I’ve been asked to give some feedback about my Organizations and Cultures course. Well, in a word? I loved it. I know I didn’t go to all the classes, sorry about that. But I was able to follow the course closely through interactiva, I like when my teachers make us use this tools continuously! Not only interactiva but also any electronic tool! I know we are no system engineers. But hey, us, International Negotiators, know a lot about electronic tools, and making us use this knowledge makes classes more fun and enjoyable. I also liked each weeks activities and presentations, not only the ones the teacher gave but group presentations (the ones I got the chance to attend) as well.

This was by far one of my favorite classes this semester.

Good bye for now!

Laura

Go check out their website and the projects they are implementing right now.

http://www.relpe.org/que-es-relpe/

Let me know what you think!

An other blog that I liked a lot was Alejandro Mejia’s. I like his point of view regarding the discrimination that comes from this new Arizona Law. Yes, if you look at it this way, white people from Latin America are normally the richest ones so they can afford a visa and travel expenses, while not so white Latin Americans don’t have this economical capacity, they have to go through Rio Bravo or God knows where and cross the border risking their lives. They have these features about them that will make everyone suspect they are not legal immigrants, Alejandro is right, this is going to lead to a crisis.

I also visited Susana Rincon’s blog, wow! It is really in my top 3! Clean, organized and complete! She is also in the same line that Alejandro about a crisis and brings the matter of community distrust to the table. I liked that!

Why don’t you go and check them out. These were my top 3 blogs this time:

http://organizationsculturecarolinagallego.blogspot.com/

http://organdculturesam3p.blogspot.com/

http://susana-organisationsandculturescourse.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-culture-means.html

I’m gonna tell you now what the law is all about. The first part just gives some insight on the reason why they created that law, they want to first reinforce border security in order to comply with other immigration laws, they then move on to determine who is an unlawful immigrant and who isn’t, all because if an authority suspects the person isn’t a legal immigrant then they may ask for the documents they mentioned in that section of the text. Afterwards, they go on and on about the different scenarios that could arise when an illegal immigrant is implicated and the consequences it may have.[1]

Now, I’m not so happy about section 4. Why don’t you give it a shot and try to read the text at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/05/full-text-arizona-illegal-immigration-law-jan-brewer.html , there you’ll find that section and you’ll see what I mean. The person has to pay for jail costs? Oh, and they also wanted the person to pay even more fines and money! (They had to scratch those for the House Bill)! If you keep reading the rest of the sections your eyes will just start to get bigger and bigger. See, now, trying to get transportation for Hispanic looking people is gonna be a problem, a big one, cause if someone sees you in the highway, the person may suspect you are an “alien” unlawfully residing in the American territory, and since it is illegal to provide transportation for them, they won’t stop and help you.

So here I go with my position for the debate. I’m completely against it. I understand that it had some noble start; I know many ranchers have died for being to close to the border of because of an illegal immigrant and things like that but promoting such law does seem a little bit discriminatory. I mean, the purpose of this law was to enforce border security, and well, I really don’t see how they are going to do it going around suspecting of every single person that looks Hispanic to them. That’s where the discriminatory part kicks in. I’ve seen videos of protests, rallies, celebrities talking about it and politicians. I do know something, it has come to democrats against republicans, and for the “land of freedom” this Law leaves the American government in a stage of distrust so great that I wouldn’t be surprised if the matter is taken into consideration in the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean Summit this year.

I’m referring to all the lost generation issue between the Australian Government and the indigenous Australians who inhabited the land before the English “discovered” it to answer that question. As I mentioned in a previous post, my group was in charge of doing the presentation about Australia and Oceania. Well, we also went through the Lost Generation issue and explained it to the whole class. See, during a period of time in the history of Australia, in order to erase all traces of the indigenous culture and traditions, the Australian Government passed an Act in which all children age 0-5 years old were to be taken by the State away from their families and put in foster homes in Australia or outside Australia, they were then adopted by a white couple or they stayed in that foster home but were in risk of being sexually abused. It’s actually a really sad and unfair story of how a culture tries to erase another one. And in the case of the indigenous Australians, the dominant culture tries to say sorry after many years of suffering. As we mentioned in our presentation, these communities are the poorest, unhealthiest, most unemployed and discriminated ones in Australia. And they have been so as a result of the government’s policies toward them.

It’s sad to think that they’ve been in this conditions since the English got to Australia. I believe Australia should not only say sorry for what they did to those little children, they should also say sorry for the conditions in which they now have to live. They need to find ways to help them without hurting their rights and they have to find them now. When I was a little girl I hurt my best friends feelings, I think we all have gone through that, she felt horrible and I did as well because I knew it was my fault. I then decided to talk to my parents about what I’ve done and they said that I needed to say sorry but that saying sorry wasn’t enough, I had to change my attitude towards her, I needed to be more patient with her and accept her as she was. See, Australia needed to say sorry and it’s useful they did, but they also need to have a change of attitude, to accept these communities as they are and embrace them as part of their own, they need to end discrimination, give them the quality of life the rest of the communities share and have patience so they can understand the difference between the cultures, as they have been doing with the Asians and Indians.

1. What is a Transitional Space and why is it useful for employees. Give at least 2 examples of successful experiences.

According to the article by De Vries et al, a transitional space can be explain as an “organization in which their followers can gradually move away from traditions tied to their individual cultural identity and build an organization based on trust”[1]this means that employees can work without fear or loathing and begin trusting the organization and their coworkers from other cultures. A better space in which work relationships can develop based on trust and the organization can work more smoothly. Because they have the support they need from the organization to manage change, which is the root of their fear and loathing. A good way to further explain why it is useful for employees is to analyze successful cases. Take BP as an example, a British organization in which its employees were completely demoralized and through a good management of change by creating a transitional space they became an energetic and respected organization.

