Blogs and Opinion

Visited Blogs:

Juliana Alvarez

Carlos Arturo Botero

Laura De Bedout

Paulina Patiño

Lina Gaviria

About the Class I think it was a very informative class.. For international negotiators is very important and essential to know about other cultures, their customs, the way they negotiate, their organizational culture and I think the class was very successful teaching that.

I like the presentation because it teaches us the really prepare a presentation, because when you have a 10 minute presentation we normally improvise, so this was an excellent experience..

Thank you very much for everything!

E-commerce in the middle east

Whilst E-Commerce is spreading world-wide, many Muslims are wondering whether this new form of commerce is acceptable from the Syariah (Islamic Law) point of view.

Based on the fact that, Islam accords a paramount importance to the Trading sector as a major source of wealth and gale force wheel of the economy. In this respect, the holy Quran abounds with many references to the trade and commercial activities. For example, the Quranic ayats that support this statement are:

‘‘Woe to Al-Mutaffifin [those who give less in measure and weight (decrease the rights of others)]’’ (83:1).,

It is clear that Quran (Holy book) not only permitted but also encouraged the Muslims to engage in an honest and mutually beneficial trade. Related to commerce, Quran revealed two prerequisite for the validity of any given transaction; namely, permissibility and harmlessness.

Religion is most of the time a class of values and customs, Islam as we saw encourage muslims to be very honest with each other when making trade transactions, so, with this premise, E-commerce should be the next step to the commercial aspects of muslim countries.

The problem of E-commerce, is, most of the time, TRUST, we, as Colombians don´t by via Mercadolibre because we think they are going to steal from us, and that was I think the fear of people from the middle east, but if they really trust their religion and their holy book, they should know that e-commerce is the new trend, and its here to stay, nowadays the internet has become a tool so handy that we are using it for everything, to have relationships, to buy, to read, to watch TV, to listen to music, for everything, so if they want to be in the technology wave and don´t want to be behind because that could affect their economy they should jump on board in the e-commerce ship knowing that far from being a bad thing it could increase and better their economy and could make the life way easier.

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E-Commerce from an Islamic perspective, 2004

Norazlina Zainul *, Fauziah Osman, Siti Hartini Mazlan (retrieved May 16th 2010)

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/Pictures/web/a/j/a/mw_alibaba.jpg

Australia

From your own point of view it useful to say sorry after years of wrong policies towards a minority? Why, What else is needed?

It is always useful to say "sorry", and from my point of view it should always be the first step to reconcile the differences and the scars of minorities, to acknowledge them as people with the same rights, same problems and same humanity than the rest.

In the case of ethnic minorities as it was in Australia it is mandatory to give them all the same rights than the rest of the population and make an special legislation for them because normally with the colonization, their lands and special places were taken away.

We're all human, and we have to be aware that all of us are condemn to err at any time, so, we have to be capable of saying sorry and also to forgive and forget, to erase all the dark past and commence a new future where all the people living in the same countries have the same rights, the same benefits and of course the same obligations, but always with respect and embracing the differences.

Latin America!

QUALA... the best company to work in Latin America in 2009

The company's success is based on the generation of ideas and thus, in
the talent of its human resource. Acknowledge and encourage this thinking is his secret.

“We have always competed with multinationals, and have never been the company with more resources. We know that our power is not in the wallet, but in ideas, and these are built with the talents of our people." With this phrase, Andres Gonzalez, general manager of Quala Colombia, graphically explains the value this firm gives its human resources, and provides guidelines for understanding why is the best place to work.

Quala's history focuses on their capacity for innovation, a talent that has allowed it to successfully compete against international companies the likes of Kraft, Nestle and Unilever, biting major holdings in consolidated markets such as chicken broth, the fresh powder, jellies and soups. The secret to conquer these markets are in a culture that values depth discussion, which creates a mindset that encourages employee participation in favor of innovation.

A test of the importance they give to employees is that in such a difficult year as 2009, they took the decision to not affect salary increases or salary itself. They say that “If you cut people and motivation, you cut the wings of the company and its future,"

Is companies like this establishing in Latin America that can change it all, because normally companies from this part of the world focus more on profits than on people, and this have to change, because taking care of workers could help them as much as it could help the workers.

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http://www.dinero.com/edicion-impresa/caratula/01-quala_66148.aspx

http://www.diariodominicano.com/pictures/quala%20dominicana.jpg

THE BOBS

here I found an amazing Brazilian Blog that talks about the environment and how to take care of it, I found it very interesting, hope you like it!

http://www.colunazero.com.br/

Trade Unions in Europe

The European Trade Union Confederation was set up in 1973 to promote the interests of working people at the European level and to represent them in the European Union institutions. It is recognized by the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the European Free Trade Association as the only representative cross-sectoral trade union organization at the European level.

Some countries, such as Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, and the other Nordic countries, have strong, centralized unions, where every type of industry has a specific union, which are then gathered in large national union confederations. The largest union confederation in Europe is the German Confederation of Trade Unions. Usually there are at least two national union confederations, one for academically educated and one for branches with lower education level. The largest Swedish union confederation is Swedish Trade Union Confederation (Landsorganisationen, or LO). The LO has almost two million members, which is more than a fifth of Sweden's population. Finland's equivalent is the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, with about one million members out of the country's 5.2 million inhabitants. In addition, there are two other Finnish union confederations for more educated workers, with combined membership of approximately one million.

