Religius Implications for Internal Business

As we already know, Religion is one of determinant of  culture, is for that reason that in organizational culture has a big impact too. We need to have very clear which are the religions in all the world and specifically where religions are practiced.

Religion has a lot of rules, and several cultures are really based on their religion. As we already know there are several types of religion; Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Budism, confusianism. All the religions are important no matter how old or how new are.

Question

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

Colombia have a lot of people with different religion, but isa religion that is really dominant in the country, and that in Christianism. Doing business is not a problem, because this religion doesn't have some specific rules that can affect the relations in business, for example the islam religion is one of the most difficult ones at the time of doing business

Bibliography

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

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

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

Organizational Diversity

First of all, in this case we need to clarify the difference between a group and a team; Group, is two or more people with common interests, objectives, and continuing interaction, and a Team, A group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common
mission, performance goals, and approach for which they
hold themselves mutually accountable. If we see, one is based on the other one, we can't have a team if we don't have a group already.


There are several types of a member of a group, and everyone has an specific function on the group:

• Contributor: is one that supplies information
• Collaborator: is that person that focuses team on mission
• Communicator: listens, facilitates and promotes collective effort
• Challenger: devil’s advocate, questions mission, purpose, ethics

It is very important for the group health, that all the members were diversity. If it is not, theres no way that it will be differents points of view. But, at the same time, it could be a problem on solving problems, because its probably that it will be lower than the others. 


Question

Since diversity is a source of competitive advantage,

what could be the recruitment strategies to effectively

target to diverse groups? What would be the

consequences of ignoring diversity?

Diversity, is a great advantage that an organization has, and if we are the competition, it will be a huge monster one step ahead of the organization. An strategy could be an effective solving problems team, when the time of solving will be lower and we are being more competitive than the other companies. 
Ignoring diversity, is one of the most huge mistakes that an organization should never do. Because, when a company has this advantage, has a saveral points of view, and the probabilities that their strategies fail are less than the other companies.


Bibliography

• Cox Jr., T. (2001) Creating the multicultural organization. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Ely, R. and Thomas, D. (2001) “Cultural Diversity at Work: The
Effects of Diversity Perspectives on Work Group Processes and
Outcomes,” Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 2,
2001, pp. 229–273.
• Jamieson, D. and O’Mara, J. (1991) Managing workforce
2000: Gaining the diversity advantage.
• Nelson, D and Quick, J.C. (2009) Organizational culture. In
Organizational Behavior: Science, the real world and you.
• Slater, Stanley, F., Weigand, Robert A., Zweilein, Thomas J.
(2008) ¨The business case for commitment to diversity¨.
Business Horizons 51: 201-209. 

Organizational Communication and Virtual Teams

Communication is one of the bases that a human being has, without these tool, the world would not be what it is in this moment, suddenly the humans were still living in caves. 


Communication is a tool that all the people use dialy, and we really need to use it on every activity that a person do, and implementing on the organization in a good way could be the best tool that the organization has. 


There are a communicator and receiver; inside of the organization there are several communicators and receivers, whose are exchanging messages all the time. In the case of reflexive listener, who is a person that has the skill of listening carefully to another person and repeating back to the speaker the heard message to correct any inaccuracies or misunderstandings. 


There exist two ways of communication; One way communication which is when a communicator gives the messages but the message never comeback with an answer, and Two-way communication, which is when the communicatior gives the message and the receiver gives back a feedback. 


When we talk about communcation, not only talk about sounds, the non verbal communication is one of the most important parts even on the organization. This is because, the way that a person dress and act says more than a learned speech. 


Nowadays, technology is part of communication area, things like internet and social networks are improving new ways to communicate and easily. 


Bibliography

• Ebrahim, N., Ahmed, S., & Taha, Z. (2009) Virtual Teams: a Literature Review.
Australian Journal of Basic & Applied Sciences, 3(3), 2653-2669. Retrieved from
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.eafit.edu.co/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?
vid=5&hid=110&sid=69f6751e-704f-4478-98c7-9fac6d0394c8%40sessionmgr113.
• Kuruppuarachchi, P. R. (2009). Virtual team concepts in projects: A case study
Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/218750033?accountid=45662
• Nelson, D and Quick, J.C. (2009) Organizational culture. In Organisational
Behavour: Science, the real world and you.
• Powell, A ., G. Piccoli and B. Ives (2004) Virtual teams : a review of current literature
and directions for future research. The Data base for Advances in Information
Systems , 35: 6-36.
• Rosen, B., S. Furst and R. Blackburn (2007) Overcoming Barriers t o Knowledge
Sharing in Virtual Teams. Organizacional Dynamics , 36: 259-273.
• Shachaf, P. and N. Hara (2005) Team Effectiveness in Virtual Environments : An
Ecological Approach. INFERRIS, P.A.G., S., (Ed.) Teaching and Learning with Virtual
Teams. Idea Group Publishing.

