Cross-Cultural Knowledge Management at Virtual Interfaces

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Cross-Cultural Knowledge Management at Virtual
Interfaces
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Cross-cultural Management

• Cross-cultural management describes
  organizational behaviour within countries and
  cultures compares organizational behaviour
  across countries and cultures
• seeks to understand and improve the interaction
  of co-workers, (team members) managers,
  executives, clients, suppliers, and alliance
  partners from countries and cultures around the
  world. (Adler, 2002 Pg. 11)

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Taking CCM a step further

• The core task of cross-cultural management is to
  facilitate and direct synergistic interaction and
  learning at interfaces, where knowledge, values
  and experiences are transferred into
  multicultural domains of implementation (Holden,
  2002)
• Greatest challenge is in internationally-distribut
  ed work environments, i.e. global (and
  multi-cultural) virtual teams

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Cross-Cultural Management as Knowledge Management

• Interactive Global Networking
• Teamworking
• Organizational Learning

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Networking

• Networks as pathways to resources
• Human
• Special knowledge
• Rare competencies
• Sources of finance
• Forms of influence
• How does this relate to Knowledge Management?

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Networking as a Cross-Cultural Activity

• Internationally-distributed work environment
• Sharing (K) across organizations, webs of
  enterprise and arrays of networks for use years
  ahead (Holden, 2002p.43)

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The Challenge

• How will we develop new ways to understand,
  manage and downplay cultural differences while
  creating and working with new kinds of
  cross-cultural interactions such as
  geographically-distributed electronically-mediated
  multi-cultural project teams?
• Why downplay cultural differences?

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Culture

• something older members of the group pass on to
  younger members of the group
• something (as with language, laws, customs,
  values, beliefs, attitudes) that shapes behavior
  or shapes ones perception of the world
• something shared by all members of some social
  group
• culture changes and adapts based on the needs of
  the members and the environment

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Managing Culture in Virtual Teams

• Global (multicultural) Virtual Teams require
  cultural sensitivity re
• culturally biased technology
• different rules
• different languages
• different concepts of time
• different assumptions
• different values

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A Values-Based View of National Culture

• Four Dimensions of Difference (Hofstede, 1980)
• Individualism vs Collectivism
• Power Distance High vs Low
• Uncertainty Avoidance High vs Low
• Career Success vs Quality of Life
• (Masculine vs Feminine)
• And later 5
• Confucian Dynamism
• Devotion to work ethic and respect for tradition

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Culture as Context in Cross-cultural
Communication as developed by Edward Hall

• Context refers to the amount of information
  imbedded in a message
• It plays a crucial role in intercultural
  communication

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Characteristics of High/Low Context Cultures
High-context Cultures Low-context Cultures

• Covert implicit
• Messages internalized
• much non-verbal coding
• Reactions reserved
• Distinct ingroups and outgroups
• Strong interpersonal bonds
• Commitment high
• Time open and flexible

• Overt Explicit
• Messages plainly coded
• Details verbalized
• Reactions on the surface
• flexible ingroups and outgroups
• Fragile interpersonl bonds
• Commitment low
• Time highly organized

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Reliance on Verbal Communication
High Context Low Context

• Reliance on words low high to
  communicate
• Reliance on nonverbal high low
  communication
• View of silence respected, anxiety -
  communicative producing
• Attention to detail low high
• Attention to intention high low
• Communicative indirect, direct,explicit
  approach inferential

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Context and Cultural Differences
Information implicitly contained
High Context Cultures
Japanese
Arabic
Latin American
Italian
sender
receiver
English
French
Low Context Cultures
North American (Canadian and USA)
Scandanavian
Information explicitly conveyed
German
Swiss German
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The Basic Differences Leading to Conflict

• Values, attitudes, behaviors
• Language
• Non-verbal communication
• Context
• Time
• Ethnocentrism

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One result of Contexted/Value-Based Views of
Culture Cultural Scare-mongering

• C1 C2 Culture Clash, Culture Shock,
• Cultural Differences
• This view has permeated global management
  thinking in the last couple of decades.
• Is it time for a change?

