GERMANIC EASTERN AND WALMART MISTAKES

For this class I will like to highlight something that I found interesting, and it is that even do there are countries that geographically are very close or belong to the same region in this case the Germanic Eastern, they tend to defer a lot in some aspects, and behave in many different ways. For example in the masculinity, Germany is a masculine culture, while Netherlands a feminine one, which means that in Germany they rather life to work, and they draw a lot of self-steem from their tasks, and that the status is always shown, while in Netherlands It’s important to keep the life/work balance, evidencing that the quality of life is very important for the people, meaning success, and for another part, in the Netherlands standing out from the crowd is not admirable at all. Another example can be the indulgence in which Germany is restrain in nature, pessimism and cynicism takes part of their behavior, while Netherlands is an indulgence culture, which means that they possess a positive attitude and have a tendency towards optimism, also they exhibit a willingness to be consent of their impulses and their desires, looking for having fun and enjoying life. So it is funny to think why two countries that are very close (geographically) and have many things in common, can differ from some aspects that people normally think they should share.

For my research question i will like to talk about Walmart mistakes, when entering into Germany, because I think is quite funny. The first funny aspect I consider is the energy that Walmart always inculcate to the employees, in which smiling and being so cheerful disturb the Germans. What I think is bad and negative is the spying of the co-workers in order to report misconduct, I consider this is disloyal and dishonest, and a bad behavior they should not learn. Also the feeling of being inferior and having not voice is something will harm the employee esteem, and therefore the image of the company. One way to explain the reason why did Walmart end in a very badly way in Germany is because "This is not America." They assumed similarities, so they applied a US business method, without getting to understand the culture or doing some research or paying attention to local idiosyncrasies. The difficulties of languages also affected in a very negative way, because there was no communication or understanding between the customers and the company, so they had very bad communication barriers.

http://www.atlantic-times.com/archive_detail.php?recordID=615

VIRTUAL TEAMS

The most important topic for this class is the virtual teams, which are people disperse in different zones, cities or even countries that work through communication technologies.  As our world has become more and more connected, is normal to talk about working with virtual teams, also there are many advantages like less overheads, the maximization of the time, the commodity, the flexibility, the direct access to local market, the informatics facilities, and so on, but it also has some disadvantages, for example, the time zone differences, lack of communication or interaction with the others making almost impossible to build trust, failure to share information, misunderstanding, lack of commitment, the feeling of impotence when something is going wrong, or when you cannot make contact with the others. However, there are some factors that can help to create a successful team, for this is very important to build trust in a certain level, in order to approach more to the others and have a good and comfortable interaction, this can be made by getting to talk about what you like to do, your hobbies, your family, your traditions, or in general about yourself, you have to state the goals you want to achieve with them and coordinate the way we will work and with which tools the information will be send or show (be sure that all of them know how to use it) and how we will be communicating with the others, it can be by facebook, emails, whatsapp, line, yahoo, Hotmail, skype, google docs, dropbox, and so on, do it continuously, but in a way that do not disturb the others. There should be a preparation in cultural training to overcome all the possible conflicts or problems with the others, because of the possible misunderstandings. You should always have a high sense of tolerance, respect and patience toward the others, this is very useful when the others do not commit too much to the team, or their way to talk or write is not clear or is wrong, or they do not appear on time or show up for the virtual meetings that have been state, or when they do not respond on time. 

My research question is to understand in a better way the importance of fault lines, which is consider as “an imaginary line that divides a heterogeneous team into homogenous sub-teams” and which have to be activated by external forces.  When forming the group aspects as the demographic traits, such as gender, continent of origin, age; can induce in the creation of a sub-team, and by the feeling of a connection, similitude or identification with the sub-team they start to create a stronger relation, but these may create conflicts with the other part of the team and therefore their performance, as the other part start feeling apart or different, even inferior.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_composition#Faultlines

MOTIVATION

The most important topic in this class was the motivation, because how can a team or employee work in a satisfactory way if there is no motivation in their work or life?

