Expatriate assignments

 This module explain how can some situations make workers change their workplace or location of work, how can organizational country culture affects employees behavior.

Expatriate Assignments (EA) help individuals obtain new experiences and use them to have a better knowledge for their careers. They are characterized by temporary assignments and centered on building skills across companies rather that ascending hierarchies. EA focuses on return to employment in the same company and firm system after been abroad, and the OE experience typically involves inter-company rather than intra-company job transfers.

The main objective of an expatriate is to maintain significant attachments to their home countries while expanding their career opportunities by working abroad.

The main characteristic of an expatriate is to build relevant skills and ascend in status within one company.

Types of expatriate assignments:

1.Long-term expatriate assignments: Expatriate assignment is referred to as a long-term assignment where the employee and his/her spouse/family move to the host country for a specified period of time, over one year.

2. Short-term expatriate assignment: is an assignment with a specified duration, usually less than one year. Family may accompany employee.

3. International commuter: is an employee who commutes from the home country to a place of work in another country, usually on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, while the family remains at home.

4. Frequent flyer: is an employee who undertakes frequent international business trips but does not relocate

Question:

Analyze the potential implications of the Co-determination principles over the organization’s decision-making process from the perspectives of the managers and the employees.

Co-determination is the possibility that employees can have a role in the management inside the organization, the word co-determination have origin from the word “Mitbestimmung” in German, the origins of this management style were initially used in Germany.

This principle allows employees to have discussions with the employers in a skilled supervisory board.

“The German model of co-determination is based on indirect participation, with elected worker representatives and formalized institutions, with rights supported in law. In contrast to the UK, the German system is highly juridified, with a considerable amount of legislation providing a constitution of rights for employees (Lane, 1989; Furstenburg, 1991; Lawrence 1992)” [1]

Inside the organization co determination principle have many advantages that provide more general training and supports a high-skill equilibrium. Co-determination allows having diversity of opinions at the moment of taking a decision, and provides a feeling among employees of participation and equal importance in all levels of the hierarchy.

Co-determination in the decision-making process is extremely important not only to employees because they are able to express their opinions but also to manager because they can hear diverse ideas and solutions with different perspectives; it is also important because employees have a representation of their opinions and feelings in the board of directors, this give to managers a more complete overview of the organization situation.

References:

Expatriate Assignment Versus Overseas Experience: Contrasting Models of International Human Resource Development. Kerr Inkson, Judith Pringle, Michael B. Arthur, Sean Barry.

Royle T. Avoidance strategies and the German system of co-determination. International Journal of Human Resource Management [serial online]. December 1998;9(6):1026-1047. Available from: Business Source Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 18, 2010.

[1] FitzRoy F, Kraft K. Co-determination, Efficiency and Productivity. British Journal of Industrial Relations [serial online]. June 2005;43(2):233-247. Available from: Business Source Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 19, 2010.

Piette, Jean-Jacques. 2004. “Understanding Management German style”. Les Amis de L’ecole de Paris.

http://inspiredexpatriates.com/2009/11/13/xpat-spouse-factor

http://www.expatriatefoundation.com/HRCI_Recertification.html

Images taken from:

- http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/about/diversity/diversity.gif

- http://frankiemao.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/skills.jpg 

- http://www.google.com.co/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/jfa1035l.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/f/family_hierarchies.asp&

Managing change and conflict

Organizations have to be always in constant change and improving their management techniques according to the economic, social and legal environment, when an organization is in constant change it is called a dynamic entity.

The module of Managing change and conflict explain that there are two types of changes, one the change that has been planned in advance, and another the change that is imposed inside the organization.

There are two kind of forces that influence changes inside the organizations, this forces can be internal or external, the internal forces are the expectations, projects and quotas that the organization establish for a period; and it can be also the results of a previous project or a past expatiation that didn’t result properly. The external forces are those that don’t depend on the organization, like economy, diversity, disasters, technology, globalization, etc.

Organizations that are able to perceive external forces and analyze their internal forces are organizations that can lead in a competitive environment, are able to succeed among time, and are able to take the correct decisions and make the corrective changes in case of a problem.

The changes inside a organization can be: 1) small changes: like an technology upgrade, 2) Strategic changes: When the organization open a new operation plant in a new place, and 3) Radical Changes when the organization change their core business.

The combination of all the forces combined with a good management style, expand possibilities for the organizations to be in constant improvement and optimization of their objectives.

Organizational Change

Questions:

• It’s Ubuntu present at the workplace, it there a link between this philosophy and organizational culture?

