The Course Organizations & Cultures

Well...my course of Organizations & Cultures is ending.

The course was excellent I learned a lot of important things...things that normally you do not know!

Cultures within Organizations are very important and you as future manager have to take into account the customs and believes that your employees have!

Also, the blogs have been very constructive and you could find new information in your classmates blogs.

Thanks to Gina, it was an excellent course, the presentations and investigations around all these topics was very interesting and useful!

Classmates Blogs

Hi everyone

1. The blog of Viviana Mejia is a very interesting blog, she is very organized and have important points of views. http://vivianamejiasaenz.blogspot.com/

2. Daniel Botero's Blog is another interesting blog, he has excellent information there and is really punctual in what he says. Also he has excellent bibliography support, this shows his research capacity! http://dboterog.blogspot.com/

3. Mateo Montoya. He has visited a lot of places in world, so he could give interesting points of view and talk about experiences with other cultures and people. http://mmont29.blogspot.com/

4. Manuela Osorio. You could see the excellent and continuous job that she has had during the course. The blog is very interesting with a lot of things that is the first time you know!! Good job Manu! http://www.19890522.blogspot.com/

5. Finally, the blog of Sebastián Posada is very nice, the interest that he has in cultural issues is unique!! Also he knows certain things that are very constructive for the people that visit his blog! http://sebasposadatheworld.blogspot.com/

I like a lot the blog of Mateo Montoya. He has good bibliography research and also the experience that he could give of other places in the world is interesting!

conTREEbute

conTREEbute is a Colombian Organization that was created in order to promote environmental awareness.

The organization has planted 11.355 trees doing voluntary meetings with people who want to participate in these kinds of campaigns.

They have been working with gas stations and paper producer companies. Now, in Medellin, there are almost 5 gas stations where you could claim a tree after your purchase.

Also there are certain paper producer companies, as the University notebooks, have worked with conTREEbute in order to replace all the trees that were cut for the production of those notebooks.

In the web page you could see the different campaigns that the organization has and also you could calculate how many carbon dioxide emissions you produce.

This is the web site:

http://www.contreebute.com/

What did happen in Australia?

All we see Australia as paradise, beaches, nice people, mix of cultures, surf, beautiful ladies....
But, could you think that Australia has a black side, why could we find a lot of white people that seems Americans and sometimes we see a man like an indigineus in the street alone...we ask...who is him? WHERE IS HE FROM?...Well that man is from the Stolen Generation.

In the beginning Australian current people were aborigines, people with its own language, music, food and believes.
With the colonization from the U.K, the "white" people started to disperse the native aborigines. They took away the children from their homes and started to educate them as "white people" with "white" customs and belives...that children never cameback to their homes.
Could you imagine how would be Australia without this atrocity?




The aboriginal community have inhabited Australia for over 40.000 years....

Now aborigines represent the 2% of total Australian population. Australia is one of the richest and developed countries, but this people live in bad conditions, they are poor in the country that used to be of them.

Now, Australians celebrate the National Sorry Day in order to remember this people and say sorry for that White Policy and apologize for that desappearing generations.






Could they say just "Sorry"? After eliminate a completely culture?

Communication Between Cultures

Hi everyone,
I found a good video, maybe it will be useful for you!

Blogs at BOBs

I've been visiting the The BOBs, it is a web site similar to this where you can find different blogs with interesting topics and it could be a good research site!

My favorite blog is

http://www.planet-positive.org/news_andforums.php

It is an environmental blog, it is like an organization which main objective is to creat concience about the environmental issues and what you could do from home in order to improve the climate conditions and the sustenance of our planet!

http://www.tork.com.au/upload/1__Global_Files_And_Com/2__Images/8__Environment/environment_plant.jpg

Mulsim World & E-Commerce

Hi everyone

It is interesting to discuss certain topics and this case the E-Commerce & Muslim World will be my topic with some new things that I Think would be constructive for everyone who reads my blog.

http://www.mividanueva.org/images/islam1.jpg

Maybe you are Catholic, Buddhist, Jewish or from another religion, does the Holly writtings tell you how you may drive your business?? Well...The Islam does!!

As all you know the main Writting for the Islam is the Quran and all the muslims live accord the rules and laws dictated in it. It is very interesting to find that this religion is adapting to new economic, social, technological and cultural changes, you can find in the Quran the following two points about business:

• Permissibility: The product or service around which your business turnes must go according the Islamic Law.
• Harmlessness: Your product or service cannot be harmful for any party that direct or indirectly has interest in what you sell.

http://www.nvcc.edu/home/lshulman/religions/Islam/quran.jpg

I considere this as an advantage in the Religion field because in a globalized world and within cultures where the people are exposed to more changes and possibilities, each religion will have to adapt and mold its structure in order to survive for the next generations.