To start I will like to start with the three simultaneous motivating needs, the need for achievement, which can be explain as the desire of the person to succeed. The need for affiliation, which is the necessity or need to be accepted by others and have pleasant social relationships. Need of power, which is the desire of having a leadership position and having the opportunity to influence and control others. For another part, there are some ways to see the motivation, they can be extrinsic or intrinsic, depending each person desire, for example having a good salary, feeling secure, improving interpersonal relationships, having the opportunity to grow as a person, acquiring recognition or status and with it power, challenging the work, freedom and so on. So is important that the employee keep in mind that if they make a give effort, they will succeed and therefore be rewarded with something they want or desire. When talking about motivation is important also to classify it depending on the culture, if the culture is individualistic or collectivistic the motivation will vary. The motivation in an individualistic culture is based on self-actualization, they attribute success to themselves and failure to others or the situation, they work harder on their own than on a team; while in the collectivistic culture on the group-actualization, and they attribute success to the team or the situation, and failure to themselves, they put more effort in a group. To motivate the people is important to know what motivates them, so there are four steps that can help to discover them; first you need to gather them, and then ask them about the motivations they have, what drives them to work hard or have the need to succeed, you need to clarify the meaning of motivation for each one, and let them to have a group discussion so they can prioritize.

For my research question I will like to go further on the expectancy theory (vroom) because I found it interesting. This theory was developed by Victor Vroom, who suggested that the behavior of the people was a result of conscious choices among different alternatives that will maximize their pleasure and satisfaction. He believes that even do the person has different goals, interest or positions, due to their behavior, skills, and so on,  they can be motivated if they believe that it will really help them. By doing a good performance where the person put a lot of effort, will end up with a desirable reward, which is supposed to satisfy their needs. So this theory will lead us to three beliefs Valance, expectancy and instrumentality. The Valance refers to “the emotional orientations people hold with respect to outcomes”, in other words, how much the person desires or want the extrinsic or intrinsic motivation. The expectancy refers to the different expectations and levels of confidence that an employee or person has and which describes or explain the capability of doing something. The last one instrumentality refers to “The perception of employees as to whether they will actually get what they desire even if it has been promised by a manager”. By applying this three beliefs there will be a motivational force that will help the person or employee to perform in the best way, looking for ways that will help them to satisfy their needs, and give them pleasure.

http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/dstools/vrooms-expectancy-theory/

MULTICULTURAL TEAMS

The most important topic in this class is the advantages of multicultural or diverse teams, as there are people from different cultures, with different traditions, beliefs, visions or ways to see the world, and so on, working with a multicultural team can help you to acquire a new perception of the things, and more over of the world, it gives you an openness mind, and you become more innovative. By adopting this kind of mind or thinking it’s easier to understand the needs and desires of the customers. But not everything is flowers and butterflies, when working with a multicultural team, there are also problems, like the difficulty to communicate due to the differences of languages and expressions, for example do not understanding what the other says due to the pronunciation or the lack of vocabulary or speaking in a sarcastic or ironic way, or wanting to joke, which can also lead to conflicts or misunderstandings. Also due to all the differences on thinking’s and ideas (it can be in a brainstorm) it can be very hard to get into an agreement, depending on the strength of their positions or interests. The team should have some characteristics in order to be successful, like the built of trust by being transparent and open and also built respect by getting to know better each other, avoiding or being respectful toward religion, politics and so on, for another part it is important that they protect and support each other, they need to have an open mind in order to improve the communication, they should also share a common strong goal, values and beliefs.

My research question is about how a manager can facilitate the characteristics of an effective team in a multicultural team. There are many ways to help improve the relations inside a multicultural team, for example to gather them in a cafe, bar, or park, in order to let them know more about each other, their likes and dislikes, their traditions and behaves, and in general learn about their culture. It is also important to inform them or advise them to do some research from the others countries, like analyzing in a simple way the Hofstede dimensions, in order to have a small guide on how to behave and to help them to appreciate the international context and create a cultural sensitivity. The manager can also do like a brainstorm with the multicultural team in order to give ideas to create a unify work style, too improve coordination and the control of issues. They have to feel comfortable and safe with each other and have a sense of belonging to the group.

http://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/multicultural-teams-in-organizations-management-essay.php