Organizations of South Africa have to be aware of the importance of the philosophy and way of thinking of individuals in the society and inside the organization. In the document “Building competitive advantage from Ubuntu from Mzamo P. Mangaliso” describe Ubuntu as a part of the African culture so it is also by the way part of the organizations that have individuals who believe in this philosophy.

Ubuntu philosophy can be defined as humanness they have a spirit of community, harmony and hospitality, it help internal integration and motivated the interaction of persons. This philosophy influence peoples behavior and the way individuals act inside or outside the organization is completely related to it, so Ubuntu philosophy and organizational culture are completely linked, and organizations in Africa must be aware that the Organization Culture must not be contradictory to Abuntu philosophy witch is the one that determines values and way of acting in Africa.

• Please select and explain 3 aspects of organizational life that evidence the presence of Ubuntu at the workplace.

Time:

Ubuntu Philosophy different of western culture they have a different conception of time, for example western culture is used to punctuality and deadlines inside an organization, different from African timing were expectations regarding this same 2 aspects are seen different and are ineffective inside and African organization, the concept of time is relative depending on the way you see it.

The concept of time in Ubuntu Philosophy can be seen in the workplace when Ubuntu use as a time to improve the lives of the community rather than use it to maximized profits.

Decision Making:

Decision making it is also seen in a different context from western culture, some examples are: Decision-making is seen in like a consensus decision, not a democratic decision. Different point of view are accepted and seen like a good angle of the decision “diversity of opinions”. Everyone have to give an opinion before taking the decision.

As it is texted in the lecture “Building competitive advantage from Ubuntu from Mzamo P. Mangaliso”: “..A decision that is supported is considered superior to the "right" decision that is resented or resisted by many…” Page 27.

Relationships with others:

Ubuntu philosophy have an enormous respect to others, it profundize in the good relation that individuals must have interacting whit their similar. For example inside the organization all the organization is seen as a family were workers threat each other like brothers and sisters, and the relations are reciprocal, individuals must give the best for the relations.

2. African Bank Miners Credit – case study:

This case study illustrates the main difficulties faced in a process of merging two companies and the role played by culture.

It is very important that in this section, you try to build relevant links between the 2 readings and your research about change theory.

Please identify and explain 3 strategies used by the acquiring company in order to facilitate the change process through the use of Ubuntu.

This case talks about a horizontal bought from African Bank Miners credit to a controlling stake in the National Union of Mineworker's (NUM's) in order to facilitate new services of credit. This strategy to facilitate services requires a lot of tactics and investment to make a successful merge.

South African region is highly involved with the Ubuntu philosophy, which is a traditional philosophy that promotes values and ways of behaving as individual and in community; this involves also the behavior inside the organizations.

The African Bank Miners in order to have a successful merge applied strategies using the knowledge of Ubuntu Philosophy to facilitate the process, some strategies were:

Ubuntu promotes that the organization is seen as a family were workers threat each other like brothers and sisters, one strategy to avoid resistance to change was to explain the process between the organization and the NUMs, trying to simplified it to all the employees with a story of a badger and a bird, witch explained to all the employees that they have to work together in order to achieve a goal.

The Ubuntu philosophy use the drum as a symbol of communication because drums have been used to symbolize communication and loyalty, so as strategy the organization introduce the drum, and start using it to avoid resistance to change.

The organization as a strategy that follows the tradition of Ubuntu Philosophy introduce the opinions of the individuals inside the organization in order to improve the company success, this is called in Ubuntu philosophy "Our Ubuntu".

References:

Case of African Bank Miners Credit, available at (Accessed October 2010):

http://www.bankseta.org.za/downloads/IIP_Case_African_Miners_Credit.doc

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

Buono A, Kerber K. Creating a Sustainable Approach to Change: Building Organizational Change Capacity. SAM Advanced Management Journal (07497075) [serial online]. Spring2010 2010;75(2):4-21. Available from: Business Source Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 18, 2010.

Images taken from:
- http://www.business-strategy-innovation.com/uploaded_images/Change-Innovation-727079.jpg
- http://foros.eluniversal.com.mx/blogs/imagenes/ubuntu.jpg
- http://kenyonreview.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/daylight-savings-time.jpg
- https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1IXGH7P1J8OSRhgtF4v0VZOZbYfEc8FRKsOH-QhKEMP509KUcS3RBXUv0bSLuTyIO_DpQIdVF-C90S6o95jZJNB2uGUrU_cSlixSPlo_2AnhCV0o_02FteBK3OWSHs-MRT9DoF98XGKo2/s400/The-power-of-good-decision-making.jpg
- http://www.google.com.co/imgres?imgurl=http://blogs.sfu.ca/departments/careerservices/wp-content/uploads/networking_professionals.jpg&imgrefurl=http://blogs.sfu.ca/departments/careerservices
- http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/CCT510/Sources/diamond_mine-al-qaeda-WP.jpg

