organizational Diversity

Inside an organizational it is very important to have the perfect people unite  and come together to have the best group or a teams in order to run an organization propertly. Why is this???? Because the group behavior counts  every step of the way when running an organization. This aspects can be divided into 4 grups (normas of behavior, group cohesion, social loafing, and loss of individuality. But what is the difference between a group and a team. A group is two or more people with common interests, objectives, and continuing interaction. And a team is 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.

Bulding a good group it is very important because each member would bring something diferrent to the table, for example one can be the contributer meaning the one that brings important information, or the collaborator, that focuses the tema on the mission, also you can be the communicator or the challenger, either way it is important that each individual brings something special and different to the group. This is when we talk about diversity The variation of social and cultural identities among people existing together in a defined employment or market setting (Cox 2001). The benefit of a diverse workplace is the ability to tap into many talents which employees from different backgrounds perspectives, abilities and disabilities bring to the workplace. Lindenberger (2010) in the long term diversity can be challenging to accept for many bosses, but the truth is that the success of many business calls for diverse body of talent that can bring freash ideas, perspectives, and views, and a corporate mindset that values those views. It´s also no secret, that the lack of diversity can affect your ability to communicate effectively with diverse clients. Lindenberger(2010) since todays business world is all about globalization.

According to Slater et al. (2008), what are the actions likely to enhance organization-wide commitment to diversity? Explain which one could be most applied in the context of Colombia.

according to Slater et al. (2008),  the drive to diversity board composition is a direct result of the momement toward diversity of the workforce, customer base, and other stakeholders. organizations want a wider range of leadership skills, workstyle , perspectives , and expertise, as well as increased reperesentation of women and minorities among board directs. in the colombian case i think customer base can be the most relevant that can be applied to  becuase  colombians business have the good quality that it is higly important for them that its coustomers resieved top of the line products becuase is what they would like to received  in return.

BIBLIO

Lindenberger, J., & Stoltz-Loike, M. (2010). Diversity in the Workplace. Business West, 27(1), 22. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Slater et al. (2008),  ¨The business case for commitment to diversity¨Business Horizon 51: 201-209

Religious implications for International Business



Albert einstein
http://curiosomundoazul./
blogspot.com/2010
/08
/frases-de-albert-einstein.html



¨Albert Erisman: I'm wondering if religion and spirituality have more to do with business than most people think.¨

And is true Albert, religion does effect business and you know why where ever you are??? Because it affect our behavior, our attitudes towers work, the way we look at the world, etc. but what is religion, according to Dictionary.com says: "A religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a supernatural agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs." In other words, a religion is a group of people who come together to study and practice based on its understanding of what God wants us to do.

It is very important to value and respect other religions we can say that its main function is to give formal approval to existing social arrangements, to justify or give official approval to encourages a sense of unity, it provides a sense of understanding and it promotes a sense of belonging.

Religion is a very important factor in international business and the way the negotiations are done, because the religion has the power to influence all the things that people do in certain countries and regions, in almost every developing country there is some religion or caste that tells the people through pastors, priest or leaders how to behave, what is good or bad, and the best way to obtain the salvation of the spirit: and a lot of people say that this is way these countries never reach to develop and continue on the material poverty.

However, when doing business it is important to understand the beliefs of other cultures to get the best of it and to have a better negotiation climate.

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

The dominant religion in Colombia is the Catholic with a percentage of 81 of the total population, followed by Protestantism 13.5%, Judaism 2,3% and others representing a very little percentage of the total population. I don’t think there are much implication with the religion in Colombia and it affecting the business. Because catholic is not a religion that has any protocol or like stric rules regarding the business world. it pretty much stays out of this matters.

