Today's Class Discussion: 9/11/2008

Globalization, in plain language, is any service provided or product produced in one country for sale in another country. Examples include but are not limited to children's toys made in China, customer service operators in India, and tomatoes from Mexico. It's nearly impossible to run away from globalization when your morning coffee is imported from Columbia, your car was manufactured in Japan, and your shoes were made in Italy.

The evolution of product quality places strong emphasis on continuous improvement.More specifically, the evolution of product quality is associated with four different approaches; the fix-it approach to quality, the inspect-it-in approach to quality, the build-it-in approach to quality, and the design-it-in approach to quality. The fix-it approach requires inspectors to refurbish defective products. The inspect-it-in approach calls for inspectors to "sample work in a process and prescribe machine adjustments to avoid standard output," according to Kreitner. The build-it-in approach gives responsibility to every person who touches the product to detect and correct defects, and to "identify and eliminate causes of quality problems." Lastly, the design-it-in approach mandates customers as well as employees to participate in the entire design-production cycle. The build-it-in and design-it-in approaches are popularly labeled total quality management, or TQM.

General Motors: International Management and Cross-Cultural Competence

International management is pursuing organizational objectives in international and cross-cultural settings. In simplified terms, large companies attempt to establish an organized and well developed business in foreign countries. A perfect example of this is General Motors (GM.) GM is a U.S. based business, however, the company has established relations in several countries, including China, employing approximately 284,000 people around the world and manufacturing cars and trucks in 35 different countries.

According to "Management" by Kreitner, cross-cultural competence is a combination of cultural intelligence- "the ability of an outsider to read individual behavior, group dynamics, and situations in a foreign culture as well as the locals do"- and a geocentric attitude, which is a world oriented view that draws o the best talent from around the world.

GM demonstrates great cross-cultural competence by hiring 284,000 employees around the world who help run a company that produces motor vehicles in 35 different countries around the world that are exclusive to each region's needs and desires, therefore making the company quite successful.