CHINA

It is a country in East Asia. It is the most populous state in the world with over 1.4 billion people. China is ruled by the Communist Party of China under a single-party system, and has jurisdiction over 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 directly administered municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and 2 highly autonomous special administrative regions (SARs) (Hong Kong and Macau). The PRC´s capital is Beijing. At about 9.6 million square kilometres, the PRC is the world´s third- or fourth-largest country by total area, and the second largest by land area.

Since the introduction of Market based economic reforms in 1978, China has become the world´s fastest growing major economy, the world´s largest exporter and 3rd largest importer of goods. Rapid industrialization has reduced its poverty rate from 53% in 1981 to 8% in 2001. However, the PRC is now faced with a number of other problems including a rapidly aging population due to the one-child policy, a widening rural-urban income gap, and environmental degradation. Moreover, China has been criticized for its human rights violations by governments and NGO´s, and for having a problematic record of interfering with press freedom.

China is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, as well as being a member of multilateral organizations including the WTO, G-20 and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Major combat in the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with the Communist Party of China in control of mainland China, and the Kuomintang (KMT) retreating to Taiwan. On 1st October 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People´s Republic of China. “Communist China” or “Red China” were two of the names of the PRC.
The PRC is regarded by several political scientists as one of the last five Communist states (along with Vietnam, North Korea, Laos, and Cuba), but simple characterizations of PRC´s political structure since the 1980s are no longer possible. The PRC government has been variously described as communist and socialist, but also as authoritarian, with heavy restrictions remaining in many areas, most notably on the Internet, the press, freedom of assembly, reproductive rights, and freedom of religion.

Since economic liberalization began in 1978, the PRC´s investment and export-led economy has grown 70 times bigger and is the fastest growing major economy in the world.

Its government is officially atheist, which viewed religion as emblematic of feudalism and foreign colonialism. Religious belief or practice was banned because it was regarded as backward and superstitious by some of the communist leaders, from Vladimir Lenin to Mao Zedong, who had been critical of religious institutions. But China´s traditional religions are Buddhism, Taoism.

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https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html



https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/maps/maptemplate_ch.html

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

A blend of Maoist bureaucrat in learning, Confucian gentleman, and Sun Tzu-like strategist is used in organizations across China.

Guanxi: It describes the basic dynamic in personalized networks of influence, and is a central idea in Chinese society. At its most basic, Guanxi describes a personal connection between two people in which one is able to prevail upon another to perform a favour or service, or be prevailed upon. The two people need not be of equal social status.

Government´s plans are crucial for doing business; people give first priority to China´s national interests and always mix business along with politics.

___________
1. http://guanxi.pbworks.com/
2. China, Class presentation, http://interactiva.eafit.edu.co/ei/

IS GUANXI STILL WORKING, WHILE CHINESE MNC´S GO GLOBAL ?. THE CASE OF TAIWANESE MNC´S IN THE UK.

Guanxi and HRM go hand by hand in Chinese communities. However, Guanxi may not be completely important anymore, this due to the fact that Chinese MNC´s are global executives that have started to cope with the Western MNC´s. But anyway, National culture prevails, being an important way to do business inside and abroad for the Chinese business men.

Recently, “a Chinese company bought IBM Personal Computers lock, stock and barrel. Chinese corporations have bought Thomson and RCA televisions, Dirt Devil etc”. The article goes over on Taiwanese MNC´s looking for a strategy of Internationalization, and also tells about how third world MNC´s deals with their international workers.

The article concludes that National culture is anyway a key factor that influences the international strategy in MNC´s in the developing world.

___________
James Dyson, 2005

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:

Guanxi is still important ad alive. “Today Guanxi has become essential business enabler in Chinese market economy. It occupies the core of Chinese business culture. Products compete with features and prices, and then Guanxi directs the selection.”

The internationalization process of Chinese companies is very much like the Internationalization process of Colombian companies, where national culture still weights a lot in the way things are done and oriented. I say this because it should be as hard to a Chinese business man to abandon its Guanxi principles, as to a Colombian business man to abandon procrastination and leaving everything to the last minute.

Culture is culture and is inherent to the individual, it is not something we can take off with soap, and it is in our core of behaviour and will almost never abandon us.

