Module 8: China (Question)

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 Chinese social system is classified as a relation-based system, which focuses on the special relations between individuals, and is based on reciprocity in order to achieve harmony. Good relationships are based on co-operative behavior among members of the community. In Chinese societies, guanxi can be defined as “a friendship with unlimited exchange of favors”, which means if two people share a guanxi relationship they feel fully committed to each other. To make guanxi work a Chinese businessman/ woman must complete his or her obligations, try to be loyal to friends, do favors and maintain a reputation for fairness. (S) He will try hard to maintain the image of a person who can be fully relied on and will always reciprocate.

In terms of FDI, Chinese and Taiwanese firms tend to depend highly on networks when going abroad, at least at the beginning. Network resources are less important for entering a mature market such as the United States where institutions exist that can facilitate internationalization.
There has been certain degree of westernalization in the Taiwanese companies and there are questions about how much Chinese values will remain. Chinese management faces technological and economic challenges from both Western and Japanese MNCs. The challenge of Western influences: in order to advance high technology and provide services in the global market, they require leverage and the capability for research and design, which may change traditional Chinese management. Second, economic influences: as Taiwan faced the economic downturn between 2000 and 2003, Western management practices such as HRM were brought into Taiwan; therefore the Chinese management may have been altered toward Western style. Third, industrial influences: unlike the traditional industry emphasis on recruitment and guanxi as mentioned above, a rejection of guanxi in recruitment can be found in high-tech organizations. Finally, management fashion influences: as the ideas of HRM and business strategy integration spread from the USA, organizations in Taiwan started to introduce HR methods, and hence the way of managing employees (laouzi guanxi) may have been challenged.

Guanxi is the crucial factor in the internationalization of Taiwanese MNCs as well as IHRM practices. The horizontal guanxi can be found in the Taiwanese MNCs in the UK IT industry, and they choose to locate near to their business partners in UK. On the other hand, the forming of guanxi in business relations occurs after Taiwanese MNCs in the financial service industry have made their entry to the UK. However, there is no guanxi associated with the investments of Taiwanese MNCs when implementing internationalization strategies; foreign direct investment is the common method. The vertical guanxi can be found in Taiwanese MNCs in the British context as well. Taiwanese managers believe that personal relationships with employees (laouzi guanxi) are very important in managing human resources in an international organization in respect of trust, renqing, face and reciprocity. Sectorial differences were apparent within the Taiwanese companies regarding their degree of preference for guanxi related to recruitment. In Taiwan the conflicts in the office can be resolved through socializing.

References:

Chen, I Chun Lisa. Easterby-Smith, Mark. Is Guanxi still working, while Chinese MNCs go global? The case of Taiwanese MNCs in the UK

http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/rgbr/vol2iss1/images/2008_April_Guanxi.jpg

http://rejon.org/wiki/images/a/a8/Guanxi-characters.png

Module 8: China (Summary)

We all know that China is one of the main players in today’s world economy. China is a millenary country that has been always one of the main (when not the main) powers in Asia. Today it is the most populous country in the world with 1,338,612,968 inhabitants.

China is the third world economy and registered a 9, 5% average economic growth in the last two decades which represents one of the most solid economic transformations in the history. They have identified themselves as a socialist country with a market economy.

China’s background is characterized by agrarism (Two-thirds of the Chinese people still live in rural areas and there are collective farms –Mao’s legacy), Confucianism (that has served as the foundation of Chinese education for 2,000 years; Confucius maintained that a society organized under a benevolent moral code), pictographic language, and wariness of foreigners (in a big part due to the country’s violent history being attack from all the powers).

Chinese organizations work based on eight principles. These elements are a blend of Maoist bureaucrat in learning, Confucian gentleman, and Sun Tzu-like strategist. The first one is the Guanxi principle, which is related with personal relations. According to this principle Chinese place a premium on individuals' social capital within their group of friends, relatives, and close associates. Zhongjian Ren is a principle more related with intermediaries and distrust. It stands that In China, suspicion and distrust characterize all meetings with strangers. Other principle is Renji Hexie (Interpersonal Harmony) which underlines the importance of harmonious relations between business partners. The social status and the Confucian values of deference and obedience to superiors are very strong and are tied to Shehui Dengji’s principle. We can see a big difference between Chinese and western culture, Chinese think in term of the whole (in a holistic way) while Americans think sequentially and individualistically and this is due to the Zhengti Guannian principle. Jiejian (Thrift) is a principle related with saving money; Chinese negotiators will pad their offers with more room to maneuver than most Americans are used to, and they expect both sides to make concessions on price. In Chinese business culture, a person's reputation and social standing rest on saving face, which is observed in Mianzi principle. Finally, thanks to the Chiku Nailao (Endurance, Relentlessness) they prize highly relentless hard work.

