The rise of multinational corporations

The corporations are legal entities which got many of the same rights of normal citizenships. 150 year later, corporation were insignificant entities that trough years have become more and more relevant in our daily world an nowadays is the dominant institution of the present. The documentary of Michael Moore called “the corporation” analyzes the nature, evolution, impact and the possible future of the modern business corporation.

Today, there are several terms that are related to the form of operation of the corporations such Capitalism, Legal institution, Externalities and Limited liability. I will explain them based on the topics of the corporations.

1.    Capitalism: is a social system based on the principle of individual rights. The term capitalism is used here in the broader philosophical political sense, and not in the narrower economic sense.

2.    Legal institution: refers to a entity that got rights and trusts under the legal policies of a country, the term trust, as the documentary shows lead to an antitrust era. Antitrust are those set of laws which alleged protection of competition in order to avoid monopolies.

3.    Externalities: refers to facts outside the company that affects the normal operations of the corporations, I mean, incidents that change the course of actions. In the documentary Barry Commoner said: “‘Our economic system treats environmental degradation as an externality—a cost that does not enter into the conventional arithmetic that determines how we use our resources’. Meaning that corporations doesn`t take into account the costs to external factor inside their operational costs.

4.     Limited liability: liability is a term that means the legal responsibility and debts a company gets during the course of operations. Limited liability is that corporations only respond for certain amount of debts that arise for the operations in order to protect the shareholders.

One of the criticisms in the movie is “without externalities, no manufacturing industry is sustainable”. Do you agree? What could be done in this phenomenon?

I`m very agree with this statement, because according to the sustainable development model supported by the United Nations, we should think in exploiting our resources in order to fulfill the current needs of the society while preserving the environment to meet the future need for generations to come. This is very important to achieve because if companies spend all the resources nowadays, in the future would be a scarcity and companies are willing to finish their operations.

In this phenomenon what we should do is to teach all the new generations to protect and preserve the scarce resources there are in the world in order to guarantee enough raw materials and maintain the environment.

References:

• "YouTube - the Corporation Trailer." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. February 26/2011 http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the corporation trailer&aq=f.
• capitalism. (s.f.). Recuperado el 26 de 02 de 2011, de capitalism.org: http://www.capitalism.org/
  
  

Motivation.

Source: http://georgiatechdopp.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/buzzword-motivation/

The word motivation means according the Business dictionary internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested in and committed to a job, role or a subject, and to exert persistent efforts in attaining a goal.

There are 3 motivation theories and are listed and explained below:

1.    Internal theories: give primary consideration to variables within the individual that give rise to motivation and behavior.

2.    Process theories: emphasize the nature of the interaction between the individual and the environment.

3.    External theories: focus on the elements in the environment.

Inside this topic of motivation there are other important terms that influence and lead to motivation acts like needs that are states or conditions within an individual that generates movement toward some outcome or reward and it`s related with motivation based on this two aspects:

1.    Intrinsic motivation: internal needs.

2.    Extrinsic motivation: external incentives.

Also, we can find many theories about the motivation needs and are explained briefly as follow:

1.    Theory X (Lower order needs): Physiological and safety Set of assumptions on how to manage individuals who are motivated by lower order needs.

2.    Theory Y (Higher order needs): Social, esteem and self-actualization,

Set of assumptions on how to manage individuals who are motivated by higher order needs.

3.    ERG theory (Clayton Alderfer): Workers pursue multiple needs simultaneously

Source: http://mkhanpmp.blogspot.com/2009_10_04_archive.html

4.    Regression hypothesis: When frustration is experienced at meeting needs, individuals return to the next lower level and intensify their desire to satisfy those needs.

5.    McClelland’s needs theory: David McClelland proposed that and individual`s specific needs are acquired over time and are shaped by one`s life experiences, most of these needs can be classified as either: achievement, affiliation or power.

6.    Two-factor theory: it was proposed by Frederick Herzberg and says that there are certain factors in the workplace that cause job satisfaction, while a separate set of factors cause dissatisfaction. One of the Motivation factors could be psychological growth and of Hygiene factor could be avoidance of pain.

7.    My two cents worth: You as an employee or as a manager have the RIGHT to be dissatisfied about your work conditions but also you have the RESPONSIBILITY to communicate your dissatisfaction and work to help improve the conditions and continuously improve the work conditions within your control.

8.    Stacy Adam’s theory of inequity: People are motivated when they see themselves in risk, or in a position they believe is unfair, also the tension motivates a person to act.

In multicultural organizational contexts what could be a good strategy to keep people motivated towards a common task?

Here in Colombia a good strategy (I think) is to give monetary and recognition incentives apart of the minimum wage in order to encourage the motivation of people toward a common task, obviously this isn`t the only policy a company should implement because in this way people only work not thinking in the main purpose of the task but thinking in the incentive, companies should create good environment inside within employees in order to create an ownership feeling and for them to work efficiently and happiness.

References:

• Nelson, Debra L. and Quick, James Campbell. 2010. OrganisationalBehavior –Science, the Real World, and You. South-Western CengageLearning, Mason, USA. Chapter5.
• Viorel, Lefter, ManolescuAurel, Marinas CristianVirgil, and PuiaRamona Stefania. 2009. "Employees Motivation Theories Developed at an International Level".
• Business Dictionary (2010). Definition of motivation. Retrieved on January the 5

Personality, Perception and Attribution; Attitudes and Values

Taken from: http://soundtheologyrevj.blogspot.com/2010/10/not-worried-about-perception-but.html

This topics has many terms so I`m going to list all of them and give a brief definition of each. Every term was taken directly of the slides of the class of ORGANIZATIONS AND CULTURES seen in February 9th 2011.

