RELIGION AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Religion and business. Retrieved May 13, 2011. From: http://www.anneofcarversville.com/world/21st-century-politics-religion-rules.html

1. How can we create an ethical relationship between religion and business so that they may cooperate towards a more sustainable and respectful development of life?

I belief that the best way to create an ethical relationship between religion and business is by teaching both sides that the other one has their own rules, norms, values and that they must be respected. This would be the first step to guarantee a sustainable and respectful development of life.

2. Can you imagine a world without religion where everyone would be trying to get immediate satisfaction to their individual needs?

A world without religion might bring even more conflict than we have now, since religion influences different aspects of a person’s life like the way of spending the money, the kind of food they are able to eat or their main purpose of life. So without all of this people might get involve in a fight of personal interests.

What makes world interesting is its diversity, but without religion the learning of other cultures would not be interesting and amusing as if the religion is part of it.

3. Religion can create networks of trust and familiarity that facilitates economic transactions. Can you name other positive aspects of this relationship?
Fafchamps’ (2003) recent study on Africa finds that the sharing of religious cultures still enhances trust and enables trade.

Other positive aspects that religion often promotes are honesty, diligence and compromise which are "economically friendly" behaviors that enable people to engage in mutually beneficial specialization and exchange.

Also people who share a certain religious culture may be able to overcome some informational and reputational barriers to international exchange, thereby expanding trade

It’s important to mention that religion's positive and negative cultural influences on economic activity in general and on international trade in particular are likely to differ from one religion to another since each religion has its unique set of incentives and rules of behavior.

Religion-World. Retrieved May 13, 2011. From: http://almadormida.blogspot.com/2008/10/la-religin-y-yo.html

References:

- Joshua J. Lewer, Hendrik van den Berg. (October 2007). Religion and International Trade: Does The Sharing of a Religious Culture Facilitate The Formation of Trade Networks?. Retrieved May 13, 2011. From: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0254/is_4_66/ai_n24246351/pg_9/?tag=mantle_skin;content

- Joshua J. Lewer and Hendrik Van den Berg. (May 2008). The Impact Of Religion On International Trade. Retrieved May 13, 2011. From: http://www.afrik-news.com/article13606.html

MANAGING DIVERSITY

According to Rosen and Digh (2001), Globalization, The use of multiculturalism as a competitive advantage can actualize these. Diversity offers benefits like creativity, resistance against lawsuits, political favorers, better decisions, and better knowledge of markets.

Sylvia Jade (January 2010). Diversity. Retrieved May 12, 2011. From:http://www.flickr.com/photos/45889790@N06/4242631830

The awareness of cultural differences and recognizing where cultural differences are at work is the first step toward understanding each other and establishing a positive working environment.

What are the consequences of Ignoring Diveristy in organizations?

Ignoring diversity costs time, money and efficiency. Some of the consequences can include unhealthy tensions, loss of productivity because of increased conflict, inability to retain and mantain talented people of different cultures, complaints and legal actions and incapacity to retain valuable employees resulting in loss of investments on recruitment and training. 

Managing Workforce Diversity. Retrieved May 12, 2011. From: http://worldlinksgpa.com/training/train2.php

Video:

JWA.Cultural Diversity in the Workplace. (July 2008). Retrieved May 13, 2011. From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bChZfFG5RqA 

 References:

- UCSF (University of California, San Francisco). Managing Diversity in the Workplace. Retrieved May 12, 2011. From: http://ucsfhr.ucsf.edu/index.php/pubs/hrguidearticle/chapter-12-managing-diversity-in-the-workplace/#683

- Neetu Munjal, Madhvi Sharma. (May 2010). Managing Multiculturalism & Diversity in Organizations. Retrieved May 12, 2011. From: http://www.indianmba.com/Faculty_Column/FC1161/fc1161.html

Virtual Teams

Virtual team members are physically separated by time or space and those virtual team members primarily interact electronically.

According to David Gould some benefits of virtual teams include the following:

- People can work from anywhere at any time.

- People can be recruited for their competencies, not just physical location.

- Expenses associated with travel, lodging, parking, and leasing or owning a building may be reduced and sometimes eliminated.

-There is no commute time.

