Cross-Cultural Ethical Contradictions
31 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
in Ethical Contradictions Cross-Cultural Tags: assume, attitude, avoid, business, chart, clear, company, conduct, contradiction, corporation, cross-cultural, culture, define, differ, dilemma, employee, ethic, face, frequent, global, guidance, guide, headquarter, help, home, increasing, japanese, job, knotty, manager, market, meaning, minority, multinational, nation, need, occur, opportunity, overseas, penetrate, planner, policy, policymaker, principle, problem, psychological, question, regardless, responsibility, right, society, standard, state, stress, strict, tradition, US, valid, women, worker, wrong
Some of the knottiest ethical problems occur as corporations do business in other societies where ethical standards differ from those at home. Today the policymakers and planners in all multinational corporations, regardless of the nation where they are headquartered face ethical dilemma.
Should ethical principles—the ones that help chart right and wrong conduct—take their meaning strictly from the way each society defines ethics? Are Japanese attitudes towards job opportunities for minorities, other workers and women as ethically valid as US attitudes? Who should assume the ethical responsibility? What or whose ethical standards should be the guide?
As business becomes increasingly global, with more and more corporations penetrating overseas markets where cultures and ethical traditions vary questions occur more frequently. Employees and managers need ethical guidance from clearly stated company policy if they are to avoid the psychological stresses.
My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.
Traditional Manager Vs. Customer-focused Manager
30 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
in Traditional Manager Vs. Customer-focused Manager Tags: ability, above, achieve, act, active, activity, around, base, behind, beyond, break, broadcast, brochure, broke, budget, business, change, commitment, common, communicate, communication, company, competitor, concern, conflict, congruent, control, corporate, create, current, Customer, customer-focused, decision, deliver, demanding, direct, disagreement, distribute, effective, else, employee, empower, energy, enhance, environment, essential, excellence, exclude, external, extraordinary, fall, feedback, feeling, fix, flow, focus, formal, forward, goal, help, honesty, idea, ignore, implement, improvement, indirect, information, inherent, input, internal, invariable, involve, involvement, job, large, late, layout, lead, led, let, level, limit, long, loose, lunch, manage, manager, market, matter, maxim, measure, meeting, member, method, mingle, Mix, moderate, move, necessary, need, normal, objective, office, opinion, Organization, outcome, participate, participation, patch, payment, People, place, plan, policy, preoccupy, pressure, price, pride, proactive, probable, probably, profitability, promise, promote, qualification, Quality, quantity, random, reactive, reason, recognition, recognize, regular, relevant, result, reward, Role, sake, sale, satisfaction, seek, series, service, share, sign, simple, simply, single, slight, solution, solve, sort, sought, special, staff, stay, successful, target, team, thing, thought, time, traditional, typical, uncommon, understood, valuable, Value, vision, wait, waterfall
A traditional manager focuses on current goals. Their time and their energy is preoccupied with a series of probably corporate internally focused objectives – whether this is making a sales target, budget, profitability or some other goal, such as market share. On the other hand a customer-focused manager is led and empowered by a vision. A vision based on quality as well as quantity and results. A vision that inherently has a customer satisfaction measure and a vision that creates a feeling of pride and satisfaction in working in that way.
A traditional manager is largely reactive – making decisions, implementing plans based on the input of those above them, around them or in the external environment. ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ would be a common maxim. Today’s manager is largely proactive – ‘If it’s not broken, break it,’ because it’s going to be broken very soon. Today’s manager doesn’t wait for things to need a reason for change; they change things for the sake of it. Whether this is just simply the office layout, the times people take their lunch, company policies, prices, brochures, and markets – everything else has to be a proactive activity today. If you wait for the market to change you will probably always be one step behind. One step behind what the customers need and want and what your competitors are doing.
A traditional manager will often seek, either directly or indirectly, to limit other people’s participation. Typically, meetings between managers are excluded from input from other people, or they don’t involve other people perhaps as much as they should do – this is never seen as necessary. But today it is essential. Today’s manager has to promote involvement; they need opinions, thoughts, ideas, and feedback from all levels within the organization. The best way of achieving this is by one of two methods. The first is one we could loosely name ‘random communication,’ where just by simply creating the environment where people can mix and mingle, communicate, participate and share, ideas can be distributed. The other way is by doing something slightly more formal, by putting in place a series of waterfalls or communication falls where information and participation flows around the organization.
