Live & fight another day!

Having time to spare over a long weekend, I watched Kathryn Bigelows 'Hurt Locker', once again and noticed a few nuances that I had missed earlier.The dark underbelly of battle is there to see but one gets to watch the how war touches the everyday lives of people in its perimeter and by default those connected to the front line actors.

Staff Sgt.William James, is a man possessed with a passion for his job, that can best be described as dedication beyond the call of duty, but does that entail or give him the right to disregard safety protocol of his bomb squad and endanger his team? Does it give him the right to distance himself from his family back home.
The movie is a managers delight because it brings in management facets that occur on a regular basis at the workplace.

It is interesting that in high risk jobs, such as being part of a bomb disposal unit, you need people who have a strong conscientious streak in their personality, rather than gung ho cowboys who place, their fellow workers at risk while pursuing personal agendas on the field of Battle.A poignant moment is when he places his team in danger and then risks his life to rescue a captured soldier. Brilliant!

Good organizations select people on attitude, a throw off from their intrinsic personality.People believe that you can teach employees most things if they have the chutzpah and the right attitude.

As William James spends more time on the job, his recklessness grows and he finds that he does not have a life without his profession.On returning home, the mundane jobs, that he does comes as a culture shock and his now 'divorced' wife is not interested in his exploits in Iraq. A classic expatriates tale of woe!

It also brings home the point that high pressure jobs not only lead to burnout but also lend a touch of insanity, which may pass off as skill and bravado.

The irony of the tale, for me, is that Jame's predecessor, who is killed in action, is the epitome of safety and a great team person, while James the quintessential cowboy lives to tell his tale. Napoleon the French emperor is once said to have said ' I don't need good generals, I want lucky ones!'

I can live with that!It is that luck which gives you that second chance to live and fight another day.........

We are the way we are! But is that good?

Yesterday at lunch with friends and extended family I went through a bizarre five minutes. This lady, a geriatric, amidst the lunch, got into a loud & lively conversation with whom I perceived to be a family member of hers on the cell phone. The conversation meandered on & on and left many of us writhing in discomfort, unable to enjoy our meal.

This incident followed, my stop at a traffic signal, where a gentleman in a 'Corolla' quite nonchalantly threw a couple of biscuit wrappers on to the road. Out of curiosity, I maneuvered my car next to his & was surprised to see a well dressed gent of about 65!

Some people tend to speak with an increased volume when they want to demonstrate authority, make a point or simply show friendship. It is not unusual for a superior to raise his voice with his staff or for a group of buddies to be boisterous in an otherwise quiet restaurant. In some offices, employees talk about private matters so loudly on the phone that colleagues can overhear them. For them, a high pitch may convey strength, sincerity or warmth-- values that people cherish. In comparison, a soft voice may imply weaknesses or indecisiveness.

As such, when these people talk loudly in a restaurant, hotel or office, they may not be aware that they are creating noise that might invade other people's space. Some tourist guides have said that what annoys foreigners most is when Indian tourists speak loudly and make noises in public.

Respecting another person's personal or private space is anathema to most Indian's and what till recently was a well kept secret is quite common knowledge as India take centre stage as a nation of importance.Currently, uncouth behaviour including spitting, littering, jumping queues and talking loudly has already stigmatized Indian's both inside and outside of India.

So much so, that the United Kingdom, says that it is going to henceforth teach immigrants to stand in a 'Q'. Culturally, in the UK, people are taught to wait for their turn & they find it very disconcerting when ' a Johnny come lately' wanders in & takes a place ahead of him/her in a 'Q'.

A while ago, the government of China issued an etiquette guide asking Chinese travellers, who number in the millions, to heed common etiquette and hygiene standards while on holiday at home and abroad. There has been empirical evidence that Chinese overseas tourists have improved their behaviour, with less spitting and littering.

Personally, I believe spitting, littering and most other unhygienic habits can be effectively controlled in the next couple of years by government intervention and having public figures as well as schools, chipping in on this aspect.

It is also important that corporates brief their staff on country specific cultures before they send their employees abroad on projects or as long term expatriates.Improving one's Cultural intelligence & Cultural Quotient is very important when heading overseas.It could be the difference between expat failure & success and how your bottom line looks..........

Has Atlas Shrugged?

Dubai Poised for Massive Financial Crash, is the talk of the town. The proverbial 'Atlas' has shrugged bringing down much of Dubai's over priced real estate.The price for unbridled capitalism, as taught by Ayn Rand and practised by her chela Alan Greenspan.

