Coments on others blogs...

http://www.caidosdelarealidad.com/2010/10/14-consejos-para-los-bloggers-inexpertos.html

I really liked what Moises Vitola did with the main tittle of his blog, it looks great and calls the attention of the reader, also the pictures and cartoons that he used really carry the message of the topics, and that´s very important when choosing images for a blog because pictures that have nothing to do with the topic will only confuse readers.


I really liked the theme and background design that Paola Diaz used to decorate her blog, even if many people think that dark backgrounds simply put strain on eyes of the readers and get them tired quickly, I think she made a right choice and her blog looks very nice.


I think Carolina Pourrat made a great job with her blog, she is very creative when she writes and you can see that creativity and style reflected throughout the blog, her personlity really comes out in every entry. Let´s take a look of an example of a very intriguing tittle that I took from her blog: ´´how to make a change and survive on the intent, hints about decision making and ethical behavior´´, How can you not want to read more of that?


Juan Guillermo´s blog looks really organized, I liked that he used short separate paragraphs instead of long paragraphs that may be considered by many readers as discouraging and even boring. He also organized all the videos that he wants readers to watch at the end of his blog in a little bar, and all the bibliography he used can be found at the beginning of the blog.
This organized design allows readers to look around the page naturally without being overloaded with information.


I really liked that Julian Restrepo included a video of JICA, because in the video you can see how japanese aid workers are helping people from different parts of the world and this makes viewers realize that the japanese agency is really willing to fight against poverty and discrimination and that they only want to contribute to make our world a better place to live.


References


I love blogging. (Image). Available at: http://www.caidosdelarealidad.com/2010/10/14-consejos-para-los-bloggers-inexpertos.html

Motivation

 

According to John Adair, one of Britain´s most important motivational theorists, motivation is what causes a person to act covering all the reasons for which that person chooses to act in a certain manner(Adair, 2006). There are several theories that talk about motivation but the most influent one is Maslow´s hierarchy of needs.

Maslow´s theory suggests that people are motivated by their desire to satisfy specific needs, those needs are classified in 5 categories: physiological needs, safety needs, social belongingness needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs. This theory became the basis for the theory x and the theory y, which says that employees can be divided in two categories: the ones belonging to the x category become costs for the company meanwhile Y employees are considered assets.

The ERG theory suggests that people are motivated by 3 types of needs: existence, relatedness and growth needs. Alderfer´s theory also proposes that all of them can be satisfied at the same time.

McClelland´s theory talks about three acquired needs: achievement, affiliation and power. Achievement is the need to do things better with a standard of excellence, affiliation refers to the need of being liked and having good relations with others and power refers to the capacity of influencing other people.

Herzberg´s theory established that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are independent states. Motivators are job factors that influence job satisfaction and hygiene factors can prevent job dissatisfaction.

The social exchange theory says that individuals make social decisions based on perceived benefits or costs; it also explains that individuals will always want to maximize rewards and minimize costs when relating to others.

The expectancy theory doesn´t focus on needs like Maslow and Herzberg´s theories, it focuses on outcomes. It basically says that people are easier to motivate when they have expectations of what will happen if they do certain things and it also proposes that people can become more productive if they believe their efforts will be rewarded.

In fact there isn´t a perfect theory or a perfect formula that managers can use in all situations to achieve the same results, cultural differences should be taken into account when motivating employees. Two countries are known for having the highest levels of motivation and job satisfaction: Denmark and India, but they have very different drivers of motivation influenced by the cultural features. Again, culture has an important role that managers should not underestimate.I found this video and I would like to share it with you:

QUESTION

In multicultural organizational contexts what could be a good strategy to keep people motivated towards a common task?

Managers have to understand that regardless of their nationality, people are always driven to accomplish needs, so in multicultural contexts the key to support the motivation of employees is understanding what motivates each of them (which needs they wanto to fulfill), to find this out managers should have direct channels of communication with the staff, and by observing them managers can also find possible motivators. After having meetings with the employees, managers can stablish rewards systems that take into account their motivational factors like providing more vacations or giving them more recognition (if that is important to them), other times employees just want to redesign their jobs to make them more satisfying, so managers should develop the skills to translate into actions and policies what the employees want.

