Course evaluation

Organizations & Cultures is a journey through the world in the search of knowledge

During this semester, and thanks to this subject, I've learned more than others semesters and was able to recreate the world. Being at the "doors of graduation" makes you think about the importance of you career, the impact it has on the world, and the quality of your knowledge.

My knowledge was above average in important aspects of my career and the different subjects I studied over these 5 years, but knowing all this about the culture and the world was not one of my topics of expertise. Although through this years of study, specific subjects of our career talked about understanding culture, learning different aspects of negotiation and managing diversity, most of this subjects talked always about the same regions and countries (Europe, USA and LA), and yet the study of these cultures and these countries was vague and not very rewarding.

In my previews semester, I finally feelt like I was learning something beyond common studies, I finally thought that I was learning valuable information for my professional and my personal life. We studied the world's different cultures in a total different way. Intercultural Management was without a doubt one of my favorite's subject during my career course.

I was very satisfied with this subject and I honestly didn't believe that there could be another subject that with the power to arouse my desire to learn in such a high level. But thank god I was wrong, because organizations & cultures was the perfect continuation for this subject.

In fact I now think that Intercultural management wouldn't have much sense without organizations & cultures, now I see it like the entree to the main plate.

Learning about cultures and diversity has always been one of my passions and was the main reason for my career decision. This subject helped me learned so much and much more.

After learning to understand culture, and ways to reach business cultural success, this course transports a similar but yet different "societies", organizations.

This course helps us understand and manage organizational behavior at the international level by explaining the role that cultural aspects have in organizational behavior. Understanding cross-cultural issues is unquestionably a must for international negotiators in order to be capable and be able to negotiate effectively.

In addition, the hard assignment of creating a blog pushes ones to the limit (in a positive way) for me, this weekly task meant "forcing my self to think and analyze in many different ways"; this exercises not only helped me to learn more but they also helped me reach a higher level of analysis.

This subject makes you push your self and encourages knowledge growth in a very enjoyable way.

I am defiantly in doubt with the teacher, Maria Alejandra Gonzalez, because with out her this course would not have been for me the instructive experience that it was. At the beginning I was amazed and surprised about how young she was, but she is one of those persons capable to transmit and show with one fraise, her experience, wisdom and extensive knowledge.

And an admirable thing is that she shares her knowledge and it's always willing to teach.

Workshop: Australia

Based on:

Baird, Kevin; Harriso, Graeme & Robert Reeve. 2007. The culture of Australian organizations and its relation with strategy. International Journal of Business Studies, 15 (1). 15-41), and Green (2009)

Green, Roy (2009). Innovation the key to recovety. The Australian. 1^st April 2009). (See documents attached).

1. Describe Baird et al (2007)'s paper in terms on research methodology.

The Authors used an inductive approach, In order to prove or reject their two hypotheses;

H1: Organizations with a prospector strategy will have an organizational culture that is (a) more innovative, (b) less stable, (c) less focused on attention to detail,and (d) more outcome oriented than organizations with a defender strategy, with analysers in between.

H2: Organizations with a reactor strategy will have an organizational culture that is weaker in respect of all organizational cultural dimensions than organizations with a defender, prospector, or analyser strategy.

Research method:

First of all the authors made a searched the literature available and explained and showed previews works and approaches Like Sarros (2002) that were made before.

Aspects in Research methodology

1. Data collection methods:

1. Mail survey questionnaire.
2. Reports: "paragraph choice" (Snow and Hrebiniak, 1980) made the respondents to talk and select the characteristics of their organization

2. Sample sources

1. Sampled country: Australia
2. Sampled subject: The culture of Australian organizations.

3. Sampling methods: Probability method; A non-proportional stratified sample was taken to enable the selection of approximately an equal number of business units from each category of organizational size. Randomly selected from the Kompass Australia directory. Stratums: Financial Controllers in Australian organizations.

4. Sample sizes: 400 financial controllers in both manufacturing and service industries in Australia.

5. Response rates: The survey was administered using Dillman's (2000) Tailored Design Method which has been shown to improve response rates to mail survey questionnaires (Dillman, 2000, p. 3).

The main purpose of the study was to examine the culture of Australian organizations; this purpose was divided by the authors in four different purposes;

The first purpose of this paper is to add to the research of Sarros and co-authors by examining the culture of Australian organizations, but using a different version of the OCP and a different subsample of Australian managers. The second purpose of the paper is to examine the empirical relation between organizational culture and strategy in Australian organizations. The third purpose of the paper is to examine whether organizational culture varies between service and manufacturing industries. Sarros et al. (2005) hypothesized that service industries would have stronger cultures (i.e., would value the OCP factors to a greater extent) than manufacturing industries. A final purpose of the study is to add to the literature on the application of the OCP in different countries. Sarros et al. (2002, p. 160) argue that the OCP "represents one of the major measures of organizational culture in use today".

Variables were measured as follows. Organizational culture was measured using the Windsor and Ashkanasy (1996) adaptation of the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) of O'Reilly et al. (1991). As noted earlier (and as shown in Table 1), this adaptation comprises 26 items (value statements) from the original OCP. Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which each item was valued in their organization, using a five-point scale where 1 represented "valued to a very great extent" and 5 represented "not valued at all".

Strategy was measured with the Snow and Hrebiniak (1980) measure based on the Miles and Snow (1978) typology of prospector, defender, analyser and reactor strategies. Respondents were given four paragraphs (shown in the appendix), each describing one of the four strategic types, and were asked to select the description that most closely fitted the characteristics of their organization.

