organizational Markets In Emerging Economies 1 (2010): 142-164. Print.

Leadership Styles and Managment Styles

Manage is: To bring about. to acomplish, to have chargeof or responsability for, to conduct.

Leading is: influencing guiding in direction,course, action, opinion.

Managment process: Reduce uncertainty, Provides stability.

Managers advocate for stability and status quo.

Leadership Process: Crates uncertainty, Creates change.

Leaders advocate for change and new aproaches to problems.

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Managment and leadership are diferrent but complemetary systems of action. An effective leadership produces useful change, and a effective managment controls complexity, if both of them are well managed there will be a healthy organization.

There are two types of leadership,Formal Leadership, and informal leadership. There is a third terms named, followship, thisone is importan too, because this means the process of being guided and directed by a leader in the work enviroment.

The fundamental act of leadership consist to induce people to be aware or concious of what they feel, to create a purposefully action.

Contingency Theory.

Involve the belif  that leader style mustbe appropiate for the particular situation.

Involvement.

Is a key leadership practiceto ensure youfacilitate ownership and gain commitment and involvement. it results in betterdesitionsbefore moving forward with valuable organization resources.

                                                                                               culturewav.es

New Research in leadership.

Transformational leaders: Leaders who inspires followers to transend their self-interest ans achieve exepcional performance .

Charismatic leaders: a leaders use of personal abilities and talents in orderto have profoundans extraordinary effects on followers.

Authentic leaders: a leader who is guided by explicit values that enphasize collective interest.

Question.

Do you (or would you want to) work in a autocratic,democratic,or consulative work enviroment? What migth be the advantages and disadvantages of each?

 I would want to work in a democratic work enviroment, because the leaders are the one to ask for collaboration with the followers, if they dont need it they wont ask for it, so the participation is limited. This is the advantage of democratic work enviroment, because your participation is limited, the disadvantage can be that the leaders can make desitions wothout hearing others. In the consulative work enviroment, there are much people and much ideas, and the most of the time you can not accomplish all the ideas or suggestions, this can be a disadvantage, the advantage can be that all other participants can feel as an important part of the organizations.
And the autocratic work enviroment, it wot be very goo at all, because you will have to work, and you can not suggest or participate in anithing. you alwayis will have to do what the leader want.


References.

Lee, Jangho, Thomas W. Roehl, and Soonkyo Choe. "What makes managment style similar and distinct across borders? Grouth experience and culture in korean and japanece firms." Journal of International Bussines Studies 31 (2000): 631-652. Print.