Chilean Culture

The Chilean culture tends to be an individualistic society in the business environment. They are the most serious people in Latin America. However, they are professional in their behavior in terms of politeness and indirectness. They seem to be workaholics with their routine days of about 12 hours. Trust in the Chilean cultures among each other, remains on the edge. It is difficult for a Chilean to trust another individual despite their race, sex or origin. Teamwork remains a mission in process in Chile.

GLOBAL MULTI PRODUCTS ? CHILE Operations began in 1976, with an initial investment of U.S. $ 2 million. Supplies included various manufacturing and service industries such as the health and first aid, electrical, mining and communications to name but a few.

Global Multi Products is best known for its innovative capacity and incorporation for technology. Then again, internally is this true? ANALYSIS OF KEY FACTORS: New Roles of Sales Representatives: Retailer preferences changed, they wanted one Multi-Product Sales Representative to be responsible for all of the product lines. In response to this, Multi-Product was forced to reduce the number of Sales Representatives from an average of five to one. Along with these changes the Sales Reps were required to have a vast knowledge of the company?s entire product line. In the past Sales Reps focused on one product alone. This focus enabled them to form highly valued relationships with the buyer.

New responsibilities for Sales Reps: Required to be a specialist in all product areas Advanced skills in product placement Migrated from product sales to product solutions Difficulties in Recruitment: In the Chilean society Sales Reps did not hold a high status. Therefore, it was difficult to recruit better-educated individuals to these positions. College educated Chileans were mainly interested in careers that were increasingly mobile, enabling them to quickly climb the corporate ladder.

Team Work and Compensation: It is obvious that the sales representatives needed to work as a team. Teamwork was not a staple in Chilean business. Chileans are usually skeptical of others and are not very trusting. Therefore, employees were disinterested in helping others.

Multi-Product gradually introduced a commission based compensation system. Under the new system compensation depended upon performance. Chileans have high uncertainty avoidance and did not support the alteration.

NEED FOR COMPENSATION Problem: Employees in the sales department are unsure about the stability of their new responsibilities and positions under the Integrated Solutions approach recently adopted by Global Multi-Products Chile. This anxiety stems from existing employees having to reestablish work relationships and patterns with other sales departments. The ?Integrated Solutions? approach requires that all sales personnel assist each other in order to better serve the changing market and increase in client expectations.

Solution: In order for Global Multi-Products Chile to reduce this anxiety and to add attractiveness to their sales positions for future recruits, senior sales management needs to slow down the conversion time necessary for sales personnel to go from fully fixed salary to salaries that less fixed and more dependent on commission from sales.

Old System for Sales Representative Compensation Join staff- receive six months 100% fixed salary After six months- receive 40% fixed salary, 60% based on commission Senior Level Sales- receive 20% fixed salary, 80% based on commission Proposed System for Sales Representative Compensation Join staff- receive one year 100% fixed salary Year two- receive 60% fixed salary, 40% based on commission Year three- receive 40% fixed salary, 60% based on commission Senior Level Sales- receive 20% fixed salary, 80% based on commission Predicted Results: This slower conversion of sales employees? salaries should reduce some of the newly felt anxiety related to having to rely on and trust other sales departments. This will hopefully diminish the feeling of discomfort that sales personnel have about relying on others, who they do not trust, for the guarantee of their own personal compensation. Ultimately, the goal of Global Multi-Products Chile is to promote a corporate culture that embraces trust and reliance between different departments. Unfortunately trust takes a long time to build and this compensation solution can be implemented in the short term while developing the necessary trust for the desired corporate culture.

NEED FOR ESTABLISHING COMMON GOALS AND PRODUCTIVE CORPORATE CULTURE Problem: Global Multi-Products Chile has gone through many changes and employees feel volatile and lack trust amongst departments. This lack of trust found in the Chilean workplace is hindering Multi-Products ability to compete with large western manufacturers for important clients.

Solution: Executive managers need to communicate longer term goals and visions for the organization through small steps and workshops in each of the different departments. Employees of similar status might engage in after work socializing activities. This would permit the development of personal relationships between employees in similar departments perhaps alleviating some of the distrust found at Multi-Products Chile. Another area of importance is the instruction to more senior managers relaying to them the value of working with members in the different sales departments and what ever other departments necessary in order to better serve the customer and further the success of the company. The senior managers do not need to give up any of the status that their position brings them they just need to be more willing to associate with sales personnel when necessary.

Predicted Results: If a more trusting organizational culture can be achieved it should be easy for Multi-Products Chile to compete with the new large western manufacturers. If all employees can see the importance of their position in the organization as a whole trust and interdepartmental cooperation should be easy to achieve. A company armed with departments who are willing and able toì¥Á 7 need to work closely with each other, and therefore the groups need to be as small as possible, without them being too small.

In order to get people interested in this position is to offer them a title that is sophisticated, and lets people know that they are in good standing within the company. An incentive that can be used is to hire them with the possibility of climbing the corporate ladder. If people believe that they can become more important within the company, they will be more prone to taking the job.

NEED TO SLOW DOWN CHANGES The company has been going through a lot of recent changes, and the employees have been all rattled up because of it. It is vital for the company to let the employees adapt and adjust to these changes before any more are put into consideration. Most people don?t like change, and the workers need to establish a routine once again. They?re not even sure of what their specific goal is, so they are all frustrated. Once they are given some space and some time to adjust they will understand a lot of new ideologies that have been implemented. The company needs to get motivated, establish a routine and work towards a common goal.