2. What were the main findings on Baird et al (2007)?

• Their results generally corroborate Sarros et al. (2002), with outcome orientation and respect for people perceived as the most prominent characteristics of Australian organizations' culture, and innovation the least prominent.
• The consistency of results using a different managerial sample and a different measure of culture to Sarros et al. (2002) suggests robustness of the descriptions of Australian organizations' culture.
• Their results support the importance of aligning organizational culture with strategy.
• They found no differences in the culture of service and manufacturing industries.

They corroborated Sarros et al. (2002) in finding that the most prominent characteristic of Australian organizational culture was Outcome Orientation, followed by Respect for People, with Stability and Innovation being the least prominent characteristics in both studies. The high ranking of Outcome Orientation, a cultural factor characterised by values of having high expectations for performance and being results and action oriented, bodes well for the success of Australian business if, as theorised, organizational culture is an important determinant of managers' and employees' work attitudes, decisions and behaviour and, ultimately, an organization's financial performance.

Less auspicious is the low ranking of Innovation, a cultural factor characterised by a willingness to experiment, being innovative, being quick to take advantage of opportunities, and risk taking. This finding is consistent with that of Sarros et al. (2002).

Their results support Ashkanasy and Trevor-Roberts' (2001/2002) and Ashkanasy et al.'s (2000); the "mateship" characteristic of Australian national culture "represents a leadership style that focuses on the group", with leaders expected to be "one of the boys" (or girls?). Egalitarianism (the belief that people should be treated the same and as equals) has consistently been identified as an Australian cultural trait, and seen by Sarros et al. (2005, p. 176) as "the ability of Australian leaders to engage socially with workers while also nurturing and developing their careers".

They found an association in the factors of Respect for People (including values of fairness and respect for the rights of the individual) and Team Orientation (including values of being people and team oriented) to be the second and fourth highest ranked aspects of Australian organizational culture. Additionally, the values of fairness and respect for the individual ranked equal 5th among the 26 value statements .

Finally, the paper makes a significant contribution to the literature examining organizational culture in the service and manufacturing industries.

They also found empirical support for the influence of organizational culture on organizational strategic orientation or strategic typology.

3. How does the culture of Australian organisations relate to their strategy?

Organizations of the prospector strategic type were characterised by organizational cultures higher on Innovation and Outcome Orientation than defenders, and defenders were characterised by cultures higher on Stability. While an associational study is unable to unravel causality, the implication for organizations is that they provide empirical support for the theoretical contention that culture needs to be aligned with strategic type, and that organizations seeking particular strategies need to consider the issue of whether their culture is conducive to, or can be moulded to be conducive to, the desired strategy.

4. How does Roy Green (2009)'s article relates to Australian culture and Australian organisations?

According to this article, innovation is the key to recover from the actual world crisis. Innovation can be achieved in many forms, such as, Good management and leadership.

Last's review of Australia's national innovation system sustained that a revival of productivity growth will largely be driven by knowledge and innovation Organisations in Australia must take the correct course and actions in order to obtain growth sustainability with innovation. In order to make the right decisions, the leaders of this companies must have leader skills and be well prepared to confront crisis and to create organizational environments that promote innovation.

But first of all, the culture of Astrualia must be aligned with the need for people, and in this case, for managements to become leaders. This means that Autralian Culture and Astrualian Organisations must find a complete harmony and alignment of interests, principles and policies.

Baird et al (2007) organizations seeking particular strategies need to consider the issue of whether their culture contributes to do, or can be molded to be contributing to, the desired strategy.

The society must offer the right components (working force) that the organizations need in order to succeed, in this may, the country will obtain the organizations results and numbers needed to growth the economy.

(Green 2009)"Governments can play their part in encouraging the take-up of good management behaviour. Doing so may be the single most cost-effective way of improving the performance of their economies"

The Article of Roy Green is a reflection of the crisis; an structural crisis of overproduction in relation to return on investment, promoted by an overexpansion of credit and a shift in the distribution of income from wages to profits. According to him, the challenge for policymakers is to link a short-term increase in demand with strategies for building the longer-term capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship that will enable enterprises to lead recovery through sustainable value creation.

"In addition to identifying market needs and adapting their products or services to meet those needs, firms must also find ways of prompting the market to lock into their innovations ahead of others. The problem for Australia is that productivity growth, has now fallen to less than half, after surging to twice the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average in the late 1990s. The significance of last year's review of Australia's national innovation system is the recognition that a revival of productivity growth - and future competitive advantage for Australian firms - will largely be driven by knowledge and innovation.

"Countries with strong innovation policies are likely to come out of the crisis in better shape than countries with no clear commitment to invention, discovery and continuous improvement".

Management and leadership were key factors in the differential productivity performance of firms, including their ability to undertake innovation. While funding for the Government's fiscal stimulus is inevitably limited, a growing body of international evidence suggests that support for innovation is a cost-effective approach to this critical area of public policy. And support for organisational innovation is particularly cost-effective because it addresses the challenge of linking short-term recovery to the longer-term development of a more dynamic, competitive and environmentally sustainable, knowledge-based economy.

Bibliography: Gonzales-Perez, M. A. 2008. Presentation " Research methodology and research methods " part of the subject Organizations and Cultures at the University EAFIT.