ETHICS WHEN DOING BUSINESSES AND THE NEW PERCEPTION OF BEAUTY

For this class there are many important topics, the Relativism versus the universalism, the first one refers to the judgment of the morality based on the legal and social standards of each society and the second refers to the judgment of the morality of action on one universal guiding principle, in this one we can find many global  or as it says universal principles like, respect and support internationally recognized human rights in your area or influence, or fight corruption in all of its forms including extortion and bribery, or stimulate all practices that eliminate any form of discrimination in the workplace. For another part the recommendations to conduct business legally, In order to be successful in the country you are doing businesses, in first instance is important to learn and have in mind the laws of the host country, in order to avoid misunderstandings or troubles with the government; the business practices applied normally in the country can also help as a basis or guide for yours. For this is important to establish communication with people that already have their business done, or the embassy, or the chambers of commerce. You have to perform due diligence investigation on the person that will work as agent, representative, distributor and so on. It is important to communicate in a clear way the policies to every sales employee, it’s important to have clear and ensure that they understood what was said, so it is important to restate often. You have to state and communicate the policies to the business contact, in order to avoid uncomfortable or undesirable moments. As a bible to your company is important to have in mind the three principles, which are to respect core human values, respect the local traditions, and context matter when deciding what is wrong or right.

My research question is based on the question made about the globalization and its repercussion in the perception of beauty, because I think is very interesting to develop.

The rapidly evolving planet and the “modern society” are changing our perception of beauty due to the creation of new necessities to become “perfect”, leading that way men and women to cosmetic surgery as a “new standard of beauty”. It can be consider that nowadays symmetry and hyper feminine features are seen as more attractiveness, so there is a need for comparison with the new standards of models or famous, with surgery in their chest, bottom, stomach, nose, neck, legs or Botox in their lips, chicks, and so on; and which is not helpful is that by living in a connected world, people are bombarded daily with images that incentive our desires to become that “perfect”. In my opinion our perception of beauty has become fake, being more important the plastic or cosmetic beauty than the natural one. The makeup, fake lashes, color eye contacts, and getting tan have become part of our beauty perception, specially the makeup, without It, we feel ugly, simple, and in some way less or inferior.

http://www.dradamson.com/toronto_reconstructive_facial_surgery.html

This video will explain in a better way what i want to express about our new perception of beauty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZhrbQMvyyw

THE ONION MODEL AND THE HERMENEUTICS

The most important topic for this class is the Hofstede’s onion model. The onion model is based on some layers starting with the symbols, the heroes, the rituals and finally in the middle the values, so let’s explain each one; the symbols are referring to words, gestures and meanings that carry a complex meaning, an example can be the pope as the maximum exponent of the catholic church, all the things he says or does, have a big repercussion in the culture behavior, other example can be the Colombian flag, which each color, and the “escudo” represents our story and what we possess, "Yellow, for the sun and land of the people and for sovereign and justice. Blue, for the water that holds up the people and finally, Red, for the blood shed by the people who fought for the independence of Colombia."  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Colombia)

When talking about heroes we refer to persons that have a highly prized characteristic and that have made a mark or distinction in the history, for example the Dalai Lama. The rituals refer to collective activities which are essential for the society, like the Olympic Games or the beauty pageant, or the mass every Sunday. And the values, important and significant part of a person, they refer to the beliefs and attitudes that are non-negotiable, because they define us.

As the research question I will like to go deeper into the hermeneutics, because I think it interesting to understand and quite complex. The proponents were Heidegger, and Gadamer. It is consider as the science of interpretation, it covers in first instance the art and in second stance the theory of interpretation and the understanding of linguistic and non-linguistic expressions. It has emerged as a crucial branch of biblical studies, and later on the study of ancient and classic cultures, then, it turned philosophical, as the condition of the possibility for a symbolic communication, and more over the understanding of the human life and existence. The hermeneutics circle is considered as “the interpretation and understanding that no observation or description is free from the effects of the observer's experiences, pre-suppositions, and projections of his or her personal values and expectations”, in simple words, the circle of interpretation.

1)http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/hermeneutic-circle.html#ixzz3IJaGFPOr

2)http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hermeneutics/

METAPHORS AND CRITICISM

The most important topic in this class was the Metaphors, because it is an easier way to understand or to explain how a culture behaves by supplementing dimensional approaches, and that way improving the interaction with them. With the Use of a metaphors we can give direct clue about essential features that describes the culture, for example we had the case of the Spain bullfight, as a way to describe the Spain culture, their traditions and likes, it shows how the collectivism is directed to small groups like the family, friends, town or region, showing in that way the shared need for defense, so team work is considered as something natural. It also explains the importance of trusting the other with the “moment of truth” given to the matador when he is preparing for the kill; the dominant values in the culture are caring for others and the quality of life. The bullfights show the emotional and passionate nature they have; they like to live in the moment without a great concern about the future. Is important to highlight that there are other ways to describe or try to understand a culture, this is my what we know as criticism, one way is the most common one which is stereotyping, known as the action of adopting a thought about a specific type of individual, for example, all the Japanese people are shy (even do not of them may behave that way). The other way is just creating a thought or image by what others have experience and described to us, for example a person told me not to give gifts to Germans because they will get angry, so I created that image in my head without knowing it was truth or not, or people that goes to the India and then says they are very dirty, so you create or adopt that image or thought in your head.

