TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT page 2
THE BODY
TEAM BUILDING PROCESS IN ASIA AND THE US pages 3-8
OPPORTUNITIES OF WOMEN IN BUSINESS ENTERPRISES pages 9-17
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION pages 18-19
REFERENCES
TEAM BUILDING PROCESS IN ASIA AND THE US pages 20-21
OPPORTUNITIES OF WOMEN IN BUSINESS ENTERPRISES pages 21-23
ABSTRACT
On the first part of the assignment topic, there provides a thorough emphasis on the discussion as well as analysis of team building approaches between Asia and the United States as managers of both regions should recognize that they play a central role in effective team building as managers in Asian countries and the US believes that in order to be successful in adopting team approaches, managers require a framework to guide their activity process that can guide managers in their team-building efforts as it will ensure team success Asian managers are more direct in their goals and decisions as compared to US managers as they apply several paradigms in better response to globalization, changes in external environments and the desire of the organizations to remain competitive, organizations have continued to decentralize their business processes and empower their employees, US and Asian managers play a critical role in maintaining a team climate through their daily activities, team building must be an ongoing activity internal to the organization. The second part of the assignment involves opportunities for women in business enterprises as women is considered to have a more stable personality in dealing business and keep it growing through the years, as there are several online sources that emphasizes the crucial function and role of women in business enterprises as of today’s generation and that women empowerment is visible most in handling serious business situations that women can do right over men. Women have the opportunity to expand their knowledge and skills for the business in a short span of time and that they have the capacity to change something into a great success having the right initiative to serve the people and the society in the world of business.
THE BODY
TEAM BUILDING PROCESS IN ASIA AND THE US
Team building process in the US and Asia are quite similar but in a way different in terms of its approaches and how such team managers handle every situation like for instance, the Hong Kong Chinese managers in US firms and American managers in HK firms towards supervisory, peer, subordinate and multi-source appraisal of executive performance. Furthermore, both HK/US and US/US managers are more supportive of subordinate evaluation than peer evaluation. There indicate that the traditional Chinese values may be more congruent with the notion of supervisory appraisal than with peer and subordinate evaluation within the importance of the compatibility of norms and beliefs regarding team building practice with the local national cultures in determining the acceptance and hence the transferability of that practice across the countries ( 1995). Moreover, during the time when Japanese manufacturing firms in a number of industries-including autos, electronics and machinery achieved high levels of international competitiveness, Japanese manufacturing practices-particularly those associated with just-in-time manufacturing (JIT)-have attracted considerable attention in North America. ( 1995) Transfer to the United States of JIT is characterized by special production management practices involving inventory and quality control, industrial relations and supplier-manufacturer relationships. (, 1995)
For instance, the Building America Program where systems-engineering approaches are used to hasten the development and adoption of innovative building processes and technologies (1996). The program is aimed at bringing together builders, product manufacturers and the research community in producing energy-efficient, environment-friendly, affordable and adaptable residences on a community scale. The US teams are accelerating home-building energy innovations by using a comprehensive, systems-engineering approach that provides direct testing and evaluation of the cost and performance benefits. As in Asia the teams are evaluating innovative design and delivery strategies, building materials and construction systems, faster development and adoption of new technologies like in Japan and Malaysia. ( 1996) The U.S. team administration will face opportunities and challenges in re-orienting U.S. diplomacy according to some new concepts its official espouse. The Asia-Pacific region is still in transition from a Cold War bipolar structure to a regional system whose structures and parameters are not yet fully defined. In the main, as globalization replaces the Cold War, economic relations have supplanted strategic dimensions as the main priority in relations between states (1993).
Appropriate diplomacy now could enable a regional security architecture and institutional structure to emerge and secure greater stability for some time. Team building is still intact in both Asia and the US that has form a more classic regional inter-state system in which each pursues its own interests within the confines established by the advantages of membership of the system and other governments with officials whose careers were first forged during that contest, including the United States from other geographical systems is that there is little by way of a generalized regional security architecture. ( 1993) The exceptions to this generalization are limited in either geographic or functional cope. Coupled with other relationships, this has led to a growth in commitments to team building measures and to reassure other states about military intentions, dialogues about difficult issues and diplomatic exchanges, and even regular summit meetings to provide government-to-government contacts (1997). This provides a picture of a United States which is likely to be more committed to: free trade and a liberal economy; the use of military power only to pursue direct U.S. national interests; a reduced inclination to act multilaterally; and a lesser inclination to use U.S. power for systemic purposes depicted in Albright’s phrase, “the indispensable nation” ( 1997). The new officials are less ideological, less liberal, a trifle more isolationist and rhetorically more realist. The United States, it seems, is more interested in those inside its tent than outside. In this mood, it may well expect friends and allies to do more as it has already made clear which seems likely to respond and which will not.