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Workshop: Latin America

1. According to Burlyai (2001) how has been the process of integration in Latin America?

Latin America has a growing economic highly dependent from United States.
In April 1994, Brazil launched its proposal for a South American Free Trade Area, or SAFTA. In the absence of progress during the FTAA negotiations, SAFTA would provide MERCOSUR with an "insurance policy" against the risk of northern protectionism.

South American Free Trade Area (SAFTA), will be the result of the integration of the big blocks of the region; the Andean Community and de MERCOSUR.
MERCOSUR, is the largest regional trade bloc in Latin America. MERCOSUR remains a state-led, primarily commercial initiative, and its evolution and sustainability have been fundamentally linked to strategic factors and power configurations at the regional and hemispheric levels.
The alignment of forces are determined by an evolution of the Latin American has been part of an expansive process of national and regional economic transformation, which has influenced the character of the process of integration.


2.According to at least other 3 additional academic sources, please explain how regional (economic or political) agreements in the Latin-American region have affected the way of doing business in the region.

(Ecuador 2009) Regional tensions Apart from the issue of Manta, relations between Quito and Washington have faced strain in the last two years largely because of regional geopolitics: The war of words between the United States and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez inevitably has drawn in other countries in the region. For his part, Correa has made no secret of his close rapport with Chavez. He is a frequent visitor to Caracas, and Venezuela has announced plans to assist Ecuador in developing its hydrocarbons infrastructure. However, Correa has stood back from joining the Boliviarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) grouping, whose members include countries noted for the stridency of their criticisms of the United States (Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Honduras). US support for Colombia's continuing offensive against the FARC, and the Colombian incursion into Ecuadorean territory last year, mean diplomatic relations between Quito and Bogota remain severed, despite the attempts of mediators (such as the Organization of American States) to patch up the rift. Accusations of Ecuadorean collusion with the FARC caused deep offence in Quito. It is plausible that once the April 26 presidential elections are over -- in which Correa is almost certain to be re-elected for a four-year term -- relations with Washington (and possibly Bogota) may begin to improve. Correa's political position will be stronger than any president of Ecuador in recent memory, and he will feel less need to exploit nationalistic responses. The new US administration also may well seek to rethink its stance towards countries like Ecuador, which, while critical of Washington, are prepared to maintain channels of dialogue. Relations between Correa and the US embassy in Quito have remained relatively cordial over the last two years.

(Leaders 2008) The biggest threat in the region is not Colombia but Venezuela. Mr Chavez has recently veered towards outright support for the FARC. Colombia alleges that the captured laptops show that he gave the guerrillas $300m (and also that the FARC is seeking uranium for a "dirty" bomb). Mr Chavez's mismanagement of Venezuela's oil boom has made him increasingly unpopular at home. His regime runs a risk of imploding. A cornered Mr Chavez might think of a border skirmish as the perfect distraction--and as justification for more repression at home. Even as they scold Mr Uribe, Brazil and other South American countries should warn Venezuela that it is destabilising the continent--and it is high time it stopped.

(Staying alive 2007)The situations of Bolivia and Ecuador are quite different. Both are governed by leftist presidents, Evo Morales and Rafael Correa, who say they have no interest in pursuing bilateral accords with the US. They both espouse anti-American rhetoric and recently took control of the assets of US energy companies operating in their countries.

(The Americas 2009) The last time the heads of government of the Americas got together, at the Argentine resort of Mar del Plata in November 2005, it was a fiasco. At a protest rally of 25,000 organised with the help of the hosts, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez spent more than two hours denouncing the United States and its plans for a Free-Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). At the meeting itself, 29 countries backed the trade plan, moribund though it was, and Mexico's president gave Mr Chavez a public ear wigging. George Bush and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva left early and Argentina and Uruguay were not on speaking terms. So the first aim of many of the 34 leaders who are due to assemble in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, between April 17th and 19th, is to preserve the diplomatic niceties and create a better atmosphere in the Americas. In this they may well succeed. For the region's political landscape has changed. Most obviously, the United States now has in Barack Obama a president who is as widely admired in Latin America as Mr Bush was disliked. Mr Chavez is on the defensive, his socialist economy wounded as badly as any other by the world recession. The most divisive issue concerns the one country that is not invited. Latin America is now united in wanting to end the diplomatic isolation of Cuba, and many would like the United States to lift its long-standing economic embargo against the island.

(Revolution 2009) He may be Latin America's least predictable "21st century socialist", but Rafael Correa seems assured of victory in a presidential election to be held on April 26th. This in itself is an achievement. The general election, held under a new constitution promoted by Correa, comes just 29 months after he was first elected. But no Ecuadorean president has secured a second consecutive term since the 19th century, and none of Correa's three elected predecessors managed to finish their terms. In addition, his Alianza Pais (Country Alliance) party is likely to gain a majority in the legislature, though it may fare less well in mayoral votes. So the president will probably be in a stronger position to tackle his country's acute financial problems. How he will do so is hard to say. He claims to lead a "Citizen's Revolution". Alianza Pais calls its leadership the politburo, and Correa rages against the World Bank and the IMF. But unlike Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, a former army officer, or Bolivia's Evo Morales, who is of poor Amerindian origin, Correa is a middle-class economist with a doctorate from the University of Illinois. He can be pragmatic. He has sacked some leftists in his government (though others remain), is friendly to mining companies and is fond of making PowerPoint presentations as the analyst-in-chief.

References:
Burlyai, Jan. 2002. Integration Processes in the Western Hemisphere. International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy & International Relations, 2002, Vol. 48 Issue 5, p36-43

ECUADOR: Pragmatism underlies Correa foreign policy. (2009, February). Oxford Analytica Daily Brief Service,1. Retrieved May 19, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1688059431).

