COURSE EVALUATION

I thing the time was not really enough to cover deeply topcs which wereextremely funnies and interesting,  related with the culture and its role in managenet.

The teacher shows always a kind of motivation for what she does. With her attitude she invites to people to discover the culture. In general was really great the course....Concrete topics that permitted  us to know about the different regions of the world..THANKS

MAIN ISSUES OF EUROPE

How is the EU leading the fight against climate change?

The EU is committed with the Kyoto protocol  to reduce the green house gas emitions.
The organization is also taking some policy actions in the themes of CO2, the energy performance, and the EU emision scheme.
The  European Union are expecting to improve in 20% by 2020 in terms of energy efficiency.
They are also developing political actions with organizations and governments in order to implement some policies to fight the climate change

How is Europe managing its migration flows?

with the promotion of   legal migration channels like money transfer, wth advices, with promotion of legal work, in other words, job seekers but at the same time they are reinforcing the border security and preventin illegal migrations trough detention centersans assylums

What are the main challenges for an ageing workforce in Europe?

The working age population is falling

The life expectancy is getting higher, there is not enough young workforce and it is dropping, so they are worried due to there are not enough people to cover the retired people pensions.

So they are looking for: Maintain and promote the health and working capacity of workers as they age

To develop the skills and employability of older workers

To provide suitable working conditions and employment opportunities for an aging workforce

How European business could overcome the challenges of balancing the interests of cultural diversity and nationalist interests?

Those challenges could be easily overcome by hiring people from the same culture of the country where the organization is located, but at the same time to integrate some people from different cultures in order to balance the nationalism and the cultural diversity within the company

INDIA

1. According to Gangury-Scrase & Scrase (1999) had globalisation in India provided significant improvement of living for lower-income workers by 1999? Justify.
 The lower-income workers do not receive any kind of benefits from  liberalization. The global phenomenon is a kind of contradiction because:

“First, although income levels have risen for the lower middle classes, their purchasing power has remained relatively stagnant due to high inflation and high interest rates. Second, there has emerged easier access to credit for this group, yet this has come at the expense of monthly repayments and high interest rates which they feel traps them in the cycle of consumerism and debt. Third, this group has greater desire to purchase consumer goods but their aspirations are not met due to debt concerns”, 

reference:
Gangury-Scrase & Scrase 1999. http://sociology.snu.ac.kr/isdpr/publication/journal/28-2/5Ruchira.pdf checked on May 17, 2009.

2. How is the situation for workers in India today? Provide references.

“India has a very large pool of scientific and technical personnel. Around 20 percent of the Fortune 500 companies have research and development operations in India. Most managers and technicians, and many skilled workers, speak English. Most multinationals recruit managerial and engineering staff locally for their Indian operations. Nonetheless, illiteracy acts as a brake on labor productivity in the workforce as a whole. India is a member of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and adheres to 37 ILO conventions that protect workers’ rights. The Industrial Disputes Act of 1947 governs industrial relations. Workers may form or join unions of their choice. The Factories Act regulates working conditions. Other laws regulate employment of women and children and prohibit bonded labor.
Although there are more than 7 million unionized workers, unions represent less than one-fourth of the workers in the organized sector (primarily in state-owned concerns), and less than two percent of the total work force. Most unions are linked to political parties. Worker-days lost to strikes and lockouts have dropped 50 percent during the decade 1991 -2000 from the previous decade. Industrial wages range from about $3.50 per day for unskilled workers, to over $150 per month for skilled production workers”.

India. Political Risk Yearbook: India Country Forecast; 2009, preceding p2-22, 65p

“Workers in the informal economy are not recognized and protected through labour legislation. They do not have fixed hours of work, fixed income or salary, work agreements, compensation etc. They do not have respect in the society and they face harassment in their work place. They do not have the place to represent their views. Neither the social security schemes cover these workers nor do they have access to finance resources through credits from banks and financial institutions. Street vendors face harassment from police and government authority.
Government of India recognized the role of trade unions in the informal economy. Hence trade unions have the right to represent the workers in the informal economy in identifying the worker and the work activities. Major trade unions like Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), and Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) organize the workers in the form of trade unions”.