Virtual Teams (February 2010). Retrieved May 10, 2011. From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Y5WToAeA0

Example:

A Travel Agency that has operations in India and Brazil offers a lot of options to their clients since it has alliances with all the airlines like Avianca Taca-Colombia/American Airlines- EE.UU/ Iberia- España/ Airfrance- Francia, among others. To know if there are seats available the agency keep in touch directly with all of them by mail, and when an airline thinks that is necessary to give an instruction to the agency, they just communicate by videoconference or instant messaging. Is difficult sometimes to understan what the other people is trying to say when he/she writes a mail but the advantages of videoconference is that your are talking "face to face" with the other person.

INSEAD, virtual teams (April 2011). Retreived May 10, 2011. From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GjnG__QLkc

References:
- Gould David, Virtual Teams (June 2006). Retrieved May 10, 2011. From: http://www.seanet.com/~daveg/vrteams.htm
- Time Management Guide. Virtual Team Benefits and Challenges. (2005). Retrieved May 10, 2011. From: http://www.time-management-guide.com/virtual-team.html

COMMUNICATION

Communication skills. Types of non verbal communications. (march 2010). Retrieved May 7, 2011. From: http://www.communication-type.com/types-of-nonverbal-communication-2/

The following video explains in a different way Non-verbal communication and shows some examples of how it is used:

Austin Werner, Ben Allman, Sam Allman, Non-verbal communication (September 2009). Retrieved May 7, 2011. From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsjZrkm-2Tk

DISCUSSION: Which ones are the main Cultural Differences in Non-verbal Communication?

Different countries have different ways of communicating; issues of cultural background, regional variations, gender and personal idiolect come into play in non-verbal communication.

Some examples of gestures that may not translate include pointing. Pointing with a single finger is considered rude in many Asian cultures, is better to indicate direction by gesturing with a whole hand. Even among those cultures that use a single finger to point, there is variation. In the US, americans use the index finger to point. In Germany, using the pinky to point is common. The gesture that Americans use to indicate everything is okay is a very offensive gesture in many parts of the world.

Skillful Communications. (march 2010). Retrieved May 6, 2011. From:  http://skillfullydone.com/non-verbal-communication-interview

Eye contact can indicate a degree of attention or interest. It can be used to indicate attraction, to establish power, indicate emotion, and influence attitude. In some western cultures they perceive direct eye contact as a positive trait. But in certain parts of Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia avoiding eye contact is the way to show respect. Extended eye-contact in these cultures may be taken as disrespectful or a challenge to authority.

Physical contact: Different cultures have different rules for physical contact. Norms for the type of contact, the length of contact and the persons involved in contact vary.

Upon encountering an individual, even a stranger, Americans shaking hands as the norms. In certain situations, hugging upon meeting is acceptable. Islamic cultures generally do not approve of touching between genders, though many Islamic men who do business internationally have learned to adopt more western customs in dealing with women. Also many Asian cultures do not allow touching on the head as it houses the soul.

Facial expressions: All cultures seem to express with the same basic facial expressions the basic emotions of anger, grief, happiness and fear. But the acceptability of such expression varies from culture to culture. Many Asian cultures don't easily express anger or grief on their faces, while Mediterranean Latin and Arabic cultures permit open expressions of grief.

Communication. Retrieved May 6, 2011. From: http://jio2665.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/non-verbal-communication-examples.jpg

References:
- Naphtalia Leba. (July 2010). Understanding Cultural Differences in Non-verbal Communications. Retrieved May 6, 2011. From: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5568614/understanding_cultural_differences.html?cat=16
- Vermont Department of Health. Cultural Differences in Non-verbal Communication. Retrieved May 7, 2011. From: http://healthvermont.gov/family/toolkit/tools%5CF-6%20Cultural%20Differences%20in%20Nonverbal%20Communic.pdf

EXPATRIATE ASSIGNMENT (EA) AND OVERSEAS EXPERIENCES (OE)

Expatriate assignment. Retrieved May 3, 2011. From: http://eslabloggers.blogspot.com/

Nowadays expatriate assignments have become a common practice for different kinds of multinational companies, especially when they have foreign operations or want to have different strategies to expand market share in a specific country.

EA main characteristics:

-          The initiative for the international experience comes primarily from a company which operates internationally with subsidiaries.

-          Goals: company projects.

-          For the individual the causes of success or failure of AE are attributed to the company and the remedies for failure are in the company´s hands.

Overseas experience. Retrieved May 3, 2011. From: http://www.careerdynamix.com/ServicesBrIndividuals/OverseasExperience/tabid/109/Default.aspx

OE main characteristics:

-          The initiative for the international experience comes from the individual.

-          Cultural experience as important as work, Geographical mobility, Curiosity- driven, Personal learning agendas, Individual is self-supporting, Weak company attachments.