Leaders: The war behind the insults; Latin America. (2008, March). The Economist, 386(8570), 12. Retrieved May 19, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1443102521).

Staying alive. (2007, July). Economist.com / Global Agenda,1. Retrieved May 19, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1299030471).

The Americas: The ghost at the conference table; The Summit of the Americas. (2009, April). The Economist, 391(8626), 34-35. Retrieved May 19, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1676776121).

The Americas: Revolution! Please give generously; Ecuador's election. (2009, April). The Economist, 391(8628), 41-42. Retrieved May 19, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1686534841).

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Workshop: Main issues for Europe

1. How is the EU leading the fight against climate change?

The European Union has long been at the forefront of international efforts to combat climate change and has played a key role in the development of the two major treaties addressing the issue, the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol, agreed in 1997.

The EU has been taking serious steps to address its own greenhouse gas emissions since the early 1990s. In 2000 the Commission launched the European Climate Change Programme (ECCP). The ECCP has led to the adoption of a wide range of new policies and measures. These include the pioneering >EU Emissions Trading System, which has become the cornerstone of EU efforts to reduce emissions cost-effectively, and a href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/fluor/index_en.htm"legislation to tackle emissions of fluorinated greenhouse gases.

Monitoring data and projections indicate that the 15 countries that were EU members at the time of the EU's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in 2002 will reach their Kyoto Protocol target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. This requires emissions in 2008-2012 to be 8% below 1990 levels.

However, Kyoto is only a first step and its targets expire in 2012. International negotiations are now taking place under the UNFCCC with the goal of reaching a global agreement governing action to address climate change after 2012.

In January 2007, as part of an integrated climate change and energy policy, the European Commission set out proposals and options for an ambitious global agreement in its a href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/future_action.htm" Communication "Limiting Global Climate Change to 2 degrees Celsius: The way ahead for 2020 and beyond".

EU leaders endorsed this vision in March 2007. They committed the EU to cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% of 1990 levels by 2020 provided other developed countries commit to making comparable reductions under a global agreement. And to start transforming Europe into a highly energy-efficient, low-carbon economy, they committed to cutting emissions by at least 20% independently of what other countries decide to do.

To underpin these commitments, EU leaders set three key targets to be met by 2020: a 20% reduction in energy consumption compared with projected trends; an increase to 20% in renewable energies' share of total energy consumption; and an increase to 10% in the share of petrol and diesel consumption from sustainably-produced biofuels.

In January 2008 the Commission proposed a major package of climate and energy-related legislative proposals to implement these commitments and targets. These are now being discussed by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, and EU leaders have expressed their wish for agreement to be reached on the package before the end of 2008.

Taken from: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/home_en.htm

2. How is Europe managing its migration flows?
(European Union Rulers 2005) Immigration provides Europe with an opportunity. The arrival every year of some 1.6 million immigrants provides an answer to the challenges for Europe presented by the decline in population and economic growth. Immigration to Europe is not, however, without its dangers: illegal immigration networks and trafficking and trade in human beings are major problems for both immigrants and the countries affected by the migratory flows.

(Commission Of The European Communities 2008) EU manages migration as a whole with 2 different approaches:

Promotion of legal migration: governments promote legal migration channels and assists migrants on finding jobs. Third-country citizens should be provided with the information necessary to understand the requirements and procedures for legal entry and stay in the EU. Fair treatment of third country nationals who reside legally on the territory of the Member States should be ensured, with the aim of approximating their legal status to that of EU nationals.

Border managements: Global approach that seeks the prevention of illegal migration. The governments has institutionalized the Detention Centers, which have as objective to support migrants in transit: they receive protection, legal assistance, advice, guidance and help to going back homeThe prevention and reduction of illegal immigration in all its dimensions is critical for the credibility and public acceptance of the policies on legal immigration.

Control of access to the EU territory must be reinforced in order to promote a truly integrated border management, while ensuring easy access for bona fide travelers and persons in need of protection and keeping Europe open to the world. The integrated management of the external borders should be strengthened and policies on border controls should develop in coherence with policies on custom controls and on prevention of other safety and security related threats.

3. What are the main challenges for an ageing workforce in Europe?

Employment initiatives for an ageing workforce

Policy attention and reference to ageing of the workforce has increased markedly in the last decade. At EU level concerns about the sustainability of pensions, economic growth and the future labour supply have stimulated a range of policy processes and recommendations to support the goals of longer working lives and later retirement.

Over the next 20 years the age structure of the working population will change and the general population of working age will decline. At the same time, the strain on social security systems will grow with increasing life expectancy.

There are many challenges:

• to maintain and promote the health and working capacity of workers as they age;
• to develop the skills and employability of older workers;
• to provide suitable working conditions as well as employment opportunities for an ageing workforce.

This agenda for action to improve employment of older workers involves government policies at different levels, the social partners and social dialogue, and of course companies as well as older workers themselves. In the EU 15 policies and practices (particularly in companies) to improve opportunities for older workers and to extend working life have developed significantly over the last decade.

A set of guidelines for "good practice in age management" has been published together with analytical reports on developments in "employment initiatives for an ageing workforce in the EU15" and "age and employment in the new Member States".

(Naegele, G. & Walker, A. 2006) Age management encompasses the following eight dimensions:
■ job recruitment;
■ learning, training and lifelong learning;
■ career development;
■ flexible working time practices;
■ health protection and promotion, and workplace design;
■ redeployment;
■ employment exit and the transition to retirement;
■ comprehensive approaches.

