course feedback

image reference:
http://www.adsmonkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/unitedcolorsofbenetton_47.jpg

All of the topics studied were very interesting, because it is very important for us as international business students to understand how cultural management differs from one country to another. Also, learning more about countries and regions it is always good for our "cultura general" and to have a broader knowledge about them and also about how contries are dealing with problems we all share like the environmental problems or the problems with minorities. It was also a great opportunity to have different tools and ways to develop the course. Creating our blogs improved our writing skills, and with the paper we learned to make correct investigations and the way to present a research paper.

I would have to say that even though there were many ways for covering all topics, with the presentations sometimes the course was too monotonous. For me, I think 80 minutes presentations are very long and I hope the department could reestructure the timing or make them in a more dynamic way.

Best Blogs

Out of these blogs that i've visited:

http://eramir18.blogspot.com/

http://melicoulson.blogspot.com/

http://paulalopezrestrepo.blogspot.com/

www.organizationsandculturesbyantti.blogspot.com

http://vivianamejiasaenz.blogspot.com/

Definitely my favorite blog was Viviana's. It has pretty interesting information and lots of images that makes it more eye-catchy. I invite you to visit it too!!!

http://vivianamejiasaenz.blogspot.com/

image reference:

http://www.ferplei.com/up/2009/12/Winner.jpg

The Nukak Makú

For this latin American entry, I wanted to research about a group in my country that I had little or zero knowledge at all. I found an indigenous group called the Nukak Makú that definitely grabbed all my attention and that I want people to be aware of what is happening to them.

The Nukak Makú’s are an indigenous group in Colombia. They live deep in the jungle between the Inirida and Guaviare rivers in the southeast of the country.
They are known for being the last indigenous nomad group and for being expert hunter-gatherers. Sadly, they are also close to extinction because of the violence in Colombia and the diseases they have contracted because of the contact with outsiders. It is said that there are around 400 or 500 Nukak Maku’s left. They were if not the last, one of the last indigenous groups to be discovered, the first time the Government heard of them was in the 1980’s.

The territories they used to live in have been occupied by guerrillas, paramilitaries, and coca growers displacing some of the Nukak Maku’s to small towns and impeding them from developing their normal activities such as hunting and changing those habits to “white habits”.

There have been some initiatives to protect the rights of this group and have been very successful. Aside from indigenous organizations, the Colombian government has also taken part in these campaigns and created a reserve for the Nukak in 1993, which expanded in 1997. But still, many things could be done to help them preserve themselves and get back all their culture. Colombian citizens should be more aware of what is happening to these people and how any kind of organization could help them get back to the territories they lived and develop all their traditions the way they used to. After years of displacement and the dilemma of losing their customs they just want the borders of their reservation to be respected and that they can live there in peace.

References:
http://www.cafeinternetsd.galeon.com/productos830853.html
http://www.colarte.arts.co/recuentos/Colecciones/ETNIAS/NukakMaku.htm
http://www.survival.es/indigenas/nukak
Image reference:
http://manosartesanasenamerica.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/nukak_mak__colom.jpg

Best of BOB's

Out of all the blogs visited at the BOB's webpage, my favorite one was the one called "Planet Positive" which is written by Selen Kesrelioglu, Christina Wood. I liked it the most because it has shocking facts and also it talks about what is happening with our environmental problems such as climate change. After reading it, it makes us take responsabiility for the actions that worsen the environment and it recommends things, as reducing the carbon footprint, that we should do to help resolve this environmental problems.

Go visit their blog at http://www.planet-positive.org/how_planetpositive.php and START ACTING NOW!!!

Image reference

http://www.planet-positive.org/ppblog

Trade Unions: The Cases of Europe and Colombia

The concept of labor union or trade union is an association of fair wage-earners uniting for the purpose of maintaining and improving the conditions of their employment. Even though these kinds of associations exist in a lot of countries they might differ in the way they act and the real purposes they fight for.

Colombian trade unions and those from Europe have some similarities and differences to be analyzed.

In Europe, over the last 20 years there has been a decline in trade union memberships and it might keep decreasing, the unions that remain are gathered in the European Trade Union Confederation which acts as a single voice, on behalf of the common interests of workers at the European level. They believe that workers’ consultation, collective bargaining, social dialogue and good working conditions are the key to promoting innovation, productivity, competitiveness and growth in Europe. Their objective is to promote the European Social Model which represents a society that combines sustainable economic growth with improving living and working standards including full employment, social protection, equal opportunities, good quality jobs, social inclusion, and an open and policy-making process involving citizens in the decisions that affect them.

