Changing Organizational Culture

I enjoyed reading Hapa's web poster and I agree with the concepts presented. The research, recent and classic, is well structured and well presented. It is true that changing culture is extremely difficult and the bigger the organization, the harder it is to change its culture. Yet, in order to become and remain competitive, organizations must reinvent themselves and sometimes this means changing the culture.
It is obvious that nobody knows exactly how to change a culture. There is not a single formula that will work each time for all organizations but I believe that it is safe to say that at a minimum a good communication strategy and patience are essential in order to successfully change culture.

Creating Transparency within an Organization

I really enjoyed reading the poster about creating transparency. The topic has been very important in the organization where I work lately. Letting people know what you are doing help create partnerships, trust and better business relationships. If you have nothing to hide then it means that you are a great person to work with. Often people do not have anything to hide but just do not know how to communicate what they are doing or do not have time to communicate. The internet, as Zamoradesign states, has played an important role. It is so much easier today to know about organizations that if an organization is trying to hide something, people will know immediately. I agree with Zamoradesign, transparency is essential and should be mandatary for every business.

An Analysis of Global Virtual Teams: Conflict & Leadership (PinkLady's web poster)

I really enjoyed reading about global virtual teams. I have had to work with many different teams around the world lately and some experiences have been better than others. As stated, misunderstandings tend to be more frequent because of the lack of visual cues. What I found helped me a lot is making sure my communication was very clear so people would not be confused about my message and my goals. The more I explained what I was trying to do the more successful the collaboration was. It is inevitable that in today's global economy people have to work virtually with team around the world. The better one person learns to be aware of the differences between virtual teamwork and physical teamwork, the more successful this person is going to be.

Cross-cultural Communication (Kartik)

Today's bay area knowledge workers come from all the over the world and many people come from India. Understanding cultural differences is indeed crucial if one wants to have productive working relationships. I have been working with people from India for many years and I slowly learned about what is appropriate and what is not, like the example given with the handshake. I am sad to know that I have made some mistakes in the process but I eventually learned thanks to the patience of many people from India who eventually became my mentors and friends.
Learning and being culturally educated seems to become more important everyday and I am not surprised to know, based the research, that people that are better cross-culture communicators are paid more.