Asset prices in Dubai are forecast to plummet up to 70 percent from to last year's high within the next six months. Moody's estimates that Dubai's debt totals around US$100 billion, with around $25 billion insolvent. State-owned investment firm Dubai World has said it will not sell off its assets at rock-bottom prices simply to repay its debts, but if the financial situation worsens, it may have no other choice. Bloomberg on Monday forecast that Dubai will have to abandon its dream of becoming the financial hub of the Middle East if neighbor Abu Dhabi ends up saving the cash-strapped sheikdom. Not only has Dubai suffered tremendous damage to its financial credibility, but Abu Dhabi will seek to have a significant say in financial matters as a precondition to aid. The Times of London reports that Abu Dhabi already demanded a stake in Emirates Airlines, Dubai's state-owned carrier, in return for financial support years ago. Ian Hay Davison, former chief of the Dubai Financial Services Authority, said, "Dubai will keep its role as a regional center of services in the Middle East, but has come very far from its goal of becoming a financial center like New York."

englishnews@chosun.com / Dec. 01, 2009 13:12 KST

I follow the fortunes of Dubai rather closely because I helped build, the Palm Islands & The World off Dubai.( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lXclgws7n8) The tragedy is that these amazing feats of marine engineering now flounder as the real estate bubble has burst in Dubai. To me the case of Dubai,is the classic case of hype & hoopla over substance. We see it time and again but never seem to learn. Dubai, not many years ago was a camel herders den, with little or no resources to boast about. As the oil economy boomed it became the play ground for the rich Arab from oil rich countries.Then came the real estate boom, which had no foundation. During my stay at Dubai, I rarely saw an Arab work, except in the immigration, custom's and police. The real work came from expats from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and UK.Much of the time expats, particularly from South Asian countries were treated very poorly.Arabs would venture out in their swanky cars, post sunset & head straight for the air conditioned shopping malls. Economies are not built by other people's sweat. They are built by in house skill and hard work, consistently over years. Sustainability comes from solid foundations and careful planning. I think this applies to both the material as well as the living world and is not a flash in the pan.This would be the case with careers too. Career building is an art and not something that happens overnight.If you are looking for a great future it is imperative that your hands get grubby today. No short cuts my friends. So when the going gets tough, hang in there and ride the wave. That is what is character. What about the Arab's? Like a friend of mine said, they can always sell 'Camel burgers'............... As for Ayn Rand and her Atlas Shrugged, trash them.( Watch the video http://themessthatgreenspanmade.blogspot.com/2009/02/dubai-real-estate-crash.html )

The Expatriate

An aspect that many HR practitioners ignore is the way they deal with Expatriate workers- their own or from another nation working for their organization.

Expatriate workers are a different kettle of fish, as dealing with them transcends normal HR activity that a firm would undertake.

A case in point is the recent brouhaha that has been created by the diktat that the MEA has issued, regarding Chinese workers, in India working on business visas.

The Chinese have been working on major power projects all over North India and this step has resulted in all of them leaving India jeopardizing the project, leaving the project contractors scratching their collective heads. The projects are in critical stages of construction using Chinese equipment, extensively and replacing these workers is difficult and expensive.

While the political situation in a country does not effect normal HR activity it does impinge upon International HR and if you as a manager deals with expats then it would be prudent to keep your ear to the ground.

Another example, is the police in Ahmadabad, asking people on business visas, who have overstayed, to leave the country. This has hit many of the upmarket hotels in the city.

"This is rather rude and a very short notice. We are not sure what to do now," said a US national, who has been living in Ahmadabad for the past two years.

According to sources, the Centre has decided to stop misuse of business visas by expats for employment. "Employment visa applications are examined thoroughly while business

"Employment visa has a limit of six months and requires constant monitoring by the employer. Business visas have much relaxed norms and can be issued for up to one year and can be extended by another six months," said an immigration official.

The impact of the notice has also been felt in other cities as well. Foreign nationals were vacating hotels in Surat.I can imagine the confusion, because when at Van Oord, I would put up with colleagues from Holland at the Taj and travel to Hazira Port not too far way. Three, four and five-star hotels have been instructed to ask such foreign nationals to vacate rooms at the earliest.

While that may the case in India, on occasions Indian workers live and work abroad in terrible conditions, particularly in many middle eastern nations as well as nations like the Maldives, where the schism between expats and locals is widening and at times resulting in violence.

Unfortunately as HR Managers, many of us miss out the International part and we do so at our own peril, in what is a globalized world................