RELIGION AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

In international business religion take an important place since almost every country in the world has one. The society has rules and certain guidelines to live following a stipulate order. So, the negotiation take the form of what society think is good or bad and the words and attitude of the negotiators will determine the outcome.
Managers all over the world should learn of different cultures and know how to act in front of people that think different, to obtain good outcomes and create a superior relation.

·         How can we create an ethical relationship between religion and business so that they may cooperate towards a more sustainable and respectful development of life?

The best way to create an ethical relationship between religion and business is making negotiators accept ethic principles in their negotiation processes and implementing strategies where the fair play and honesty become the most important values in debates.

·         Can you imagine a world without religion where everyone would be trying to get immediate satisfaction to their individual needs?

 I think that religion has been throughout history, the best way to manipulate the people and put him on a few guidelines provided, so I think that a world without religion in terms of economic and business, would be a major accessibility world, because people are not governed by specific behaviors but by their own tastes and desires, and so, the multinationals could be well positioned more easily and quickly anywhere and without much need for adaptation, but governed by a global taste.

·         Religion can create networks of trust and familiarity that facilitates economic transactions. Can you name other positive aspects of this relationship?

With religion you can find things in common with other regions or countries that share the same beliefs, but if not, also there is a challenge to negotiators and companies to know how to reach certain markets and built the confidence and familiarity required to be accepted by the other one.

·         Do you think that stereotyping based on religion has been influenced by economical or political interests, why, whose? What is the role of The Media in this issue?

The media has the power to manage the reputation of people and complete communities all over the world and the media has been manipulated by gubernators and politicians that want money and power.  With stereotyping, entire communities has been affected and cataloged as undeveloped, terrorists, corrupts, among others and these types of judgments affect the lives of all the people and its normal development.

References:
www.martin-pacheco.com

 

MANAGING DIVERSITY

Organizations should focus on its human capital and the qualified workforce, managing diversity appears because with the globalization process companies are competing and are looking for being recognized by the consumers. The most important competitive advantages that companies could use are the human capital, low cost production, great business processes, etc.

With high diversity, competitors find a lot of difficulties, trying to be like the other company, and the organization can take advantage of what they know and the procedures. So, nowadays companies are looking for expertise, scholars, and people well qualified to do different king of jobs.


References:

www.managingdiversity.co.uk

www.jml-training.com

VIRTUAL TEAMS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNmTu4nG2Nk&feature=related

The emergence of effective and relatively cheap information and communications technology, particularly web-based techniques, has led to the increased use of so-called “virtual teams”.

The main challenges of this type of teams are the communication, leadership skills and the avoidance of conflict, because it is evident that there are lack of community among participants, there is no face to face communication, lack of immediate managerial oversight and it is really difficult to find harmony between members, since most of the times, they don’t know each other and everything depends of words that are said by technological means.

Every virtual team has to make at least 2 face to face meetings where the members should make a realistic agenda, and planning all the project, giving the respective task for everyone.  





INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

As globalization is taking place in the world, managers should know the importance of being understood in different cultures and contexts, communication is the key to succeed and achieve a lot of goals that with misunderstandings could destroy the appropriate organization’s performance.

Communication could be a barrier if the people in charge don’t know the other culture and the ways of thinking, so the most important research that should be done has to do with slangs, salutations, gestures, what is good or bad, etc.

Look for examples of alternative communications approaches in multinationals corporations. Explain how do they implement it?

In this globalization era, the world is giving a new twist, in which time is the most important issue and for this reason, both personal communications as multinational companies’ communication become more effective trough rapid and mass media such as internet, since it facilitates the interactions between the parties.

Multinational companies implement video conferencing, internet meetings, e-mails, blogs, etc.

References: espanol.istockphoto.com

MIGRANT WORKERS AND EXPATRIATES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzAgLwGliBo&feature=related

What can governments and the private sectors do to improve migrants’ conditions.

