That's why EAFIT University should support more these groups in order to give them the importance they really have in order to contribute to that social progress as they affirm in their vision statement. Also as they are backing them, the university should lead a campaign were EAFIT encourege other universities from Medellin to raise awarness about participating in volunteering in their unviersities, so Higher Education volunteering could be more practiced, more known, where they could awake people's desire to help, and finally create that volunteering environment which Medellin is lacking nowdays.
However, in the case study the results show that people from engenieering are more likely to develop that social commitment than for example from social science which normally in other studies is the major that more contribute to the participation in these groups. The reason engenieering is so into this activism is that they consider is a way to get out of all the maths and exact sciences and getting more into relationships and persons that is something uncommon in their programs.
It compare the views of the volunteering programs that EAFIT University offers, such as the definition of volunteering, the purposes that volunteering has, benefits and rewards, the amount of students that make part of the grous, the organizational structure and socio- demographic factors as age, gender and program attended in the university.
Nine volunteering groups were interviewed, where one person from each group attended the questionnaire, making sure that they played a leader roll in the group they made part of in order to gather more accurate information about each activity.
volunteer's benefits
different from expected, the students from the business degree are the most engaged to volunteering, what shows an especial interest in others welfare and learning and not about seeking economic wealth.
Taking these findings and conclusions, we suggest that volunteering should be studied deeply in order to have more sources and knowledgement specially about volunteering in higher education, this theme is been forgotten and the education sector is been so careless with it that there are not enough literature review available to investigate about this matter here in Medellín and Colombia.
Although our study was only made in one university, it gives detailed information about how is volunteering working in EAFIT University, but further studies should cover other universities of the city and of the country in order to compare them and have a vast information to see maybe if aspects as culture, religion or income factors affects in the contribution of Higher Education Institutions to their communities.
According to the leaders of the volunteering groups interviewed, the biggest benefits that society receive from volunteering are the information, given events and conferences and finally the training, all of them with a 10% of votes. And then words as entertainmente, distraction, leadership training, trained professionals, learning, knowledgement network, enterprises visitis, guida and consltants were named in order to associate thos benefits to society.
viernes, 29 de mayo de 2009
martes, 26 de mayo de 2009
Analysis
Due to this research pretends to be documentary and descriptive, we used a methodology based on structured interviews that allowed us to comprehend more the volunteering phenomenon in EAFIT University, which includes the identification of the performance of the civic contribution, the greatest gender that offers to volunteer, the degrees of the volunteers, the ages were they are more likely to help, the different volunteering groups, as well as identifying what volunteers think about what is known as volunteering and the benefits they have and give to the society.
Due to this research pretends to be documentary and descriptive, we used a methodology based on structured interviews that allowed us to comprehend more the volunteering phenomenon in EAFIT University, which includes the identification of the performance of the civic contribution, the greatest gender that offers to volunteer, the degrees of the volunteers, the ages were they are more likely to help, the different volunteering groups, as well as identifying what volunteers think about what is known as volunteering and the benefits they have and give to the society.
The state or the university (depending if it is a private or public university) is providing a support to the academy and in return extracts a high price in terms of the involvement it expects of the academy in order to enhance its new engagement with society, even if is a global society (McILarth and Mac Labhrainn, 2007). In the case of EAFIT University, that support comes from the academy itself with the contribution to all these groups trough the freedom to express themselves, the infrastructure so they can have a localized core, the proper implements, permissions and all necessary approval to operate.
In this way, EAFIT is working hard to accomplish what their social responsibility declaration is taken into account in their vision statement, but that at the same time is not proclaimed in their mission statement starts saying " EAFIT University has the mission of contributing to the social, economic, scientific and cultural progress of the country trough the development of degrees and post graduate programs..."(EAFIT, 2009). At the time they advocate the need or the importance about social engagement they are not attributing the importance they may have or at least they are not considering them as a turning point where those volunteering groups benefit the university as be considered a civic university.
And the concept of civic engagement in higher education, encompasses a wide range of approaches to develop the civic kills, interests and participation of students, staff and institutional management. Examples include community based learning (or service learning), volunteering, community focused research, participative and collaborative research and educational initiatives, etc. (Gonzalez and McILarth and Mac Labhrainn, 2007)
There is a awareness of the potential of High education institutions to impact on their communities with many examples in the literature (Al-Kodman, 1999; Allen-Meares, 2005; Atman, 1995; Amey et al, 2002; Arbuckle & De hoog, 2004; Barnett, 1993; Percy et al, 2006) that highlight models for addressing social issues through collaboration. A number of authors suggest that this marks a return of universities towards their original purpose and will have positive repercussions for both universities and communities (Aronson & Webster, 2007; Buys & Burnall, 2007; Checkoway, 2001; Chibucos & Lerner, 1999)
The study that we made at EAFIT University support this trend not in the return of the univeristies towards their original purpose, but to help the society. The volunteering groups in this university have been increasing since 1960 that according to the information gathered is the first volunteering that started with this concern, sponsored by its international core, and since then all the groups were born, mostly since 1980 to 2005, what shows a boom, a social and civic contribution awareness as is shown in figure ( )
Gender in volunteering
Is commonly to find that in gender, women have higher rates of participation in volunteering groups (MacPhail and Bowles, 2008;
when analyzing the amount of students of the total that EAFIT has that belongs to volunteer, we surprisingly found that
When analyzing the amount of students of the total that EAFIT has that belongs to volunteer, we surprisingly found that only 443 students from EAFIT belong to a volunteering group inside the campus, this means that only the 6% of all the students are worried about that social/civic engagement, that percentage is a very low taking into accounts others countries statistics.
<
in terms of degrees, we divided in the four schools -not in careers- that the university has: Business School (that includes: Business Administration, International Business, Economy and Accountability), Engineering School (includes: Production, Mechanic, Process, Product design, Civil, Systems and Geology), Law School (include: Law) and Social Sciences (includes: Music, Social Communication, Politics, Physics Engineering and Mathematics Engineering). In the first place we found Business with 51% of volunteers that belong to this school, in second place we have Engineering and in third and fourth place respectively are Law and Social Sciences School.
