(1) Your names, pictures of yourselves or a group picture, and brief introductions of your individual identities.
See video.
(2) An introduction to your group name that explains why and how your group chooses the particular group name
“It takes two to tango” is an idiom that expresses a situation in which more than one party or entity are required to pair up in an intimate and dynamic way in order to achieve a common objective or perform the same activity. During negative situations, both people and entities are responsible for the liability. In positive circumstances, it could not occur without the other party or entities.
The tango originates in South America. Cultural differences in different parts of South America influenced the expansion of Tango. Tango requires a pair or more than a pair of partners to move in relation to each other; not necessarily in the same direction, but also in tandem and opposition.
(3) A LOGO for your group that symbolizes your group name, and an explanation for your LOGO
The logo is made up of a silhouette of a couple collaborating on dancing tango, the group name Tango and the course name.
The silhouette can easily be anyone of us – no one can escape collaboration these days. The collage of the many different pictures of couple dancing tango together shows various cultural influences on the dance. It resembles the fact that globalization brings people from different backgrounds to together. Collaboration can take any forms and adaptation. It also goes on to show that collaboration may happen with more than a pair of persons.
The straight lines on the group name Tango can embody the same overall stance or purpose every team member tries to achieve in collaboration even though their background, expertise, experience and their role in the team may be vastly different.
(4) Your group goals for this class in relation to work and life
Knowledge & Insights Sharing - Our group is diverse in our cultural exposure, e.g. Italian, Danish, American, Australian and Chinese; and our disciplines, such as Economics, Marketing, Information System, Law, Psychology & Human Resources. We can easily share our knowledge & insights from different cultures and disciplines with one another when we collaborate in this project. This can broaden our horizons and challenge our intellectual boundaries.
Diversity Adaptability – The diversity of our group members provides a golden opportunity for us to learn from each other. No group member is more brilliant than the other. Therefore, each of us brings different value to the group. With differences in our personalities and values in work and life, we expect to have intense intellectual discussion & confrontation. We believe communication, trust and respect will carry us through in our collaboration.
(5) An explanation on what excites the group most about the weekly topics and what additional topics your group would like to learn in this class
The most exciting thing about the weekly topics is that it provides: -
- A fast-track crash course on dealing with the most common and up-to-date issues many face in workplace – managing diversity and inclusivity so as to create synergy and maximize performance
- Resourceful insights about different facets of collaboration drawing from research and experience of different scholars and practitioners’
- Comprehensive tools to facilitate collaboration among diverse individuals
- Crisis Management if and when issues arise
- The combination of the above 4 items creates a very solid way to understand and improve on a seemingly abstract but important skill in life.
Addition topics the group like to learn in class includes collaboration across different generations given Gen-Y is slowly and steadily joining the workforce.
(6) One Myth you have about COLLABORATION that wants confirmation or disconfirmation. Describe and explain the myth; analyze and speculate why our culture and society has kept the myth vibrant and alive in spite of its dubious verity; and confirm or disconfirm the myth with evidence.
Myth: Diversity always brings values in collaboration.
People tend to assume that diversity offers more perspectives and that this wider perspective can get more ground covered, bring more values and thus better results, be it in a collaboration among diverse individuals or even companies.
For example, a sports equipment product management team in a consumer electronics company is always comprised of specialists from different backgrounds, e.g. sports science, engineering, marketing, art and design. The company always assumes that the diversity in their background can enable them to bring different kinds of expertise & perspectives together to come up with products with quality design, functionality and user-friendliness that can enable them to satisfy and even create markets needs.
Let’s take a look at collaboration between two companies and they even merged in the end.
Lenovo and IBM Acquisition
In December 2004 Lenovo announced acquisition of IBM Personal Computer Division. Both companies focused on different consumer groups and different geographical markets; the focus of IBM was on corporate consumers in western countries and the focus of Lenovo was on small enterprises in China (Quelch, 2006). Despite the difference, both companies shared the same set of values and goal - integration.
