VIRTUAL TEAMS

 VIRTUAL TEAMS

Because of globalization, barriers and distances are no longer an issue at the moment of making business. The world we live in is changing and demands us to do things more efficiently than in past times. That is why, have been created many tools to make this happened (e.g. e-mails, celphones, airplains, etc). 

Virtual teams -a group of individuals who work across time, space, and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology [1]- are becoming  increasingly important for business today since:

·         They allow the reduction of transportation cost and time

·         The location of the partners may be anywhere in the world.

·         The flexibility it allows

But there are also some bad aspects of virtual teams such as the loss of the face-to-face contact that may enhance distrust and fails in the communication.

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Basic Types of Virtual 

Networked Teams consist of individuals who collaborate to achieve a common goal or purpose; membership is frequently diffuse and fluid.

• Parallel Teams work in short term to develop recommendations for an improvement in a process or system; has a distinct membership.
• Project or Product-Development Teams conduct projects for users or customers for a defined period of time. Tasks are usually non-routine, and the results are specific and measurable; team has decision making authority.
• Work or Production Teams perform regular and ongoing work usually in one function; clearly defined membership.
• Service Teams support customers or the internal organization in typically a service/technical support role around the clock.
• Management Teams work collaboratively on a daily basis within a functional division of a corporation.
• Action Teams offer immediate responses activated in (typically) emergency situations.

References

Why Virtual Teams”.

Gould,D. (June 05, 2006), Virtual teams. From <http://www.seanet.com/~daveg/vrteams.htm>

Virtual team benefits and challenges, from <http://www.time-management-guide.com/virtual-team.html>

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[1] “Why Virtual Teams”.

MANAGING DIVERSITY

http://www.abortoinformacionmedica.es/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/diversity.jpg

From the appearance of the first multinational corporations, diversity in work teams has become a major component inside the companies these days. It is possible to find in a Colombian company for example, a Brazilian manager, an American engineer and a Colombian advocate.

http://reasontostand.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/diversity.jpg

This diversity may bring many benefits to the company, as well as many problems. That is why to know how to handle diversity is so important.

According to Dougherty (1992) emotional conflict is likely to occur in a heterogeneous team. This usually happens due to the social and cultural differences are very strong and interfere in the performance of the team. 

On the other hand Slater, Weigand and Zweilein (2008) think that diversity is a source of competitve advantage. They also argue that in order for this to happend it is necessary to have inside the organization a commitment to diversity. Here the role of the managers is crutial: they must enhance team work, treat human capital as a source for competitive advantage and specially show their employees the benefit of diversity. 

This video shows the advantages of Diversity in teams.

References

Slater, Stanley F., Weigand, Robert A., Zweilein, Thomas J., 2008. "The business case commitment to diversity". Business horizonts 51: 201-209

Von Glinow, Mary Ann. Debra L. Shapiro, and JeanneM. Brett. 2004. "Can we talk, and should we? Managing emotional conflict in multicultural teams". Academic Management Review 29, no. 4: 578-592

RELIGION AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

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1.      How can we create an ethical relationship between religion and business so that they may cooperate towards a more sustainable and respectful development of life?

I believe that any type of ethical relationship must be build under the principals of honesty, trust, acceptance and respect for each other. So in order to create an ethical relationship between religion and business it is necessary to work under those values and make a joint effort to collaborate with each other. They must also, put together all the principles of business and religions around the world that are focus on the sustainable development and make this its final goal.

2.      Can you imagine a world without religion where everyone would be trying to get immediate satisfaction to their individual needs?

The religions have help for both guide and direct people and as some kind of motivator. Even before the Christian religion (one of the most important in the world), in many cultures there was some type of religion, where people many gods and used them as a way to explain things they didn’t know.

Most of the religions encourage cooperation (at least among members of the same religion). These kinds of values are necessary for society, since a world in which everyone does anything to meet only its personal needs would not have developed in any way. We are all social animals and we need of each other to achieve something.

That is why I can’t imagine a world without religion.

3.      Religion can create networks of trust and familiarity that facilitates economic transactions. Can you name other positive aspects of this relationship?

It enhances cooperation among the participants; creates set of shared values and goals that make people to join forces in order to achieve something.

In the economical sense it can create reliance on the other partner’s values and ethics, an easy way to communicate and respect for the others opinion.

