North America

This is a photo of how many people in the world tends to stereotype North america.

Many people tend to believe that North America its just United states, others tend to believe it is USA, Canada and Mexico, what they ignore is that this continent includes, greenland, central america and the caribbean.

North america is the third largest continent of the world. It is composed by Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belice, the caribbean islands, mexico, United States of America, Canada and Greenland.

American people(US citizens)are well known in the world for being a competitive culture, that has a lot of commitment with their jobs, who are in constant changes trying to defeat new challenges, etc. This is an amazing culture and the way they behave, analyze things, and the way they organize is a key factor for their succes. they are the actual world power and prbabbly will be during more decades. One example of how americans are so comitted with what they do is the "hp way", a managing business style that guides Hewlet Packard corporate objectives. This guide has been created since the company began back there in the 30's. It is a long term corporate thinking based on how the company should be managed.

The model they created had a great succes thanks to various strategies they had implemented.

1. The company had pretty good channels of comunication and pretty good relatioship with the employees. their comunication process consisted in telling stories about the company. with this they began to create commitment within the employees with the company, they made the employees feel the company as their own, guided them through the objectives,the corporate culture penetrated each employee, etc.

2. Another strategy implemented is the interaction among the employees. No matter wich was your job, if you where CEO or someone from the plant, there were special spaces created to promote the interaction among them. this helped to improve commuication between the different areas of the company, plus every body had acces to the senior managers, a great strategy because the senior managers had a lot of information about the company directly from their labor force.

3. Finally, the company knew that if they wanted to succeed, they had to have the best personnel, that's why they had a very detailed selection processes. they also knew that they had to keep their employees satisfied as much as they could to achieve their goals. that's why the company payed a lot of attention to have the employees security system, working conditions and rights updated. plus they offerd a special payment program bases on the profits the company had.

The special payment program HP gave their employees began to have problems and the CEO Carly Fiorina had the challenge to fix this, in terms of organizational culture.
"Should Fiorina try to revitalize the HP way or attempt to replace it with a “better” culture than the one established by Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett in the 1940’s?”

In my opinion company's should evolve according to the circumstances, they must addap to the changes the world economy, market and cultures have. They mus analyze the company internaly and make a comparison of how was the company whe it was created in the 40's and how it is right now. For sure they'll see they have a multinational thata isall over the world and that they have to change some methods. The key point here is to differentiate between which strategies have given the company better results and which ones has't, and also which ones would bring better things. with this the company could restructure the OC for a new one capable to addapt to a world of fast constant changes.

Watch the following two videos, the first one shows how Hp had a touch screen in 1983and the second one is the new milenium touch screen version. If computers had innovated this way according to the consummers neccesities the company inside it should do too.





Bibliography:

Forster, Nick. 2002. “Managing excellence through corporate culture: the HP way” The Management Case Study Journal 2(1): 13-25.

Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zgr7j8OI-c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4fBjLjC0jg&feature=related

Photos:
https://jspivey.wikispaces.com/file/view/NorthAmerica.gif/36812755/NorthAmerica.gif
http://www.worldproutassembly.org/north%20america.jpg">

Oceania and Australia

Oceania is comformed by a bunch of islands where the two main and biggest territories are Australia and New Zealand. This region has 14 countries which are:Australia,Fiji,Kiribati,Marshall Islands,Micronesia,Nauru,
NewZealand,Palau,Papua new Guinea,Samoa,Solomon Islands,Tonga,Tuvalu and vanuatu.


Commonwealth of Australia or just Australia, has a Population of 21,875,000 persons. Its Capitalis Canberra, not Sydney as many could think. It has some ethnic groups which are;European 92%, Asian 6%, Aboriginal 2%. Its main religion is Catholic with a 26%, followed by anglican 19%,christian 19 %, and others and Its language is English.

It is said that Australia had its first inhabitants 40,000 years ago, when Asian aborigines migrated there. in 1770 The british empire proclaimed possession over it calling it New South wales. In 1788 many convicts were transported to this island, this convicts created six colonies the ones we know today as New South Wales, Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, and Queensland.

Australian people are known for being opened minded, they respect others privacy, mutual respect is valued by them, but also modesty and parity. directiveness and lively discussion are encouraged.

A Company structure in Australia is generally flat. All people in the organization have an important role to play,managers recognize and value the specialized knowledge that employees at all levels bring. it is basically a collaborative and participative management style.
Australians are often quite comfortable working in teams.

The movie.

1. When removed from their families, the children were prepared for “a better life”, how is that true or false when considering different perspectives?

