Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Alfredo Behrens, Professor at FIA, at Vanderbilt University

American Scientific Management spilled over the world as if all people would respond equally, with the same intensity, to the same pecuniary incentives. Perhaps that is wrong, as it seems to be in the Samba Schools parade. There, people who moonlight for months deliver a world class parade on the date and time agreed to. Yet many among the same people may leave work early after having arrived late at multinationals in Rio de Janeiro. These people, as well as the much admired Che Guevara, President Allende, Acapulco plungers and bullfighters, the list is long, do what they do but earnestly enough, but not so much for money.

Not only Latin Americans do not seem to be as motivated by money as Americans are, they enter into a work contract where they expect as much protection as they are ready to give in terms of work: all-out. But modern employment limits protection by excluding parents from work-related health coverage. This limit sends the wrong signal to workers feel shortchanged, leading to lack of engagement which translated into low productivity.

Part 1:



Anglophones lead mostly for the Coyotes and see Courage as its primary driving virtue. On the other hand, Latin Americans root mostly for the Road Runner and see Temperance and Humanity as its most driving virtue, and they also tell us they do not like to be led by Coyotes. But because it is at the headquarters of multinationals where the appointments are made, they will tend to prefer like-minded individuals to run subsidiaries in Latin American, who will like to be Coyote rooters, much to the chagrin of those who root for the Road Runner.

Part 2:



You may find much of this argument at Harvard Business Review's blog who chose to distribute this in August 27th of 2009.

Alfredo Behren's book, Culture and Management in the Americas, by Stanford University Press, is now available here!

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