4. How European business could overcome the challenges of balancing the interests of cultural diversity and nationalist interests?
(Kets, M. Korotov, K. 2006) The new configuration of the EU brings great expectations and considerable anxiety for organisations and their members. On the one hand, it can be seen as an opportunity to develop a powerful economic entity with a strong cultural heritage, similar values, and enough diversity to foster creativity and innovation. On the other hand, it brings the fear of diluting national identities, clashing cultural norms, religious strife, and incompatibility of leadership styles and work practices. While almost all organisations – not just European ones – face the diversity challenge, Europe is in a much more complex situation. Diversity issues, according to any human resources, management or organisational behaviour textbook, traditionally include local minorities, gender, disability, sexual orientation and the like. Obviously, Europe faces all of these, but if we see Europe as a single economic entity, unlike other economies, it also faces diversity issues in several additional dimensions.

So an important task for new European leaders is to mobilize their followers' resources and help them avoid the paralysis that sometimes greets the new and unknown.

There are some universal elements that make for highly effective leadership. They include such themes as:

• Taking time to listen to your subordinates and making their opinions count.

• Caring about the people who work for you and being ready to help them when they have personal problems or doubts.

•Setting a good example of what is expected of the people in the organisation by "walking the talk".

• Creating "stretch" opportunities for your people and supporting their personal growth and development.

• Encouraging your employees, giving them praise and recognition when warranted.

• Keeping your staff informed and updated by creating transparent organisations.

• Setting clear expectations by providing regular feedback.

• Promoting a culture that helps your employees obtain a feeling of collective identity, encouraging people to move from "I" to "we".

• Making work meaningful for your employees.

As European leadership coaches and researchers of leadership behaviour, we have discovered that leaders want to get the best out of their people. They hope to create an ambience where their people feel inspired and give their best. They need to pay serious attention to their employees'

"fear and loathing" of Europe. They have the responsibility to contain these anxieties and recast them as challenges. They need to provide "transitional space" and, in doing so,they will not only create a greater sense of self-awareness about an individual's strengths and weaknesses, but they will also be able to awaken their people's creative potential and lay to rest the lumpenproletariat stereotype – the kind of people left behind by mainstream corporate society.

Psychological insight will help their employees acquire a greater sense of self-determination and a feeling of control over their lives. It will help them realise a sense of impact, a strong belief that their actions are making a difference in their organisations, and that their organisations can have an impact on society at large. Using transitional space will also help them secure a greater sense of competence and a feeling of personal growth and development.

An essential part of this process is acquiring a sense of belonging that comes with being part of an organisation – the feeling of being part of a community of people who like to work together. Our observations also suggest the importance of having a feeling of enjoyment in what one is doing. Having fun together is a major part of the organisational success equation. Last, but certainly not least, people need to be instilled with a sense of meaning about the activities in which they are engaged. This feeling is highly significant because, as human beings, we are sense-making individuals. Leaders fulfil many different roles in their employees'

Biblipgraphy:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/home_en.htm

Commission Of The European Communities. Brussels, 17.6.2008. A Common Immigration Policy For Europe:Principles, Actions And Tools. Communication From The Commission To The European Parliament, The Council, The European Economic And Social Committee And The Committee Of The Regions. Recover on May 20, 2009 from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2008:0359:FIN:EN:PDF

http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/albania/ipa/cross_border_2007_al_mk_programme_en.pdf

Gonzales-Perez, M. A. 2009. Presentation "Europe" part of the subject Organizations and Cultures at the University EAFIT

Naegele, G. & Walker, A. 2006. A guide to good practice in age management. Luxenbourg: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.

De Vries, Manfred Kets & Konstantin Korotov. 2006. The future of European Business Leadership. European Business Forum, 24: 36-42.

European Union Rulers. (2008, April 25). Migration flow management: a new European strategy. Recover form youtube on May 20, 2009.

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EUROPE

This week we studied Europe, the student's presentation emphasized on the history of the old continent. The subject of their presentation was Ancient empires and cultures, so they exposed the culture, politics and religion of Greece, Roman Empire, The Holy Roman Empire and the British Empire.

At the end they gave a quick review about the WWs and the European Union.

Despite the good work they did and the effort I'm sure they put on their research I didn't liked their exposition because I think they just stayed in the past.

Although I honestly believe that learning about history is very important and it's a must to achieve greater results and evolve, the history of the Europe and its empires it's not new for us, and we have been studying about this subject since high School, or even earlier.

Being one of the most important and the oldest continent in the history of our world gives Europe a cultural, historical, political and even economic richness that in my opinion; was completely overlooked.

There's a lack of present and analysis and there's a whole in this expositions because of what we could have learned.

They talked about the two World Wars, but even there, some greater work could have been done. Maybe an analysis of the learning's of the Holocaust and its implication on present time and on The Arab-Israeli Conflict could have been more enriching.

The European Union case, it's a case worthy of admiration and analysis, even though it also a regular study topic, The integration of so many different cultures through a supranational entity, despite tensions and conflicts among member countries, it an spectacular subject of study.

Being as disappointed as I was, got me asking myself what else could we learn about Europe? I'm aware that this week's question is less concrete and more opened but it's because the intention is to allow myself to answer any question in the process of finding something to learn about.

Searching on data bases with out an actual direction was wearing and time consuming. So I reorder my Ideas and made the next analysis: Europe it's the father of all present nations due to colonization; every culture in the world has an influence by some European country. Whether it was a positive or a negative legacy, no nation can deny its European father.