___________
http://beijingman.blogspot.com/2009/01/guanxi.html

USEFUL SIMPLE ANALYSIS OF GUANXI



http://www.randomwire.com/wp-content/uploads/guanxi-diagram-500x318.png

In this picture we can understand how Guanxi human relations work and how difficult for strangers it is to access the trusted circle.

EAST ASIA

From the countries in East Asia, we will focus mainly on South Korea and Japan.

South Korea:

It is a State in East Asia, located on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighboured by China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. Its capital is Seoul, the second largest metropolitan city in the world and a major global city.

In 1910, Korea was annexed by Japan. After liberation and occupation by Soviet and U.S. forces at the end of World War II, the nation was divided into North and South Korea. The latter was established in 1948 as a democracy. A war between the two Koreas ended in an uneasy cease-fire. After the war and a period of military rule, the South Korean economy grew significantly and the country was transformed into a major economy and a full democracy.

South Korea is a developed country and had one of the world´s fastest growing economies from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. Its rapid transformation into a wealthy and industrialized economy in this short time was termed the “Miracle on the Han River”.

They are mainly Buddhist. But as of 2005, just under half of the South Korean population expressed no religious preference.

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https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ks.html



https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/maps/maptemplate_ks.html

Organisational aspects:

Jeong: The concept of jeong exists in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese cultures, and the same Chinese character is used in these countries. However, it is very interesting for us to see that the meaning of the same character is subtly different for each of these countries. The Chinese emphasize the aspects of loyalty and reciprocity in relationships when using their jeong character. The Japanese equivalent, pronounced “jyo,” means sentimental feelings with the addition of another word, “nin jyo.” Jeong in Korean culture has much broader meanings and ambiguous nuances in the expression of emotions, and encompasses the Chinese and Japanese concepts.

http://www.prcp.org/publications/sig.pdf

Japan:

It is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south.
Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.

A major power, Japan has the world´s second-largest economy by nominal GDP and the third largest in purchasing power parity. It is also the world´s fourth largest exporter and fifth largest importer. It is also the only Asian country in the G-8 and is currently serving as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. Although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern and extensive military force which is employed in self-defense and peacekeeping roles. It is a developed country with very high living standards.

In 1947, Japan adopted a new pacifist constitution emphasizing Liberal democratic practices. The Allied occupation ended by the Treaty of San Francisco in 1952 and Japan was granted membership in the United Nations in 1956. Japan later achieved spectacular growth to become the second largest economy in the world, with an annual growth rate averaging 10% for four decades. This ended in the mid-1990s when Japan suffered a major recession. Positive growth in the early 21st century has signalled a gradual recovery.

Japan is a constitutional monarchy where the power of the Emperor is very limited. As a ceremonial figurehead, he is defined by the constitution as "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people". Power is held chiefly by the Prime Minister of Japan and other elected members of the Diet, while sovereignty is vested in the Japanese people.

From 1868, the Meiji period launched economic expansion. Meiji rulers embraced the concept of a free market economy and adopted British and North American forms of free enterprise capitalism. Japanese went to study overseas and Western scholars were hired to teach in Japan. Many of today´s enterprises were founded at the time. Japan emerged as the most developed nation in Asia.

Many religions are practiced in Japan but most Japanese follow Shinto or Buddhism. Generally they do not associate themselves exclusively with one of these, but incorporate features of both into their daily lives in a process known as Syncretism.

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https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html



https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/maps/maptemplate_ja.html

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Korea – Chaebols: a South Korean form of business conglomerate. They are powerful global multinationals owning numerous international enterprises. The Korean word means "business family" or "monopoly" and is often used the way "conglomerate" is used in English. 財閥.

Example: Samsung Group, Hyundai Kia Automotive Group, LG Group, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Daewoo and Ssang Yong Group, among others.

Japan – Keiretsu: is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. It is a type of business group. They evolved from the old pre-World War II Zaibatsus. 系列.

Example: Midori Kai, Mizuho Group, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Sumitomo.

Chaebol, are often compared to Keiretsu, but the Chaebol conglomerations are much more similar to a Western conglomerate.

There are at least three major differences:

- First, the Chaebol were family dominated. In 1990, for example, in most cases the family that founded the major business in the Chaebol remained in control, while in Japan the Keiretsu were controlled by professional corporate management.