Migrant Workers / Expatriate assignments

Migrant labor, involves the movement of people from one country (or region) to another primarily for employment related reasons (IPPR 2004).
At the same way, exist the expatriate which means to exile (oneself) from one's native country or cause (another) to go into exile. But there are other reasons why people wants to go away from their origin country. Some of these are based on the motivation maslow theory, people looking for jobs better than that they had; Other people just are looking other cultures, they only want to see the world. This last behavior is caused because of the globalization, this phonomenom has caused that a lot of people in the world be interested in learning and knowing more from other countries. 


Question

Explain how easy is it for Colombian companies

to employ expatriates locally?

Colombian companies, are already based on their organizational culture, but this one is based too on their Colombian culture; a culture that is full of nice people who really has the intention to make it feel good another person. Colombian companies, really enjoy give employment to that people that are not from Colombia, they really think that is a good experience having another person from other country. 


Bibliography

• Buckley C. and Wills K. (2011) China's Wen puts social stability at heart of economy.
Retrieved from March 20, 2011, from Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/27/us-china-economy-wenidUSTRE71Q07F20110227?
pageNumber=2
• Expatriate. (n.d.). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved March 11, 2011, from
Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/expatriate
• Florida, R. (2002) The rise of the creative class. The Washington Monthly, 34(5), 15.
Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/213679959?accountid=45662
• Institute for Public Policy Research (2004) Labour migration to the UK: an ippr
FactFile.
• Kram, K.E. (1985) Mentoring At Work, Scott, Foresman: Glenview.
• Mezias, J.M and Scandura, T.A. (2005) A Needs-Driven Approach to Expatriate
Adjustment and Career Development: A Multiple Mentoring Perspective, Journal of
International Business Studies, Vol. 36, No. 5 (Sep.), pp. 519-538
• Scandura, T.A. and Von Glinow, M.A. (1997) 'Development of the international
manager: the role of mentoring', Business and the ContemporaryWorld9 : 95-115.

Merging Organizational Culture

Mergers and Acquisitions, are marketing strategies that are very useful when a company is going to venture in other countries. In the same way, companies that want to improve their goals can use this estrategy in the same country between organizations that works on the same sector, creating a new social identity on the market. 


There are two options on these mergers, we can lose value or destroy value, because most of the times, one of the companies is more powerful and the other one can take advantage of that. On another hand, not all the companies with the same functions can joint together, this is why the companies really need to analize if this is a good strategy and if is really worth it. 


In this case, it's very important to watch out how much are the differences on the organizational culture between the organizations and how are they going to joint together creating a new one. 


Bibliography

• Alzira S., Wayne H., and Gerald V. (2003) “Challenges and opportunities in mergres and
acquisitions: three international case studies – Deutsche Bank-Bankers Trust; British Petroleum-
Amoco; Ford-Volvo”, Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 27 Iss:6, p. 313-321.
• Angwin, D. (2001) “Mergers and acquisitions across European borders: national perspectives on
pre-acquisition due diligence and the use of professional advisers”, Journal of World business, Vol.
36 No.1, p. 2-57.
• Datta, D.K. and Grant, J.H. (1990), “Relationships between type of acquisition, the autonomy given
to the acquired firm, and acquisition process: an empirical analysis”, Journal of Management, Vol.
16, p. 29-44.
• Elsaa, P.M. and Veiga, J.F. (1994), “Acculturation in acquired organizations: a force-field
perspective”, Human Relations, Vol. 47 No. 4.
• Gitelson, G., Bing, J., Laroche, L (2001) Culture Shock, CMA Management.
• Haspeslagh, P.C. and Jemison, D.B. (1991) Managing Acquisitions, The Free Press, New York.
• Nahavandi, A. and Malekzadeh, A.R. (1998) “Acculturation in mergers and acquisitions”, Academy of
Management Review, Vol.13, p.79-90.
• Nelson, D and Quick, J.C. (2009) Organizational culture. In Organisational Behavour: Science, the
real world and you.

Managing Change and Conflict

Change is one of the most dangerous risk that an organization has, sometimes could be better and sometimes could be worst, is depending of the point of view that a leader has, if the result is bad, must of the time a good leader see this as an opportunity to keep going and improve their goals. 


There are two (2) types of change; a change planned and change unplanned.  A change planned as the name says, is a change resulting from decision already made. And the change unplanned, is that change imposed without the concerns from anyone else. But also, there are three types of change:

• Incremental Change: Small changes.
• Strategic Change: Big changes.
• Transformational Change: Radical changes. 

