Week 15-5 Front Line Employee

Charlemagne's web poster was about Front Line Employee. The poster was very informative and useful. I work in a support organization and management repeatedly stresses the importance of this and the importance of people who interact with customers how the process and understand their concerns.

Last week I personally experienced how Front line employees can impact the company. I was having trouble with my home VoIP phone and contacted the phone company, their wait times are outrageous but I was OK with waiting as they provide a cheap service with good quality and might not have any resources. When finally I got hold of them they asked me to do all the normal things in spite of me repeatedly telling them that i did them all and I know what is bad. After this process they said they will send a replacement router and there was no response for a week and when I called back they started asking me to do the same things again even when i was telling them i had a open case. Finally, i had enough of it and canceled the service. If still believe they have good product but the people helping them in providing the service are stopping them from being good.

Week 15-4 An Analysis of Global Virtual Teams: Conflict & Leadership

Pink Lady's Web Poster was about "An Analysis of Global Virtual Teams: Conflict & Leadership".
The poster very well organized and the illustrations made it easier to understand. Lot us work with Virtual teams and we all have to deal with the time differences, understanding the cultural differences. The summary of her research was very helpful.
I completely agree with her points about the communication issues and the information overload with emails etc.,

The sources of conflict are very important to remember and make sure we don't fall into them . Also, the Organizational Dispersion sometimes creates as us versus them attitude even we all are working for the same organization and on the same project.

Communication Barriers

Cultural Diversity

Organizational Dispersion

Technology

Temporal and Spatial Dispersion

Week 15-3 Creating Transparency

Zamoradesign's Web Poster explained about Creating Transparency and its importance in Businesses and Corporations. This is a very important topic. Most Organizations today try to be or pretend to be trying to be transparent. I think Transparency will help Organizations that follow the correct practices. if organizations are transparent more people will know about things they are doing and this also helps them find out things that they might be doing wrong unintentionally as other might notice them which we might not have from with in the Organization. But for companies who want to do things which something that is not completely correct or not the standard practice for them is difficult to be transparent as this might lead to more scrutiny.

In my opinion if we are ethical in all the things we do, it will be easy to be transparent

Week 15-2 Communicating Change Effectively

Cathy's web poster was on "Communicating Change Effectively". We hear about this a lot and is a very important topic. Any change comes with some resistance. To implement any change successfully it should be communicated effectively. One way to do this is to involve all the parties involved from the early stages so that they feel part of it is possible. Change should come with a positive message and reasons for it. Also, it has to be communicated well in advance of when the actual change will happen. There are certain changes where communicating early will not be possible like layoffs where communication becomes even more important as the people affected by change were not ready for it.

At work, we follow a FAQ approach for communicating any change, where we come up with a list of questions and through them communicate the necessary information. This approach was very useful and was successful in multiple projects.

Week 15-1 Cross-cultural Communication Issues in USA and India Organizations

Kartik's web poster was on the subject of "Cross-cultural Communication Issues in USA and India Organizations". He did a very good job on summarizing the articles and presenting the important things to consider. I am from India and I had to go thorough similar experiences when I came to this country initially. Kartik makes a very good point about expatriate employees working for US organizations in India and this might help organizations deal with the cultures better and be a good interface between the headquarters an the offices in India. After reading the this web poster and points about how people in India might expect more feedback from their managers, I went to my companies website and looked for the Organizational Chart of some of the Business Groups and their teams in India, I could clearly see the number of people reporting to a manager were much less than in US and also there were team leads assigned that were responsible for sub-groups under a manager.

Week 11-5 Commuications & Gender Appropriate Behavior

The views of gender appropriate differ from culture to culture and are a very important consideration in communicating global work/project teams. In US men greeting women by shaking hands is considered normal and is a common occurrence. But some women in India and Middle Eastern countries due to religious customs and culture do not make physical contact with males. It is important to be aware of these customs and should women to come forward approach to shake hand before other proceed to do so. Comments which are acceptable in one culture may not be acceptable in others and when conversing with people from other cultures we can try to restrain from making personal comments and is better to keep conversations restricted to business needs until we understand the cultures and customs.

