They have grown and evolved so much that an obvious observation here can be made: they are living beings. Actually, corporations have had the name for a long period of time now of Legal Person.
Corporations nowadays have become living organisms that must be treated, at least, almost like a Natural Person, because they have the same rights, or almost all of them. Buy and sell properties, make loans, sign contracts and even commit crimes are some of the resemblance between this two kind of people.
Nonetheless, we have to take into account that corporations cannot exist without the people that manage them and make the decisions for them. Now, there is a problem that can be attacked from two different perspectives: (1) the corporation as a legal person can be loaded with legal implications, and (2) as a living being, which in most cases it directs the company.
There must be a differentiation at the point where it marks where can the jurisdiction, area of action of the company itself, out of that line sanctions ought to be present. In first instance, punish the people behind it, and then, the corporation
First of all, a brief introduction about the organization that has such an important and pertinent task
in the world of today.
The IOM, which was created back in 1951, is an inter-governmental organization that works in the field of migration and works either with other governmental and non-governmental organizations.
It's main goal is to protect the rights of those who migrate into other countries by the pursuit of some goals which are "to help ensure the orderly and humane management of migration", "to
promote international cooperation on migration issues", "to assist in the search for practical solutions to migration problems and to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants in need, including refugees and internally
displaced people" (International Organization of Migration, n/a).
The IOM works in four big areas of migration management:
Source: International Organization of Migration
In matters of what IOM does to improve the conditions of women migrant workers, I found a list a
very complete list that shows what do they do and how do they do it. The information below is a literal subtraction of an article published by Gemma Project. This information is not part of my intellectual property but of other people. I just found very pertinent to write this list on my Blog due to the importance of the subject.
I. Promotion of legal and safe migration for women migrant workers
a. Fostering sustainable development alternatives to migration in countries of origin
b. Promotion of legal channels of
migration, inter alia, in order to deter illegal migration
c. Improving women's access to meaningful and gender-sensitive migration information and
education
II. Promotion of policies that regulate the recruitment and deployment of women migrant workers
a. Improving laws and policies governing recruiters, employers and intermediaries
b. Support for the adoption of penal and criminal sanctions to punish perpetrators
and intermediaries of violence against women migrant workers
III. Promotion and protection of women migrant workers’ rights
a. Protection of Women Migrant Workers' Human rights
b. Protection of women migrant workers from sexual and gender-based violence, domestic
violence, abusive labour practices and discrimination.
c. Projects aiming at addressing women migrant workers disproportionate labour market
discrimination
d. Projects aiming at addressing gendered forms of racism and xenophobia against women
migrant workers
e. Projects promoting physical and mental health and well-being for women migrant workers
f. Women migrant workers' empowerment and reduction of their vulnerability to abuse
g. Protecting the human rights of migrant girls, including unaccompanied girls
IV. Counter-trafficking activities including capacity-building and direct assistance to victims
a. Providing victims of violence with the full range of immediate assistance and protection
b. Establishing reintegration and rehabilitation schemes for returning women migrant workers
c. Training programmes for law enforcers, immigration officers and border officials, prosecutors
and service providers
V. Research and data collection on women and international labour migration
VI. Promotion of gender-sensitive international migration policies
a. Support to States with regards to signature, ratification or accession of relevant international
instruments
b. Support to countries of origin and destination to incorporate a gender perspective in
legislation and policies on international migration and on labour migration
c. Policy/legislation formulation and review
VII. Fostering interstate dialogue and enhancing bilateral, regional, interregional and international
cooperation
For further explanation on this topic, please go to the Online PDF found HERE.
I also found this short but entertaining video that shows the possible reasons of migration.
According to the information available in the Investment Encyclopedia Investopedia, the main idea for Mergers and Acquisition is to make real the equation "one plus one equals three", which means that two companies, when working together, can create more value than the whole of those two. "Two companies together are more valuable than two separate companies - at least, that's the reasoning behind M&A" (Investopedia, n/a).
These two concepts can be mistakenly taken by the same thing, then, I will give a definition for each one to make a basic differentiation.