The rise of MNC's

MNCs as we saw in class video called “The Corporation", directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, this documentary starts showing us how the corporations help the communities by giving individuals jobs and establishing ways of living, they show us that the corporations behave like a person, have the same rights that a persons have, and follow the same rules that a person, but the movie is very clear by remarking that the primary goal of a corporation is make profits and produce more and more money. At this point it is remarked that MNCs have strong power and ask the question: ¿ who control the consequences of the MNCs?, they start asking questions of real situations that corporations have abused, for example: Controlling the unions by firing workers, Pollution problems, Harm to animals, Destruction of the environment, habitat destruction, Production of dangerous products, Etc.

The documentary let us an unanswered question about ¿who control the actions and reactions of MNCs?

MNCs are enormous enterprises that have the power to reach any part of the world and manage by their own way, ones example show in the documentary is how a MNCs are controlling with few competitors essential goods for living, they show cases that need to be concerned by all consumers, and it tried to make us open our ayes and see that if we don’t to something MNCs will be ruling and doing whatever they wants with us and the planet.

In the document: “MNCs and Surrogate Sovereignty By Jhon M. Kline”, the author said “..Despite impressive growth in financial, technological, and other resource capabilities, MNCs do not function effectively as independent, unitary actors that can challenge nation-state sovereignty..”

This document gives us a different perspective of the documentary of Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, explaining us that MNCs assume basic governance functions in places were the national government is absent or place were the national government encourage MNCs to provide social services. It said that MNCs tried to avoid interfering with the national governments.

Questions:

1. Do Corporations pursue today other interest or the "bottom-line" remains as their single priority? What are the factors influencing the corporation’s objectives and goals?

Now days there are all kind of multinational corporations, everyone with different specs, proposes and environments. Like individuals, corporations decide how they should act and they decide if they do it the right way or the wrong way.

It is also known that governments now days with the globalization are paying more attention to alliances between companies and try to regulate the absolute control of the market, they also establish ways of acting to protect citizens and the environment with rules and stimulating good behaviors with fiscal benefits.

After washing the video “The Corporation" and reading the article “MNCs and Surrogate Sovereignty”, we see that now days there are “Green” companies and there are traditional big organizations that seek having more and more control like the ones mentioned in the documentary, that try to be more consciences about with Union busting, layoffs, factory fires, sweetshops, harm to human health, dangerous products, emission of pollution, toxic waste, harm to animals, etc. But in the end all the organizations what they really seek is increasing their profits like Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott say in their video.

 2. The film focuses on the negative consequences that the Corporation’s behavior cause to the environment, to human health and animal life. Discuss from a critical perspective, the possible benefits and arising from the actions of MNCs for these 3 groups.

MNCs, as it is shown in the video have committed mistakes about abuse of exhaustible recourses, animal testing, and production of toxic substances, those arguments are true but not everything shown in the video is the reality, corporations have also contributed to the humanity welfare.

About human welfare, we can start talking about the amount of jobs that any MNCs creates and sustains, this generates stability for a large amount of people. There are also in the majority of the MNCs departments of research and development (R&D) that have make evolved the quality of life of humans.

Privatization of public services have made that this service acquire higher levels of service, introduction of new techniques, and better services that benefit the community.

Human despites have made that organizations can sustain in the time and avoid bankruptcy in times of crisis, so all the employees wont lose their job, the economy can be sustainable and when crisis is over there can be jobs for more individuals.

The research for new ideas and private investigation motivated by the generation of profit has discovered beneficial products for the human, the animals and the environment.

3. Do you think a corporation should be considered a "person"? discuss the implications and limitations of granting such legal existence to corporations.

I do not think corporations should be consider as a person, like is said in the documentary “The Corporation". Corporation should be consider like a enterprise with legal rights for enterprises not seen like a person with human rights, but i think every corporation must have the same duties that humans have but not the same rights.

This corporation’s rights can be the same as humans because corporations don’t faces the same consequences as a person if it commits a crime; corporations have more benefits than a regular person, corporations have much more power than a regular person.

Corporations should have rights but never the same rights of humans so it must not be considered like a person.

References:

MNCs and Surrogate Sovereignty

JOHNM.KLINE Director of the Master of Science in Foreign Service Pr; ram Georgetown University

Class Movie: “The Corporation” by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott.

