miércoles, 27 de abril de 2011

Communication+ Virtualteams


Communication+ Virtualteams

First, I would like to share with the lecturers this definitions as an introduction to the topic of communication.

·         Communication - the evoking of a shared or common meaning in another person
·         Interpersonal communication – communication between two or more people in an organization
·         Communicator - the person originating the message
·         Receiver - the person receiving a message
·         Perceptual screen - a window through which we interact with people that influences the quality, accuracy, and clarity of the communication.
·         Language - the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used & understood by a group of people
·         Data - uninterpreted and unanalyzed facts
·         Information - data that have been interpreted, analyzed, & and have meaning to some user
·         Richness - the ability of a medium or channel to elicit or evoke meaning in the receiver

One-way Communications
Two-way Communications
It is a verbal expression in which one person (the emitter) sends a message to another person with no feedback or response.
 A form of communication in which the transmitter and the receiver interact.



Nonverbal Communication
All elements of communication that do not involve words

Four basic types:
Proxemics - an individual’s perception & use of space
Kinesics - study of body movements, including posture
Facial & eye behavior - movements that add cues for the receiver
Paralanguage - variations in speech, such as pitch, loudness, tempo, tone, duration, laughing, & crying
Virtual teams:

Virtual teams are groups of geographically, organizationally and/or time dispersed workers brought together by information technologies to accomplish one or more organization. This is a useful way to get together with different qualities of people that are far away and have different conditions and ideas to help with a common goal even though there is a huge gap that is the distance.

viernes, 15 de abril de 2011

The role of workers+ migrant workers + expatriates


The role of workers+ migrant workers + expatriates

Migrant workers involve the movement of people from one country (or region) to another primarily for employment related reasons (IPPR 2004).

This reality that all countries worldwide are facing currently is due to the lack of opportunities in their home region or country, the both sides of the problem is that there are legal workers, who has permission of the immigrant authorities and illegal workers that doesn´t count with the permission of the authorities. Normally, the last one are used extensively for crop harvesting, mandating that they follow the
Harvest seasons, work in hotels or restaurants, food processing, fruit picking and shellfish gathering and in general some low wages jobs that only help to survive in the new region they were.

There are plenty of reason why people leaves their home region or country some of them are:
·                     Labour migration 
·                     Family reunification 
·                     security 
·                     trade 
·                     Migrant rights 
·                     Health
·                     Integration 
·                     Development.

Another reality that people in the world are facing are the expatriate which mean the exilation of one person or oneself from one's native country or cause (another) to go into exile.

Expatriate assignment
Expatriates are sent to international assignments for various reasons, particularly to initiate, expand and control international operations of the firm worldwide.

·         Professional Development
·         Knowledge Transfer
·         Fulfillment of Scarce Skills
·         Control
·         Coordination

To be an expatriate implies undergoing a socialization and acculturation process that affects their career identities (Mezias and Scandura 2005) and The expatriate assignment (pre-departure, expatriation, and repatriation) requires cycles of reskilling for the expatriate to make necessary adjustments to the host country, and home-country readjustments upon return (ibid). and in order to manage effectively this expatriate assignment this 2 recommendation should take into account:

1.    Success of personnel assigned abroad depends largely on their preparedness through training in culture, customs, and language.
2.    Recognize them for their work and potential for making contributions to the firm now and in the future (this can help shape proactive returnees)


Explain how easy is it for Colombian companies to employ expatriates locally? Give examples

Expatriates locally I going to take it as the farmers that comes to the cities due to the violence, in this cases there is extremely difficult for them to get a good job in the Colombian companies because of the lack of knowledge they have in the real sector of the economies, clear example is the farmers that stand all days in the traffic lights waiting the charity of the Colombian to give them some aid to their situation. It’s important to say that the government is trying to do their best in expatriate subjects with the creation of the OPS (oficina de atención a la población desplazada). Created to support all the expatriates locally.