REFERENCES

Business dictionary. Expectancy theory. (Online). Retrieved on March 3^rd 2011. Available at: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/expectancy-theory.html

Lefter, V., Aurel, M., Virgil, M., Ramona,P. Employees motivation theories developed at an international level.(Online).Retrieved on March 3^rd 2011. Available at: http://steconomice.uoradea.ro/anale/volume/2009/v4-management-and-marketing/54.pdf

Adair, J.(2006).Leadership and motivation. The fifty-five rule and the eight key principles of motivating others. London: Kogan page.

RSA.ORG. The surprising truth about what motivates us. Retrieved on March 7th,2011 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc 

flashcards:organizational behavior chapter 6. Retrieved on March 3rd 2011.Available at: http://quizlet.com/1365820/organizational-behavior-chapter-6-flash-cards/

Motivating a turtle.(image)Retrieved on March 7th,2011 from http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://alfombraroja.do/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/motivacion_tortuga.jpg&imgrefurl=http://alfombraroja.do/%3Fp%3D16932&usg=__Q8kiQ_Upp3rafveAt-EHZCSWu6Q=&h=311&w=549&sz=63&hl=es&start=0&sig2=Q3e_CLS3xy-C9itm3FZ60A&zoom=1&tbnid=nvB62A2zza4lNM:&tbnh=117&tbnw=160&ei=BV54TZkRrL3RAeLBifsD&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMOTIVACION%26um%3D1%26hl%3Des%26biw%3D1579%26bih%3D699%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=462&oei=BV54TZkRrL3RAeLBifsD&page=1&ndsp=38&ved=1t:429,r:35,s:0&tx=94&ty=61

The corporation is a documentary by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abott that examines the concept of the corporation throughout history. It begins by explaining how corporation lawyers achieved to give rights to corporations using the 14th amendment, which was originally written to protect slaves.

Then the documentary shows that corporations after becoming legal ´´persons´´ are designed by law to have only one purpose: gain profits for their stakeholders, putting their bottom-line before everything else. Even if this implies that they are going to let others deal with the problems that their operations may create, becoming externalizing machines that won´t take care of the damages created to third parties.

The corporation´s purpose is also accepted and justified by capitalism, an economic system that encourages private individuals and corporations to own the means of production and operate to obtain profit. The documentary then puts the corporation on the psychiatrist´s couch to analyze a disturbing reality, if corporations are supposed to be legal entities (recognized by the law as a juristic person), why do they exhibit all the characteristics that psychopaths have according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) published by the American Psychiatric Association? and more disturbing, if corporations, the dominant institutions of modern times, have been created in the image of a psychopath, who´s going to deal with the moral responsibility of their actions? Because employees are only obeying what their contract says, the building has no moral it´s just a structure of concrete and bricks, and its executives and stakeholders have a financial liability limited to a fixed sum, the corporation itself is defined as an artificial creation of its members, so is there anyone left that can bear with the moral responsibility and the damages that corporations have made? The answer is no.

 

REFERENCES 
Goldberg, R., Droste, J.(2007). Mcdonald´s corporation:managing a sustainable supply chain. Harvard case study.

Mcvictory. (Online research). Access date: March 4th,2011 retrieved from
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/McVictory-200706/

Devorando la amazonia.(Online research). Access date: march 4th 2011. Available at:  http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/espana/reports/devorando-la-amazonia.pdf


The corporation logo.(Image).Access date:march 4th 2011. Available at: http://conciencianoosfera.wordpress.com/d-o-c-u-m-e-n-t-a-l-e-s/ 


 Achbar,M., Abbott J.(2003) (directors).The corporation (film).


The definition of a corporation.Access date:march 4th 2011. Available at: http://www.allbusiness.com/legal/contracts-agreements-incorporation/529-1.html

QUESTION

In this documentary, corporations are defined as "legal entities" and they meet the clinical definition of psychopathic behavior. Do you agree, why, or why not?