Leadership
All the groups demonstrated to work together no matter their degrees, ages or levels in their organizational structure, they all work in different projects depending their responsibility level. In many cases no matter if the members were not part of the board of directors, they were able to give their opinions in order to contribute and been heard. This seemed to have a number of important benefits including giving ownership of the work to less senior volunteers, being able to act in the absence of the leader and freeing up the time to the leader to work on more strategic issues (Ockenden and Hutin, 2008).
And the concept of civic engagement in higher education, encompasses a wide range of approaches to develop the civic kills, interests and participation of students, staff and institutional management. Examples include community based learning (or service learning), volunteering, community focused research, participative and collaborative research and educational initiatives, etc. (Gonzalez and McILarth and Mac Labhrainn, 2007)
There is a awareness of the potential of High education institutions to impact on their communities with many examples in the literature (Al-Kodman, 1999; Allen-Meares, 2005; Atman, 1995; Amey et al, 2002; Arbuckle & De hoog, 2004; Barnett, 1993; Percy et al, 2006) that highlight models for addressing social issues through collaboration. A number of authors suggest that this marks a return of universities towards their original purpose and will have positive repercussions for both universities and communities (Aronson & Webster, 2007; Buys & Burnall, 2007; Checkoway, 2001; Chibucos & Lerner, 1999)
The study that we made at EAFIT University support this trend not in the return of the univeristies towards their original purpose, but to help the society. The volunteering groups in this university have been increasing since 1960 that according to the information gathered is the first volunteering that started with this concern, sponsored by its international core, and since then all the groups were born, mostly since 1980 to 2005, what shows a boom, a social and civic contribution awareness as is shown in figure ( )
Gender in volunteering
Is commonly to find that in gender, women have higher rates of participation in volunteering groups (MacPhail and Bowles, 2008;
when analyzing the amount of students of the total that EAFIT has that belongs to volunteer, we surprisingly found that
When analyzing the amount of students of the total that EAFIT has that belongs to volunteer, we surprisingly found that only 443 students from EAFIT belong to a volunteering group inside the campus, this means that only the 6% of all the students are worried about that social/civic engagement, that percentage is a very low taking into accounts others countries statistics.
<
in terms of degrees, we divided in the four schools -not in careers- that the university has: Business School (that includes: Business Administration, International Business, Economy and Accountability), Engineering School (includes: Production, Mechanic, Process, Product design, Civil, Systems and Geology), Law School (include: Law) and Social Sciences (includes: Music, Social Communication, Politics, Physics Engineering and Mathematics Engineering). In the first place we found Business with 51% of volunteers that belong to this school, in second place we have Engineering and in third and fourth place respectively are Law and Social Sciences School.
Leadership
All the groups demonstrated to work together no matter their degrees, ages or levels in their organizational structure, they all work in different projects depending their responsibility level. In many cases no matter if the members were not part of the board of directors, they were able to give their opinions in order to contribute and been heard. This seemed to have a number of important benefits including giving ownership of the work to less senior volunteers, being able to act in the absence of the leader and freeing up the time to the leader to work on more strategic issues (Ockenden and Hutin, 2008).
martes, 19 de mayo de 2009
Course Evaluation
This curse gave me a different vision toward many subjects. And is very pleasing when you really learn something that can change your points of view regard countries and their customs, what to do, what not to, the vision of other cultures towards work, people and family. I think that we as future International business Managers have to be informed, and aware about others culture in order to understand in a good way their actions, invitations and attitudes, not only in a negotiation case, but in the real world.
It was great to have those debates when we all weren't agree with something and it's good to know others opinion, point of view or even experiences.
One of the greatest things was to know that the person that gave this course to us, is a very prepared woman, that has experience with other cultures that only traveling gives to a person, not the books or the internet are enough to answer what life and interaction with others can. And more when we are talking about a subject were the person who is directing it has to know about what she is talking and others too. Always the intention to attend questions, doubts and to answer unknown issues for us, thank you Maria Alejandra.
It was great to have those debates when we all weren't agree with something and it's good to know others opinion, point of view or even experiences.
One of the greatest things was to know that the person that gave this course to us, is a very prepared woman, that has experience with other cultures that only traveling gives to a person, not the books or the internet are enough to answer what life and interaction with others can. And more when we are talking about a subject were the person who is directing it has to know about what she is talking and others too. Always the intention to attend questions, doubts and to answer unknown issues for us, thank you Maria Alejandra.
Latinamerica
Latin America is a territory with so many surpluses, biodiversity, natural resources, is in the center of the earth, has all types of climates for different agricultural activities, in other words has all the opportunities to go ahead and have incredible economy indicators, but is not like that in all its countries.
By the other side, this countries relaid in the fact that were colonized so the colonies took all the precious, so people ask what would happen if... if United kingdom would have colonized us? Well, we know what would happen looking to the case of India. The truth is not to look what others has done with us, but what we are doing with it. Giving for free our culture, territory, animals, and knowledge?
Differences since history, problems because of territory divisions, that haven't been forgetted. Politics tendencies that judges others governments more than the results shown by those phylosopies. I think there is too much selfishness, a bit tolerance and no keen to trasnform Latinamerica into a strong block, no matter which is in the power of each country, is democracy and values and social consciusness what take countries ahead their differences, as Europe did.
References
- Cardona, J.A. & Chacon, J. & Ordoñez, M. (2009) Presentation "Latin America, a gaze to the region" Organization and culuture subject. Universidad EAFIT.
- Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=samba&w=all
- Un delirio me gobierna. Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=latins&page=2
Northamerica
Composed by Canada, United Stades of America, and Mexico. So many differences between them are neighbors and share a FTA named NAFTA that join them more in a economic way.
1. Canada
Was influence by European culture and traditions, reflected in their main languages English (british) and French. This country has a very accepted cultural diversity, respects the difference among people from other countries.
According to Hofstede, they are very individualistic, and have certain kind uncertainty avoidence, but for example about the masculinity they accept the role of the women in their culture but could be improved.
