LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:IUZLASkWHPIJ:www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_colombia.shtml+hofstede+colombia&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk

Cultural factor affecting leadership

A Colombian salesperson is highly influenced by the society where he/ she lives, and based on the Hofstede analysis, the Colombian people have a lower individualism, which means that the people is very collectivist, and for this reason loyalty and long term commitment are very important values for strong relations. Analyzing power distance, it is a little bit high and it means that the society is hierarchy oriented, exist an inequality in terms of power and in terms of wealth.

Relating these two factors high collectivism and high power distance, is possible to conclude that leadership characteristics in a Colombian sales person could be hampered by the high power distance factor; because she/he accept to obey orders from their superior and do exactly what their boss says to do, it means they have a strong dependence on them. This is way it is more like a “trickle down” process and is very difficult to be viceverza, based on the hierarchy pattern of this society, and also is important to highlight the high uncertainty avoidance Colombian people have, because they attached to rules, and they don’t like to take risks, in this case for example do things different from what was assigned.

Organizational Commitment

The Colombian sales personnel tend to follow rules give from their superior because they think, that in that way their job will be more “secure” in the organization, and thus they can continue working there. Is very important to highlight that due to the economical environment Colombia has (unemployment 14,6%) [1], the employees are more willing to keep working there, even if they don’t really want it. Talking about affective commitment, as Colombian society is very collectivistic the employees tend to be more loyal with their group, in this case the organization so they will accept the beliefs and values it has.

Leadership Behaviour

A Colombian sales personnel know which is their position and their roles on the pyramid, because is root on their culture the existence of a hierarchy order, thus the person limits their work on what she/he must do in the position that is located, based on the instructions made from their leaders ,on what and how the tasks need to be done. On the other hand, the leader likes to give orders, in a respectful way, and that generates a good work climate, because the subordinates are expecting that role from him/her.

Role Stress

Colombian sales personnel have low role ambiguity because they accept to receive orders from their superiors due to the fact that this society has a high power distance; and this at the end causes that employees have enough information of what they need to do. At the same time Colombian sales personnel have low role conflict because they know very well their position and from whom they need to receive orders.

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[1] http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:M8im0vxOv_4J:www.dane.gov.co/+tasa+de+desempleo+colombia+2008&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk

COLOMBIA MANAGMENT STYLE

In Colombia is very difficult to analyze a defined management style, because there are many Colombian companies that have managers without a good preparation in the administrative science and for that reason they tend to use more empirical practices. This is because many of the companies are family owned, and usually the positions are inherited by the family members, no matter if they studied other fields such as engineering, legal profession among others.

MANAGMENT STYLES

	JAPAN	KOREA	COLOMBIA
Strategic goals	· They focused more on market share	· Emphasize on market share and profit maximization. -Scale based cost reduction	· Emphasize on profit maximization
Environment analysis	· Large firms are active on the environmental analysis of substitute goods and service suppliers.(potential threats)	· Large firms are less active about the environmental analysis than Japanese ones. Focus more on monitoring the rivals (oligopolistic).	· Focus more on monitoring the rivals.
Closeness with customer	· Emphasize information exchange with customer	· Managers don`t highlight to much information exchange with customer · But highly internationalized firms are as closed to the customer as Japanese ones.	· They don’t emphasize to much on the information exchange with customer.
Marketing	Large firms · Managers emphasize more on those aspects. Internationalized firms · Is similar the develop of corporate brands/trade mark	Large firms · Emphasize on development of corporate brands/ trade mark Internationalized firms · Is similar the develop of corporate brands/trade mark of Japanese firms	· They usually don’t invest to much in market research, they tend to use “ensayo, error” (empiric)
Human resource management	Growth/internationalized firms · Information sharing with the organization and corporate values · Group oriented	Growth/internationalized* firms · Information sharing with the organization and corporate values · Hierarchy oriented.	· Hierarchy oriented.
International Orientation	For the large/ internationalized firms · The same as the large/internationalized firms from Korea	For the large/ internationalized firms · Conduct customer analysis globally · High involvement in the direct international marketing	· They are aware of international markets but they try to focus more on the local area.
· Supplier relationship	Large and internationalized firms · Cooperative supplier relationship is very important; its one of their competitive advantages	Large and internationalized firms · Try to do the same as Japan with suppliers but in terms of new product development and longterm relationship with them.	· Weak the relationship with suppliers (be afraid of sharing information, but the managers are doing efforts to create stronger relations with their suppliers.
Technology development and manufacturing	· The same issues tend to converge between japanese and korean internationalized frims · Emphasize on flexible manufacturing	Internationalized firms · Long term technology, use of economies of scale in manufacturing are very important · Managers less emphasize on flexible manufacturing	· Less flexibility because of the lack of high technology