- Second, individual Chaebol were prevented from buying controlling shares of banks, and in 1990 government regulations made it difficult for a Chaebol to develop an exclusive banking relationship. The Keiretsu usually worked with an affiliated bank and had almost unlimited access to credit.

- Third, the Chaebol often formed subsidiaries to produce components for exports, while large Japanese corporations often employed outside contractors.
All of this created huge economic conglomerates that had to deal with the 1990´s big crisis. Some of whom declared bankruptcy and some of whom were able to succeed.

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1. http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/chaebol.htm
2. http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/keiretsu.htm
3. http://t.web.umkc.edu/tjh9b/wp/%5BCoR%5Denterprise.ppt

QUESTION

Choosing one of the questions mentioned on EAFIT Interactiva to be included in your blog:

In the case of Korean and Japanese management styles, do you think they tend to converge or diverge ?. Are they likely to converge to each other or to other management styles (Western, Asian, etc).

They tend to converge but they will never homogenize by means of divergence, it prevents the two lines from ever merging one into the other.

Japan is the dominant managerial style in the region and Korea has adopted many of its patterns and methods to be successful, but the Koreans will never be like the Japanese, centuries of history that could join them, actually, separates them and prevent it from happening.

We have seen the main differences between the two management styles and we know for sure they will never become one.

Western and Asian models fight each other to be the dominant pace in the world, but as concluded in class, we are too different from the world to become homogeneous at its fullest.

EXPATRIATE ASSIGNMENTS AND OVERSEAS EXPERIENCES

“A suitable individual is assigned on a temporary basis, and subsequently returns to another position in the same company in the original country”. Basically when a position or a new branch is to be fulfilled or opened abroad, Expatriate assignments are required to be done.

There are three levels involved in this matter, which are: Individual, mostly for career development purposes; Company, to develop competencies to bring home; and Industrial, for the transference of cross-cultural skills.

In the organisational level, and expatriate is a person who has been appointed by his company to work abroad. In this case we have to consider the economic benefits of transplanting one person and his family from his homeland to another.

In preparation to the assignment, mainly language, practical affairs and legal advice must be taken to minimize the risk of failure.

Considerations, such as, health insurance and coverage, children´s education, renting flats (apartments) and everything else a person should think when moving abroad should be calculated and negotiated in the salary and compensations. It is not the same to have a good salary in Nigeria but going and trying to live with the same salary in Paris, for example.

Also, a big problem arises for the company, when the term is over and they have to repatriate the migrant worker. What to do with his experience ?, what to do with his level ?, the president of a company sent to Hong Kong, can´t come back to Colombia to do just advising or lower job. Therefore a Succession plan must be ready to profit or take advantage of his assignment abroad.

Finally the Overseas experience is one, more on the field of personal initiative rather than on the company´s behalf. It basically creates a Broadening of perspectives process and major awareness of cultural differences. And it is funded mainly on the person´s own pocket.

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1. Inkson et al, 2003.
2. Expatriate assignments and overseas experiences, Class presentation, http://interactiva.eafit.edu.co/ei/



http://www.harleyhula.com/cmtimages/Girl%20and%20Jet.jpg

When everything is paid by the company, you can get several benefits.



http://www.cbc.ca/testthenation/episodes/trivia/assets/images/backpackers.jpg

When you have to pay for your own, it is better to stay at the hostel.

EXPATRIATE ASSIGNMENT VERSUS OVERSEAS EXPERIENCE: CONTRASTING MODELS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

In this article Expatriate assignment and overseas experience are compared. The analysis of recent data stipulates that Overseas experiences bring more advantages to people´s development than Expatriate assignments.

It is definitely more cultivating to go through an Overseas experience rather than through an Expatriate assignment, it is more which the individual profits from in the field of human aspects, than a technical assignment in another country.

The knowledge-centred approach is important when analyzing the Overseas experience because the person, learns and brings back home new ideas for entrepreneurism.

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Expatriate assignment versus Overseas experience: Contrasting models of International human resource development, Inkson, Kerr.

QUESTION

Explain one of the causes for expatriate assignment failure and provide 3 recommendations to address it.

Inability of spouse to adjust: When your partner goes to the new country with you, but sadly, she has troubles to adjust, while you are at work, her or him, doesn´t find anything to do or becomes depressed setting back the whole process.

There are three recommendations I could think of:

- Your spouse must find a group of friends, while learning the language will help to minimize the impact of restabilising in a new home.