Week 11-4 Importance of Clarity in Communication

Clarity is very important when communicating with people from multiple cultures.We should try not to combine words and sentences together (shoulda instead of should have), avoid slang, acronyms and words with multiple meanings. We should use short and simple sentences and summarize key points.

I read about this example and it is very a nice real life example of understanding the local culture and clarity in communication. The vacuum cleaner maker Electrolux had a add some time back saying "Nothing Sucks Like Electrolux" and did not recognize the word “sucks”, in its marketing slogan is a slang disparagement in United States of America. This worked fine in some other countries. Hence, the reliability of their marketing communication was compromised because, at least at first sight, this slogan has a different meaning to different recipients. There are multiple examples of similar situations.

Week 11-3 Meeting Notes

When I Started working, I used to think that somebody taking meeting notes and then sending an email or publishing them somewhere for reference was a waste of time. The meeting notes used to include what everyone talked about etc,, which i used to feel was not useful. But now in our team meeting, especially in our team meeting we take notes but one thing we definitely do is to note down actions. Who will do what and by what time. This I think is really helpful. Sometimes during meeting as there are so many things discussed we tend to miss some of the issues. But by sending notes and by clearly stating actions for each one there is no chance for anybody to say they forgot or missed that part.

I think meeting notes done properly and following some accepted template add value to a meeting and after.

Week 11-2 Multicultural Conference Calls and Meetings

Meetings are a very important part in the success of a project team involving global teams.

Meeting facilitators should be prepared and planned. All the meeting participants should be prepared in advance on the agenda of the meeting, inform who will be attending and they are expected of them in the meeting. Participants should be informed of what decisions if any that the team to trying to make during this meeting.


It might be good practice to ask meeting attendees to submit written comments if possible before the meeting. This practice is especially effective if the meeting involves people who are not fluent in English. Meeting facilitators could try to make sure that all the participants get a chance to speak and no one member times up all the time. Also, it is good to follow up with key meeting participants after the meeting to make sure all the issues are clear and confirm agreements.

Figure 6 below are some of the ground rules suggested by Aperian Global, a company that works with clients in developing strategic global approaches to leadership development, organizational change and innovation when handling multicultural conference calls.

Figure 5: Ground Rules for handling Multi-Cultural Conference Calls

1. Identify self before speaking
2. Speak slowly and clearly
3. Speak so that everyone can hear (directly into the microphone)
4. Refrain from long monologues
5. Do not interrupt speakers (except to clarify)
6. Interrupt to clarify if necessary
7. Explain what is happening on your side (laughter, who is joining or leaving, etc.)
8. Check periodically if there are any questions; allow “processing time”
9. Summarize periodically
10. Allow short side conversations in native language
11. Ask permission for side conversations
12. Summarize side conversations briefly
13. Make suggestions for process changes
14. Get agreement from all for process changes
15. Take turns when sharing ideas
16. Keep time; announce time updates
17. Keep on track; reschedule additional topics
18. Intentionally provide “air time” for people who have not yet spoken
19. Summarize and confirm results at the end of the meeting
20. Debrief the meeting process at the end
21. Allow thinking time

Week 11.1 Importance of Communication in Global Projects

During last two years i did some reading on this topic and collected some notes. Wanted to share some of it. The first topic is about Establishing Credibility.

Communication is very important for implementation and success of projects involving global virtual teams. Effective communications are important for establishing credibility, knowing and understanding the global team members.

Establishing Credibility

Ernest Gundling states that “Experienced managers tend to take their own credibility for granted. They have long since learned how to establish their credentials with ease when meeting new business contacts. Under normal circumstances they can accomplish this quickly before proceeding with the business at hand. In cross-border setting, however, the code for establishing one’s value in the eyes of new colleagues and customers may differ from what one is accustomed to, and even this seemingly rudimentary step in creating business relationship can become a significant stumbling block”

Establishing credibility with others is crucial if one is going to be effective in any culture. The manner in which credibility is established can vary from culture to culture. In general, it is useful to keep the following points in mind:

Proper Introductions
In some cultures, it is perfectly acceptable to introduce yourself. In other cultures (Eg., India), a person in the proper position of authority should introduce you and explain the context within which everyone will work together.

