DIVERSITY IN ORGANIZATIONS!!!

The most important points viewed in class:

1. Multicultural teamwork: Globalization is not just a facility to exchange goods and services, not just a way to make things quick, efficiency of information and so on, Globalization also allows the movement of people. Companies can look for their profiles not just inside their countries but also abroad, sometimes there are not people specialized in something inside a country or city and maybe in other countries people are much more stronger in this abilities that will make enterprises more competitive or will help them to grow.

This, as everything has its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

-    The company will have different perspectives in the  team work at the time of giving ideas or solutions because team members will have different cultures and because of that, different way if thinking, acting and strategies. This is call “group think” as told before, members of the group have different roots and perspectives so is going to be more innovative the solutions or ideas.

-    Having a customer service more sensitive to culture talking about multinationals where they have to face different clients around the world, so having members from these cultures in the team will be very useful.

-    Could reduce costs for the company if people coming from abroad make a good negotiation in their salary.

Disadvantages:

-    Could cause conflicts and misunderstandings in communication because of diversity in        language, high or low context misinterpretation.

-   Build a trust in team members is more difficult because we all trust in different ways  depending in how we grew and our interests. Also trust could be damage with a simple          misunderstanding.

-     Decision-making will take more time due to the way of thinking of members.

-     Cultural barriers could be challenging for individuals and the organization.

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So, to conclude this topic, is important for companies to have into account that having members of different cultures in a team need a process where they can know better each other to have a stronger understanding of each other, to create synergy and trust between them to a better focus on common goals and more important, to reach them as a group.

2. Function of managers:

I think that one of the most important issue managers should have into account is the profile of the people they going to have into the team, being very careful, that people they select have an open mind, preferably an experience of working with people of other cultures, that everyone have different abilities to complement each other etc…

Another important challenge that managers have to face is making  them know each other, create a pleasant working environment and teaching them religion, politic and those things that tend to be topics of discussion are not important or doesn’t make the difference on them in the place they work, this, being the example as managers and creating an understanding that are more important the ideas or contributions they make than the differences between them.

Investigation

                                          

STARBUCKS AND IT DIVERSITY!

Starbucks is a company placed in more than 62 countries around the world and in all continents. Their corporate mission is “inspire and feed human spirit. Just one person, one cup of coffee and one place at the same time”.

This international coffee company was created in Seattle, the name is based in two elements: 1. Because of the first officer (Starbuck) of the vessel in Moby-Dick and the other one is because of the mines of Starbo in Mount Rainier.

This company has very strong focuses to be what they are now; they have strong points in sustainability, reduction of negative impacts in the environment and diversity.

In diversity, which is going to be the focus in this blog, they are characterized because they involve in their business core since the people whom work to obtain the best coffee to their distributors and different cultural clients and employees. Diversity is very important issue for them, actually is on their main values as a organization:

·    Partners (employees): they try to find and hire partners as diverse as the communities they provide services. 

·   Customers: they try to recognize and answer the preferences and needs from each client. One of their objectives is to provide them an exceptional experience adapting the company to their culture.

·   community: they invest in them through collaborative agreements and creating economic  opportunities  for them.

·    Suppliers: Through the diversity program, they work to increase their comercial relationships with companies which the owners are women and minority groups.

                         

Starbucks is focus on create a work place where it is valued and respect people from different places and where their employees can make their Jobs the best posible. They celebrate the unique mix of talent, experiences and perspectives from each partner that makes posible the success of starbucks . Thats why they believe these partners act with tolerance and sensibility to all customers to make Starbucks  cozy for all.

They define diversity as: inclusión, equity and accessibility

 http://www.starbucks.es/

ASIAN CULTURE

October 10, 2014

THE 2 MORE RELEVANT POINT FOR ME!

1.  Even though we think people in Asia are all the same, most in China, Japan and Korea case. We can see from Hofstede analisys that they are really different in the way of acting. Power distance tend to be hierarchical but in Japan is more neutral because in   japanesse education they learn that everyone born equal. We can say that Japan is the “black point” in terms of behavior on Asia, they also are more individualistic than other cultures, they don´t have extended family.