Merger. "The combining of two or more companies, generally by offering the stockholders of one company securities in the acquiring company in exchange for the surren
der of their stock" (Investopedia Dictionary, n/a).
This is basically, when two companies become one. This is a mutual decision between both companies and neither of them is placed over the other.
Acquisition. "A corporate action in which a company buys most, if not all, of the target
company's ownership stakes in order to assume control of the target firm. Acquisitions are often made as part of a company's growth strategy whereby it is more beneficial to take over an existing firm's operations and niche compared to expanding on its own. Acquisitions are often paid in cash, the acquiring company's stock or a combination of both" (Investopedia Dictionary, n/a).
In other words, acquisition is when a company buys another one's stocks and becomes the "owner" of that target company. Acquisitions may be friendly or not, whether the target company (the one bought) expresses its agreement to be acquired or not.
One of the most interesting cases that I was able to find is the merge between NEAH Power Systems (a company researching the technology of fuel cells) and EKO Vehicles (a company that makes hight performance electric two wheelers).
This article shows that NEAH Power has signed a letter to explore a little bit more in the area of EKO's Vehicles to make a merger or an acquisition, which is not decided yet, to produce scooters that work with electric energy.
Probably, the idea is to merge both companies and create a new one like the alliance the teacher showed to us in class a time ago between Chrysler and Fiat.
Here's an animation case with the merge of two companies that didn't work at the beginning, and shows what was done to overcome those issues. Pretty educative, I hope you enjoy it.
This ancient South African set of letters and sounds means "humanity to others" (About Ubuntu) and became an humanist philosophy that focuses on people's relations with each other and how any person is to be treated in a good and proper manner.
This philosophy has a basic principle that, according to a translation of Leymah Gbowee, is "I am what I am because of who we all are", which is, as I can see it, an explanation that explicits the influence of the relationship with others can make over my own way to handle the relationships with them: Well-handled relationships in a group will influence my relationship with them for good.
This is actually a great topic to discuss, because relating it with Managerial issues, the usage of this philosophy can truly affect a company itself and bring it down right from it's core.
Relationships are very important in organizations, and now more than ever that we know one relationship can change or affect other relationships with other people, which could cause a big destructive effect if not managed correctly.
Here's a video that goes further with this concept, very interesting and easy to watch, I hope everyone enjoys it.
Metaphors are great tools when people are needed to think twice about something, this is why many metaphors are used to promote products in marketing. Metaphors can help a product to be looked at in some different way that it has always been. The success of a metaphor is closely linked to the impact it can create in people, the most successful metaphors are, as I already said, the ones that make you think twice about a subject in specific.
Some famous metaphors are such as “A heart of stone”, “He has the heart of a lion”, “You are the sun in my sky” or “You are the light in my life”, which relate to simple daily metaphors. Actually I found a picture that well represents a common used metaphor, can you guess which is it?
As the matter of the Task #5, the product will be the famous "Sombrero Vueltiao". We all know what this is and we know also that it's very popular here in Colombia but in other countries it is not that well known.
A metaphor I came with to make the product more familiar to other cultures is "Festive Around the World", which reflects that the hat is used in festive occasions such as the "parranda vallenata" and implies that, as other countries also like Vallenato music, those countries should be identified with the culture that carries this type of music.
The main strategy with this metaphor is to link the festive sense of other close cultures that also listen to Vallenato music and like it to the associated concept of the hat to be used in such festive
occasion. In other words, use it when listening to Vallenato no matter what culture you belong to, just do it if you like it.
At last, I found a rather funny and interesting video that matches perfectly this topic. It's an ad for The Miller Beer in the United States, please enjoy !
As a matter of the fourth task, five comments are to be made in different Blogs of the Classroom in regards of a constructive critic of the improving of material posted on the blogs.
The Pygmalion Effect, as stated by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968/1992), is the succes or the fail of someone influenced by the expectations upon that person. It's also called the teacher-expectancy effect. For instance, a student that is put on more success expectations will be more likely to succeed that a student that is expected to fail.
I found on the Internet a case that could help us understand more what this is, and I will attach a video at the end of this post that explains it with other words.