So I started to search about the state of European Union now days and finally, I read something that got me thinking and awaked my hunger for knowledge, what I found was an Interviewed made to Geert Wilders by James Taranto, published in The Wall Street Journal on 2008.

Geert Wilders is not a typical Dutch politician; to his admires, he is a champion of Western values on a continent that has lost confidence in them. To his detractors, he is an anti-Islamic provocateur. During the Interview, Mr. Wilders talks about the European Union's culture.

As he sees it, the West suffers from an excess of toleration for those who do not share its tradition of tolerance. "We believe that -- 'we' means the political elite -- that all cultures are equal," he says. "I believe this is the biggest disease today facing Europe. . . . We should wake up and tell ourselves: You're not a xenophobe, you're not a racist, you're not a crazy guy if you say, 'My culture is better than yours.' A culture based on Christianity, Judaism, humanism is better. Look at how we treat women, look at how we treat apostates, look at how we go with the separation of church and state. I can give you 500 examples why our culture is better."He acknowledges that "the majority of Muslims in Europe and America are not terrorists or violent people." But he says "it really doesn't matter that much, because if you don't define your own culture as the best, dominant one, and you allow through immigration people from those countries to come in, at the end of the day you will lose your own identity and your own culture, and your society will change. And our freedom will change -- all the freedoms we have will change."

So, I had my question: with the evolution of the Economic Union integration and its goals to converge even more, what will occur with these millenary cultures? Will they end? Will they join all together and become one?

Unfortunately, only time can answer this, but there are some opinions and facts that can change this.

According to the European Cultural Foundation web page; Diversity and cohesion are what characterizes Europe today. Age-old differences and new urban realities present their own challenges, to artists, to cultural workers, and to people everywhere.

This foundations and other organisations such as, Lab for Culture, have several programs to create a common but yet diverse culture in the EU.

These programs can be taken as a suggestion to the answer of my question, and at this time we could say that all cultures of Europe will continue existing and evolving but they will not merge in to a greater culture.

"…culture is a fundamental human need; that it is not diversity that is threatening us, but the fear to embrace it. We need to educate the next generations on the challenges ahead when it comes to knowledge and employability, but also on being cultured and responsible citizens. It is also up to us to look after and enrich the specificity of Europe, its intense cultures and uniquely diverse peoples, impregnated by our history of failures and progress". HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands in ECF Princess Margriet Award ceremony, Brussels December 9th.

Bibliography & References:

James Taranto. (2008, November 29). The Weekend Interview with Geert Wilders: 'Our Culture Is Better'. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), p. A.11. Retrieved May 20, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1604200191).

http://www.eurocult.org/

Image from Shutterstock.com

Film review: Syriana

This Week we had to watch the movie Syriana. I have never seen or read any review and I have to say that a really enjoy the movie but didn't understand it very well. The plot of the movie is very complex and it's not easy to follow it, there's many stories, many character that surround "the real story". The movie explains the politics of the oil business and how people are trying to get it (oil).

The world is running out of oil, and both governments and corporations struggle with "the best style of Italian Mafia", to take control over the last "reserves" of world's oil.

(Ebert 2005) Syriana is an endlessly fascinating movie about oil and money, America and China, traders and spies, the Gulf States and Texas, reform and revenge, bribery and betrayal. Its interlocking stories come down to one thing: There is less oil than the world requires, and that will make some people rich and others dead. The movie seems to take sides, but take a step back and look again. It finds all of the players in the oil game corrupt and compromised, and even provides a brilliant speech in defense of corruption, by a Texas oilman (Tim Blake Nelson). This isn't about Left and Right but about Have and Have Not. The movie begins with one of the Gulf states signing a deal to supply its oil to China. This comes as a strategic defeat for Connex, a Texas-based oil company. At the same time, an obscure oil company named Killen signs a deal to drill for oil in Kazakhstan. Connex announces a merger with Killen, to get its hands on the oil, but the merger inspires a Justice Department investigation.

(Osborn 2005) Syriana surrounds a fictitious merger between two oil conglomerates, Connex and Kileen. Jeffrey Wright plays Bennett Holiday, Sydney Hewitt's (Nicky Henson) stooge sent to look into the merger to dispel any corruption before the Department of Justice finds it. Clooney plays Bob Barnes, a CIA operative originally sent into Beirut to snuff out Prince Nasir Al-Subaai (Akbar Kurtha), the possible heir to the Iranian throne. And Matt Damon plays Bryan Woodman, the financial advisor to Prince Nasir, who's married to Julie, played by Amanda Peet. To explain the dozens of other, more peripheral characters and their connections to these primary three would take many more pages of explanation, and would ruin the fun of being utterly lost for Syriana's entire first act. Also, these three-Clooney, Damon, and Wright-are the only fully-dimensional characters of the film. They occupy the only roles capable of thoughtful and provoking performances, save Tim Blake Nelson's thunderous speech on corruption. All three actors do well, pulling in possible nomination nods, and accentuating Writer/Director Steven Gaghan's method of understated storytelling. I think Syriana is a great film. I am unable to make my reasons clear without resorting to meaningless generalizations. Individual scenes have fierce focus and power, but the film's overall drift stands apart from them. It seems to imply that these sorts of scenes occur, and always have and always will.

While reading what the critics said about the movie I bumped in to one of the Seattle Post criticized the movie in hardly way because of the "false accusations & revelations" made to business and government corruption.