Transmitting qualifications
In cultures like India, individuals feel that is appropriate and necessary to talk about one’s own accomplishments. For people in other cultures, this would be interpreted as arrogant. In those cultures it is better to transmit qualifications indirectly, through third parties. Even in a job interview, some people will feel reluctant to talk about their own skills, strengths and accomplishments.

Level of formality and Protocol
Some cultures appreciate formality and protocol more than others. It is always wise to find out before hand the level of formality expected and the appropriate protocol for different situations. If unknown, it is best to err on the side of the forma, and observe and follow protocol.

Listening well
Listening well is very important to understand local situation. In some cultures, quick action is valued. However, in other cultures, people who come into a situation and make quick changes are sometimes viewed as shortsighted or arrogant, and are not likely to gain cooperation.

Demonstrating Interest
Most people like having their culture appreciated. Showing an interest in learning about local customs, history, and current events and making an effort to learn the language - at least the greetings and phrases for showing courtesy will help gain respect.

Patience
For some people, credibility is established in the first stages of a task. For other people, trust and credibility are developed overtime, through interactions that begin to feel more and more comfortable. This is a process that cannot be hurried.

Week 9-5 Keys to Creative Idea Generation

Chapter 11 page 335 talks about keys to creative idea generation. From my personal experiences in projects i worked on at school or work we had the best results when every one is involved in the process. The best approach that worked for us is for every one in the team to come up ideas (its a requirement not a option), discuss each ones ideas, spend a considerable amount of time on discussion. Most of the time the discussion will bring up things that none of the team members thought of before the meeting, most of the time the team used to end up with a plan that was not close any one of the team members initial ideas but was very concrete and clear.
This discussion and brainstorming is useful only when everyone participates and comes to discussion with their ideas and suggestions.

Week 9-4 Change

Chapter 11 talks about Change and challenges that come with it. I think change is difficult for a lot of people to adjust to.
I do not like changes, if something is working good or some thing is in some place for a long time, I have great difficulty in changing them.
In organizations when changes are done people tend to compare them with the things or process they were used to before and normally feel the old one is better as they learned to use it or get accustomed.
In our company, a year back we changed all the phone infrastructure from traditional phone lines to VoIP phones. Before to change there were a lot of complaints about the existing system and people are not happy with it. But when the new system was introduced even small issues are considered serious and users would complain the previous one was better. But the reality is a lot of features they are complaining about were not even there in the old system. But as they get comfortable with it they will accept it. I think change needs time to be accepted and messages about change should come with very positive energy and enthusiasm so that people can feel that energy. If we can convince people that the change is for good I think it will be easier to gain acceptance.

Week 9-3 Social Support

Chapter 10 page 300 takes about various functions of social support. Emotional Support Involves the provision of messages of care and regard for the other person. Informational support involves offering facts, opinions, and advice on matters of concern. Instrumental and material support involves the provision of tangible resources. Appraisal support involves evaluative message that encourage an individual to continue performing well.

From my work experiences I feel that I always had good emotional support from other people at work and are good at this. Instrumental and material support is also acceptable and is provided if asked for. One thing that clearly lacks is informational support. When I started working I was really surprised to see in meeting etc when someone raised concerns about issues they were facing with certain things, people would just keep quiet and do not say anything. But when my manager assigned some one to help me or anyone with that then i could clearly see that they knew the problem and the solution but were just not trying to help on their own unless they are asked for. When I was in school doing my undergrad this never used to be case, people around you would always volunteer to share information if they knew the solution. Even when asked for feedback unless managers force people to do it with in a certain time normally no one would really care about providing feedback which is really important.

Week 9-2 Negotiation Strategies

I was reading this article "World Class Negotiating Strategies" by Frank L.Acuff. The article presents 10 strategies and explains in deal how to handle each one of those. I wanted share this information as I felt the article was very informative and useful.

Ten Negotiating Strategies that will work anywhere

Strategy 1: Plan the Negotiation
Strategy 2: Adopt a win-win approach
Strategy 3: Maintain High Aspirations
Strategy 4: Use language that is simple and accessible
Strategy 5: Ask lot of questions, then listen with your eyes and ears
Strategy 6: Build Strong Relationships
Strategy 7: Maintain Personal Integrity
Strategy 8: Conserve Concessions
Strategy 9: Make Patience an obsession
Strategy 10: Be culturally literate and adapt the negotiating process to the host country environment.

