jueves, 17 de febrero de 2011

BENEFITS OF THE CORPORATE FORM? COULD AN ALTERNATIVE MODEL OFFER THESE AS WELL

Multinational plays a significant role for society, thanks to cross-boarding assessment and globalization is well known that they had acquired a status where not only influenced economic development, but political, military and social decisions.
Corporate form in the present represents some advantages for those that want to create one. For example, establishing an enterprise is not as hard in now as it was 60 years ago legally speaking and by being constituted as an officially authorized person, it is the one that holds directly responsibility for the shareholders and creditors. Even if they have presidents and CEO´s, accountability is distributed through its entire system.
 Nowadays Business could be compared as a coin, they have two faces, in one its represented the positives thing they provide to society, how they make easily our daily lives base on the products they marketing all over the world, the number of employment they could create and the economic development they endow with; and in the other face is how they manage resources whether if they are natural or human, what are their standards in labor, respect for nature and human rights, and until which point they consider production and earnings more important than providing a sustainable practice.  Saying that changing the corporation structure it’s not an easy task, because in a globalized and mostly capitalist world there are plain of interest and power in between, Even if there are rules that try to control procedures and environment had become a major issue, I think they should be more rigorous in order to controlling effectively, besides I think that is really important to focus on creating codes or programs that encourage values seeking for more ethical practices from employees among the structure of the organization, corporate culture should include ideals that reminds the importance to respect living beings, not matter if they are cows, person, rats, etc. humaneness should be forget. I also think that demands from united people and ONG pressuring for changes in practices are an important form of power, in order to be listening and generate adjustments in enterprises as it was the 
case of Lipton tea plantations in africa, china and other places.












viernes, 11 de febrero de 2011

IS ECONOMIC RETRIBUTION ENOUGH TO MOTIVATE EMPLOYEES?

As is defined by (Adair, 2006): “a person, man or woman, is motivated when he or she want to do something. The reason does not represent the same thing as the stimulus. While a person could be enthusiastic about a stimulus, her main reason for achieving something could be the fear of failure, the desire to distinguish herself from the others, the wish of acquiring knowledge, etc. The motivation of a person covers all the reasons for which he chooses to act in a certain manner”. This definition permits to point that managers who think that economic retribution is enough to motivate employees, keep short. As complex human beings, personal within companies have different reasons to perform in certain ways. That’s why creating different strategies and ambiences that maintain work force and enthusiastic activities among employees is important to sustain company’s development. Some alternatives besides economic retribution are for example:
  • An appropriate work space and atmosphere based on mutual respect among all stages of the internal structure
  • Listening suggestions from employees. That make them feel appreciated and as a contributive part for companies progress   
  • “Rewards such as perks(time, holidays) or promotion” [1]
  • “Recognitions such as symbols, peer recognition or self-realization and esteem”[2]

Creating goals could motivate also the different work groups in order to achieve them
Providing autonomy and giving responsibilities could encourage people to create new strategies and processes along the company.
Having an appropriate common culture in accordance to the company performance
 
The last ones are an important part in J&J company, HP and ABB Thusman (1996): J&J  has over 165 separate operating companies  that scramble relentlessly for new products and markets. ABB relies on over 5000 profit centers with average of 50 people in each, these centers operates like small businesses. HP has over 50 separate divisions and a policy of splitting division whenever a unit gets larger that thousand or so people. The logic in these organizations is to keep units small and autonomous so that employees feel a sense of ownership and are responsible for their own results.


[1] Innovation management course, Benoit Gaily,Louvain la neuve
[2] Innovation management course, Benoit Gaily,Louvain la neuve


Michael Thusman (1996), Ambidextrous Organization: Managing Evolutionary and revolutionary change; California Management Review, Vol 38 No.4



viernes, 4 de febrero de 2011

IMPORTANCE TO UNDERSTAND DIFFERENT TYPES OF PERSONALITIES

According to(American Psychological Association, 2011)Personality is a relatively stable set of characteristics that influence an individual´s behavior .this one as the inherent of a person has been studied by several psychologist, that had overcome with some of the characteristics and theories  useful to appreciative it better.
Understanding differences in personality helps to know what people’s aptitudes, points of views, procedures and behaves are.  As is well known within organizations are a common culture that as explained by Thusman (1996): even if each person represents a unique personality, the culture acts as glue among the entire structure that holds it together. Therefore personality plays an important role when choosing staff, psychological, skills and personality tests could allows to create a map of what person could fit easily with the values of each company, or the role that it can plays; or could be implemented as a tool by the time of conforming team work groups in order to structure one, that integrate employees playing different functions.
As in a society, pluralism or multiculturalism could be found in multinationals;  it’s important to understand that the presence of different  personalities could have a positive approach and be seen as an opportunity for businesses because discrepancies among people creates multiples points of views and perspectives that permit several solutions   leading to create value. Working with people that have different personality or background also reinforce values as tolerance, and generate more open mind managers and employees willing to learn from others.


Images Sources: Andres velez, power point presentation, gestion intercultural 







miércoles, 2 de febrero de 2011

Is possible to change corporate culture?

 Creating a coherent corporative culture that helps to form value, improving processes, or facilitates strategies in a time when is necessary is basic within a company because it creates a common sense, common value and cohesion among employees.

As is seen among history culture could be a great influence in an enterprise succeeded or failure; there are several multinationals that had implemented a change in their corporate culture in order to succeed in times of crisis, one of those examples is British Airways ; in the 70 the airline  had a bad reputation among costumers and was perceived as an unlikable company to flight, they used their initial BA as “bloody awful”  even their employees were embarrassed to work there, one of them said Thusman(1996): “ I remember going to parties, and if you wanted to have civilized conversation you didn’t actually said that you work for British airways, because it got you talking about peoples last travel  experienced, that was usually an unpleasant one”. After making a research the top manager Lord King and Sir Collin Marshall saw the necessity of a change in the structure of the airline and introduced a new corporate culture know as managing people first (MPF). Through numerous training conferences they made understood and reinforce the importance among their employees of recognizing that BA performs its activities in the service sector rather that in transportation sector. This modification in customer service satisfaction change radically the perception about the company and it became its competitive advantage.  Changing culture within a company is not an easy task, sometimes employees are use to do things in certain way, and when a change is necessary for example in a process or a dress–code, they refuse and make difficult to do it. In order to introduce a new concept managers need to be able to handle the situation, shows its positive aspects and create the appropriate ambiance, they should implement strategies such as investments on training the personal or team work challenges that reinforce culture among them, as the managers of BA made Thusman(1996): the emphasis on the culture change effort at BA was on installing the new culture establishing an evaluation scheme that measure not only what managers did but how they did it, and a compensation program with bonuses up to 20 percent based on how managers behave. T Therefore as in the case of this company culture play an essential role, because as its explain by Thusman(1996): a strong, widely shared corporate culture promotes integration across the company and encourages identification and sharing of information and resources, sometimes that would never occur without shared values.


References:
Michael Thusman (1996), Ambidextrous Organization: Managing Evolutionary and revolutionary change; California Management Review, Vol 38 No.4