All of these cultures have a strong tendency to be more masculinity because they are more competitive and drive for excellence and perfection in production, service and presentation, better to say that in all aspects of life. They have the more masculinity country (japan).

2. Confusian Asia, even they have very different ways of thinking, they have still something that align their culture and is the influence of confusionism which m ore than a religion for them is a philosophy, a lifestyle. Is humanistic and a practice  that believes that human is teachable, improvableand perfectible, Confucianism focuses on the cultivation of virtue and maintenance of ethics

This could become relevant because is important to know also these cultures that we see so far from us but are cultures that are getting a big piece of the cake in terms of economy, production and influence in the world. So, understand how they act and they doing business way can help us to be more prepare at the time of face it.  

QUESTION  RESEARCH:

What is sinosphere? 

This word makes reference to a group of countries that were historically influences by the Chinese culture, and in the same way, by confucianism. These countries are: China, 

Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore.

IS important because they share a common root of their language 

derived from Chinese which make them share also some customs and 

believes, this is compared (to be more understood) as "latin" when describes

cultural behaviors due to that.us in latin america, we have a same language root and some similar.

The Sinosphere’s roots lie with the Han expansion into southern China during the Tang dynasty (618-907). By the 12th century, the newly Sinofied southern Chinese had started moving south. There they created trade-oriented colonies like Vietnam, Burma, Malaya and the island of Java. In the 1600s Chinese settlers overcame the aboriginal inhabitants of Taiwan, creating another powerful base in the South China Sea.

but, In the past few decades North American regions such as Silicon Valley, Southern California, Toronto, Vancouver and New York-New Jersey have been added to the mix, overall the entire overseas Chinese population has risen to nearly 40 million

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_cultural_sphere

http://confusedlaowai.com/2011/09/defining-sinosphere/

something about Eastern

IS AFRICA AN IMPEDIMENT TO GROWTH?

One of the main topics talked in this class was if Africa were an impediment to  growth, as we discussed in class, some of us were agreed and other ones were not, we took into account the differences in their culture, the language, as in the 53 countries located in this continent  they have 2 or more languages and other issues that make them internally so different to make alliances to growth (from my point of view).

CORRUPTION

According to transparency.org, which is the organization that measures the corruption level in whole world. Africa as a continent have a high corruption level, most of it countries are in dark red and dark orange color which means are the more corrupted societies.

For me, corruption is one of the most serious issue that could makes countries have a lower level of life even if is the richest country, as governments took resources or distribute them without equity, people are in risk of live with low quality. To Distributed resources equitably is, in my opinion, not possible because power is concentrated in  a few and money  is never enough for humans so, we always want more and more going to the limit of  obtain it regardless the means.

AFRICAN UNION

Having into account not just the corruption of those countries but also the high poverty and undernourishment levels its clear that if they want to grow, they need to consolidate and reduce the number of organizations they have consolidating little groups within whole Africa, to joint forces in terms on production, labor and politics. As they say, Europe is their role model, I think is a good option to its economy flourish due to globalization today its better to work hand to hand to be stronger and more effective. But, maybe an union is not impossible I think if they have the need, they would try to do good agreements although they are many countries with different way of thinking and off course different interests. So, it depends in how strong they want a progress in they society to have a good agreement that benefits everyone.

NEGOTIATIONG WITH ARABIC PEOPLE

The second most important topic in class was the negotiation process with Arab culture which I found very interesting because they really are so different from us, they religion, their food, customs etc… we can say Europeans think different from us, have different behaviors and so on, but, Arabic´s have completely diferent culture since the way they eat, say hi and dress to their language.

They took religion more serious than west culture, for them islam is the center of everything, their government, way of act and other factors are align with that. To Arabs the most important thing is their family and this is one of the most important values that they have. This includes the whole extended family and not just the immediate family the way that it would in the west.