2. According to the article, why is the European Case different from other cases in what refers to “Diversity”

If Europe is considered as a single economy formed by different nations that have different national cultures, languages, religions, practices, historical backgrounds, etc, then European organizations have to deal with Diversity in many more dimensions than other organizations in other parts of the world, and said level of complexity can only work in favor of the organization if there’s a good managerial team that can deal with it.

3. Which ones are the main Challenges the New European Leaders face when managing organizations.

It can be said that there’s just one main challenge that New European Leaders face and that can be divided into various parts. The main challenge lies on the self-knowledge that the person has. Is he/she a leader? Why? What’s his/her background? Has he/she got to know other European culture? Does he/she speak other European languages? Can he/she deal with European diversity? Because a New European Leader’s true challenge depends on how well he or she can use the above to understand and manage diversity through Transitional Spaces and avoid failures for the organization related to many aspects like change, which can rise fear and loathing. There are also many elements that a leader should analyze and try to implement such as channels of communication, listen and encourage employees as well as making work meaningful for them, and setting a good example as well as many more.[2]

4. Which ones are the main Skills that New European Leaders should acquire when running a global business.

• Psychological Insight
• Diversity Understanding
• Self-insight
• Awareness (not only self-awareness but general-awareness)

5. According to you which skills should be taken into account for Leaders running business in Latin America.

When considering the Latin American culture, something similar to the European culture happens, there’s non. There’s a convergence of national cultures, yes, but never a homogenization because there are many aspects that are similar like language, some practices and sometimes religion, but there are many others that create differences like time management, management practices, beliefs, values, and more importantly national pride. Thus, diversity exists, not at the same level it does in Europe, but nevertheless it is really important to be addressed in the correct way. Through the above-mentioned skills, a Latin American Leader can manage diversity, deal with national pride as part of diversity, create collaborative spaces as well as transitional ones and more importantly, prepare him/herself for the challenge of taking a Latin American company into other markets, like the European. As the authors said in their article, the skills that European Leaders gain from experience with European diversity management prepare them to global challenges.

[2] De Vries, Manfred Kets & Konstantin Korotov. (2006) The future of European Business Leadership. European Business Forum, 24: 41-42

Have the indigenous issues been solved? What about the Asians? And gender based violence, inequalities and issues? All those questions and more will be answered next week!

(Lol, I just realized I sounded like a TV promo!)

Why don’t you check it out? Here’s the link http://organizationsculturecarolinagallego.blogspot.com/

First of all, what is a trade union? I’m gonna give you Wikipedia’s definition because is the easiest one. A Trade union is a labor union. And what is a labor union? Well, is an organization of workers that got together to fight (not literally…sometimes) for a common goal. Now, how important are trade unions in Europe? What do they do? Well, without trade unions, who will defend workers rights? Who will fight for better work conditions or for better wages and benefits? See, the role of trade unions depend on the importance that the State gives to them. There are countries in which if trade unions are not happy with something, the government has to change it immediately, in some other countries, they just don’t care that much because maybe not all the workers belong to a trade union. That’s not Colombia’s nor Europe’s case.

The European Union has a lot of trade unions and I’m not gonna mention all of them in this post instead, I’m gonna talk about the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) which includes several of these trade unions as well as industry-based federations (i.e. putting all the oil industry workers together). They only have one goal and that’s to “speak on behalf of the common interests of workers” (see 1) by influencing European decision making. But to what extend to they actually influence decision making? Easy. The work directly with the European Presidency, Council, Commission and Parliament (see 1) this means they can have leverage power because they get to negotiate directly with those that have the power to change things.

Now, is it the same with Colombian trade unions? Well, Colombian unions are not subscribe a confederation that takes common interests to certain governmental institution. There is no just one union for the Colombian working force, there are more than 7 plus those that are industry-based (see 2). This way, each one of them has its own set of goals and interests which they try to take to higher governmental institutions and try to be heard . But satisfying one union doesn’t  always mean satisfying all of them and that’s where the difference lies between European and Colombian unions. But that’s not the subject of this post. I must find similarities.

How can I explain the similarities in their roles? Well, it all comes down to the responsibilities and duties of a trade union. As I said before defending workers’ interests and rights its their duty and they both, Europeans as well as Colombians do that. Sometimes with too much passion. But that’s a whole different thing.

1. European Trade Union Confederation. “Our aims” [Internet] Retrieved from: http://www.etuc.org/r/2 [Accessed 23 April 2010]

2. Mundo Andino. “Trade Unions of Colombia” [Internet] Retrieved from: http://www.mundoandino.com/Category/Trade-unions-of-Colombia [Accessed 23 April 2010]

3. Ebbinghaus, B (2002). University of Wisconsin. Trade Unions’ changing role: membership erosion, organizational reform, and social partnership in Europe. [PDF] Retrieved from: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:ni_I4zBW-ugJ:eucenter.wisc.edu/Publications/ebbinghaus02.pdf+importance+of+trade+unions+in+europe&hl=es&gl=co&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgm7A2vrCSLpsXx1z8alJvrWVLDfQAYTossCQdLhtI3Cf-L1YOQbq16mdTFxneqPAWNDzLuHCRwjbCEQWpyxUM4fH_vjDrt49N0h1ET1vYLXd576uR7WuVvXhlE_BN8l1QEfPVt&sig=AHIEtbQmYu-8jXjOa5WJMAQpnlA09pIy4w [Accessed 23 April 2010]

Anyways, here we see the importance of using electronic tools. How they can change the world and even the lives of hundreds, sometimes thousands of people.

I leave you now with the link to the blog I’m talking about.

http://www.ajindo.blogspot.com/