Expatriates and Migrant Workers (February 27th lesson)

1. What did I learn?

Immigration is such a process that is very remarked in the globalizad world. This process has begun from the slave´s history. Nowadays the concept of immigration has changed a bit , since it got wider, now there is not just immigration of underqualified people, also professionals go to other countries. Why? Because of many reasons: For example, in order to find a better life quality, or to find out a better job (when the person is qualified), or for security, if the person or family has been treathed. So, it is possible to clasify the immigration in: Labour immigrants, professional immigrants, entreprenurial immigants and refugees ans ayslees.

The expectatives of those immigrants are greater: economic opportunities or achievement.

At the same time, immigation implies several aspects such as: the emotional and cultural bonds; adaptation is required here, no matters the country the person immigrates, always there will be elements to face with. The contradictory impacts, which can be due to the lack of contact with the local, the environment, the culture and the society.

On the other hand, there are the four stages of immigration:

1. Temporary labour migration, which is mostly done bystudents or young people.

2.Prolonged stay: When the opportunities seem to get better so at this point there are reasons to stay in.

3. Long term settlement: the family here is involved, and factor such an adecuate house, and salary play an important role. People can consider the option to go back to the origin country.

4. Permanent settlement: A life by own or with the family has been built and there are few options to settle again to the origin country. This takes a long time and is more stable.

In additon, there are the long term effects of immigration: People can develop an openess to settlement in any country. diverse is important but not as an obstacle to settlement. On the contrary, denial of settlement, produces a rejection of cultural diversity.

Something that i found out pretty interesting was the Canadian Case about immigration. Due to the aging and population decline, Canada always seem to be such an attractive destination for the qualified and well trained workers, and more if those workers belong to societies where exists imbalances in the demographic distributions, so they look for a better realocation in their specialized fields. That is why Canada has been reducing the requirements for getting a canadian visa.

2. Question: Which can be the immigration effects in the growth of the receiver country?

3. Answer: "The immigration effects in the economic situation of the receiver country became a debate topic in the industrialized countries, especially in Europe, where is extensively accepted the idea that the arrival of immigrants is going to produce a deterioration of the employment perspectives of the local workers. Moreover, this situation is being object of extensive controversy, coming up positions from the extreme xenofobia, that supports the expulsion of the immigrants (as in Austria, Belgium or France), the limitations in the immigrants entrances, when the unemployment in the country, is high. Those that think that the arrival of immigrants cannot have effects or that, even,can be beneficial, since they take not well qualified jobs which are not demanded by the local workers , they are in a clear minority."1

SOURCE: *1. González, Alberto Alonso. Villaamil Cabezudo, Virginia. Efectos de la inmigración. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales.

Verbeeten, David. 2007. The Past and Future of Immigration to Canada. Springer Science and Business Media B.V.

Maria Alejandra González´s presentation.

Expatriates and Migrant Workers (February 24th lesson)

Hello Maria Alejandra, to the presentation lesson i could not go, since i had to go to the doctor..(neurologist)..and that is in the Center of Medellin...and i could not get university on time....so firstly a would like to apologise....second, i was reading the report from this topic, and i did find out a lot of corrections from you...so....I am going to do this entry with the information you presented last wenesday that is much complete. Moreover the group have not sent the power point presentation. Please do not get me wrong..I am sure the presentation was ok but i have not information for doing the mondays´s entry.

Thanks for your comprehension....

Best regards...

Tatiana M.

Managing Diversity (lessons 18th - 20th)

1. What did I learn?

I must say that i really liked this topic, it could be maybe because i had to present it, but actually it was easier that i thought. At first, i did think that the topic was so difficult, but whe Samuel and I started searching about the topic, it turned more and more interesting.

The term itself was introduced in USA in 1987, by Johnston and Packer. They found out some similarities between heterogeneity ant the USA workforce.

Nowadays, the companies worldwide are demanding more and more employees from different backgrounds, in order to pontentialize the advantage that culture can represent and reduce the global culture barriers. I do think that the globalization has a lot of to do in it, since a company internationalize itself, it should do it from inside to outside. Once again the concept of diversity and its dimensions are mentioned, in order to understand the point from a managerial view. Moreover, when an organization has got a high level of managing diversity, aspects such as: cost, resource acquisition, creativity, marketing, problem solving and organizational flexibility can be well used in order to be competitive. Felxibility is such an important matter: It is necessary for a organization to be flexible and open-minded, thus, the organization´s culture and information can run from and to every single department, creating synergies that is translated into more competitiviness. Reaching to an end, the components that help to move from a traditional model to a more cultural one, are: leadership, training, research, analysis of cultural systems and follow up. Finally, a manager should bear in mind the value chain for implementing change in an organization which consists on: an activity or process that implies diversity, this will bring up an outcome and an impact and later on, an added value can be reach for the organization. For instance, for a marital status issue:

Activity:Club membership (both single and married)

Outcome: Integration among employees

Impact: commitment and self-belonging to the company

Added value: Relax, employees more productive.

Today, investment in managing diversity is needed in any organization.

2. Question: How to manage diversity in an organization?

3. Answer: A interesting way of managing diversity is proposed by Sylvie Chevrier in her article, Cross-cultural Management in Multinational Project Groups. The projects, the are so important to run out businesses, since in a project a group is needed and over here is when diversity takes place. Those teams become multicultural teams, in which, several cultures are met. This gives the opportunity to change points of views, to compare opinions and to build up relationships among the employees as well as good performance to the organization.

Sources: Sylvie Chevrier. 2003. Cross-cultural Management in Multinational Project Groups. Journal of World Business 38.

Maria Alejandra González´s slides.

