GLOBALISATION OF BUSINESS, Syed Sajid [reading in the dark .txt] 📗

managers and management teams in internationalization processes: cultural analyses and evaluations, cross-cultural teambuilding, post-merger adaptation of corporate cultures, expatriate training and integration, diversity programs, conflict resolution processes, integration of refugees and immigrants.
Human House has extensive experience from the Public sector, including the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from large global companies such as IBM and Novo Nordisk. Based in Denmark, Human House is active all over Scandinavia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Russia, Ukraine, and Latin America. Working languages are Danish, Swedish and Norwegian, English, Spanish and Polish.

ITAP East Africa

Organisational Development Consultants Limited (ODCL), based in Nairobi, Kenya, enables individuals, groups, and organizations to be more capable of driving and managing change and becoming more effective. It enables them to identify what change needs to happen, how it will be implemented, and who leads and controls it.
ODCL is a competence centre focusing on intercultural training, teambuilding and leadership development including governance, CSR and related areas with a physical platform in Nairobi. The programmes are run by consultants and facilitators who combined have many years experience in all sectors of the economy spanning public and private sector, civil society and the NGO world.
ODCL is the result of a partnership between two organizations, Human House A/S of Denmark, and Twalib Ebrahim Hazara & Associates (TEH Associates) of Kenya. TEH Associates operates in Kenya and across Africa.

ITAP France

KD Conseil, located in Paris, France, provides clients with a wide range of intercultural expertise and experience through their global network of international, multilingual trainers, consultants and coaches. Their areas of expertise include Cross Cultural Skills Development, Management Training, Multicultural Team Building and Executive Coaching.

ITAP Germany

TWIST Consulting Group - specializes in National and International Staff Development. They are an international and cross-culturally competent team of Senior-Consultants and Consultants located in Munich, Germany. Their clients are German as well as international companies - their target groups are their professionals and managers. They conduct psychologically based trainings, organization and team development exercises and coaching as well as Assessment- and Development Centers in German, English, Russian, Chinese, Spanish and French, nationally and internationally.

ITAP India

TASMAC Management Training Resources (TMTR) - specializes in HR training and consulting. They help organizations perform more effectively by optimizing their people potential. In addition to a large client base in India, they now partner with their international associates to deliver training and consulting to their Fortune 500 clientele in India. TMTR is comitted to working with its clients to build high performing teams, professional leadership and strategic processes using seasoned, experienced professionals and the finest organisational diagnostic tools available. As a solutions provider in the business of motivating and mentoring high-growth individuals, teams and companies to maximise their performance, TMTR has worked with top Indian corporate houses.
ITAP South Africa

Siyeluleka and their associates have extensive experience in the field of individual and organisational research and assessment, organisational development and transformation, training and facilitation, strategic planning, teambuilding, coaching and mentorship, and project management both in the private and public sectors.
Interventions are based on the results of individual and organisational assessment and research rather than on generalised approaches. Siyeluleka is committed to the growth of individuals and organisations and gives attention to developing potential and sharing knowledge

ITAP South Korea

ITAP Asia Pacific is located in Seoul, South Korea and headed by a management team with significant business experience in both Belgium and Korea. Their working languages are English, French and Korean. They have extensive experience in multi-office international operations and cross-cultural consulting. Saehi Han, President of ITAP Asia-Pacific, is the Practice Director for ITAP's Outsourced and Start-Up HR practice.
ITAP's unique software, e-StrategyMapper, developed in Korea, assists clients in creating a strategy map for their business or division. This software also help manage the strategy implementation/action plans through the use of a Balanced Scorecard approach. In addition, ITAP Asia-Pacific offers clients a Change Management Tracking System to help identify whether cultural impediments to change are strong or weak. This information help companies know where specific cultural emphasis is needed to succeed in their change efforts.

ITAP Spain

Schubert Consulting S.L. (SCSL) is a Spanish company based in Barcelona and working throughout Spain. It comprises a team of experienced consultants and coaches specialized in the development of individuals and organizations in transition.
Its main expertise lies in organizational and intercultural consulting. Their services span many of the most important aspects of organizational consulting with emphasis on cross cultural issues within companies and multi-cultural teams, expatriate integration and management development.
They support companies in their search for improved methods to lead their human resources in an environment of continuous change and throughout all phases of transition. In these activities SCSL see themselves involved in the human element of organizational change and in performing key roles as cross-cultural facilitators working with teams as well as individuals.
SCSL has co-operated with ITAP Europe and ITAP International on projects both within Spain and other countries of the EU. Their working languages are English, Spanish, French and German
ITAP UK

Based in the UK, Kimball Consulting Ltd (KCL)’s consultants offer extensive experience, highly-developed expertise, and broad-based competence in the art of providing effective, value-added and cost-effective consultancy across the range on international HRM, HRD and OD issues. KCL’s consultants support each other to ensure powerful and effective support for clients, in the belief that KCL’s clients deserve the best.
KCL believes that there is little in today's business world that exists in glorious isolation, particularly when dealing with people and the dynamic markets in which they operate. That is why KCL looks at HR issues as integral to the business, in direct relation to the customer, and as a set of integrated mechanisms, processes, products and ideas that need to be appreciated as a functioning whole.
USA - MDB Group Inc.