BIBLIO

·         Blake, T. H. (1991). Jstor. Retrieved may 2011, from Managing Cultural Diversity: Implications for Organizational Competitiveness: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4165021

·         Parker, P. D. (1999, may). Jstor. Retrieved may 2011, from Strategies for Managing Human Resource Diversity: From Resistance to Learning: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4165541

Organizational Communication

In today’s world, it is very important to know to to get to people meaning how to communicate. In my 2 years of university I have done endless presentation and the true meaning behind all of this presentation is actually to stop being shy and learn how to communicate, because is what we would be doing once we graduate and if you can’t communicate you are lost homie. Communication is is the sharing of ideas and information. While many people think of communication primarily in oral or written form,  but there is actually more several factors surrounding  communication, this are: interpersonal communication, the communicator, the receiver, the perceptual screen, languages, data, information, richness etc.

Now lets not think that communication is only when you speak. A simple look or a gentle touch can also communicate a message loud and clear, as can a hard push or an angry slap, this is what we call non verbal communication. Non verbal communication is All elements of communication that do not involve words. There are four basic types. One, Proxemics which is an individual’s perception & use of space. Two, Kinesics, the study of body movements, including posture. Three, Facial & eye behavior, the movements that add cues for the receiver. And four, Paralanguage, which is the variations in speech.

Sorry…..but life is not only about communication, we must also learn how to listen to other, because of course we want others to listen to us too. Reflexive Listening is the skill of listening carefully to another person and repeating back to the speaker the heard message to correct any inaccuracies or misunderstandings.

And why am I talking about communication and listening????? Because we mist keep up with the world, and we most understand that in today’s organizations is changing and is not the usual face to face contact with co-workers, now there is virtual teams. Virtual teams are groups of geographically, organizationally and/or time dispersed workers brought together by information technologies to accomplish one or more organization tasks’’ (Powell et al., 2004). Virtual teams allows people to be in different part of the world, yet come together to run and work for the same company , The team task is so highly structured that coordination by team members is rarely necessary and Team members communicate through asynchronous means.

According 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?

According to Kuruppuarachchi, he believes that virtual teams has  the good ability to advances in information and communications technologies, particularly web-based techniques, that facilitates the development of electronically integrated virtual organizations, offering organizations global reach and collaboration capabilities. He also thinks of virtual teams as organizations that are becoming more common in attempt to reduce cost, improve quality, competed globally, improve customer services, accelerate the product development cycle, and flexible working hours for the employees, eliminating of time-consuming travel to a central office. But he doesn’t support virtual teams all the way; he highlights several drawbacks of this type of organization. They can be ineffective communication in the absence of nonverbal components of messages, lack of leisure time for team members because they tend to be overloaded with work, resistance to unstructured nature of teams, loss of vision, security concerns in the online environment, lack of permanent records, too many members on some teams, and added pressure due to overemphasis on speed.

To make a transition from a more traditional team structure to the more distributed team structure it is very important that the employees has it responsabilties very clear since they would be workin very independently, the team leader must set standar norms of conduct and make them explicit, sicn he wont be present to see who is doing what and if they are following what they are told to do, and the reward systems of the organization have to recognize collective performance of the team. Also high levels of trust, clear communication, strong leadership, and appropriate level of technology , are very important to keep in mind when making the transition from a more traditional team structure to a distributed team.

BIBLIO

v Kuruppuarachchi, P. R. (2009). Virtual team concepts in projects. Project management Journal 40. No.2:19-33

v Reddick, E. (2011). Add value to your organization with good communication skills. Enterprise/Salt Lake City, 40(37), 14. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
vResearch and, M. (0004, May). Research and Markets: Virtual Team Success: A Practical Guide for Working and Leading from a Distance. Business Wire (English). Retrieved from EBSCOhost..

