PRATEEK JAINABDUL MANNAN

NATIONSLatin American countries consists of

nations like Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras.

Business styles are often the result of the values imbibed through various cultural values. These cultural values will determine the success and failure of a business organization.

Work Practices in Latin AmericaMany employees in Mexico like to do their

jobs in the presence of such religious images as the Virgin of Guadalupe.

A research study demonstrated that values such as integrity, honesty and responsibility are most important to Latin American businessmen.

The least important values are for Latin American managers were imagination, independence and politeness.

The Company Is Like a FamilyLatin American business model is a hybrid of

globalization and the region’s historic traditions.

The senior executive has the personal obligation to protect subordinates, and even take care of the personal needs of workers and their families.

They believe in paternalistic leadership.

The Company Is Like a Family

Latin Americans value status within a hierarchy because it indicates social distance between the higher-up and his subordinates.

Job titles and additional benefits also have a great significance because of the social status that they bring.

The Company Is Like a FamilyLatin American companies try to eliminate

the existing power distance between directors and subordinates by creating committees that symbolize the egalitarian spirit among all members of the organization.

Latin American workers love to be in relationships and they avoid conflicts at the workplace. This is prime positive aspect of Latin American management style.

Collective Spirit There is the importance of personal

relationships. Latin Americans expect to be treated with courtesy and kindness while at work.

Executives know that the survival of their organizations depends more on social and governmental relationships than on any support they get from the country’s financial system.

Collective Spirit Popular celebrations play a major role in the

workplace, including religious behavior, as noted earlier.

Latin American people have sense of loyalty towards the primary group.

.

The Importance of Social StatusSocial relationships and physical appearance

can explain the cultural content of the glass ceiling in Latin American companies.

In Chilean companies, executive selection and promotion generally reflect physical appearance, age and sex, in addition to social contacts, birthplace and other factors.

The Importance of Social StatusThe family is equally important when

promotion is involved.

Employees generally put the well-being of their families ahead of their professional careers, especially Latin American women.

Latin American corporate training and development divisions suffer significant internal conflict when it comes time to provide more advanced business training.

The Importance of Social StatusIn Mexico, work is considered an obligation

and way to enjoy the important things in life, including family. If Mexicans had a choice, they would not work.

They recognize the loyalty of workers, they organize ceremonies to honor the seniority.

Color of skin affects not only social status but

also helps in getting job or promotion.

Teamwork, Subcontracting and Geographical Mobility

According to the study, Latin American culture “tends to favor the development of teamwork.”

Employees value social relationships based on personal communication and empathy, concepts that are essential to teamwork.

It is not easy to make this work, because power sharing and decentralization run against the grain of such Latin American cultural values as centralization and organizational hierarchy.

Teamwork, Subcontracting and Geographical MobilitySharing responsibility for decision-making

has other advantages. It allows companies to resolve conflicts and confrontations.

Latin Americans traditionally accept the sort of manager who acts as a mediator between parties in a conflict. “That style may well be necessary, given the dynamics involved when working in groups,”

Teamwork, Subcontracting and Geographical MobilityModern approaches to organizing work may

wind up failing in Latin America because of historic rivalries between management and labor during the region’s industrialization process.

Foreign investment threatens local employment. Whenever that happens, Latin America’s sense of nationalism surges, along with its sense of unity that provokes “the desire to manufacture higher-quality products and use technology more efficiently

Teamwork, Subcontracting and Geographical MobilityLatin American executives push for their

companies to expand beyond borders, and they take responsible positions outside their homelands. However, most executives prefer to stay close to their nuclear families.

A senior executive of Coca Cola América Latina explained, “Because of personality and culture, Latin Americans generally lack the flexibility they need.

Teamwork, Subcontracting and Geographical MobilityIn the United States, families get together

only once a year, at Thanksgiving. In Mexico and Brazil, families see each other every Sunday.”

Communication within a typical Latin American organization has a hierarchical and vertical structure in which “information generally flows from above, down to the bottom,” says the study. Managers impose those barriers.

THANKS FOR LISTENING