In both Asia and the US, ( 1997) both regions believe that, managers must recognize that they play a central role in the effective team building and in order for the process to be successful, managers require a framework to guide their activities in the form of a seven-step process that can guide managers in their team-building efforts and built upon the assumption that there are identifiable team characteristics that will help ensure team success for the selection and sequencing of team-building efforts and interventions that requires considerable planning and environmental knowledge to successfully implement. ( 1997) In response to globalization, rapid changes in external environments and a desire by organizations to remain competitive, organizations have continued to flatten, decentralize, re-engineer their business processes, downsize and empower their employees. To facilitate these changes and gain a competitive edge, managers are increasingly turning to team structures (1999).The actual team design used to support organizational goals may include such structures as cross functional teams, functional work teams, project teams, self-managed teams, intact work teams, employee participation teams, problem-solving teams, maintenance or support teams, and management teams. (, 1999) As (1997 p. 35) indicate that in the United States, 82 percent of companies employing more than 100 employees have turned to the use of groups to support organizational goals in isolation from each other but work in team.
Managers play a critical role in maintaining a team climate through their daily activities, team building must be an ongoing activity internal to the organization. As such, it should be made one of the manager’s primary responsibilities, instead of the responsibility of an external teambuilding third party within the organization (1999). The key to creating an effective new, temporary team is balance in the attributes of team members, and the presence of needed resources to achieve stated goals. For example, in problem solving and implementation teams, managers must make sure that critical managers with power are selected as members. ( 1999) Furthermore, given the complexity and uniqueness of most business environments, and the interrelationships between team characteristics, it would be administratively unsound to attempt a broad-based intervention without considering how best to proceed; in other words: which deficiencies should be addressed first and what would be the appropriate sequence of subsequent interventions? Managers should therefore develop and consider a number of decision criteria that would help them address the issues of setting priorities and sequencing. (, 1999) The role that managers play in building effective teams within Asia and the US territory in the attempt to provide some structure to this complex and demanding process and to help guide managers who recognize the need to build an effective team within their units as built on the assumption that there are identifiable team characteristics that will help ensure team success, the reaction was that team management process would never work in Asia, the culture was unsuited for participative methods in cultures dominated by more authoritarian and rigid organizational structures which were proving their viability by great success and growth ( , 2001).
However, there were many changes in Asian business, which underlie the success that Asian companies are now having with team management such as: (, 2001).
Ø The growth of the global economy
Ø Increased business environment Complexity
Ø Increased turnover and labor market shortages
Ø The need to develop local staff rather than relying on short term expatriate staff
Ø The trend towards specialization
Ø Intra and extra-regional mobility
The successful manager cannot be expected to have a monopoly on knowledge and wisdom and that the successful manager of the next century must be first and foremost a skilled manager of teams, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of his people and turning a group of individuals into a team (, 1998). This is as true in Asia as for any other region. There is no better way to motivate teams and improve the process than use the objective instruments that have been developed expressly for this purpose and for recruitment, selection and organizational circle (1998).
OPPORTUNITIES OF WOMEN IN BUSINESS ENTERPRISES
Online Sources:
The above online sources serve as a good resource site for discussing as well as explaining the opportunities of women in business enterprises as it involves researched based articles with regards to the influence and importance of women power in the world of business processes respectively. ( , 1984) The sources have stats on women in business that points out that as of the year 2005, there are an estimated 10.1 million majority-owned, privately-held, women-owned firms in the U.S., employing 18.2 million people and generating .32 trillion in sales. Women-owned businesses account for 28 percent of all businesses in the United States and represent about 775,000 new startups per year and account for 55 percent of new startups. Between 1997 and 2002, it is estimated that the number of women-owned firms increased by 14 percent nationwide twice the rate of all firms. (, 1984)
Meanwhile, the overall number of firms in the United States grew by only 9 percent. Women’s business ownership is up among all groups, but the number of Hispanic (up 63.9 percent) and Asian owned firms (69.3 percent) has grown especially fast. An estimated one in five (21 percent) women-owned businesses are owned by women of color. 84.8 percent of all businesses owned by women are sole proprietorships. Women-owned businesses are as financially sound and creditworthy as the typical firm in the U.S. economy, and are more likely to remain in business than the average U.S. firm. Since 1987, the number of women-owned firms in the U.S. has doubled, employment has increased four-fold and their revenues have risen five-fold. Between 1997 and 2002, the number of women-owned businesses with more than 100 employees rose by 44 percent. Women hold 13.6 percent of board seats at Fortune 500 companies. ( 1984) Women comprise 46.6 percent of the U.S. labor force, 50 percent of the managerial and professional specialty positions. Women-owned firms continue to diversify across industries, with the fastest growth rates seen in nontraditional industries, including construction, agricultural services and transportation. (, Center for Women’s Business Research, Business Women’s Network and the Dynamics of Women-Owned Sole Proprietorships) There were also alliances for women in business such as the American Business Women’s Association that has joined forces to other alliances in order to assist Women Business Owners. This alliance is a benchmark for SCORE by signaling our strong ongoing commitment to women in business (, 1997).
