Australia and Oceania

Australia and Oceania

This module of the subject was about Australia and Oceania , together they compose the fifth largest economy in Asia Pacific and one of the strongest in the world. Foreing Direct Investment is strongly encouraged in Australia. For this, the Australian government keeps offices all around the world looking for potential investors.
Australia capital is Canberra, nowadays it has a total population of 22´000.000. It’s main products exported are diamonds, machinery and equipment. Russia and USA constitute their main economic partners and their main imports products are: natural gas, oil, tobacco.

Society and culture within Australia and Oceania

These are the main facts I found to describe the Australian cultural patterns, taking I count their beliefs, religion, language and other,
· Life Span: Average: 80 years ( men: 77 - women: 83)
· Religion: Anglicans: 26.1%, Catholic Romano: 26%, Christian: 24.3%, Others: 22.6%
· Alphabetization: 100% above 15 years of age
· Government System: Democratic Parliamentary, Federation.
· Important Cities: Sydney , Brisbane , Canterbury, Darebin , Gold coast , Southern Coast , Central Coast , Melbourne, Perth.
· Language: English 78.5%, Chinese 2.5%, Italian 1.6%, Greek 1.3%, Arabic 1.2%, Vietnamese 1%, other 8.2%, unspecified 5.7%
· Ethnic Make-up: Caucasian 92%, Asian 7%, aboriginal and other 1%

Australian people are very direct in the way they communicate, often they use colourful language,when it comes to business, they don’t need long- standing personal relationships before they do business with people. When negotiating they proceed quickly. Bargaining is not normally used. Australian people expect the initial proposal to have only a small margin for negotiation. quite direct and expect the same in return. They appreciate briefness and are not impressed by too much detail, this is because they get down to business quickly with a minimum amount of small talk. For Australian negotiators the Decision-making process must be done at the top of the company, it’s important to mention that decisions are made after consultation with subordinates, which can make decision making slow and extended.

Organizations within south pacific

The most important thing in the mind of an Australian manager (including vice-presidents and CEO’s) is the outcome, they are always focused on it and the performance of the overall process. This is named “performance driven” and it’s the way organizations are managed in the region. This organizational culture is based on results, here members choose to go beyond individual goals with the final outcome in order to align both and create a winner synergy.

According to Baird et Al (2007) they find that the most prominent characteristic of Australian organizational culture was Outcome Orientation, followed by Respect for People, with Stability and Innovation being the least prominent characteristics in both studies. The high ranking of Outcome Orientation, a cultural factor characterized by values of having high expectations for performance and being results and action oriented, bodes well for the success of Australian business if, as theorized, organizational culture is an important determinant of managers' and employees' work attitudes, decisions and behavior and, ultimately, an organization's financial performance.

Less auspicious is the low ranking of Innovation, a cultural factor characterized by a willingness to experiment, being innovative, being quick to take advantage of opportunities, and risk taking.
They also find out the "mateship" characteristic of Australian national culture, it "represents a leadership style that focuses on the group", with leaders expected to be "one of the boys" (or girls?). Egalitarianism (the belief that people should be treated the same and as equals) has consistently been identified as an Australian cultural trait
They found an association in the factors of Respect for People (including values of fairness and respect for the rights of the individual) and Team Orientation (including values of being people and team oriented) to be the second and fourth highest ranked aspects of Australian organizational culture. Additionally, the values of fairness and respect for the individual ranked equal 5th among the 26 value statements.


Since I don’t know too much about the topic, my question this time will be about the relationship between Colombia and Australia:

According to economical relations, Australia and Colombia work together to pursue free and fair agricultural trade through their joint membership. Regarding the political relations, Colombia has an important role in the Asia-Pacific countries, since it’s now a full member of the Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC).

Australia maintains a 'virtual office' in Bogotá, to promote trade and investment opportunities and service for Australian business interests.Taking in mind educational opportunities, Colombia has been developing strategic alliances with universities and educational institutions in Australia, to favor student exchange between both countries. Also, there have been mutual assistance and exchange of information in areas of interest in schools, vocational and higher education.

Furtherless the economic relations between them must be improved, there's too much to do in the economical field, since both countries are trying to expands its own economy, Colombia needs to look for more integration processes abroad and institutions that helps with this kind of issues, belonging to them might help the country to expand its economy which is traduced in help to grow the international commerce of both countries, Colombia and Australia.

References

Arango, Maria Isabel. Organisations and Culture. Class notes. 2009

Baird, Kevin; Harriso, Graeme & Robert Reeve. 2007. The culture of Australian organizations and its relation with strategy. International Journal of Business Studies, 15 (1). 15-41), and Green (2009)

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