·         Individual differences: The way in which factors such as skills, abilities, personalities, perceptions, attitudes, values, and ethics differ from one individual to another.

·         Personality: A relatively stable set of characteristics that influence an individual’s behavior.

·         Integrative Approach: The broad theory that describes personality as a composite of an individual’s psychological processes.

·         Locus of control: An individual’s generalized belief about internal control (self-control) versus external control.

·         General Self-Efficacy: An individual’s general belief that he or she is capable of meeting job demands in a wide variety of situations.

·         Self-Esteem: An individual’s general feeling of self-worth.

·         Self-Monitoring: The extent to which people base their behavior on cues from other people and situations.

·         Positive Affect: An individual’s tendency to accentuate the positive aspects of himself or herself, other people, and the world in general.

·         Negative Affect: An individual’s tendency to accentuate the negative aspects of himself or herself, other people, and the world in general.

·         Strong Situation: A situation that overwhelms the effects of individual personalities by providing strong cues for appropriate behavior.

·         Social Perception: The process of interpreting information about another person

Three categories of factors influence our perception of another person:

ü  Characteristics of ourselves, as perceivers

ü  Characteristics of the target person we are perceiving

ü  Characteristics of the situation in which the interaction takes place

·         Attribution Theory: A theory that explains how individuals pinpoint the causes of their own behavior and that of others.

ü  Internal attribution (something within one’s control)

ü  External attribution (something outside one’s control)

·         Attribution Biases

ü  Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to make attributions to internal causes when focusing on someone else’s behavior.

ü  Self-Serving Bias: The tendency to attribute one’s own successes to internal causes and one’s failures to external causes.

·         Attitude: A psychological tendency expressed by evaluating an entity with some degree of favor or disfavor.

ABC Model of an attitude

ü  Affect: is measured by the physiological indicators like the verbal statements about feelings.

ü  Behavioral intentions: observed behaviors.

ü  Cognition: Attitudes scales.

·         Cognitive Dissonance: A state of tension that is produced when an individual experiences conflict between attitudes and behavior.

·         Values: Enduring beliefs that a specific mode of conduct or end state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end state of existence.

What is your perception of a Japanese aid worker before and after the talk with Yasuko? On what do you base your perception?

My perception of the Japanese aid worker was since the beginning of the lecture of empathy because I felt she was a good woman and very dedicated to her job. Also, she was a very decisive girl because she told us that at the beginning she wanted to go another country instead of Colombia but when she researched a little bit about our country and culture she realized this is a good country and came without any precept. Nothing to say about the payment she got for being here.

References:

• http://soundtheologyrevj.blogspot.com/2010/10/not-worried-about-perceptionbut.html.
• Harrison, D.A., Newman, D.A., Roth, P.L. 2006. How important are job attitudes?
• Nelson, D.L. & Quick, J.C. 2010. OrganizationalBehavior: Science, TheReal World andYou. South-Western CollegePublication, 7th. Ed.

Organizational behavior, national and organizational culture

Resource: http://www.agendadereflexion.com.ar/2009/07/31/548-el-ocio-en-la-cultura-humanista-y-la-formulacion-de-un-proyecto-nacional/

With this topics I aim to explain a little bit about the basis around the organizations and cultures spread over the world such Factors that influence decision making, how to understand cultures, international managers and implications of being one etc.

But, what is an organization?

An organization is a structured social system including groups and individuals that works together to meet some objectives, but Human behavior inside organizations is complex and difficult to understand, for that reason some psychologists started to study the individual behavior and group dynamics in organizations in order to get information for the manager to improve, enhance, or implement changes inside the organization to reach the expected goals in this way organizational behavior born as a term.

A complete understanding of organizational behavior requires an understanding of both human behavior and the organizational context where behavior is enacted.

In the human behavior we can find important aspect like culture that Hofstede (1984) define as “…the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another…culture in this sense, include systems of values; and values are among the building blocks of culture” (p.21.) 

In the organizational hand things like the formal (the official, legitimate and most visible part of the system) and informal (the unofficial and less visible part of the system) organization, organizations as open systems where interacts people, technology, structure and purpose with elements in the organization`s environment and the focus of organizations., the organizational culture is a set of values or beliefs that are unique to any one organization.

National culture is an environmental factor that characterizes the national group and influences the behavior of its individual members. There are 4 types of cultures and are listed below:

·         The clan culture: A very friendly place to work where people share a lot of themselves.

·         The hierarchy culture: A very formalized structured place to work.

·         The adhocracy culture: A dynamic entrepreneurial and creative place to work.

·         The market culture: A results oriented organization whose major concern is whit getting the job done.

Why is managing organizational behavior in changing times challenging?

Based on the decision making model, there are many factors that influences the behavior inside an organization due to the changing course of actions taken by competitors, suppliers, customers, resources scarcity, policies and systems imposed by governments, chief executives etc.

For these reasons manager should get skills analyzing every factor that is affecting the company when it is making international investments and is operating in more than one national environment in order to get success in his operations and reach all of the goals.

References:

• Cameron, K., & Quinn, R., (1999). Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture. New York: Addison-Wesley.
• Mead, Richard. 2004. International Management: Cross-Cultural Dimensions.London: Blackwell Publishing. Chapter 1.
• Nelson, Debra L. and Quick, James Campbell. 2010. Organisational Behavior –Science, the Real World, and You. South-Western Cengage Learning, Mason, USA. Chapter 1 and 2.