The case is the following:
Feldman & Prohaska (1979) performed an experiment to study the effect of student expectations of teachers. One group was told their teacher was "quite effective," and another group was told their teacher was "incompetent." The effect of these positive and negative expectations were measured in terms of student attitudes toward the teacher, scores on tests, and "nonverbal behavior" of the students toward the teachers. The teacher was blind to what the students thought about him/her. There were clear differences in all three measures based on a positive or negative expectation. Students with a negative expectation "rated the lesson as being more difficult, less interesting, and less effective." Students with a positive expectation scored 65.8% on the test, and those with a negative expectation scored 52.2%. In terms on nonverbal behavior, "subjects leaned forward more to good teachers than poor teachers." There was some evidence that students with a positive expectation had better eye contact with the teacher. Overall, the expecation of the teacher affects overall learning outcomes.
Pygmalion Effect Video
With this, I accomplish Task # 3.
References and Resources: Academic dictionaries and encyclopedias. 2009. The Pygmalion Effect. http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/296828. Accesed 12 August 2010. (Case also found here).
Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZZs5atIGDU&feature=related Images taken from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSYhSfQZdTAQvU1iqYAmNjWuHbwczVzvyN4SHnbBuEdD8m6-4TcRPc29FJ85wiPTEOCmlGi4Js5k8RxwNFtRCLL4tVUedPZmlxJZ5jvpsJBxsUad4AmhnP2bbdMJWpA_hA6JcCVioKkaY/s400/mitos_griegos_pygmalion_2.jpg https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6OYkBC_TspOV3z4AhTKxisQkGrVp6OU4SulbqHDQY50k7OskS6kLeQNZeuXynEd3UTGem1u5aRwV4AuMBJ6d-Ao4vFWoJFjRpRbWEgn_U2i2xlDinLmiimcRBf45sFL94sMFbOqCVTsQ/s320/Galatea.jpg http://www.calgarybeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/PYGMALION-FACTOR.jpg
Despite of the globalization affecting our world, which make each person in the world be more connected with each other and getting to know them better, all cultures are still very different from each other, which opposes what most of us think and that's that all people is the same.
There are Five Cultural Dimensions as explained by Proffesor Geert Hofstede as Power Distance Index, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainity Avoidance Index and Long Term Orientation. As a matter to the Task # 2 of Organizations & Cultures' class, I will explain Individualism and give an hypothetical but realistic example.
Individualism, which is at the opposite side of Collectivism, and explained by the Itim International webpage (link below), is when the relations between individuals within a culture is loose and everyone is supposed to look only after himself and one's immediate family. I found write about this Dimension because I found it one of the most important to keep in account, because within an organization everything is stablished and its mostly team work (related to Collectivisim), I will explain this with an example:
For instance, an Indian is hired by an U.S. firm to work in the United States. The indian, because of its Eastern culture and education, is supposed to work in a collective way, and the U.S. organization may be working under in an individual way. This may come to problems within the employees or even damage the Boss-Employee relation because of the ways of working of both individuals, and may also reduce production or efficiency of the area in which the Indian is working.
With this, I accomplish Taks # 2 of Organizations and Cultures' class.
References and Resources: Itim International. 2009. Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions. http://www.geert-hofstede.com/. Accesed 12 August 2010. Image taken from http://www.gotoofareast.com/toblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/collective-not-quite.jpg
The BOBs, which means The Best of Blogs, is a webpage that awards the best blogs registered within some categories. You can visit The BOBs site by clicking HERE. Someday, maybe my Blog can also win some award =).
The three blogs I found more interesting are:
EcoPlaneta - Which is the best voted Blog in the category of Climate Change. Very interesting information and tips on how to preserve our planet. Language: Spanish
Malviviendo - Which is the best voted Blog in the category of VideoBlogs. An entretainment Blog that has a series show available on this site and others like YouTube. Language: Spanish.
Vigie du Web - Which is the best voted Blog in the French language category. A very modern blog that catches up with the last releases in tecnology. Language: French.
With this, I complete the creation of my Blog and the Task #1 for my O&Cs Class.
