MANAGING DIVERSITY

To understand what managing diversity means, we have first to analyse the beginning of that term and why it is so important lately to all companies.

Managing diversity appears because of competence among companies that has emerged with the globalization process. All enterprises are looking the way to compete in order to establish their market and be the most recognized by the costumers. To achieve these goals, they use the competitive advantages, including;

1. Human capital

2. Superior Product

3. Low cost position

4. Highly regarded brands

5. Great business processes

In order to become advantages for the company, they all need to have high quality and they need to be difficult to copy by the competitors, These characteristics have been called diversity and it has become a high priority for all companies.

Between all the competitive advantages that companies have, it should be known that the most difficult one to copy is human capital of the enterprise, including the executives, employees and even the suppliers.

Human capital is that difficult to copy due to the fact that factors as: culture, personal experiences, education, relationships, Skin color, etc; vary according to each person. Everybody is different and this is why companies are taking advantages from these differences because there is not possibility that other company can copy these, and being different brings advantages as new ideas, different views from a situation and so on.

Differences among people do not represent the main idea of having human capital as a competitive advantage, it is necessary that when a company is going to hire its human capital, they look must look for people with valuables skills compatible with the firm’s strategic needs, in order to be considered as a competitive advantage for the company.

 

Because of all of the above, the term managing diversity appear and it is defined as a planning and implementing organizational systems and practices to manage people so that the potential advantages of diversity are maximized while its potential disadvantages are minimized. With this tool, companies are able to guide their employees and manage all differences among them so they can work together to achieve all the firm’s goals.

We are in an era when flexibility and creativity are keys to competitiveness. An organization needs to be flexible and adaptable to meet new customer needs and take advantage of working with people from all around the world, their creativity and knowledge.

EXERCISE

You work within a company specialized in high-tech devices that is going to enter a new market based in Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.



1. Design the company's diversity policy towards employees, customers and Suppliers.

• New employees need to be diverse, this mean that at least a group of 10 new employees should have a women, an internship, a black skin person and so on. We will take into account minorities.

• We will focus in a non-specific target market, we will try to enter into all segments of the customers, we have to be sure that we understand customer preferences, so we can achieve more sales.

• Suppliers should be also diverse, in order to be sure that all our clients preferences in materials, devises, colors, etc; are taken as a priority. To achieve this, it would be good to have a specific supplier for each of those locations where we are entering.

2. Describe the activities that the firm does as part of commitment to their communities programs.

• Our enterprise offers to its employees the opportunity of having trainings about the importance of being different and how to manage that diversity.

• We are opened mind, so we understand employees have different necessities that must be recognized for the company. We have managers that know how to deal with those capacities to be sure that all the company can work in a good environment

• The creation of an organizational culture is a priority for us, all different opinions are important to grow as a union.

3.  Write a classified ad for new recruits that support the company's commitment to diversity.

WE ARE EVOLVING, ARE YOU?

VARIED ROLES

We are moving into the future and we need skilled people to help us building a new place for all of us. We work with high technology, create new advantages, and transform fantasy into touchable things that will help the community to be strong enough to compete internationally.

In order to offer the best products to our customers, we need diverse ideas and active participation of our future employees so we can have achieve grate solutions and an excellent customer service, This is why we need new professional working for us in areas as:

Marketing and sales

Technology designers

Project managers

Customers’ service staff

We invite you all to participate in the best company where you are not just an employee; you are part of the family that is transforming the world. In our company you will have opportunity of being while learning from the others, because for us differences represent advantages and not failures.

Send your resume to the following address and feel free of working in a place where everyone is welcome.

E- mail: http://www.hightechcom.com/

REFERENCES AND IMAGES SOURCES:

• http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/guides/managing-hr/interaction/diversity

• http://www.experiencepays.qld.gov.au/pdf/eii/epas/recruit/job-ad-samples.pdf

• http://mundocrown.com/fotos/1544_04%20home-myanmar.jpg

• http://www.el-buskador.com/galeria/data/media/39/Wallpapers_Buddha_Park_Laos.jpg

• http://www.propertyworld.com/assets/thailand1.jpg

• http://www.tuaregviatges.es/fotografia/viajes_a_vietnam_1.jpg

• http://us.cdn3.123rf.com/168nwm/nexusplexus/nexusplexus1009/nexusplexus100900380/7932425-hands-line-planet-earth-the-symbol-of-high-technology.jpg

VIRTUAL TEAMS

Because nowadays organizations have to face different things that come with the technology and the globalization, they should take into account factors as geographical position, last minute information, workers, and cultures; to be able to do their activities in the correct way to reduce costs but increase productivity and quality in the services or products that they are offering.