Available at: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FA50FBC214A6CE87

Images taken from: 

- https://eee.uci.edu/programs/humcore/Student/archives/Year2006-2007/Spring2007/MoviePage/images/TheCorporation.jpg

- http://www.coachingcollection.co.uk/coachingcollection/images/world-in-hand.jpg
- http://phones.webhostingoverview.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/big_green.jpg
- http://www.awc.co.uk/images/new-ideas.png
- http://www.google.com.co/imgres?imgurl=http://www.celdf.org/Portals/0/Images/abandon%2520rights%2520at%2520corporate%2520gate%2520cartoon.bmp&imgrefurl

Merging OC

Business environment is characterized for the strategies, tactics and tools that organizations use when want to gain more market, participation, be more powerful than the competitors, gain more knowledge and create learning opportunities. One of those strategies is making alliances and or buying horizontally the chain of production.

Organizations must be aware that this integrations must be successful in order to achieve the propose of the merging. It is common that integrations that are not been managed properly create difficulties and put in danger the stability of the organization.

The document Challenges and Opportunities in Mergers and Acquisitions: Three International Case Studies – Deutsche Bank-Bankers Trust; British Petroleum-Amoco; Ford-Volvo", explain that two companies can integrate effectively if they are aware of this two important aspects: 1) The need for individuals to have a strategic independence between firms, and 2) The need for organizational independence.

When this two aspects are take in account the merged organization must created of a new value between the companies that promote in whole organization without remarking cultural differences, that promote individuals to joint efforts to achieve goals.

The author explain with 3 cases of effective integrations between organizations, that they all concentrated their effort in avoiding the uncertainty of their employees about the merging, they control it by creating committees that guide the employees in the new process. The author also explain that in the merging process the organization must identify the aspects in common and the aspects that differentiate firms, and remark the commonalities and avoid the differences.

Questions: 

Based on the required reading for this module, list and explain - using evidence from the cases presented in the reading - the main challenges and opportunities arising in processes of mergers and acquisitions from an organizational culture perspective.

Include at least 3 challenges and 3 opportunities.

• Integrating Deutsche Bank (DB) and Bankers Trust (BT) 

This case is about the challenge of the integration between to important banks to become one global, powerful organization. With this integration what was wanted was:

1) Gain a globally orientated business area on a transatlantic platform that BT already have.

2) Increase innovation, financial strength and client focus on both sides of the Atlantic

3) Ability to satisfy its customers' wishes even more successfully on a global level.

4) Lay foundations for a long-term growth of the company value.

This integration creates enormous opportunities but also have challenges in the middle, in this case there was an internal conflict about what will be the name of the new bank, conflict that will produce a lack of identity if the name doesn’t represent anything about their old bank name. The solution to this challenge was named the new bank: The Deutsche Bank - Alex Brown Investment Bank, name that not only reinforced the brand but also identity remained. Another challenge was the change of managerial style, it was shown in the case that DB was a high bureaucracy company, with a hierarchical style, and a slower decision making process than BT.

• Integrating British Petroleum (BP) and Amoco into a single organization. 

This case explains how can two organizations with two different cultures can merge into one new corporate culture. The main challenge that this case present is how they create a new organization culture that didn’t affect any of both cultures and promote work cooperation, to achieve this the company made meetings with all the managers and explained the philosophy of BP, they also motivated employees to socialize among themselves.

• Volvo and Ford.

This case is about the integration of two big automobile companies which was very beneficial for both sides, the opportunities of this integration are:

1) Volvo need financial power to stay competitive in the market, they were losing capacity of research and development to create competitive cars.

2) Combine technologies.

3) Share knowledge.

4) Introduce new products in new markets.

This case have the traditional challenges mentioned before but is characterized by a major challenge that is the merging of two cultures that have been doing things by different ways, one Swedish culture used to be team work oriented and very decentralized an another very complex and hierarchical.

References:

Alzira Salama, Wayne Holland, Gerald Vinten, (2003) "Challenges and Opportunities in Mergers and Acquisitions: Three International Case Studies – Deutsche Bank-Bankers Trust; British Petroleum-Amoco; Ford-Volvo", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 27 Iss: 6, pp.313 – 321.

Tapking J, Yang J. Horizontal and Vertical Integration in Securities Trading and Settlement. Journal of Money, Credit & Banking [serial online]. October 2006;38(7):1765-1795. Available from: Business Source Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 17, 2010.

Than L, Lao T. EVIDENCE ON EFFORTS TO ALIGN ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES AND BUSINESS STRATEGIES. Global Journal of Business Research (GJBR) [serial online]. January 2010;4(1):71-84. Available from: Business Source Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 17, 2010.