Birth rate
From about 221 countries, Canada is placed in the 189, showing that has a very low birth rate compared to others, and in fact this rate is diminishing. Canada is down United States in 38 places. This why the government of Canada is so concerned about bringing young people to their land.
2. United States
With the major source of population growth, and has a great diversity too. fighting with immigrants, is the country were more immigrants as permanent residents exist in any other country in the world.
Recognized personal characteristics, their individualism, is one of the higher if isn't the highest, are people more concerned about money and how to get it, focused in the entertainment sector, watching out the fashion and magazines because beauty don't lie. Human being is led in some way by one side, as much as you have money and can answer with proud what do yo do for living? in order to be accepted in some societies.
A culture that is used to eat in fast food restaurants and where time is money, everything passes in short time, and were freedom and justice are hoping been accomplished. Hope is the highest feeling of expectation that Americans have now days with their new president elected Barack Obama.
Affected with the actual crisis, is looking for ways to no spend that much, and so difficult is the moment for this country that even Hollywood productions have been suffered the economy alternatives looking for other places cheaper where they can film new movies.
3. Mexico
A country with so much culture, climates, landscapes, beaches, pyramids, and mysteries. The country were death has its own festival day, and skulls are for decoration and not for scaring.
Has so many weathers, that there are: an oasis in Baja California, snow in Chihuahua, desert in down California, different types of forest, islands and plain terrains.
This country is very relied in the EEUU scene, and 84% of their exports goes to this country, the same happens with the importations that are the 64% of all the importations comes from EEUU.
Mexico is known besides is culture and tourism sector, because its violence, corruption, high population, contamination and latest days because of the AH1N1 virus.
A region that contains so much diversity in customs, history and personalities. Canada as the calm, has no issues with anybody, with its high security and tolerance, EEUU as the bad, the imperialistic, the handsome actor or actress that look for an adoption in order to become human, and Mexico as the developing country who is trying to walk with huge steps by the rhythm of their northern neighbors so he won't mixture with the Central American low indexes of development.
References
- Barco, N & Garcia, L & Ekstrom, A & Nilsson, M. 2009. Presentation "North America" part of the subject Organizations and Cultures at the EAFIT University.
- Indexmundi. http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?t=0&v=25&l=en
- Brooklyn Bridge. Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsifrancis/3313610694/
Snowbirds : Happy Canada Day!!. Flickr.http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=canada&w=all
Europe the ancient continent
The European states has passed trough a lot of things during its existence, both wars, cold war, revolutions, the birth of new movements for the time as was fascism, Nazism but the birth of constitution in France, reconized musicians, artists, colonizers, philosopy and so on.
And in spite some difficulties they went trough the EU figured the way to integrate by the accomplishment of some stages as the Economic Community of the Coal and Steel, European Economic Community, European Atomic Energy Community, Maastrich Treaty and Euro as a currency; and other economic treaties that lead to what is known today as European Union.
For some critics, EU is what is today because their colonies resources, taking from then precious metals, territories and treasures in the mercantilism time, but it was just a stage for them and is impossible to deny their always permanent need of investigation and knowledge.
The European Union has a very close regionalism, they all share values and different religions as Christianity and Islam, plus is a secular continent with the largest number and proportion of irreligious, agnostic and atheistic people in the Western world.
And about the environmental worry, they are doing a lot of things to stop the damage of the climate and all what this takes. Latest days, I had the opportunity to investigate about the fact of not using plastics bags, and I realized that Europe is one of those regions that are really supporting this cause.
The main cases are France, Holland and Spain where the government has given bags madden of other materials in order to put an end to this transformation.
An this isn't a something new, in Ireland TESCO supermarket started with some policy that helped to diminish the uses of those bags. The put a tax on plastic shopping bags and that action has cut their use by more than 90% and raised millions of euros in revenue, according to the government. And not only economic benefits but, environmental ones and more when the environment ministry estimated that 1.2 billion free plastic bags were being handed out every year in the republic, leaving windblown bags littering Irish streets and the countryside, causing more contamination and in some cases block the water drains, which is not healthy at all.
So that`s why citizens are encourage to use their own bags or other recyclebal bags that are good with the environment. In coutries as India and China some laws are been imposed in order to teach people not to use them, for example in the next years if somebody is caugth with a plastic bag, using it, at home or distributing them will be taken in prision for 5 years. Too much consiousness?
Any way, the European Union with all its development is a great model for countries as ours, to go ahead and forget that maybe if some countries were enemies or allies in the world war, there are common interests more important than selfishness and individualism.
References
And in spite some difficulties they went trough the EU figured the way to integrate by the accomplishment of some stages as the Economic Community of the Coal and Steel, European Economic Community, European Atomic Energy Community, Maastrich Treaty and Euro as a currency; and other economic treaties that lead to what is known today as European Union.
For some critics, EU is what is today because their colonies resources, taking from then precious metals, territories and treasures in the mercantilism time, but it was just a stage for them and is impossible to deny their always permanent need of investigation and knowledge.
The European Union has a very close regionalism, they all share values and different religions as Christianity and Islam, plus is a secular continent with the largest number and proportion of irreligious, agnostic and atheistic people in the Western world.
- Supports an scheme where values comes first, and democracy, laws and environment consciousness are as important as the other.
- Has foreign policies as a group
- Wanted to balance the American economic potency.
- Right now they has the 19% global commerce, is the biggest exporter in the world and the biggest importer and has the 30% of the world's GDP.
And about the environmental worry, they are doing a lot of things to stop the damage of the climate and all what this takes. Latest days, I had the opportunity to investigate about the fact of not using plastics bags, and I realized that Europe is one of those regions that are really supporting this cause.
The main cases are France, Holland and Spain where the government has given bags madden of other materials in order to put an end to this transformation.
An this isn't a something new, in Ireland TESCO supermarket started with some policy that helped to diminish the uses of those bags. The put a tax on plastic shopping bags and that action has cut their use by more than 90% and raised millions of euros in revenue, according to the government. And not only economic benefits but, environmental ones and more when the environment ministry estimated that 1.2 billion free plastic bags were being handed out every year in the republic, leaving windblown bags littering Irish streets and the countryside, causing more contamination and in some cases block the water drains, which is not healthy at all.
