This is just a short example of what EAFIT could do to encourage diversity in terms of religion. Just think of a copy of the Kaaba in Mecca on the plazoleta with lots of short phrases with information about Islam and its rituals.
domingo, 8 de marzo de 2009
MANAGING DIVERSITY ON SPECIFIC GROUNDS
NATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Some of the most important definitions that we saw in this class were culture, nation and National culture: which is “Comprises shared values, understandings, assumptions and goals that are learned from earlier generations, imposed by present members of a society and passed on to succeeding generations”.(1)
We also understoood that an organization is a social arrangement that pursues collective goals and that it is very important to take in account each members culture to avoid misunderstandings and be able to make profit of each ones strenghts, and that sometimes in the long term, the organzations cultures becomes the peoples culture, they live it. Some of the Functions of culture within an organization are:
*Culture is a sense-making device for organization members.
*Culture serves as a control mechanism for shaping behavior.
At the end they concluded that even though it is not the end of corporate culture each day its less important because people are giving more importance to the norms, values and cultures that they create in their own working team. The people we work with in some projects and their values are more important because for us, its better and more important to adjust to them and share because they are the ones that are always with us and available. Thats why this good environment of colleegues is more important for people and they just adjust the necesary to the corporate culture.
With corporate cultural problems what does work and what doesn’t?
“Con Edison set out not to change the culture, but to get people to do certain things and not others. Changing behavior depended on the company using its cultural strength.”
What doesn’t work is to make people do everything in your own way.
People have learned their culture by the time they are ten years old, this is why when they join an organization they can adjust to it, but the organization cant expect to CHANGE their culture just because it doest totally fit the corporate one.
If people adjust themselves to the company`s culture, forgeting their own culture and backgrounds, they will work and they will continue doing their job, but it will be something learned that they will do every day repetitively, but the organization maybe will be losing the different points of view of these people that have different cultures and ideas, and in the long term this is what could give the companies the advantages.
“Schein suggests that people may get their workplace norms and values not from a corporate culture, but from their profession. He has been researching three professional "subcultures" that most organizations have: the financial culture of CEOs, CFOs and others who answer to the market; the engineering culture of designers and developers; and the operating culture of manufacturers and others who run business processes.” (2)
References:
(1) DERESKY, Helen. International Management. Ed. Prentice Hall. New Jersey, 2006. “Understanding the role of culture” p.79 – 115
(2) Millman, Gregory J. . 2007. "Corporate Culture: more myth than reality? ." The Free Library 23:44-47. Millman, Gregory J. (2007, July 1).
We also understoood that an organization is a social arrangement that pursues collective goals and that it is very important to take in account each members culture to avoid misunderstandings and be able to make profit of each ones strenghts, and that sometimes in the long term, the organzations cultures becomes the peoples culture, they live it. Some of the Functions of culture within an organization are:
*Culture is a sense-making device for organization members.
*Culture serves as a control mechanism for shaping behavior.
At the end they concluded that even though it is not the end of corporate culture each day its less important because people are giving more importance to the norms, values and cultures that they create in their own working team. The people we work with in some projects and their values are more important because for us, its better and more important to adjust to them and share because they are the ones that are always with us and available. Thats why this good environment of colleegues is more important for people and they just adjust the necesary to the corporate culture.
With corporate cultural problems what does work and what doesn’t?
“Con Edison set out not to change the culture, but to get people to do certain things and not others. Changing behavior depended on the company using its cultural strength.”
What doesn’t work is to make people do everything in your own way.
People have learned their culture by the time they are ten years old, this is why when they join an organization they can adjust to it, but the organization cant expect to CHANGE their culture just because it doest totally fit the corporate one.
If people adjust themselves to the company`s culture, forgeting their own culture and backgrounds, they will work and they will continue doing their job, but it will be something learned that they will do every day repetitively, but the organization maybe will be losing the different points of view of these people that have different cultures and ideas, and in the long term this is what could give the companies the advantages.
“Schein suggests that people may get their workplace norms and values not from a corporate culture, but from their profession. He has been researching three professional "subcultures" that most organizations have: the financial culture of CEOs, CFOs and others who answer to the market; the engineering culture of designers and developers; and the operating culture of manufacturers and others who run business processes.” (2)
References:
(1) DERESKY, Helen. International Management. Ed. Prentice Hall. New Jersey, 2006. “Understanding the role of culture” p.79 – 115
(2) Millman, Gregory J. . 2007. "Corporate Culture: more myth than reality? ." The Free Library 23:44-47. Millman, Gregory J. (2007, July 1).
sábado, 7 de marzo de 2009
EXPLORING DIVERSITY
In this class we learned the importance of understanding and knowing the diversity in our planet. We saw concepts like:
* Multiculturalism: the ideology of including people of diverse cultural and religious backgrounds
* Diversity (politics): the political and social policy of encouraging tolerance for people of different backgrounds.