Images taken from
- http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=corporation#/dovyuu
- http://www.bypd.in/DeutscheBank/Images/deutsche-bank-normal.jpg
- http://yevgyeni.com/UNCTV/amoco-bp.jpg
- http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2007/07/ford_denies_volvo_sale.jpg

Communication And Virtual Teams

The communication has four components, that without one of them there will not be possible a good communication, this components are:

–The communicator
–The receiver
–Perceptual screens
–The message

In the organizations communication is very important to achieve goals, and managers must have skills to communicate, express their ideas, listen and have a good relation in a proper way to their employees. There can be 5 types of effective managers:

Expressive speakers:
•Openly express thoughts, opinions, ideas and feelings.
•Talk to employees as friends
• the result is that employees know where they stand

Persuasive leaders:
•Rather than directive and autocratic
•They encourage others to achieve results instead to giving orders.

Sensitivity to feelings:
• Is capable of adopting a critical perspective and provide negative feedback, is confidential and in a constructive manner.
•Works to enhance employee self-esteem.

Informative managers:
• Uses dissemination of information.
Keep employees well informed.
Avoid overload information.

Reference:

Class Presentation- Organisations and Cultures, Lecturer: Cristina Robledo A. -2010 - 02


Question:

1. Communication is a process that allows organizations to send/receive messages within their own boundaries but also to interact with outside entities (customers, suppliers, the media, etc.). Messages are send/received not only through oral and written statements, there are many channels and ways that need to be considered when discussing effective organizational communication. In that sense, the use of sounds has become increasingly important.
Based on the article “If Intercontinental were a sound…what would it be?”*, Please discuss the implications (potential advantages, disadvantages, challenges, etc.) of using sounds to send strategic messages. You need to integrate the use of key concepts relating to the topic of communication to support your answer.

*Michael Spencer, "If InterContinental were a sound … what would it be?", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 31 Iss: 4, pp.39 - 46

Answer:

An organization must be aware of the implications of communicating using sounds and accents have when this organization is trying to achieve an specific result.

Good communications are basic to successful relations in Business, I think that using sounds to communicate and communicating with some despite to obtain a result can be beneficial for a short term result, but can be bad for a long term relation with customers, suppliers and the media.

In the article: Why Good Communication Is Good Business - By Marty Blalock, the author explains: ” Flatter organizations mean managers must communicate with many people over whom they may have no formal control. Even with their own employees, the days when a manager can just order people around are finished. The autocratic management model of past generations is increasingly being replaced by participatory management in which communication is the key to build trust, promote understanding and empower and motivate others”.

The past article show us how now days the complexity of the organizations is making that communication must be simple, it isn’t always easy to send a clear message for example messages send through a melody not always is perceived clearly en the receiver doesn’t receive a clear goal, it can be ambiguous, this is one of the problems of communicating through sounds, the communication ambiguous and the receiver wont get the organization propose.


Reference:
http://www.bus.wisc.edu/update/winter05/business_communication.asp

East Asia

If we analyze the Korean and Japanese culture we can see that this culture converge and diverge in many case Appling the theory, in the Japanese culture there are what they call “the zabatsu” this are groups of companies that are own by some families that have the power of manage them since their pasts from years before, this group have the government backup and have especial preferences about taxes and regulations.

Japan have specially care for business relations and they extremely protect the organization values, for example relations between suppliers and clients are treated with especially care because they think that the whole chain in the production is the one that manage the information, and the information is very important for a long life relation.

Korea have similar management styles like Japan, they have a similar conglomerate of companies with family origins called “Chaebol” This families also have a lot of power in their media but not the governments complete support like in Japanese culture, for example they are not allow to have or manage banks corporations.

This two cultures converge a diverge with the other countries cultures around the world and in some specific spects they change and adapt to need way in favor of entering to the global market, but they also have traditions that make them like they are and characterize them so diverging is also apply when globalization hits.

References:

http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/english/html/index.html
http://www.koreaembassyusa.org/
http://www.analytictech.com/mb021/cultural.htm


Questions

5.What is isomorphism? Do you think organizations change management styles to adapt to the environment? Which environment is stronger: national environment or international environment?

Answer:

Isomorphism is the ability of a organization to change and adapt to a different environment in were it is situated different than the original one.

When a organization open a new division in a different region it has to be aware of how different is the new location in terms of traditions, culture, people, laws, rules, protocol, etc, and it must change the critical managerial styles that can crash with the local traditions, so yes an organization must change its managerial style if the managerial style isn’t compatible with the external environment in which the organization is located.