Traditional managers will probably reward people based on their qualifications or long service. A more customer-focused manager will reward and recognize people based on their ability to enhance customers and deliver excellence. For example, it is not uncommon for managers to regularly single out for some form of payment, or just simple recognition, those people in a customer service team who have gone beyond the normal levels and delivered something extraordinary during their job. Whether it was staying late sorting out a customer problem, coming up with an idea which helped the business move forward, making big improvements in their own work – these are the things that managers reward.
Another thing that has to change if you are going to move forward and lead successfully in a customer-focused organization is that you have to let go of solving problem yourself. One very successful manager who ran a very effective customer service team had a big sign on their wall. You can come in here with any problem at all, so long as you have one idea for a solution.
A traditional manager also sees their role as controlling information. They will keep their staff and other people on a ‘need to know’ basis. This is not how it works. Information should be shared, but not broadcast. A good manager will communicate actively and pro-actively to all concerned. He or she will keep them informed of the information they need to deliver the best possible service to the customer. This means the information is timely, relevant and understood.
Managing in today’s environment, with the pressures of working with ever demanding customers, will invariably result in matters of conflict and disagreement. Rather that patching these over, ignoring them, or letting them sort themselves out, as is perhaps more traditionally done by managers, these should now be sought out and moderated to a successful outcome.
A customer-focused manager ‘walks the talk’. He or she must act congruently and with the same values and honesty that they want their staff to deliver to their customers. That means they keep commitments, it means they under promise and over deliver, and they make everyone of their employees feel special and a valuable member of the team. Nobody just does a job and goes home, there is a purpose, a value and a mission.
My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.
Measuring Productivity
27 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
in Measuring Productivity Tags: accident, advantage, amount, benefit, better, between, bulldozer, business, common, comparison, competence, competitor, continual, cost, create, decision, delivery, design, dig, direct, disruption, due, effective, effectiveness, efficiency, employee, enthusiastic, example, excuse, extent, fashion, few, financial, gain, good, hard, high, hole, idea, improve, improvement, include, income, increase, indirect, individual, input, investment, judge, lazy, least, less, likely, little, long-term, low, management, manager, match, measure, meter, might, motivation, number, old, operation, output, People, Performance, person, problem, process, productivity, profit, profitability, Quality, real, reality, really, reason, Resource, result, return, sack, sale, show, simple, simply, solve, spade, square, stay, survival, target, typical, unit, Use, utilization, vehicle, wage, waste, way, work, worker, workforce, worst
You are likely to be judged – at least to some extent – by your financial performance. But financial measures such as profitability and return on investment are really indirect measures of the operations, good financial performance comes from good operations. You can measure the operations more directly using measures such as productivity, utilization and efficiency.
Productivity is the most common measure of operations. It shows the amount of output that you create for each unit of resource used. You might, for example, measure the number of units made per employee, sales per square meter, or deliveries per vehicle.
Your competitors are always trying to gain an advantage, and an effective way of doing this is by increasing their productivity. You then have to match their improvement simply to stay in business. So the benefits of higher productivity include:
- Long-term survival;
- Lower costs;
- Less waste of resources;
- Higher profits, wages, real income, etc;
- Targets for continually improving operations;
- Comparisons between operations;
- Measures of management competence.
These are good reasons for improving productivity. But how can you do it? At the very worst, you simply make people work harder – problem solved. In reality there are four ways of increasing productivity:
- Improve effectiveness – with better decisions;
- Improve efficiency – with a process that gives more output for the same inputs;
- Improve the process – getting higher quality, fewer accidents, or less disruption;
- Improve motivation – getting better results from the workforce.
