Diversity

Must every company give a holiday bonus?

As manager working in a new country (Qatar), I was asked by my employees to give a holiday bonus, a religious holiday is coming up soon (the celebration after the month of fasting (Rhamadn) for the Muslims.)

Our accounting department added the holiday bonus to this month (September) salaries, but the CEO of the company was absolutely against the idea, he said “a holiday bonus is something left to the management to decided on and it should not be included in our accounting records, it should not be a regular practice.”

I have been working as an independent consultant for several years now, and I can’t really recall while working in corporate America if I have ever received a “Holiday Bonus.” I still recall employees talking about getting a bonus, but I am not sure if we received anything or it was a common practice for our company.

I think in many parts of the world, its socially accepted practice, but its not required by law.

Is it a cultural thing?

I have written many times about work and culture, travelling around few countries, I thought I knew a lot about the world around me. Recently, we had a major management-employee conflict at the company I work with.

As a manager working with employees with various backgrounds, I tried my very best to reach to each of my employees through encouragement, communications and respect, but it seems like the more I try the less cooperation I got from some of my employees.

Now I started to feel like not every culture value hard and honest work the same, in some cultures you can not be straight forward with your employees, you must play tactful office politics in order to get things done.

Today, I really feel disappointed, I manage a group of people who happened to be far less educated and experienced and I have worked very hard with them to help them get advanced in their fields, but unfortunately, some of these employees thought of that as a weakness in my part because they came from a culture where managers usually don’t mingle with their employees.

So it is a cultural thing?

Should you promote based on seniority or based on skills?

What is the best policy to use when it comes to promoting employees, I know many companies use seniority as a factor when it comes to promotion, in facts it’s a tradition being practiced in many countries.

One famous success story is with Nissan Car Company, the company was suffering from serious market share loss and it felt as if Nissan was not able to innovate anymore. Nissan had a long an old policy, as with many Japanese firms, of promoting from within, this policy of not looking outside the company for talents and ideas led Nissan to, over time, lose its edge on innovation.

Nissan took a drastic measure, and hired a CEO who was not Nissan employee; he was not even Japanese. The first thing the new CEO did was to cancel the old tradition at Nissan and he started to look for talents outside of the company, and sure enough, the company was back again as one of the top auto makers in the world.

This is only a small instance of how companies should look for talents and skills everywhere and not only from within the company.

H-1B visa again and again

Being in the IT world and especially in the US, you cant afford to ignore the controversy over H-1B visa program, a program that allows foreign workers to come to the US and work mostly in IT related Jobs.

The program was designed initially to help IT companies with their needs for skilled labor, most of the early holders of H-1B visas were International students graduate of American colleges and universities, the program was designed to keep those international students who can secure jobs after graduation from living the country.

Initially the program worked well, mostly the hiring companies were paying the H-B1 visa holders the same wages that they would pay American workers, and there were more visas available than there were job seekers. I know this because I worked in an IT companies with few employees holding H-B1 Visas. Those employees were getting paid the same as American workers and our company lawyer used to tell me “there are more visas than there are job seekers.”

This whole program started to get controversial when some IT companies started to setup recruiting offices overseas to hire IT workers on H-1B visas and thouthands of workers (sometimes not-qualified and not-well paid) started to enter the US labor market.

All things being said, lets look at the actual number of H-B1 Visa holders and how they are affecting the American labor market and than you can make your own judgement.

The US population is about 300 Millions (estimated), and the H-1B visa holders would be by now about 1 million workers, if we assumed in the last 10 years we have 100,000 new H-1B visa holders coming each year and not living the country. If you do the math, you will find that the H-1B visa holders are not even 0.05 of the total US population.

Job Security of IT professionals

Why I feel IT professionals have more Job security than other professionals do? I have been working on the global scene for over a year now, and everywhere I went, the demand for skilled IT forces is high and growing. IT skills are universal, what you have learned in the US, you can apply it in Asia, Africa or anywhere else.

Many industries, such as law, medical, engineering, etc, are regulated by where you practice your profession, but IT industry is not regulated by countries, it follows international accepted standards and that what make any experience you gained in any country counts toward your total experience.

Its relatively easy to transfer IT force from one country to another, since IT professionals don’t need any familiarization to the new country standards, and if there is any, it will be minimal.

So if we in IT and you love your job, feel secure about your job, your skills demand worldwide, you basically can pack, get in the plan and start new job in new country with in a week

Different cultures and different concepts of Management

Is there one style of Management that is suitable for every country and every culture?
Currently I am working in the Arabian Gulf Area, where you can find skills from various parts of the world with various cultural backgrounds, what style of management is suitable to manage this diverse workforce?