* Diversity (business): the business tactic which encourages diversity to better serve a heterogeneous customer base.
We also talked about some of the theories of diversity:
1. The Access and Legitimacy Paradigm: Implementing diversity for gaining market share.
2. Discrimination and Fairness Paradigm: Treating and seeing everyone equally.
“Everyone should practice sensitivity, accept new ideas and practice inclussion. All in order to create a good environment that works for you and for the society” (1)
Is it clear for employees the meaning an importance of Diversity?
Many employees of most companies understand that diversity is a priority, something really important, but they don’t really know the meaning of it.
“Eric Ellis, president and CEO of Integrity Development, a consulting firm, says he sees a direct correlation between companies lacking a diversity definition and those that haven't established a strategic plan for developing a culture of inclusion. Having neither plan nor definition can prevent companies from leveraging the talents already available to them in their employee base.” (2)
The bigger the company, the better their understanding of diversity and its importance, maybe because they have more opportunities to interact with different people that those on small companies, and also because in big companies the government gives more politics norms that they have to implement in their daily basics, like programs for diverse leadership, programs for sexuality, between others... For small companies these norms are not punished or obligatory even do they should be and would benefit them.
* Multiculturalism: the ideology of including people of diverse cultural and religious backgrounds
* Diversity (politics): the political and social policy of encouraging tolerance for people of different backgrounds.
* Diversity (business): the business tactic which encourages diversity to better serve a heterogeneous customer base.
We also talked about some of the theories of diversity:
1. The Access and Legitimacy Paradigm: Implementing diversity for gaining market share.
2. Discrimination and Fairness Paradigm: Treating and seeing everyone equally.
“Everyone should practice sensitivity, accept new ideas and practice inclussion. All in order to create a good environment that works for you and for the society” (1)
Is it clear for employees the meaning an importance of Diversity?
Many employees of most companies understand that diversity is a priority, something really important, but they don’t really know the meaning of it.
“Eric Ellis, president and CEO of Integrity Development, a consulting firm, says he sees a direct correlation between companies lacking a diversity definition and those that haven't established a strategic plan for developing a culture of inclusion. Having neither plan nor definition can prevent companies from leveraging the talents already available to them in their employee base.” (2)
The bigger the company, the better their understanding of diversity and its importance, maybe because they have more opportunities to interact with different people that those on small companies, and also because in big companies the government gives more politics norms that they have to implement in their daily basics, like programs for diverse leadership, programs for sexuality, between others... For small companies these norms are not punished or obligatory even do they should be and would benefit them.
QUESTIONS ABOUT CAMPUS
Describe your university’s faculty and administration in terms of its aspects of diversity and/or demographics.
In our University we can find teachers and all kind of employees from other cities in the country, but we don’t find as many teachers as we should from other countries.
We can find some teachers from other countries like Germany and Unites States, but almost all teachers are in the area of International Business teaching some classes or language. We know that in this carrier we need to know other cultures but it is also important that the rest of the University learn about them. In Eafit they try to bring other cultures in the classes with teachers that had taken courses in a foreign country, this is important because they live in another country while they take this courses this experience gives them a different perspective that they can bring to the classes, nevertheless I think it would be good to have more teachers from other countries, that have lived outside for several years because this different perspectives can help us to take difficult decisions and be more open minded to other peolples cultures and ways of thinking.
· Describe your university’s student body in terms of its aspects of diversity and/or demographics.
In the Student body we found a lot of diversity specially because Eafit has a lot of agreements with Universities from other countries so its easier for some people to come study here or for us to go study some place else.
This diversity give us the opportunity of spending some time with different cultures, that have different opinions and points of views that can make the learning experience richer.
We also have a lot of students from others regions of the country, and the differences between us are huge (from Medellin and from Monteria, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga etc). The cultures are very diverse from city to city and the interaction with them is also very good for our college experience.
· What are the similarities and differences between the two groups?
The language is one of the biggest differences. The students come to the University to learn different cultures and languages.
· What are the similarities and differences between the two groups?
The language is one of the biggest differences. The students come to the University to learn different cultures and languages.
They have a similarity and is the way of interacting with people from here. The students easily start to talk with other students, and if they don’t understand very well what you say you can use English to make understand yourself. The teacher knows Spanish so they can talk and interact with you and the professors very easily and people from Eafit try to make them feel welcome so they start to interact very quickly.