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A Different Perspective (Holden, 2002)

• C1 C2 C3, where C3 is a new cultural hybrid
• Culture and knowledge of culture as an
  organizational resource, i.e., a knowledge asset
• Cross-cultural management as the application of
  this resource,
• (Cross-cultural management as a form of Knowledge
  management)

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Culture as a Problem/Opportunity

• As a problem
• The influence of culture must be anticipated,
  controlled and limited
• As an opportunity
• A source of competitive advantage, releasing
  synergies from international and intranational
  diversity (Tung, 1997)

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New View of Culture

• Culture based on shared or partly shared patterns
  of meaning and interpretation
• These patterns are produced and reproduced and
  continually changed by the people identifying
  with them and negotiating with them in the course
  of social interaction thus
• Peoples identification and affiliation with a
  multiplicity of cultures are subject to change.
  (Hannerz, 1996)

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(No Transcript)
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Extending Adlers Model (2002) to the Level of
Organizations, Groups and Teams
National Behaviors
National Attitudes
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A Case of Culture

• Treaty of Waitangi Negotiation between Crown
  (Office of Treaty Settlements OTS) and the
  Claimant Group
• The Influence of Culture
• The need to build relationships before attending
  to negotiations
• The selection and use of communication channels

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Team Membership (Extended)
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Conditions Present at Start up of Team
 
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Building Relationships

• There are two sorts of cultures that we need to
  bring together, between the claimant negotiators
  and the key Government negotiators, who are going
  to meet and be making hard judgments based on
  what we are telling them. And that requires a
  huge level of trust, which we are able to build
  up through a whole lot of face-to-face meetings
  over long periods of interaction, two years.
• We have got to the position where they can trust
  us as Government negotiators to be acting in
  their best interests. We are not going to be
  running them short, to try and get something from
  them. That requires a close cultural melding in a
  sense.

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The Selection and Use of Communication Channels

• Through a whole lot of face-to-face meetings over
  two years of interaction we built up a huge level
  of trust. This resulted in a close cultural
  melding.
• The last four weeks before the signing of the
  Heads of Agreement was frantic and involved a
  different way of working together virtually.
  After a series of critical face-to-face meetings
  to work out some difficult points and with just a
  couple of days to go, communication took place
  primarily by phone and e-mail. Important issues,
  normally dealt with face-to-face, were resolved
  virtually and they performed admirably on their
  side under that regime. This kind of tells me
  that although the preference might be there for
  face-to-face, when the costs are too high they
  work very fine with other scenarios.

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Driving Factors in the Selection and the Use of
Communication Channels
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Driving Factors in the Selection and the Use of
Communication Channels (cont)
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Summary of CaseCulture as

• Relationship
• Context
• Therefore, outcomes of cross-cultural
  collaboration and integration processes cannot be
  predicted with certainty.
• COMPLEX SYSTEMS that evolve

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Coping with Complex Systems require special
talents and abilities

• Interactive translation cross-cultural
  communicative competence Participative
  Competence
• Cross-cultural management should foster
  participative competence

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What it Takes to Communicate across Cultures

• Perspective taking understanding other world
  views that underpin insight and knowledge
  generated by a particular community
• Participative Competence
• An open mind
• flexible attitude
• nonjudgmental
• tolerance for ambiguity
• The ability to
• communicate respect
• display empathy
• personalize knowledge and perceptions

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And....

• Language competency
• Interpersonal skills
• Area knowledge

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Conclusions

• Management Options
• Subscribe to culture shock, etc., and create high
  hurdles, or
• embrace culture in all its diversity as a
  resource to respond to the demands of the global
  market, reap the benefits of cross-border
  alliances, and enhance organizational learning
  (Schneider Barsoux, 1997)

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• Organizational renewal for the global,
  knowledge-based economy is directly linked to the
  companys willingness and capacity to integrate
  best practices and experience from as many as the
  in-company loci of common knowledge as possible
  (Holden, 2002p. 222)
• Virtual Teams and networks provide the potential
  for rapidly bringing together diverse,
  organizational (and extra-organizational)
  knowledge, but they require pro-active and
  advanced management to be successful.