So that`s why citizens are encourage to use their own bags or other recyclebal bags that are good with the environment. In coutries as India and China some laws are been imposed in order to teach people not to use them, for example in the next years if somebody is caugth with a plastic bag, using it, at home or distributing them will be taken in prision for 5 years. Too much consiousness?
Any way, the European Union with all its development is a great model for countries as ours, to go ahead and forget that maybe if some countries were enemies or allies in the world war, there are common interests more important than selfishness and individualism.
References
- Echeverri, M. & Ortiz, S. & Parente, A.M. (2008) Presentation "Europe" Organization and culture subject. Universidad EAFIT
- Unión Europea, negociación dificil. Revista Dinero, Talento Global (2007) p.p. 84 and 85.
- Irish bag tax hailed success. (2002) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2205419.stm
- Europe map. http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=es&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=DpR&q=europa&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=co&ei=C9USSvPjJYujtgfA4OWQBA&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=19
lunes, 18 de mayo de 2009
India
WORKSHOP
1. According to Gangury-Scrase & Scrase (1999) had globalization in India provided significant improvement of living for lower-income workers by 1999? Justify.
Globalization in India has had a contradictory effect for lower income workers, because in one hand they certainly have improved their living but in the other hand the classes differences remain, and although their income levels have raised their purchasing power still being low. Thus is good in the way that now they are able to get information and knowledge through the electronic media which has had a great reception, women have more participation in working areas, they have more access to credits, they have developed desires to purchase consumer goods and they are more open to other cultures. But not only their incomes are low, but the credits they get have high interests and elevated monthly repayments, so they get trapped in the consumerism. Also this consumerism makes them want to buy more assets and they can not because they have a lot of debts. Although they like the electronic media they are concerned about the content of foreign behavior related to the individualism of human being. This is very important in a country like India that has a strong culture and strong feelings and thoughts about how should a man and a woman live a decent life. Even though the government is trying to do the best to bring to India more social benefits, specially to the middle class, globalization has not been an even process and only high classes are being benefited and lower income workers are living an ambiguous situation.
2. How is the situation for workers today in India?
India has a rural working force larger than the urban; this has created the need to release laws to control the growing migration of workers that move to cities on the look for better opportunities. Due to this surplus of labour supply, employers have started to lower salaries and working conditions as well, whilst having such a large mass of workers to choose from, employers apparently have more power and therefore end up exploiting the employees. Low wages, children and women working receiving even less for salary, lack of concern for working and living conditions, 18 hours shifts, no provisions for leave or absence, are just a few of the elements depicting the poor working conditions that end up from this migration.
Being aware of this blur horizon, the government is pushing laws that formerly tried to protect employers, but currently leaned more towards protecting the employees in a hunt for improving labour market conditions in the country and therefore being able to compete more ethically and being watched with good eyes from the international community.
3. How cultural globalization has affected India?
India, like many countries that have engaged in free market economies, has gone through a strong and quick borders opening process that has touched many aspects of the country; economy, demography, education, many of them, but with special importance “culture” is the one feature that gets being strongly attached to every individual, experiences a process of knowing and assimilating whatever comes new, and here is where communities of peoples differentiate from one another.
In the particular case of India, by the year 1.991 it began receiving tremendous amounts of information from abroad through media, but somehow, and according to Steve Derné (2.005) this connection with the globalized world has not changed quite as much the culture itself. He proposes that globalization has touched the Indian culture, but mostly elites are the ones that have the most access to the international world, therefore, cultural values and norms have not changed deeply in India, due to globalization.
The author emphasizes that, despite India being such an important player in the international field today, its culture remain quite conservative in many aspects, for example arranged marriages, where parents pick the couple for their son/daughter restraining them from freely choosing what they like best.
So one could say that globalization has not affected the Indian culture as much as it should due to the participation of that country in global fields, they remain strongly attached to their past but foreseeing a bright future for all, putting India as a key player of the planet, as it has been planned ever since they got independence from Britain.
4. Describe the indian's green revolution
The world’s worst recorded food disaster happened in 1943 in British-ruled India, it was known as the Bengal Famine, it was estimated that four million people died of hunger that year in eastern India, this situation occurs because two things: a shortfall in food production in the area and the hysteria related to World War II which made food supply a low priority for the British rulers.
1. According to Gangury-Scrase & Scrase (1999) had globalization in India provided significant improvement of living for lower-income workers by 1999? Justify.
Globalization in India has had a contradictory effect for lower income workers, because in one hand they certainly have improved their living but in the other hand the classes differences remain, and although their income levels have raised their purchasing power still being low. Thus is good in the way that now they are able to get information and knowledge through the electronic media which has had a great reception, women have more participation in working areas, they have more access to credits, they have developed desires to purchase consumer goods and they are more open to other cultures. But not only their incomes are low, but the credits they get have high interests and elevated monthly repayments, so they get trapped in the consumerism. Also this consumerism makes them want to buy more assets and they can not because they have a lot of debts. Although they like the electronic media they are concerned about the content of foreign behavior related to the individualism of human being. This is very important in a country like India that has a strong culture and strong feelings and thoughts about how should a man and a woman live a decent life. Even though the government is trying to do the best to bring to India more social benefits, specially to the middle class, globalization has not been an even process and only high classes are being benefited and lower income workers are living an ambiguous situation.
2. How is the situation for workers today in India?
India has a rural working force larger than the urban; this has created the need to release laws to control the growing migration of workers that move to cities on the look for better opportunities. Due to this surplus of labour supply, employers have started to lower salaries and working conditions as well, whilst having such a large mass of workers to choose from, employers apparently have more power and therefore end up exploiting the employees. Low wages, children and women working receiving even less for salary, lack of concern for working and living conditions, 18 hours shifts, no provisions for leave or absence, are just a few of the elements depicting the poor working conditions that end up from this migration.
Being aware of this blur horizon, the government is pushing laws that formerly tried to protect employers, but currently leaned more towards protecting the employees in a hunt for improving labour market conditions in the country and therefore being able to compete more ethically and being watched with good eyes from the international community.