(Arnold 2005) In this year of record oil prices, oil-company profits and American casualties in Iraq, nothing, of course, could be more timely than a film that tries to lay bare some of the behind-the-scenes avarice and political expediency that has helped create the outrage.

This critic got me thinking about corruption. Whether it's because of oil, petroleum, or other economic interest, corruption exists all over the world, supposedly countries like Colombia are more corrupted than others but, unfortunately politicians all over the world are in a "global trend" of worrying about themselves and stealing people's money.

The lack of moral values and principles govern our world and even the most "respectable diplomatic" can be evolved in this scruple less action. Like my Mother says: "You never know when the heart of some one could be damaged and tented".

I started to look for some reviews that supported my opinion and I obtained infinite results. Here are the ones that I thought where more trustable and alike.

Rolling Stone, Peter Travers: "Takes off with the lightning speed of a thriller, the gonzo force of frontline journalism and the emotional wallop of a drama that puts a human face on shocking statistics"

Washington Post, Desson Thomson: "What's so powerful about the film is the rich stories it tells and how it leads them like so many human tributaries to one black, bubbling source".

New York Magazine, Ken Tucker: "A film that transcends it's obvious timeliness to say some elemental things about personal loyalty and institutional betrayal".

Portland Oregonian, Shawn Levy: "A gripping movie about espionage, loyalty and betrayal"

Time, Richard Corliss: "Not a conventionally satisfying movie but a kind of illustrated journalism: an engrossing, insider's tour of the world's hottest spots, grandest schemes and most dangerous men."

The New York Times, Dana Stevens: "It aims to be a great deal more than a standard geopolitical thriller and thereby succeeds in being one of the best geopolitical thrillers in a very long time".

TV Guide, Ken Fox: "We can only hope that the time frame is meant to be sometime before 9/11, and not after. Either way, it's a troubling vision of how terrorism and "martyrdom" occur on both sides of this ghostly war, and is both perpetrated and facilitated by the very forces enlisted to stop it".

Chicago Reader, J.R. Jones: "This is intelligent, committed, and politically provocative, though its narrative puzzle box may prompt you to throw up your hands and let Exxon go on running the world"

Entertainment Weekly, Lisa Schwarzbaum: "Indeed, the point of Syriana appears to be that the whole lousy, corrupt, oil-producing and -consuming world is a ball of wax, ready to melt"

Bibliography:

Sam Osborn (2005, December 5). Syriana Review. Retrieved, April 15 2009, of http://www.samseescinema.com/

Roger Ebert (2005, December 9). Syriana (R). Retrieved, April 15 2009, of http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/

William Arnold. (2005, December 9). Brave political drama 'Syriana' loses its sting in confusing plot. SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER MOVIE CRITIC. Retrieved April 22, 2009, from www.seattlepi.com/movies/251362_syriana09q.html

http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/syriana

Images were taken from: http://www.shutterstock.com/

Middle East: The Arab World and Israel

This week region of study was the Middle East the presentation gave a better perspective about these regions. First of all some the group shared some General Facts of the region, and the 3 practiced Monotheist Religions, they started to get deep in to the subject when they exposed the Economy and the Islamic Finances. Then they talk a little bit more about the Status of the Middle East Women.
Finally an excellent approach of the constituent’s members is made by giving some key cultural data facts and “teaching” the class hoe to negotiate with each one of this cultures. They start with Dubai fallowed by Qatar, Yemen and they finish this “small presentations” with the State of Israel.
As a “plus” the team shows us the trade that this region has with Colombia.
All though, all cultures have stereotypes, since 9/11 Arabs have been extremely stereotyped, and in places like, the United States and Spain, many Arabs are living rejections and experiencing discrimination.
We began this year by hearing of the “endless” conflict between Israel and Palestine. I have always wonder if this war will end some day?
Short History of Israeli and Palestinian Conflict
After World War II, the United Nations gave land to the Jewish people of the world so they could live together in peace. This land, Israel, includes holy places for the Jewish religion and is surrounded by Muslim countries. Palestinian Muslims lived on the land at the time that the United Nations gave it to the Jewish people.
Portions of the land given to the Jewish people, or taken over by them when they won wars against Arab states, are also holy for Muslims. Certain portions of Jerusalem controlled by Israel, called "East Jerusalem," are very important to Muslims. For religious reasons, Palestinian Muslims believe that they must gain control of East Jerusalem as part of any lasting peace settlement.
Further, Palestinians view themselves as living in an occupied nation, where invaders (Israelis) have placed them under military rule. To fight back, Palestinians have built a terrorist network to attack innocent Israeli civilians. Israelis feel they must continue to control Palestinians with military force to protect themselves against more terrorist attacks.

