The role of workers + Migrant workers + expatriate assignments

It is important to understand within the organizations around the world how culture can affect the behaviors and social rules within the workforce. We cannot assume that because you are dealing with somebody from a region, as for instance the European Union, you are dealing with the same type of employees. Every country has its own kind of social rules that vary principally by its culture.

Here is where the area of Human Resources, as a part of the organization, has an important role within the organization. The design of strategies of this area could lead to the success or failure of the company. The importance relies on the issue of the significant role that has all workers in the configuration and function daily. Nevertheless is not easy to deal with this issue.

One of the main approaches to understand the role of workers can be seen in unions. This type of association has been used as tool to defend the right of workers, especially for companies in which there are conditions not too well conditioned to work properly affecting the employee main necessities. However, in some countries unions have been utilized improperly. By the means of looking for fulfill some conditions of workers, has done to company lose competitiveness. This kind of unions has taken place especially in undeveloped countries in which some workers try to take advantage of the amounts of investment done by multinationals in the host country.

However, in other countries, workers have the right to take part of decision-making process rather than to see the company as source of resources and to ask more than the company can give. This continuous oppression by unions within the company what creates is a conflict between managers and employees. The necessity of reaching consensus would be an issue forever within the company affecting directly the organizational climate. The conflict in some many cases can stay with no answers.

If the company fights to resolve this issue and get a consensus probably they would have enough competitiveness. By the other hand if unions continue confrontations, multinationals can decide to immigrate to another place or to contract other type of workers. Here is where migrations from all over the world appear. Real necessities make people offer cheaper and without requirements their workforce.

SO WHAT IS CO-DETERMINATION

When unions are used in the way that should be used is where the principles of co-determination appear. To avoid fear conditions imposed by managers of companies is where some type of principles allows workers to have some type of control over decisions affecting directly them.

The best example of this situation can be studied in Germany which has created during time a type of system where the unions can be represented within the organizations. The principles of co-determination give the right to get involved in decision-making process, where managers are force to share power with the unionist, having both power to both important decisions inside organizations. These principles refers to the obligation by law of the participation of workers in decisions, since 1951 with boards, 5 members share-holders, 5 trade unionists and 11 member chosen by the two parties. In 1952 the law was reinforced implying that “companies appoint people who are competent and capable of having discussions with the employers to be in a skilled supervisory board”, starting from one sector was spread to other sectors of the economy. Then with time appeared the work council having the power of signing all agreements in the company(Piette, Jean-Jacques. 2004).

Source: http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=2847

These principles in somehow are an advantage for the company. Even can be considered as a time-wasting and complex to reach an agreement, can be seen as a way of getting consensus. In past year were just the confrontations of the unions against managers and representatives of the company. The principles are an approach of how to get a resolution of conflict over crashing interesting. Besides the power giving to workers, the last word relies in managers and owners, but with adequately and properly selection of representatives and issues these principles allows to avoid wasteful confrontations based on strikes and other mechanisms that make to the company lose its competitiveness.

In countries where applies these principles, all managers and employers should be have awareness to deal with workers, trying to put scenario where decisions are taken considering the interests and consequences of all stakeholders. Consequences from decisions are not just for managers, are for the all organization and that is why co-determination appears as a way of doing more participative representation of workers within the organization.

Sources:

Piette, Jean-Jacques. 2004. “Understanding Management German style”. Les Amis de L’ecole de Paris.

Robledo, Cristina; Organisations and Cultures; Class information; Universidad EAFIT, 2010

Merging OC

Source: http://managingthedragon.com/?cat=466

When we are talking about acquisitions it is important to talk about the process of merging. Obviously, in a competitive world this strategy to increase profitability and market share is becoming more and more seductive and immediate appeal. However, the acquisition should be analyzed and understood beyond as a simple transaction to buy a company to growth. When we talk about of the acquisition from a company to another, always there is going to have a process of merging different organizational cultures, implying the reconstruction of a new social identity.

