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