Through this alliance, SCORE and ABWA will expand the outreach of small business training, women’s networking and the availability of information and tools on starting and running a successful business. This alliance with ABWA, a leading women’s business organization, will enable SCORE to make strides in recruiting more women counselors, expanding services to women in business and in improving networking and local programs between SCORE and ABWA. In the early 1990s, when companies were scrambling to keep up with rapidly changing technology, noticed an unmet need for independent information technology contractors. At the time she was thinking about starting a family, but her job in sales for a Fortune 500 firm left little time for the demands of new motherhood. So carved out a dual solution in the form of Connect, a Littleton, Colorado-based IT staffing company she founded with partner . The business allows the two women the flexibility they crave while providing them with an outlet for their entrepreneurial drive ( 1997).
In the years, Connect has grown to a .8 million business ( 1997)
Ø The number of women-owned businesses in this country grew at twice the rate of all firms between 1997 and 2002, jumping 14 percent to 6.2 million, according to the Center for Women’s Business Research
Ø Women-owned businesses account for 28 percent of all privately-owned businesses, and employ 9.2 million people. They contribute .38 trillion in revenue to the U.S. economy, according to the .
Thus, many women feel frustrated by the restraints and the glass ceiling of corporate America as they feel like stepping out of that structure but, women-owned businesses have attracted the attention of American corporations, many of which seek them out as vendors under supplier diversity programs. Some companies take this interest a step further by developing programs specifically designed to nurture women as business owners (, 2000). Henceforth, women have a different management style than do men as they are less hierarchical, more deliberate in their decisions and are more collaborative than men. Women tend to view their business holistically and not only see where it’s heading, but are patient about how to get it there with women, the power is from the center out and they show that businesses can make it at a slow and steady pace. Ever since, conditions are lining up to help these women succeed, including corporations being ever more eager to work with women-owned companies, the future for the woman entrepreneur seems very bright indeed. ( 1984) provides marketing programs and consulting to companies targeting the small business market. SCORE is a nonprofit, public service organization dedicated to helping entrepreneurs succeed as small business owners. (2000)
Following are tips to help women business owners succeed: (1998).
DON’T UNDERVALUE YOURSELF
Women tend to give away too much and charge too little such as those in service-based businesses and suggest that women in the service industry adopt value-based fees, rather than hourly
REMEMBER WHY YOU STARTED YOUR OWN COMPANY
Women can quickly lose site of their desire to have a balanced life in the face of a demanding new business to stop and weigh the value of the task at the moment against her personal needs
NETWORK, BUT IN A WAY YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH
Many people who go into business for themselves flock to networking groups because they believe it’s the smart thing to do but depending on your personality and preferences, these groups may not be the best forum for networking
DON’T FORGET YOU ARE RUNNING A BUSINESS
Piling on the work/life benefits won’t do anyone any good if doing so cuts too deeply into the company’s bottom line and how to create a culture that is attentive to the individual and allows you to still make it as a business
DON’T BE AFRAID TO PROMOTE YOURSELF
If your business is to thrive, you must market yourself and take credit for your achievements. If you don’t market your business, no one will know what you have to offer
Moreover, minority and women owned business enterprises may compete for any contract either as a prime contractor outside of the MBE/WBE process and without certification. For larger contracts where MBE/WBE firms are available and capable of performing subcontracting work, the MTA will establish a goal for MBE/WBE participation. Contractors will be seeking to meet their MBE/WBE goals by hiring certified MBE/WBE firms. (, 2004) For firms seeking MBE/WBE subcontracts, you must be certified by the Empire State Development Corporation
To obtain information on becoming certified in New York State as a minority or woman-owned business contact:
Empire State Development Corporation
Division of Minority and Women’s Business Development
To see the Empire State Development’s Certified Minority & Women-Owned Business Directory on the Internet, visit their Business Assistance Services, Division of Minority and Women’s Development Page and follow the links to the MBE/WBE Directory.
