Week 6 DEScRIBING CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

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Week 6DEScRIBING CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

• MNGT 583 Özge Can

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How to Unpack Culture?

• Essence of culture gt the content and structure
  of the basic mental representations members of
  particular social groups share.
• Complex interactions of values, attitudes, and
  behavioral assumptions of a society.
• How can we unpact this complex concept?
• Limited number of ways in which a society can
  manage certain problems gt developing a system
  that categorizes and compares societies on this
  basis.

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Subsidiaries of an American firm
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How Culture Affects Business?

• Strategy formation and implimantation
• Organization structure
• HRM practices
• Conflict management approaches
• Negotiation tactics
• Leadership styles

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Different Models to Compare Cultures

• Kluckhohn Strodtbecks (1961) comparative
  anthropology framework
• Hofstedes study of value dimensions (1980)
• Extansions on Hofstedes study
• Shwartz value survey (1990, 1992)
• Trompenaars dimensions (1993)
• The GLOBE study (House et al., 2004)
• Social axioms (Leung et al. 2002)

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Kluckhohn Strodtbecks Framework

• Six value orientations to categorize cultures
• Relationships to nature
• Beliefs about human nature
• Relationships between people
• Nature of human acitivity
• Conception of space
• Orientation of time

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Kluckhohn Strodtbecks Framework
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Defining harmony differently
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Hofstedes Study

• Based on attitude surveys of 117,000 employees of
  Iin 40 different countries, Hofstede extracted
  four dimensions
• individualismcollectivism
• power distance
• uncertainty avoidance
• masculinityfemininity
• Giving every country a score ranging from 0 to
  100 on each of the four dimensions.

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Measuring Values Desirable vs. Desired

• Desirable How people think the world ought to be
  (Qs referring people in general). Norms involved.
• Desired what poeple want for themselves (Qs
  worded as you or me)
• Norms standards for behavior that exist within a
  group or category of people
• Desirable relates more to ideology, the desired
  to practical matters

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The Trap of Ecological Fallacy

• Ecological Fallacy gt making the mistake of
  applying the scores at the country level to
  individuals
• Within each nation there might be variation on a
  particular dimension, such that a particular
  individual will not be at all representative of
  the mean score.

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Individualism-Collectivism

• The extent to which ones self-identity is
  defined according to individual characteristics
  or by the characteristics of the groups to which
  the individual belongs on a permanent basis
• The extent to which individual or group interests
  dominate.

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Power Distance

• The extent to which power differences are
  accepted and sanctioned in a society.

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Uncertainty Avoidance

• The extent to which societies focus on ways to
  reduce uncertainty and create stability.

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Masculinity-Femininity

• The extent to which traditional male orientations
  of ambition and achievement are emphasized over
  traditional female orientations of nurturance and
  interpersonal harmony.

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Extention of Hofstedes Work -1

• A subsequent study based on Chinese values
  (Chinese Value Survey by Bond et al., 1987)
  conducted in 23 countries.
• Four underlying dimensions of cultural value
  orientations found
• Integration
• Human-heartedness
• Moral discipline
• Confucian work dynamism (Later labeled as long
  vs. short term orientation)

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Extention of Hofstedes Work -2

• World Value Survey (WVS) coordinated by Ronald
  Inglehart (and later by Minkov), covering more
  than 100 countries
• Data-collection took place in 10-year intervals
• Freely acessible from the internet

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Cultural Distance

• How different national cultures are from each
  other?
• Index of cultural distance gt relative
  similarities and differences between nations

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Criticisms to Hofstedes Study

• The operationalization of the constructs
• The limits to generalize the study findings (data
  comes only from IBM employees)
• No theoretical base in developing the survey
• Other methodological criticisms
• Problems with factor analysis
• Many items within a dimension seems unrelated
• Many of the items related to several of the
  dimensions

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Schwartz Value Survey (SVS)

• Content and structure of human values
• Content gt the criteria people use to evaluate
  events and select courses of action.
• Structure gt the organization of these values
  based on their similarities and differences.
• They derived 56 values that reflected various
  ways of satisfying the needs of a society.
• The values clustered into 10 groups called value
  types. (can be seen as refinement of Hofstedes
  earlier work)
• 7 value types at national culture level

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Schwartz Value Survey (SVS)

• Egalitarianism recognition of people as moral
  equals
• Harmony fitting in with the environment
• Embeddedness people as embedded in the
  collective
• Hierarchy legitimation of unequal distribution
  of power
• Mastery exploitation of the natural or social
  environment
• Affective autonomy pursuit of positive
  experiences
• Intellectual autonomy independent pursuit of own
  ideas

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SVS Individual Level Value Structure
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SVS National Level Value Structure
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Trompenaars Dimensions

• His seven value dimensions (1993) were derived
  primarily from the prior work of North American
  sociologists and anthropologists
• 1) Universalismparticularism Universalism is a
  belief that what is true and good can be
  discovered and applied universally, whereas
  particularism is a belief that unique
  circumstances determine what is right or good.

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Trompenaars Dimensions

• 2) Individualismcollectivism Similar to
  Hofstedes definition, this dimension concerns
  the extent to which people plan their actions
  with reference to individual benefits versus
  those of the group.
• 3) Neutralaffective In neutral cultures,
  emotion should be held in check, and maintaining
  an appearance of self-control is important,
  whereas in affective cultures, it is natural to
  express emotions.

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Trompenaars Dimensions

• 4) Specificdiffuse The extent to which
  individuals allow access to their inner selves to
  others. In specific cultures, people separate the
  private part of their lives from the public,
  whereas in diffuse cultures, these aspects of the
  individual overlap.
• 5) Achievementascription This dimension is
  about how status and power are determined in a
  society. In an ascription society, status is
  based on who a person is, whereas in an
  achievement society, status is based on what a
  person does.