Working in this part of the world always makes me wonder “if I got a degree in management from the top business schools in the US, will I be able to implement what I have learned here?”

As a manager in a multi-national company, I have to work with a diverse group of people and unconsciously I hold them to the same level of quality as I would if I was in the US. Is this fair? I am trying to walk a fine balance of culture, ego and seniority.

In my staff I have people who are proud of their experience level and educational backgrounds but as a manager I don’t feel they are qualified enough for the job, but that’s only my views, a manager from different culture and different educational background, may find them to be well qualified workers.

What concepts of Management to use in this type of situation? How you provide your best without offending or sidelining some of your staff?

One important lesson I have learned is to lower my expectations or to change my views of quality levels to fit the minds around me.

A friend of mine, who has worked in the US, Europe and now in the Arabian Gulf, tells me he faces this situation everyday at his work, he said that “ as we get older or more educated, our ego takes control and we only want to see things done our ways”, he further added “ you maybe using the best management style, but it will do you no good if you are not willing to bring everyone involved to the same level.”

I was always proud, and I am still, of my degree that I have received in Management Information Systems, and I always thought that the management style I have used and learned in the US I will be able to apply it anywhere I go, but in my daily work here I have to put aside management convictions I always believed in and re-assess my style to fit with the new culture that I am working with.

Don’t walk in a straight bath, but listen to the world

The above title is from a book I was reading written by the former French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin. The book doesn’t not discuss management issues, but it talks about how an individual must be aware of the world around him, that a person must turn as the world turns around him, he must be ready to adopt to new ways of doing things.

As a manager, I find this to be a very interesting aspect of successful management, managers must always observe the world around them, spot trends and apply changes when necessary. Many corporations and even many countries have used one style of management for decades, which eventually led to market share decline, productivity loss and lower quality products.

In today’s ever connected world, you never now where is your next client is located, doing business as usual may not proof to be the best management decision, you must listen to the world and turn as it turns.

Global Peace Index 2008

An interesting index that groups together a number of interrelated initiatives focused on global peace. The index is published by a group that identifies itself as “Vision of Humanity groups together a number of interrelated initiatives focused on global peace. It brings a strategic approach to raising the world’s attention and awareness around the importance of peacefulness to humanity’s survival in the 21st century.”

The index ranks countries in some very interesting areas:

Level of distrust in other citizens

Number of homicides per 100,000 people

Ease of access to weapons of minor destruction

Respect for human rights

Potential for terrorist acts

Aggregate number of heavy weapons per 100,000 people

Number of visitors as % of domestic population

Net Migration (% of total population)

The extent of regional integration

Hostility to foreigners/private property

Importance of religion in national life

Willingness to fight

Number of paramilitary personnel per 100,000 people

In this age of globalization, it’s important to know the world around you.
You can find the index at: http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/resu…

Can Globalization and Diversity Co- Exist?

Although many people can, rightfully, argue against it, Globalization has changed the lives of millions of people around the world to the better. Globalization has made fast amount of resources available to the masses; millions of people around the world now can afford air-travel, clean water, better education and better health care.

But Globalization brought with it diversity and new culture that many societies are not willing to accept. To be part of the global village, communities must be willing to accept new ideas, new faces, and new ways of doing things.

Globalization brought with it global work force, today, people not only change their job frequently, but also change the country they work in. Global work force bring with it experience that otherwise was not available to many communities, but unfortunately, we still see resistance to diversity, we still see people who are not willing to work with people from other race, color, or religious background.

Its sad when national pride or religious and cultural intolerance deprive many communities of widely available resource that globalization makes it possible

A CV or A Resume

What format should a job seeker use? In North America, the resume is the common format job seeker use to tell about their job experience and education. The Resume usually dose not includes so much personal information as the CV does.

Being in India and in the Arab world for the last few months, I have seen many CVs per my job as development manager. What I really didn’t like about the CV format is the personal bio data, most of the CVs that I have read contain so much personal information, in one CV, the applicant included the name of her mother and father and their occupations in the CV and its not unusual to see the applicant passport number listed in the CV too.

I have always wondered as a manager, why do I need to know this much personal details of the applicant, my major concern is the applicant actual experience.

One of my employees asked me to review her CV, there was almost half page of information about her bio, so I told her, any busy manager will not be interested in your bio, he wants to know more about your job experience and if he needed more bio information, he will ask for it.

I don’t know if it’s a cultural issue or not, but mostly in the US, its almost illegal to ask so much bio data of your employees, but in this part of the world, privacy is still not a big issue.