I disagree with the generalizations made in the film that make the viewer think that all corporations are externalizing monsters displaying a psychopathic behavior, because even if SOME corporations have done certain unethical actions and display a lack of empathy and moral , it doesn´t mean that all corporations are the same. The documentary only looks at bad examples but the authors don´t take in consideration that many corporations after learning from their mistakes, have tried to correct them, and as far as I know Psychopaths would not try to fix their mistakes as they feel no remorse. Let´s take Mcdonald´s as an example, this corporation has been criticized many times for not taking into consideration the impact of their operations over the environment, but after they discovered the damages that one of their suppliers was doing to the amazon rainforest to extract soya, they inmediately responded by promising to never buy soya from newly deforested areas, until now they have kept their promise, and they are working with Greenpeace closely to find other ways to develop green initiatives . Psychopaths on the other hand, are not able to mantain long relationships or commit truly to a campaign.

Decision making and ethical behavior

Managers control and lead their workforce by making decisions, sometimes the decision making process is really short but in other situations it can take weeks or even months.   The process takes the following steps to be completed:

Define the problem-identify the objective of the decision-gather data and develop potential alternatives-analyze them-select the best alternative-implement decision and establish an evaluation system.

When defining the problem managers should analyze if the problem is really the problem because most of the times problems are only the symptons, not the real problems.

There are several decision-making models and they vary from very rational (rational model) to nonrational ones like the garbage can model. Decision making is not only for managers when leading employees, groups can also use several techniques when taking decisions like: brainstorming, NGT, Delphi technique, devil's advocacy and dialectical inquiry. But they should be aware of some difficulties that may arise and affect decision making in an unconstructive way, such as groupthink, in which members avoid critically evaluating information and simply form quick opinions that go with the group consent.

Managers should know that risk is inherent in any organization, so it is important that they develop appropriate risk management skills without hampering creativity, which is a key element when solving problems and developing new products and ideas.

Managers should also be aware of the ethical issues when making decisions, because as we saw in the film ´´the corporation´´ brand image and customer trust in a company can be seriously damaged when managers don´t do the right thing. To make ethical decisions managers should have the following characteristics:

-They must be able to identify ethical issues

-They must have the confidence to look for different opinions and decide what the right thing to do is.

-They must be disposed to make decisions even if the ethical issue doesn´t have an explicit solution.

There are some individual characteristics that affect ethical behavior and they are: locus of control, Machiavellianism and cognitive moral development.

-Locus of control: this characteristic affects individual behavior because a person with an internal locus of control will believe that his behavior is under his control, therefore he/she is more willing to make more ethical decisions and less willing to hurt others.

-Machiavellianism: it is a term usually used to describe people that manipulate and even mislead others in order to obtain benefits for their own.

-Cognitive moral development: this theory proposes that there are levels of growth in the moral development of humans. 

  I found this really useful checklist that managers should use in ethical-decision making processes: (when finding it difficult to identify a situation as ethical or unethical)

1. Is it legal?
2. Is it fair to all concerned?
3. Would I want someone else to act this way to me?
4. How would I explain my actions to someone else?
5. How will it make me feel about myself?

QUESTION

How can organizations effectively manage both risk taking and escalation of commitment in the decision making behavior of employees?

Like groups, organizations can use a technique similar to the devil´s advocate, by choosing a person that calls the attention of the group members whenever their decisions are becoming too risky. but it would be better if that person is not someone from the group, because then he/she would be in a neutral position and free from group pressures. To prevent escalation of commitment organizations should split the responsibility for the decisions between different individuals, or whenever a manager notices that an employee is comitting too much resources and time to a failing course of action, the manager should provide the employee with an attractive exit.

REFERENCES 

Garret, Jan.theories of cognitive and moral development. Theory of Moral Development in Six Stages.Retrieved on March 4th,2011 from  http://people.wku.edu/jan.garrett/cogmordv.htm

De Bono, E. The risk of creativity(2006).Retrieved on March 4th,2011 from: http://www.management-issues.com/2006/9/19/opinion/the-risk-of-creativity.asp

Ross, Glengarry. Ethical and legal considerations in selling.checkpoints in ethical decision making. Retrieved on March 4th,2011 from
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~renglish/377/notes/chapt03/index.htm

free management library.basic guidelines to decision making and problem solving.(Online).Retrieved on March 4th,2011 from http://managementhelp.org/prsn_prd/prb_bsc.htm

Lankard, Bettina A.Resolving ethical dilemmas in the workplace: A new focus for carrer development.(Online) Retrieved on March 4th,2011 from http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9220/focus.htm

managing risk.(Image).Retrieved on March 4th,2011 from: http://www.crisisriskmanagement.com/

excutives shaking hands: unethical practices.(Image).Retrieved on March 4th,2011 from:
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~renglish/377/notes/chapt03/index.htm

Perception, attitudes and Values

In this class we saw key elements that are needed to understand behavior in organizations: personality, perceptions, attitudes and values. All of these elements are brought to the organization by all of its members and at the same time their membership in the organization and the way they relate to others in the workplace shape their behaviors.