One of the problems with improving productivity is that employees see it as an excuse for sacking them. Productivity is really a measure of improvement performance, and it has very little to do with the old-fashioned idea of getting people to work harder. An enthusiastic person digging a hole with a spade can work very hard, and still be far less productive than a lazy person with a bulldozer. Typically, 85 percent of productivity is set by the process which is designed by managers and only 15 percent is due to the individual workers.
My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.
Disambiguating the Role of Managers
26 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
in 33377213, Disambiguating the Role of Managers Tags: achievement, activity, agent, appoint, believe, board, Bonus, business, compensation, contribution, control, coordinate, corporation, cost, direct, director, Disambiguate, effect, employee, ensure, example, exceed, exercise, facilitate, form, future, global, goal, goods, great, identify, indirect, induce, inducement, invest, leave, likely, manage, manager, market, maximize, meet, met, monetary, money, opening, option, Organization, output, outside, People, perform, power, pressure, problem, Product, psychology, Resource, Response, responsible, reward, risk, Role, salary, satisfaction, service, shareholder, Skill, solve, stock, successful, support, technological, transaction, type, various, withdraw
Managers are the employees who are responsible for coordinating organizational resources and ensuring that an organization’s goals are successfully met. Top managers are responsible for investing shareholder money in resources in order to maximize the future output of goods and services. Managers are, in effect, the agents or employees of shareholders and are appointed indirectly by shareholders through an organization’s board of directors to manage the organization’s business.
Managers’ contributions are the skills they use to direct the organization’s response to pressures from within and outside the organization. For example, a manager’s skills at opening up global markets, identifying new product markets, or solving transaction-cost and technological problems can greatly facilitate the achievements of the organization/s goals.
Various types of rewards induce managers to perform their activities well: monetary compensation (in the form of salaries, bonuses, and stock options) and the psychological satisfaction they get from controlling the corporation, exercising power, or taking risks with other people’s money. Managers who do not believe that the inducements meet or exceed their contributions are likely to withdraw their support by leaving the organization.
My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.
Managing Cultural Change
25 Mar 2010 1 Comment
in Managing Cultural Change Tags: act, action, activity, aspect, association, back, brilliant, broad, budge, business, change, circle, combine, communication, company, conceive, concrete, consistent, cultural, culture, deep, desire, Development, direct, direction, effort, example, excellence, executive, existence, explicit, express, falter, focus, hold, idea, impact, implement, include, infuse, institutionalize, legitimate, life, live, manage, management, manager, manifestation, Mission, multi-faceted, multiple, narrow, objective, ongoing, Organization, outcome, part, participative, Performance, place, plan, positive, practice, problem, process, program, promulgate, Quality, reflect, reward, risk, service, staffing, statement, step, strategic, strategy, Structure, support, surround, system, top, total quality management, translate, tremendous, values, vision, work design
When management acts to focus explicit structures, work design, staffing and development, and performance system/rewards on desired changes, the combined impact can be tremendous. Through management action, the culture can be changed to support the business strategy. Management communication of the company mission, vision, values, and strategic objectives is only the first step in the process.
Top executives must promulgate a vision; however, a brilliant vision statement won’t budge a culture unless it is backed up by action. The management system has to be put in place, and then management has to live by it. Culture is not something managers set out to change directly; rather, it is an outcome of consistent, positive management action, every day and in every way. Too often good strategic ideas and directions are translated too narrowly into plans. There are many examples, including quality of work life, participative management, quality circles, and service excellence. Even broadly conceived total quality management efforts risk faltering because they are being implemented as programs, rather than as broad, deep, multi-faceted activities.
The problem is not the association of an idea, with a program, but rather the existence of too few programs expressing the idea. Changes take hold when they are reflected in multiple concrete manifestations throughout the organization. It is when the structures surrounding a change also change to support it that we say a change is institutionalized—that it is now part of legitimate and ongoing practice, infused with value and supported by other aspects of the system.
My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.