Virtual teams is one of the characteristics of lately business where many of the employees that work somehow to the company, are located in different parts of the world, and sometimes face-to-face communication become a situation that can be difficult for companies that don’t prepare their workers to this managerial changes.

The definition of virtual teams is: “group of teams or coworkers who primarily interact to electronically, by using communication technologies because face- to face communication become difficult, in order to achieve some kind of organizational goal.”

We can take a look on the following video how can we use virtual times and these kinds of technologies for.

Video: “ACCA Global virtual conference 09 “taken from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuOWpj0xWWs

EXAMPLE

If we have for example a tourism business that works in Brazil and Mexico and managers of these two countries cannot always travel to be present on the company’s meetings, they should use a technological tool in order to be able to communicate to each other and have fresh data bases to give an excellent service to the clients.

If a tourist in Mexico wants to go to Brazil, every single thing in Brazil should be ready for the time that he/she arrives to that place, hotel room, date and time of the arrival, number of days that he will stay. Etc.

If the company has problems with the communication tool, it is possible that the client will not be satisfied with the service because of situations like: the driver that was going to pick him/her up didn’t show up; so the company will have a lot of troubles. On the other hand, if the employees are also prepared to faced those situations, they will be able to manage the whole situation.

That is what a company should do and how it should work in this nowadays environment that is continuously changing.

Image taken from: http://www.onsip.com/stylesheets/images/onsip_virtual_teams.png

COMMUNICATION

 WHICH ONES ARE THE MAIN CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION?

There are many culture variations that can affect the way people communicate non-verbally, this is an important factor to take into account because there are some actions that cannot be seen as offensive in your home country but they may be deemed so in foreign cultures and business ventures.

This is why there are some factors that are easy to identify and that can be very helpful for all of us, in order to behave in an appropriate way to maintain good relations at the time of doing business, entering in a new market or only establishing relationships with foreigners.

Here we have some interesting videos that are very related to the topic. I hope you like them all !!!

Video: "Body language - Gestures" taken from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi6h8zktO1s

Video: "Gestures across cultures" taken from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxoB6MhmbIg&feature=related

Finally, in verbal communication there are also some problems when we try to speak in a different language from our native language, take a look of this funny video.

Video “Cultural misunderstandings” taken from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_N1Cmt_QB0&feature=related

MIGRANT WORKERS AND EXPATRIATES

HOW CAN BRAIN DRAIN BE STOPPED AND CHANGED INTO SOMETHING BENEFICIAL FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES?, WHAT CAN GOVERNMENTS AND PRIVATE SECTOR DO TO IMPROVE MIGRANT CONDITIONS?

Image taken from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd_V-A2Dk6qaogCyKGTsRFGWdhzmJxPBMRGwPsXo9isQteRDFGBsNJab1icP3wEYehf9RdTvs9JQhyphenhyphen3BXkvfVQcu98vOkx57V2710-_uEyxwdL0wck5iZW3ESHzC1MSMq75LbZsORd586u/s1600/america_the_nation_of_immigrants.jpg

As I have been doing in this blog, there is one question related to the main topic. This time, there are two questions because I consider that both are not only related to each other, but they also have a kind of dependence between them.

I want to start explaining the meaning of brain drain that is a situation that has been increasing in the last years and that happens more inside the developing countries. Brain drain can be seen as a process of migration of people with a lot of knowledge and labour skills, that want to show to everyone what they know, but they can’t perform all of this in their nations because there are not job opportunities for everyone; therefore they look in developed countries the opportunities that they don’t have at home.