Local and international environments represent taking good decisions for a organization, I think that if the company grew up in a local environment this environment will be known by the organization and it will be easier to handle an to take decisions, instead of the international environment that for a local organization if is trying to open new divisions or is opening market, the international environments will be more difficult and it will take to make investigations and analysis in order to take less risk and good decisions.

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

Answer:

Firstly we have a lot of similarities just to mention some of the most important are: this two countries have a close culture between theme and have similar managerial styles, they are both in the same continent so they sale their products to a common market. This two countries by culture both are very committed to their job a and always look for a long term relation between clients a suppliers, both countries are always thinking in globalization and in international business.

The differences between them is their principal motivations for production an the different sectors, for example Korea is more emphasized in technological sector and the government protect with especial care this industries. In Japan the government protect the agricultural and manufacturing sectors.

This two economies are growing economies that are nowadays improving their market share and acquiring global participation and power.

References:

http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/english/html/index.html
http://www.koreaembassyusa.org/
http://www.analytictech.com/mb021/cultural.htm

Motivation

Motivation as the oxford sociology dictionary define it: “as the need to perform well or the striving for success, and evidenced by persistence and effort in the face of difficulties, achievement motivation is regarded as a central human motivation”.

There are 5 important theories of motivation that are:

1.Maslow's: This theory proposes 5 levels of needs, starting from a base of biological needs and ending in self actualization, this theory says that is people is motivated is when they feel their needs.

2. McGregor’s: says there is two types of motivation, Theory X refers to people that feel motivated for satisfying their lower order needs, they Only like to work because they need or want the Money. And Theory Y, which says that individuals seek to satisfy the higher order of needs; so they are responsible, committed to their jobs, and contribute to the goals of the organization.

3. Herzberg’s: this theory talks about satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the workplace depending in two different factors:
1. Motivation factors
2. Hygiene factors

4. Alderfer's ERG: Is the evolution of Maslow´s theory, this theory says that, needs can be satisfied simultaneously and doesn’t have an order.

5. McClelland's: this theory says that people have 3 needs that motivate independently the individuals, that are :
1. Achievement,
2. Power
3. Affiliation.

References:

http://www.enotes.com/oxsoc-encyclopedia/achievement-motivation


Questions:


1. What are the Hawthorne Studies? explain its importance for studying motivation at the workplace and its influence over diverse motivation theories. (include key findings and limitations)

Answer:

The Hawthorne Studies is an experiment that was created to analyze if the lightening in a the workplace influenced the productivity of the employees, this experiment show as result that the employees have a better result and work better if when they were working the think that they were observed.

With this studies then it start making experiments and analyzing the different factors that influenced employees at the moment of working and achieving results in a period of time, the results show that things like as lighting, moments of rest, water breaks, give comfort to the individual in his work area and stimulate work but weren’t the best alternative to improve productivity.

These studies show also that the best motivators for stimulating jobs to employees are the recognition of their work, the communication between the chain of command, the feeling of belonging to the organization and incentives that make them improve their motivation.

The Hawthorne studies can be analyzed with the Macgregor’s theory that tells that there are two types of motivation, the motivation X that is that the employees are motivated by money and the Motivation Y that is that the employee need to feel that he belong to the organization and participate in its goals in order to assume more responsibilities.

References:

http://www.envisionsoftware.com/articles/Hawthorne_Effect.html



2. Based on the class activity about "Flight 001: Motivating Employees", please answer the following question: ¿Which motivation theory do you think has the most relevance for understanding the behavior of Griffin and fostering her motivation at work?

Answer:

According to the Flight 001, Motivating Employees the theory that is more relevant to motivate employees in the organization is the McGregor's Theory Y beacause is the most relevant for understanding and describing Emily Griffin’s behavior in her workplace.

The example for this theory that propose that the main source of motivation is that employees can contribute to organizations goals by applying their knowledge and increase the participation in the organization, in the case of me Griffin she is working in the lower order needs in flight 001 and she wants to work in the is the higher order needs, she want to have more responsibility, and have more decision power and improve her knowledge.

References:
• Article "Flight 001: Motivating Employees", class activity.

 

Decision Making and Ethical Behavior

Question:

An international negotiator must take into account when interacting with persons form different cultures in an international business the different aspects that influence that person when he is going to make a decision.

Cultures influence people in many significant ways especially in ways of thinking and reactions to common situations in a organization and in life.
For example a contract in a business negotiation between in a international organizations can have many interpretations by the different cultures involved in the negotiation agreement or in a job interview in a organization that belongs to a different county with a different culture, lets see some examples:

To a Swiss, Scandinavian, American or British person a contract is a formal document that has to be signed after a deal or a business agreement and the parts involved should be adhered to it. The approval if formalized by the signatures of the parts involved and gives it a sense of finality.