References:

Class presentation

http://www.indap.gob.cl/observatorio/images/stories/china%5B1%5D.jpg

http://www.ultimacurva.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/gp-de-china.jpg

Module 7: East Asia (Question)

1. List the main similarities and differences of Japanese and Korean management styles.

We can notice certain influence of Japanese management styles in part due to their presence during the time that Korea was a colony of Japan. Korean government was heavily involved in the economic activities of the private sector through credit and foreign exchange rationing and the supervision of private investment plans. Export growth was the main national economic goal until the late 80s in Korea. In order to promote these goals the government offered rewards to the successful exporters in form of low-rate long-term loans, export subsidies and sometimes special political favors. This governmental support led to the creation of the Chaebols, similar to the Japanese’s Zaibatsu. Nevertheless there are also some differences in both styles; we are now going to see which these similarities and differences are.

Market share has always been important for Japanese firms. This has led to an emphasis on aggressive pricing strategies and the search of economies of scale (this pursuit is consistent with long term firm value maximization). The Japanese firm is often modeled as optimizing more that simple stockholder value, while still remaining the calculating economic actor. The relationships developed with the suppliers are also a very important factor in Japanese competitive success; by doing so, firms make longer term commitments and reduce the market options they might have in order to take advantage of the close cooperation and coordination of the production process and coordination of the production process and the fast and flexible development of new products. Participation of workers and the middle management has been important for Japanese firms, in addition, consensus building and group loyalty are emphasized as important principles in Japanese management. Japanese firms scan both customers and competitors. Studies have shown that it is not just customer analysis, but the right kind of customer, that is the source of value in Japanese customer contact. Conecting product design and production is an important value for the Japanese firm. Flexible manufacturing is also strength of Japanese manufacturers. Finally, corporate values seem to guide a Japanese firm’s organization.

In terms of management style and working practices we can notice main some differences between Korea and Japan. The lifetime employment practice in Korean Firms is flexible, in that layoffs are more common than in Japanese firms. Korean workers tend to change jobs more frequently. Top managers in Korean firms tend to be authoritarian and important decisions are made mostly by the top management. Korean management styles tend to be more individualistic that Japanese management in part due to the Korean culture.

References:

Lee, Jangho. Roehl; Thomas W; Choe, Soonkyoo. What makes management styles similar and distinct Across Borders? Growth, experiance and culture in Korean and Japanese firms.

http://jungiehan.com/img/graphic_bimages_Korea.png
http://www.motoradictos.com/images/2008/05/logo-hyundai.jpg
http://www.expotrade.com.ar/sites/expotrade/images/stories/prensa/toyota_logo.jpg

Module 7: East Asia (Summary)

In the module referring to East Asia, we focused on the Korean case, the so called “Korean miracle”. It adopted this name due to the accelerated growth in economy that this Asian country lived during the XX century. We must start by knowing that Korea liberated from Japan only in 1945 and finally created a government in 1948. The main growth took place between 1960 and 1990. Nevertheless the Japanese influence on Korea during all the colonial period is one of the factors that marked the Korean success.

Korea developed an export-led growth strategy, which main objective was to develop the industry in order to increase the level of exportations. This way Korea started the transition from an agricultural based economy to an industrial developed one and their products (such as manufactures) started to be known around the world.

A very important concept that we are going to study are the Chaebols. They are powerful global multinationals conglomerates owning numerous international enterprises. The Korean word means "business family" or "monopoly". Chaebols had a great impact in economy growth and granted the access to new technology.

After the departure of the Japanese in 1945, some Korean businessmen obtained the assets of some of the Japanese firms, a number of which grew into the chaebol of the 1990s. Government industrial policy set the direction of new investment, and the chaebol were to be guaranteed loans from the banking sector. In this way, the chaebol played a key role in developing new industries, markets, and export production.