Training for Global Business
24 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
in Training for Global Business Tags: abroad, actually, affect, assign, available, avoid, basic, business, certify, clients, colleague, communicate, compete, conduct, correct, country, cover, cross, cross-cultural, cultural, culture, curriculum, deliver, determine, diplomacy, employee, enable, etiquette, executive, firm, foreign, global, handle, illustrate, implement, improve, include, insensitivity, instructor, international, involve, job, language, learner, learning, lost, manager, marketplace, need, negotiate, new, opt, overseas, People, perception, phone, predetermine, prepackage, Prepare, presentation, program, protocol, range, reason, requirement, retention, sample, satisfaction, show, special, staff, tact, technical, technology, textbook, Training, transfer, transition, Value, wide, work, world, writing
Firms competing in a global marketplace often implement special global training programs. The reasons for doing so include avoiding lost business due to cultural insensitivity, improving job satisfaction and retention of overseas staff, and enabling a newly assigned employee to communicate with colleagues abroad.
Many firms opt for prepackaged training programs. A sampling helps illustrate the wide range of programs available, as well as, what global training programs actually involve:
- Executive Etiquette for Global Transitions: This program prepares managers for conducting business globally by training them in business etiquette in other cultures.
- Cross-Cultural Technology Transfer: This program shows how cultural values affect perceptions of technology and technical learning.
- International Protocol and Presentation: This program shows the correct way to handle people with tact and diplomacy in countries around the world.
- Business Basics for the Foreign Executive: This program covers negotiating cross-culturally, working with clients, making presentations, writing, and using the phone.
- Language Training: Language training delivered by certified instructors, usually determined by the learner’s needs rather than by the requirements of a predetermined curriculum or textbook.
My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.
Preparing for Implementation
23 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
in Preparing for Implementation Tags: absence, agent, Analysis, anticipate, assessment, assure, attention, basic, between, blueprint, change, clarity, commitment, communication, concrete, context, contribute, control, design, direction, effective, effort, enhance, episode, expectation, extensive, fact, helpful, Implementation, intent, need, objective, obstacle, operation, overlap, parameter, participant, participation, phase, plan, possible, Prepare, provide, residue, Resource, smooth, specific, Structure, system, transition, understand, work
The best participation for smooth and effective implementation is through work on the first phases of the change effort together with extensive communication among all participants about the intent and the direction of the change effort. Assuring that all participants know the expectations and parameters of the change episode enhances clarity and control. Concrete and specific objectives, planned design and structure, and resource commitments provide the basic blueprint for implementation.
Also helpful in preparing for implementation is attention to two facts of the context: change residue and overlap between planning and implementing systems. The change agent will find analysis of residue help in anticipating possible obstacles to the transition from planning to operation. Assessment of overlap—or the absence of it—will contribute to understanding communication needs.
My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.
Commitment to Principles
22 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
in Commitment to Principles Tags: agree, attention, baseball, began, bureaucracy, capability, commitment, competitive, completion, convince, Customer, cycle, decision, design, destroy, Development, diamond, disposal, end, example, field, firm, focus, glue, great, increasing, kid, laser, lead, least, management, manager, market, mean, mentality, narrow, need, operation, oppressive, page, part, play, point, policy, power, principle, problem, process, Product, reduce, resist, reverse, routine, rush, sacrifice, several, share, situation, solution, solve, spent, spun, stage, team, technical, technology, tend, time, top, tough, twist, user, venture, vision, whole, yield, zero
We are increasingly convinced that there are several principles which tend to lead us to good process management. They are tough and often sacrificed.
Focus: In very competitive situations managers often go to focus; that is, they try to zero in on part of the playing field, part of the market, or part of the technology. Narrowing focus yields greater capability and a shared vision, like the power of a laser. However, in a reverse twist, focus always means we try to solve the customer’s whole problem, at least as much as we can. Ours is not a point solution. For example, product disposal is now getting attention in the design stage, and designers resist the rush to completion mentality of cycle time.
End User Drive: During technical development today, the end user’s problems are the top of every page. Technical development isn’t over until the customer agrees that we have solved the problems we began with.
Productivity: Everyone seems to agree that we must destroy oppressive bureaucracy in the new products operation. Any organization, however, even on a kid’s baseball diamond, needs some bureaucracy, and even ventures teams that have been spun out from their firms need a little. It is a glue, and its policies reduce the time spent on routine decisions.
My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.