- Make her part of the assignment, giving her a non influential or crucial task in the company, such as social relation stuff.

- Go through therapy with a psychologist to adjust to the new environment and to make her realise that the assignment is not forever.

USEFUL LINKS

http://www.ef.com/Default.aspx?bhcp=1

In this link you go to the web page of a company that specializes in studying abroad.

http://www.itapintl.com/facultyandresources/articlelibrarymain/negotiating-expatriate-packages.html

In this link, you can find information on how to negotiate your Expatriate assignment more easily.

MIGRANT WORKERS

A Migrant worker is a person who has remunerated activity in a State or country different to his place of origin, not being a national in the State he travels to. The Geneva Convention prevents and eliminates the exploitation of migrant workers and families involved in the whole migration process.

A person may migrate because of three main reasons: Economic reasons, social reasons and political reasons, each one, as important as the next one. People looking for better economic expectances, or escaping from persecution, often risk everything they have to go abroad looking for a better life.

Develop countries are the biggest receptors of migrant workers and also illegal work force, which in the case of the USA is composed mainly by the Hispanic group, now days, the biggest minority in the region. On the other hand, countries in the EU receive people from Africa and Asia in search of a better quality of life.

But this search of a better life quality could be tricky, most immigrants find themselves doing jobs that the local people would never accept taking.

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Migrant workers, Class presentation, http://interactiva.eafit.edu.co/ei/



http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/timeline/images/timeline_pic13.jpg

Sometimes it is very hard being a Migrant worker, like in the case of the Migrant workers to California in the 1930s.

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF IMMIGRATION TO CANADA

This paper puts together and compares Canada’s history of immigration to present day. Changing the trend from the 19th, when immigration failed to contribute to population growth, for being just settlers from the British Empire, looking to establish a new country, to the trend in the 20th century, when immigration became the main base for populating the isolated and hard land. Also saying, how the immigration source changed to people coming from Asia and other parts of Europe, rather than just British citizens.

The main reason for which Canada wasn´t working properly as a growing country for immigrants, or didn´t look appealing to them was because the country was too cold, too remote, and too backward. In other words, Canada was missing a big “pull” for immigration. They just simply preferred the USA over to Canada as their destination. And then, few were lured to look to Canada as a nice place. But in the 20th century things changed, and eventhough Canada has a stipulated preference for immigrants with skills, it basically maintained the volume of immigration by lowering the skill requirements.

“I wish to make it quite clear that Canada is perfectly within her rights in selecting the persons whom we regard as desirable future citizens. It is not a “fundamental human right” of any alien to enter Canada. It is a privilege. It is a matter of domestic policy. Immigration is subject to the control of the Parliament of Canada. This does not mean, however, that we should not seek to remove from our legislation what may appear to be objectionable discrimination”. What was punishable of being considered “objectionable discrimination” would evolve massively in the next 25 years, when about 3´.500.000 immigrated to Canada. In 1962, explicit discrimination based on race or religion was abolished, and was replaced by criteria.

Finally a “points system”, was implemented in 1967, which strongly emphasizes on skills, education, and training of the regular independent immigrant, instead of focusing on his background. And therefore immigrants were, now, to be able to meet the demands and challenges of an urban, post-industrial, and service-sector economy, rather than a rural one. Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East are regions from which Canada will receive immigrants. Because of them being growing regions which can give Canada new prosperity.

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1. Dominion of Canada, 1947, p.2646.
2. The Past and future of Immigration to Canada, David Verbeeten.



http://www.reallygoodfriend.com/images/canada_day_poster_2007.jpg

Canada, a land of opportunities and diversity.

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 ?.

Once again I need to quote the former statement:

“I wish to make it quite clear that Canada is perfectly within her rights in selecting the persons whom we regard as desirable future citizens. It is not a “fundamental human right” of any alien to enter Canada. It is a privilege. It is a matter of domestic policy. Immigration is subject to the control of the Parliament of Canada. This does not mean, however, that we should not seek to remove from our legislation what may appear to be objectionable discrimination”.

From which I can say that every country is entitled to reserve itself, as an independent entity, from any kind of unwanted or undesirable alien. This is not a form of discrimination. Although it is hard to immigrate to Canada, the country has one of the best levels of life in the world and has to maintain it.