I had the chance to watch this movie through the internet and I found it very exiting and interesting, moreover when I saw that it was based on true facts. It is sad to see how far society can push things between cultural differences and not accepting that we are different. this was the case the aborigines from Australia who had to suffer because some people thought or believed they were a threat for the community and were half casted. It was said that the kids were taken to educate and protect them, the truth was that they weren't protected at all of any threat and instead they were educated to become servants. From my perspective this statement isn't true, they weren't prepared for a better life, they didn't want to leave their homes, families and everything they had. It was clear that they wanted to stay the way they were, aboriginal. one example of this are the three girls who were taken to the camp, they stayed there without wanting until they figured out what was going on,they decided to escape. Unfortunately one got caught, but the other two could escape and reach home. This event showed us that the girls and all the kids in general wanted to go back to their towns. This event took place in 1930's, but only until 2008 the governement appologied for this horrible and racist situation. The ones that have been affected by this issue are demanding compensation plans for them and they deserve them.

watch also this documentary that talks about the white people's abuses in Autralia that still last until today.

Bibliography:

Fotos:
http://www.re-moto.com/images/maps/world_of_friends_oceania.jpg

http://www.gonzalobarr.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/kangaroo_sign.jpg

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/v/SGmQ2eHkGq0&hl=en_US&fs=1&

Baird, Kevin. 2007. The culture of Australian organizations and its relation with strategy. “International Journal Of Business Studies, 15(1).

Europe

The European Union is a Economic and political union, formed by 27 member states.this region has a 30% of the world’s GDP, has 500 million citizens (7.3% of the world total)and has 23 official languages. German is the most spoken native language, followed by English, Italian and French.

European Union Background:

1950 the European Coal and steel community made a union between European countries economically and politically. The main founders were Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. In 1970 EU adopted its first plan for a single currency to maintain monetary stability. Euro is the official currency but not for all of them. 1973, Denmark, Ireland and the UK joined. 1977, Greece joined. 1986, spain and portugal. 1992, signed the treaty of Mastrich.1993, free movement of people, goods, services and money among the countries.1995, Finland,Austria and Sweden joined. 2004, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia joined.

watch the following video that summarizes the UE 50 year history in 5minutes, pretty interesting.


OBJECTIVES

Development of a common market: Free movement of people, goods, services and capital.
Customs union between its member states: application of a common external tariff on all goods entering the market


arguments in favor:

1.Giving participation to workers in important decision making, leads to improve innovation and creativity.

2.Co-determinism makes workers and owners motivate themselfs to work and benefit the company, such as promoting integration in the company.


3.The quality of decisions,decisions in the company can be made by owners and workers at the same time. according to this both will be benefited.



arguments against:


1.Co-determinism damages the interests of shareholders, because their main interest is profit, but the main interests of workers are the benefits they receive for their family and society.

2.The belief that the German industry is sufficiently strong and stable and does not need to apply this concept in order to be more competitive.

3.It is considered as a bureaucratic monster, because nowadays it is considered as an old fashion and not competitive principle for modern companies, due to it was created many years ago, which makes it is seen as a routine.


Bibliography:

Piette, Jean-Jacques. 2004. “Understanding management German style”. Les Amis de L’ecole de Paris.

Huijgh, Ellen. 2007. Diversity United? Towards a European cultural industries policy. Social Policy, 28(3): 209 – 24

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,2112746,00.html

http://geography.about.com/od/politicalgeography/a/turkeyeu.htm

http://www.merit.unu.edu/archive/docs/hl/200610_200610_akcomak.pdf

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/23/eu-roma-racism-discrimination

Middle East

Islamic Banking is and its background.

Islamic banking is a system that controls banks following the Islamic principles, which prohibit the payment of interest charges and forbid other activities that are against Islamic main beliefs. They believe that an execess of compensation doesn't include time value of money and they call it Riba.

This philosophy isn't new, it started since the beginning of the Islam, when partnerships was used in the business world and interest merelly existed. Many economists and authors replied to the traditional model of interests used by the commercial banks durind the 50's and argued that the system needed to be reorganized. Someproposed that instead of using interests it shold've benn based under profit sharings or losss. This helped tocreate the first islamic bank in the 70's. For the people who believe in Islam, interests are seen as a way of robbery, robbery that affects the entire population, that's why they also consider it as evil.

Pinciples:

Islamic banks base their system principles on giving the population loans with no interest over the money lent. Islamic banks use to invest, lend money and become a partner by sharing profits, risks and losses in their model. Financial transactions have to avoid uncertainty, risk and speculation, because business parties need to have a perfect knowledge of the monetary values and the bank is allowed to invest in activities that are not forbidden by Islam.

How they make profits?

As it was mentioned above, Islam banking doesn't make profits from charging interests, they preffer to have entrepeneural partnership where both share risk, profits etc. The profit for banks is made after a profit agreement between the two sides is arranged, they agree the way they will share the profits and the ammount of time the project will take.

