United States: Strong similarities between national and organizational culture

Part 1: In this part, the reader would be able to understand the main similarities between the American and Disney culture according to the North American class presentation.

The American culture has influenced significantly the way Disney does things, because Disney was created in United States, it takes many aspects of the national culture in order to be the leader company in the parks and resorts segment:

Taken from: Getty images

Australia: Learning how to respect and take into account Aborigine´s culture

Part 1: In this part, according to the Australian class presentation, the reader would be able to understand certain aspects of the Australian culture and the importance of the culture for the adoption of the Reconciliation Action Plan by Australian companies, in order to achieve positive results.

Australia is known as a multicultural country that accepts people from different cultures and countries. The Australian culture is based on egalitarism in order to avoid differentiation and discrimination; also in openness, being a direct manner culture that believes in the importance of discussions for better achievements; and finally it is an individualistic culture.

Taken from: Getty images

Europe: Diversity in the European Union

Part 1: In this part, the reader would be able to understand the diversity in the European Union and how this affects businesses.

The European Union started after the Second World War with the objective of finish a period of wars between neighbors, establishing a peaceful continent, based on cooperation and good relations between countries. The Union began in 1950 with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community; six European countries were the founders of this union: Germany, Belgium, France, Luxemburg, Italy and the Netherlands. During the Treaty of Rome in 1957 the six countries increased cooperation and create the European Economic Community, that latter becomes the European Union. Nowadays, the European Union has 27 member states and three candidate countries are waiting for a future membership, which are: Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey.

Image taken from: The official website of the European Union

Middle East: The Islamic banking

According to the bibliographic texts, it would be answered the following questions:

1. Explain what Islamic Banking is and its background.

The Islamic banking is a system and activity that follows the Islamic principles, which prohibit the acceptance and payment of riba (interest charges), and forbid other activities that are against Islamic main beliefs. (Institute of Islamic Banking and insurance, 2010)

The philosophy of the contemporary Islamic banking system started since the beginning of the Islam, when the Islamic partnerships were used in the business world and the concept of interest was little applied. During a period of time from the mid 1940s until de end of 1960s many authors explained the need of a commercial banking system that gives importance to profits and loss sharing and not to interests. These ideas resulted in the creation of the first Islamic banking in the early 1970s. (Ökte, 2010).

Africa: South Africa and the importance of Ubuntu Philosophy

Part 1: According to the text “Building competitive advantage from Ubuntu.” By Mzamo Mangaliso, the reader would be able to understand certain aspects of South African culture that companies need to take into account in order to develop a competitive advantage.

After the apartheid, South Africa established a democracy that respect racial and gender differences, and the country is having more economic progress after the apartheid.

Ubuntu philosophy is an important part of the culture, and in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODQ4WiDsEBQ Nelson Mandela explains in an interview, the Ubuntu concept.

India: Adapting into globalization

Part 1: In this part, the reader would be able to understand the main aspects of the Indian culture and the organizational culture.

India is located in South Asia, their official languages are Hindi and English, which is an advantage for businesses with United States. Another important aspect of India is the current economic growth and the importance of outsourcing products and services for the Indian globalization.

Image taken from: World travelers

The Indian culture is based on the spiritual beliefs; India has many religions and believes in reincarnation, in the karma and dharma. Therefore, the spiritual and religious part is a key in the Indian culture.

Blog recommendation

I want to recommend the following blog: http://oyc2010.blogspot.com/ it is written by Carlos Torres and is about similar topics: cultures and organizations. I consider it is a good source of research because is very complete and nice to read it.


You can check it and learn more.

Next on this blog

The next topic to analyze will be: India . First the reader would be able to understand the main concepts and then it will be answered a proposal question in order to understand more the topic.

China: A national and organizational culture that support globalization

Part 1: In this part, the reader would be able to understand certain aspects of the Chinese culture that are necessary for the foreign direct investment in the country.

China is in a big territory located in Eastern Asia and with a population of 1.3 billion people, it means that one-fifth of the world´s population live in China.

Image taken from: Topnews

Inside China there are different ethnic groups: 90% are part of the ethnic Han Chinese, there are also the Tibetans, Mongols, Uighurs, Zhuang, Miao, Yi and many other small groups. In terms of language, the spoken Chinese has a high level of internal diversity and there are several regional groups of Chinese, but the most spoken is Mandarin.

East Asia: The lesson of an organizational cultural change by a chaebol company

Part 1: In this part, the reader would be able to understand certain aspects of the Korean culture specifically the organizational culture of a Chaebol company: Samsung.

South Korea belongs to the East Asian region. The countries of the region are: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. These countries have cultural similarities because they share religion beliefs (Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto) and also the geographical proximity makes them share cultural aspects.