Mergers and acquisitions in somehow allow companies to transform and shape organizations in a unique way giving some advantages as well as challenges that should be faced. It is more than just merging, in many cases of mergers and acquisition the main variable has been the integration process and the acculturation process. Depending in how these variables are conducted, merger could have success.

The value creation should be the main objective in successful acquisitions. Value creation is just going to be created until capabilities are transferred as people from both start to collaborate to create expected benefits and unpredicted opportunities. This shows the importance of managers to deal and cooperate to create real value by management, to get participation of people involved without compromising the strategic task.

But could be possible to have similar organizational cultures and management styles to allow a process of merger? In reality is too complicated and the bunch of options could vary. Considering the cultural compatibility could be criterion in the search for a potential candidate. But managing the cultural differences is a more realistic approach of the normal situations.

The effective integration can be understood as the mixture of firms into a new single unity which is going to be conducted by common goals of the new organization. This integration usually is obstructed with challenges of nationality and perceived cultural differences, values and beliefs, especially focus about the work place.

Other variables within the acquisition process that are relevant are the motive of acquisition and the process of implementation. The motive will determine the level of interaction among its members and the process of implementation should define strategies which should not go in detrimental of the organization to permit the acculturation process without losing competitiveness.

The acculturation process occurs among the conflictive subgroups desire for cultural differentiation and organizational forces for integration, which usually is time-consuming process. Some scholars say that is important for the manager during this process reconcile the need for strategic interdependence between the two firms and in somehow an organizational autonomy. After post-merger integration, the degree of assimilation is minimal.

Source: http://www.thevarguy.com/2009/02/26/comptia-where-are-the-ipos-mergers-and-acquisitions/

There are a lot of advantages from mergers and acquisition, but mainly are:

• Renewal speed of market position is master than through internal development
• Mixing together different skills and knowledge to create a unique learning opportunities
• Superior performance one there is an effective post-merger implementation strategies
• The new organization can take the best from both companies, using the best practices of each one and technologies. Research and development departments are the most benefitted from the transference of people and technology
• The new company can increase its attractiveness by a broader scope of products or services offered
• A sentiment of strength to compete is arisen

Nevertheless mergers and acquisitions can have some challenges as:

• The role of managers can be crucial to create value through the transference of capabilities. Relies in the will and capabilities of them
• Managing diversity and cultural awareness will appear as an issue during the merger
• Usually the implementation strategies could affect organizational effectiveness especially when they create acculturate tension and conflict
• Acculturate tension while the organizational forces tend to integration
• Time-consuming process of the integration and recognition of interdependence during the merger and organizational autonomy.
• Feelings of uncertainty experienced by employees
• HR Integration can become complex to achieve
• Workers might experience lose of identity once the process takes place

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alzira Salama, Wayne Holland, Gerald Vinten, (2003) "Challenges and Opportunities in Mergers and Acquisitions: Three International Case Studies – Deutsche Bank-Bankers Trust; British Petroleum-Amoco; Ford-Volvo", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 27 Iss: 6, pp.313 – 321.

Robledo, Cristina; Organisations and Cultures; Class information; Universidad EAFIT, 2010

Management Styles + leadership styles

During time the interactions between cultures around the world seem to be doing in organizations management styles to converge. This means the continuously emphasis made on similarities around the world to create like general standards to do management. In that way the theory of convergence on management styles makes references as if countries develop, management systems will converge in models that can be found in developed countries (Lee, Roehl, & Choe, 2000).

There are some cases as Japanese and Korean management which is a good example of what can be considered as convergence. But if we compared this type of management style with Middle East management style, as the Saudi Arabia, it is possible to identify few similarities and a lot of differences, caused principally for cultural factors.

Source: http://bintercultural.wordpress.com/ (September, 2010)

As globalization and other variables force organizations to adapt to international environment there are cases where the cultural issues came as crucial variable to define how organizations should operate. Here is where divergence appears as other type of cultural assumption, where a wider set of cultural norms could be a powerful force for differentiation. This implies for companies do different management styles accordingly to each culture and its environment. Can be understood as “… Just as norms and routines limit the organizational and strategic alternatives firms can use, in this approach, culture limits the alternative strategies for firms of a given country” (Lee, Roehl, & Choe, 2000, p. 632).