3. How cultural globalization has affected India?
India, like many countries that have engaged in free market economies, has gone through a strong and quick borders opening process that has touched many aspects of the country; economy, demography, education, many of them, but with special importance “culture” is the one feature that gets being strongly attached to every individual, experiences a process of knowing and assimilating whatever comes new, and here is where communities of peoples differentiate from one another.
In the particular case of India, by the year 1.991 it began receiving tremendous amounts of information from abroad through media, but somehow, and according to Steve Derné (2.005) this connection with the globalized world has not changed quite as much the culture itself. He proposes that globalization has touched the Indian culture, but mostly elites are the ones that have the most access to the international world, therefore, cultural values and norms have not changed deeply in India, due to globalization.
The author emphasizes that, despite India being such an important player in the international field today, its culture remain quite conservative in many aspects, for example arranged marriages, where parents pick the couple for their son/daughter restraining them from freely choosing what they like best.
So one could say that globalization has not affected the Indian culture as much as it should due to the participation of that country in global fields, they remain strongly attached to their past but foreseeing a bright future for all, putting India as a key player of the planet, as it has been planned ever since they got independence from Britain.
4. Describe the indian's green revolution
The world’s worst recorded food disaster happened in 1943 in British-ruled India, it was known as the Bengal Famine, it was estimated that four million people died of hunger that year in eastern India, this situation occurs because two things: a shortfall in food production in the area and the hysteria related to World War II which made food supply a low priority for the British rulers.
"India’s Green Revolution" is applied to the period from 1967 to 1978. After the period of hunger lived by the citizens of India between 1947 and 1967, efforts at achieving food self-sufficiency were not entirely successful. But it was in 1967 due to the population was growing at a much faster rate than food production, that the people in India realized that was necessary to called for drastic action, that action came in the form of the Green Revolution - term applied to successful agricultural experiments in many Third World countries-.
The success of the Green Revolution in India was based in three basic elements:
a. Continued expansion of farming areas: The areas under cultivation were increased.
b. Double-cropping existing farmland: The decision was to increase of one crop season per year to have two crop seasons per year, for that they need to made an artificial Monsoon (Irrigation techniques were adopted, were built dams)
c. Using seeds with improved genetics: The Indian Council for Agricultural research developed new strains of high yield value seeds.
India’s Green revolution it’s not the only one that had been developed in the world, but it’s the most important once until today.
5. Did the British Raj enriched or impoverish India?
With no doubts, the British Raj, or kingdom impoverished India during its time of colonization. In 1870, when India was by British government, India had a 12.2% share of world income, then in 1913 it decrease into 7.6% and then in the Post Independence period, near to its newly freedom, their economy had a 3.8 % share of world income.
The indicators show how the British administration damaged India’s economy in a very hard way, when in the previous colonization days, India reached a share of 24.4% of world income, an amazing percentage, isn’t it?
India was known as one of the greatest economy in the world, with China, this was during 1500 ad 1700 BC.
For many Indians, the British Raj exploited their resources for their advantage, flooded India with imports from UK when India wasn’t even prepare for international commerce. They speak about a government that humiliated them as a culture, with their customs, massacre of Jallianwallia bagh, and executed people who revolted.
Now India is starting to grow again and is focused in the service sector as their strongest one, is an emergent economy for now days and hopefully will go further than those first days when British wasn’t managing their fields, people and culture
References
- Majumder, R. Mukherjee, D. 2009. State Intervention and Labour Market in India: Issues and Options. Munich Personal RePEc Archive, online publication January 17. MPRA Paper No. 12409
www.indiaonestop.com and www.wikipedia.org
- Derné, S. 2005. The (limited) effect of cultural globalization in India: implications for culture theory. Poetics, online publication February 9. doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2005.01.002.
- Was the British Raj good for India? (2005) The examined life. http://www.ravikiran.com/blog/classic/200506/was-the-british-raj-good-for-india/. Retrieved on May, 2009
- The Adobe of god at Dusk. Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/designldg/2499117253/
- In the times of the british raj. Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/godoirum-bassanensis/2677154072/
jueves, 14 de mayo de 2009
Australia
WORKSHOP
The study found the perceptions of financial controllers of Australian organizational culture were similar to the perceptions of managers.
One of the finding was that that the most prominent characteristic of Australian organizational culture was Outcome Orientation, followed by Respect for People, with Stability and Innovation being the least prominent characteristics.
Organizational culture is an important determinant of managers’ and employees’ work attitudes, decisions and behavior and, ultimately, an organization’s financial performance.
Less auspicious is the low ranking of Innovation, a cultural factor characterized by a willingness to experiment, being innovative, being quick to take advantage of opportunities, and risk taking. Most of the findings are consistent with Sarros et al. (2002) study.
With respect to Australian social or national culture, and its implications for organizational culture, tell us that the country is egalitarian, mateship and Individualistic characteristics, Ashkanasy et al. (2000, p. 42) found that the “mateship” characteristic of Australian national culture “represents a leadership style that focuses on the group”, with leaders expected to be “one of the boys” (or girls?).
Egalitarianism (the belief that people should be treated the same and as equals) has consistently been identified as an Australian cultural trait, and seen by Sarros et al. (2005, p. 176) as “the ability of Australian leaders to engage socially with workers while also nurturing and developing their careers”.
National cultural characteristics: according to Triandis (1995, pp. 44-48) Australian society is “horizontally individualistic”. Horizontal individualism recognizes the egalitarianism aspect of Australian culture and describes a culture where people are regarded as independent of each other and self-reliant and self-directed (individualism), countries that are horizontal individualist do not like people who “stick out”,
The egalitarian nature of Australian societal culture might also explain the lack of observed differences in the organizational cultures of service and manufacturing organizations. That is, in a less egalitarian society, organizational culture might be consciously articulated to fit the organizational context such that service industries might seek to generate more people-oriented cultures than manufacturing. However, in a highly egalitarian society, where a people-oriented culture is generally strong, the societal-driven cultural characteristic might transcend industry differences.
3. How does the culture of Australian organizations relate to their strategy?
Before we can explain the relation between the Australian culture and their strategy, as Baird, Harrison and Reeve (2007) did, it is important to define first the general relation between culture and strategy.