Islamic banks create a partnership with its investors and lenders and both business parties agree the proportion of profits that will share after a period of time. Banks have to ensure the investors that the projects in which their money will be placed, are projects that have been well studied by financial experts and that they are productive. The banks always look to gain profits in their projects,not only for their own benefit, but also to contribute in social activities.

Ethics under Islamic law.

Ethics in the Islamic Banking system are pretty much related to what was mentioned above, tey look to gain profits, but this profits are are used to invest in social activities, things that have a good impact in the society and the environment. They believe in equity, fairness and in the wealth distribution. They try to benefit the most needed ones by giving them the opportunity of having a loan and these type of banks usually give benefits to those companies that have commitment with society and the environment.

The way for them to control wether an action is allowed or not, wether to give a loan or not, is based on monitoring the projects and the people. They have religious advisors, the ones who are encharged of giving their point of view about any project and then take the decision.

Islamic banking influence :

This system in the Middle East is helping to solve key problems of underdevelopment, by giving the opportunity to people with needs, to access into the financial market. This is motivating the development of Islamic world's economy and is seen with alot of hope. Each time this banks are gaining more space in the Islamic countries.

what is the future of Islamic Banking in terms of global expansion and growth

In the short term the Islamic Banking could experience a huge expansion, and as a fact it has been seen during the last decade. How long this process will last,it isn't known, but from my point of view it won't last long because it is a model that manages a lot of risk and if the bank fails every body who believed in it will do too.In my opinion this is a very idealistic model of how should banks be, but the truth is that this model isn't sustainable.

Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_banking

http://www.islamic-bank.com/

http://www.islamicbankingnetwork.com/index.shtml

Africa

Africa could be named the forgotten continent of the world. It is sad that many times instead of reffering to a specific country like Mozambique, we always say Afica. African people this African people that, we generalize them as a whole and we don't see all the diverse cultures this country has. The generalization goes deep when we believe that all african countries are poor, have health problems, that they live in a jungle, that they live in tribes, live in continuos ethnical disputes, and that the only good thing they have is the safari's. It is prety much as how the world generalizes Colombian people as drug dealers, gorrillas and that we also live in a jungle. All this stereotypes should stop an more research must be done before we generalize a country or a continent.

Area: 30’131.536 Km².
Coasts: 40.142 kilómetros.
Population: 972 millions. which is 13.6% of the worlds total population.
Life expectancy: 47,9 (male) y 50 (female).
Economic growth: 4,3 %
There are more than 600 ethnic groups.

Africa has 53 independent states, whom all added up have only a 17% of arable land. Economically only South Africa, Liberia, Libia, Nigeria and Algeria are important or are distiguished. The last three countries have the biggest gas reserves in the continent.

Africa has a tight cultural relationship to the European invasion and authoritary distribution of land they suffered in 1885. This event took to Africa new cultures, languages, religions, beliefs, etc, that where impossed.

Western Management Style
Individuals care only for themselves
Managers have the power
Selection process
Experience
Isomorphic culture

African Management Style
Collectivist who protect and promote the interests of the group
Chief and elders have the power
Tend to favor their families and friends
Seniority
Multiethnic culture

1. What is Ubuntu? How was it applied to support the merging process of the two companies? (3 examples)

According to the case study Ubuntu is the philosophy that one finds one’s own humanity in helping others to find theirs.


It helps to understand the culture, values, beliefs and norms in Africa and it helps to give companies a competitive advantage.

They use to value communication as a machanism to solve problems, if you deal problems personally is a way of respect and that you care for them.

To make a clearer perspectiveabout ubuntu and what it means watch the following video of Nelson Mandela a freedom icon.





Bibliography:

Mangaliso, Mzamo. 2003. Building competitive advantage from Ubuntu. In Thomas, David Clinton, editor, Readings and cases in International Management: A cross-cultural perspective.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(filosof%C3%ADa)

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgY4UvFWbs0

Picture:http://antenamisionera.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/africa0.jpg

South Asia

South Asia is comformed by Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan.

This Region has more than 1.4 billion
people and it's said that is home for half of the world's entire poverty.



Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism are the dominant religions in this region.


This region has been distinguished by its achievements in the fields of education; industry; health care; information technology and services; international trade; business enterprises; and outsourcing services.


But the region has also faced some issues that has difficulted the total harmony and development of the region; religious extremism, high levels of corruption, disagreements on political boundaries, and inequitable distribution of wealth are just some examples. The most extreme case is faced by the territorial conflict faced by Pakistan and India.

