Continuing our global working video competition ‘meet the judges’ posts, offering a deeper insight into why we chose our expert panel of judges and what they’re looking for. Today: student representative, Alan Hall

Alan Hall, competition judge

Can you introduce yourself to readers in one sentence:

My name is Alan Hall and I am reading Management with Marketing at Exeter University.

What made you agree to be a judge for the global working video competition?

My course deals a lot with the effects and implications of global working in the business environment. I read a lot about theories and what people have written about how others work in global situations. However, t will be interesting to see other peoples points of view and see how they analyze and would overcome those challenges.

What’s been your own experience of global working?

A lot of my modules have included assessed group work and, with there being a lot of international students at my university, I faced a lot of the problems which I presume would be evident in a global business. There were issues that related to language, miscommunication, culture, and for example if a Chinese student went home for a weekend we would need to find a suitable time to liaise with them despite the time differences. It has been a really challenging but interesting experience.

IF you were allowed to enter (and you’re not – you’re a judge!) what would your own entry look at?

Read the rest of this entry »

Nov 16 2011

Our international team of training consultants travel to our customer’s choice of location so that, overall, travel for our clients is minimized and costs held low.

And as companies are rarely on one continent, just being based in a region doesn’t mean you’ll always find our team there. So if you want to catch our senior consultants, where will you find them this week?

Let’s start with Europe, where unusually we find most of the team this week.

CEO, Kevan Hall is working  in Milan, Italy, this week.Much to the amusement of his colleagues Kevan will be working with a fashion company - his namesake is the fashion designer Kevan Hall.

Also in Southern Europe, you may like to catch up with Tony Poots or Phil Stockbridge in Barcelona, Spain, whilst they are there.

John Bland can be found in Luxembourg (officially officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, apparently), TH Ong is training teams in Paris, France, and Rod Farnan will be in London, England.

Outside of Europe, in the UAE (United Arab Emirates),  Tim Mitchell will be in Dubai,  and Robyn Green is in Montreal, Canada.

They won’t all be there all week, but if you would like to catch up with any of them whilst they are in your city/country, please contact your closest Global Integration office or reach out to them directly: their contact details can found through our training consultants profile pages.

For your chance to win $15,000 (or £10,000 or 12, 000 Euros) visit our Global Working Video Competition.

Nov 14 2011

Continuing with our ‘Matrix Monday’ series, we report back on some of the limited literature available on matrix management. Today we summarise ‘Motivation by project and functional managers in matrix organisations’ by Steven C Dunn (Copyright American Society for Engineering Management, June 2001)

Functional managers within a matrix are normally seen as responsible for managing the well-being of an individual on a project team, while project managers are normally seen as responsible for managing project objectives, with little responsibility to employees’ behavioural needs. This study wanted to test whether this clear delineation actually exists or whether project managers do have some influence over the higher-level needs of an employee.

The research investigated and compared the relationships between project manager and project team and functional manager and project team, using  ’motivation-hygiene’ factors developed by psychologist Frederick Herzberg to address job satisfaction. It examined how employees are influenced by functional and project managers and the data surveyed 222 individuals in 18 matrix organisations.

Although differences existed between organisations and depended upon the amount of time spent in project work, the study concluded that job satisfaction needs related to work attitudes are being provided for by a combination of functional and project managers.

Generally, it was found that while functional managers are responsible for the ‘factors avoiding job dissatisfaction, ‘hygienes. project managers are responsible for the ‘motivators’ (or factors leading to job satisfaction) – clear evidence that project managers do bear a significant responsibility for the well-being of project team members.

This article is one in our ‘Matrix Monday‘ series. If you have a literature review to contribute, or would like to know more about Global Integration’s matrix training and consultancy, please contact us.

Nov 14 2011

Tim Mitchell, Global Integration - rewarded this year for twelve years service.

Tim Mitchell, Oregon-based training consultant, has recently been awarded his Global Integration long service award. We caught up with him for a sixty second interview:

How did you come to join Global Integration?

Serendipity! I had just moved back to the UK after eleven years in Asia and I’d decided to take a year off. I saw the Global Integration advertisement in the Sunday Times the weekend I left my old role.

Any stand out moments?

My screening interview with Kevan. [ed: Kevan Hall, Global Integration's CEO]

I was wearing a suit, he was dressed in shorts and a floral shirt.

Favourite quote: “Just wanted to make sure you weren’t a pratt.” [ed: Kevan is English - the word is used there to mean idiot. Which, we're pleased to report, Tim turned out not to be.]

How have you found travelling so much and having a relatively young family? What tips would you pass to others to help get the balance right?

Read the rest of this entry »

Nov 11 2011

Continuing our global working video competition ‘meet the judges’ posts, offering a deeper insight into why we chose our expert panel of judges and what they’re looking for. Today: DR. VINAY RAJ MENON

Dr Vinay Raj Menon

Can you introduce yourself to readers in one sentence, please:

I am: a good natured, focused, results-driven professional keen to make a difference in whatever I do with a passion to share my knowledge and experience with my team members and youngsters joining a big global multi-cultural organization like ours.

What persuaded you to agree to judge the global working video competition?