As the authors say, a lot has been studied between this relation, and while some findings said that cultures are strategies themselves to overcome basic life difficulties and survive (Bate, 1994), others say that culture limits strategic options (Schein, 2004) and others that it is the strategies that limit cultures (Joyce and Slocum, 1990).
So no matter how it is studied the truth lies in the fact that culture and strategy are interrelated and are basic to make possible for the organization the accomplishment of its goals as (Baird, Harrison and Reeve, 2007).
After clarifying that relation, we can start studying the factors relating those concepts in Australia.
In the research Baird, Harrison and Reeve (2207) carried out and compared to other research they conclude that the most important feature from the Australian organizational culture is their “Outcome Orientation” as well as the “Respect for people”, while the less relevant has been “Innovation”.
Like that when Australians define their strategies they are seeking for concrete results and the important thing is the result achieved more than the pat to get there. As the authors mentioned those results influence the concept of a successful company and determines how the workers should behave and what attitudes there are. That has also made the companies’ strategies to focus in the financial performance (Thanks to that some authors as Windsor and Ashkanasy (2006) consider the Australian organizations “financial controllers).
Due to the importance of results, the companies also define strategies that allow them to have lasting results on time, maintaining the good performances (Baird, Harrison and Reeve, 2007).
That organizational culture and strategies have advantages, but there are lacks in other aspects as Innovation, what makes companies afraid to experiment and be more aware of new opportunities. Somehow, it is also related to their Outcome Orientation, since Innovation also means taking risks, and when your working toward a result you want to achieve you want to get there in the less risky way possible.
But it also depends on other factors as the economical and social ones that are forcing Australia to consider more Innovation (Sarros, 2002).
Some of the economic reasons shown by Sarros are concerning the recent change the industry is facing because of the transition of a protectionist government to the exposure of micro- and macroeconomic reforms that have changes from the labor market to other as tariff.
The social changes motioned by Baird, Harrison and Reeve (2007) are more related to a new tendency leaving behind its “mate” and layback oriented work environment. Australian companies are becoming more aware of the need to innovate in order to succeed in today’s world and as Sarros (2007) said be “more competitive in the global stage”.
Still the mateship orientation has some good features as the importance of the group work and the support among its members. It is pretty much related to “People Respect”, which also encourages the individual rights and the values of people. Like that Baird, Harrison and Reeve (2007) describe the society as horizontally individualistic; it means that they are self-reliant but equalitarian too (Triandis, 1995).
These tendencies in the society makes the strategies of the companies to look for social responsibility establish a good reputation and have a clear philosophy (Sarros, 2002).
After this analysis of the three main characteristics between culture and strategies within the organization, one of the main conclusions was that in Australia stability plays an important role, and that the culture is an essential part of the definition of the strategies.
4. How does Roy Green (2009)’s article relates to Australian culture and Australian organizations?
Roy Green is relating both parts first when he asseverate the willingness of Australia to get out of the crisis, in this is possible just by following the advises given by some economic authorities. In this way they will try to accomplish the challenge of the short term boost to demand, and by creating a sustainable value creation supported in a long term capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship. So, this is the moment when firms can’t just stay rigid waiting for others to act in behalf of them, but is time for firms to be more innovative, to impulse that creativity in their employees. Those that because their culture has that sparkle of creating things easily, thinking about the consumer and its needs, the products and services that could be bought in a store so they can launch them into the market with more success
So by the time they are solving something that have more immediate effects by giving what the market is exactly looking for, is injecting some prosperity and hope with that inventive in a long term using their population which its majority like to live in better conditions improving their lives
References:
1. Describe Baird et al (2007)’s paper in terms of research methodology
As the authors said at the beginning of the paper “The culture of Australian organizations and its relation with strategy”, the first purpose of it is to add and corroborate the research of Sarros and co-authors by examining the culture of Australian organizations, but using a different version of the Organizational Culture Profile and a different subsample of Australian managers.
So, been persistent with their objective, they selected randomly from the Kompass Australia Directory 400 financial controllers in manufacturing and services industries in the country and sent to them a format with some questions via mail. Only 184 completed surveys where receive which represents the 46% of the total of the questionnaires.
The results that the research dropped was grouped and analyzed in order to realize if the hypothesis that they had established (According to what the authors that they mentioned in the paper said) and their research about the topic converged with the findings.
The hypothesis where the following:
Organizations with a prospector strategy will have an organizational culture that is (a) more innovative, (b) less stable, (c) less focused on attention to detail, and (d) more outcome oriented than organizations with a defender strategy, with analyzers in between.
Organizations with a reactor strategy will have an organizational culture that is weaker in respect of all organizational cultural dimensions than organizations with a defender, prospector, or analyzer strategy.
These hypotheses are developed after two structures were well thought-out. In the first one Organizational culture was measured using the Windsor and Ashkanasy (1996) adaptation of the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) of O’Reilly et al. (1991) and the second one, was done under Sarros et al. (2002)
Both structures showed similarities because in some way, the authors that were selected to make them used the adaptations of the OCP that was derived from O’Reilly et al.’s (1991). But according to the authors of the paper “the main difference between the two structures is that Outcome Orientation in W&A is split into two factors, labelled Performance Orientation and Competitiveness by Sarros et al. (2002). The Outcome Orientation values of ‘being results oriented’ and ‘having high expectations for performance’ loaded on Sarros et al.’s (2002) factor labelled Performance Orientation, while the values of ‘being achievement oriented’ and ‘being competitive’ loaded on Competitiveness”
By the other side, the results of the questionnaire help the authors to develop a table about the factor loadings and descriptive statistics for organizational culture component items, where they could identify how much important was for the sample, in average, each of the principal component of the OC. Also, they did the same, but just with the principal factors, and in conclusion, the order of importance that the Australians gave to these factors in the organization was:
Outcome Orientation
Respect for People
Attention to Detail
Team Orientation
Innovation
Stability
Then the next analysis was base on notice how much importance each strategic types gives to these principal factors and for last, the same exercise was made, but instead of the strategic types, they analyzed the case of the services and manufacturing companies.