Bibliography.
·         Buckley C. and Wills K. (2011) China's Wen puts social stability at heart of economy.Retrieved from March 20, 2011, from Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/27/us-china-economy-wenidUSTRE71Q07F20110227?pageNumber=2
·         Expatriate. (n.d.). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved March 11, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/expatriate
·         Florida, R. (2002) The rise of the creative class. The Washington Monthly, 34(5), 15. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/213679959?accountid=45662
·         Institute for Public Policy Research (2004) Labour migration to the UK: an ipprFactFile.
·         Kram, K.E. (1985) Mentoring At Work, Scott, Foresman: Glenview.
·         Mezias, J.M and Scandura, T.A. (2005) A Needs-Driven Approach to Expatriate
Adjustment and Career Development: A Multiple Mentoring Perspective, Journal of
International Business Studies, Vol. 36, No. 5 (Sep.), pp. 519-538
·         Scandura, T.A. and Von Glinow, M.A. (1997) 'Development of the international
manager: the role of mentoring', Business and the ContemporaryWorld9 : 95-115.




viernes, 8 de abril de 2011

The role of organizational culture in merging process


The role of organizational culture in merging process

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) is the combination of assets and liabilities of two firms in order to form a one new firm in which the term acquisition means absorption of a smaller firm by a larger one and merge means the combination between firms at the same level all this with the purpose of “transform firms, and to contribute to corporate renewal” (Angwin, 2001) and Help a firm renew its market position at a speed not achievable through internal development
(Haspeslagh and Jemison, 1991).

During the past decades there have been some waves of merge and acquisition as you can see explained in the next chart.

The integration process can implies the reconstruction of a new social identity (Alzira, Wayne, Gerald 2003) and in that way the company can create value by acquiring in the next factors:

·         Economy of scale
·         Economy of scope
·         Increased revenue or market share
·         Geographical or other diversification
·         Resource transfer

Two organizational integration variables are particularly relevant in the acquisition process (Datta and Grant, 1990; Datta, 1991) :

- the motive for the acquisition (strategic fit and decision making process)
- the process of implementation

Managing the cultural differences has been proved as a more realistic and successful strategy in integration processes than finding the “ideal culture fit” (Alzira, Wayne, Gerald 2003).

For last but not less important, there are some cultural modifications embedded in the merge and acquisition process that managers may want to focus in order to understand the business environment they want to enter, the cultural modifications are:

1.    Support for a global view of business.
2.    Reinforcement of ethical behavior.
3.    Empowerment of employees to excel in product
4.    service quality.

According to the case studies (in class and in textbook), what are the practical steps to minimize the feelings of uncertainty normally expected by employees, and also to facilitate the learning process to occur between the two groups of people in their process of cultural and behavioral integration?

In a merge and acquisition process The success of a particular integration strategy depends primarily on:
  • The manager’s ability to reconcile the need for strategic interdependence between the two firms.

  • The need for organizational autonomy (Elsaa and
Veiga 1994).

  • The existence of cultural fit

If a corporation follows this three primarily factors that assure an effective M&A integration strategy because based on the errors that Daimler and Mercedes made in their process due to the differences they had, they didn’t took into account the cultural differences and the market share and marker orientation each company has in their home country but at the end they knew how to go ahead and avoid all the troubles that those problems brought at the beginning of the process because they realized the roots of the problems or differences and they solved them in a successful way.

Bibliography:
  • Alzira S., Wayne H., and Gerald V. (2003) “Challenges and opportunities in mergres and acquisitions: three international case studies – Deutsche Bank-Bankers Trust; British Petroleum-Amoco; Ford-Volvo”, Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 27 Iss:6, p. 313-321.
  • Angwin, D. (2001) “Mergers and acquisitions across European borders: national perspectives on pre-acquisition due diligence and the use of professional advisers”, Journal of World business, Vol.36 No.1, p. 2-57.
  • Datta, D.K. and Grant, J.H. (1990), “Relationships between type of acquisition, the autonomy given to the acquired firm, and acquisition process: an empirical analysis”, Journal of Management, Vol.16, p. 29-44.
  • Elsaa, P.M. and Veiga, J.F. (1994), “Acculturation in acquired organizations: a force-fieldperspective”, Human Relations, Vol. 47 No. 4.
  • Gitelson, G., Bing, J., Laroche, L (2001) Culture Shock, CMA Management.
  • Haspeslagh, P.C. and Jemison, D.B. (1991) Managing Acquisitions, The Free Press, New York.
  • Nahavandi, A. and Malekzadeh, A.R. (1998) “Acculturation in mergers and acquisitions”, Academy of Management Review, Vol.13, p.79-90.
  • Nelson, D and Quick, J.C. (2009) Organizational culture. In Organisational Behavour: Science, the real world and you.