Respose to Professor Johnson's Post: Do you think managing in a global work environment requires a different set of managerial skills?

            In response to this question, yes, I do think managing in a global environment requires a different set of managerial skills.  As we have learned, cultures widely vary in their beliefs, customs, traditions, and perspectives.  What may be viewed as an effective management strategy in one culture, may not go over the same in another culture.  Managing at a global level requires knowing and understanding the context you are in and being able to tailor your communication and way of doing things so that you can effectively manage people from different backgrounds.  For example, when someone has done an outstanding job in the workplace in the U.S., it is common for them to be recognized and acknowledged in front of others.  People who are recognized for their efforts are usually happy and proud to be recognized in front of their peers; this is because we live in an individualistic culture, where people define themselves primarily as individuals.  However, in other countries, such as Japan, this kind of personal recognition would be completely embarrassing and looked down on by others because they live in a collectivist culture, where people base their identies by groups or organizations/teams. 
            This is only one example of how greatly views and perspectives about the workplace can differ across cultures.  Different cultures also have different views on appropriate power distance, uncertainty avoidance, assertiveness, and orientations to time.  If a manger can not successfuly understand and respect these differences, communicating, gainging and maintaining respect, and motivating employees will be very challenging, thus productivity will suffer.  Managing in a local environmemt where people speak the same language, celebrate the same holidays, and have the same general perspectives is quite different than managing a bunch of people with completely different backgrounds and belief systems.  Therefore, managers need to be aware of these differenes and understand how to manage them and communicate in a way that will make the organization the most productive. 

Can you recall a time when you worked with someone from a different culture or who spoke a different language?  Were there any differences in how they carried out their work duties or communicated with others? 

Reference: Griffin, R and Moorhead, G.  (2010).  Organizational Behavior.  South-Western: Mason, OH

Respose to Professor Johnson's Post

"Employers are increasingly relying on social networking sites to screen job candidates. Do you think this is appropriate? What are the OB issues? One way to think about this is to ask the following: What individual-level, group level, and organizational outcomes might this practice have? Go to ConsumerAffairs.com for additional information on this practice."

This topic is one that is much debated and it seems that both sides feel pretty strongly.  It absolutley pertains to OB because it's a question of ethics in information technology, discussed in Chapter 2 of our textbook, Organizational Behavior, edition 9 by Griffin Moorhead.  I personally feel that it IS appropriate for employers to use these avenues to get a better idea of who their candidates really are.  Of course organizations want to hire the best person for the job, why wouldn't they?  So I think it's completely fair for them to investigate their applicants via online social networking.  They want to make sure the person they are about to invest a lot of money in is going to be right for the job.  A lot of people feel that employers who do this are violating privacy and feel that they should not be allowed to pass judgement for what they may find on these sites.  However, like the article in Consumer Affairs points out, I think that if people don't want others to see inappropriate pictures of them or if people don't want others to pass judgements on them, they shouldn't post certain things on the internet where it known that virtually nothing is private.  Besides, I don't even understand why people feel the need to post ridiculous pictures of themselves on their facebook/myspace pages anyway...of course people are going to look at these cites and formulate opinions about them...isn't that what these people want?  Why else would they post pictures and status updates for everyone to see?  If people would keep their social networking profile professional and mature, they wouldn't have anything to worry about.

Have you ever looked someone up on facebook to get a better picture of who they really are?  Did you gain helful insights or learn something about the person you didn't previously know?  Do you think employers should be allowed to screen candidates via Facebook or other social networking sites?