In the analysis of the strategic types, according to the authors of the paper, the results for Innovation, Outcome Orientation and Stability are significant and in the expected direction (taking into account that the financial controllers classified from 1 to 5 the factors, where lower scores represent higher levels of cultural factors) For Innovation, prospectors have the lowest mean score (indicating the highest level of Innovation) at 2.58, followed by analyzers (2.74), defenders (2.76) and reactors trailing at 3.58. For Outcome Orientation,
prospectors have the lowest mean score (indicating the highest level of Outcome Orientation) at 1.75, followed by analyzers (1.84), defenders (2.07) and reactors (2.27).
For Stability, defenders have the lowest mean score (indicating the highest level of
Stability) at 2.26, followed by analyzers (2.35), prospectors (2.77) and reactors (2.85).
The results for Attention to Detail show no significant differences (although the means
are in the expected order of greatest importance for defenders followed by analyzers,
prospectors and reactors).
Hence, while the results were in the expected direction for all four cultural dimensions,
Hypothesis 1 is only partially supported in terms of two of the four cultural factors
(Outcome Orientation and Stability).
For last, the results of the analysis of Services and Manufacturing companies where very similar, According to the authors “While previous studies have produced mixed findings, our results suggest no difference in culture across the two industries. The egalitarian nature of Australian societal culture might also explain the lack of observed differences in the organizational cultures of service and manufacturing organizations.”
2. What were the main findings on Baird et al (2007)?
The Culture of Australian Organizations
In the study the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) of O’Reilly et al. (1991), was used to describe the culture of Australian organizations, as perceived by those organizations’ financial controllers.
As the authors said at the beginning of the paper “The culture of Australian organizations and its relation with strategy”, the first purpose of it is to add and corroborate the research of Sarros and co-authors by examining the culture of Australian organizations, but using a different version of the Organizational Culture Profile and a different subsample of Australian managers.
So, been persistent with their objective, they selected randomly from the Kompass Australia Directory 400 financial controllers in manufacturing and services industries in the country and sent to them a format with some questions via mail. Only 184 completed surveys where receive which represents the 46% of the total of the questionnaires.
The results that the research dropped was grouped and analyzed in order to realize if the hypothesis that they had established (According to what the authors that they mentioned in the paper said) and their research about the topic converged with the findings.
The hypothesis where the following:
Organizations with a prospector strategy will have an organizational culture that is (a) more innovative, (b) less stable, (c) less focused on attention to detail, and (d) more outcome oriented than organizations with a defender strategy, with analyzers in between.
Organizations with a reactor strategy will have an organizational culture that is weaker in respect of all organizational cultural dimensions than organizations with a defender, prospector, or analyzer strategy.
These hypotheses are developed after two structures were well thought-out. In the first one Organizational culture was measured using the Windsor and Ashkanasy (1996) adaptation of the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) of O’Reilly et al. (1991) and the second one, was done under Sarros et al. (2002)
Both structures showed similarities because in some way, the authors that were selected to make them used the adaptations of the OCP that was derived from O’Reilly et al.’s (1991). But according to the authors of the paper “the main difference between the two structures is that Outcome Orientation in W&A is split into two factors, labelled Performance Orientation and Competitiveness by Sarros et al. (2002). The Outcome Orientation values of ‘being results oriented’ and ‘having high expectations for performance’ loaded on Sarros et al.’s (2002) factor labelled Performance Orientation, while the values of ‘being achievement oriented’ and ‘being competitive’ loaded on Competitiveness”
By the other side, the results of the questionnaire help the authors to develop a table about the factor loadings and descriptive statistics for organizational culture component items, where they could identify how much important was for the sample, in average, each of the principal component of the OC. Also, they did the same, but just with the principal factors, and in conclusion, the order of importance that the Australians gave to these factors in the organization was:
Outcome Orientation
Respect for People
Attention to Detail
Team Orientation
Innovation
Stability
Then the next analysis was base on notice how much importance each strategic types gives to these principal factors and for last, the same exercise was made, but instead of the strategic types, they analyzed the case of the services and manufacturing companies.
In the analysis of the strategic types, according to the authors of the paper, the results for Innovation, Outcome Orientation and Stability are significant and in the expected direction (taking into account that the financial controllers classified from 1 to 5 the factors, where lower scores represent higher levels of cultural factors) For Innovation, prospectors have the lowest mean score (indicating the highest level of Innovation) at 2.58, followed by analyzers (2.74), defenders (2.76) and reactors trailing at 3.58. For Outcome Orientation,
prospectors have the lowest mean score (indicating the highest level of Outcome Orientation) at 1.75, followed by analyzers (1.84), defenders (2.07) and reactors (2.27).
For Stability, defenders have the lowest mean score (indicating the highest level of
Stability) at 2.26, followed by analyzers (2.35), prospectors (2.77) and reactors (2.85).
The results for Attention to Detail show no significant differences (although the means
are in the expected order of greatest importance for defenders followed by analyzers,
prospectors and reactors).
Hence, while the results were in the expected direction for all four cultural dimensions,
Hypothesis 1 is only partially supported in terms of two of the four cultural factors
(Outcome Orientation and Stability).
For last, the results of the analysis of Services and Manufacturing companies where very similar, According to the authors “While previous studies have produced mixed findings, our results suggest no difference in culture across the two industries. The egalitarian nature of Australian societal culture might also explain the lack of observed differences in the organizational cultures of service and manufacturing organizations.”
2. What were the main findings on Baird et al (2007)?
The Culture of Australian Organizations
In the study the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) of O’Reilly et al. (1991), was used to describe the culture of Australian organizations, as perceived by those organizations’ financial controllers.
The study found the perceptions of financial controllers of Australian organizational culture were similar to the perceptions of managers.
One of the finding was that that the most prominent characteristic of Australian organizational culture was Outcome Orientation, followed by Respect for People, with Stability and Innovation being the least prominent characteristics.
Organizational culture is an important determinant of managers’ and employees’ work attitudes, decisions and behavior and, ultimately, an organization’s financial performance.