Personality, which is not the same as character or temperament, is what makes a person unique, a really good definition published by the American psychiatric association defines personality as: ´´Enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself that are exhibited in a wide range of social and personal contexts´´¹  (APA, 2000,P.686)

There are a number of perspectives about how personality develops which can be observed in the chart :

Personality characteristics in organizations are related with a model that explains that there are 4 self-evaluations that determine a person´s position towards job satisfaction and they are: self-esteem(the concept an individual has about himself), self-efficacy(the expectation a person has of its own competences), locus of control(extent to which a person believes that circumstances in his/her life are within its control)  and neuroticism.

                                                           

The perception we have about people around us will affect the way we relate with them. As we learned in class, social perception allows us to understand other individuals and there are three categories of factors that influence our perception of another person: characteristics of ourselves, characteristics of the person that is being perceived and the characteristics of the situation.

In order to really get to know others, we must learn to ignore the barriers to social perception which are: selective perception, stereotyping, first impression error, projection and self-fulfilling prophecies.

When individuals try to explain their own behavior or that of others, they are applying a psychological concept called attribution and when they have a positive or negative disposition towards something or someone that is called an attitude. A good example of the attribution theory would be when students fail a test, they may attribute their failure to their teacher by saying that he/she didn´t provide the right material for the test and in that way they avoid the responsibility and externalize the blame; An example of an attitude would be: when employees are not happy with their jobs, they won´t do their daily activities with enjoyment and satisfaction, instead they would show signs of  dissatisfaction and they would do things as if they were being forced.

  

Values can be defined as deeply held beliefs (therefore they usually remain constant over time) that make an individual prefer and choose certain behavior or mode of conduct over others. In organizations, values provide a framework of the behavior that its members should have, and they should be reflected not only in the general statements of the company but in its member´s everyday actions and decisions.  We saw some important work values in class like achievement, concern for others, honesty and others and I will add some others that I consider essential: tolerance when dealing with diversity and responsibility.

QUESTION

To what do you attribute the success of JICA?

 I believe JICA has been succesful around the globe because the agency has achieved to stablish a clear mission and vision (reduce poverty and encourage the international community to help japan, which depends on resorces from around the world) and in order to reach that mission they have created specific unambigous strategies with measurable results, meaning that they know where they are and where they want to go.
I attribute most of their success to the agency´s internal structure, planning and way of executing those strategies, to their philosophy of giving their best in order to receive, to their effecctiveness when transmitting their organizational values to their aid workers and to the fact that even if their aid workers are kilometers away from JICA´s headquarters the agency doesn´t lose track of them and they constantly evaluate their accomplishments. In conclusion, most of their success comes from internal factors, but one external aspect that one has to consider when analyzing the situation, is the fact that they have the support of Japan´s government and this means that they have access to many resources and opportunities that they probably wouldn´t have if their economic conditions were different.

REFERENCES

American Psychological Association (2000). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) (2000). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Cherry, Kendra. ´´What is personality?´´ (Online). Retrieved March 1st, 2011, from http://psychology.about.com/od/overviewofpersonality/a/persondef.htm.

Psychology attribution theory. What is attribution theory? (Online). Retrieved March 1^st, 2011, from http://www.peaceandhealing.com/psychology/attribution-theory/

El valor de los valores en organizaciones. (Online) Retrieved March 3^rd, 2011, from http://www.elvalordelosvalores.com/definicion/index.html

Locus of control definition. Business Dictionary. Retrieved on March 3^rd, 2011 from
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/locus-of-control.html


Multiple personality. (Image). Retrieved onMarch 3^rd, 2011   from: http://www.hpchile.cl/forense/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=691:personalidad-multiple-un-caso-raro-en-la-practica-forense&catid=14&Itemid

Organizational behavior and culture

INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

In this class we studied the definition and perspectives of organizational behavior, which is an interdisciplinary field that not only studies individuals but also studies how they behave in a workplace setting when being part of an organization.
There are two perspectives used to understand human behavior
The internal perspective (considers factors inside the person) and the external perspective (considers factors outside the person). 
We also learned that organizations are composed of four major elements which can be seen in the following chart:

Retrieved from:

http://comportamientoorganizacional4.blogspot.com/2010/04/comportamiento-organizacional.html

Organizations also have informal (Ex: values) and formal (Ex: the goals and policies of the company) elements within them.