Image taken from 

http://ciudadania-express.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/fugacerebro.jpg

For all of the above, we can see that the brain drain is a problem that can be resolved only if the governments create job opportunities and start to think more in their habitants, to give them the standards of life that all the citizens disserve. If this happens, developing countries will beneficiate because all the knowledge and skills of the people who was running away of the countries, will be used to progress and to become a more competitive.

Because few governments create enough opportunities to their citizens, the process of migration of all this “brains” continue and here is where the answer to the second question appear and the big dependence is showed.

Developed countries, are nations that, because of their technology and government structure, are able to offer more chances to those workers that are looking for a jobs but due to the increase in the migrants the offer become so big that some companies take advantage of this by don’t respecting the rights of the employees, they make them work as animals without paying them what they really disserve.

Image taken from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6VyzVSFCZFJUfaZpqV3WzaVCObrEcSLH6TEKQyFv51RTBr6vrYVh-FbA0jyi7bxFEmOiVJmu0avRGWAV6JMix2_Q6BshzDXc5RoEPfuDyzLYg_JSf_Vc-IOey8DXzx7W70C3vNBXpZyEB/s1600/esclavos.jpg

  

This is the moment where governments and the private sector of the developed countries have to start acting to help migrants by establishing some rules to protect their rights and to prevent the exploitation of all the people that since the beginning have been looking for a better place to live, where they could show all the capacities and abilities that they have obtained by studying hard. 

ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING!!!

To understand better this concept, here there is a good image to explain how the organizational learning appears in the company.

Image taken from: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/content_images/fig/3300090104001.png

Here is also a video that shows in a funny way how any kind of organization need to learn and sometimes relearned to become better and achieve all the goals.

Video: “Organizational learning group project --- Learn, Unlearn, Relearn” taken from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG-uhXk59SQ on March 21^st

WHAT WOULD BE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CROSS CULTURAL ENVIRONMENTS AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING STRATEGIES?

As we have seen before, cross cultural environments is a very important aspect for any company, because they represent the diverse forms of viewing the different aspects of life according to the culture or place where it is located.

According to the organizational learning strategies, it is important for organizations to collect new information from all around the world (cross cultural environments) to transfer it into action and be able to succeed by adapting their selves accordingly to the place where they want to enter, because competence is nowadays so strong that the company who stays in the same point, without learning or adapting from the market, will probably disappear.

The big conclusion for all of the above, is at the end, the answer to the question, an organization that wants to compete and wants to be successful in the market, needs to think all the time in the different points of view and differences among people so they can obtain more information from all of them to be able to create new learning and adapt to all the possible changes and markets.

How not to be sure that the relationship between those two topics represents the capacity of the organization to survive or not in the market, we cannot forget that the entire life is a process of learning and change, we should be able to see our past and get information from it, to live our present and build our future.

CONVERGENCE AND DIVERGENCE

                          

   

Image retrieved in March 5th from

http://theformofmoney.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2010/4/20/4508658.

                                                                                                 

Image retrieved in March 5th from http://www.lexjustis.com/blog/?p=1782

LEADERSHIPS STYLES

HOW DO ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERS SHOULD BEHAVE IN CROSS CULTURAL ENVIRONMENTS?

Because leaders are the people in charge of the organization, are humans that have some kind of power to be recognized by others, they should always know that cultural differences are very important so they should act like diplomats to be able to interact with people from different parts of the world and still have the capacity of being recognized for them as leaders to guide them in the correct way.

Here I found a good video of how important is now to teach kids that they are leaders, that each person can be a leader no matter the culture, color, appearance. Etc.

Video:“ The leader in me- how schools can develop leaders one child at a time” taken from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC3SuQeQ84o

It is important also to know that even though there are leaders all around the world, they also have different cultures, so it is necessary to accept the differences between each other and learn from them to be able to continue being leaders no matter the place, situation, followers and so on.

ETHICAL BEHAVIOR AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS WORKSHOP

HOW CAN MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS INCULCATE ETHICAL CORE VALUES THROUGHOUT THEIR ORGANIZATION?

As I already posted in the values topic, this kind of ways are the ones used by the MNC’s to inculcate to its workers the core values of the enterprise. They also use some ways as corporate parties for the employees, new year’s reunions, establishing a kind of “club” for the employees with some gifts as gym, restaurants and so on where all the workers can interact and recognized themselves as part of that company and as followers of those values created on the interaction spaces.