The System of points protects sovereignty and makes a person eligible on the base of his skills, rather than his political, racial, social or religion background. Therefore it is not a form of discrimination.

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Dominion of Canada, 1947, p.2646

USEFUL LINKS

http://www.how2immigrate.net/canada/

This link may be useful to those who have decided to immigrate to Canada, to get a main idea about the requirements before entering the webpage of the Canadian embassy.

MANAGING DIVERSITY

As diversity gets extended on every human aspect of life the organization must based itself on heterogeneity to be successful in the market place and see diversity as an advantage to be taken and a profitable opportunity.

When more than one head thinks more, it is important to get a consensus of a variety of ways of thinking to solve problems at the business. Innovation is the key word here to be coined for taking opportunity of diversity at the work place.

Managing diversity refers to the fact of understanding and taking advantage of the different classes analysed in the former blog (see Exploring Diversity). And once again the word is tolerance, tolerance to understand and managerial wit or wisdom to take advantage of the variety of people who conform the group at glance.

In social sciences and Organizational culture there is not only one way of doing things right, there could be several approaches to the same topic that can be asserted from many perspectives that have to cooperate to get the answer.

Implementing suggestions is something crucial to improve at the job place. There are, of course, constructing and deconstructing suggesting that one should only listen to the first one or even filter the latter one. In order to acknowledge and improve, this must be captured.

Here we must introduce the idea of Equal opportunities, which is different than Managing diversity. Because Equal opportunities does not respect the range of individual in each group, where could be more or less from one or another, Managing diversity solves the problem, maximizing the potential to improve.

Let´s see the following table from the Class presentation, which is self explanatory:



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Managing Diversity, Class presentation, http://interactiva.eafit.edu.co/ei/

For this, the potential benefits of Managing diversity are a bigger creativity when taking decisions, better understanding of the customer, and more benefits to the environment of the work force, that will reflect in higher stock prices and less legal liability. All of which means a better enterprise performance.

Finally, Managing diversity must meet three important challenges, the first one being a tendency to attract similar individuals which can resort into some degree of unfairness; the second one being the fault lines which reduces the cohesion of the group; and the third one being the uncomfortable Stereotypes which may lead to wrong decisions.

Evidently, Managing diversity is worthed, because of the Human resource advantage to hire and handle the right person for the job, regardless of its personal background and taking into account the innovation that could bring to the company.

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Managing Diversity, Class presentation, http://interactiva.eafit.edu.co/ei/



http://rlv.zcache.com/support_diversity_in_my_workplace_stickers-p217624559991786813qjcl_400.jpg

This slogan should be implemented in all companies around the world to support Managing diversity.

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY.

Once again the articles talks mainly about how diversity could bring innovation to the company, it also helps the managerial sector to implement the right decisions to get closer to the diverse demographic customer range, and put together various alternatives at the moment of decision making.

Finally it could constitute a rise of prices for the stock holder and the investor to meet the challenges of managing diversity.

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The business case for commitment to diversity, Stanley F. Slater, College of Business, Colorado State University, Robert A. Weigand, Washburn University School of Business, Thomas J. Zwirlein, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

DIVERSITY AS STRATEGY

How IBM implemented diversity to grow in managing and sales. Accessibility is the key to its products to meet the force of diverse groups of people buying its manufactures. IBM also did some engaging of its employees as partners to promote equal opportunity.

Basically this article summarises in a formal example all that we have talked about on Managing diversity. “Managing diversity is one of the core competencies used to assess executives’ performance”.

___________
Diversity as strategy, by David A. Thomas.

QUESTION

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

Yes, it is, because IBM figured in the Fortune magazine´s list of "America´s Most Admired Companies" in the year 2004. It was appreciated for recruiting and retaining the best talent across the world. IBM actively encouraged recruiting people from various social and cultural backgrounds irrespective of their age, sex or physical status. In the same year, IBM had developed a talent marketplace to effectively manage its workforce. The marketplace supported employees to find the most suitable job across different organizational units within the company.

IBM provides same-sex partners of its employees with health benefits and provides an anti-discrimination clause. The Human Rights Campaign has consistently rated IBM 100% on its index of gay-friendliness since 2003 (in 2002, the year it began compiling its report on major companies, IBM scored 86%). In 2007 and again in 2010, IBM UK was ranked first in Stonewall´s annual Workplace Equality Index for UK employers.
All of this prizes show how successful its diversity management policy has been.