India during the last decade has grown enourmosly, transforming itself into one of the most fast growing countries in the world. It is widely known for its outsourcing services and its market has been attractive for many investors. Indian government has planned for the year 2025 to be one of the world powers. Hindi and English are the most spoken languages in India and now days English is tought in middle school and high school as a program to standarize english as their second language and improve educational quality. This country is also considered like the mother of generic drugs due to the fact that they have had experienced high development in technology, science and manufacturing medicines.

The caste system is probably one of the cultural facts that distiguish Indu people, the caste shows in a certain way the social satus in the society, it is closed and has limits between the castes. Limitations in occupation and social participation. The marriages are arranged between castes and eventhough this seems crazy for us, this is a very important issue in India, they respect it, believe in it and they enjoy it.


•BRAHMANS: the priestly and learned class
•KSHATRIYAS: the warriors and rulers
•VAISYAS: farmers and merchants
•SUDRAS: peasants and laborers

The way to define in which caste people is depends on rituals and beliefs

watch the following video to make yourself and idea of India diverse culturality.



1. What do you think are the reasons behind the fast-growth outsourcing industry in India?
Reasons behind the fast-growth outsourcing industry in India:
According to the case “HR Challenges at Computer Age Management Services (P) Ltd.” The Management Case Study Journal 7 (2): 41-51

One of the reasons that made India's outsourcing so popular is the fact that they can speak english, the business language of the XXI century, and a language spoken in two major markets, United States and UK.

The laborforce is qualified and cheap, there are more than 1 billion people living in India, this defenitly reduces labor costs.

Another reason is that the people who work in the outsorcing industry are young teenayers between 20 and 30 years who are in college, who are abitious and want to earn money during their free time.

Finally India is playing a key role in the world board now days specially with the outsorcing of softwares.

Bibliography:

HR Challenges at Computer Age Management Services (P) Ltd.” The Management Case Study Journal 7 (2): 41-51

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDqDZleHjm8&feature=related

Photo:http://www.virtualcurriculum.com/N3225/spring2006/inderjit/south_asia_map.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asia

http://www.aseansec.org/

East Asia

Picture Taken From http://www.gotterdammerung.org/graphics/map-east-asia.gif

The eastern part of Asia has many cultural similarities between the countries that conform it due to the proximity they have and the historical invasions they had suffered. The countries that conform Eastren Asia are: China, both Koreas, Japan, Hong kong, Taiwan, Mancau, Mongolia. These countries represent more or less a 30 percent of the total Asian continent.
In this blog we are going to center our attention in only two countries which are Japan and South Korea.
After the reading we could see that Japan and Korea have many similarities in their managing styles due to the proximity and because during many years Japan occupied the territory of what we know today as korea. It is said that the Korean's model is basicly a copy of the Japanese model, but they have cultural managing differences. One of the similarities we could find between these two countries is the Chaebol structure, the Chaebol structure stands for a conglomerate of multinational business managed or manopolized by families in Korea. an example is Samsung. In Japan they have the zaibatsu model, that basicly stand for a conglomerate of industrial and financial businesses. Another similarity we could found is the way they negotiate, which in both sides are based in respect, are jealous protecting their people with sanitary norms and are critical thinkers before taking any decision, they won't give an inmediate answer. Now let's analyze some differences.




Korea:

* Use a hierarchical authoritarian structure where the important decisions are taken by the top managers.
* They are more individualistic
* Are traditionalist and are very attached to blood lines or family figures
* No job stability
* Tight relation between the government and the companies


Japan:


* Use a Horizontal structure where cooperation and interaction between employees is involved
* Long-term oriented who try to mantain good relationships
* Close related with the suppliers
* Try to create value on their products and maximize the profits
* Loyalty and trust are highly valued
* Tend to guide the organization based on corporate values


If you want to make a better idea of the similarities and differences between the managing styles I invite you to visit Carlos Torres blog on the following link :

http://oyc2010.blogspot.com/2010/03/east-asia-korean-and-japanese.html
He has a very interesting chart where he shows the main key points of the managing styles Korea and Japan have. By the way I recomend his blog as one of the most complete and interesting, you should take a look of it.


References:

Jangho Lee, Thomas W. Roehl, Soonkyoo Choe , What makes management style similar and distinct across borders? Growth, experience and culture in Korean and Japanese Firms.
http://www.usergioarboleda.edu.co/asia/negocios_japon.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaibatsu

Images taken from:

http://www.uni.edu/becker/japan1.gif
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy5x-dkBjQ6TI8kd2jb-t-rahQJB2uOtb9lG01T4rK2l0T-oXnfEC_EV9lMtGBdv1slSQvyKdXFEZYpaHWuhpy-iYYyGcuhd8VkqqRJnYBixGFjez08yMX4Gvw_WnOHZFeVc_hfOJU-nMf/s320/300px-Bandera_de_Corea_del_Sur_Explicada.png