For this week assignment I posted some comments in the blogs I found the most interesting:
Carlos Andres Mejia
Stefany Alvear Angel
Manuela Saldarriaga
Luisa Mejia Salazar
Sara Baena Castro
sábado, 28 de agosto de 2010
jueves, 19 de agosto de 2010
PYGMALION EFFECT CASE
The Pygmalion effect, attempts to explain how the perceiver’s positive expectation may enhance the target’s performance. The effect is named after Pygmalion a Cypriot sculptor, who fell in love with a female statue he had carved out of ivory.
It is a form of self-fulfilling prophecy, in this respect, people with poor expectations internalize their negative label, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly. (1)
Is important for employees to adopt positives attitudes at all levels, especially in commanding levels, it can help in the creation of a better organizational environment, and can also help in the achievement of goals. Is even more important to promote positive behaviors in companies, when you are dealing with cross-cultural groups of people, because in these cases harmony is difficult to achieve and people can be affected in different ways to the stimuli from the environment. Each person select, organize and interpret the information according to internal factors, which change a lot among different cultures.
As said before, cultures adopt different behaviors, and reflect the pigmalion effect in special ways. As an example I want to share with you a case study of the Germans behavior. It was developed by Daniel Wolfman, a writer with several publications on international trade.
This study refers to Germany's rule-oriented, hierarchical focus on task accomplishment as an example of an Eiffel Tower management style.
It is a form of self-fulfilling prophecy, in this respect, people with poor expectations internalize their negative label, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly. (1)
Is important for employees to adopt positives attitudes at all levels, especially in commanding levels, it can help in the creation of a better organizational environment, and can also help in the achievement of goals. Is even more important to promote positive behaviors in companies, when you are dealing with cross-cultural groups of people, because in these cases harmony is difficult to achieve and people can be affected in different ways to the stimuli from the environment. Each person select, organize and interpret the information according to internal factors, which change a lot among different cultures.
As said before, cultures adopt different behaviors, and reflect the pigmalion effect in special ways. As an example I want to share with you a case study of the Germans behavior. It was developed by Daniel Wolfman, a writer with several publications on international trade.
This study refers to Germany's rule-oriented, hierarchical focus on task accomplishment as an example of an Eiffel Tower management style.
The Eiffel tower management culture is most common in Northwest European countries, including Germany. In Germany, jobs are well-defined while assignments are fixed and limited. German employees know what they are supposed to do within an Eiffel Tower culture that is hierarchical, with orders coming down from the top with very little upward communication.
Germans generally accept the orders from higher authorities and have a high sense of self monitoring their actions in order to fulfill the task as they were said. These actions reflect in them the Pygmalion effect.
Germans generally accept the orders from higher authorities and have a high sense of self monitoring their actions in order to fulfill the task as they were said. These actions reflect in them the Pygmalion effect.
The case describe their leadership style as unique because they have styles in order to closely fit with the strongest German cultural characteristics. German leadership and motivation style synthesizes the most pertinent characteristics from Authoritative Theory X, Paternalistic Theory Y and Participative Theory Z.
From Theory X:
- Germans like to be directed.
- In Germany, job security is primary.
From Theory Y:
- Since Germans are committed to goals, they exercise high self-control.
- No threats of punishment are required to ensure task completion.
From Theory Z:
- Germans are motivated by a strong commitment to be part of a greater whole
- Through teamwork, Germans derive self-satisfaction while contributing
Next, these are some other results and conclusions from the case
Formal German Qualifications: German organizations rely heavily on formal qualifications in deciding how to schedule, deploy and reshuffle personnel
Difficulty Handling Organizational Changes: When changes need to be made, the German culture is often ill-equipped to handle the complex burdens that a rule-based Eiffel Tower bureaucracy demands. Manuals must be rewritten, procedures changed, job descriptions altered, promotions reconsidered and qualifications reassessed.
Difficulty Handling Organizational Changes: When changes need to be made, the German culture is often ill-equipped to handle the complex burdens that a rule-based Eiffel Tower bureaucracy demands. Manuals must be rewritten, procedures changed, job descriptions altered, promotions reconsidered and qualifications reassessed.
Germans Resist ChangesGenerally: German managers are slow to accept changes partly because of Germany's strong aversion to risk
References
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_effect
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_effect
case
- WOLFMAN, Daniel. Independent insights based on research from International Management, Culture, Strategy and Behavior (6th edition, Hodgetts-Luthans-DOH).
image http://www.informamenorca.com/fotos/cursos/110_1.jpg
jueves, 5 de agosto de 2010
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Organizations as social arrangements are groups of people working towards a common objective. In order to achieve that goal they must follow a structure, some rules and even more important, they have to develop a high level of understanding so they can relate better and create better outcomes from mutual complementation. In this process the organizations are facing a new challenging factor: the globalization. Is hard to talk about these groups and not take into account, the existent diversity in most of them.
Globalization has spread the importance of being related with different countries around the world and has created awareness on the understanding of other cultures, knowledge and technologies that can affect an organization even if is too far away, or if is not too involved in international activities. That’s why it is important for companies to develop systems in which every talent is used in the best way, and where the diversity that each person can share, will make the group work in a 
pleasant environment where the ideas can be complemented achieving good results for the company and for their personal growth.
pleasant environment where the ideas can be complemented achieving good results for the company and for their personal growth.That cultural diversity has been analyzed by Geert Hofstede, who designed a model integrating five dimensions of culture. One of those dimensions, describe the level of uncertainty avoidance; meaning the degree in which people is tolerant to hesitations or ambiguities and in which a society will try to enforce or discourage laws to guide the behavior.
“Uncertainty avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of unknown situations by strict laws and rules, safety and security measures” (1), this definition can be applied to Colombia, where this index is really high, 80, and where society doesn`t accept changes easily. The opposite thing happens in Singapore, this country has one of the lower levels of uncertainty avoidance, 5.
An interest of one of the mentioned countries in doing investments or agreements with the other one, will required a lot of commitments, so they find a balance in the amount of rules and requirements that the companies must fulfill. This year the company International enterprise from Singapore said that Colombia will become the third destiny of their investments in Latin America, in projects of aqueduct and sewage (2). In order to accomplish this agreements Colombia will have to compromise some of its restrictions, not only to receive the investment but also to improve the country`s infrastructure conditions.
(2) "Singapur interesado en invertir en proyectos de infraestructura en Colombia" http://spanish.peopledaily.com.cn/31620/6959889.html
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