The key success factors in this collaboration lie in the fact that both parties are willing and focused on building a common ground to start, respecting each other’s different perspectives, having the overall interest at heart instead of individual ones, meeting half-way as and when needed and joining forces to enhance their competitive advantages to outperform competitors.
Does diversity always automatically bring values & thus better results in collaboration? Or does it increase differences and introduce complexity in it?
The DaimlerChrysler Merger
In 1998 there was an important merger between two big automotive company in the world: The American Chrysler which produced vehicles suitable for mass market and Daimler-Benz, a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles and internal combustion engines for luxury consumers.
This merger failure mainly attributed to the clash between American and German values in business kept them away from adopting the same set of values and also reaching a common strategic mission and a unified brand image. While Americans appreciated originality & adaptability, Germans preferred structure & hierarchy (Weber-Camerer, 2003).
This also resulted in their difference in management styles and thus reduced the possibility of creating synergy (Finkelstei, 2002).
This also resulted in their difference in management styles and thus reduced the possibility of creating synergy (Finkelstei, 2002).
Why our culture and society has kept the myth vibrant and alive
Globalization has become a popular topic in recent years with the advancement of Internet technology and the increasing accessibility of knowledge and information. The world has become a “level playing field” (Friedman, 2007). in business. In order to succeed in this globalized business environment, many corporations rely on hiring local people and employing local intelligence from them to outperform their competitors in different markets all over the world. This results in a diversified staff body and probably a view that diversity can help enhance competitive advantages in a corporation. HSBC is one of the corporations which embrace the belief that diversity always brings values to business. This is reflected in their marketing slogan - the world’s local bank. Globalization plays a very crucial role in keeping this myth alive.
Moreover, one of the ways to enhance competitive advantage is to introduce differentiation to the product or service of the company. For instance, innovation is one of strategic moves to achieve differentiation. Diversity in ethnicity, demographics and expertise enable a company to bring new ideas and effective brainstorming to the solution (Anderson, 2011). According to a survey, 85 percent of respondents agreed that diversity is crucial to gaining the perspectives and ideas that foster innovation (Mulvey, 2011).
Reference:
Anderson, T. (2011, 09 May), “Is diversity good for business? CSC think so”, Washington Technology, US.
Friedman, T. L. (2007). The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century (First ed.). New York, NY: Picador.
Mulvey, J., (2011, 14 Jul), “Why diversity is good for business”, Business New Daily
Quelch, J., Knoop C. (2006), Lenovo: Building a Global Brand, Harvard Business School
Sydney Finkelstein (2002).The DaimlerChrysler Merger. Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth.
Weber Roberto A., Camerer Colin F. (2003, April). Cultural Conflict and Merger Failure: An Experimental Approach. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Sydney Finkelstein (2002).The DaimlerChrysler Merger. Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth.
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BLOG EXTENSION
Myth: Diversity always brings values in collaboration.
This blog extension will refine its argument on what
keeps the myth vibrant.
As mentioned before, the phenomenon globalization can
bring about diversity in staff members as companies hire local people to obtain
local intelligence such as market conditions, political scenario, cultural and
legal requirements to outcompete in local markets. Companies that hire staff
this way are said to have a polycentric approach to its human resources.
Others comment that globalization may only bring
homogeneity. This happens when a company follows the approach will choose only
the citizens of the parent country to work in host nations; as such
higher-level foreign positions are filled with expatriate employees from the
parent country. The general rationale behind this approach is that the staff
from the parent country would represent the interests of the headquarters
effectively and link well with the parent country. This creates a photocopy of
the HQs for local offices and hence homogeneity. But then again it may change
depends on how far the expat is willing to adopt its local office to local
environment.
In short, to reconcile these two opposing views, we have to look into the organization’s international staff recruitment strategy which in turn reflects the organization’s business values. This shapes whether globalization facilitates diversity or homogeneity.