Exploring Diversity- February 11th and 13 th

1. What did i learn?

We have covered the concept of diversity before, due to its importance in any field nowadays. But this time, there is something particular: The Diversity Dimensions, those are divided into two: the primary ones; which are more visible, are those aspects that impact directly in others or in the enviroment where the person is involved. This dimension is very solid since they are permanent in a person´s life stages. On the other hand, there is the secondary dimensions, which are less perceived by others and they are changeable. These dimensions are importante to take into account since due to phenomens such as globalization and immigration, diversity is getting more and more space in our lives.

2. Question: According to the example proposed in class. How important is for a manager to be open- minded and accept the diversity as a social condition at the company?

3. Answer:" Giving entrance to the diversity in the businesses is to enrich in a substantial way to the force labor and, therefore, to enlarge the competitiveness of the business. In a global market, in an environment in which we live together with so different people, the education on diversity is increasingly more important in the businesses. The diversity in the businesses offers a lot of wealth, but also challenges. In fact, each time more businesses ask us workshops and culture change processes toward the diversity. Some businesses do it because is an international request, other because they realize that to create a diverse culture in the organization is a critical factor for the success and some for both reasons. Any that be the reason, a good program on diversity will achieve that the participants only accept not the diversity, but will become better people them, upon confronting some of its prejudices. " 1

SOURCE: 1Victoria Holtz. 2006. Generar una Cultura de Diversidad.

The Corporation (February 6th lesson)

1. What did I learn?

This documentary has shown the way companies work nowadays, the real performace of the current dominant institution and many people were blinded about it. it is pretty clear how the power is centralized in hands of few people that generally are chief executives. So, what about the subordinated??? That is the whole point, this documentary try to demostrates the unfair work that day by day is being spreaded off.
Trough a serie of interviews, the creators of this documentary gone deeper and deeper and many of the CEO´s and top level managers were exposed. I do consider that it is very important to bear in mind the concept of Ethics.

2. Question: What is much important, the dignity of everyone or making money?

3. Answer: It seems to be that it is much important to make money and profits inside the companies, but at the end of the day, who is making that money?, the employees!!! so, why do not to protect them? why do not to motivate them? if they are the motor of a business ...So, it is much important the dignity and welfare of every single employee. i do support this kind of demostrations which give a clear and transparent idea to the world, in order to stop the abuses from what could be called "business Oligarchy". Everyone has got the right to work properly, in good conditions and with good wages.

*SOURCE: http://www.thecorporation.com/ and personal opinion.

Organizations: National and Organizational Culture (february 4th lesson)

1. What did I learn?
I learnt the importance of some concepts such as: Culture and inside it, masculinity and individualism, the culture´s dimensions, the types of culture; moreover the concept of organisation; that interacting among them, build the organizational culture, and how it influences a company´s environment, since nowadays it is very important for a company to count on the establisment of common values, that are headed to align the employees´behavior . In addition to that, the values, preferences, and behaviors shared in groups differ widely between countries, so, we are talking about national cultures. Finally, What i found pretty interesting is the differences between organizational and national culture,( they are very soft)since people tend to relate them because of the culture root.

2. Question: Is the people prepared to a cultural change?

3. Answer: In those cultures that people belief that they can dominate anything, those individuals adopt an active attitude to the change itself, a clear exmaple of that is United States and Canada. In many other countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, people are summitted to the environment and that is why they keep an passive attitude to the change. But, if the change is posible, ¿how long does it take to it?, the temporal orientation of a culture helps a lot.

Those societies that are foused on the long term, as japan, they will express a considerable patience, while they wait positive results about their change efforts.
On the other hand, the societies focused on the short term, as United States and Canada, people expect quick improvements and they will choose those change programs that promise quicker results. Thus, it is posible to observe how a cultura influences in a definitive way in a country´s development, however, independently of dominant cultura in countries, it is necessary to reoriented it, and mostly interiorize it, and sharing it in order to benefit not only a person but a group of people.

*SOURCE: Stephen Robbins, Organizational Behavior. 2004

1. ¿Why did I learn?
I learnt in this lesson, the different aspects that surround a cultura such as: Ideology, nationality, ethnicity, social class, gender among others, and how those aspects affect international negotiations. Culture is such an important base in the international environment, due to the globalization phenomenon, cultural knowledge is more required day by day. Why? Because it is necessary to know and get involved in the other´s culture, thus it becomes easier to understand their behavior and to run negotiations.

2. QUESTION
*What is the point of the Ethnography research method in International business?

3. ANSWER
The ethnography research method stands the understanding of a specific group of people belonged to a culture, by means of answering questions and gathering data related to that group of people, creating observations, perspectives (insiders and outsiders) and reaching behavioral results about that group of people. This method facilitates to international negotiators to understand and be prepared about a specific culture in order to carry successful negotiations.

Culture in International Business and Ethnography

1. ¿Why did I learn?
I learnt in this lesson, the different aspects that surround a cultura such as: Ideology, nationality, ethnicity, social class, gender among others, and how those aspects affect international negotiations. Culture is such an important base in the international environment, due to the globalization phenomenon, cultural knowledge is more required day by day. Why? Because it is necessary to know and get involved in the other´s culture, thus it becomes easier to understand their behavior and to run negotiations.

2. QUESTION
*What is the point of the Ethnography research method in International business?

3. ANSWER
The ethnography research method stands the understanding of a specific group of people belonged to a culture, by means of answering questions and gathering data related to that group of people, creating observations, perspectives (insiders and outsiders) and reaching behavioral results about that group of people. This method facilitates to international negotiators to understand and be prepared in order to carry successful negotiations.