There are certain things that we need to know before doing any kind of judgment or criticism to the religions.

Sales persons

Good night to all my followers and to all my future followers.

At this time I am going to talk about the personality of the sales persons in a country like Colombia, in topics like organizational commitment, leadership behavior, role stress and cultural factors.

When we are talking about organizational commitment, we could identify two kinds of issues

· The Affective Commitment that is the degree to which an employee exhibits a strong belief in, an acceptance of the organizations goals and values.

· The continuance commitment that refers to a willingness to continue to work in the organization.

For the Colombian case, is kind difficult to give a certain answer, cause it depends of the education degree that a person has. But talking about our business women and men it is normally to see how patriots we are. We like to defend and talk good about our enterprise, city and country, there is a high nationalism in Colombia. Also, the respect for values and goals within organizations is very serious; we are good employees and work hard in order to reach a better level. About the willingness to continue to work in the organization, I think that this has changed during last years, before you could see people working ages in the same organization and their goal always was to climb in the enterprise. But now, the Colombian business people are being more risked and are looking for their own business and works, they are having a certain independence level in order to reach a financial independency. Obviously we as excellent workers look to continue in our works but sometime without any dependency, because we have our different business and economy incomes.

Leadership behavior:

Well, I think that in developing countries when you are working with labor hand with low incomes is very difficult to create a home environment at work. There is a lot of labor hand that comes from people of low status and sometimes they are not good workers and always there is the thought that the boss is getting more. So, this kind of relationship must be manage carefully because if the workers are the base of your company and you don’t know how to manage them, they are going to take advantages under the table. While the leadership in the middle-high class of the country and in big enterprises are characterized by the respect for the leader and the cooperation and listening the others opinion. There are specific tasks and excellent communications channels, the Colombian people use to be very friendly and the information exchange is continuous.

The role stress: In Colombia as in every country in world you could find loyal sales person and layer sales person. You could go to downtown in order to find some typical things to buy and have a present for some familiar and if you top with a dealer, he is going to ask for a lot of people for that present, I think that this is normally en every country you go. In my personal point of view I think that Colombian sales persons are loyal people that looks for a win win negotiation and try to give more than the counterpart is waiting for.

About cultural factors as individualism and power distance, as I said above, Colombia is a low individualism country where you could find people that are disposing to help you in case you need it; they are friendly, cordial and happy people. You could see the family meetings as a big party where all family shares together food, drinks and talks.

The power distance according to Hofstede, it is high, there is a high respect for the people above you in organizations and the workers try to follow the regular process of communication. You could work in an enterprise and not know the president for years.

Alligator

"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."

EXERCISE:
After reading the story, rank the five characters in the story beginning with the one whom you consider as the most offensive”and end with the one whom you consider the least objectionable.

Character	Ranking	Description
Abigail	5	She is the most conflict person. She was incoherent in her acts and did not know what she really wants.
Sinbad	4	A wrong thought toward Abigail. He took advantage of the situation.
Slug	3	He hit Gregory without any reason.
Ivan	2	He is not a good friend.
Gregory	1	Good position and attitude, he acted as he had to act.

BEST BLOG

Good night

The blog of Sebastian Posada is a very interesting blog. Excellent information and also good points of view.

It would be great if you could visit it
http://sebasposadatheworld.blogspot.com/

Dave.

I would like you to know where im from...and what is Colombia, This is not an internal conflict country...

THE THING THAT I WANT TO EXPLAIN WITH THIS VIDEO IS THAT THINGS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM. PREJUDICES SOMETIMES ARE WRONG AND COULD GIVE BAD PERCEPTIONS ABOUT PEOPLE, CULTURES AND COUNTRIES...

Good Night,

I was watching The Corporation (http://www.thecorporation.com/) this week and it's a good film that could give a different point of view about the responsibilities within corporations (or organizations).

The Question at this time is...
Do you think corporations are the root cause of the problem, or is it consumerism, capitalism, or all three?

For your information the film says that the cause of many problems around world is about the bad behaviors from the corporations and their value of "always looking for money".

Well, it's no so easy to say that...Just imagine for a second.
You are a business management student and you get a great idea of starting a new business in town. Ok, your business is about selling typical clothes from the Americas (just as an example). You open your business and you start working at. 1 year after your business has grown and you have 2 stores. 5 years after your business is a big business in all the country and it's conformed by several managers (marketing, human resources, financing, design and others...). Also, you start to contract a lot of employees as sellers, in the shipping area and management.
Now, your business is a big organization, but this would not happen if your product did not have demand from the consumers.
You start to get a lot of money, so you have to think in what else you could invest that money and get more money every day...