Migrant workers and Expatriate assignment

expariate. retrieved from
http://deborahcolumn.blogspot.com/2010/09/native-expatriates.html

This is a blog entry i can really relate i didn´t need to reasearch much, since I was an migrant once, and is not a pretty picture at all. As most migrants in the work, me and my family left Colombia looking for a better job opportunities and I better life, In the U.S.A. also according to the Abraham Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Model, the majority of people feel the necessity to leave their country where they are having little progress in their life in reach of their basic need. This are: self-actualization, esteem needs, social needs, safety need and physiological needs. Migrants can relate to the term Expatriate, which means to exile (oneself) from one's native country or cause (another) to go into exile. But expatriate also refers to positive growing educational things such for today’s students such as expatriate assignment, where, consists of sequences of experiences across both organizations and jobs. This is a big trend going on today world. There is not a better thing to have but a CV or resume fill with different job experience all around the world. Talking from experience, since my goal is to travel and gain lots of work experience in Brazil. Expatriate assignment, implies, according to (Meziasand Scandura2005)Expatriates undergo a socialization and acculturation process that affects their career identities, also The expatriate assignment(pre-departure, expatriation, and repatriation) requires cycles of reskilling for the expatriate to make necessary adjustments to the host country, and home-country readjustments up on return.

I mean is just a question of opening your eyes to see how slowly everyday countries are working and interacting more and more with diverse cultures. And this process requires adaptation on the part of newcomers but also by the host society, because is something we can´t stop from happening and we have to get used to it

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

I think is not easy for Colombian companies to employ expatriates because right now we are not an industrialized country, which is very unattractive when it comes to looking for god job opportunities. I mean, if for us Colombians is hard to get a good job here, where our career is appreciated now think how it would be for foreigners. But is not all bad, in my university I have experience many interaction with people from all over the world where the reason why they come here is  because Colombia and specially Medellin is such a beautiful country, fill with amazing mountains and beautiful women. I think is very important for Colombia to offer more job opportunities and to become a develop country because we have all the potential to do it, by doing this it would become a more attractive country to migrate to.

BIBLIO.

+Gamburt, Michele. 2009 ¨ADVOCSTING FOR SRI LANKA MIGRANT WORKERS.¨ critical Asian studies 41, no. 1: 61-88

+Inkson, Kerr et al. 1999. ¨EXPARIATE ASSIGNMENTS AND OVERSEAS EXPERIENCES-CONTRASTING MODELS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT. Journal of world Business. 34. 351-368

The Role of Organizational Culture in Merging Process

merger. retrive from
http://www.paddypowertrader.com/blog/index.php/shares-indices/
mergers-and-acquisitions-explained/

Mergin  is a speacila type of acquisition in which two firms join forces to create new large firm. A more formal definitican  according to the Oxford Dictionary of Business (2nd ed., 1996) the term merger is defined as:A combination of two or more businesses on an equal footing that results in the creation of a new reporting entity formed from the combining businesses. The shareholders of the combining entities mutually share the risks and rewards of the new entity and no one party to the merger obtains control over the other. But let not forget that acquisition is very close bonded with merger, acquisition refers to a direct investment or purchase of an existing company or an facility.

Let me tell, you this is the latest trend in the business world! All the big companies are doing it..

Let´s look at the most popular  M&A deals worldwide by value (in mil. USD) from 2000 to 2010.

Rank	Year	Purchaser	Purchased	Transaction value (in mil. USD)
1	2000	Fusion: America Online Inc. (AOL)[23][24]	Time Warner	164,747
2	2000	Glaxo Wellcome Plc.	SmithKline Beecham Plc.	75,961
3	2004	Royal Dutch Petroleum Co.	Shell Transport & Trading Co	74,559
4	2006	AT&T Inc.[25][26]	BellSouth Corporation	72,671
5	2001	Comcast Corporation	AT&T Broadband & Internet Svcs	72,041
6	2009	Pfizer Inc.	Wyeth	68,000
7	2000	Spin-off: Nortel Networks Corporation		59,974
8	2002	Pfizer Inc.	Pharmacia Corporation	59,515
9	2004	JP Morgan Chase & Co[27]	Bank One Corp	58,761
10	2008	Inbev Inc.	Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc	52,000

Most popular  M&A deals worldwide by value (in mil. USD) from 2000 to 2010.

retrived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mergers_and_acquisitions


Merger comes in different shapes and sizes. let look at this video that would explain the different type of mergers....