A Japanese businessperson regards a contract as a starting document to be rewritten and modified, as circumstances require.

The German think that truth will allow parties to achieve a successful outcome of a business meeting.

South Americans sees contacts as an ideal that is unlikely to be achieved but that is signed to avoid argument.

Persons of most cultures see aspects of life by the way they have been teach and different ethical behaviors influenced people take different positions of same situations.

This simple example shows as how difficult could be to reach to a successful negotiation when ethical behaviors influence in different ways a decision process in a common document in business like a contract. The decision process harder and complicated when different ethical behaviors interact

References:
Book: “When Cultures Collide”. Third Edition. Publisher: Nicholas Brealey International--- By Lewis, Richard D – Chapter: “Concepts and Notions”

Personality, Perception and Attribution And Attitudes and Values

Summary:

The personality is what makes each person unique and different from the others human being, the personality is the way of thinking, behaving and reacting of every human to the world.

People personality influence in organizations, and define some of the characteristics that the organization have, some of the most influential’s personality characteristics that affect a organization are:

1. Locus of control: This is the ability that you have to control what happens to you in the internal and external environment.

2. Self-esteem: Is how you self- worth, in other words is what you think about yourself and how you think the people think about you. This Personality characteristic in one of the most relevant because influence your result and the relations with people in the workplace.

3.Self-efficacy: Are the beliefs of the own ability to accomplish a specific task. If a employee have own self efficacy he won’t get good results and will not be able to accomplished daily labor activities.

4.Self-monitoring: is the ability to control yourself and regulate your attitudes in base of what you think is good or wrong.

According to Oxford English Dictionary the perception is: “the process of becoming aware or conscious of a thing or things in general; the state of being aware; consciousness; understanding.”

Analyzing this definition with the previous description of what personality is, we can connect and say that that perception is the way we see and interpret the world analyzing it with our personality.

Perception in organizations have the same importance than personality to achieve a goal, a bad perception in a business relation or in a communication process can be fatal for a good comprehension, mostly when the communication is between different cultures. For example:

Stereotypes: that culture imposes us, when having a interaction with another person having a stereotype will not help to manage a good relation.

First-impression error: – Having opinions based on initial experiences.

Reference:

http://oxforddictionaries.com

Question:


1. Please explain, using your own words, the concept of Pygmalion Effect.
What are the potential implications, uses, or challenges that this effect may pose for organisations engaging into international operations that require the understanding of diverse cultural contexts? Can you use this concept to explain the relationship between national and organisational cultures?


Answer:

The Pygmalion Effect propose that when a person have major expectation about something the greater results this person will achieve. This effect can be applicable to any situation in life, this effect explain why when you are motivated to do something you put all our interest in achieving it with the best result possible and putting all you effort to get the best result.

The uses of this effect are useful in any situation because the human work for something or for stimulus and the grater the motivation for something the grater is the result. For example: in an organization when you know what is the finality of your job, and know that your work is relevant for the general result of the organization you feel that you are important and the organization need you, this is a motivation that every organization have to transmit to their employees, but it also need to be related to a good boos-employee relation and guidenes from the boss to the employee by trying to make the employee understand an motivated him to feel part of the result that he must do with his job. This example show us that if the boss follow the employee guide him and is able to answers questions that may result in the work, the employee will give the best of himself and the result will be better than if the boss is an untouchable person for the employee and is the person how will fired him if the result aren’t good.

This effect is applicable in most cultures but you must take into account that not all cultures respond to stimulus in the same way, and in some cultures the result may be the opposite than the previous examples, for example there are cultures that are use to work by goals and need to feel pressure inside to complete and to work in a good way without wasting time, they need a person to tell them and to impose fear to make people work efficiently, for example China’s working model based on results and productions lines.

This to examples above show us how an organization especially an international organization must consider what values and rules must introduce and how is going to be the relation between the chain of command will be, they must be aware of the culture that influence their employees and which strategy will be the best to apply for the organizational purpose.

The Pygmalion Effect is the result of an effective form that an organization is motivating their human force in a good way by making the fell important and necessary for the result, by making the working environment a place for to express themselves and having inside the organization low power distance between the chain of command.

This video is a clear example of how can motivation give better results:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wl_MZc1cTU

Reference:
Video Attached: 04-September 2010. www.youtube.com

Organisational behavior and National and Organisational culture

Organizational behavior:

This module learned in class talks about human behavior and the behavior inside the organizations, in this topic we study the introduction of human behavior.