Informal workers in India: http://www.ycwindia.org/index2.php option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=16. Checked on May 17, 2009.

3. How cultural globalization has affected Indian in the last 2 decades?

As we can read in the following paragraph, globalization has affected India in a very positive way, opening people mindsets and giving Indians the path for excellence:

“The foreign direct investment (FDI) that India gets today is about US$4 per Indian per year. The direct influence of globalization has not been what is typically believed to be the case in the West: that MNCs are taking over the poor countries. But what this $4 brings is a spark that is catapulting India into a country that most Indians two decades ago would have called a fantasy world. MNCs control a tiny fraction of the economy, but they have set new benchmarks for excellence, not only in terms of technical advancement, but more importantly, in terms of challenging the social mindsets and work ethics of the population”.

Globalization and India.Preview By: Bhandari, Jayant. Canadian Manager, Spring2007, Vol. 32 Issue 1, p10-11, 2p; (AN 25919449

4. Describe India’s Green Revolution.

“The term "Green Revolution" is applied to the period from 1967 to 1978. Between 1947 and 1967, efforts at achieving food self-sufficiency were not entirely successful. Efforts until 1967 largely concentrated on expanding the farming areas. But starvation deaths were still being reported in the newspapers. In a perfect case of Malthusian economics, population was growing at a much faster rate than food production. This called for drastic action to increase yield. The action came in the form of the Green Revolution.

"Green Revolution" is a general term that is applied to successful agricultural experiments in many Third World countries. It is NOT specific to India. But it was most successful in India. There were three basic elements in the method of the India’s Green Revolution: (1) Continued expansion of farming areas; (2) Double-cropping existing farmland; (3) Using seeds with improved genetics.
The Green Revolution created plenty of jobs not only for agricultural workers but also industrial workers by the creation of lateral facilities such as factories and hydro-electric power stations as explained above”.

India's Green Revolution: Economics Gains and Political Costs (Book).Preview By: Blyn, George. Economic Development & Cultural Change, Jan1974, Vol. 22 Issue 2, p358, 7p; (AN 6284686)


5. Did the British Raj enriched or impoversih India? Justify.

There are the 2 sides of the story, each saying what benefits them, for instance, the British say that they “built” India, and the Indians arguing against the theft and abuse committed against them:

Indians point of view:

“There has been a torrent of commentary condemning the pukka sahibs of the Raj -- for their arrogance; for their racial superiority; for mercantilist policies that enriched Britain and impoverished India; for a policy of divide and rule that aggravated tensions between Hindus and Muslims; for Amritsar, of course, and for usurping by conquest what never belonged to them”.

British point of view:

“In the balance of history, Britain may have endowed India with more than it took away, in the form of the country's parliamentary institutions, its administrative system, its railways, its passion for cricket and, perhaps above all, for the gift of the English language. India, through its own failures since 1947, has forfeited the right to be too harsh on its colonial masters, they say”.

The NEW YORK TIMES. “India and England Beg to Differ; Tiptoeing Through the Time of the Raj”. By JOHN F. BURNS. Published: Sunday, October 19, 1997.

LATIN AMERICA

the mates gave us a particular classification of the presidents acording to their poltical way:

Center- Left:

Brasil: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Argentina: Cristina Fernández
Chile: Michelle Bachelet
Guatemala: Álvaro Colom
Paraguay: Fernando Lugo
República Dominicana: Leonel Fernández
Uruguay: Tabaré Vásquez


Radical- Left:

Venezuela: Hugo Chávez
Cuba: Raúl Castro
Bolivia: Evo Morales
Nicaragua: José Daniel Ortega
Ecuador: Rafael Correa


Center-Right:

Colombia: Álvaro Uribe
Perú: Alan García
México: Felipe Calderón


LATIN AMERICA ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

•ALCA
•ALADI
•CARICOM
•CAN
•MCCA
•MERCOSUR
•AEC
•SELA

The question: 

What is the creative age and what it suposses?