My Question goes beyond the reasons of the conflict and it’s about the psychological damage that this has caused on Israelis and Palestinians. Some of the young warriors of this two nations “don’t even know” why this war started or why they are fighting about, they just know why it must continue; regrets are the reasons to fight the other part that “must pay”, they’ve killed their family, friends, teacher or girlfriend.
“The pain that has caused this war to all citizens of both nations is huge”

(Rausing 2009)There will never be peace in the Middle East until Palestinians and other Arabs confront the reality of anti-Semitism
On 3 January 2009 , the MP George Galloway spoke in Trafalgar Square. "Brothers and sisters," he began. "Comrades and friends. Salaam alaikum. Peace be upon you.
"In April and May of 1943 the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto were surrounded by barbedwire fences, by the occupiers of Poland, and they faced a choice, in the words of the song of the partisans: they could die on their knees or they could live for ever. And tliey chose to rise up against their occupiers, to use their bodies as weapons . . . Today, the Palestinian people in Gaza are the new Warsaw Ghetto, and those who are murdering them are the equivalent of those who murdered the Jews in Warsaw in 19 43 ."
Mr Galloway and his supporters, and probably the majority of people in this country, are righdy angry about Israel's recent bombardment of Gaza. As many as 1,40 o people were killed, women as well as children. Forty per cent of Gaza's homes were destroyed, and people were deprived of food, water and medicines. The Israeli (and Egyptian) blockade, which in effect kept a million and a half people locked in, has been unethical and politically senseless. Hamas won power through the ballot box; Israel, Egypt and Fatah need to negotiate with them.
But Gaza is not like die Warsaw Ghetto. The Israeli soldiers are not like the Nazis. The claim of moral equivalence is dangerous, not because it exaggerates the horror of Gaza (the reality of that bombardment was probably worse than we can really imagine), but because it minimizes the horror of the Holocaust.
This, to remind readers, is what the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was like. Before the war, Warsaw's Jewish population numbered about 350,000 and was die second -largest Jewish community in the world, after New York's. The population of the ghetto, at its height, due to enforced deportations into the ghetto, was about 445, 000 people, in just over two square miles. From 19 40 to mid -19 42, approximately 83,000 Jews there died of starvation or disease. In the summer of 1942, an estimated 300,000 Jews were deported from the ghetto, mainly to the Treblinka extermination camp. More than 10,000 people were murdered during die deportations; meanwhile, 35,000 people were granted permission to remain in the ghetto; an additional 20,000 or so stayed in hiding.
In October 1942, Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler gave the order to liquidate the ghetto, and deport all Jews to concentration camps. On 18 January 19 43 a small number of resistance fighters, armed with pistols, hid in a column of deportees and fought the German guards. Most were killed. Deportations, however, were temporarily suspended.
On 19 April 1943, on the Eve of Passover, the SS and the police resumed deportations. This was the signal for armed uprising. Mordecai Anielewicz led the first battle, in which 12 Germans were killed or wounded. By the third day, SS General Jürgen Stroop ordered diat every building in the ghetto be destroyed. Anielewicz was killed on 8 May.
By June 1943, the ghetto was destroyed; not a house was left standing. The survivors of the uprising were sent to Treblinka and Majdanek, where all but a few thousand perished.
George Galloway was not alone in his Holocaust comparisons. Here are some New Statesman readers' comments posted on the website during die Gaza bombardment:

* "Why does the israeli Jewish Zionists TERRORIST thug regime keep terrorising Palestinians, witli their horrific genocidal bombardment over and over";
* ". . . the Gaza Concentration Camp realities";
* ". . . apartheid Israel killed about 1,340 Occupied Palestinians in its Gaza Concentration Camp";
* "why don't the Jews move to Texas, it would solve all problems".

This is a conflict that is played out in the realm of words and symbolism.
The Hamas Charter obsessively refers to the Zionist conspiracy, and freely compares Israelis to the Nazis. British liberals may note the distinction between anti-Semitism and antiZionism, but tliey should also recognise that "Zionist conspiracy" is common code for "Jewish conspiracy".
In the Arab world, anti-Semitism is tolerated, and often publicly expressed. Here are some quotes from the Egyptian cleric Muhammad Hussein Ya'qoub, delivering a speech on al-Rahma TV on 17 January this year:

"You must believe tliat we will fight, defeat and annihilate them, until not a single Jew remains on the face of the earth."
"As for you Jews - the curse of Allah upon you. The curse of Allah upon you, whose ancestors were apes and pigs."

The quotes above are taken from the Middle East Media Research Institute, which publicizes Muslim anti-Semitism. It's real and destructive. It also fuels Israeli nationalism.
We know the narrative of anti-Semitism, but do we know the narratives of racism against Palestinians in Israel? It's there, and ugly, yet we barely know how to talk about it outside the clichés of anti -Zionism. Do we call it racism?
There is, however, a lively human rights movement within Israel itself, which is establishing a common language for discrimination against Palestinians: B'Tselem, Sikkuy, the Public Committee against Torture in Israel and many other civil society groups are working to advocate Palestinian rights. They transcend the incendiary metaphors of genocide in tliis conflict, all of which helps to build peace.

There will never be peace in the Middle East until the Palestinians confront the antiSemitism that they now openly encourage, and which British pro -Palestinian groups and international funding agencies tacitly accept. They must acknowledge the reality and pain of the Holocaust. The Israelis must also acknowledge Palestinian suffering, the loss of life, land and livelihoods, and the present discrimination against Palestinians within Israel.

There will probably never be an agreed Palestinian/Israeli version of history, but mutual acknowledgement of historical and present suffering are a necessary precondition of peace.

Bibliography

• Labour pains in the Middle East. (2008, March). Economist.com / Global Agenda. Retrieved May 7, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1455180361).
• Sigrid Rausing. (2009, April). The code for conspiracy. New Statesman, 138(4946), 19. Retrieved May 7, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1703667361).
• Tony Judt. (1999, July). The morbid truth. Review of medium_being_reviewed title_of_work_reviewed_in_italics. The New Republic, 221(3/4), 36-40. Retrieved May 7, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 43089903).
• http://www.awesomelibrary.org/MiddleEastConflict.html#history
• images were taken from: http://www.shutterstock.com/