My research question is to explain a Little bit deeper the Eight-scale tool for mapping cultural differences by Erin Meyer, in order to improve our knowledge when negotiating.

The first scale is communicating, in which the high context and the low context plays an important role. In low context the communication is direct, they say the things how they are, and they are precise; while in the high context the message is implicit, so more is left to interpretation. The second scale is evaluating, this measures a preference for frank versus diplomatic negative feedback, it means giving the feedback or criticism in an honestly or direct way, or in a soft or indirect way. The third step is persuading, so you need to understand how they balance holistic and specific thought patterns, which can be based on the philosophical, religious and educational assumptions and attitudes that each culture has,so the principles first and applications first are really important to understand the culture decisions or thoughts. The fourth step is leading; this step is based on the degree of respect that is shown to authority figures, so it is important to understand if the culture is a hierarchical culture or an egalitarian one.

The fifth step is deciding, it is the degree to which a culture is consensus-minded, so you have to understand if the decisions are taken in a democratic way or just by unilateral decisions. The sixth step is trusting, in this step is important to have clear the differentiation between the cognitive trust (task based) and the affective trust (relationship based), in order to identify which kind of trust is being built between you and the culture. The seventh step is disagreeing, this step is important to have a measure between tolerance for open disagreement, looking to avoid the confrontation and the inclination to see this situation as helpful or harmful to the relationships, being confrontational. The last step is scheduling, this step try to analyze the degree between the quantity of value that is placed on operating in a structured, linear  time schedule versus a flexible time schedule.

http://www.scmp.com/business/economy/article/1518529/mapping-global-cultural-differences-offers-advantages-business

INTRODUCTION TO INTERCULTURAL NEGOTIATION

To give an introduction into the intercultural negotiation, first is important to understand what it means, for intercultural we are referring to people from different countries which handle a dialogue or negotiation in order to reach a desire outcome. When negotiating with people from other countries, is important to have in mind and understand that they are not like you, they have different beliefs, traditions, religion, feelings, reactions, thinking’s, behaviors, and so on, and that you have to be willing to cooperate and to be respectful and open minded in order to be successful.  The values and assumptions play an important role when negotiating, because it can lead to misunderstandings or even uncomfortable or offensive situations. Each person has different ways to see the same problem, it depends on the values and assumptions, that the problem will be taken in a negative or positive way; the best example was the case state in class called “Abigail” as we were discussing with the other partners we got into the conclusion that final result depends on the level of values the person has, for example for some people the mother was the worst person in the story, because a mother should always help her children no matter what (this can be seen in a culture where the family ties are very important), but for some it was not that bad, because they assumed the girl had a prudential age to take her own decisions, so it was not the mothers fault.

As my research question, I wonder, even do we know that not all the people behave the same way, even do the culture identify us, the way we talk, the things we like or we don’t like to do, and so on, why do we always get into stereotyping others? I talk for myself when I say that I don’t feel like I behave like a regular Colombian person, I’m shy, I don’t like to party or to drink, I like to be with small groups, or just with my family, boyfriend and close friends, even do I know I don’t feel like the others and there are more people like me, I tend to stereotype people from other countries, why does it happens?

As I read, we tend to stereotype when we are unable to get the whole picture or to obtain all of the information needed to understand and get along with the person we are talking to. Stereotyping in some cases help us to identify the way the person behave in order not to offend or to disturb, but others stereotypes are just like unfair discriminations, for example saying that all the Latin people are unpunctual, when there are lots of them that like to be always on time, other example can be saying that all Germans are rude or talk like there are always mad or angry, when you can find lots of Germans that are very gentle and friendly, and their voice is soft and calm.

http://www.pestalozzi.ch/fileadmin/empower/why_do_we_stereotype.pdf