The Creative Age, as we prefer to call it, is one

in which the work being done by creative people in

each economy creates the value-added and drives

economic growth and development. Throughout

U.S. (and anywhere else for that matter) economic

history, the creative processes of technological

change or innovation have been the main catalyst

for growth in each stage of development. This will

certainly continue to be the case as globalization

increases and outsourcing of manufacturing and

services flows to other countries, particularly Asia.

For instance, according to Bill Breen, “Our companies

will continue to prosper only if they push to

the higher ground of innovating and creating ‘elegant,

refined products and services’ – which might

well be produced elsewhere.

IN OTHER WORDS, IT IS LATIN AMERICAN INFLUENCE IN THE UNITED STATES ARTS

Reference: 

Nivin, S., & Plettner, D. (2009, Winter2009). arts, culture, and ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. Economic Development Journal,8(1), 31-41. Retrieved May 19, 2009, from Business Source Premier database.

Syriana movie review

SOUTH ASIA

The topic was so appropiate for this time bacuse the region copntains four of the five tigers and because it covers to India and Auystralia as examples of succesful economies.

These are the south asia countries:

¡Mainland Countries:

§Cambodia

§Laos

§Myanmar

§Thailand

§Vietnam

¡Maritime Countries:

§Brunei

§East Timor

§Indonesia

§Malaysia

§Philippines

§Singapore

§Hong Kong

§Taiwan

Among the common treads they talked  about:

§Confucianism

§Buddhism

§Taoism

§China or a strong Chinese expatriate community

§Status

§Karma

The question:

How possible could be a free trade agreement between South east Asian countries?

it cpuld represent a huge trade tie among these coun tries reaching US$260 billion in income

In the last years the nations passed from maintaining a kind of isolation to construct a cooperation in trade esentially

One example of the most succesful countries is India with possitive effects in nations sucha as Srilanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Reference: 

East, South Asia Free-Trade Deal Could Generate $260 Billion in Extra Income. (2009, May 13). M2PressWIRE, Retrieved May 14, 2009, from Newspaper Source database.

CHINA

The presentation was very clear, great and full of new things to learn about this amazing country.

THey remarked the totalitarian history of the country driven by rigids political tools with the result of human rights violations.

Theytold us  as well about the  situation of the country in terms of commerce, exports, dumping, low salaries and child labor among others.

It is one of the countries that most has influenced the development and increase of the capitalism with a "less poor every day" policy which is supported by the rich people paying more taxes.

In the other hand the country maintains a restrictive policy of minimizing the bad national news looking for the defense of the socialism.

a video to introduce us in the country:

The question:

Is there a kind of contradiction among the open of the country in trade terms but not in political terms?...why?

For most politicians of the world China represent if not a threat, a difficult point to develop the campaigns  promises but it is not for free that China maintains a rigid foreign policy. The bombing of the chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999 led to a deterioration , by instance, of the realtions among USA and  China.

The other issue by which China is very rigid is because Taiwan represents a potential argument for other countries for a diplomatic  fight with China.

Finally, it is obvious that the region is mainly represented by China for being the potence in trade, economic success and even in social terms.

reference:

International relations and defence. (2009, December). Country Profile. China, Retrieved May 14, 2009, from Business Source Premier database. 

MIDDLE EAST

My group, Maria Fernanda Piña, Natalia Suarez with jme presented  the region of Middle East.Our presentatrion was marked by information of the economy, religion, politics, women situation, culture. In short the presentacion exhibited  key informtuion of the region without loosing the interest in the main topic: culture

Some key facts:

Total Area is 6’018.933 km2 

hot climate with  many arid lands 

fresh weather in the Mediterranean coast

Four major rivers: Tigris, the Euphrates, the Jordan and the Nile

four important seas: he Mediterranean Sea, The Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and The Caspian Sea

deserts: The Syrian desert, the Arabian desert, the South Iranian desert and the Saharan desert”. 

GDP per capita:  USD 11.021,899

Inflation rate: 15,8% (2008)


we found everybody was hugely interested listenning us during the presentation and that was very exiting.

The question:

Is there any change in real terms in the situation of the Middle East women? 

