The role of workers - Migrant workers - expatriate assignments

Germany is a country with a particular way of doing things when it comes to the relation between managers and the work force along the organizational structure. On the one hand, the German model is characterized by a common usage of authority as a mean of managing employees, buy on the other hand the work force seems to be well represented in front of the law and even it gets involved very often on the management of the corporations. The power of unions is such important that in many cases they have almost the same power the senior decision makers have, since unions in Germany work jointly at a national level. All these elements make up the concept of co-determination.  By means of co-determination law a representative of the workers should be made member for the board of directors in order to represent workers and make decisions in favor of the organization.

Co-determination is vital in terms of the rights and the possibilities that workers have compared to those working in other countries where unions work separately and where conflicts take place not only in an scenario in which they negotiate with managers but also within the union itself. As a result, the search for satisfying personal interest is even more and more popular and that division of unions makes their rights less recognized. Under co-determination model, workers feel they have a main role beyond that one limited just to accomplish basic functions, namely, they can make decisions and feel they can lead the future of the organization.

Migrant workers are those individuals who move from one country to another one in a voluntary way with no intervention coming from external agents. This concept is different to that one of immigrants (who look for permanent residence or stay abroad), migrants own a temporary residence and they’re free to move whenever they consider the need.  Obviously, this doesn’t mean there are no pressures motivating that decision, social and economic causes in the home country can be associated to that result, but the final decision is made personally and independently.

Based on the required reading and the class presentation about this topic, please answer the following question:

Analyze the potential implications of the Co-determination principles over the organization’s decision making process from the perspectives of the managers and the employees.

From the managers perspective, the first implication clearly has to do with the decision making itself, because once workers and unions take a place in the decision making of companies, it will be more tricky to reach a final agreement. We have to add the fact that unions are mostly composed by people who do not have a strict education which will probably entail several misunderstandings when discussing key points in negotiations. They might assume a stubborn behavior without considering the real knowledge about certain topics such as finance, accounting and so on. Ignorance about these topics can cause unions to ask for unachievable benefits and conditions which, in the case of being taken into account, might origin troubles within the company.

Finally, from employees’ perspective, we might say that given their important role inside the organizations their opinions and considerations are heard sooner or later, so it means a great chance to motivate good ideas and promote a real change inside the company. Why do they have the potential to carry out these ideas? Basically, because they are the first ones who perceive the real environment inside the organizations, they know the inner company as probably seniors managers don’t and have a complete knowledge about every process. Even, if they disagree with the union, they are not forced to resign or change their mind, they are free to decide either they strike or keep working

Source: Piette, Jean-Jacques. 2004. “Understanding Management German style”. Les Amis de L’ecole de Paris.

Merging OC

Given the globalized world, companies have found themselves in a situation in which they must look for new options in order to keep their competitiveness and keep offering value to potential customers. “Mergers and acquisitions have a unique potential to transform firms, and to contribute to corporate renewal” as well as companies come up with new alternatives to improve their market position.

This process is not easy to be carried out since it entails the transfer of skills and capabilities from one company’s members to another organization, that is to say, managers of both sides must feel encouraged and be committed to work jointly by sharing a common vision and a complementary knowledge. Depending on how well this task is made the value creation of the company will be successfully accomplished.

Also, challenges will be present throughout all the process, especially regarding to cultural issues when the ‘actors’ belong to different cultural backgrounds or even when there is cultural diversity within the companies themselves. It’d seem to be tricky and tough to do, and maybe it is indeed, however “in bringing together firms with different skills and knowledge bases, acquisitions create unique learning opportunities for the partner firms”.

So, what is and effective integration? It might be defined as the combination of firms into a single unity, generating shared efforts to fulfill the goals of the new association.

 

Based on the required reading for this module, list and explain - using evidence from the cases presented in the reading - the main challenges and opportunities arising in processes of mergers and acquisitions from an organizational culture perspective.

Include at least 3 challenges and 3 opportunities.

§  Challenges

-Integration process: As Nick Starrit defined it, integration is like a marriage. Companies have to make some tough decision that might compromise organizational culture in both sides since they have to decide their common physical and non-physical assets and how a desirable future situation will be accomplished. It means that at any step along the integration plan might be a clash of organizational cultures when trying to state that common point.

- Identity: As we read in the case of integration between Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust, employees’ identity can be a very sensitive topic if it is not managed in the right way. That is exactly what had happened before when BT acquired Alex Brown, not taking into account some issues that made Alex Brown’s employees feel ignored regarding to their identity they’ve already had before the integration. Deutsche Bank had the vision to note it and made the good choices, not only giving back the identity to these people but also including the brand Alex Brown in the name of the new company.

- Another important challenge is how to find the way of not making redundant those employees who, in the first instance, might not be considered to be into the new plan for the company. Even though sometimes it is inevitable, organizations taking part in the process should concern about linking all individuals to the construction of the new corporate culture since it will add diversification and opportunities. Sometimes it is good that organizational culture adapt the employees, not the opposite.

 

§  Advantages

-Cultural assessment: It allows the organizations to reduce potential cultural conflicts by uncovering the perceptions each group has about the counterpart. This exercise permits companies to prevent future problems related to communication, the key element to finish a successful agreement.

-Integration processes force companies to show their best qualities and capabilities in order to integrate. It means they have to uncover the best practices within their organizations. A good example for this approach was the case of BP and Amoco, since “BP performance management process was considered the best practice in terms of generating strong performance. However, when it came to allocating capital, they adopted the Amoco model.”

- Acquisitions can enhance the building of a new corporate culture for the new organization. This entails a break down regarding to the previous barriers that might exist between the participant groups. “Several meetings with the top 500 managers were held in order to explain BP’s operating philosophy. It also encouraged them to socialize and mix with their counterparts from the Amoco organization”.

Source: Alzira Salama, Wayne Holland, Gerald Vinten, (2003) "Challenges and Opportunities in Mergers and Acquisitions: Three International Case Studies – Deutsche Bank-Bankers Trust; British Petroleum-Amoco; Ford-Volvo", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 27 Iss: 6, pp.313 – 321.