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.

Measuring culture

Today I will talk about the how we can measure culture? Sounds strange ,isn´t  it? .But yes I can be possible, I will explain two theories that help us to differentiate one culture to another. The objective of this post is that after you read these two theories you can use one  or both to differentiate for example the culture of brazil and other from Japan. I did a really nice activity in my class and we get a conclusion if you use different theories you will get a different approach and results. So let’s begin.

Hostede Dimensions  

Gerard Hendrik was the inventor on this theory  , the objective is to that to measure the cultures around the world and the have a special characteristic that differentiate  and help as international negotiator improving our abilities in  intercultural management. There are six dimensions that I will explain, just below:

1. Power distance Index : explain how separate are the manager from the workers, how easy is for a worker to give and idea and enter in the sedition making process .Also can show inequality in social status inside the company .in and the differences  in income depending the position. For example Colombia  have a high power distance index ,all the sedition in the majority of the company are taken by the owner or manger and for example a manager can earn 15000USD by month and a worker earn 250 USD .In the other hand ,European countries have low power distance instead due to the is common to integrate all the company the incomes are no big deference.
2. Individualism and collectivism : how is the work in the cultures, some cultures work together as a team and do a better performance if they are more than 1 person such us Japanese and South Korean. In the other hand are the ones that prefer to work individual or if they are working in group tent to de individual and he work is not  so much more efficient ,for example Brazilians
3. Uncertainty avoidance index: explain how we worried about the future: the activities that we have to and the control that we have. I found a really good definition of Hostede Center that said: “members of a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity” (The Hostage Center) . let’s see o examples : with high UCI is Russia and low is China.
4. Masculinity Vs. femininity : Explain in which gender are more reference in society for achievement, who is the want that put the rules and the most  how important is the success graded on material thing (cars. Houses) or other thing  that love in the other hand as graded of succeeds , searching for an example to clear the explanation, I found to extremes for the masculinity is Japan (The Hostage Center) and for femininity is Iceland (Sofeminine, 2015)
5. Long term and short term orientation: Means how the people work and think, short is related with past and present and long is with the future. Let’s see the next image a comparison between Colombia and South Korea 

The culture map

It is another theory by Eric Meyer, She divided the cultures in 8 dimensions (Lubin, 2015):

1. How is the communication in the country
2. How people give  the feedbacks soft or direct to the point
3. When is the moment when people persuade in the first moment or after
4. How is the leadership is the same for all  or hierarchical  
5. How is decision making consensual or only small group
6. How he trust the other, depending on the task that  have been well or in the relationship between people
7. If the people normally confront or try to avoid
8. If people is doing their schedule they are flexible or structured

How Colombia is based on Hostede´s dimensions?

I found that Colombia have one of the highest score of the countries, saying that the culture think that inequality is normal and they are having this. Colombian culture is collectivizing similar to Panama, that means they belong to a group are very family persons and it difficult to be independent a leave the house. Also, they are masculinity oriented, that means that the country is very materialize, and we have success if we have big apartment big cars. In addition, in UAI, Colombians are worried about to control the future. Also, they are short term, they think in the past and present  And in the last dimension ,they are indulgent  they are free to think and there are not to many social rules. (The Hostage Center)

References:

Lubin, G. (2015). These 8 Scales Reveal Everything You Should Know About Different Cultures. Business Insider.

Sofeminine. (2015). Women’s rights worldwide: Top 10 feminist countries. Obtenido de http://www.sofeminine.co.uk/personal-life/women-s-rights-worldwide-d50167c584736.html

The Hostage Center. (s.f.). Recuperado el 2015 , de http://geert-hofstede.com/dimensions.html

Barriers to communication Across Culture

The topics for today are ones of my favorites , Have you thought  about why we as Colombians talk too much, we don’t go to the pint, when we is in France can be have a bad situation when a French guy go straight to the point and give a feedback without making soft . Why is difficult to understand a Chinese? So, this explanation could give you a context about these questions and then you can use in your favor. The first one in the two context in communication.

Low context and High context 

Low context cultures are: Germans ,Australians, North Americans, English amount other . What they have in common? The communication is verbal that means that the words that the are saying are exactly the ones that you have to understand , they are logic go straight to the point(highly explicit) and if you don’t understand is their responsibility something they do wrong.

And the other one is High context are the ones: Chinese, Brazilians, we Colombians, Korean, Japanese among others. What is the deal of them? Totally opposite from the low ones. When they are talking you have to take in mind that the most important things are happening in the non-verbal communication; they are not explicit, they are more guide with the context and if you don’t get the message is your fault not of them.