"Women in the Arab region can no longer be described as scared, inferior,

domestic women who hardly leave their houses. Recently, women hold ministerial and

parliamentary positions, they run businesses and sit as presidents in national

universities. Women in the Arab region are increasingly entering the work force and

rising to managerial positions. A working Arab woman is thus no longer an exception,

but rather a growing trend. In general, the Arab region is under close attention from all

over the world and Arab societies are currently in a state of confusion. Rapid changes,

the impact of westernization and modernization are contributing to this state of

confusion. Arabs seem to be in a futile search for a new identity that will not contradict

their deeply rooted traditions and at the same time connect them to the future and

development."

 

Reference:

Title: 

Women in management in the Arab context

Author(s): 

Katlin Omair

Year: 

2008 

Volume: 

1 

Issue: 

2 

Page: 

107 - 123

 

ISSN: 

1753-7983

 

DOI: 

10.1108/17537980810890293

Publisher: 

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

EUROPE

the mates made a deep presentation of the continent focusing in the music which was a particular idea to present the continent.

They talked about the history, area and off cours, music, was really great“

Juan Manuel teach us about Mozart, Haydn and  Beethoven among others.

They also talked about thedifferent periods of European music: classical period (1750-1825) and romantic period (1815-1910)

In the historic context they presented us a briefly history about Greece,  Holy roman empire, British empire,  Roman empire

I think that it is interesting this different view of the old continent. It gives us another perspective of what that part of the world has contributed to the humanity and not necessarily in terms of wars or economic facts. Culture was prevailed in this presentation and I applaud being diverse when approaching a subject that is commonly seen as boring due to the heavy facts that it involves.
Nevertheless, it was also important that they mentioned the European Union, the economic and political union of 27 member states, located primarily in Europe that was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993.

the question:

Has failed management model of Europe?

“Europeaninfluenced ways of thinking” has failed and that organizations, comercial and public, should embrace the leadership principles of other cultures,notably “black, Latino, and American Indian leadership techniques.”

Before continuing, I want to clarify that I believe the Servant-Leadership approach should be incorporated into the leadership principles of every organization. At its core, as I understand it, is the principle that when the individual is empowered, the organization will be most successful. I do not understand it to mean that everyone does his or her own thing and everything will be great.

reference: 

Ashcraft, M. (2009, April). REFLECTING BACK IS GOOD. Public Management (00333611), 91(3), 3-4. Retrieved May 19, 2009, from Business Source Premier database.

Paraiso travel review...a crude reality

Africa

The presentation given by our mates was centred in the explanation of the continent as a whole and they stablish the importance of the continent  within the world wide escene.

they talked, among others about its population, area, density, lenguage diversity for instance: there are more than 1,000 indigenous African languages.

Trying to generalize about the continent is not just a fail but also unjust because the cultural richness offered by the region is huge despite there are some countries with problems. The generalization only express a deep lack of knowledge of cultures 

The question:

Are there advances in projects to fight against the poverty in Africa?

"Witnessing the extreme poverty in remote parts of Africa can make you feel sad and powerless until you realize how little it takes to change these people's lives fundamentally in sustainable ways."

As little as a $10 donation could protect the hundreds of thousands of African kids who die from malaria, Mr. Legend said. A $10 bed net for everyone and $2 for medicine are among the more important things needed, he said.

"We have all heard a lot about poverty in Africa to the point where it might seem like a clich? for another celebrity to visit and preach about how it has changed his or her life," Mr. Legend said.

"But what I've seen on my trips is just how close we are to them. These are kids just like you and me when we were kids. All they want is to grow up and learn without having to walk miles for clean water.

"They don't want to have to sit through a school day without a square meal. These problems are solvable."

it only evidence the poor actions by the governments against the poverty and for the rights of people arround the world

Reference:

Brown, S. (2009, January 19). John Legend's anti-poverty project showing results. Times-Tribune, The (Scranton, PA), Retrieved May 19, 2009, from Newspaper Source database.