· How does the degree of diversity in the faculty affect your learning experience?
It is very affected, that’s why I consider there should be more diversity in the teachers because as I say before this can teach us a lot, see the things from a different point of view, they have different perspectives and can make us analyze even more our decisions, cases between others, besides we as students of international business need to know about other cultures, and eventhough we have exelent teachers it would be better to know more the cultures from a person from there or that have lived there for a long time.
Doing papers or any kind of work with a student from other part of the world can also help us to find creative solutions that satisfy both points of views.
· How does the degree of diversity in the student body affect the classroom experience, and extracurricular activities? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
I don’t see any disadvantage because this diversity doesn’t create any problems between the students or the student and the teachers it only gives advantages.
We learn how a simple thing that we do every day could have different meanings to other people. We learn the value of tolerance and patience to understand other people, their culture and values. We learn how with different points of view the thing can be solve in a much more creative and effective way. This is why this is an advantage, we only learn from it.
· What could be done in terms of diversity to enrich your college experience?
We have to be sure that we talk about diversity and its advantages in some courses, so people that may don’t understand the importance of it can take advantages of diversity.
The administrative department can give more tools to the student body to know all the exchange programs that we have with other countries so we know constantly the diverse opportunities of knowing different cultures and traveling. We also should have more activities like congress, courses etc that allow us (not only international business students) to know another cultures (ex: Asian Week)
· How does the degree of diversity in the faculty affect your learning experience?
It is very affected, that’s why I consider there should be more diversity in the teachers because as I say before this can teach us a lot, see the things from a different point of view, they have different perspectives and can make us analyze even more our decisions, cases between others, besides we as students of international business need to know about other cultures, and eventhough we have exelent teachers it would be better to know more the cultures from a person from there or that have lived there for a long time.
Doing papers or any kind of work with a student from other part of the world can also help us to find creative solutions that satisfy both points of views.
· How does the degree of diversity in the student body affect the classroom experience, and extracurricular activities? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
I don’t see any disadvantage because this diversity doesn’t create any problems between the students or the student and the teachers it only gives advantages.
We learn how a simple thing that we do every day could have different meanings to other people. We learn the value of tolerance and patience to understand other people, their culture and values. We learn how with different points of view the thing can be solve in a much more creative and effective way. This is why this is an advantage, we only learn from it.
· What could be done in terms of diversity to enrich your college experience?
We have to be sure that we talk about diversity and its advantages in some courses, so people that may don’t understand the importance of it can take advantages of diversity.
The administrative department can give more tools to the student body to know all the exchange programs that we have with other countries so we know constantly the diverse opportunities of knowing different cultures and traveling. We also should have more activities like congress, courses etc that allow us (not only international business students) to know another cultures (ex: Asian Week)
References
(2) Proquest. What does diversity mean for employees?. Renita Burns. Black Enterprise. New York: Dec 2008. Vol. 39, Iss. 5; p. 69
MANAGING DIVERSITY
The increasing importance of managing diversity is because every day we have more diversity in our families, organizations, friends, etc. This brings advantages like a diverse workforces will increase organizational effectiveness and it can enhance the organization’s responsiveness to an increasingly diverse world of customers, also because in order for companies to fill positions in the foreseeable future, they will need to attract minorities.
How to manage diversity:
*Drawing upon individual Tolerance and Self-Control
*Trial and Error Processes + Personal Relationships
*Setting Up Transnational Cultures
To try to avoid discrimination we need people with open minds, but education isn’t enough, there are some things that come from home and come with the attitude:
Decentralization of power
Impact on diversity include intensive networking and collaboration and we also get to see development of self managed teams
Internationalization
More companies will go international even if they are not thinking to do so and Organization that were international will continue expansion overseas.
Virtual Companies
Business based on Knowledge and services increase
Reliability on people skills because of the teamwork done virtually
Diversity as human resource capital is a competitive advantage?
YES. It can be explain basically in 3 areas.
Decision quality: Different people with different cultures could help the company to make easier and more high qualified decisions. People from different cultures can have different points of view, back ground and perspective can help the firm to make more rational and well think decisions.
Connecting with customers: Due to the elevate migration in the countries, the once called minorities are now a big part of the population, that’s why companies should pay special attention to this. People tend to do more business with people they feel identified, with those they consider are in the same reference group.
Innovating: Innovation isn’t only about developing things that are totally new. We also innovate when we find different uses, combinations, places to use an old idea. The diverse perspective and ideas of different people stimulate and help to the development of innovation.