Government-chaebol cooperation was essential to the subsequent economic growth and astounding successes that began in the early 1960s. Driven by the urgent need to turn the economy away from consumer goods and light industries toward heavy, chemical, and import-substitution industries, political leaders and government relied on the ideas and cooperation of the chaebol leaders. The government provided the blueprints for industrial expansion; the chaebol realized the plans. However, the chaebol-led industrialization accelerated the monopolistic and oligopolistic concentration of capital and economically profitable activities in the hands of a limited number of conglomerates.

The tremendous growth that the chaebol experienced, beginning in the early 1960s, was closely tied to the expansion of South Korean exports. Growth resulted from the production of a diversity of goods rather than just one or two products. Innovation and the willingness to develop new product lines were critical. In the 1950s and early 1960s, chaebol concentrated on wigs and textiles; by the mid-1970s and 1980s, heavy, defense, and chemical industries had become predominant. While these activities were important in the early 1990s, real growth was occurring in the electronics and high-technology industries. Some of the most known Chaebols nowadays are LG, Hyundai and Samsung.

References:

Class presentation

http://images.oambassadors.org/system/images/0000/2002/east_asia.png

http://www.sistemasdecalor.com/upload/logos/lg.jpg

http://www.intelec.co.cr/images/samsung_logo.jpg

http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/images/time/asia/korea-s.jpg

Module 6: Expatriates assignments and overseas experiences (Summary)

An expatriate is a person who is designated to work in another country for the company. It occurs in a temporally basis and subsequently that person return to the same company (normally in another position) in the original country.

The company decision of sending a worker to another country is usually influenced by the requirement or availability of a job in a subsidiary. For these purposes companies need a worker with knowledge of the company’s strategy, procedures, etc. Ability to work and live successfully in a foreign environment is also an important criterion to determine who would be the best option.

When sending an expatriate worker, the companies are looking to achieve the completion of the job assignment, obtain a good degree of organizational learning and to transfer new skills and knowledge to the specific subsidiary.

The choice about who will be the employee who will do the work has to be very carefully chosen and there has to be a plan well developed. When it is not, some mistakes related with succession plans for example may occur. Another common mistake is the candidate selection criteria, it is important to identify in which cases it would be more efficient to look for technical skills and knowledge and when it would be better to select a person with a higher adaptability level. Mentoring and cross cultural training are essential to avoid cultural clashes that may destroy the whole work.

Some of the most common problems related with this are the short term progress made by expatriates, high rates of expatriates returning early, returnees that have no position waiting for them when they come back, high rates of quitting by repatriates, the high costs of failure of the project, and some others.

In the other hand we can see success factors that help to develop a good expatriation program. Job factors play an important role, finding similarities in the job held by the expatriate in the original country with the one that is going to develop; relational dimensions (cultural empathy, flexibility) are also very crucial in order to succeed; motivational state and interest for the work; family situation, implying that a worker with some familiar characteristics may be more or less compatible with working abroad; and finally language skills can be also very helpful, if the employee can handle the language of the host country his/her adaptation could be easier (language is just a factor that may ease the condition but is not the only one to take into account).

Overseas experiences are more related with individual goals and development. They can have as results the construction of valuable social networks, career development results from cultural experiences rather than work, eventual return to homeland, broadening perspectives, awareness of cultural differences building confidence and independence, changing career focus and starting new business when coming back home with different perspectives and ideas.

References:

Class presentation
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lkMb22Vksdk/SofzBpnbIXI/AAAAAAAABEI/KdV06JecXW8/s320/Expat.jpg
http://image3.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID25654/images/Expatriate_traveling_and_working_around_the_globe.jpg

Module 5: Migrant workers (Question)

¿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?

My answer to this question is that it is neither one nor the other option, but it is both at the same time. This answer may seem complex and contradictory but it isn’t. We have to understand all the facts that this system implies and we will see that it is one or the other or none of them according to the perspective.

The system was implemented in first place in order to avoid direct discrimination. That means that it didn’t matter whether the immigrant was black, Asian, Latin, European, Muslim, catholic, gay, white or whatever; the only factor determining if he/she was a desired “future Canadian citizen” was his own personal skills. Nevertheless the system is by nature promoting discrimination. It was not a racial or religious explicit discrimination but however discrimination. It discriminated for example people coming from undeveloped countries that were looking for a better future for they and their families but unfortunately hadn’t had the opportunity for qualified education.