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Further Discussion
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Culture and Globalisation

• Globalization of the economy challenges us to
  become more internationally aware and
  cross-culturally savvy. Globalization is not just
  an economic matter, more and more it is concerned
  with issues of cultural meaning
• Questions
• Will globalisation see the emergence of cultural
  homogeneity or cultural Balkanization?
• Should global leaders develop a macro
  perspective, not bound to any one national or
  cultural identity?

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Organizational National Culture

• Prior to 1980, many considered organisational
  culture to be independent of national culture.
  This has changed, much recent research focuses on
  the link between organisational and national
  culture and their corresponding influences.
• Questions
• Is organizational culture, in effect, a
  by-product of national or societal culture?
• Can organizational culture persist outside of
  originating national culture?
• How does the introduction of Western management
  techniques and technologies to non-western
  countries reflect western biases?
• Will there be a backlash of indigenous
  techniques and technologies?
• What is the role of organizational leadership in
  mediating between national and organizational
  culture?

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And MoreNational Culture and KM

• In published reports of knowledge management
  systems, national culture and ethnic background
  of users are rarely mentioned.
• Issues
• Are KMS designers implicitly adopting the
  culture-free hypothesis as a basis for design?
  What is the impact of this hypothesis?
• What is the impact of implicitly embedded
  cultural values in models such as the SECI
  model?
• Does knowledge loses its contextual embeddedness
  when it travels?
• Do cultural differences impact information
  flows, knowledge management processes, and
  knowledge sharing?

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And moreNational Culture and ICTs

• Cultural emphasis most widely addressed from the
  position of how ICTs affect organizational and
  national culture.
• Issues
• What is the effect of organizational and
  national culture on ICT and vice-versa?
• Are IS tacitly embedded with the cultural values
  of the originating nation? How does this affect
  trans-national transfer?
• Should cultural levels of analysis be extended to
  recognise an ICT driven culture?
• Will proliferance of ICTs result in
  homogenisation of culture, or will it assist
  cultures to avoid cultural convergence?

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Culture and Social Capital

• features of social life networks, norms, and
  trust that enable participants to act together
  more effectively to pursue shared
  objectivesSocial capital, in short refers to
  social connections and the attendant norms and
  trust. (Putnam, 1995)
• Social capital has been found to be important at
  both a national and sub-national level. social
  capital frameworks are generally developed around
  the micro, mezzo and macro levels
• Issues
• Are the differences in levels of social capital
  in different regions of a nation due to culture?
• Why is social and ethnic heterogeneity
  associated with lower levels of social capital?
• How does culture affect the individual
  measurement criteria for social capital?
• Is an international measure of social capital
  valid in a culturally diverse world?

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Culture and Trust

• The importance and benefits of trust, and the
  emerging global and multicultural workplace,
  highlight the need for use to understand how
  trust develops and the ways national culture
  impacts the trust building process.
• Issues
• Increasing globalisation necessitates closer
  examination of the link between culture and
  trust.
• What is the impact of culture when building
  trust between individuals organisations when
  they are operating on a virtual platform?
• How do different societies decide whether and
  whom to trust?
• How does trust impact on knowledge sharing?

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Culture, Innovation Creativity

• Despite many economically-driven studies on
  innovation at a national level, little has been
  written on the impact of national culture on
  innovation.
• Most common measurement is taken at the
  individual, organisational and national levels.
• McElroy (2002) claims that social capital must be
  taken into account when examining innovation.

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Final Questions

• What is the relationship between culture, social
  capital, human capital, intellectual capital,
  innovation, creativity, virtuality, and knowledge
  management?
• Is there a unifying theory?