NORTH AMERICA

UNITED STATES
CAPITAL: Washington D.C
AREA: 9,826,630 sq km
POPULATION: 307,212,123
GDP: $ 14.11 trillions
GDP per capita: $46,820

Corporate culture:

•Work is success and with a high tempo
•The success of the individual is what counts
•They are not afraid of challanges or competition
•Take advantage of possibilities
•Hard work but with a sence of humor

CANADA

CAPITAL: Ottawa
AREA: 9,984,670 sq km
POPULATION: 33,487,208
GDP: $ 1.307 trillions
GDP per capita: $ 39,300

Corporate culture:

•Punctuality is demanded for business meetings and social occasions
•Business communication is quite direct in Canada, but more reserved than in the United States.
•Dress more conservatively (and more formally when going out) than their American neighbors, although practices vary by region.
•For business meetings, men should wear suits and ties; women should wear conservative suits or dresses.


MEXICO

CAPITAL: México D.F
AREA: 1,972,550 sq km
POPULATION: 111,211,789
GDP: US$ 1.559 trillions
GDP per capita: US$ 14,200

Corporate culture:

•Punctuality is expected of foreign businesspeople. Your Mexican counterpart may be late or keep you waiting.
•Spanish is the language of business. You may need to hire an interpreter (preferably a native speaker who understands the language as it is spoken in Mexico).
•Negotiations move slowly. Be patient. For Mexicans, the building of a personal relationship comes before the building of a professional one.
•If offered something to drink (usually coffee), don't refuse. This would be seen as an insult.

The question:

How deep is the asian influence in Canada?

Researchers have shown that bicultural individuals, including 2ndgeneration

immigrants, face a potential conflict between 2 cultural identities. The present

authors extended this primarily qualitative research on the bicultural experience by

adopting the social identity perspective (H. Tajfel & J. C. Turner, 1986). They developed

and tested an empirically testable model of the role of cultural construals, in-group prototypicality,

and identity in bicultural conflict in 2 studies with 2nd-generation Asian

Canadians. In both studies, the authors expected and found that participants’ construals

of their 2 cultures as different predicted lower levels of simultaneous identification with

both cultures. Furthermore, the authors found this relation was mediated by participants’

feelings of prototypicality as members of both groups.

Reference:

Stroink, M., & Lalonde, R. (2009, February). Bicultural Identity Conflict in Second-Generation Asian Canadians. Journal of Social Psychology, 149(1), 44-65. Retrieved May 19, 2009, from Business Source Premier database.

AUSTRALIA

1. Describe Baird et al (2007)’s paper in terms of research methodology. 

“We used the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) of O’Reilly et al. (1991), as adapted by Windsor and Ashkanasy (1996), to describe the culture of Australian organizations, as perceived by those organizations’ financial controllers...."

"Strategy was measured with the Snow and Hrebiniak (1980) measure based on the Miles
and Snow (1978) typology of prospector, defender, analyser and reactor strategies".

2. What were the main findings on Baird et al (2007)?

They “found the perceptions of financial controllers of Australian organizational culture to be generally, and quite highly, consistent with the perceptions of managers”.

RANKING OF THE  ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE FACTORS AND COMPONENT ITEMS

1. Performance Orientation
2. Social Responsibility
3. Supportiveness
4. Emphasis on Rewards
5. Stability
6 Competitiveness, innovation

3. How does the culture of Australian organisations relate to their strategy?

It was expected that organizations adopting a prospector strategy would be more likely to have an organizational culture characterised by high Innovation and high OutcomeOrientation than would defenders (with analysers in between), and that defenders wouldbe more likely to have an organizational culture characterised by high Stability and high Attention to Detail than prospectors (with analysers in between). It was also expected thatreactors, with a non-viable strategy, would be lower on all cultural factors".

4. How does Roy Green (2009)’s article relates to Australian culture and Australian organisations?

In the text said that the way to fight the crisis is trough innovation, Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Minister Kim Carr took up this theme at his
recent National Press Club speech, where he emphasised the "growing consensus that
innovation is the key to recovery".

"In addition to identifying market needs and adapting their products or services to meet
those needs, firms must also find ways of prompting the market to lock into their
innovations ahead of others".

Reference:

Baird, Kevin; Harriso, Graeme & Robert Reeve. 2007. The culture of Australian organizations and its relation with strategy. International Journal of Business Studies, 15 (1). 15-41

Green, Roy (2009). Innovation the key to recovery