The problem is that by trying to attract only qualified and skilled people they were making a big mistake. They were not thinking about the long term (unqualified worker’s sons could be qualified workers in the future for example) and they have payed a high tax for it. Another big mistake was that by emphasizing skilled immigration through its points system, “Canada has selected for itself the very individuals with the most flexibility and maneuverability in the global, transnational economy, and therefore with the least incentive to stay in Canada or any one spot”; that means that the migrants coming to Canada have a high chance of not staying there due to the increasing possibilities of better jobs and payments (=better lifestyle) in other countries.

Another failure seen about this system was the possibility to violate it. “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”, meaning that it was easy to avoid the point system by fitting in one of these kinds of immigrants (which were noticeably higher than the number of the “wanted skilled immigrants”). “Family class immigrants tend to have lower incomes and higher unemployment and social assistance use”. This proves that the system that was intended to attract only qualified workers in order to promote economic growth, protect Canadian borders of those “unwanted” visitors, and avoid any direct discrimination; finally turned against itself generating some of the problems that was trying to solve.

References:
Verbeeten, Dvid. The past and future of immigration to Canada.

http://canadian-immigration-services.com/canadian-immigration-services-logo3.jpg
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030201/windows/manjit.jpg

http://www.wepa.com.mx/fotos/noticia21_bandera_de_canada.jpg

Module 5: Migrant workers (Summary)

Migrant workers are people who are engaged or have been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national. This is the official UN definition, but we can see that it is very broad. It doesn’t specify for how many time or under which status, so we can consider a migrant worker a Spanish person who goes to work in Portugal for summer vacations (according to that definition).

The most common example for us when we think about migrant workers is the Mexican (Latin in general) workers migrating (legally or illegally) to the US. This is the closest case for us because of the familiarity and closeness of it, but it is not the only case. Migration of workers is present around the entire world; and actually it has been like that since a long time ago.

Working migration has its roots in the colonial times when the people of the powers left their hometowns looking for wealth and better life conditions. That’s a reason why most of the former colonies of the big powers were highly influenced by the migrants’ cultures. Later on the migrations continued to appear, mainly in crisis times. During big crisis the people look for a better future leaving the problems of their countries and trying to find a new life in more prosperous nations.

This is for example the reason why the US is a heavily migrant country. During the crisis generated by the wars in Europe, many European workers left their homes and came to the new world trying to find better opportunities. The migration may be generated due to economic, social and/or political reasons.

One of the main problems today is the illegal migration. Due to the lack of a legal status, the irregular migrant is often target of work exploitation and this generates a lot of problems for the host country (resentments, social differences, discrimination, violence, etc). In the other face of the coin we have cases like the European Union, where it is perfectly normal (and legal) to go from one country to another looking for better job options and social stability. This case can also bring some problems because as the nationals may see their works threatened by the migrants from other countries it can generate xenophobic feelings.

We have seen that migration of workers has been present from a long time in the history and with the globalization of the world we can assume that it is not going to stop. The real important point is to find an equilibrium where the migrants don’t be a problem but a complement for the society and that they can get some securities (such as education, health, etc) to avoid the problems that may be associated with them.

References:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/22/migrant_worker.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41GisGLfyzL.jpg

http://www.usdiplomacy.org/exhibit/images/isolationcartoon.jpg

Bonus question: Dr. Eoin Higgins conference about Virtual Teams

Do you consider managing diversity a key success factor in the performance of virtual teams?

First of all it is important to clarify what are Virtual Teams. VTs are groups of people working together in different locations, communicating themselves by using technology. There can be cases in which the groups are relating with different firms in the same country, the same firm in different countries (i.e. subsidiaries), or different firms in different countries. Due to the difference of locations (even if they are in the same country they are in different locations) there are always different cultures interacting, in higher or lower degree. We must take into account that there may be incompatibility between the cultures working together and that’s why it is important to develop a good diversity management strategy in order to avoid problems and find successful results.

Dr. Higgins emphasized the importance of the trust between the teams as a key element for the good performance and development of the process. I think that diversity management plays a fundamental role in order to achieve this trust. Taking advantage of the cultural diversity existing between the teams could be a very important tool instead of being an obstacle if it is well managed (and we have seen for example in IBM how a good diversity management led to many benefits). Expertise variety for example has as consequence the complementation between the different capabilities and finally resulting in more creative outputs.