If we analyze the case of Colombian trade unions, we see that our trade unions are also gathered in organizations such as the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) and the Confederacion de Trabajadores de Colombia (CTC). These organizations are created to become a stronger and more powerful voice to negotiate the fulfillment of their labor rights with the Government or the private companies.

Another aspect to analyze is that trade union members have claimed that they have been persecuted and in some cases even murdered by the Government or other right-wing groups. The abuses committed against them have had negative impacts in the qualifications our country receives in international organizations such as the International Labor Organization and also when negotiating agreements with other countries, because they demand respect for the freedom of association. But this point here has definitely improved in the last years.

Contrary to what has been happening in Europe, trade unions in Colombia won’t likely decrease in the next years. Trade union members claim that their labor rights are not respected totally and that they need better labor conditions, trainings, higher wages to cover all their needs and more benefits should be granted from their employers, to avoid being exploited.

References: http://www.etuc.org/r/2

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Labor_union

http://www.cut.org.co/

Image Reference:http://jonesview.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/unions21.jpg

The Stolen Generations

From your own point of view it useful to say "Sorry" after years of wrong policies towards a minority? Why, what else is needed?

The policy of the forced removal of Aboriginal children, where children as young as babies were stolen from their families to be placed in girls and boys homes, foster families or missions,is a clear example of how Governments have attacked minorities through policies they believe are the most correct ones.

This chapter of the Australian history is known as the “Stolen Generations” because many generations suffered this kind of abuse and it brought a lot of pain into aboriginal families who were separated from their loved ones. Furthermore, by removing the children they also removed them from all their cultural ties like language, traditions, knowledge and beliefs. With this, the Government was killing their culture.

After many years of the execution of this practice, in 1998 the government gave a well-deserved apology where they expressed their regret over the historical mistreatment towards the Aboriginals.

Even though apologizing might be the first step used to heal that traumatic situation, there is more needed than just pronouncing that word. The main thing they should do is take actions and demonstrate they really meant that apology, because what sense would it make to say sorry today but not change the course of actions in the future?

Other actions that should be taken to continue the healing process is that the Government should acknowledge the Aboriginals as being an important part of the citizenship, an important cultural resource, give them the recognition they deserve and help them in the preservation of their culture. They should also promote respect towards them among all the citizens and they must not try to impose rules that they think will benefit them if at the end they will only harass their culture. Health and job opportunities should also be given by the Government and also if they want they should have an important presence in the Parliament to fight for their rights. After saying sorry the next step is to compensate them with real actions.

Reference:

http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/politics/stolen-generations.html#ixzz0oVI0t6Z7

Image Reference: http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/02/13/sdefconsorry2.jpg

Islamism & E-Commerce

E- Commerce has revolutionized the way business is done. People are engaging rapidly in this new way of conducting business because it is faster, cheaper and overcomes barriers such as time and distance. But what happens when that innovative tool could struggle with the accepted actions and beliefs of your religion?

The case of Islamism and ecommerce is a case to be considered. When we hear about new technologies created for making our day to day activities easier, we don’t hesitate to think if that new creation will be against our beliefs, however many Muslims who are eager to be part of this new trend have to take into account their religious rules so they don’t disobey their law.

Islamism guides people’s social, political and personal life through the Quran. In it they find the guiding principles that are applicable for every sphere of their lives. Luckily, Muslims have found that e-commerce is not against their religious beliefs if used it in the right way. They must fulfill prerequisites as permissibility, which means that the commodity and service in question must be permissible by the Islamic law, and harmless, which means that the commodity or the service must not be harmful for the contracting parties or the general public. Aside from these, there are also five stages for validating e-commerce recommended: Initiating a contract, confirming the validity, implementation, binding and delivery. Aside from that, people should also follow the Islamic principles of conducting business, transactions should be made in a truthful way, clarity in communication is very important, and interest should be avoided.

Even though, some of us may think of religious guiding in all the spheres of your life as something out of mind, we should acknowledge that at least those Islamic principles for conducting business should be something that every individual should have in mind when being part of a transaction. Unfortunately, some people use commerce and e-commerce as a way to commit frauds, fool the counterpart and for self-enrichment. Another point to consider is that Muslims are adapting both their traditions and new technologies to keep pace in the world of technology, and whether we agree or not with their way of coping with it their effort for doing so is an important step for them to demonstrate or reply to those allegations of their religion as being very restrictive in this aspect and against the use of technological innovations.