4.      Do you think that stereotyping based on religion has been influenced by economical or political interests, why, whose? What is the role of The Media in this issue?

Yes, I think that the most important reason could be that when religious dogma is against the economic or political interest of some very powerful group of people, they start to harm them and stereotyping is very harmful. I also believe that the all the religions are victims of this type of bias. 

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080327005347/inciclopedia/images/f/f0/Religion.jpg

It is important to highlight that the economic and political interest are not the only reason for religious stereotyping; lack of tolerance and racism are other reasons.

For me, The Media manipulates the information and only to the interest of a few very powerful people (those who pay), that is why I believe that the roll of media is to “inform” people about what they are allow to say. 

COMMUNICATION

Which ones are the main Cultural Differences in Non-verbal Communication?

The non verbal communication can be defined as the stimuli that are nonverbal and that have a meaning and a potential message to the reciever. 

<http://punditkitchen.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/political-pictures-gestures.jpg>

It true that the personal appereance is something that we use as a reference to judge someone, that is why many people consider it being an important part of the nonverbal communication. 

Another example is the posture, the body movement and the gestures. In cultures such as China and Japan the way you greet someone is consider to be sign of respect. Even gestures as simple as the ones we use to point something, vary depending on the culture (Americans points with the index finger, Japanese with the entire hand). 

Other important types of this way of communication are the touch,  the facial expresions and the eye contact. 

http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2007/03/images/kevin-cheng-gestures5.jpg

When someone is in a multicultural environment, he must take into account this type of communications since, for many cultures,  the nonverbal codes are as much as important as verbal. Also, for the western cultures (for example) there are many ways to express or to communicate something that could be offensive in Eastern cultures.

MIGRANT WORKERS

Due to Globalization and the free market, the people have begun to think in a world without barriers and free movement. Media and the information sharing, for example, circulate “freely” around the world ( a guy in India can watch the Ecuador news in the net for example). These can be the main external motivations for people to choose to migrate to another country.

The IOM states that the total number of international migrants has increased over the last 10 years from an estimated 150 million in 2000 to 214 million persons today[1].

It is also important to mention that are many personal reasons to explain why people decide to migrate inside or outside their country, such as: the search for job opportunities, displacement for war, family reunion, among others.

According to the IOM among the nations that receive large flow of immigrants is Germany.

Source Statishes Bundesamt Deutschland

The graphic shows that the Turkish people are the main immigrants to this country, followed by the Italian and the Polish. Most of the immigrants work as unskilled laborers, as Germany recruited workers in particular for simple activities. Studies have revealed that immigrant families in Germany have difficulty climbing the social ladder or improving their economic situation. Nonetheless, over the past two decades progress has been made with regard to integration: Acquiring German citizenship was facilitated by law, contacts between immigrants and Germans are closer, and there is more widespread acceptance of ethnic cultural variety. And the immigration law that came into power in 2005 provides for the first time an all-embracing legal framework that considers all aspects of immigration policy[2]

http://www.inkcinct.com.au/web-pages/cartoons/past/2007/2007-100-migrants-become.jpg

References

Facts about Germany: Immigration and Integration." Facts about Germany: Home. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://www.tatsachen-ueber-deutschland.de/en/society/main-content-08/immigration-and-integration.html>.

Statishes Bundesamt Deutschland <http://www.destatis.de>

Projects, ThemeFeatured. "Facts & Figures." IOM. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/about-migration/facts-and-figures/lang/en>.

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[1]
http://www.tatsachen-ueber-deutschland.de/en/society/main-content-08/further-reforms.html

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[2]http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/about-migration/facts-and-figures/lang/en

Organizational Learning

Nowadays, organizations are experiencing an environment of change and a lot of competition. The knowledge these days evolves more and more everyday and becomes “obsolete” really fast. That is why it’s very important to continue learning and acquiring new information and knowledge all the time. Thus, organizations can develop a competitive advantage.

We need to know that learning occurs when the new knowledge is transformed into actions (how to do things). Then it is necessary to develop a learning organization- a firm that enhance and builds strategies to encourage organizational learning-, as well as a strong organizational culture.

There are three types of organizational learning:

• Single-loop learning: occurs when errors are detected, corrected without altering the nature of the organization.
• Double-loop learning: occurs when in addition to single-loop, the organization questions and modifies their existing norms, procedures, policies and objective.
• Deutero-learning: The first two will occur.

