Westernization

Today I  will talk about one topic that in my opinion is happening in many cultures also in Colombia that is westernization . I can explain this concept  with the words that is normally related for example : capitalism, rationalism, industrialism and individualism, coca cola , hamburgers, hot dogs , pizza and modernity. They are people that are in favor and other that doesn’t like too much, in some extend it minimize the tradition in each country with universal costumes as we see in many countries in the example of Coca-Cola.

Other understanding of westernization is with all that the “west” involve American :companies universities ,government army, that have played an important role in globalization in my opinion helping the process of minimizing the barriers between culture but imposing its culture so is qualified imperialistic. (Marc, 2015)

To use this blog not only to put my ideas i want to ask an interesting question: Why Japanese and Filipinos have surgeries in their eyes to look like people from the west? why Michel Jackson and other people have plastic surgery to have white skin? Why most of the movies and TV show are made in US and Europe?

As in common in my post I want to share  with you this video that explain the relation that are between Islam and globalization and with this we can go furthers on the topic from a study of the University of Yale

We saw in class that despite the westernization is a very heavy movement in all the cultures around the world we can see in different areas such as, medicine , marketing, publicity , fashion industry but this week my teacher show a different type of banking that help to have a question:

What is Islamic banking and how it works?

It is a totally different type of system that we have in Colombia it is a system that is based on Islamic rules for examples that is prohibited that you pay for interest  for landing or acceptance money , imaging the Colombian “presta diario” there it could be a heavy problem . The system is attached with the culture and religion .The origin of this where with the sayings and actions of Prophet Muhammad .It is not only in the Islam’s cultures it is in there are  countries that also have  for example in Spain (Islamic Banking, 2015)

Lets finish with this video that help to explain how it work  and the differences:

Reference

Islamic Banking. (2015). Obtenido de http://www.islamic-banking.com/what_is_ibanking.aspx

Marc, H. (2015). Westenization., (pág. 3).

Ethic for International Negotiator

This afternoon I will explain a very important topic that I saw in class and found an extra information that will help you to understand more the topic of Ethics in a business environment because nowadays a company doesn’t have to worried about only with the costumers there are more: direct contact with company we have employees, supplier, costumers, stakeholders, distributors, government, competition and if the company expand its limits to others country these multiply by two.

The first thing I want to share is the differences between too way to see the ethics the Relativism and Universalism .The first one is when we judge something depending our legal and social standards for example in here in Colombia to past a traffic light in red or go over the speed limit could be not as bad as for example a country of Europe other example that is controversial is the adultery in the men of having many wife’s. In the other hand we have universalism that is the opposite is not judge based on you culture if not we have universal “rules” one example in my opinion in an organization context could be to steal something in the company. With the globalization and the MNEs the tendency is to Universalism

I want to share 12 principles of ethics that I found for business and executives that are (Josephson, 2015):

1. Be honest in your communication
2. Integrity means that the words that you mean the same than your actions
3. Keep promises and fulfill commitments
4. Be loyal within the framework of other ethical principles
5. do not exercise power arbitrarily
6. Demonstrate compassion and a genuine concern for the well-being  of others
7. Treat everyone with respect, doesn’t matter who you are
8. Follow the rules
9. Pursue excellence all the time in all things
10. Exemplify honor and ethics by your actions and being a leader
11. Build and protect and build the company’s good reputation and the morale of it’s employees
12. Be responsible for the rules are followed

Lets see a video about a topic that is related with this,, Corporate Social Responsibility

I want to share the definition that I found in Investopedia of business ethics:

“The study of proper business policies and practices regarding potentially controversial issues, such as corporate governance, insider trading, bribery, discrimination, corporate social responsibility and fiduciary responsibilities. Business ethics are often guided by law, while other times provide a basic framework that businesses may choose to follow in order to gain public acceptance” 

(Investopedia, 2015)

How we can manage Ethic in an Organization?

Looking for the answer I found that is can be managed with different strategies, for example creating ethics management program writing down what is ethical and unethical for the company .Other way is to create a codes of conduct for the employees for all the company. On that could be very important is to communicate and use the channel inside the company to promote Education, Model, Reward to these Values and Standards (Josephson Institute, 2015). To answer this question I also use a video to help the explanation.

References

Investopedia. (2015). Obtenido de http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/business-ethics.asp

Josephson Institute. (2015). Obtenido de http://josephsoninstitute.org/business/blog/2011/02/4-strategies-companies-use-to-manage-ethics/

Josephson, M. (2015). Business Ethics & Leadership. Obtenido de http://josephsoninstitute.org/business/blog/2010/12/12-ethical-principles-for-business-executives/

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The cultural clusters of the Globe Study (GLOBE )and Metaphors

Today I will talk about one of the main topic of these blog , that is about GLOBE that is a study of 62 countries divided in 10 clusters  based on their  cultural similarities . The begins of this study start from the author of the a past post that were talking about Hostede. The dimensions are (Mensah, 2013) :

• ·         Power of distance: How is distributed the power in a organizations ,if is only in one person or is between all.
• ·         Uncertainty avoidance: how the society is worry about the capacity predict what will happened in the future event
• ·         Humane Orientation : how much the individual care about the other humans  ,for example generous and caring
• ·         Institutional collectivism  How much the public institution care about the distributions of resources
• ·         In-Group Collectivizing: How loyalty are individual to their families and public institutions
• ·         Assertiveness How aggressive are the relationship between the individual with the public  institutions 
• ·         Gender egalitarianism: how s the gender equality
• ·         Future orientation : how much the individuals invest and focus  in the future event
• ·         Performance orientation How much the individual care about to the thing in a excellent way

In this image we can see the clusters (Leadership, 2014):

Other important concept that I want to share is Metaphor in culture .It is an activity, food, place or institutions that a members are identify , for example we know some of the metaphors that I will give: Eiffel tower for French , American football  for North Americans; Hokey for Canadians; Soccer and Rio de Janeiro for Brazilians : these are metaphors. (Gannon, 2002) 

How is Colombia in GLOBE and what are its Metaphors?

Searching about this question I found a research in Universidad de los Andes in Colombia .In terms of COLLETIVISM have this in a high levels because from childhood they depend on their family until adults ,also the most important sport are with teams (soccer); POWER DISTANCE , the power in concentrate in a few hands , in this case the elite and a high social inequality ; UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE is one that have the highest level in the GLOBE Study and is characterize by improvising and ambiguity ; GENDER EQUALITY now is the normal but still the inequality when to be a men is better to a women in Colombia ; ASSERTIVENESS , due to the past of Colombia the level of aggressiveness for Colombia to public institution is really high; PERFORMANCE ORIENTATION, we Colombians are increasing this score since the secondary until the organizational level with the award and using foreign methods; HUMANE ORIENTATION as Colombia have many beggars and homeless different to others countries people with having a norm to help them and take care , people use to help with waiting in order to get something ; FUTURE ORIENTATION is not focus in the future they are most focus in the present and past.  (Ogliastri, 1998)

And the most common metaphors are: Bandeja Paisa, Vallenato, Cartagena de Indias, The Colombian soccer team and Coffee

References

Gannon, M. J. (2002). Cultural metaphors: Their use in management practice and as a method for understanding cultures. University of Maryland.

Leadership, C. o. (2014). Leader effectiveness and Culture:The GLOBE Study.

Mensah, Y. (2013). Global Clouster of Countries By culture- Extension of the GLOBE Study . Rutget University.

Ogliastri, E. (1998). CULTURE AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN COLOMBIA. Universidad de los Andes.