-          OE is typically pursued out of a personal motivation to explore and learn.

DISCUSSION: Characterize one country and its main immigrants; describe the types of labor they perform and the living conditions of them.

Wellington, capital of New Zealand. Retrieved May 3, 2011. From: http://www.travelpod.com/ad/Capital_E-Wellington

New Zealand

 Recognized as one of the countries where immigrants have great opportunities, foreigners account for 16% of the population, mainly from East Asia and Oceania.

- Opportunities: New Zealand offers good job opportunities to immigrants, given the economic good of the country, with unemployment at just 3.5%. Need professionals in education and health.

 - Work-life balance: the great benefits for immigrants who arrive in New Zealand are that the work there is very flexible.

At present, New Zealand needs more helping hands in the fields of health care, computer technology, management and agriculture. Working in New Zealand is financially rewarding since it is one of the top countries in the world offering high employee salaries. This is the main reason why most people enjoy high quality living and can afford pricey items and commodities.

References:

- Jose Marc Castro, (August 2009). Cost of living in New Zealand. Retrieved May 3, 2011 from:  http://www.expatforum.com/articles/cost-of-living/cost-of-living-in-new-zealand.html

- Immigration in New Zealand. Retrieved May 3, 2011 from: http://www.immigration.govt.nz/

- Inkson, Kerr et al. 1999. Expatriate Assignments and Overseas Experience-contrasting models of international human resource development. Journal of world business. 34: 351-368.  

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

“Information regardless of how expensive it was to create it can be replicated and shared at little or no cost.” Thomas Jefferson

According to the business dictionary knowledge management are strategies and processes designed to identify, capture, structure, value, leverage, and share an organization's intellectual assets to enhance its performance and competitiveness.

That’s why people´s knowledge is quite important, but keeping this in organizations is even more important.

Some ways of keeping knowledge inside the organization is by using: 1) blogs, 2) knowledge maps, 3) wikis, 4) Forums, 5) knowledge café, among other techniques.

Knowledge management. Retrieved April 19,2011, from: http://www.informationarchitected.com/training/integrated-knowledge-management/

The following video show´s in more detail how knowledge management function:

Source: Lee Bryant, (July,2008). Retrieved April 19,2011. From:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYq9jmVtQU8

References:

- Marilyn Leask, Caren Lee, Tim Milner, Michael Norton and Dimple Rathod. (March 2008). Knowledge management tools and techniques. pag 9-19. Information retrieved from http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/8595069

- Knowledge Management- Emerging Perspectives. Retrieved April 19, 2011. From: http://www.systems-thinking.org/kmgmt/kmgmt.htm#references

Nowadays Yoga is a very interesting tool for organizations to motivate and relax their employees. There are studies showing that stress at work affects the European Union to 41 million people and this causes a loss of 20,000 million euros per year.

A yoga center name YogaWork said that improving the physical, mental, intellectual and emotional parts of an individual leads to an improvement on the quality of the company to which he belongs. The following are some benefits that yoga gives to organizations when they used this technique with employees:

       ·Improve concentration, helping to make decisions more efficiently.

·Reduces, prevents and helps manage stress allowing an improvement in mood and a more pleasant work environment.

·Stimulates creativity.

·Improves cognitive performance and employment.

·Maximize employee productivity.

·Generates a more harmonious working environment, motivating employees to work more relaxed and that the working day more bearable.

·Decreases and prevents disease, reducing absenteeism, licenses and medical costs.

·Improving the management of stress and anxiety, resulting in greater productivity at work and the quality of life of the individual. It also helps to prevent stress.

·Eliminates the ill effects of sedentary corporate life: relieves tension of lumbar, cervical and thoracic.

·Increases overall energy.

·Increase organizational capacity.

Yoga in organizations. Retrieved April 18, 2011, from: http://www.elestudio.mx/blog/?p=4

Benefits of Yoga in organizations. Retrieved April 18, 2011, from: http://www.bellezayalma.com/beneficios-del-yoga-2/

References:

- Yoga para Empresas”. (2008). Beneficios del yoga para las empresas. Retrieved: April 18, 2011, from: http://www.yogaparaempresas.com.ar/beneficios.html  

- Sadhaka. (2009, September 16). “el yoga cada vez más triunfa en las empresas”. Retrieved: April 18, 2011, from: http://cuadernodeyoga.com/2009/09/16/el-yoga-cada-vez-mas-triunfa-en-las-empresas/