Why is this trend become everyday more and more popular??? Well a possible answer to this is because  merging can increase market share, it enables a firms to have more market share and therefore it is in a position to set higher prices and make more profit. Also if a the merging occur between a small and big firm, the  merger can enable greater efficiency because the larger firms can share fixed costs. And last, merging enables a firm to make more investment for Research and development. A more simple view of the advantages that we saw in class are:

•Economy of scale

•Economy of scope

•Increased revenue or market share

•Geographical or other diversification

•Resource transfer

One thing for sure is that the Organizational culture is very important to take into account when a merger is in the process. Many times people in an acquired company often complain that they don’t know what is happening, express fear about losing their jobs, and feel demoralized as to the future of their contributions and let not forget that employees are the motors of a company, they are what keeps the company moving, what keep the company alive!!!!

The success of this practice defenaly involves  cultural cohesion as a root strategic asset in merger and acquisition integration. It is important that the companies go under the microscope and identify the other company  disciplines, conditions, beliefs , attributions, background, culture view, etc. Noted anthropologist John Honigmann sums up those challenges…..

“Successful [cultural] diffusion is never automatically accomplished. Innovations diffuse when they meet certain conditions and diffusion promptly slows down or ceases when other conditions exist. Anthropologists who have studied what lies behind the spread of culture stress the importance of compatibility. Diffusion speeds up whenever an origination is congruent with strategic features of the receiving culture.”

According to the case studies (in class and in textbook), what are the practical steps to minimize the feelings of uncertainty normally expected by employees, and also to facilitate the learning process to occur between the two groups of people in their process of cultural and behavioral integration?

As mention before, Many times people in an acquired company often complain that they don’t know what is going on with the company they work every day at, express fear about losing their jobs since they may be unaward of what is and merger or acquisition, and feel discouraged as to the future of their contributions . the fact is that  most mergers fail do to Cultural differences. culture is considered to be the most prominent issue for the lack of predicted performance, loss of key employees, and time consuming conflicts in merging of business Bijilsma-Frankema, 2002. 

I believes is very important to take into account culture and mostly for the sake of the employees well being, since they are the motor of the company. a way to minimize the uncertainty feeling is definably letting know the employees of what is going on with the company, letting them know the background of the company they would be merging with. Like their styles, norms, sanciones, philosophies, and objectives. Because, “A high level of trust with in a network form is seen as a functional equivalent of building and maintaining control in functional forms.” Miles and Snow (1994)

Another practical step is Control and trust, this are vital elements of merged organizations, also The two organisations must be integrated in such away that they become as similar as possible in order to attain a mutual corporate culture this way the change wont be so harsh and traumatic on the employees. In conclusion, I can say that Organisations need to develop a system before they proceed with the integration, where they should apply proper communication among employees from top to down wards. This approach will lead to decrease the severity of ambiguities found among the employees during the integration process.

Biblio.....

* Advantages of Mergers (2008)                     http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/monopoly/advantages-of-mergers/

*Alzira S., Wayne H., and Gerald V. (2003) "Challenges and opportunities in mergres and acquisitions: three international case studies –Deutsche Bank-Bankers Trust; British Petroleum-Amoco; Ford-Volvo", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 27 Iss:6, p. 313-321.

 http://www.bizresearchpapers.com/attachments_2009_01_13/21.Mohib.pdf

*J. Honigmann, Understanding Culture. (New York: Harper & Row, 1963): 338.

*Mergers and Acquisitions

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mergers_and_acquisitions

*Mohibullah, Impact of Culture On Mergers andAcquisitions: A Theoretical Framework. International Review of Business Research Papers Vol.5 No. 1 January 2009 Pp. 255-264