To understand an excellent way to inculcate ethical core values, here is a video from one of the most important and bigger corporations in the world “GOOGLE”  and how the employees know its core values without even knowing that Google game them only with their regulations at work time. 

Video “An inside look at Google, Working at Google” taken from Google’s official youtube channel  http://www.youtube.com/user/google?blend=2&ob=4#p/a/12E3C2A3C2C732BC/0/aOZhbOhEunY

WORKSHOP

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 term capitalism can be considered as crony capitalism when corporations try to establish good relationships with media in order to have total control of the information and take advantage of it. Now that main actors of capitalism are corporations whose principal goal as capitalists is to receive profits, they make public relations to obtain power over information, creating a kind of indirect manipulation.

I agree with the statement of the article, in my opinion each time that any person needs to report something to someone, that person is going to say everything viewed from an specific perspective and the commentary will change according to the perspective that one decides to use.

As an example of what I just said is when we watch a football match in fox sport, we will see that everything is related with the Argentina’s group or players from Argentina, this is because fox sport commentators have being thought to see only the important things related with Argentineans, if one change the channel to see the match in other channel, may be the story is going to change.

2. What is a Banana Republic? Why the author is comparing India with a Banana Republic? 

A Banana Republic is a concept that was developed to describe one nation that do not have power, which has a lot of corruption and unstable governments structure and that also depends a lot on agriculture which helps the population to survive only with certain non significant products; that has looked big corporations as the possibility to resolve all the those threats so the corporation can come with possible solutions as job offers, food, etc, but the nation loose autonomy an gives power to the MNC.

The author compares India with a Banana Republic due to the fact that this country has shown high levels of corruption, problems with the media and enterprises that shows how this business have big power to control and manipulate the information as they really need and want. All of the above are characteristics of a Banana Republics.

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

Give to a corporation the ability to control the media, is give it the capacity to achieve personal and egoistic interests by creating strategies where the information transferred is full only of things that they thinks are right. This strategies and actions taken by the company would probably be focused on achieve needs that will only benefit the enterprise and not the population as a hole.

Because of that, if the media becomes a corporation what would happen is that all the information given by it would be shown in other to convince people to believe on it and support it, and not to show the reality of what can be happening. That media corporation will be looking for achieving as much economical opportunities as they want, not matter the norms or people they must “erase” to obtain them. In short, the media company will probably follow, what hundreds of people say, the end justify the means.

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

     Lack of honesty from journalists

     State giving permission to people to act the way they want, by not paying attention to real events, this can be seen as a kind of corruption supported by the state.

     Lack of neutrality at the time of giving information

     Corruption inside and among companies where they create partnerships in order to get profits for not telling internal problems or scandals of hard situations

     Ability to hide what is not convenient and show the things according to their personal interests

5. What can 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.

There are many good ideas of what these actors can in order to behave ethically and control their personal interest and think a little bit more in others’ needs. The problem is that humans’ nature won’t let them act in that way because we are individuals that pretend to have all the time what is best to us, in this case profits, power, support, etc.

Some possible options to change this situation are:

1.    They should respect the independence of each of the institutions and don’t try to manipulate them to maintain power, profits and so on.

2.    Create some kind of institution in charge of regulate this actors’ behaves; therefore the actions taken by them will be more ethical and correct. In order to prevent corruption, the best option is to have people from outside the country.

3.    The media would better have participation of people from all around the world so the information will be seen from different points of view.

4.    Corporations should try to maintain distance from the events that are not related directly with its principal operations in any country.

5.    Established educational institutions with strong regulations and different points of view, to inculcate the right ways to behave and act without being unethical.

6.    Create some norms to regulate all this actors, to be able to punish them in case they need it.

MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS

What Does Multinational Corporation – MNC Mean? It is corporation that has its facilities and other assets in at least one country other than its home country. Such companies have offices and/or factories in different countries and usually have a centralized head office where they co-ordinate global management. Very large multinationals have budgets that exceed those of many small countries. It is sometimes referred to as a "transnational corporation".

