Virtual Teams

Virtual teams are gaining day by day more attention and more business today are using this type of team work because is a way of improving the members of the work group by choosing people from all around the world with different skills, abilities, knowledge and experiences.

A virtual team is a group of people that work together on the same work of expertise from different spaces and ethnics who rely on technology to communicate, specially virtual teams software which are Synchronous (communicate in real time) and Asynchronous (the opposite).

They are used today because of globalization, mergers, alliances, acquisitions and emerging markets.

Some advantages are:

• Better communication specially in asynchronous type of communicate because there is no pressure of responding immediately and it can be better thought.
• Reduces cost of infrastructure and the maintainability of the business.
• Work with a higher number of members with different background and take the best advantages of it will increase productivity.
• The team can work from their own space.

Some disadvantages are:

• No face-to-face communication with the different members.
• No getting to know your team.
• Working in different time zones can affect the availability of others.
• By working with members with different cultural background, messages and work attitudes can be misread or misunderstood.

Virtual teams is a way of bringing people together and work for a common goal, to get more information about this, i invite you to take a look at the following videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1NyIBiYuFQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Y5WToAeA0&feature=related

References:
http://www.seanet.com/~daveg/vrteams.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1NyIBiYuFQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Y5WToAeA0&feature=related
http://www.google.com.co/imgres?imgurl=http://www.onsip.com/stylesheets/images/onsip_virtual_teams.png&imgrefurl=http://www.onsip.com/modular/virtual-teams&usg=__nRcFRHJ-94QTGawlX5_QML7J6j0=&h=339&w=470&sz=72&hl=es&start=18&zoom=1&tbnid=iWwMU-rQi_XlGM:&tbnh=132&tbnw=184&ei=tu_GTZGsLou3tgfutZCVBA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dvirtual%2Bteams%26um%3D1%26hl%3Des%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D588%26tbm%3Disch0%2C281&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=128&vpy=290&dur=393&hovh=191&hovw=264&tx=142&ty=111&page=2&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:18&biw=1280&bih=588

Cultural Differences in Non-verbal Communication

Each culture has its own way of communicate, especially in the non-verbal type by using body language like gestures, touching, body postures, facial expressions, head, arm and hand movements, eye contacts and different personal space perception.

Extend body language or lack of it depend on the cultural background of the people. This non verbal communication way of expressing own by each culture may have different meaning in another one. Some of them can even be consider offensive or misunderstood.

Some examples:
Some gestures like the OK sign, the finger pointing or the peace sign have different meaning depending on the region.
Ways of saying hello also changes a lot. The kissing part of the greeting is a Must in some countries and a Dont in others.
Excessive touching may be seen as good or as a violation of one´s space.
The way of reaching to a superior or making to much eye contact with him may be consider rude in some places or lack of security or attention on others.

A good research on the other culture is recommended if you are going to have some type of contact with it so no innocent mistake occur.

References:
http://erc.msh.org/mainpage.cfm?file=4.6.0.htm&module=provider&language=English
http://healthvermont.gov/family/toolkit/tools%5CF-6%20Cultural%20Differences%20in%20Nonverbal%20Communic.pdf
http://www.google.com.co/imgres?imgurl=http://www.richmondvaleacademy.org/files/cultdiff.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.richmondvaleacademy.org/TextPage.asp%3FTxtID%3D1044%26SubMenuItemID%3D454%26MenuItemID%3D47&usg=__6hqs2-Gjv2RKgePUF_S-BH8lZTs=&h=469&w=520&sz=17&hl=es&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=Fk-65CpPRozBaM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=157&ei=vtvFTfCxKMi3tweF_I2ZBA&prev=/search%3Fq%3DCultural%2BDifferences%2Bin%2BNonverbal%2BCommunication%253F%26um%3D1%26hl%3Des%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D588%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=851&vpy=69&dur=803&hovh=213&hovw=236&tx=93&ty=98&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0

The Arizona Law

The state of Arizona (USA) establish a law against illegal immigrants and has created controversy because it criminalize immigrants without documents and treats everybody who looks like immigrants like criminal suspects without knowing if they are truly Americans or legal immigrants.