Not all leaders think that change is a good option, several good leaders prefers continue with business as usual instead of take the risk. 


Severeal times, change creates new conflicts that the leader never had and the consequences could be positive or negative; We can lose time and money, but at the same time we can learn something new and take an advantage of this. Leaders need to transfer de message, that something bad always have a lot of things better. 


Globalization, is one of the cases about change, this phenomenon put down all the boundaries in the world, and must of the companies need to understand that a new era had arrived. 


Question


Is it possible to change corporate culture? If so, how?
Corporate culture is one of the keys that a company need to keep as a symbol. According to that, we can say that a corporate culture can be compared with country cultures, because these are already based on some rules and is really unrespectfull if someone who belongs to it doesn't follow it.  In corporate culture, happens the same thing, we need that this culture will be strong and always show that to the employees.  


Bibliography

 Deal T. and Kennedy, A. (1982). A Corporate Cultures. Adison-Wesley.
 Duck, J.D. (1993). Managing change: The Art of Balancing. Harvard Business Review.
 Hopper, P. (2006) Living with Globalization. Oxford: Berg.
 Mangaliso, M (2003) Building competitive advantage from Ubuntu. In Thomas, David
Clinton, ed. Readings and cases in International Management: A cross-cultural
perspective.
 Nadler, D. and Nadler, M (1998) Champions of Change: How CEOs and Their
Companies are Mastering the Skills of Radical Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
 Nelson, D and Quick, J.C. (2009) Managing Change. In Organisational Behavour:
Science, the real world and you.
 Nicholson, N (1995) (ed.), Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational
Behavior. Oxford, England: Blackwell.
 Singh, K (2009) Organizational Behavior: Text and Cases. Pearson Education India, p.
421.
 Weick (1985) The significance of corporate culture. In PJ Frost et al (Eds.)
Organisational Culture. New Delhi: Sage Publications.
 Zeira, Y., and Avedisian, J. (1989) Organizational planned change: Assessing the
chances for success. Organizational Dynamics, Spring

Organizational Learning

First of all we need to understand the definition of two (2) words, which are kwnoledge and learning. According to the scientist:

• Knowledge: Is the capacity for effective action” (Peter Senge, 1998).
• Learning: Is a process of acquiring knowledge or a skill.

There are several theories about this subject, one of these theories is the Social Learning Theory, which explains human behavior interms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive,behavioral, and environmental influences(Learning theories knowledgebase, 2011). 

According to the above, we can define what is a learning organization. Several scientist postulated definitions about this organizations, an example of this is Senge, who said in 1994 that "Learning organizations are places where people continually expand their capacities to create the results they truly desire”.Nowadays, this type of organizations are very important, because there are several factors as globalization, internet, technology that it wasn't there before, and this organizations are being competitive and well prepared for the future. 

The organizations need to be learning daily, because the world is advancing at the same time even faster, and they need to be updated everyday. 

http://www.unitar.org/me/sites/unitar.org.me/files/resize/M%20and%20E%20%20Key%20Organisational%20Learning-edit-220x164.jpg

Question

What would be the relationship between cross 

cultural environments and organizational learning 

strategies?

The relationship between cross cultural environments and organizational learning strategies, is that one of the strategies of the organizational learning is to be informed and update about the cross cultural environments. The organizations need to know how are this environments and how are they acting on the market, getting an idea to organizations to respond to the message that they environment is giving to them.

Bibliography

• Cooper, Cary L. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management. Blackwell Publishing, .
Blackwell Reference Online. Retrieved from13 January 2011:
http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/book?id=g9780631233176_9780631233176
• Learning Theories Knowledgebase (2011, January). Social Learning Theory (Bandura) at
Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved from January 12th, 2011:
http://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-bandura.html
• Makridakis, S (1991) What can we learn from organisational failures ?, Long Range
Planning, 24(4), 115-126.
• Nelson, D.L. & Quick, J.C. (2010) Organizational Behavior: Science, The Real World and
You. South-Western College Publication, 7th. Ed.
• Nystrom, PC and WH Starbuck, (1984, Spring). To avoid organisational crisis, unlearn,
Organisational Dynamic@, 53-64.
• Senge, P. (1998) Sharing Knowledge. At Society For Organizational Learning. Retrieved
from January 12th , 2011: http://www.solonline.org/res/kr/shareknow.html
• Shukla, M (1994) CORPORATE FAILURES: Why Organisations Fail To Learn.
Productivity, 34(4), 629-639.
• Teece, D. (1998) Capturing value from knowledge assets: The new economy, Markets for
know-how, and intangible assets. California Management Review. Vol 40 No 3. Spring
1998. Retrieved from January 2011:
http://apps.business.ualberta.ca/mlounsbury/techcom/readings/teece.pdf