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

Yes, the strategy paid off well, IBM has shown how to implement Managing diversity in business, and it has reflected a strong organisational commitment that has put it among the best companies in this matter.

___________
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) profile.



http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/07/top_brands/image/ibm.jpg

IBM.

USEFUL LINKS

http://ucsfhr.ucsf.edu/index.php/pubs/hrguidearticle/chapter-12-managing-diversity-in-the-workplace/

This link tells us a bit about Managing diversity for University studying purposes.

EXPLORING DIVERSITY

It is very important to explore diversity due to the influence on the success or failure of a business. Also to deal with customers and distributors, and everyone connected to the organization. And as the presentation says, it is not just differentiating countries it is also, differentiating people.

Diversity is what makes people similar or different from each another. And we have these important characteristics to take into account: Gender, race, age, religion, physical abilities, sexual orientation, education and functional background. Also, some of them being visible, invisible and I propose and new category, “rampant”. For in the case of being too visible to ignore.

In most of these cases, the law and the legislation have several norms to avoid discrimination in the work place mainly. For example: “Employees should be able to practice their beliefs unless doing so provides an unreasonable hardship on the employer”.

Here the most importance thing to be learned is tolerance and cultural self awareness to avoid any incident that will reflect on the business relation. We also need one thing called: Cultural intelligence which is the ability to operate in a variety of situations.

Finally, we must think in the differences that a country, a region, or even a different city bring to individuals. Their background and everything else is relevant to explore for diversity. And we must be aware of this fact.

___________
1. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2007). Religious discrimination. Retrieved November 7, 2008, from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Web site: http://www.eeoc.gov/types/religion.html.

2. Exploring diversity, Class presentation, http://interactiva.eafit.edu.co/ei/



https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihJRkXaBGpstEyip5pZGjg1UmhQbd3ZWFtqKnS8-WKejRLQXR2y1IKOOSt3vFDv6xMyTo62Vn210O-xIhqznh61m90SK7WCAjcNQiaUAFXTuBKWARJlHwyPVySef-BH7Fmc7vijtxWrN0/s400/United_Colors_of_Benetton3.jpg

In this picture we can see and old and classic example of advertisement on behalf of United colours of Benetton, stating that although all men are created equal, there are many sizes, colours, and thinking in every human being.



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/kaylyred/Story%20graphics/global20diversity.jpg

In this other picture, we can see how eventhough global diversity, we must all push the world together to a complete understanding of diversity.

WHO IS MANAGING ETHNIC AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE EUROPEAN CONDOMINIUM? THE MOMENTS OF ENTRY, INTEGRATION AND PRESERVATION

The article talks about the legal aspects by which ethnic and cultural diversity is managed to the interior of the EU. It mentions how the EU must face the challenges of responsible diversity management, having the main constitutional value of “cultural diversity”.

“Sovereignty over minorities, once vested exclusively in the state, is no longer concentrated in one sphere of governance. Therefore, minority protection is not only a ‘competence matter’ but forms part of a “polycentric diffusion which characterizes an increasingly large share of public tasks and functions””.

Therefore we can conclude that diversity is being taken into account with a high importance inside the EU and that the biggest Melting pot in the world, bigger and more complex than the USA, the EU, has many countries, nationalities, languages and cultural differences protected by its law and Constitution.

They are far ahead in what it refers to having, respecting and listening to diversity.

___________
1. Palermo and Woelk, 2005.

2. Who is Managing Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in the European Condominium? The Moments of Entry, Integration and Preservation, GABRIEL N. TOGGENBURG, JCMS 2005 Volume 43. Number 4. pp. 717–38.

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 ?.

Yes, I do think that the entry and integration of all the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe as new members to the European union is a big process that promotes diversity in the sense of integrating and assimilating many different new cultures into the legislative and cultural society of Europe. The EU constitutes now days the most diverse region in the world due to their efforts to get together all sorts of new cultures and countries within.

It does not homogenize the continent as in the case of the USA, where each state is independent but merely a much related picture of the next one. In the case of Europe, the amount of languages and cultures and ways of life put together and most important of all, respected, are a true collage of diversity.



http://www.marlerblog.com/uploads/image/eu-map3.jpg

The flags together say it all. Diversity and a collage of multicultural people together.