The human behavior is based in two perspectives, one is the internal perspective that is the feelings and values that characterize a person, like: thoughts, feelings, experiences and needs, and another external perspective that are the events that influence the person in his internal perspectives.

The external perspectives are for example the organizations, and organizations have an organizational behavior that is influenced by the human behavior of the people that belong to this organization. This organizational behavior is based in psychology, sociology, engineering, anthropology, management and medicine, to analyze the factors that influence people and their behavior, such as: Competitive business environment, Globalization, Multiculturalism, Diversity and Rising ethical and moral standards.

The organizations can be formal or informal: The formal organizations are the ones that have a group of goals, objectives, to define the way that employees should act inside the organization. The informal organizations are the combination of values, beliefs, attitudes and feelings that determine the way the employees of the organization actually behave.

The organizations can also be categorized as Clock-work or Snake-Pit, the Clock-Work organization is the one that analyze the persons as a part of the organization, with an order established and easy to handle, and the Snake Pit is the type of organization that is very complex, difficult to handle.

National and Organizational Culture:

National Culture: Is the culture of a specific territory this culture is characterized by values, goals assumptions, attitudes, social structure, religion, Personal Communications, Body language and Education that.

Organizational Culture: Is the mixture of the national culture with the organizations, that generate a new language to interpret the behavior an language of the combination of the national culture and the organization rules and procedures.

As Helen Deresky say: “The culture of a society comprises the shared values, understandings, and goals that are learned from earlier generations, imposed by present members of a society, and passed on to succeeding generations. This shared outlook results, in large part, in common attitudes, codes of conduct and expectations that subconsciously guide and control certain norms of behavior”

References:

Handbook for international management research - Betty Jane Punnett,Oded Shenka


Questions:

1. Considering the conference "Dealing with Cultural Differences" by Nick B. Meyer, choose 1 cultural dimension and use 2 hypothetical but realistic situations - or real ones - to illustrate the business implications of cultural differences. you may not use situations or examples already discussed in class or in the conference.

Uncertainly Avoidance

This Cultural dimension applied to a business and organizational behavior is very significant in the way persons act and the risks that they take and hoe the manage them, for example:

• In a financial organization that manage stocks and decisions have a risk involved a person that works in the decision making about were they are going to invest to money to guarantee a profit and there is the possibility to loss a lot of money, a person must have some uncertainty avoidance to risks to take this kind of decisions, this dimension is often a personality that is acquired depending from the culture they been grown, a person with low Uncertainly Avoidance is unable to take a risk, and in a financial organization risks must be taken to achieve a goal.

• Organizations that are involved with new technology must have high uncertainly avoidance to risk of the approval of the market, for example when NINTENDO release the Nintendo WII they change the way people play video games with out knowing if it would have the market approval and taking the risk of doing it.

2.
All the organizations have their own corporate culture because in every organization there are rules, protocols and procedures that make people who work in the organization act and work in a determinate way, this simple and traditional rules that any organization in the world have, influence the behavior and the way people work and interact inside the organization, this is because this rules and procedures are applicable in every working day actions, and are the standards that if you work in that place you will acquire those procedures and this will influence the way you behave inside de organization. For example if inside the company the relation boss-employee is strong a rigid, it means there is a lot of power distance between persons in the chain of command, so the actions a decisions and communication will be difficult and strong inside the organization because employees in some way are scared of presenting their work to their bosses and the interrelation will be very little, so employees will only work by goals and always thinking in if the boss will be agree in what they are doing. Another important situation that is very common to happen in a high power distance relation is that employees aren’t able to present new ideas or projects that can be beneficial for the organization, making very difficult to apply new ideas. This example can show as how an organization can have an internal culture that influence the people inside it.

Corporate culture is also influenced by the culture of the place the organization is situated, for example a organization that has many divisions in different parts of the world and they have similar rules, the divisions of the different places may be affected by the external culture of the city, country, raze, way of thinking, etc, of the place the division is situated and that influence people in the organization and finally the organizational culture.

Organizational culture can be modified, I could be modified if the rules, protocols, procedures, work direction, group recreations, and relations inside are stimulated or changed in any way; this will change the ambient of work and it will reflect in the behavior of people inside the organization.

An organization must be aware of the cultural influences of the region were is situated, and how the organizational values can affect people in the common work labor, because if the organization only think in the importance of their values and rules it will have problems or lower results, making a crash between the employees region culture and believes and the values and rules of the organization. For example, an organization in the middle east must be aware of how important is the religion to the people, and if the organization don’t pay attention to this and apply a rule that employees cant waste time in other thing than working, this organization is going to have a crash between culture an inside organization rules.