The previous example could be a little and bad one about the start of an organization. But that's the way of how a business starts.
Now, somebody says that it's vey bad for the humans the creation of the Corporation.

I dont think so...i think that is a natural process, because the human has to survive within a big economy and a globalized world. You have to get money to eat, study, live, travel, for all the things you need and want you have to get money.
Maybe, when the corporations grow and make more and more money and they start a financial race about who gets more and who has more power to control the market and the economy is when the problem starts.

But, just say that the corporations are the root cause of the problem? consumerism or capitalism?
First, we can not live without corporations, cause they are source of work and economy.
Second, always is going to be consumerism
Third, not only in the capitalism model there are corporations. Within the socialism the Government has corporations, the Government is a corporation.

So, the problem is not made by corporations, the problem starts when the people change the conception of having money and managing a lot of money and power. The human always wants more and more...And if nobody could control this, always is going to happen.

In my concept the fount of problem are the laws and rules that control the corporations and the interest that the Governors have in that kind of business.

Dave.

CORPORATE CULTURE.....

Hi there...in this time I'm going to write a little bit about the corporate culture and what i think about it and how it's linked to national identity.

"Corporate culture is a term used to describe the collective beliefs, value systems, and processes that provide a company with its own unique flavor and attitude. Businesses of all sizes posses some type of corporate culture, in that every company has a set of values and goals that help to define what the business is all about.
At the foundation of any company culture are the standards that govern the operation of the business. These standards are usually expressed in terms of the policies and procedures that define how the company will operate. This will include how different departments or functions relate to one another in the production process, the line of communication established between management and departmental employees, and rules governing acceptable conduct of everyone who is part of the company. This basic organizational culture makes it possible to develop other layers of corporate culture based on these foundational factors."

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-corporate-culture.htm

Ok that is the academic point...this blog is supposed to be critical and give different points of view.

I think that the corporate culture is very linked to national identity...the enterprises that work within a country and that contract national workers have to take in count things about religion, beliefs and other cultural issues. Why? Because if you are a Musulman worker and you go to an enterprise from the US and within the enterprise they need you to believe in other religion or they need you to modify your own beliefs or customs...you are not going to be a good worker and you are going to be out in days.

So, the organizations have to mix their politics and values with the customs of the country where they are going to be.

Ok, i would like to make a comparative point about the national identity and the corporate culture...Maybe this point is going to be a "red point" because could be very controversial, so I'm hopping to be clear and waiting for the comments.
Well, if you see, if you are a north american enterpriser and you are the Regional Manager from a big company of the US, and in USA you have a perspective that Bolivia is a very poor country and the enterprises over there are not succesful as yours, when you are going to negotiate with that organization, you are going to subestimate the person that will be around the table talking to you. BUT, it dependes in what vision and what good information you have about the other party.
It's very important to know that you could not subestimate anyparty around negotiation, because that subestimation could finish the negotiation in a bad way and maybe that commercial partner was a good supplier or a good client...so...REMEMBER THIS!

Well...hopping to see your points of view

Thanks again

Culture!

Everybody has different customs, different ways of dressing, of saying HI!!...things that make people different.
That difference is very linked with "who are we?"...with "where are we from?"...but the most important, linked to our IDENTITY.
Well...Im from Colombia and when i go to another country, i have the same customs that i have in my country. Im very kind, friendly, happy...and that is going to make me different to others. For me, in this moment, culture is what makes you different from other people...its what makes you unique.

But, I think that is a very open topic and must be discussed with other people and be based in what the theories say. So, Im going to expose some definitons and articles about culture and their links.

"Culture takes diverse forms across time and space. This diversity is embodied in the uniqueness and plurality of the identities of the groups and societies making up humankind. As a source of exchange, innovation and creativity, cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature. In this sense, it is the common heritage of humanity and should be recognized and affirmed for the benefit of present and future generations"

http://www.unesco.org/education/imld_2002/unversal_decla.shtml

"Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society."

Edward B. Tylor in his book, Primitive Culture, published in 1871

"Culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group. "

The Center for Advanced Research of Language Acquisition CARLA http://www.carla.umn.edu/culture/definitions.html

Ok, so here is the blog and it would be nice if you could write something about your personal definition of culture and tell us how is your culture and what you think that makes you different from others in if this is linked with your culture.

Be nice, you and me could have different points of view.

Dave.