Corporations

Does an organization's commitment to diversity - as reflected by CEO commitment, human capital, corporate communications (internal and external), and supplier diversity - result in competitive advantage and superior financial performance? Diversity can bring new voices and perspectives into the strategy dialogue, help managers understand and address the needs of a demographically diverse customer base, and stimulate a wider range of creative decision alternatives. (Stanley F. Slater a, 2008).

Corporations don't even exist on the physical plane, which is why law professors call corporations a "legal fiction." Corporations can't even physically do anything, like drive a car or eat a sandwich. The only thing a corporation can do is what human beings do in a corporation's name.
Corporations exist only because some legal documents say that they do -- kind of like Santa Clause's existing because parents say that he does.

The corporations not even take into the account the environment or the employees that work for them in awful conditions or receiving very law salaries like diamonds corporation did with some developing countries where the people are starving to death, and that they don´t have other choice to earn a painful salary to live. The real problem is that companies are using aggressive campaigns to manipulate costumers and making our relations with the rest of the world more commercial, more superficial, creating in our mind a need for more things.

Should be a line between actions of the corporation and actions of the individuals?, and at the same time with the role they played in the society?, Yes there should be a line between corporations and the actions of individuals, because thanks to the technology and the globalization, there will be no difference between the both, and the situations will be created by the companies in order to achieve a goal or a certain amount of money, with the role of society too because corporations should make thing in order that the society improves and grow every day more.

How can the world ensure that corporations take responsibilities from their actions?, This part is very complicated, because in order to take responsibilities corporations should have policies and rules that they must follow even though they are against the world, or against what is good or bad.

If these corporations manage resources and goals in a way the society goals and their goals fit, it will be more easier to take advantage of the world development in a way that at the end the situation end in win -win, but actually in my opinion the corporations do not make benefits for the society. Corporations should reinvest a little bit of the profits, in order to create a more equal world, were the gap between poor and rich diminish. And this depends us the future managers, because is part of us that we create paths not only for the corporations profits, but also for the society benefits, better life conditions, and better awareness for the environment.

Bibliography
Stanley F. Slater a, R. A. (2008). The business case for commitment to diversity. Science direct.

IOM and the Female migration

Migration is considered one of the defining global issues of the early twenty-first century, as more and more people are on the move today than at any other point in human history. There are now about 192 million people living outside their place of birth, which is about three per cent of the world's population.

Discourse on migration involves many perspectives. There is growing recognition that migration is an essential and inevitable component of the economic and social life of every State, and that orderly and properly managed migration can be beneficial for both individuals and societies. The multiple and complex dimensions of migration include:

• labour migration
• family reunification
• migration and security
• combating irregular migration
• migration and trade
• migrant rights
• health and migration
• integration
• migration and development.

Even though population movements are a gender-neutral process, they are related to gender because women and men migrate for different reasons, use different channels, and have different experiences. The social context, within which migration takes place, is strongly influenced by gender and family relations. This, in turn, strongly influences migration behaviour, and also affects the experiences men and women undergo. The role that gender plays in the decision of an individual to migrate or not also illustrates why it is important to consider gender issues when considering and formulating migration policy options - regardless of whether these focus on immigration, family reunification, labour migration, resettlement, or asylum.
The Gender Coordination function is responsible for the development and implementation of policies and programmes on gender issues, and for promoting gender awareness and sensitivity throughout the Organization. This part of the organization makes documents, research, papers, events, activities.

Established in 1995 to evaluate and assist in institutionalizing IOM's efforts to mainstream gender into IOM's planning and actions, the Working Group on Gender Issues (WGGI) has been instrumental in formulating IOM's gender policy, its mainstreaming strategy and a five-year plan of action.

Compare to the text “Advocating for Sri Lankan migrant workers, Michelle R Gamburd” that explains that the Sri Lankan migrants continue to face exploitative labor conditions abroad and weak support at home. In Sri Lanka it has been an increasing feminization of migrant work forces around the world, women make up two thirds of Sri Lanka´s overseas contract workers. Domestic servants or “housemaids” alone constitute over half of Sri Lanka´s migrants. But there is a problem with the migrants there is a lack of support from the NGO´s and the unions and also from the government. There is an inaction of the government due to three factors: Sri Lankan gender norms, women´s lack of participation in national politics and Sri Lanka disadvantageous position in the international division of labor.