Nevertheless there is a negative factor that may pose some difficulties when taking management decisions. Normally, virtual teams are conformed for a short period of time, and we have seen that it is very important to implement diversity management strategies in long periods of time in order to see good results. In this case the main actions could be done in order to create a tolerant image of the other cultures which the work will be done with so problems such as stereotyping could be avoided.

http://blog.atlassoft.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/virtual_team1.jpg
http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/assets/images/Alum05Jun_VTeams.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_tdTqE3MASrY/SQIkXXnFaeI/AAAAAAAAAGA/xjkWV-0dB3M/s320/faryetnear.jpg

Module 4: Managing diversity (questions)

According to the compulsory readings for this module, answer 2 of the following questions:

1. Is diversity management at IBM a source of competitive advantage? Why?

I agree completely with the diversity management in IBM as a source of competitive advantage. What IBM has done is exactly what diversity management is about, rather than attempt to eliminate discrimination by deliberately ignoring differences among employees, IBM created eight task forces, each focused on a different group such as Asians, gays and lesbians, and women. The goal of the initiative was to uncover and understand differences among the groups and find ways to appeal to a broader set of employees and customers. As mentioned in the summary of this module, we can see how the efficient diversity management of IBM has led them to take advantages of the opportunities presented in the market. "We made diversity a market-based issue....It's about understanding our markets, which are diverse and multicultural." –Lou Gerstner. A perfect example is the increase from $10 million in 1998 to $300 million in 2001 based on a recommendation from the people with disabilities task force, in October 2001 IBM launched an initiative focused on making all of its products more broadly accessible to take advantage of new legislation-an amendment to the federal Rehabilitation Act requiring that government agencies make accessibility a criterion for awarding federal contracts.

2. Do you think the IBM case reflects a strong organizational commitment to diversity? Why?

According to all this, we can say that IBM does reflect a strong organizational commitment to diversity. They broke the system of “equal opportunities” they had in the 90’s. They started by recognizing diversity and since then they have inserted that concept in the company which has led to many successful experiences. By doing so they have made the organizational culture of the company a culture where all the differences are assimilated and accepted. It wasn’t an immediate process, by contrary it took many time and effort from the whole company (which shows that an organizational culture can be changed but it needs to be done with a large process), working with task forces representing each demographic constituency (Asian, blacks, GLBT (gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender), Hispanic, white men, native Americans, people with disabilities and women. This work gave its fruits and has made IBM a real example of successful diversity management and, as it demonstrated the real interest of IBM in becoming into a real multicultural company, it showed its commitment to diversity.

References:

Thomas, David A. Diversity as strategy
http://www.opm.gov/img/comstock/diversity.jpg
http://newyork.corante.com/archives/IBM%20building.jpg
http://techfreep.com/images/ibm.jpg

Module 4: Managing diversity (summary)

As we have seen in the previous blog (exploring diversity), diversity is very important and we can see that it is present in many aspects in our life. We have seen the different kind of diversities that we can find (gender, age, religion, etc).

Now we are going to study how these differences can affect our work and how can we manage them in order to obtain benefits instead of problems. Since we will focus on the diversities at work we will have to recognize that there are other kinds of differences that we can find. We will see workforce diversity (diversity in the recruitment, development, etc), workplace diversity (organizational insights, work/life integration, council and affinity groups, etc), and marketplace diversity (industry partnerships, supplier diversity, franchise diversity, etc).

We should not mix the concept of management diversity with trying to give equal opportunities to everybody. The latter can bring problems that could even reinforce the differences. Managing diversity is about recognizing that there are differences but positively dealing with them.
An effective management of the diversity can be a very important source of competitive advantages in aspects such as costs, resources acquisition, marketing, creativity and problem solving, flexibility and change management. These advantages would lead to benefits like higher creativity in the decision making process, better understanding and serving of customers, more satisfied workforce, lower litigation expenses (due to lower legal problems), leading finally to an overall higher company performance.

Let’s think for example in a marketing group composed by a diverse group of four people, two men and two women form different ages and cultural background. They can think in several different options for promoting a product and in this way the campaign would attract a bigger share of the market than another campaign directed by a homogeneous group. Nevertheless this case would be successful only with an efficient management of diversity (if not the result could be just the fights and differences of opinions between the group).

But it is not easy to achieve this good management level. It has to go through some difficult challenges. Similarity attraction phenomenon for example is very common. It is the tendency of getting related with those who are similar. This phenomenon can lead to several problem making a group of those with similarities and maybe excluding the different people, it can prevents highly qualified individuals that are different to enter the organization or to feel comfortable in it. Faultlines (an attribute that divides the group into subgroups) is another challenge that can reduce the cohesion of a team. Finally another big challenge to face are the well known stereotypes, that can conclude in hostile relations or the inexistence of those relations due to prejudices for a specific person with specific values or traditions.