I have worked closely with Global Integration over the past 12 months and have been very impressed with their philosophy, methodology and the courses they deliver.

I have also personally attended some of the sessions and have benefited from the learning. So, when the proposal came to be a judge for this competition, I gladly agreed for three reasons:
a. I wanted to give back something in a small way to Global Integration for being a true partner with us
b. I wanted to use this opportunity to share my experience on ‘working globally’ being a judge and evaluating various entries
c. To learn from the various entries and expand my knowledge base on cultural diversity.

What’s been your own experience of global working?

I have had the wonderful opportunity to work in a truly global company – today, we at Cognizant are in five different continents, have 50 different development centers (across 15 cities and nine different countries) across the globe – and I have had the opportunity to visit and experience diverse cultures.

Today, I also manage a distributed team (based out of North America, Argentina and India) servicing our associates across North America, Argentina, Brazil, UK, Continental Europe and India and it has been a wonderful experience thus far.

What will you be looking for in the entries you judge?

I am interested in the truly global nature of today’s workforce, cultural diversity, the drivers that motivate teams to stay continuously engaged, and how cultural diversity challenges are overcome.

Ed: We think it only fair to add about Vinay that he’s also very modest about his achievements in Cognizant where he spurred the Cognizant Academy outside of India.

Previous meet the judges posts: T.H. Ong

Nov 08 2011

Power struggles in a matrix organization require control mechanisms

Today we continue the ‘Matrix Monday’ series, recommending on-line reading resources on matrix management . Please do contact us, either through the website or using the comments box below, to suggest submissions of your own. We’ll share on Twitter using the hastag #matmo.

This week we look at Changing Power Balance in Matrix organisations: A thesis, by Nursen Saracoglu (Faculty of Business, The University of Technology, Sydney, January 2009)

This paper relates to a published thesis. It asserts that in a matrix organization, where pressures may come from multiple authorities, effective power balancing s necessary for improved performance within the project team and organization.

Patterns of power relations configured by a change to the matrix structure have an impact on effectiveness. In order to examine the issue of changing power balance in matrix organizations, the research looked at the validity of political theories of organizations in major international companies with matrix structures.

Saracoglu’s particular focus includes identifying key factors behind the strategic decision in international companies to change the corporate organizational structure to a matrix structure, the weaknesses and strengths of these matrix structures for subsequent organizational performance, the effects of transition to matrix structure on organizational performance, and the factors used to maintain a power balance between divisions.

Read the rest of this entry »

Nov 07 2011

TH Ong, VP, Global Integration

With interest in our global working video competition running high around the globe, today’s post is the start of a series of ‘meet the judges’ posts, offering a deeper insight into why we chose our expert panel of judges and what they’re looking for. First in series: T.H.Ong

Can you introduce yourself to readers  in one sentence, please

I’m a citizen of the world who’s had a nomadic life and career.

 What persuaded you to agree to judge the global working video competition?

I believe I was invited to provide a further global perspective to the judging panel. It will be fun.

What’s been your own experience of global working?

Ethnically Chinese, I was raised in Singapore and lived most of my adult life in the USA.

All of my working ‘lives’  have involved regional and global roles within global companies.

What will you most be looking for in the entries you judge?

I’ll be looking for impact, originality, relevance and universality.

Further details  of the video competition can be found on this site’s  global working video competition pages

Nov 04 2011

Today sees the first ‘Matrix Monday’ on the Global Integration blog.  There is nowhere near enough good material on matrix management available, so that we thought we’d start to share some of the available resources we find, and hope others will do the same – contact us to suggest submissions. We’ll share on Twitter using the hastag #matmo.

The first in this series of article summaries is Matrix management: recipe for chaos? When it works, it works well. When it doesn’t, it’s a fast track to disaster. The strengths of the model appeal to many corporations today, but not all are suited for a matrix structure, by Rita E. Numerof, Michael N. Abrams (Copyright 2002 Directors and Boards), submitted for Matrix Monday by Global Integration CEO, Kevan Hall.

This  short article  introduces matrix management: when the matrix structure should be employed, what its drawbacks are, and the creation of a successful matrix.

The authors summarise three key drivers in evaluating when a matrix is suitable for use:

- complexity of products and services to be delivered

- the customer demand for integrated services

- what organisational pressures exist to reduce cost.

Read the rest of this entry »

Oct 31 2011

Most followers of this blog will be well aware that we have a ‘bit of thing’ about meetings, trying to make them both useful and productive.

So we simply had to share this video when we found it. Enjoy!

Oct 27 2011

The judges for the Global Integration ‘global working’ video competition have been announced. They are:

Jae H. Park,  a professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Yeungnam University, Korea. He has worldwide educational credentials, and consults for, and trains, internationally for many ‘blue chip’ organizations.

US based Dr Vinay RajMenon, a senior manager, learning and levelopment, at Cognizant Technology Solutions (a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services, dedicated to helping the world’s leading companies build stronger businesses).

Our student representative, Alan Hall, a second Year Management & Marketing Student.

And last, but not least, TH Ong and Kevan Hall of Global Integration.

You can find out more about them on the competition pages ‘About the judges’, and as we interview them over the coming weeks:

Oct 27 2011