In some cases seems that management styles are converging. In others there are no similarities to share and evidently they are not working together to have them. The first issue in international business studies is if the management styles are converging, where they are converging, or which is the converging model. The second issue is that not only domestic environment molds the management style. International standards and other international requirements in one way or another would mold management style (Lee, Roehl, & Choe, 2000).

In the study of international management style, there have been different studies conducted to prove if there is evident convergence or divergence on management styles. That is why the Japanese and Korean management has been an excellent case of study. The main results proved that there are many similarities, but however there are differences in details. The convergence could be related more to regions than in a worldwide prospect. However, the isomorphism affects all management styles to have some degree of adaptation to the environment, having a little degree of convergence.

Main similarities and differences of Japanese and Korean Management styles

Talking about management styles is possible to find some similarities and differences in Japanese management and Korean management style. Even for Japan and South Korea, which share the East Asia and have cultural and history commons issues, in the international business environment they are distinguish by their own management style.

Japanese Management Style	Korean Management Style
SIMILARITIES
Both have a cultural past to share. From 1910 to 1945 Japan invaded Korea, which left language and cultural values within the Korean culture
Zaitbatsu and Chaebol as a model of economic groups. Created by family groups.
Both, Japanese and Korean firms tend to emphasize in market share and profit maximization as corporate goals
Are active in monitoring their rivals in their environmental analysis
Firms can grow in size and become internationalized, long-term technology development and economies of scale in manufacturing (SEC)
Long-term cooperative supplier relationships. Large and internationalized firms tend to cooperate with their suppliers in new product development.
DIFFERENCES
Layoffs are more common. Japanese like stable jobs and continuity in a firm.	Employment practice is flexible. Koreans tend to change jobs more freely
Participation of workers and middle management is important. Employees as assets. Consensus building and group loyalty are emphasized as principles.	Top management tends to be authoritarian. Important decisions are made on the top
Zaitbatsu could be manage by the family or by externals	Chaebol are managed by the family members of the founders
Zaitbatsu could own banks	Chaebol would not allow to have banks
The scale-based cost reduction is no longer attractive for Japanese firms	Koreans firms are basing their strategies on scale-based cost reduction
Japanese firms are active monitoring rivals and suppliers of substitute of goods	Korean firms are active in monitoring their rivals, but insensitive to the potential threats from the suppliers of substitute goods
More emphasis on flexible manufacturing	Less emphasis on flexible manufacturing
Customer information exchange as one of the most important variables	Less customer information exchange in no internationalized companies

Adaptation from (Lee, Roehl, & Choe, 2000)

Some factor pushing to convergence can be the isomorphism, globalization, influence of other cultures and international pressure. On the case of Japanese Management and Korean management style is evident that there are cultural backgrounds that are similar, so in the end there would be convergence. Korean firms have tried to learn from successful Japanese experiences.

Source: http://blogs.oracle.com/fusionecm/2009/03/idea_convergence.html (September, 2010)

The process of convergence could be generated on part for the constant awareness necessarily for today businesses. When you know about the others management style, in one way or other you are going to make emphasis on similarities to take advantage of them, the knowledge about how to deal with buyers, suppliers, networking and supply chain member can be a competitive advantage, especially for international competition (Mikhailitchenko & Lundstrom, 2006). New international competition is leading everyday to companies to create strategic alliances and other forms of international integration. In that way there are forces guiding to managers to have related characteristics.

Bibliography

Lee, J., Roehl, T. W., & Choe, S. (2000). What Makes Management Style Similar and Distinct Across Borders? Growth, Experience and Cutlur in Korean and Japanese Firms. Journal of International Business Studies , 31 (4), 631-652.

Mikhailitchenko, A., & Lundstrom, W. J. (2006). Inter-organizational relationship strategies and management styles in SMEs. Leadership & Organization Development Journal , 27 (7), 428-448.

Communication + Virtual Teams

Within the function of any manager when we are talking about culture and organizations, communication and teams are one of the most known tools to develop performance in any kind of organization.