In addition to globalization, what plays a very crucial role
in keeping this myth alive is the ideology of being a world citizen who always
establish a common ground with other people by advocating the greater good of
the world before any nations’ and putting the best interests of the world at
heart. As a result, in collaboration, the world citizens will strive to fit
themselves into and contribute towards the bigger picture as the world. This is
exactly what the myth is about.
Reference:
http://www.whatishumanresource.com/international-recruitment
Give your group a “Like” to the myth’s content as the feasibility of collaboration with diversity people are explained by using good and bad examples. I agree with your statement that diversity always brings values in collaboration especially globalization.
ReplyDeleteI would like to add additional points on advantages and disadvantages on collaboration with diversity people.
Advantages:
(1) Groupthink can be reduced
(2) Increased creativity can generate better problem definitions, more alternatives; better solutions or decisions.
Disadvantages:
(1) Mistrust is created as people would generally like to work closely with members of their own culture but not diversity people.
(2) Miscommunication may occur as all are forced to communicate in a common language which may not be familiar with some members who tend not to describe all things explicitly.
I like this blog with video introduction of group members, viewer friendly!!!
ReplyDeleteIn certain extent, I agreed with the myth but disagreed with the statement of "globalization plays a very crucial role in keeping this myth". In my viewpoint, one of the result of globalization is homogenization (or syncretism) of working culture and style, not diversity.
Let me share my experience. I worked for a company which was expanded and globalized with a worldwide network of 16 offices before. It was no doubt that diversity brought values in collaboration in the initial stage of expansion. However, when the time passed, the office structures became the same, all recruitment and working procedures were standardized since it was easy for management in headquarter to remote control the worldwide operation and global collaboration with common perspectives and standards. Therefore, I believed that globalization can only bring diversity with value in collaboration in short run.
I think there is a good viewpoint from Tango Team that the diversification is really a phenomenon when the collaboration becomes globalization. As the globalization developing, more and more people who are coming from different countries, in different religions, races, educational backgrounds, cultures build up a team. I used to face the same situation when I worked in Middle East that employees who came from America, Europe, Africa, local Arab countries, India and Pakistan, Asia work in same team. According to the Hofstede’s culture analysis, we could see that people who come from most of Western countries were more individualism, but the people who from most countries of Asia, Arab were more collectivism.
ReplyDeleteGeneral speaking, diversity is good for the inspiration within one team, in that all the members can be complemented each other. However, I think there should be two preconditions to make sure the team members will not misuse the diversity of the collaboration. One condition is that members should have open heart attitude to face and understand each other in the organization. Otherwise, the diversity would be harm for the collaboration in the organization. The other condition is that there should be rule and the role of monitor in organization to keep the diversity in a reasonable extent.
Very creative with the video blog entry, gives the blog more personality!
ReplyDeleteI believe the myth is partly true, because companies that are able to go global and internationalize have more expansion opportunities. When expanding to new regions or even countries, group diversity will play a main role. Tango mentioned HSBC as one example. However I think most employees or expatriates who are being sent abroad are usually being sent in order for them to "teach" the local (frontline) staff the original culture of the company. Meaning that if a company's HQ is in the US and they want to expand to Shanghai, they would always send a US executive just to make sure things are running smoothly and according to the company's past way of doing things. Is this the kind of diversity that the local staff would appreciate? Or does this kind of diversity hinder collaboration?
I agree with the myth “Diversity always brings values in collaboration” as “diversity” is what one if the values my company promotes.
ReplyDeleteIn an international company, people from different countries/backgrounds join in and work together to the company’s goals and vision. With diversity, people can think in different ways and share their different ideas/experiences. However, there may be possibility that longer time is required for coming up a “value” in the team as the members are from different backgrounds seeing things in different angels. Once the conclusion is made, I think it will be a more comprehensive one as they have considered the case from different perspectives. Hence, I think the myth is true in an international company.
Remarks: Tango is creative in having a video for introducing the team members.