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Trompenaars Dimensions

• 6) Time This dimension is about past versus
  future orientations and about the extent to which
  time is viewed as linear versus holistic and
  integrative with past and present together with
  future possibilities.
• 7) Environment This dimension is the extent to
  which people feel that they themselves are the
  primary influence on their lives. Alternatively,
  the environment is seen as more powerful than
  they are, and people should strive to achieve
  harmony with it.

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Trompenaars Dimensions

• Two dimensions at national level
• Loyal involvementutilitarian involvement,
  representing varying orientations toward group
  members
• Conservatismegalitarian commitment, representing
  orientations toward obligations of social
  relationships
• These two can be seen as extensions and
  refinements of Hofstedes individualism-collectivi
  sm and power distance dimensions, respectively.

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The GLOBE Study

• The most recent study of cultural differences as
  a part of of the Global Leadership and
  Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE)
  program (House et al., 2004).
• It involved 170 researchers working in 62
  different societies and collected data from
  approximately 17,000 middle managers in 951
  organizations.

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The GLOBE Study

• Institutional collectivism (from Hofstede)
• In-group collectivism (from Hofstede)
• Power distance (from Hofstede)
• Uncertainty avoidance (from Hofstede)
• Gender egalitarianism (Hofstedes femininity
  dimension)
• Assertiveness (Hofstedes masculinity dimension)
• Humane orientation (from Kluckhohn Strodtbeck)
• Future orientation (from Kluckhohn Strodtbeck)
• Performance orientation (from McClelland
  masculinity)

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The GLOBE Study

• Institutional collectivism The degree to which
  organizational and societal institutional
  practices encourage and reward collective
  distribution of resources and collective action
• In-group collectivism The degree to which
  individuals express pride, loyalty, and
  cohesiveness in their organizations or families
• Important All dimensions were measured both as
  practices (the way things are as is) and
  values (the way things should be as it should
  be)

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Further Examination of Individualism
-Collectivism

• Tightness and Complexity (Triandis, 1995)
• Tightness gt The extent to which members of a
  culture agree about what is correct behavior,
  believe they must behave exactly according to
  cultural norms, and believe they will receive or
  should give severe criticism for even small
  deviations from cultural norms
• Complexity gt The amount of differentiation in
  the various domains of individuals lives. The
  numbers of different roles available to
  individuals, the size of communities, and the per
  capita gross national product of a country are
  suggested as measures of cultural complexity.

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Tightness, Coplexity, Individualism-Collectivism
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Further Examination of Individualism
-Collectivism

• Vertical and Horizontal (Triandis, 1995)
• Vertical collectivism gt See themselves as an
  aspect of an in-group, but members of the
  in-group are different in terms of status. These
  cultures are characterized by patterns of social
  relationships that emphasize communal sharing
  according to need and authority ranking or the
  distribution of resources according to rank
• Horizontal individualismgt The self is autonomous
  and people are generally equal. These cultures
  are characterized by patterns of social behavior
  that emphasize equity in resource sharing
  according to contribution and distribution of
  resources equally among members

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Vertical-Horizontal Dimension
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Social Axioms

• As an alternative way to value studies to
  understand and compare cultures
• Social Axioms (Leung, 2002)
• Social axioms are generalized beliefs about
  oneself, the social and physical environment, or
  the spiritual world, and are in the form of an
  assertion about the relationship between two
  entities or concepts.
• Unlike values, they do not have an evaluative
  component they only show a relationship from A
  to B.

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Social Axioms Individual Level

• Cynicism a negative view of human nature, a
  biased view against some groups of people, a
  mistrust of social institutions, and a disregard
  of ethical means of achieving an end
• Social complexity beliefs that there are no
  rigid rules but rather multiple ways of achieving
  a given outcome and that inconsistency in human
  behavior is common
• Reward for application a general belief that
  effort, knowledge, and careful planning will lead
  to positive results
• Spirituality belief in the existence of
  supernatural forces and the functions of
  religious belief
• Fate control a belief that life events are
  predetermined and that there are some ways to
  influence these outcomes

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Social Axioms Society Level

• Four of the five dimensions merged into one
  strong factor which was labeled as dynamic
  externality
• The other strong factor social cynicism
• Social cynicism seem to be a new cultural
  dimension since it only moderately correlates
  with dimensions from other studies

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Other Levels for Cultural Differences

• Within country/ nation differences
• Regional
• Ethnic
• Language
• Religious
• Gender
• Generation
• Social class

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Two Implications of Culture for International
Management

• What people want from work
• Views about leadership

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Using Frameworks Models of Cultural Variation

• Hidden enthocentricm by the people conducting
  those research possible misinterpretations
• Instead of explaining culture, they should not
  constrain the way you assess people from another
  culture gt oversimplifying, sophisticated
  stereotyping
• Do not rely on overly simplistic models of the
  effect of culture
• Pay attention to the level of analysis gt whether
  it is the individual or the nation/ society

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Using Frameworks Models of Cultural Variation

• Importance of cultural paradoxes
• Situational context, cultural history, geography
  etc. are important
• Pay attention to internal, within-country
  differences
• They are best used for descriptive purposes
  rather than in-depth cultural evaluation
• The best knowledge of culture comes from direct
  interactions/ information fro natives

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Making Better Sense of Culture

• 1) Approach other cultures with the idea of
  testing your sophisticated stereotypes
• 2) Find culltural informants and mentors to help
• 3) Carefully assess information that seems
  inconsistent with cultural stereotypes
• 4) Learn mental maps that will increase
  effectiveness in different cultures