Firms have different kinds of jobs that require diverse people to do it, people with different skills, and if you have diverse people in your company you can chose and selected the best ones to do the job, in this way you can guarantee that the job is being made by the most qualified people, by people with the best skills to perform this job, in this way you are sure that the job is well done and we have a competitive advantage.
References:
Slater, Stanley F; Weigand, Robert A & Thomas J. Zwirlein (2008). “The business case for commitment to diversity”. Business Horizons. 51: 201–209.
martes, 3 de marzo de 2009
THE CORPORATION
The film The Corporation is a documental that explains the reality, cases, and the meaning of the corporation of today by interviewing, giving true examples and speaking with all kinds of important people wich give their opinions and critics, that inmost of the cases are negative.
To start, a corporation is "A company recognized by law as a single body with its own powers and liabilities, separate from those of the individual members. Corporations perform many of the functions of private business, governments, educational bodies, and the professions."(1)
Nowdays, corporations are also called persons: Juridic Persons, because they also have rights and goverment protect them even more than natural persons. This has become a major problem for societies because the only thing that they persue are profits and protection for their stakeholders, without taking in account all the damages that they cause to their employees or society.
Nothing is enough for them, they dont have moral nor ethics for business, the only and most important objective is to increase pofits and grow the company, they do wathever it takes to achieve this objective. For example companies that work with quimics dont worry about the damage that they can generate to people and to the environment (that in lots of cases is very big), even knowing that they might have to pay big fines they take the risk only to win more money. Another example of their lack of responsability with society is when big companies translate their production to emerging countries and explote the poor employees that only work for surviving day to day. The work hours are the double and the salaries are misserable.
I think its a very interesting film and I liked it a lot because it shows the pure reality with valid and true examples. The only interest of organizations is to produce money takes what it takes.
Are we going to permit these organizatons to destroy us?
Absolutely no, I think that governments, and the same corporation, are begining to be more conscius of the damage that they are causing to society and to our planet. For example nowdays its obligatory for big companies and countries that contaminte to buy or to produce "bonos Kyoto" to reduce contamination and preserve our natural environment. The Kyoto Protocol is intended to achieve "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system"(2). "The Kyoto Protocol establishes legally binding commitments for the reduction of four greenhouse gases"(3) Governments are also demanding and fining (with huge fines) the companies that dont fulfill all the environmental requirements.
An important advance in society is that today a big percentage a peolple prefer green products that dont contaminate, that are healthyer, that are easy to recycle, that are produced without quimics, etc. People prefer to pay a bit more and this is a good sign of their willing to help with the cause. There also exist organizations that are always searching to protect human rights and that fight and protest when the corporations violate them.
References:
(1) http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/corporation.html
(2) The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Retrieved on 15 November 2005.
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol
To start, a corporation is "A company recognized by law as a single body with its own powers and liabilities, separate from those of the individual members. Corporations perform many of the functions of private business, governments, educational bodies, and the professions."(1)
Nowdays, corporations are also called persons: Juridic Persons, because they also have rights and goverment protect them even more than natural persons. This has become a major problem for societies because the only thing that they persue are profits and protection for their stakeholders, without taking in account all the damages that they cause to their employees or society.
Nothing is enough for them, they dont have moral nor ethics for business, the only and most important objective is to increase pofits and grow the company, they do wathever it takes to achieve this objective. For example companies that work with quimics dont worry about the damage that they can generate to people and to the environment (that in lots of cases is very big), even knowing that they might have to pay big fines they take the risk only to win more money. Another example of their lack of responsability with society is when big companies translate their production to emerging countries and explote the poor employees that only work for surviving day to day. The work hours are the double and the salaries are misserable.
I think its a very interesting film and I liked it a lot because it shows the pure reality with valid and true examples. The only interest of organizations is to produce money takes what it takes.
Are we going to permit these organizatons to destroy us?
Absolutely no, I think that governments, and the same corporation, are begining to be more conscius of the damage that they are causing to society and to our planet. For example nowdays its obligatory for big companies and countries that contaminte to buy or to produce "bonos Kyoto" to reduce contamination and preserve our natural environment. The Kyoto Protocol is intended to achieve "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system"(2). "The Kyoto Protocol establishes legally binding commitments for the reduction of four greenhouse gases"(3) Governments are also demanding and fining (with huge fines) the companies that dont fulfill all the environmental requirements.
An important advance in society is that today a big percentage a peolple prefer green products that dont contaminate, that are healthyer, that are easy to recycle, that are produced without quimics, etc. People prefer to pay a bit more and this is a good sign of their willing to help with the cause. There also exist organizations that are always searching to protect human rights and that fight and protest when the corporations violate them.
References:
(1) http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/corporation.html
(2) The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Retrieved on 15 November 2005.
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol
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