It is not easy but is extremely important to surpass these challenges in order to obtain all the benefits mentioned above. So if understanding the differences of a diverse world is important, it is equally important to know how to manage them in order to take all the advantages that it can bring us.

References:

Class presentation

http://www.diversityworking.com/employerZone/about.php

http://www.alvanleygroup.com/

Module 3: Exploring diversity (Question)

¿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?

“Preserving and promoting cultural diversity are among the [European] Community’s founding principles”

Before giving any answer to this question is important to highlight the diverse nature of the European Union. We can find many different countries with a lot of variations in terms of languages (almost each country has its own language), traditions, religions, historical backgrounds and different behaviors. We also have to realize that the original process that has taken place in the integration of the EU hasn’t affected these diversities nor has threatened any particular culture of the member states.

Now, this could lead us to think that the entry of new member wouldn’t dramatically affect this and that it would promote even more diversity. Actually it does, in a certain way. I think it wouldn’t be correct to affirm that any process in the EU would lead to a “homogenization” of the European society because of their historical differences and their own values and cultures. We have seen that there is no complete homogenization, or at least is very difficult to achieve (even more when we talk about homogenization of more than 27 countries with different cultures).
Nevertheless I also think that the EU members can start generating a situation in which diversities can be compromised and limited to a certain point. What I mean is that it is true that there are a lot of diversities among EU States and most of them will keep existing, and we can also assume that the level of acceptance and tolerance between these differences is going to be very high, but the existence of a closed circle in which the diversities are already given and there is not a big chance for others to come in can generate a certain kind of “regionalism” that could be very dangerous in cultural terms.

In this hypothetical case, the EU would be very “limited” in terms of diversity. We can also notice that sometimes “the degree of that [cultural] diversity […] depends to a significant degree on the kind of immigration policy implemented” by the state (cultural diversity is more than just the migratory policies). So as a conclusion, I think that the entrance of new members dos promote diversity but they have to be very careful and take some additional measures in order to avoid becoming into a regional fortress where the diversities exist and are a lot but won’t be more that the ones that already are in.

References:


Toggenburg, Gabriel N. Who is managing ethnic and cultural diversity in the European condominium? The moments of entry, integration and preservation.
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/06/500&format=HTML&aged=1&language=EN&guiLanguage=fr
http://mensa-barbie.com/bloggerimages/UNESCO_diversity_conventio%20copy.JPG
http://www.twocircles.net/2009oct09/lisbon_treaty_referendum_european_union_example_islamic_world.html

Module 3: Exploring diversity (Summary)

Diversity is each time more and more present in our life. We cannot assume that diversity is only having people from different countries and cultures in our workplace, diversity is much more than that and in most of the cases we cannot notice that. First of all we have to understand this diversity, and it means understanding both differences and similarities between yourself and each people around you. Doing so we will be able to see that diversity is present all the time (in higher or lower degree) because diversity takes as many aspects as:

— Gender
— Race
— Age
— Religion
— Physical abilities
— Sexual orientation
— Education
— Functional background
— Experience
— Status

After knowing this it would be easier to identify diversity surrounding us. We must know that not all the aspects are easy to notice, there are dimensions of diversity that we can easily see (race, gender, age, physical attributes, etc.) but there are also some invisible aspects (education, skills, work and life experiences, status, etc) that we would have to identify after knowing the person, and finally there are core aspects (character of personality, work style, sexual orientation and personal truths) that we would only know after establishing some kind of relationship with the other person or that we won’t even know.

Nevertheless, it is extremely important to identify, explore and understand the diversity in the world, not only in the workplace but also in our daily life in order to avoid making common mistakes that can be really problematic.

Not recognizing the diversity can bring us a lot of problems that we see every day. The most common of these problems is the discrimination (gender discrimination, race discrimination, age discrimination, religious discrimination, etc). Having a deep understanding of the diversity can help to avoid these problems in which you can also be the victim.

This can lead you to acquire cultural intelligence, which is the ability to operate in a variety of situations crossing through meta-cognitive intelligence (knowledge about culture); cognitive intelligence (knowledge about the environment); motivational intelligence (desire to learn about cultural differences); and behavioral intelligence (ability to exhibit appropriate actions) for finally using your head, heart and body to understand other cultures.