USEFUL LINKS

http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/diversity-in-the-workplace-1595.html

In this link, we can find something similar to what seen in class about diversity.

NATIONAL & ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

Set of values, beliefs and understandings shared by an organization or a group of people that depicts clear boundaries with other groups, this is due to mutual work which develops an own way to pursue objectives.

It comprises two main functions, which are: Internal integration, when members know how to relate to each other; and External adaptation, which brings in focus the external environment to the organization.

As main aspects of Organisational culture we can find rites and ceremonies, stories, symbols, and language. All of this is mutual and correlative to the members of an organisation.

One important thing to have in mind is that, Organizational culture is not the same as corporate culture. It is wider and deeper concepts, something that an organization “is” rather than what it “has”.

It also has four main categories: Entrepreneurial culture, which values innovation, creativity and risk taking; Mission culture, which has a clear vision of purposes and how to achieve them; Clan culture, which focuses on needs of employees as a route to performance; Bureaucratic culture, which supports a methodical approach to business and efficiency.

Talking about the main advantages of an Organisational culture, we have a strong link between Organisational culture and performance; real motivation and commitment; core values are intensely held and widely shared; easier to draw consensus; build a focus on goals; reduce potential conflicts; cultivate learning environment; lower employee turnover; and employees work hard willingly. Which all makes an organization works more smoothly.

And among the main disadvantages I think the most important one is to be inflexible to change and to external improvements mainly.

The main ethical and legal balance should be acquired to avoid liability within the organization. This finally brings the main and most important paradox for me: Consistency vs. Adaptability, which deals with the balance itself.

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1. Huczynski, A. and Buchanan, D.A. (2007). Organizational behaviour: an introductory text. Financial Times / Prentice Hall.
2. Organisational culture, Class presentation, http://interactiva.eafit.edu.co/ei/



http://www.nhorizons.ca/images/orgcult.jpg

As we can see in the picture, Organisational culture gathers together several ideas that help the organization take profit from the shared action.

CORPORATE CULTURE: MORE MYTH THAN REALITY ?. WHILE BUSINESS SUCCESS AND FAILURE ARE OFTEN LAID TO "CULTURE," THE TERM IS ELUSIVE AND FREQUENTLY MISUSED. EXPERTS IN ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOUR SAY IT’S DIFFICULT TO ALTER A COMPANY’S CULTURE, AND WHEN IT DOES SHIFT, IT’S OFTEN THE RESULT OF SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PERFORMANCE CHANGES.

This article says it is impossible to ignore the massive weight of culture and how difficult or nearly impossible it is to change it. But the title says it all. The Organisational culture is slow to change. It has too much inertia and takes a lot of time to develop. And it takes a huge effort to adapt to other grindings.

John Kotter, Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School, also suggests that much talk of culture change is nonsense. "People talk about how 'we changed our culture last year' and, no, you didn't. Culture doesn't change that fast," he says. "What they've done is use some mechanism like a boss to change the way people sometimes act on some dimension, but if the boss disappeared, boom !. It would go, too." That kind of change is too shallow to be cultural.

Therefore from this statement, we can conclude that Culture is something much deeper than regular change can modify.


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Corporate Culture: more myth than reality ?. While business success and failure are often laid to "culture", the term is elusive and frequently misused. Experts in organization behaviour say it's difficult to alter a company’s culture, and when it does shift, it’s often the result of successful business performance changes, Millman, Gregory J., 2007.

ESSAY

I really think there is a corporate culture in every enterprise, and I think the bigger an organization becomes, the more need for one. Every enterprise is conformed by individuals that have to relate to one another for the company to work properly. And in a bigger company, the need is even more crucial to meet individual procedures to meet a common objective.

This is because culture is everywhere and is the base from which every person relates to another one. Culture is the set of values and beliefs that every person carries intrinsically within and in order to function in a society one ought to manage social skills good enough not to interfere with the next individual. And more so in the case of an enterprise, or a big factory, where every cultural aspect is important for the proper functioning of it.

Think of an ant colony, it is, perhaps, the only association in which a culture doesn´t matter, but nevertheless it must work together to achieve the goals. And in the case of people, culture is attached to each one irremediably; therefore the need to conform an organisational culture to make thinks work together.