As the originator of the Business-Aligned® diversity and inclusion strategy, MDB Group, Inc. helps its clients improve profitability, attain key business results, and manage reputation through diversity, inclusion, and intercultural competence.
The firm applies practical, proven diversity and inclusion planning models and technologies to build the workforce and workplace that will deliver the business results its clients need.
Its principals have personally led major corporate diversity initiatives, coached executives, held P&L responsibility, and done product development and R&D. They are expert at aligning diversity and inclusion initiatives with business priorities. They also know how to manage expectations and measure results.
Located in the United States, MDB Group's client base includes Fortune 100, Fortune 500, and small to mid-size companies as well as not-for-profit organizations in many different industries, including: technology, consumer products, financial services, insurance, energy, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, food service, and education.
Collaboration in a Virtual Team Environment: A Case Study in Planning the ASTD/AHRD 2001 Future Search Conference

Authors: Gary L. May, Teresa J. Carter and Jennifer D. Dewey
Abstract: This case study explores the learning outcomes for the virtual team that planned the 2001 Future Search Conference for ASTD and AHRD. Team members completed the Global Process Team Questionnaire (GTPQ) and participated in interviews to determine effectiveness factors in team design, individual inputs, and process criteria. Results indicate that pre-existing relationships established trust in the virtual environment and supported the workload according to individual talents and interests. Motivated by intrinsic rewards of publishing, learning, and colleagueship, team members invested considerable personal time in the project. Highly effective leadership distributed among the geographically dispersed team members provided organizing techniques, including pre-sent teleconference agendas, summarizing documents, and extensive E-mail exchanges. Implications for HRD include the desirability of volunteer membership, the necessity of strong and distributed team leadership, and the effectiveness of organizing strategies for successful virtual collaboration via E-mail and teleconference.

Keywords: Virtual Team Environment, Collaborative Learning, Future Search Conference
Research Methodology: Case Study

This case study explores collaboration in a virtual team environment for the nine members who planned and organized the 2001 Future Search Conference that was sponsored by the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) and the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD) in Orlando, Florida. A Future Search Conference is a large group strategic planning process that brings together key stakeholders in an attempt to get the "whole system" in the room to envision a desired future for a task of vital importance to an organization or community (Weisbord, 1992; Weisbord & Janoff, 2000).

In February 2001, the ASTD Research-to-Practice Committee, composed of a mix of practitioners, consultants, and academics, met to develop a conceptual outline for a Future Search conference to inform the HRD profession of the future of workplace learning and performance. The execution of the project was assigned to a team of volunteer ASTD members, dubbed the Future Search Steering Group (FSSG). This team, with the assistance of a Future Search facilitator, had four months to put together the conference without benefit of a face-to-face meeting. The conference was successful and currently serves as the foundation for continuing work within ASTD and AHRD. This case study describes the experiences of the FSSG team and provides useful lessons on collaboration in a virtual environment.
Problem Statement
Very little formal research has explored the effectiveness of virtual teams (Furst, Blackburn, & Rosen, 1999), even though trends towards globalization and enhancements in communication technology have made virtual teaming an integral part of most small group work (Katzenbach & Smith, 2001). Different time, space, and culture factors add to the complexity of collaboration in a virtual environment (Duarte & Snyder, 2001; Fisher & Fisher, 2001). In addition to these factors, the Future Search planning team was composed primarily of volunteers, an aspect of team participation that has received little or no attention in the research literature.
Theoretical Framework
There have been a number of theoretical frames applied to explain the functioning and effectiveness of teams, including developmental stages (Tuckman, 1965), punctuated equilibrium (Gersick, 1988),social exchange theory (Hollender, 1978), and process structuration theory (Giddens, 1984). One theoretical model, the Team Effectiveness Leadership Model or TELM (Ginnett, 1996; Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 1999), has been developed specifically to examine the variables impacting team effectiveness in a business context. Figure 1 provides a diagram adapted from the TELM model.

Based on the work of Richard Hackman (1990) and refined through field research at the Center for Creative Leadership, the TELM model uses a general systems theory approach in the study of teams. In a simplified version of Ginnett's (1996) model, individual, team, and organizational factors identified as inputs to the system are displayed on the left in Figure 1. Process or throughputs (i.e. what one can tell about the team by actually observing the team members at work) occupy the center of the model; and outputs (i.e. how well the team did in accomplishing its objectives) are shown on the right side of the figure.

In this case study, we limit our focus on only those factors in the model that our experience can illuminate: two input factors (team design factors and individual inputs) and team process factors. These three areas are highlighted in bold in Figure 1 to illustrate the focus of our inquiry.

The reasons for this limited focus are twofold: first, the organization inputs for a volunteer team of this nature were minimal: We had no organizationally sponsored control systems, including reward, education, or information systems other than international dialing access for teleconference calls. Five core members of the steering group and the Future Search facilitator who assisted them were geographically dispersed volunteers, including one member located in London; three other steering group members worked directly or indirectly for ASTD in the Washington, D. C. area. The six unpaid volunteers contributed more than two-thirds of the time, effort, and energy that resulted in a successful conference. Team leadership came from within the volunteer membership of