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.