It is important to highlight that organizational learning must happen in the whole organization; it means that if an individual acquires new knowledge, he must share it.

Now, to answer the question of how can SME’s benefit from organizational learning, I have taken the example of a research paper that concludes saying “(…) learning environment provides manager with a deeper insight which leads the rational decision making and could help managers to tolerate the uncertainty in organizational learning process”

http://www.sinologic.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/sleep-learning.jpg

·         The Free Management Encyclopedia and Network . (n.d.). Retrieved 06 05, 2011, from 12manage: http://www.12manage.com/methods_organizational_learning.html

·         Abdul Malik, M., Idress, A. K., Sana, A. B., & Arsalan, M. G. (n.d.). MANAGERIAL SKILLS AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING IN SMES OF PAKISTAN. Retrieved 06 05, 2011, from www.scholarshub.net/vol2_i4/Paper_06.pdf

·         Singh, K. (2010). An analysis of the relationship between the learning organization and the organzational culture in Indian business organizations. In Organizations and markets economies (Vol. 1, pp. 142-165).

Leadership and Convergence

¿How does organizational leaders should behave in cross cultural environments?

Cross cultural environments offers a new kind of challenge not only to organizational leaders but also to everyone involved in the working environment. We can study four dimensions in which cultures differ on the workplace; these are:

•       Directness: Get to the point versus implying the messages.
•       Hierarchy: Follow orders versus engage in debate.
•       Consensus: Dissent is accepted versus unanimity is needed.
•       Individualism: Individual winners versus team effectiveness.

One of the most important subjects to understand is how culture affects the communication process. We can see the challenges in many ways, from speaking another language to having differences in how we might express our concerns.

In order to achieve proper communication on the workplace it is very important for all the parties involved to understand and appreciate what it takes to work with (and in) different cultures. Some people might show empathy easily to the needs and wants of others while some may struggle to see their point of view

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In any of the cases it is an obligation for an organizational leader to motivate its peers by showing them the positive aspects of understanding another culture. Cultural diversity is known to boost creativity, productiveness and helps the expanding of business’s opportunities.  He must show effort to integrate different approaches used by the people in their cultural backgrounds in order to create a mixed, rich and respectful environment. To focus on what brings workers together rather than what tears them apart, to be as open minded as it can be, have everyone in consideration, reintegrate the different points of view and then take the smartest decision. 

Sources

• http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cultural-services/articles/cross-cultural-communication-work.html
• http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/cross-cultural_differences.html
• http://www.imd.org/research/challenges/TC082-08.cfm

Ethical Behavior and International Business.

1. What does the statement “all capitalism is crony capitalism” is referring to? Do you agree with this statement or not? Give an example.

The affirmation crony capitalism stands for a capitalism of colleagues. This means that actors involved in the economy only stand up for the interests of those who met their expectations and their own, these being high profits, information and knowledge, technology, etc.

Personally, I agree with this statement, because in today’s world there is a social concept that is necessary to be selfish in order to obtain benefits. This can be evidenced in real life event that goes from personal relationships, to government-enterprises arrangements.

2. What is a banana republic? Why the author is comparing India with a banana republic?

A banana republic refers to a highly corrupted and agriculture depending country, with a government that is more concern with the interests of a few corporations. The author compares a banana republic with India, because in that country there is a lot of Cronyism that would only make corporations become more powerful and allow them to escape unscathed, while leaving the population even poorer.

3. Why is it problematic that in the business world “The Media” becomes a corporation? 

We all born with the right to free expression and communication that is why, in my opinion, the media are the means that help to comply with this right. They have the responsibility to serve as channels of communication that deliver truthful information to the audience, and allow the people to communicate freely with each other.

The Media becoming a corporation signify that they will stop doing that and start only to do what most of today's business do: search for its own benefit without thinking of the consequences or the damage caused to the people. They will start manipulation or covering information if it is profitable for them.

4. In this situation, what behaviors are considered unethical for corporations, journalist and the state? 

·         Corporation: the relations they had with senior officials and politicians, and the way these manipulated the information transmitted by the media to cover corrupted actions.

·         Journalist: Hide and manipulate the information.

·         The state: Benefit the corporation (their cronies) regardless of the population’s welfare in order to achieve its own interests.

5. What can The Media, Corporations and the States do in order to behave ethically and in the benefit of the people and not their own interest. Give at least 5 good ideas. 

