This post by Nico talks about How Culture affects Business decisions. In this post, he compared the culture of the United States to that of Germany. He said that Germans are more risk averse then Americans and thus business creation is lagging in Germany compared to in America. I agree with him when he said that culture greatly affects business decisions. Another good example here is that Chinese culture tends to be more indirect and ambiguous compared to the more relatively straightforward North American culture.  Chinese are also more deferent to authority that is why not many Chinese have good creative thinking and entrepreneurial skills, even if china has more population it has less ‘world-shaking’ entrepreneurs than North America. In the Arab world, the Islamic religion is the way of life and it is the underlying principle in everything arabs do, unlike the relatively secularized american and canadian society. So business decisions in the Arab world are heavily influenced by Islam, making most Arabs more reliant in the “hands of God” compared to Americans and Canadians who have a stronger control orientation.

So in summary, people from different countries have different ways of making business decisions due to their culture. In doing business in another country, you must make sure to research and learn about that country’s culture to ensure success

Source: https://blogs.ubc.ca/nicolasbocanegra/2013/10/07/how-culture-affects-business-decisions/

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/american-vs-chinese-business-culture-59039.html

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/SAM-Advanced-Management-Journal/166537561.html

this video is called “The Key to Growth, Race with the Machines” and I thought this was interesting. He first talks about General Purpose technologies, like the steam engine back in the 1800s, electricity in the 1900s, and now the computer. But technology isnt enough. We are still needed here to reinvent our systems as new technologies develop to continue having our growth. He then talks about the New Machine Age. As we develop new technologies, productivity is increasing at an ever increasing rate. We are also getting more stuff for free, like information. We can easily access wikipedia, search in Google, or see what our friend’s are up to in twitter. And this is not the end of growth. With machines, we can boost up and continue to grow economically. This is why MIS is really important to our world today. In my Economics class, we also discussed the “Very Long run”, where increasing technology brings down long run costs. So we can continue to grow if we make machines our teammates.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sod-eJBf9Y0

I recently watched this video called ‘The story of stuff’. In this video, the person talks about the problems of our current model of capitalism and consumption. She was also able to link all of these to other problems are society is facing today. I was surprised and taken aback by the video because its the first time that someone showed me that the problems facing the environment, laborers, waste management, and even political problems are all interrelated. According to the video, there is a wasteful system in this world that consists of extraction-production-distribution-consumption-disposal. In extraction, natural resources are being exploited at a rate that is destructive to the environment. In the production phase, toxics are used to make the stuff we have, and laborers from the third world are forced to work in really poor working conditions with very low pay just to make our stuff. In the distribution phase, costs are externalized, like store owners are paid really low and their healthcare is skimped on so that we can buy stuff as low as possible. In the consumption phase, “the golden arrow of consumption” as said by the video, only 1% of products bought in North America are still in use 6 months after the sale. Stuff are being made as “designed for the dumb”, meaning they are made to be out phased as fast as possible.  National happiness is also declining due to consumption. The disposal phase shows that our garbage is simply thrown away, and recycling doesn’t solve the problem in whole. We need a total reform of our system to solve all of these problems. We should make a new system based on the concepts of sustainability, zero waste, renewable energy, and equity for all.

The Story of Stuff

This article i found on the internet seemed interesting, it talks about whether doing good is a sustainable business model. In my comm 101 class, we discussed the concepts of Corporate Social responsibility and sustainability separately and this article links them together.

The author first says 5 years after the global economic recession, caused allegedly by unbridled corporate greed, companies have made ‘being good’ more ingrained in company culture. Companies are trying harder now to present themselves as both virtuous while making profits. But then he asks, is doing “good” (CSR) a sustainable business model?

According to Phillip Haid, chief executive officer of Public Inc., a Toronto-based agency that advocates for social causes with campaigns to raise money and mobilize volunteers, “Yes. Imagine if companies started thinking about the social impact they wanted to create in the world and tied it to bottom-line performance. The potential impact could be incredible”

Some examples, according to Mr. Haid include US shoe retailer Toms, which donates a pair of shoes for each one sold. Warby Parker does a similar thing with sunglasses. But according to him, for this to work the core product has to be really good.

However, according to Mr. Kutney, being good is “beneficial, but a drop in the ocean in light of the systemic and global challenges facing modern society”, which includes the rising income inequality and climate change, which requires all sectors of society, especially the corporate world, to work together to help solve them.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/life-at-work/good-vibes-for-social-responsibility/article14575293/

I found this article on the Globe and Mail entitled “What Motivates Employees? Its not just the money” and i thought I could relate this to my class in Comm 101 on People, Culture, and Teams, Human resource management, and also on my classes in Comm 292. The article claims that “we can’t single out one or two motivators and say: ‘These are the holy grail of motivation and inspiration'” and that “The idea that motivation is not a one-size-fits-all solution is a concept that many managers fail to grasp.”

I agree with the position of the article in these two points. In the example given in class on Zappos, the company did not just use one or two tactics two try to motivate employees. Rather, they revolutionized the office environment, making the office more relaxed, hosting office parties, having a less strict dress code and giving more autonomy to the employees.

The article also claims 10 top motivators for employees: achievement; learning; inspiration (the chance to inspire others); creativity; fun and enjoyment; improvement; financial reward; change and variety; identity and purpose; and stability. Zappos was able to capitalize on a number of these motivators that enabled them to motivate their employees.

The article also said that “If you motivate people properly, their job satisfaction and engagement improves. And when they are engaged and happy, they are more productive.” This is true because as we discussed in class, if employees are motivated, engaged, and happy, they are more likely to keep a positive attitude and take an extra step in helping the customer, and when this happens the customer also becomes happy with the service and is more likely to return to the store/business, thus increasing profit. Some jobs, as discussed in class, can have more difficulty in motivating the  employees, like call center agents, but it is still possible with the right motivators to motivate them.

Source:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/management/what-motivates-employees-its-not-just-the-money/article13205253/

If you look at my previous post, it was about my response to a blog post likening the US government to a company. Now in this post, I will again liken the US government to a company and say that this time they have violated its CSR through its spying on other countries as revealed by Mr. Edward Snowden.

Corporate Social Responsibility is defined as “The corporate belief

that a company needs to be responsible for its actions – socially, ethically, and environmentally.” The spying of the US government has specifically violated the “socially” and “ethically” part. According to an article on the guardian, “the NSA has undermined a fundamental social contract…we can no longer trust them to be ethical internet stewards.” This is even more shocking because the US spied even on its allies, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has had her phone tapped by the NSA. Allies implies trusting each other, and spying on each other isnt exactly “trust”. Being one of the leading countries of the world today, the US (as well as the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand aka “The Five Eyes”) has a big responsibility to use its power wisely. These countries have a corporate social responsibility to our society and to the world  and they must abide by it. They cannot use their power to violate people’s rights to privacy and personal security, otherwise these countries are as wrong and illegitimate as the “regimes” they are criticizing (Russia, China, Iran, Syria etc.). I hope that the USA and the rest of the “Five Eyes” will use this scandal as an opportunity to change and be more honest, ethical, and practice CSR. Lastly, I call for Mr. Edward Snowden to be pardoned as he only said the truth and nothing else but the truth. People shouldn’t be punished for telling the truth especially in matters like these.

Source:

Definition of CSR- http://ombo.berkeley.edu/name/questions/glossary

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/05/government-betrayed-internet-nsa-spying

http://news.yahoo.com/european-spy-services-shared-phone-data-us-nsa-185616676.html