This is an intolerant racist law because it judges people based on their aspects, it violate human rights like the equality treatment all people are in-title to and creates a symbolic wall to stop immigration and doesn´t let immigrants live the American dream.

The law has created awareness on unfair treatment and judgment and has driven the state back to the years where the different were hated and punished.

It has made public figures such as Shakira that are against it to speak out and express their point of view as we can see in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORFQD-avN-8

References:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/politics/24immig.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORFQD-avN-8
http://www.google.com.co/imgres?imgurl=http://la.indymedia.org/uploads/2010/05/az-law-is-nazi-law.jpg&imgrefurl=http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/05/237924.php&usg=__4pk_NEgj-jajxjD18ANikbri51M=&h=550&w=570&sz=69&hl=es&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=4DFn4ibNLZ6NgM:&tbnh=165&tbnw=171&ei=d8TFTYuiMpKutwfInZSfBA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Darizona%2Blaw%26um%3D1%26hl%3Des%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D588%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=1012&vpy=260&dur=208&hovh=221&hovw=229&tx=139&ty=221&page=1&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:15,s:0

What external and internal factors should be taken into account when a company decides to implement a merging strategy?

Internal Factors:
The company should take into account the factors regarding the company itself... its position in the market, how its perceived by its costumers, its clients and its employees and its relationship with them, its objectives, mission and vission, its own organizational culture, financial situation and overall its current strategy and development in the market. By taking this into account, the company will know its weaknesses and its strengths and will use a merging strategy that best aligns with its business.

External Factors:
Everything regarding the environment the company currently is developing in and will be developed in once it mergers: Political, economic, social, cultural, legal, technological and environmental factors and also analyze the industry itself, the market situation, its competitors and its costumers. This in order to analyze the opportunities and threats that the company has in the environment or may face someday so they can be prepare and take the best advantages of them.

References:
http://www.google.com.co/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mspmentor.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/managed-services-mergers.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/03/17/msps-merge-to-form-national-exchange-server-giant/&usg=__mnseX06Pbhm8X1wZ3WncDa8Sp2o=&h=254&w=592&sz=22&hl=es&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=sYOxnf2BmQlllM:&tbnh=76&tbnw=176&ei=v7XFTdviIJC-tgeP7cGvBA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dmergers%26um%3D1%26hl%3Des%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D588%26tbm%3Disch0%2C277&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=597&vpy=144&dur=1122&hovh=147&hovw=343&tx=146&ty=81&page=1&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:16,s:0&biw=1280&bih=588

Checking my classmates´ blogs

Some interesting post i founded and comments i made:

From: http://paosocieties.blogspot.com/
Post: Motivation
I really like the video posted in this blog regarding motivation approaches... i founded very useful because it explains that taking into account the different types of forces that drive people to do something, we can categorized different types of ways to motivate people (Theoretical, Utilitarian, Aesthetic, Social, Individualistic and Traditional motivators) simply because we are all different, we give different meaning to things in live and we need to be motivated differently.

From: http://fboteroc.blogspot.com/
Post: Why is important for managers and employees to be able to understand different types of personalities?
It is also important because for each job position, there is a type of personality required, not everybody in the company has to be a leader or a follower, it is needed to have a little bit of everything so by working all together they can learn from one another and take the best advantage of the way the other co-worker works and acts so you can complement one another.

From: http://juanpablojimenez7.blogspot.com/
Post: Migrant workers and expatriates
The idea of choosing the song of Ricardo Arjona called "El Mojado" is very good because it completely relates to the subject in manner, it tells us his thoughts regarding this issue, he related to the immigrants and exposed their feelings, their motives, their fears, what they leave behind... and in a very poetically way he let us know his point of view about it.

References:
http://paosocieties.blogspot.com/
http://fboteroc.blogspot.com/
http://juanpablojimenez7.blogspot.com/
http://www.google.com.co/imgres?imgurl=http://www.unostiposduros.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/revisar.jpg&imgrefurl