Bibliography

IOM. (13 de 08 de 2000). Recuperado el 12 de Octubre de 2010, de International Organization for Migrations: http://www.iom.int/jahia/jsp/index.jsp

R. Gamburd, M. Advocating for Sri Lankan Migrant workers

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Pictures: IOM Library, from http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/pid/2054/lang/es

UBUNTU & CROSS- CULTURAL MANAGERS

This week task was reading the article from Mangaliso, M. about Ubuntu and explain how does cross-cultural managers can be aware of this cultural philosophy and use it for the benefit of the organizations and its employees.

Ubuntu, is an ethic or humanist philosophy focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other.

Nelson Mandela explained Ubuntu as follows:

A traveler through a country would stop at a village and he didn't have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve? (Ubuntu (philosophy), 2010)

Cross- cultural management can be aware of this philosophy and improve the relations with their employees. For example “One of the concerns by Jackson (2002; 2004) in Africa is the apparent antithesis between Western and non-Western ideas of organization and management: between an idea of people as a resource (human resource management) and people with a value in themselves (reflected in South Africa in the word 'Ubuntu', people are people through other people). It may be possible to reconcile this antithesis, but it would seem logical that before this can happen, managers should be aware of these different perspectives. In Jackson's (1999) study the consensus was that people should be valued in their own right, they should be consulted, and they should be treated fairly and ethically in an organization that is not merely concerned with short-term results and making profits.” (Jackson, 2009)

This explain that managers should benefit of this philosophy to improve the work of their employees if there are treated as persons, as persons that have values

Competitive advantages, from Ubuntu go from relationships with others until belief systems.

In ubuntu relationships are reciprocal; others should be treated as your brother and sister. Decisions are made by consensus, diversity of opinions are permitted and encouraged. But Ubuntu can be also used by leaders, in the book “El Factor Humano” that inspired the movie Invictus, show us how the Leader Nelson Mandela, use Ubuntu tu support his 27 years in Jail, how he treat people and jail, how how much this philosophy help him to gain the guards of jail. It also explains how the person who left Robben Island was a more restrained, more reflective and less impulsive person, which undoubtedly strengthened him as a leader. Also the 27 years that Mandela had to pass in Robben Island, and his number of prisoner (46664) remember the contention that a leader should have.

Bibliography

Jackson, T. (2009, January). Management Principles. Retrieved September 21, 2010, from Africa Management: http://www.africamanagement.org/index_files/Principles.htm

Ubuntu (philosophy). (2010, september 11). Retrieved september 21, 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(philosophy)

"Voyages are a road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.”

This week task was that we have to think a creative metaphor that could be used for a Colombian organization that is trying to internationalize a new unknown product in foreign markets.

“Metaphors are used every day. We are all familiar with them and what they are. They help us understand conceptual ideas, convey complex notions and have a shared understanding so that we can talk to each other using verbal shorthand.

Adoption metaphors have a lifecycle. They begin by introducing a new concept. They help us map something new to something we already understand and give us a framework in which to understand the new thing. After a while, the concept isn’t new anymore, and people usually understand it pretty well without needing the original metaphor.” (Rice, 2006).

“Metaphors are very powerful in conveying complex information in a simple way, using things we could relate to in our daily lives. Metaphors are also very memorable.” (Leong, 2009).

The organization I came up with can be a travel company that has alliances in all places of the world, with the best hotels, the best travel guide, and the best places to know. So they objective of the company is to advise people what are the most chic and wonderful places around the world to go.

The metaphor I want to use is, "Voyages are a road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.” It means that travelling is a way or relaxing that traveling is a way of knowing new cultures and new people. It also express that inside and organizations multicultural personality it is very important, people should be diverse and from all parts of the world.

With our foreign partners we can:

· Create alliances with the best hotels and and with the best agencies, so people could know very amazing places and have a great experience.

Bibliography

Leong, J. (2009, September 01). Making it Memorable With Metaphors. Retrieved September 4, 2010, from Articles base: http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/making-it-memorable-with-metaphors-for-business-presentations-1185799.html

Rice, S. A. (2006, July 5). Using Adoption Metaphors to Increase Customer Acceptance. Retrieved September 4, 2010, from Boxes and Arrows: http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/using_adoption_

Companions blogs

Our next task was to investigate our companions blogs:
Here are the links of the ones I like the most.