To accomplish improve migrant conditions first it is useful to change the native’s ways of thinking, since the discrimination conditions for the immigrants comes from the racism and xenophobia that is so evident in these people, who feel that  because of the afraid of losing their jobs or worsen their living conditions. For this, the government of countries all over the world should implement policies in which immigrants were not rejected and had, according to their conditions, opportunities for access to decent jobs, that’s when intervenes the private sector, providing opportunities and creating campaigns to make native people realize on the fact that immigrants are not a threat and they also help develop the economy and the country.

MERGING AND ACQUISITION

An acquisition is when one company buys another one, it is a benefit for the purchaser because it can increase its market power buying competitors and doing vertical integration the company becomes to be a big part of the market. By an acquisition, companies can control the distribution network and are able to overcome entry barriers. For companies from certain countries is easier than to other ones, because of the capital and the legislation.

Look for different real case examples of forced growth strategies and describe what happened afterwards?

A real case example of forced growth strategies comes from Microsoft Corporation that  is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions.

The first acquisition was Forethought on June 29, 1987, but then Microsoft acquire a lot of companies as Hotmail in December of 1997, HOB Business Solutions in November of 2007, and the most recent and important one Skype Communications in May of 2011, among others.

Afterwards the company has consolidated its name and products as an important brand all over the world.

references: medios.batiburrillo.net

MANAGING CHANGE AND CONFLICT

There are a lot of factors that enterprises have to face every day, including change, that a lot of times cause misunderstandings and instability between the employees. It is important that companies learn how to manage the conflict and how to front the challenges that emerge nowadays.

Companies must be prepared for unplanned changes, that a lot of times are forced or imposed because of the market, environment, etc and causes alterations in the normal processes. In terms of the planned changes is easier to the companies because they are able to take the decision if they want to do something or not.

For the other hand, conflict can arise easily in organizations, but it could be well manage by different ways as problems solving, compromising, yielding, among others, it depends of the nature of the problem and the impact that would have inside the organization.

Ubuntu is an important philosophical thought system in South Africa. It has been used by managers as a way to solve conflicts and negotiate differences. Look for and describe other similar system of thoughts in other cultures that might be also useful in managing change or conflicts.

To manage change or conflicts there are different approaches as:

·         Realist paradigm: that is a political approach based on scarcity of resources, flawed nature of human kind and tend to enforce the need for strong actions to generate sense of stability

·         Medical Paradigm: that is a medical approach based on predisposition, neglect or exposure and justified the use of diagnosis, dialogue and cure to solve the problems.

·         Post modern Paradigm: that is a communications approach and tells that conflict is caused by subjective definitions, perceptions, assumptions, interpretations. It is important the reflection and confrontation.

·         Systems Paradigm: that is a biological approach and is says that conflicts are living entities made up of connected elements. It is important the harmonization of interaction.

·         Human Relations Paradigm: that is a social approach and an alternative to realist paradigm; it believes in the mixed nature of human kind and highlights the importance of human interaction and the many variables that influence it.

references: http://careerchoicecoach.com/tag/managing-change-in-the-workplace/

ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

In the organizations is very important to have well learning processes that lead the company to reach different markets and satisfied different consumer’s needs. The learning comes from the interactions between cognitive, behavioral and environmental influences from every employee.

The process and progress of new forms of trade have made that the organization’s know-how is increasing its importance and competitiveness as part of the differentiation, thus ensuring that these organizations acquire more and better benefits. important to have a work environment where people feel comfortable and satisfied, thereby achieving a continuous learning which they can acquire new skills and share it with their coworkers, creating a well organizational learning process.

it is important to have a work environment where people feel comfortable and satisfied, thereby achieving a continuous learning which they can acquire new skills and share it with their coworkers, creating a well organizational learning process.

¿What is the relationship between organizational learning and individual satisfaction?

Relationship between these would lie in the learning of each individual and the skills that will adopt, thus becoming an employee with greater competitive advantages and creating a professional-level differentiation that led him to succeed in the workplace, with the well learning process that individuals have they can get satisfaction in terms of acquiring knowledge and to escalate in the workplace.

references: innovativegrowthsolutions.com