When we as  Colombians talk each other doesn’t happen or between British , but the thinks that you have to take in mind are three question.

• 1.      Which one am I?
• 2.      Which one my pother party is?
• 3.      How I will use that information in my advantages?

Let’s look the next imagine , now is easy to understand since it show in what thing each of the dimensions focus in a conversation.

Non-verbal communication

This topic is in  my opinion the most important in this blog because with you can understand many thing in the air or context .Non-verbal communication are all the actions. Signal of the body that you perform all the time ,your face(facial excretion), how you sit, if you cross your arms  or not when you are talking , in other word. Everything that you do communicates. when you are in a date or a business appointment , if you know how are the excretions and what they mean, you win the deal.

What could be more important verbal or non-verbal communication in an interview?

This question could be very important for me and my classmates that are going to finishing the university in 6 month, after that we will have many interviews to enter a company and this topic that we saw in class will be very useful.

I found that "Body language comprises 55% of the force of any response, whereas the verbal content only provides 7%, and paralanguage, or the intonation -- pauses and sighs given when answering -- represents 38% of the emphasis." Based on CollegeJournal reports (Doyle), so for as will be more important the non-verbal communication .I found 7 mistake that could confirm us that non-verbal is more important (Quast, 2013).

• ·         Unusual handshake : if is too hard means arrogance and if is too soft means insecurity
• ·         Poor or too much eye contact means that you are not interested in the job
• ·         Poor posture you could communicate that you are lazy or arrogant
• ·         Too much cologne/after shave/perfume you could have problems with the interview that could be a distractor.

    References:

Doyle, A. (s.f.). How to Use Nonverbal Communication to Impress. About careers .

Quast, L. (2013). Job Seekers: Avoid These 7 Nonverbal Mistakes In Job Interviews. Forbes.

The impact of culture

Levels of culture

Today I will explain two very important topics for us, as International Negotiators .Nowadays is so important to take in mind Culture when you are: Doing business, talking with a relative, studying abroad, understand the news until only when you are traveling as a tourist. We all know that countries have different culture even though, the countries speak the same language and are close (e.g. Colombia VS Venezuela) but one interesting thing that I learn at the class and I want to share with you is that there are levels of culture :Subculture and Subgroups .

Subculture, I could define in an easy words in: It is a group of people that share social habits, common words when they are talking each other’s, similar income, ethnic and religion that differentiate with the others in the same society. Ex: rappers, miners, skaters, punkers, rockers, etc. 

Subgroups, it´s different, it is more referring to a pattern of behavior that a group have to follow .We see them normally in a MNE´s or a company that have a very strong pattern. For example: doctors, layers, Army, fraternities in the US, Google.
This two levels of culture are so important, for example: in the situation when a company (government) have to work intervening an area in the city of Medellin and you are the one that are planning the project, you will have to take for example the skaters if the project is a park where they use to skate as a main factor.

Archetypes and the collective unconsciousness

 Other topic for today is Archetypes. The word Archetypes has a meaning do “original pattern “that we can found in persons, objects. Studies for example the one of the psychologist, Carl Gustav Jung, said that Archetypes tend to be universal doesn´t matter the culture. That is so important in the case of branding, you have to know already what the company want to express with the brand and with the marketing strategy.

 We see example with the brand Paco Rabanne with the last perfume, the wanted to communicate that the perfume is strong, warrior, for guys, winner so the use the next image to show all that they wanted. 

Who big and strong can be a subculture?

They are many subgroups in the world, and they are with different objectives and characteristic, I found that the can be enormous and very strong .I will give one example of a subgroup that Harley-Davidson motorcycle owners, they are all around the world, have special characteristics that are:

Majority is under 35 years old and the median age is 46.7 ;The media income of a rider are proximally $38,000 ;Have a special costume to ride “his baby”; Is part on the group HOG ( Harley Owner Group the biggest club was create in 1983);Its vision :Harley is not a product is a lifestyle (Schouten & McAlexander, 1995)

Reference:

Dictionary. (02 de 2015). Obtenido de http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/subculture

Golden, C. (02 de 2015). soulcraft. Obtenido de http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/the_12_common_archetypes.html

Schouten, J. W., & McAlexander, J. H. ( 1995). Subcultures of Consumption: An Ethnography of the New Bikers . Journal of Consumer Research, 43-61.