Communication can be understood as a shared or common meaning that can be interpersonal or technological. The interpersonal communication is not replaceable by technological media, consisting in the face to face communication.

Source: http://www.legacee.com/Info/Skills/Communication/Interpersonal.html (September, 2010)

In everyday life is very important to develop the reflective listening. This consist in the carefully listening to the other person, repeating back the message to confirm what was wanted to say. In that way is not the simple act of paying attention, it is also the reaffirmation what is wanted to say. You can respond affirming, paraphrasing, clarifying what is implicit to make it explicitly, reflecting emotions and in some cases a simple silence or eye contact.

Source: http://hospitalia.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/problemas-de-comunicacion/ (September, 2010)

For managers is necessary to develop some communicational skills, but especially to develop some type of positions that the can take during a communication. They can be expressive speakers, empathetic listerners, persuasive leaders, sensitivity to feelings, informative managers and others. It is not simply in theory, the most difficult part is how to reach it. In many cases people can situate in a defensive communication without knowing affecting indirectly the performance of the leadership or the organizational performance.

Source: http://www.engrish.com/2010/01/ (September, 2010)

Source: http://www.engrish.com/2010/03/ (September, 2010)

There are different types of barriers to communication beyond the psychological and behavioral mentioned before. Usually there are language barriers, if is a common language, the semantic barriers, poor vocabulary, grammar and punctuation, roundabout verbiage, and others that affect directly the communication. The image above is an excellent example of barriers for language; for writing something, in the translation was not enough accurate and finished saying other thing. Other problem can be the pronunciation. In many countries, English is spoken. However, there are some ways of speaking that are not good enough to communicate. This is the case of this cultural misunderstanding in this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_N1Cmt_QB0&p=FF5715723F3EEC00&playnext=1&index=8 (September, 2010).

Other type of barriers is the physical ones. Here is possible to identify the noise, time, distance, age, gender, between others. Others are the socio-psychological as the status, attitudes and values, differing perceptions, inference, abstracting, close-mindness, distortion, bad listening, emotions, resistance to change.

Continuing in that direction this type of physical barriers have turned work environment more dynamically. Globalization and international operations have forced organizations to adapt drastically. In many cases when is necessary to work, but you are living in other location physically is where virtual teams appear as solutions.

They are the result of the necessity to communicate, to operate globally and when the human resources practices are integrated. There are four main types of forms of association: teleworker, virtual groups, virtual teams and virtual communities. All in one way or another need technology to survive.

Just when it is availability of technological resources this type of organization appears at the international level. Without energy and the enough machines, the group would not operate perfectly, plus the level of connection could affect dramatically the performance of the team’s communication.

Sound strategy

In so many cases communication has been associated just with the interaction sounds. However, recently studies have shown the importance of all non verbal communication surrounding our environment. This is the case of Spencer, M. 2010. "If InterContinental were a sound … what would it be?", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 31 Iss: 4, pp.39 – 46. Here there is a study to apply communication strategies based on sounds.

This was a project in which a luxury hotel studied a way to make memorable the service in the hotel for customers. In that search the hotel perceived that everyone was ignited with this new idea, serving as catalyst to understand better the relationship between staff and clients.

The incorporation of music in the business strategies is a hard process, but that can bring advantages to the company. When the message is well prepared and given to clients, probably they would respond in a well manner, affecting indirectly the company’s benefits. Music as an element of atmospherics has been underestimated in marketing researcher in some many cases. This is because music has not been seeing as an integral part of marketing strategy.

It is more of an account of the interplay between arts-based disciplines and business processes in support of a company’s strategic objectives. Some business people may perceive involvement in the Arts as a ‘‘flighty’’ occupation. In reality artistic procedures are highly disciplined and can be effective catalysts in building and reinforcing better business practices.

One of the main outcomes from this study was a global Sound Strategy which both informed and integrated with InterContinental’s new approach to guest relations. It also generated a considerable web-based learning tool that fed into their staff engagement programme. This whole initiative marked a significant change in approach by one of the main players in the hospitality sector and one that has attracted the interest of industry research bodies.