I think that “Diversity always brings values in collaboration.” is true under certain situation, but no always. Diversity is related to conflict. The more diverse the team is, the more conflict is created. Most of the time, people consider conflict disadvantage and the team cannot work effectively until the conflict is resolved. On the other hand, diversity brings new idea, different experience and skills and breaks the group thinking, etc. In order to increase the success of collaboration with highly diverse team members, some strategies must be used. The diversity must view as an asset by all the team members. For the team leader, he must maintain the balance of power among the team members. The dominant groups should not overpower the less-dominant groups. For the team members, they must be open-minded and highly aware of the potential of conflict. They must willing to understand the different points of view or perspectives from each others and think positively. So I think diversity will bring a lot of values in collaboration if the team members know how to handle the diversity properly.
ReplyDeleteI think that “Diversity always brings values in collaboration.” is true under certain situation, but no always. Diversity is related to conflict. The more diverse the team is, the more conflict is created. Most of the time, people consider conflict disadvantage and the team cannot work effectively until the conflict is resolved. On the other hand, diversity brings new idea, different experience and skills and breaks the group thinking, etc. In order to increase the success of collaboration with highly diverse team members, some strategies must be used. The team leader may play a very important role. He has to make sure that the idea of “diversity is an asset” is shared by all the team members. He must maintain the balance of power among the team members. The dominant groups should not overpower the less-dominant groups. He must be open-minded and highly aware of the potential of conflict. Besides, he should be willing to understand the different points of view or perspectives from each others and think positively. So I think diversity will bring a lot of values in collaboration if the team leader know how to handle the diversity properly.
ReplyDelete“Why our culture and society has kept the myth vibrant and alive”, this sentence really punch to my heart as we are living in a city like Hong Kong is such amazing.
ReplyDeleteBack to the myth, is diversity always brings value in collaboration. As studied in strategic management, diversity is one of the strategies used in company in order to expand its business into other field of business. Diversity may not only create opportunity but also conflict among different groups in the newly merged company. However, I believe Hong Kong, as one of the miracle city in the world, diversity happened everyday but we still need to look for a chance in creating value, no matter if it is though collaboration.
The posts above mentioned a lot of examples about diversity in cultures. In addition to culture, diversity can be in many ways such as views, knowledge, professionals and so on. In the best case, diversity in views can make the boarder opinions; diversity in knowledge can be combined to generate new knowledge, while diversity in professionals can help individuals to inter-depend.
ReplyDeleteCheng, C., Sanchez-Burks, J., & Lee, F. (2008) also stated that more the diversity in identity, the more the creativity idea comes. If the individual in the organization is encouraged to freely express their opinions, plus a mechanism to collect the information captured, the diversity is really bring innovation values in collaboration.
However, diversity in goal will erode the collaboration. If there is no common goal within the organization, the cost of collaboration greatly increases. Effective team should discuss the problems and goals to establish a goal objective before solutions.
Also, diversity in communication channel will decrease the efficiency by without having updated and integrity information.
Therefore, the confirmation or dis-confirmation of myth heavily depends of the context of “diversity” and how to make use of diverse resources toward a common goal by using Interest-Based Relational Approach (2) in order to bring values in collaboration.
References:
(1) Cheng, C., Sanchez-Burks, J., & Lee, F. (2008). Connecting the dots within: Creative performance and identity integration. Psychological Science, 19(11), 1178. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02220.x
(2) http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_81.htm
Hi, Tango!
ReplyDeleteYour myth “Diversity always brings values in collaboration.” is true and I agree with it. Collaboration is achieving a goal by working together. If all member thinking and idea is the same, you can still achieve the goal, but may not be better that a group with diversified ideas. But I think globalization is against diversification, by my own experience, almost all shopping mall have that same brand of retail store, such as H&M, Zara, Esprit, LV, D&G……., globalization let everything be the same. I think your case is not a good example to explain this myth.
By the way, I do like your group name “Tango” and the logo, a silhouette of a couple collaborating on dancing tango, very fit to this course High Performance Collaborations.