Over the last twenty years there has been a widespread decline in trade union membership throughout most of western Europe. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, unionisation in many eastern European states has collapsed at an even more dramatic rate. In Poland, for example, today's 14 % level of unionisation is in marked contrast to that of the Soviet-controlled era, when almost all workplaces were unionised. Most of those who remain trade union members in Poland work for former state-owned companies.

The problem with trade unions in Colombia is that they don't always have the willingness to achieve some of their goals and continue working to better the production of the company, but, they want to take the strikes or whatever they do to don't work, to rest, and they almost always ask for a ridiculous amount of things that they know the company cannot provide... In Europe, the trade unions do work, they fight for their rights, ask for a normal amount of rights and continue working.

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http://www.fedee.com/tradeunions.html

http://www.worker-participation.eu/National-Industrial-Relations/Across-Europe/Trade-Unions2

Japanese, Korean and Colombian Firms

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Lee Jangho, Thomas W. Roehl, & Soonkyoo Choe. (2000). What Makes Management Style Similar and Distinct Across Borders? Growth, Experience and Culture in Korean and Japanese Firms. Journal of International Business Studies

Fernando Llinás Toledo. (n.d) Competitividad Nacional y Estratégica de las Empresas Colombianas. Retrieved from:http://ciruelo.uninorte.edu.co/pdf/pensamiento_gestion/3/1%20Competitividad%20internacional%20y%20estrategica%20de%20las%20empresas%20col.pdf

Angela Lanzas, Carlos Zuluaga, Ariel Patiño. (December 2008). Estilos Gerenciales Administrativos en las Empresas Comerciales de Articulos de Ferreteria, Cerrajeria y Vidrios. Retrieved from:http://www.utp.edu.co/php/revistas/ScientiaEtTechnica/docsFTP/126-131.pdf

China Vs. West

I guess everyone knows that China is very different than the people from the western hemisphere... but we don't know which are the difference, because the difference go beyond of they eating dogs!...

-Western culture is based on individualism, we work better when we are alone, in a group we tend to be less efficient as an individual, Chinese had learn that two heads think more than one, and they are very good at working as a group of people.

-Western culture is more adventurous, we like to explore new things, parachuting, bungee jumping, etc.. Chinese people are not likely to do such a thing, they are more on the conservative side.

-West uses law to solve any kind of problem, Chinese culture tend to use human relationship to solve problems between people.

- West uses 'god' and religion to resolve human and spiritualism relationship.[1]

Even though both cultures are very different and we don't even understand each other, with the time we have learnt to get along, to try to understand each other, or at least respect each other's culture, and that's been a huge cause of the augmentation of the trade between continents.

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1. http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?/topic/2680-difference-between-chinese-and-western-culture/page__st__15

2. http://chinadigitaltimes.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/china-us.jpg

Immigrants Vs. Expatriates

According to the Oxford Dictionary an immigrant is a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country[1] and an expatriate is a person who lives outside their native country.[2]

An immigrant is someone who intends to reside permanently, and not a casual visitor or traveler. Immigration means “in-migration” into a country, and is the reverse of emigration “out-migration.”

An expatriate (in abbreviated form expat) is someone temporarily or permanently in a country and culture other than that of their upbringing and/or legal residence. The word comes from the Latin ex (out of) and patria (country), and is sometimes misspelled as ex-patriot, due to its pronunciation.

The difference between an expatriate and an immigrant is that immigrants commit themselves to becoming a part of their country of residence, whereas expatriates see themselves, and are perceived, as living in a foreign land.[3]

So, and immigrant is someone who is willing to blend in the new culture, the new country, who wants to belong to the new place he or she is living, and expatriate is someone that sometimes was obligated to move because of violence or dangerousness of his or her live and is not happy to live in this new place and won't feel like she or he belongs to this new place.

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1. http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/immigrant?view=uk [march 4th 2010]

2. http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/expatriate?view=uk [march 4th 2010]

3. Dutch Pinay; (March 16th 2006) the difference between and expatriate and an immigrant. http://misst2000ph.blogspot.com/2006/03/difference-between-expatriate-and.html

The other side of the corporate culture [Very interesting]

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CULTURE AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Organizational culture is an idea in the field of Organizational studies and management which describes the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values (personal and cultural values) of an organization. It has been defined as "the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization."^[1]

The main difference between this two "cultures" is that culture per se is the The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes a group of people, while organizational culture is the set of customs that people that work together have.

the organizational culture is very important because if a person that enters a company doesn´t follow it it'll make it very hard for her or him to integrate with the co-workers.

the organizational culture is a more close kind of culture because ot only involves people from a certain organisation while culture could involve millions of people, even from different countries.

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^{1 ^ a b Charles W. L. Hill, and Gareth R. Jones, (2001) Strategic Management. Houghton Mifflin.}