Less auspicious is the low ranking of Innovation, a cultural factor characterized by a willingness to experiment, being innovative, being quick to take advantage of opportunities, and risk taking. Most of the findings are consistent with Sarros et al. (2002) study.
With respect to Australian social or national culture, and its implications for organizational culture, tell us that the country is egalitarian, mateship and Individualistic characteristics, Ashkanasy et al. (2000, p. 42) found that the “mateship” characteristic of Australian national culture “represents a leadership style that focuses on the group”, with leaders expected to be “one of the boys” (or girls?).
Egalitarianism (the belief that people should be treated the same and as equals) has consistently been identified as an Australian cultural trait, and seen by Sarros et al. (2005, p. 176) as “the ability of Australian leaders to engage socially with workers while also nurturing and developing their careers”.
National cultural characteristics: according to Triandis (1995, pp. 44-48) Australian society is “horizontally individualistic”. Horizontal individualism recognizes the egalitarianism aspect of Australian culture and describes a culture where people are regarded as independent of each other and self-reliant and self-directed (individualism), countries that are horizontal individualist do not like people who “stick out”,
The egalitarian nature of Australian societal culture might also explain the lack of observed differences in the organizational cultures of service and manufacturing organizations. That is, in a less egalitarian society, organizational culture might be consciously articulated to fit the organizational context such that service industries might seek to generate more people-oriented cultures than manufacturing. However, in a highly egalitarian society, where a people-oriented culture is generally strong, the societal-driven cultural characteristic might transcend industry differences.
3. How does the culture of Australian organizations relate to their strategy?
Before we can explain the relation between the Australian culture and their strategy, as Baird, Harrison and Reeve (2007) did, it is important to define first the general relation between culture and strategy.
As the authors say, a lot has been studied between this relation, and while some findings said that cultures are strategies themselves to overcome basic life difficulties and survive (Bate, 1994), others say that culture limits strategic options (Schein, 2004) and others that it is the strategies that limit cultures (Joyce and Slocum, 1990).
So no matter how it is studied the truth lies in the fact that culture and strategy are interrelated and are basic to make possible for the organization the accomplishment of its goals as (Baird, Harrison and Reeve, 2007).
After clarifying that relation, we can start studying the factors relating those concepts in Australia.
In the research Baird, Harrison and Reeve (2207) carried out and compared to other research they conclude that the most important feature from the Australian organizational culture is their “Outcome Orientation” as well as the “Respect for people”, while the less relevant has been “Innovation”.
Like that when Australians define their strategies they are seeking for concrete results and the important thing is the result achieved more than the pat to get there. As the authors mentioned those results influence the concept of a successful company and determines how the workers should behave and what attitudes there are. That has also made the companies’ strategies to focus in the financial performance (Thanks to that some authors as Windsor and Ashkanasy (2006) consider the Australian organizations “financial controllers).
Due to the importance of results, the companies also define strategies that allow them to have lasting results on time, maintaining the good performances (Baird, Harrison and Reeve, 2007).
That organizational culture and strategies have advantages, but there are lacks in other aspects as Innovation, what makes companies afraid to experiment and be more aware of new opportunities. Somehow, it is also related to their Outcome Orientation, since Innovation also means taking risks, and when your working toward a result you want to achieve you want to get there in the less risky way possible.
But it also depends on other factors as the economical and social ones that are forcing Australia to consider more Innovation (Sarros, 2002).
Some of the economic reasons shown by Sarros are concerning the recent change the industry is facing because of the transition of a protectionist government to the exposure of micro- and macroeconomic reforms that have changes from the labor market to other as tariff.
The social changes motioned by Baird, Harrison and Reeve (2007) are more related to a new tendency leaving behind its “mate” and layback oriented work environment. Australian companies are becoming more aware of the need to innovate in order to succeed in today’s world and as Sarros (2007) said be “more competitive in the global stage”.
Still the mateship orientation has some good features as the importance of the group work and the support among its members. It is pretty much related to “People Respect”, which also encourages the individual rights and the values of people. Like that Baird, Harrison and Reeve (2007) describe the society as horizontally individualistic; it means that they are self-reliant but equalitarian too (Triandis, 1995).
These tendencies in the society makes the strategies of the companies to look for social responsibility establish a good reputation and have a clear philosophy (Sarros, 2002).
After this analysis of the three main characteristics between culture and strategies within the organization, one of the main conclusions was that in Australia stability plays an important role, and that the culture is an essential part of the definition of the strategies.
4. How does Roy Green (2009)’s article relates to Australian culture and Australian organizations?
Roy Green is relating both parts first when he asseverate the willingness of Australia to get out of the crisis, in this is possible just by following the advises given by some economic authorities. In this way they will try to accomplish the challenge of the short term boost to demand, and by creating a sustainable value creation supported in a long term capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship. So, this is the moment when firms can’t just stay rigid waiting for others to act in behalf of them, but is time for firms to be more innovative, to impulse that creativity in their employees. Those that because their culture has that sparkle of creating things easily, thinking about the consumer and its needs, the products and services that could be bought in a store so they can launch them into the market with more success
So by the time they are solving something that have more immediate effects by giving what the market is exactly looking for, is injecting some prosperity and hope with that inventive in a long term using their population which its majority like to live in better conditions improving their lives
References:
- Baird, K. & Harrison, R. & Reeve, R. 2007. The culture of Australian Organizations and its relation with strategy. International journal of Business Studies, 15(1): 15-41
- Special Note: This blog was made by Juliana Chacón Piedrahita, Mónica Ordoñes Buitrago, María Camila Restrepo Zuluaga, Julia María Rodas Jaramillo and María Natalia Suárez Vallejo
- Business Studies, 15 (1). 15-41), and Green (2009) (full reference: Green, Roy (2009). Innovation the key to recovety. The Australian. 1st April 2009). (See documents attached).
Image
- The Official Website of Beijing 2008 Olympic games.(2008) Freestyle Relay: Australians spring surprise for gold http://img02.beijing2008.cn/20080814/Img214540329.jpg
- So what are you doing this Australia day? Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnwhite/367901857/
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