MANAGING DIVERSITY- VALUES AND ATTITUDES

For me the most offensive was Slug, because he took a very agressive attitude toward Gregory when he hit him without any direct threat; the second most offensive was Abigail because she accepted to go to bed with Sinband and also because she was overjoyed with action taken by Slug. The third character of the rank is for me, Sinbad because he offers a favor with a very bad interest. The next one is Gregory because he didn't care about her and threated her with indifference, and finally the less offensive in the ranking is Ivan, because considering that he was Abigail's friend, he prefer not to get involved in the problem and that is way he didn't listen her.

CORPORTATIONS ANALYSIS

The root cause of the problem that the movie "The Corportation" exposed, are the corporations themself. Their final goal is to be more and more profitable, no matter what they need to overpass and how they will do it; this alludes to a common and hard phrase that says :"The end justify the means"; but in this case what is sad is that the end goes to the pocket of the owner (s), who really don't care too much about the word: SUSTAINABILITY, or sometimes they even don't know it's real meaning.

That thirst of money combine with the Capitalist economic model, which is a framework for corporations, makes the problem bigger. This model as it is known, is caracterized by the private property, own economic gain, the market law, which at the end put the State in a minimum level of involvement; so in other words much of the power is deposited on the corportions hands. That is not the problem, the trouble is that those hands as I said before, are thirst of having bigger earnings for themselfs, and they are not so worried about the common welfare as the State is. The State takes control over the actions made by the corporations that harm that welfare of the society as for example, trough environmental fines. That is an example of what the State can do, but for the interests of the corporations they simply prefer to pay as fines as the have to, which is sometimes cheaper than solving the problem.

The worries of obtaining as profits as they can, push the corporations to invest a lot of their incomes in advertising and publicity, because those are effective ways to convience the potential consumer to buy their products, even if them are not necessary. So, if the message is effectively recived by the audience, they involuntary turn to consumist people, and that increased on the demand, is what really keeps the corportations working. The question that arises is, if the consumers use their power to demand social rights in the products they buy, or they really don't care about that?. Well this question is very difficult to answer because the people is influenced by their culture and traditions, and also by the information they have, but the true thing is that if we as consumers, are aware of the inderictely effects we cause by buying a product that is not for example certificated by FAIR TRADE, we can put a molehill to solve this problem one day.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NATIONAL IDENTITY AND CORPORATE CULTURE

The relationship between national identity and corporate culture is principally that in both cases the final objective is to create and mantain an identity in a group of people, based on certain rules and principles, that guide them on how they should behave.

National Identity is the relationship between the nation and the institutions that are within it, such as the educational system, the media, the laws, and how those institutions create a framework of behavior for that population, with the intention to develop an identity, that makes them proud of what they have and what they are, based obviously on their history.

Corporate Culture has a similar intention, the differences are that here is only one institution that is a Company, and the people are the employees who work there. The intention of it, is to create an identity based on certain beliefs and values, in order to guide them on what the company expect of them, and viceverza. The objective is to "talk the same language" inside it, to reach a common and defined goal.

An important thing to highlight is that because we live in a globalized world, the Company must be felixble in order to adapt it's corporate culture to the rapid changes of the environment. One example is the case of the actual importance that has the environmental issues in the whole world, and to be competitive, the Companies must incorporate in their values that topic , if they don't have it, and translate it to their employees.

Culture's definitions

I searched definitions of culture from different perspectives, like the anthropology view, sociology view, and psychology view, in order to have a more complete definition of it.

ANTHROPOLOGY VIEW

Culture: An historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life.

www.anthrobase.com/Dic/eng/def/culture.htm

SOCIOLOGY VIEW

Culture: consists of the beliefs, behaviors, objects and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group or society. Through culture people and groups define themselves, conform to society's shared values, and contribute to society. Thus, culture includes many societal aspects: language, customs, values, norms, mores,rules, tools, technologies, products, organizations, and institutions. This later term institutions refers to cluster of rules and cultural meanings associated with specific social activities. Common institutions are their family, education, religion, work, and health care.

http://www.cliffsnotes.com.study%20guide/culture/

PSYCHOLOGY VIEW

Culture: is the set of ideas, behaviors, attitudes and traditions that exist within large groups of people( usually from a common religion, family or something similar). These ideas, behaviors, traditions, etc are passed on form one generation to the next and typically resistant to change over time. Cultures vary not only across the world, but even right next door.

www.alleydog.com/glossary/definitions.cfm?term=culture