Reference:Zainul, Norazlina et al. 2004. “E-commerce from an Islamic perspective”. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications 3 (2004): 280-293.

Image Reference:http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/10465264/2/istockphoto_10465264-saudi-arabian-business-man-holding-a-phone-and-laptop.jpg

Colombian Salesperson

Based on variables as organizational commitment, leadership behavior, role stress and cultural factors I will describe the average salesperson in my country Colombia.

Starting with the organizational commitment I think the average salesperson has a lack of affective commitment towards their place of work. Sometimes the main bond they have with the enterprise is how much they get paid or the position they are in, therefore, it is not surprising that once they are offered a better position or a higher remuneration they will quit their current job. The reason is that many of the salespeople are students who seek for extra cash or people who really depend on the job and on the income they have to survive. Their main goal is the money and as a result they always seek for a place to work that will pay them the highest wage.
When it comes to the leadership behavior it is very clear that the manager is constantly giving its subordinates tasks, defining their roles within the store and telling them what to do. Rarely will the manager take into account the ideas of its subordinates. Salespeople depend a lot on the manager and hardly ever they will take the initiative to do something without the manager giving them the instructions.

As for the role stress, I think there is a low role ambiguity because roles are pretty well defined within each organization, but it could happen also that a salesperson may have to do something but he/she is not allowed to do so. I think there is also the possibility of the role conflict, where a salesperson could receive different contradictory orders from people in a higher position and become confused of whose order he/she must follow.

Finally, for the cultural factors I think Colombia has a high power distance and low individualism due to the definition of the roles. Since salespeople know that they must follow orders and they feel that their ideas won’t be taken into account they do not take the leadership when developing their tasks, thus they respect a lot the decisions from their superiors.

Best Blogs

I've been checking some of my classmate's blogs and their entries are pretty interesting. But i have to say I have 2 that I liked the most:

The first one is Carlos Vallejo's blog, I like his analysis and arguments in each entry. After you read each entry it makes you think about each topic and he really gets to the point.
http://www.carlosvallejod34.blogspot.com/

The other one i liked is David Perez' blog, it seems to me that he really enjoys writing on it and i like the fact that he always gives his point of view. Also the video about Colombia is very interesting for all the foreign people that visit his blog. That is a good way to educate people about our country and to start changing our image around the world.
http://oneworlddifferentperceptions.blogspot.com

You should check them out!!

Values & Attitudes

When it comes to the values that each one of us have and the attitudes that we demonstrate in certain situations, we cand find a certain kind of conflict among our thoughts and those of other people. This excersice demonstrates us that for every situation we have different points of view which are all respectable.

The Alligator River Story

There lived a woman named Abigail who was in love with a man named Gregory. Gregory lived on the shore of a river. Abigail lived on the opposite shore of the same river. The river that separated the two lovers was teeming with dangerous alligators. Abigail wanted to cross the river to be with Gregory. Unfortunately, the bridge had been washed out by a heavy flood the previous week. So she went to ask Sinbad, a riverboat captain, to take her across. He said he would be glad to if she would consent to go to bed with him prior to the voyage. She promptly refused and went to a friend named Ivan to explain her plight. Ivan did not want to get involved at all in the situation. Abigail felt her only alternative was to accept Sinbad’s terms. Sinbad fulfilled his promise to Abigail and delivered her into the arms of Gregory. When Abigail told Gregory about her amorous escapade in order to cross the river, Gregory cast her aside with disdain. Heartsick and rejected, Abigail turned to Slug with her tale of woe. Slug, feeling compassion for Abigail, sought out Gregory and beat him brutally. Abigail was overjoyed at the sight of Gregory getting his due. As the sun set on the horizon, people heard Abigail laughing at Gregory.

After reading the story i'll rank the characters from the one that I perceive as most offensive (5) to the one least objectionable (1).

Abigail (5): I totally disagree with her attitude and i reproche it because i think that if you dont respect yourself how will you respect others? for me, the fact that she slept with Sinbad in order to get what she wanted is disrespectul for helself and also for Gregory her supposed boyfriend, she SHOULD have declined Sinbad's proposal. Not only her cheating attitude is gross but also when she cheered once Gregory was beaten by Slug. I think that she could have handled things in a better way.

Slug (4): He had nothing to do with the situation and yet he went to Gregory and hit him brutally without any justification. Even though he might have felt compassionate for Abigail that does not mean that he can go and attack someone. I think his attitude is unnaceptable.