Women made up nearly 51 percent of the total U.S. population in 1999. The gap between men’s and women’s shares of work and ownership is closing: women represent 46 percent of the labor force and 37 percent of the self-employed. Women’s incomes and business ventures remain smaller than those of men. Evidence has shown that the ownership of a business is one of the most effective means of improving the financial well-being of women. ( 1984) While the number of women-owned businesses has increased considerably in recent years, women’s share of business income remains relatively small. The level of women’s involvement in business management and decision making is approaching that of men’s, yet their personal earnings remain far below men’s. (, 1984) A number of socioeconomic aspects of women in business have also been examined in this report. Women first entered the labor force in greater numbers, then exercised increasing decision making in the business world, then started their own businesses in large numbers. According to recent statistics, women are starting small businesses at twice the rate of men and women-owned enterprises now account for 25 percent of all small businesses. Survival rates are comparable to those of male-owned ventures (, 1990). It should be useful to gain a better understanding of the factors that explain the success of these ventures. Previous research suggests that success of an enterprise is a function of the “fit” between seven strategic elements: shared values, strategies, structures, systems, staff, skills and styles. The strategic fit is determined by the organizational properties of the enterprise and the external environment in which it functions regarding the nature of strategic management in successful women-owned enterprises (WOEs). ( 1990)
For example, many writers have concluded that women entrepreneurs behave differently from men and that several factors unique to women determine their success or failure. The implication is that women enter business for different reasons than male entrepreneurs and that their personality characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses as business leaders are different. The feminine mode suggests that women behave differently as entrepreneurs and managers. As such, strategic management in WOEs would be quite distinct from that seen in a typical successful small firm, and would generally correspond with the previously identified feminine leadership style. In contrast, the entrepreneurial mode is derived from the assumption that female and male leaders are similar. This suggests that female entrepreneurs tend to manage their ventures in much the same way that successful male entrepreneurs do. Corporate women often find themselves excluded from positions of authority and leadership. The reasons are many, one of the most important being the stereotype that they lack leadership qualities. This belief has been shown to be invalid and may be slowly weakening. Nevertheless, it remains widely prevalent among male leaders of business, producing extremely difficult institutional barriers to success. In fact, if the experience of male entrepreneurs relative to male managers is taken to be a guide, then for women, the barriers to entrepreneurship should be far more formidable than those encountered in corporate careers. Women would tend to initiate businesses in sectors which are accepted as being “appropriate” for women, like personal services.
They would start enterprises in fields which require little capital and are service-oriented, such as beauty salons, small grocery stores, gift shops, fabric shops, restaurants and delicatessens and some real estate agencies. Many women entrepreneurs are unsure as to what information systems to use; therefore, financial and operational monitoring would tend to be weak or non-existent and few would institute formal monitoring procedures. (1990) The result is poor control and continued weakness in profitability and resource position. The life-cycles of female-owned business ventures and the strategic management approaches of their owners are said by this group of researchers to follow the same patterns found in all successful ventures. Planning and budgeting are likely to become more crucial, with the entrepreneur increasingly disengaging himself or herself from day to day matters, and paying increasing attention to long-term strategy. Some women find entrepreneurship attractive in order to minimize or to escape social and organizational barriers to success (, 1987). Among the cases studied, actual and potential disenchantment with job opportunities was one of the more important reasons for the individual’s move into business. The owner of a real estate firm, for example, found that her career had reached a dead end in the real estate company where she had been one of the top-rated sales persons. Another female entrepreneur, who started a firm to offer training on employee relations to secretaries and their bosses, also gave job frustration as a reason for starting business. (1987)
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Consequently, when US groups are not achieving desired synergies, it is the manager’s responsibility to identify, those team characteristics likely to have a positive impact on team behavior and change the existing climate so as to remove existing deficiencies. In Asian context, it is important to recognize that research demonstrates a clear link between the presence of positive team characteristics and team effectiveness. Henceforth, women entrepreneurs indicated their possession of aggressiveness, assertiveness, determination, strong leadership behavior, highly developed communication skills and objective and analytical thinking ( 1999). They believed that they possess a set of leadership skills and attributes that include a high level of internal locus of control, autonomy, ambition, energy, responsibility, innovation, and creativity. They indicated a high propensity to take risks and readiness for change, strong social skills such as persuasiveness and a low need for support, a lack of emotionalism and a high level of ability to inspire others. In conclusion, when decisions are made, non-participating managers cannot easily resist. ( 1999) Similarly, managers want to ensure that the required expertise and knowledge exists within the group. This increases the probability of creative problem solving and outcome acceptance by non-members. In the case of intact groups, where the work unit already exists, management is likely to consider a different set of factors.
This happens because team managers do not allow for easy inter-group transfer and typically engage in tasks that are well established. Therefore, managers must find a mechanism to measure the degree to which relevant team characteristics currently exist in a given environment. Anderson and West argue that such information can be used to create team climate surveys, create team climate diagnosis, create team innovativeness, measure team development and for the selection of new team members. Direct observation is a second proven technique that can be useful in assessing an existing group or team climate. It requires managers to spend extended periods of time observing, recording, and assessing pre-identified behavioral dimensions and support behaviors. It is assumed that the observer knows specifically what he or she is looking for and is skilled in observing and recording employee behaviors, it is important to be clear with group members about the purpose of direct observation, e.g., the improvement of an existing group climate and not the assessment of specific individuals.
REFERENCES
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