Accordingly with other studies is possible to identify the importance of planning in business the in-store music, especially in retailers. As the same way as they plan the merchandise offer, store layout, colors, lighting and other variables, music should receive the same importance. It is important also to fit all variables and elements to the music. This means that the music should be planned and not randomly. Many stores select music by personal taste of the store management rather than on systematic customer research. Also it is important to understand that when you are operating overseas, the musical context change even if the consumer behavior pattern is the same (Vida, 2008). The stimulus by sound strategy is the generalization, however, the type of sound or music should be studied for each country and culture.

The use of a sound strategy also has the physical and the social-psychological barriers particularly. Managers should have a good knowledge about clients to implement this type of strategy. Within a place always there is a level of noise, as interferences, other sounds or distractive images that could obstruct the sound strategy. The age could be an important factor to select the music; the teenager probably would not agree with classical music in comparison with the elder person who could enjoy it better.

Bibliography

Vida, I. (2008). THE IMPACT OF ATMOSPHERICS ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: THE CASE OF THE MUSIC FIT IN RETAIL STORES. Economic and Business Review for Central and South - Eastern Europe , 21-35.

Motivation

After the understanding of human behavior, as an individual and as a subject of an organization, managers deal with the issue of motivation. One of the most important studies in organizational culture is the one related with the understanding of what motivates human being.

There are theories to explain or to predict or to influence behavior. They can be focused on internal factors (internal needs from Weber and Freud) or external factors (external incentives) to create the model. Theories as the Maslow’s needs, theory X and Y, ERG theory, McClelland’s theory, Herzberg’s theory, Etzioni theory, Adam’s Equity theory and Expectancy theory help us to interpret and read what the employee does motivate to work.

The Maslow’s needs are one of the most known theories from motivation, starting with the biological and physiological needs, going up accordingly with the individual’s satisfaction of the first needs until he/she does not fulfill the lower needs, would not be possible to reach for self-actualization. Hierarchy of needs, in one way of another, implies that just when the individual satisfies the physical and basic needs would need to look for self-actualization. The Theory X and Theory Y, is not faraway of that appreciation, saying that there are two types of people, the ones who are looking for satisfy lower order needs (physiological and safety) and the ones looking for higher order needs (social, esteem, self-actualization). For each one of those peoples would be different types of motivation plans and management, with the big assumption that they would be always looking the same needs.

This type of vision could be narrow for integrative approaches, that is why appeared theories as the ERG Theory, Existence, Relatedness and Growth, overlapping conceptually with the Maslow’s needs, but with the possibility to go down and up and simultaneously. Employees can be motivated by different types of needs at the same time which usually is the case.

If we compare all these theories is possible to identify as common issues a lower order needs and a higher order needs. The higher needs can be identified especially with the internal factors in a person, and can be called as intrinsic motivation. The lower needs are the ones related with the external factors and can be called as extrinsic motivation.

From this point of view is important to understand what actually motives the employee. Seeing the people just as work force and that you are not employing their minds and hearts, this could be a huge mistake. The payment and other rewards in some many cases could decrease the intrinsic motivation. The development of a system just base on rewards can create an elevated dependency to elaborated remuneration systems to motivate your employees.

Hawthorne Studies

Source: http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/hawthorne/big/wehe_073.html (September, 2010)

The Hawthorne Studies are an important and long research on the significance of physical, economical and social variables for the work force conducted on the Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric Company (Jones, Was There a Hawthorne Effect?, 1992). The main investigations were carried out between 1927 and 1932, exactly after the Great Depression. It has five principal stages. The Stage I: The Relay Assembly Test Room Study, with a new incentive system and new supervision given by the experiment. The Stage II: The Second Relay Assembly Group Study, with just a new incentive system. The Stage III: The Mica Splitting Test Room Study, with new supervision only. And finally the Stage IV: The Interviewing Program and the Stage V: The Bank-Wiring Observation Room Study (Carey, 1967).