Companies are facing a lot of changes nowadays; these changes are driven by international competition, globalization, technological innovation and demands for high levels of ethical behavior; In order to face those changes most companies are becoming more customer-oriented with the objective of meeting customer expectations of high quality. The TQM and six sigma systems are two great examples used by some companies to deliver great results in terms of high quality and customer satisfaction.

CULTURE

 

Culture refers to a set of values, beliefs and customs that differentiate members of a society from others. Culture directly affects employee´s work enjoyment, work relationships and most of their work processes and when analyzed at a macro level, it directly affects the effectiveness of organizations. Most organizations have a set of values and beliefs that are commonly shared by its members, like for example Wal-Mart has one main objective that is part of its organizational culture and provides justification for all of their actions; this main goal is lowering the cost of living for everyone, (saving people money to help them have a better life).

In organizations there are some internal and external factors that influence the way decisions are made, organizational culture is part of the internal factors and national culture is part of the external factors.  

International managers need to develop skills in order to distinguish when culture is a decisive factor and when it’s not.  Cultural analysis models can help managers make generalizations about the behavior of the workforce but they must not rely completely on these models.

Cross-cultural managers need to develop skills in order to take advantage of the benefits that diversity brings (Examples: cross-cultural learning, synergetic processes, etc).  But in some cases ignoring diversity is the best alternative, like when the benefits of managing diversity do not justify the costs.   

Three important concepts that I learned in class:

·         Cultural is particular to one group

·         Culture is learned

·         It includes a system of values

     Why is managing organizational behavior in changing times challenging?

     First and most important, because organizational behavior deals with human behavior and humans are complex beings that can only be understood by analyzing 4 dimensions: the physical, psychological, social and spiritual dimensions.  Second, because most people will react with fear and resistance when they are exposed to changing conditions. Generally this resistance appears when people feel they would lose control over a situation, or when they don´t understand the change and its implications, or when they feel they won’t be able to follow the pace of the change. Third, because in modern changing times most companies are being forced to reevaluate their structures, review their operations and reconsider, in some cases, the way of conducting their businesses.  Organizations are being challenged to become more efficient and more flexible, and this involves the collaboration and teamwork of all the members, not only managers. In most cases, employees are not being considered costs anymore, because managers have noticed that by appropriately motivating the workforce and making them feel part of the organization´s goals, the effectiveness of their operations can be boosted.  According to Sims,R. (2002) in his book ´´managing organizational behavior´´:companies are now seeing employees as internal customers, and that implies that managers will have to develop new skills to better understand their needs. Managers will also have to learn the importance of using information systems to better understand customer and employees preferences, and the way they manage the relationships and behavior of their suppliers will also be essential for the success of the company.  All the variables described in the paragraph will give the lecturer an idea of why managing individuals and group dynamics in organizations has become so challenging.

REFERENCES

Components of the organization. http://comportamientoorganizacional4.blogspot.com/2010/04/comportamiento-organizacional.html (Image)

Cultural diversity.http://blog.alares.es/2009/07/06/el-charter-de-la-diversidad-no-a-la-discriminacion-si-a-la-integracion-social/ (Image)

Cameron, K., & Quinn, R., (1999). Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture. New York: Addison-Wesley.

Sims, R. (2002). Managing organizational behavior. United States: Greenwod publishing group. p. 25

Nelson, D.L. & Quick, J.C. (2010) OrganizationalBehavior: Science, TheReal Worldand You. South-Western CollegePublication, (7th. Ed)

Griffin R., Gregory, M (2010). Organizational behavior: managing people and organizations. (9th edition). Canada: Cengage learning

Thomas, David. Cross-cultural management essential concepts.(2nd edition).California:Sage publications.