Arabs will not share very much personal information with you and for the most part they will not ask you to share anything that is personal about yourself.

Most Arabs will not openly disagree with you or say no to something. Instead they will allow you to save face by seeming to agree when they don't this can lead you to think that you have an understanding when in fact you don't. Another area where people tend to have trouble in dealing with Arabs in a business setting is when it comes to body language. Arabs tend to say a lot more with non-verbal communication than people do in the west and they use to stand closely when talking to people than us.

ISLAM

Islamic world have different races and languages. Arab, Mahoma language, persian and turkish are the 3 main spoken. They all are writen in Arabic alphabet but all 3 are different, and in the same way turkish, arab and persian are so different from a ethnic point of view.

Muslims believe in just one God named Alá, they believe in a life after death. Their faith require a number of pillars as:

-       the phrase “ Theres no more God than Alá and Mahoma is his prophet”, thats enough to an individual to be considered muslim.

-       Pray: is required 5 times a day, they must pray clean and in a clean place (mosques), it could be in private or with others ecept on muslim sabat at fridays which is required to be in the mosques.

-       Fasting: through ramadán, the 9th month of their calendar, they have to refrain of food, drink and sexual intercourse.

Koran is like their bible where Mohama transfer his teachings and knowledge to his followers. The Koran is the center of their spiritual lives and the guide for their day-to-day, for personal and social behavior and, off course the law is based on it too.

http://www.arab-business-etiquette.com/influences-of-arab-culture-when-doing-business.php

MEASURING CULTURE

Even though culture is in a big part something intangible, customs and patterns in societies that are created along many years, where a lot of factors influenced those customs as the climate, the geographic location, the language and so on, it can be measure in a qualitative and quantitative way.

Its difficult to generalize the behavior of a group of people because we also have our own culture in smaller groups as the family. Sometimes we generalize about a country behavior but there exist groups that act in other way, that have different way of thinking. So, the tools we have to quantify those behaviors could be inaccurate.

one of the most important topic for me was the controversy between universalism and particularism, which go with the hand with collectivists  and nationalists identity. Universalism as the application of same ethical standards and rules for all humans, more specifically, as a global expansion of values and behaviors in societies. By the other hand, particularism defending a particular condition of religion and locals against a unifying tendency. is difficult to be with one of those theories due to the complexity of the world. both have interesting issues to highlight but today, in my opinion ii is not space for extremist theories or lifestyles. by one side, have universal values is so difficult because we are very different, there are cultures like islam, jewish, Chinese that are so different from us, even the ones that are similar have different behaviors and communication ways as we saw in class. Signs and symbols that can have a meaning to us and other to the rest of the wold.

So, talking about universalism to me sounds impossible, now, particularism from my perspective, i can compared it with protectionism in commerce, today is so difficult to a country protect itself if it want and need something in return, to have rigid barriers does not allow others to treat you with benefits. So is good to have an identity and to know our own principles and religion, customs etc.. defending it because is in what we believe but being open to others, not to change our customs but to understand and respect other´s. Being flexible to adapting to particular situations.

the second importan topic of the class was hofstede. I like what he say about culture and is that is something so difficult to measure due to is something collective but at the same time resides in individuals, in each mind. So he based his theory in individuals way of act and think but counting on a collective cultural tendency of each country. So, based on his 6 dimensions, we can say that even is something generalized and as the critics says, is an old study and those dimensions are few to determined how really is the behavior of a country, at least allows us to have an idea of our differences and more for us as negotiators, let us understand general aspects of those cultures to know how to get into their cultures to have better communication in terms of business.

I think that the most important issues of this measures is the contribution it made to negotiation. For years the most complicated thing to reach an agreement in the whole world is involved with culture. both parties have interests, same or difference but tend to try to get all benefit and be understood but don´t understand others.

So, when negotiate and to have and idea of what we are going to face, hofstede is not a bad option just to have a global knowledge.