Week 9-1 Conflict Handling Modes

The five conflict-handling modes discussed on page 290 are based on a person’s strategic intentions along two axes: (Source: K.W.Thomas, "Toward Multi-Dimensional Values in Teaching: The example of Conflict Behaviors (1977)"

a. Assertiveness-desire to satisfy one’s own concerns.

b. Cooperativeness-desire to satisfy the concerns of the other party.

Below are some of the appropriate situations for the Five Strategic Intentions presented by K.W.Thomas

The five conflict-handling modes are:

1. Competition

- When quick, decisive action is vital

- Against people who take advantage of noncompetitive behavior

2. Avoidance

- When an issue is trivial, or more important issues are pressing

- When others can resolve conflict more effectively

- When potential disruption outweighs the benefits of resolution

3. Accommodation

- When you find you are wrong-- to allow a better position to be heard, to learn, and to show your reasonableness

- To minimize loss when you are outmatched and losing

- When harmony and stability are especially important

4. Compromise

- When goals are important, but not worth the effort or potential disruption of more assertive modes.

- To achieve temporary settlements to complex issues

- As a backup when collaboration or competition is unsuccessful

5. Collaboration

- When your objective is to learn

- To merge insights from people with different perspectives

- To work through feelings that have interfered with a relationship.

Week 8-5 Systems of Control In Organization

Chapter 9 page 263 discusses about Systems of Control in Organizations and ideal types for it.

1. Simple: Supervision is direct, personal, and arbitrary, and monitoring of work processes is also direct and personal.
2. Technical: Supervision is mostly indirect, impersonal and highly standardized.
3. Bureaucratic: Supervision exists in variety of forms, but is chiefly done through implementation of rules, regulations, standards, procedures, and policies.
4. Concertive: Self Supervision, employee empowerment, and team-based peer supervision are encouraged within a broader mission or vision and within parameters set by top management.

The last one as the textbook mentions is similar to what most high-tech companies follow with some adjustments.

Week 8-4 With Power Comes Responisbility

I guess most of us know where we heard "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility". This is one of the statements that I really like. Any kind of power if properly used will help any organization. For example, In some countries where corruption is a big issue people with power use it to exploit people and make money. In those situations they are not responsible with the power they have and are misusing it. Also, people with power should try to analyze how they need to communicate and Box 9.1 on page 247 gives very nice explanation of this. In some situations persuasion might be better and in some others you might need to be authoritative

Week 8-3 Deming' 14 Points

Page 221 in Chapter 8 list the Deming's 14 points for Total Quality Management (TQM). One of the points is to Break down barriers between departments. This is one thing we hear about almost everyday. Issues between Sales and Marketing etc., I see some companies now trying to integrate the different with issues into one like Sales & Marketing so that the management chain has control over both functions and can try to achieve better communication between the teams. Another interesting that happened few years back in our company was IT was made part of Finance group which when i told people they were surprised. But this decision was made because they can have the finanical expertise working closely with the IT experstise as lot of money is spent every year over IT infrsturcture and projects.

Week 8-2 Employee Participation

In Chapter 12, page 219, authors present three main categories of management-sponsored programs.
1. Employee participation as problem-solving or decision-making groups that are to some extent outside of or beyond regular work activities.
2. Employee participation as a restructuring of work processes and activities, using self-directed or semi-autonomous work teams.
3. Employee ownership as economic investment in and/or overall governance of the organization.

I think the first approach is more suitable for Japanese culture, where spending lot of time at work and time with co-workers after time is common. In Silicon Valley, I think the third approach is widely seen where employees are commonly involved in stock plans, Incentives linked to companies performance etc.,

Week 8-1 Teamwork

In Chapter 8 page 214, authors talk about how terms like "Teamwork" means something very different in Japan than in the United States, in Sweden than in Israel. This is the exact issue that makes teamwork more important in United States. The definition of these terms and understanding is developed from a persons culture. In United States there are people from different countries especially in fields like Computers. This makes is really challenging to instill the sense of these terms as the meaning associated by various people is different. But by trying to clear explanation and written expectations of what the words mean in a particular organization the task will become easier for employees as they can then try to follow the instructions and adapt and understand.