Sinbad (3): His proposal was very rude and indecent, and I think he wanted to take advantage of the situation that Abigail was in. He could have helped her for free, but yet there is always some kind of interest involved. Even though he asked Abigail to have sex with him it was her fault to accept it as the only solution for her "problem".

Ivan (2): His fault was that he didnt act as a true friend for Abigail. He opted to stay out of the whole situation instead of helping her plan different solutions so she could see Gregory. He could have been more supportive.

Gregory (1): He had the most acceptable attitude of all. His attitude was to be expected because he was cheated on and he had all the right to end up his relationship with Abigail, he came up with the wisest decision.

HOW WOULD YOU RANK THEM ???

Picture taken from http://www.followsteph.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/right-and-wrong-decisions.jpg

The Corporation

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

Even though corporations are “legal persons” and have the same rights and legal protections as regular people, unlike humans, they do not have a life of their own, meaning that they don’t make decisions, carry out their own actions and are not directly responsible for what they do. Their status of legal persons is just fictitious and it was created so companies could gain more power. Behind every corporation there is a group of people who seek to obtain major benefits without giving importance to the damage that they may cause to society.

In a major or minor degree every person involved in a corporation is responsible for the actions of the corporation, because humans have been raised up with values, morals and they are able to acknowledge what is ethically right or wrong. But I think a big part of the responsibility should fall on the shareholders and executives because they are the ones taking decisions and carrying out actions in name of the corporations, whereas employees sometimes don’t have other options than to follow the rules of their superiors. Individuals working inside the corporations are TOTALLY responsible for the damage they cause to society; may be in their daily life basis they can be the kind of person that worries about the environment, human and animal exploitation, poverty and work for their community, but inside the corporations they become part of that giant monster that threatens us all.

Unfortunately, humans have been characterized as being selfish individuals that seek their own benefits without thinking about the rest of the people. They are only worried about the outcomes and their main objective is to increase their profits. So basically, every time businesspeople come up with decisions they don’t see public health, poverty, pollution, illnesses, exploitation and the degradation of the biosphere as relevant factors to take into account before deciding something.

Throughout the years we have seen many corporations that have been sued for not obeying the law, for damaging the environment, or committing an outrage against the health of the people because of the excessive use of chemicals, and all they do is pay a fine and they go back to the same actions once again. Nowadays, as the degradation of the environment and the severe diseases affecting humans have become important issues, governments should strengthen their positions towards corporations and they must impose more severe sanctions for them.

What is the relation between national identity and corporate culture?

Culture has a strong significance in our life, the way we act, we talk, our beliefs and traditions have all been shaped by our culture. So, as part of any nation we are touched by what authors call national identity that is, the culture that characterizes a national group, influences the behavior of its members and differentiates them from other groups.

In a few years from now, once we graduate we will become part of a company or we will establish one of our own. Either way we will be touched by another form of culture that happens inside organizations, and it is known as corporate culture which is “the total sum of the values, customs, traditions and meanings that make a company unique. Corporate culture is often called "the character of an organization" since it embodies the vision of the company’s founders. The values of a corporate culture influence the ethical standards within a corporation, as well as managerial behavior” [1].

But what is the relation between national identity and corporate culture?

I think that corporate culture is molded by national identity. This is due to the fact that within organizations the founders, CEO’s, and managers are the ones in charge of coming up with and applying the customs, values, and symbols that they want for their company to make it an excellent place to work in. It is about what the members of a certain organization think about the corporation and feel towards it. Those values and costumes implemented can be strongly influenced by the ones that they have grown up with, the ones that they have learned through their life, and they will use them as guiding principles to run their companies.
We should give importance to corporate culture because it can determine whether your company will be successful or not.

As culture differs from country to country, corporate culture also differs from a company to another. Watch the clip above and think how working in Google differs from working in a company in your hometown.


[1]. Montana, P., Charnov, B. (2008) Management (4th ed.), Barrons Educational Series, Hauppauge:NY

Different approaches of Culture

Picture by: Ariel Arrieta

"Culture is the shared knowledge and schemes created by a set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing, and responding to the social realities around them".
Lederach, J.P. (1995). Preparing for peace: Conflict transformation across cultures. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

"Culture consists in those patterns relative to behavior and the products of human action which may be inherited, that is, passed on from generation to generation independently of the biological genes".
Parson, T. (1949). Essays in Sociological Theory. Glencoe, IL.

Culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society".
Tylor, E.B. (1871). Primitive Cultures.