Nearly all major multinationals are American, Japanese or Western European, such as Nike, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, AOL, Toshiba, Honda and BMW. Advocates of multinationals say they create jobs and wealth and improve technology in countries that are in need of such development. On the other hand, critics say multinationals can have undue political influence over governments, can exploit developing nations as well as create job losses in their own home countries. (INVESTOPIDIA NEWS AND ARTICLES s.f.)

THE CORPORATION MOVIE

  1.     How can we ensure corporations are held accountable for their actions "legally" and "ethically"?

Although there are some institutions in charge of “taking care” of corporations’ behaviour, according to the movie, it becomes more difficult in the real life, because sometimes the power of different corporations is higher that the power of the states, this represents a kind of lost of autonomy and a higher participation of this big enterprises, in the decision taken in all states.

Nowadays, corporations are able to take decisions that before where only states’ decisions; they look for the ways to increase their incomes, without taking into account terms as “legally” and “ethically” because sometimes those terms made them lost a lot of money.

In conclusion, corporations are “free” to do whatever they want because they have enough power to decide over other institutions. They control and create the modifications they want, to human rights only in order obtain more and more but not thinking a hole world but as an individual giant who is becoming bigger thanks to others’ efforts.

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

In my opinion the answer would be yes. If one works for a company, he/she has some influence in the company’s decisions or behaviours and of course that influence is according to the job position inside it. 

The directors who are the ones taking decisions, are going to be more influential at the time of supporting or not a wrong or unethical decision taken by the corporation, also employees can influence by creating “labour unions” (sindicatos) to be listened and give their opinions according to any specific decision, finally stakeholder are as well important because they have economic support for it, without that support the company won’t be able to maintain its operations anywhere.

To conclude, it is very important to think that a company is nothing without its employees, shareholders and directors; and even though on the real life people do what is necessary to live without thinking in others, if all the persons mentioned before come together against the company’s unethical decisions, the only solution it has is give up to them and find a better solutions.

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

·           Be taken as "person" for the laws, so they are treated same way (more benefits for corporations)

·           Power

·           Gain more profits

·           Be recognized in many parts around the world

To be honest, I don’t think there is any alternative model that can compete with those benefits without being as “bad” as the corporations is. I believe that the problem is not the corporation entity, it is the human’s ambitions on the top of the company, they are the ones who made the corporation behave in the way it does, and that won’t probably change, until a change of their conscious appear.

At the time when humans start to think in others as equals, and stop making anything to achieve individual’s goals, everything will change otherwise not matter the name, corporation, company, enterprise, etc; will be all the same.

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?

Reid Collins & Associates Ltd./F. L. C. Reid & Associates Ltd. Cali, Colombia, this is a Canadian corporation that is creating in Colombia a forestry development plan which Under the aegis of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Institute for Development of the Renewable Natural Resources of Colombia (INDERENA), assisted with a major forestry development project in the Pacific Coast of Colombia. The project included: assessing the region's forest resources; developing forest management, wood harvesting and industrial development options; studying the domestic and international markets; completing a benefit/cost analysis and socio-economic impact study of the best options; and preparing a long-range forestry development plan for the region (GRYPHON RESOURCES BUSINESS SOLUTIONS s.f.)

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

Economic efficiency is one of the most important things nowadays, but it is not the only concern that common and public services should take into account. We are experiencing now other threats related with other issues than the economic ones. Environment, Human rights, health, security, human wealth, are also new topics that even thought are not as “profitable” as the economical aspect, represent very important concerns from all of us because they are the ones who decide at the end how we are living the life.

It is important now to learn that money is not significant comparing with human rights, environment and so on.

video" the corporation trailer" retrieved on march 4th from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFWOQeMCMiw

REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY:

•  GRYPHON RESOURCES BUSINESS SOLUTIONS . «GRYPHON RESOURCES BUSINESS SOLUTIONS .» SAMPLE PROJECTS. http://www.gryphonresources.com/projects.html (último acceso: 05 de 03 de 2011).
• INVESTOPIDIA NEWS AND ARTICLES. «INVESTOPEDIA.» INVESTOPEDIA. http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/multinationalcorporation.asp (último acceso: 3 de MARZO de 2011).
• The Corporation - Film (Documentary) (Achbar, M - Abbott, J. 2003).