·         The media should do what they are supposed to which is to deliver truthful information and be a neutral party in the political and economic arena.

·         The state should have a better system to monitor its officials so they won’t carry out corrupt actions that would only benefit themselves, but pursue the welfare of the population.

·         The corporations have to work on their Corporate Social Responsibility without having to give up profits.

·         The state must create better regulations to stop corporations continue with the unfair competition.

·         The media, the corporations and the government should join efforts in order to make things better for the population by helping each other to achieve their goals without injure the other.

Sources:

• The Hindu (2010) The Republic on a banana peel. P. Sainath. Opinion. December 3, 2010. Retrieved from: <http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article927895.ece?homepage=true>  [05/03/2011.]
• S, Mithra. "What Is a Banana Republic?" WiseGEEK: Clear Answers for Common Questions. 28 Dec. 2010. Web. <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-banana-republic.htm> [05/03/2011.]

The Corporation

The Corporation
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1. How can we ensure corporations are held accountable for their actions “ethically” and “legally”?

The truth is that we can’t fully ensure that corporations act legally and ethically, nor that they pay for their bad actions, because corporations have a lot of power (because they have a lot of resources) and are not willing to it up. But what we can do is try to stop these actions by taking an active place. How do we do that? Stop buying products of those Corporations, speaking to other about it, convince governments o other powerful parties to do something and more.

2.    Should individuals (directors, employees, shareholders) bear any responsibility for the actions of a corporation? If so, to what degree?

The corporations are group of individuals that work together to achieve a goal, that is why, those individuals who make decisions should be responsible for the consequences that comes from them. In my opinion, the degree to which those individuals should be responsible depends on the position in the corporation that he or she occupies.

3.    What are the benefits of the corporate form? Could an alternative model offer these as well?

There are several benefits of this business form, some of those are:

The protection of personal assets, growing profits and possibility of expansion, transferable ownership, the life cycle of this type of company is unlimited, legally empowered, and more.

The Corporate form is very beneficial and profitable, and so far there is no other type of business figure that offers the same benefits and drawbacks.

4.    Search for a foreign multinational corporation that has operations in Colombia. Research if they are run under Colombian rules or regulations or if they have special regulations?

UNILEVER that began as a merger of two companies is, today, one of the biggest Multinational Corporations with worldwide presence and more than 400 brands. This company is regulated by the Code of Business Principles,  which sets the operational standards that must be followed in all its subsidiaries around the world.

5.   Should economic efficiency (Main argument for privatization) be the primary concern for commons and public services? Are there other criteria to determine who should own or operate them?

The privatization can mean efficiency, and this is very important since a business main goal is to obtain high profits, but if this privatization is only going to benefit a few, then we have to ask ourselves if it is worthy. What I believe is that the most important criteria to determinate who should own this public services should be to compare how many are the people that will benefit and how many would be harm, if this action is taken.

Sources

• Carter, Christopher. "The Advantages of the Corporate Form of Business Organization." Small Business - Chron.com. Web. <http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-corporate-form-business-organization-370.html>[05/03/2011]

¡Motivation!

Is economic retribution enough to motivate employees?

In order to answer thoroughly the question we must first understand what does motivation stands for, especially on the working environment.

Motivation stands for the desire to do things, to achieve goals, to show an effort in order to get results. It is the force or drive (internal or external) that lead us to persever in order to attain our goals.

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; needs are ranked in order from low to high and as each need is satisfied, the needs at the next stage begin to determine the individual’s behaviors and actions. When the lowest level need is satisfied the person feels motivated enough to move onto the next level until that one is satisfied.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs <http://www.selfmademiracle.com/images/posts/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.png>

As we study the pyramid we can affirm that economic retribution may help to achieve needs satisfied but is not the only factor nor the most important. To have a proper working environment, free of unnecessary stress, full of coworkers who like what they do and treat each other with respect can be as important as receiving a big paycheck at the end of the month.

Motivation

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It is very important for the employees to achieve certain degree of motivation in order not only to get their obligations done right and on time, but also to be able to make the last effort needed for  the company or business to grow and achieve their long term objectives.

Sources:

·    Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs."How to Motivate People, Employees, Others without Money - Motivating People. <http://www.howtomotivatepeople.com/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.html>[03/03/2011].

·    Schwartz, Mel. "Motivation | Psychology Today." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness Find a Therapist.<http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/motivation>[03/03/2011]