Image taken from: Getty Images

Expatriate Assignment and Overseas Experience: Choosing between the best option

Part 1: In this part, the reader would be able to understand the main differences and similarities between expatriate assignments and overseas experience, based on the text “Expatriate assignments and overseas experience – contrasting models of international human resource development” by: Kerr Inkson, Judith Pringle, Michael B. Arthur and Sean Barry.

In expatriate assignment, the company has the initiative to send an employee to another country where it is a subsidiary. The employee has to know the company`s strategies and also need to have the ability to live and work in an international environment. The employee accomplishes the expatriate assignment and returns to another position in the same company in the home country. This model allows an intra-company mobility of the employees, because the subsidiary in the foreign country is part of the company.

Image taken from: Getty Images

Migrant Workers: looking for better opportunities

Part 1: In this part, the reader would be able to understand the meaning, examples, types, causes and regional tendencies of migrant workers.

The migration is a voluntary or involuntary movement of people from one place to another. The voluntary movement is when people look for better opportunities (mainly economical opportunities) and the involuntary movement is when the home country is in war or because discrimination, natural disasters, internal armed conflict, among other facts.

There is the case of United States that is considered as a migrant country, because it receives high quantity of legal and illegal immigrant. The majority of Mexican immigrants in USA are doing the hard and less paid job. But there are also immigrants that have the capacity to have a more remunerated job. It is important to say that immigrants can contribute to the well performance of the economy, by doing the hardest and/or the more intellectual activities.

Image taken from: Getty Images

Managing diversity in virtual teams

Based on the conference “Virtual Teams and International Business” by the lecturer Dr. Eoin Higgins on February 11, 2010 in Medellin; it will answered the question ¿Do you consider managing diversity a key success factor in the performance of virtual teams?

Virtual teams are known as a group of people in different locations, working in a common issue, who use communication technology in order to use less costs and be more efficient in getting access to expertise.

People who participate in virtual teams have different ways of doing things because they have differences in: resources, location, time differences and non verbal communication.

Image taken from: Getty Images

Managing Diversity: A strong competitive advantage

Part 1: In this part, the reader would be able to understand important aspects of managing diversity based on the text “The business case for commitment to diversity”. Business Horizons 51: 201-209. By Slater, Stanley F., Weigand, Robert A., Zweilein, Thomas J.

As an element of organizational culture, some companies have values, beliefs and norms, totally committed to diversity; the reason is that diversity within an organization is a source of competitive advantage because the right human capital diversity is a resource that not many companies can imitate.

The diversity of competitive and intelligent human capital with valuable and different skills, increase the competitive advantage of a company because an organization in order to be successful need diverse people with different work styles, knowledge of the diverse market, leadership skills, perspectives, ideas, points of view, diversity in gender, race, age that contribute to make the best decisions with more creativity and innovation.

Image taken from: Learning toward justice (June 16, 2006)

Exploring Diversity: Understand differences and avoid stereotypes

Part 1: In this part, the reader would be able to understand the importance of being aware and explore diversity inside and outside the organization

To understand diversity is to be aware of how similar and different we (people) are in some aspects. It is necessary to give importance to this topic, because the world is each time more globalized, so companies need to deal with diverse people from all over the world: suppliers, customers, outsourcing, and financial services, among others) and the success or failure in negotiations depends on the capacity of explore diversity.

The following image shows the three dimensions of diversity: The visible, the invisible and the core.

Image taken from: St. Clair County

National and organizational culture: The importance of awareness

Part 1: In this part, the reader would be able to understand important aspects of the national and organizational culture based on the texts “International Management: Cross-Cultural Dimensions London: Blackwell Publishing. Chapter 1” By Richard Mead and "Corporate Culture: more myth than reality?" By Gregory J. Millman.


The word culture is known as the beliefs, attitudes, customs, values, language, religion and also history and origins that people share because feel part of a group that is different from another group. But it is necessary to avoid stereotypes and do not generalize, thinking that always a nation is similar to a culture, because nations also have subcultures that share different beliefs, attitudes, values, language, etc. (Mead, 2005).

In order to have successful business in other cultures, it is important to be aware of the cultural components mentioned before, because there are many cases of companies’ failures doing business in other cultures that were consequences of the ignorance or lack of sensitivity.

The ethnographic Research: be an insider and an outsider.

Part 1: In this part, the reader would be able to understand the main concepts of the ethnographic research, based on the text “A synthesis of ethnographic research” by: Michael Genzuk.

The ethnographic research is based on the personal experience of a researcher, living with and living like a group of people who are studied, learning about the ideas, behaviors and situations.

The researcher observe and participate in the life of a group or culture and develop an insider`s perspective of what is happening, collecting data through interviews and participating in activities. It is important to say that the researcher needs the approval of the group, because the objective is to be part of it and not to be considered as a spy.

But the researcher can’t just develop an insider´s perspective, it is also necessary to have an external view of the situations, in order to describe and analyze the findings in a professional way. Therefore, the researcher acts as an insider and outsider during the researching process.