I have to answer to the question of it being able of being modified. And therefore I shall say, after having read the last article, that yes, everything is suitable of a change, but in the case of an organisational culture or even just culture itself, it is very difficult or nearly impossible to change without applying major and crucially deep approaches from the managerial aspect to the least employee.

Mainly only big mergers, acquisitions, or joint ventures, where the whole organisation undergoes a severe shock in its functions or restructuring, should change the organisational culture. Just because the name, the owner and the way think are done, change, implies a massive turn around of the function and way their inner things and also their employees think, act and react.

USEFUL LINKS

http://www.tnellen.com/ted/tc/schein.html

Organizational Culture & Leadership by Edgar H Schein.

In this link, the author talks about Organizational culture as an academic approach.

ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

The Ethnographic research is based on analyzing the life style of a group of people, therefore it includes external and internal perspectives, which are useful to find behaviours and perspectives within the analyzed group. It is important to establish what they use, what they say and also what they do. But I will go ahead and add, also, a fourth pattern to be analyzed, which is, what they think, in terms of their precognitions and beliefs.

When analyzing a group of people, it is important to know what purpose it serves, or who makes the research, his intentions and his motives to fulfil the research. There is a big law about it and it is: “Neither too broad nor too narrow”, which means that the focus should be, adjusted to the necessity of its researcher and the permission the researched one gives.

By basic approach, the research must be free of judgmental perspective, which means, that prejudices should be put aside when encountering the topic. There are two main perspectives to be dealt with in this research: Emic, which are the intrinsic cultural distinctions that are meaningful to the members of a given society; and Etic, or the extrinsic concepts and categories that have meaning for scientific observers.

The application of the Ethnographic research is important in the field of social sciences. And shall we also establish that Ethnographic research is not a method but a Market research approach with many techniques used among.

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Ethnography, Class presentation, http://interactiva.eafit.edu.co/ei/

Ethnographic research is important for big companies to think ahead when entering a new business environment. For example in this picture we can see how Pizza hut researchers plan their field of work in a crowed Asian pacific typical city.

http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/pizzahut.jpg



Never to be forgotten, by means of this picture, that we are over six billion others in this world and Ethnographic research should immerse itself in the cultures of every group of people analyzed to produce a clear and a diverse result regarding our differences.

http://designthinking.ideo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/6-billion-others.jpg



A SYNTHESIS OF ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

In this article, written by MICHAEL GENZUK, PH.D., of University of Southern California Centre for Multilingual, Multicultural Research, basically it is exposed Ethnography as a Social science research method. This relies strongly on very near personal experience and participation, making ethnographic researchers artist in the field of multiculturalism. Also, they must become part of the field they are studying and focusing on. Sometimes, even, learning the language of the group studied to be able to interpretate truly its behavioural aspects.

Common ethnographic research possesses three ways of collecting data: interviews, observation, and documents. Which produces: quotations, descriptions, and excerpts of documents, which, therefore results in one big result: Narrative description.

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A synthesis of ethnographic research, Michael Genzuk, Ph.D., University of southern California centre for multilingual, multicultural research.

QUESTION

Find and explain in your blog 2 examples of how ethnographic research can be used for international business.

1. Ethnographic research could have properly been used when Mac Donald´s entered India´s Market, and had to cut back on their beef products and replace them with some kind of innovating substitutes.



http://passportforthesoul.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/mcdonalds-india1.jpg

As the majority of the world knows, Indians consider cows to be sacred, and Mac Donald´s had to change its products to non beef made ones.



http://cwlor.com/images/photos/07/MaharajaMac.jpg

Therefore they have adapted the organizational scope to products that suit the Indian market without hurting its beliefs. This was done through basic Ethnographic research.

2. Another example could be when an International negotiator learns another language to be ready to travel to that country or region and immerse himself into that culture; this will grant him the opportunity of doing Intelligence market research easily and more effectively in order to encounter what people want in that market, and what shall be successful.

USEFUL LINKS

http://books.google.com/books?id=-QNKT0RJO8kC&dq=ethnographic+research&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=wEGdS_KwE8P58Abt0sGrDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=11&ved=0CCkQ6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=ethnographic%20research&f=false

In this link, we can find a book about Ethnographic research, from the author Stephen L Schensul.

http://www.ethnographicresearch.com/

In this link, we can find an enterprise that offers Ethnographic research along with a diverse group of sociologists and anthropologists.