The Stages I and II are the ones related with the exploration in work behavior variations on physical conditions of work as pauses in hours of work, payment system, temperature, humidity and others (Carey, 1967). As for instance, they wanted to establish a physiological relationship between intensity of illumination and workplace efficiency. In these cases they concluded that worker could maintain efficiency even under very low intensity of light (Jones, 1992).

These studies in one way inspired the disciplines of sociology, psychology and social anthropology and other emerging fields as social psychology, industrial relations, organizational development and design (Jones, 1990). However, at the same time they generated two schools of critics. One complained about the treatment of class conflict and others about the study conditions, the research design and the data analysis (Sonnenfeld, 1983). After twelve months of work, the investigators came to the entirely unanticipated conclusion that social satisfactions arising out of human association in work were more important on work behavior than physical and economic aspects. This conclusion was from Stage I of the studies, and all later Stages were subordinated to it (Carey, 1967).

Other of the main limitations of the studies as for instance, is the one from the Rely Assembly Test Room with five women which took 270 weeks, from April 1927 to June 1932 and involved 24 different “experimental periods”. In this case is possible to critic that “From [the] attempt to set the proper conditions for the experiment, there arose indirectly a change in human relations which came to be of great significance in the next stage of the experiment" (Jones, 1992, p. 455). This means that investigators in one way or another manipulated the objectiveness of the results.

The original Hawthorne researchers did not use multivariate statistical techniques, in contrast with most recent researchers, is for that reason that they did not investigate the interdependence of the variables. If the original data is used considering the multivariable relationship is possible to identify that worker output levels were interdependent (Jones, 1990). This means that it is not just the social incentives what motivates people to work.

However, one of the most important things from the Hawthorne Studies was the challenge to the notions from scientific management, based on time and movement studies in which was not space for human issues. In that way the main contribution was the understanding of the workplace as a social system and not only as a production system (Sonnenfeld, 1983), in which employees cannot be seen always as machines.

Flight 001: Motivating Employees

Based on the reading available at: Nelson, D.L. & Quick, J.C. 2010. Organizational Behavior: Science, The Real World and You. South-Western College Publication, 7th. Pp. 178-179, it is possible to identify that not only external conditions could motivate an employee. Emily Griffin as a crew development in Flight 001, she said that the industry where she works is a temporary industry, and most of associates are working for money, and there is no more intrinsic motivation or interesting in anything else.

Within these attitudes toward motivation, the best theories that could explain her behavior could be the Douglass McGregor Theory X and Y and the ERF Theory. The Douglas McGregor Theory X and Y applies because she thinks that many people is motivated for money, categorizing many of his associates to people with Theory X. Her motivations plans would be conducted with the assumptions that people dislike to work and try to avoid it. She can use a hard approach, as supervision, coercion, control implicit or a soft approach with the provision of harmonious environment so in that way employees will cooperate in return.

However, it is possible that Emiliy Griffin stayed at the company because something else, besides money, motivated her to continue and create new objective to reach for. From the ERG Theories employees have different type of necessities simultaneously, looking for basic needs and the recognition needs. Another theory that could explain her situation is the McClelland’s need theory, in which she acquired needs as achievement, power and affiliation. In the beginning she was not interested in the company for personal career, but with time created the need of achievement, that was to stay at the company and not to be a temporary employee. Then she created the need of power, in that way she could have influence over others and finally to create a better affiliation to the company.

In this way is possible to identify the importance of intrinsic motivation, rather to focus just on external factors to motivate employees, is necessary to think about in how to make better intrinsic synergies within. Here is a funny video about intrinsic motivation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbkJ5MKEVEE&feature=related.

Bibliography

Carey, A. (1967). The Hawthorne Studies: A Radical Criticism. American Sociological Review , 32 (3), 403-416.

Jones, S. R. (1992). Was There a Hawthorne Effect? The American Journal of Sociology , 98 (3), 451-468.

Jones, S. R. (1990). Worker Interdependence and Output: The Hawthorne Studies Reevaluated. American Sociological Review , 55 (2), 176-190.

Sonnenfeld, J. (1983). Commentary: Academic Learning, Worker Learning, and the Hawthorne Studies. Social Forces , 61 (3), 904-909.