1. From Sara Baena, her post about the pygmalion effect and her organization and creativity.
http://miragemblue.blogspot.com/

2. From Daniel Uribe, since the beggining you catch the attention of the reader, your tittle is very catchy.
http://knowledgeinabun.blogspot.com/

3. From Juliana Martinez, her post and the examples of the organizational behavior, resembles very good the important issues affecting this topic.
http://oyceafit.blogspot.com/

4. From Sabrina Finger, all her post and points of views, show an excellent writer. Not to mention the tittle of your blog it was phenomenal.
http://sabrinaeafit.blogspot.com/

5. From Maria Camila Jaramillo, her post on the conference, was very interesting, she compare very good two country in many of the topics metion by the lecturer. Read it, it is very nice.
http://camilajorg.blogspot.com/

The Pygmalion Effect

The “Pygmalion Effect” is basically how a person can successfully fulfill an expectation that they may have for themselves or that someone else has for them. It also concentrates on the fact that people mostly give away their expectations through body language, so that someone else has a hint of someone else's expectations. (Yasmin)

“You can summarize the Pygmalion effect, often known as the power of expectations, by considering:

· Every supervisor has expectations of the people who report to him.

· Supervisors communicate these expectations consciously or unconsciously.

· People pick up on, or consciously or unconsciously read, these expectations from their supervisor.

· People perform in ways that are consistent with the expectations they have picked up on from the supervisor.

(Google)

The Pygmalion effect was described by J. Sterling Livingston in the September/October, 1988Harvard Business Review. "The way managers treat their subordinates is subtly influenced by what they expect of them," Livingston said in his article, Pygmalion in Management.” (Headfield)

The “Pygmalion Effect” can also be applied to the workforce. It can be important for leaders or managers, because the performance of a group or a team or employees depends on how they are lead. It directly related to the performance of the person in charge. According to Goethe "treat a man as he is he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be." This is a principle that anyone in a leadership position can follow to develop a proactive and successful team. (Yasmin)

In this video is shown the Pygmalion Effect in Elementary school.

(You Tube)

Bibliography

Headfield, S. M. (n.d.). About.com Guide. Retrieved 08 10, 2010, from http://humanresources.about.com/od/managementtips/a/mgmtsecret.htm

Yasmin. (n.d.). Zooming in. Retrieved 08 10, 2010, from http://my.simmons.edu/lcis/zoom/2005/11/what_is_the_pyg.html

"Resultados de la Búsqueda de imágenes de Google de http://cfs14.tistory.com/image/36/tistory/2008/11/05/09/35/4910ea5cb1a9d."Google. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Aug. 2010.

" YouTube - Learning Behavior ‎ ." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Aug. 2010. .

Richard Mead: “International Management and Culture”

“Managers perform a range of different roles. These include leading, acting as figurehead, communicating information, negotiation allocating resources, handling disturbances, planning, overseeing implementation of plans and evaluation” (Richard M. Hodgetts and Fred Luthans , 2002). But the communication skills are the most important, also managers that play a role in negotiations need to be malleable to other c cultures and also having the strengthen to lead individuals.

Efficient management requires exceptional communication and an understanding of your customers and employees. This is because managers will be functioning with people who are different in race, in beliefs, in sex, religion and more.

(Axeestel Inc.)

The other topic mentioned in the first chapter is the cross cultural management skills, this mention that “the manager cannot expect to force-fit members of another culture into his or her own cultural norms. Instead of forcing someone it is important that the manager master skills associated with:

-Organization Culture

-Motivation and reward system

-Recognizing and resolving disputes.” (Richard M. Hodgetts and Fred Luthans , 2002)

(2008)

If an international manager manages cross cultural skill, this can beneficiates the company because it will give a “competitive advantage in cost of structures, physical structures, creativity, problem solving” (Richard M. Hodgetts and Fred Luthans , 2002) . These skills will help to interact and make an synergy between all of the employees.

Bibliography.

2008, G. W. (n.d.). Boston College. Retrieved Agosto 4, 2010, from http://www.bc.edu/centers/cwf/global/achievements.html

Alex, F., & Ana, G. (n.d.). Waikato Management School. Retrieved Agosto 4, 2010, from http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/ejrot/cmsconference/2005/proceedings/criticalinternational/Faria.pdf

Axeestel Inc. (n.d.). Retrieved Agosto 4, 2010, from http://www.axesstel.com/index.php?section=about_us&subsection=about_us_category&category_id=6

Richard M. Hodgetts and Fred Luthans . (2002). International Management: Culture, Strategy, and Behavior.