References:

Class presentation

http://www.allstate-jobs.com/content/diversity/

http://sexdiscriminationact1975.com/
http://delhi4cats.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/discrimination_by_thinkvegan.jpg

Module 2 essay: Is there a corporate culture in every organization?

As mentioned in a previous blog (see: “Module 2: Organizational culture”), corporate culture is settled at the very beginning steps of any company foundation and is marked by the deeply embedded beliefs and values that are shared by members of the organization which become visible in the way work gets done on a day to day basis. So I do consider that every organization has a corporate culture by nature, “The culture of an organization is like its DNA, showing some outward representation yet much is held below the surface which is much harder to identify and name” but I also must clarify that not all the companies have the same culture structure, and not all the organizational cultures are equally strong. All these possibilities make possible the differentiation between companies, its strategies and achievements.

It is up to each company how to establish its own culture and how important would it be to follow it strictly in order to achieve any specific goal; and it is linked to this culture that the employees may fit and as a consequence feel better or worse in this company or in the next one. What is sure is that this organizational culture is (normally) deeply-rooted in the company and trying to change it may be very difficult and may also bring disastrous results. I’m not saying that is impossible to change the culture of an organization but I’m saying that it may be a very long and hard process and in some cases the results would not be the expected ones. The general mistake that leads to a failed “cultural change” is that it is developed in order to achieve a specific objective or in order to try to change a particular behavior but it is more effective to use the cultural strength of the company (instead of changing it) to achieve it. “You don’t go out and try to change the culture. You do something to improve performance, and if you pull it off, it tends to stick -it seeps into the culture”.

Now, we must also consider cases as M & A where the corporate culture of the company is different to the one of the acquired organization. In these cases it is often a giant (and common) mistake to try to impose one’s culture to the other, and it’s even worse when it takes place between companies of different nationalities. What should be done is to understand the other’s culture and gradually start adapting some main values and if possible shared aspects and adapting not only from the corporate culture but from the professional cultures (i.e. financial, engineering or operating culture). When facing challenges like this we must remember that the adaptation to change is one of the cultural traits seemed to be most associated with success.

Sources:

• Gregory J. Millman. Corporate culture: more myth than reality?
• http://www.nhorizons.ca/en-change-culture-change.asp
• http://www.harshman.com/index.php?page=Culture

Module 2: Organizational culture (Summary)

“Corporate culture describes the whole collection of assumptions, practices and norms that people in an organization adopt over time.” Corporate culture is comprised by the assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs of organization members and their behaviors and in many times it defines the way that the organization is going to be conducted. Having a clear well defined corporate culture may have many benefits or in some cases disadvantages but anyway we must have clear that it is going to affect the company’s performance.

Organizational culture is composed by several levels, from the deepest aspects of a company (as its mission, vision and identity) until the most external ones (rituals, symbols, norms, slogans, etc). In the middle of these two extremes we can also find aspects like the shared values, beliefs, capabilities and knowledge. All these aspects take time to be successfully developed.

Defining the corporate culture of a company can help to both have an internal integration (allowing the members to know how to relate to one another) and external adaptation (to help organization to adapt to external environment).

Organizational or corporate culture is strongly tied to National culture. This is due to the fact that the basis for the whole organizational culture are settled at the very beginning steps of company’s foundation and at this stage entrepreneurs set the norms and rules based on the context of values and assumptions they have from their own National culture. This fact has to be taken into account when trying to change the culture of an organization. Here is where many mistakes are done by managers and is a very common case when mergers and/or acquisitions appear. In many cases the new manager doesn’t take into account the huge cultural differences that may exist between both companies and simply tries to impose his own culture, normally leading to giant failures (which in business terms means millionaire loses).

We can see different kinds of cultures such as: entrepreneurial culture (based on values innovation, creativity and risk taking); mission culture (which has a clear vision of purposes and how to achieve them); clan culture (it focuses on needs of employees as a route to performance); and bureaucratic culture (that supports a methodical approach to business and efficiency).

Developing a good organizational culture has many strong advantages. It is linked with the good performance of the company, it generates motivation, core values are intensely held and widely shared, reduce potential conflicts and make a good environment in which the employees will work hard willingly. Nevertheless it has also some weak points because it could also generate an inflexible barrier, an instinct against the change and may bring the people together in a defensive way. That’s why it is very important to understand it and to know how to develop it in order to achieve an equilibrium that allows to profit the benefits without being victim of the disadvantages.

References and sources:

Class presentation.

Gregory J. William. Corporate culture: more a myth than reality

http://www.furstsearch.com/NewsArticles/Articles/WhoIsAStrategicLeader/tabid/155/Default.aspx

http://www.nhorizons.ca/en-change-culture-change.asp

Ethnographic research: Real life examples

In this article we are going to see two short cases that will show us how in real life ethnographic research can help a company to successfully develop a product just by knowing the market and the consumer’s habits and preferences.

The first case takes place in India.Thanks to the ethnographic research chipmaker Intel has attempted to bridge the digital divide in its Bangalore based platform definition center with the Classmate PC. Conceived in 2005 and brought to market a year later, the techies used their prowess to cut down the size of the laptop and yet retain all its features. "After extensive ethnographic research in the education domain, we came up with this innovation in the education space, which later created a whole new genre of products called Netbooks," says Ajit Singh, Director - Emerging Market Platform Group, Intel, and one of the six members of the Classmate PC innovation team. Now, 5 years after, whe can see how important has became the netbook and we must keep in mind that it was initially developed due to ethnographic research.

Taken from: http://www.research.ibm.com/irl/innovationatindia.html

The second case is about doing ethnographic research not in another culture or country but just in a specific sector of the market. The research design of the William Wrigley Jr. Company, Chicago, for its new “5” gum, demonstrates how ethnography can be the GPS of new-product exploration. The company sent 10 scientists, engineers and marketers to spend time with teens and young adults who represent their primary target demographic. The observers discovered, among other findings, that the image-conscious gum-chewers wanted a resealable package with style that would look good on the table next to their iPods (Fast Company, Oct. 2007; 71-72).

Taken from: http://www.foodproductdesign.com/articles/2008/04/ethnographic-research.aspx

Images taken from: http://laptoping.com/intel-classmate-pc-netbook.html and http://www.theonlinecandyshop.com/ProductImages/wrigleyslushsbig.jpg

Summary Module 1: Ethnographic research

Before start talking about ethnographic research we musy clearly understand what is it. Ethnographic research is a social science research method that relies heavily on up-close, personal experience and possible participation, not just observation. It consists in analysing a determined group of people (it can be a big or a small group) by studying it from the inside in order to not only see but also feel all the factors that affect it.

Nevertheless we have to take into account that this inside view of the group must be balanced with the objectivity of an outsider point of view in order to explain all the results of the experience. It is clear that in order to achieve the expierence ethnographic research recquires a deep fieldwork in which the ethnographer must live in the conditions of the studied group for a period of time (6 months- 1 year normally).

Ethnographic research uses mainly three types of data collection: interviews and questionnaries, that could vary depending on the type of person being interviewes, it can be informal or more structured, it must take into account the needs of the interviewee and is focused in obtaining the best data possible. Observation, that also depends on factors such as the objectives of the research, the nature of the group being studied and in the skills, interests and points of view of the observer; here is where the observer must get completely invlolved with the group and adopt their tradtions, culture, beliefs, etc, combining his/her lifestyle with the one of the specific group. The projecting technique is also a very important method of getting information, it doesn´t do it by directly questionning but by acquiring indirect information and the posterior analysis and interpretation of it.

http://www.uni-mainz.de/Organisationen/SORC/content/view/91/36/

The ethnographic reserch sustains that “the aim of the research is to capture the character of naturally ocurring human behaviour, and this can only be achieved by first hand contact with it” (Naturalism); that “human actions […] do not consist simply of fixed responses or even learned responses to stimuli (as the animals), but involve interpretation of stimuli and the construct of responses” and we must understand understand this and the particular cultural circumstances surrounding the group that we are going to analyse (understanding); and finally that”the conception of the research process is inductive or discovery-based rather than being limited to the testing of explicit hypotheses” (Discovery). These are three methodoligical principles that must be taken into account before starting any ethnographic research.

We must avoid however, making some typical mistakes such as the generalization of the characteristics observed (which leads to stereotypes) or the extreme involvement with the group (which may lead to a subjective result). Applying these concepts the research can finally be successfull with a complete analysis, the elaboration of theories and conclusions based on the field notes and interviews.

References taken from:

Genzuk, Michael. A synthesis of ethnographic research.