Understanding the Role of Culture

1
Understanding the Role of Culture
Chapter 3
2
Chapter 3 - Overview

• Culture and its effects on organizations
• Cultural variables
• Cultural value dimensions
• The Internet and culture
• Developing cultural profiles
• Culture and management styles around the world

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Environmental Variables Affecting Management
Functions(Exhibit 3-1)
National Variables Economic system Physical
situation Legal system Technological Political
system know-how
Sociocultural Variables Religion Education Languag
e
Cultural Variables Values Norms Beliefs
Attitudes
Work Time Materialism
Individualism Change
Individual and Group Employee Job
Behavior Motivation Commitment Productivity Ethi
cs
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Common Cultural Terms

• Cultural savvy is a working knowledge of the
  cultural variables affecting management
  decisions.
• Cultural sensitivity or cultural empathy is an
  awareness and an honest caring about another
  individuals culture.

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What is Culture?

• The culture of a society comprises the shared
  values, understandings, assumptions, and goals
  that are learned from earlier generations,
  imposed by present members of a society, and
  passed on to succeeding generations.

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Definitions of Cultural Terms

• Self-reference criterion refers to the
  unconscious reference point of ones own cultural
  values.
• Parochialism occurs when a Frenchman, for
  example, expects those from or in another country
  to automatically fall into patterns of behavior
  common in France.
• Ethnocentrism describes the attitude of those who
  operate from the assumption that their ways of
  doing things are best no matter where or under
  what conditions they are applied.

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Subcultures

• Many countries comprise diverse subcultures whose
  constituents conform only in varying degrees to
  the national character.
• In Canada, for example, distinct subcultures
  include anglophones and francophones
  (English-speaking and French-speaking people) and
  indigenous Canadians.

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Cultural Variables(Identified by Harris and
Moran)

• Kinship A kinship system is the system adopted
  by a given society to guide family relationships.
• Education The formal or informal education of
  workers in a foreign firm, received from whatever
  source, greatly affects the expectations placed
  on those workers in the workplace.
• Economy Whatever the economic system, the means
  of production and distribution (and the resulting
  effects on individuals and groups) has a powerful
  influence on such organizational processes as
  sourcing, distribution, incentives, and
  repatriation of capital.
• Politics The system of government in a society,
  whether democratic, Communist, or dictatorial,
  imposes varying constraints on an organization
  and its freedom to do business.

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Cultural Variables(contd.)

• Religion The spiritual beliefs of a society are
  often so powerful that they transcend other
  cultural aspects.
• Associations many and various types of
  associations arise out of the formal and informal
  groups that make up a society.
• Health The system of health care in a country
  affects employee productivity, expectations, and
  attitudes toward physical fitness and its role in
  the workplace.
• Recreation Closely related with other cultural
  factors, recreation includes the way in which
  people use their leisure time, as well as their
  attitudes toward leisure and their choice of whom
  to socialize with.

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What are Values?

• Values are a societys ideas about what is good
  or bad, right or wrong such as the widespread
  belief that stealing is immoral and unfair.
  Values determine how individuals will probably
  respond in any given circumstance.

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Project GLOBE Cultural Dimensions

• Assertiveness refers to how much people in a
  society are expected to be tough, confrontational
  and competitive versus modest and tender.
• Future Orientation refers to the level of
  importance a society attaches to future-oriented
  behaviors such as planning and investing in the
  future.
• Performance Orientation measures how important
  performance improvement and excellence is in a
  society.
• Humane Orientation refers to the extent to which
  a society encourages and rewards people for being
  fair, altruistic, generous, caring, and kind.

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GLOBE Research ProjectSelected Findings(Example
of countries for each factor)
Factor Least Medium Most
Assertiveness Sweden Egypt Spain Performance Or
ientation Russia Sweden USA Future Orientation
Russia Slovenia Denmark Humane
Orientation Germany (West) Hong Kong Indonesia
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Hofstedes Value Dimensions

• Power distance is the level of acceptance by a
  society of the unequal distribution of power in
  institutions.
• Uncertainty avoidance refers to the extent to
  which people in a society feel threatened by
  ambiguous situations.
• Individualism refers to the tendency of people to
  look after themselves and their immediate family
  only and neglect the needs of society.
• Masculinity refers to the degree of traditionally
  masculine values that prevail in a society.

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Power Distance(Selected Countries)
Orientation Toward Authority
High
Low
US
MAL
FRA
JPN
AUT
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Uncertainty Avoidance(Selected Countries)
Desire for Stability
High
Low
GER
GRE
FRA
US
SIN
16
Individualism(Selected Countries)
High
Low
Collectivism
Individualism
AUL
US
FRA
MEX
SIN
17
Masculinity(Selected Countries)
Low
High
Relational
Assertive/Materialistic
JPN
US
FRA
CHC
SWE
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Country Clusters

• Ronen and Shenkar (synthesizing Hofstedes
  research and other cluster studies) developed
  eight country clusters based on the following
  factors
• the importance of work goals
• need fulfillment and job satisfaction
• managerial and organizational variables
• work role and interpersonal orientation

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Trompenaars Value Dimensions

• The Universalistic approach applies rules and
  systems objectively, without consideration for
  individual circumstances whereas the
  Particularistic approach puts the obligation
  toward relationships first and is more
  subjective.
• In the Neutral versus Affective dimension, the
  focus is on the emotional orientation of
  relationships.

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Trompenaars Value Dimensions(contd.)

• Managers in Specific-oriented cultures separate
  work and personal issues and relationships. In
  Diffuse-oriented cultures there is spill-over
  from the work into the personal relationship and
  vice-versa.
• In an Achievement society the source of status
  and influence is based on individual achievement.
  In an Ascription-oriented society, people
  ascribe status on the basis of class, age,
  gender, etc.

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Critical Operational Value Differences

• Time differences in temporal values
• the clock is always running vs. mañana which
• means tomorrow in Latin America or bukra
  which
• means tomorrow or some time in the future in
• Arabic.
• Change based largely on long-standing religious
  beliefs, values regarding the acceptance of
  change and the pace of change can vary immensely
  among cultures.

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Critical Operational Value Differences(contd.)

• Material factors Americans attitude toward
  nature that it is there to be used for their
  benefit differs from the attitudes of Indians
  or Koreans, for example, whose worship of nature
  is part of their religious belief.
• Individualism Americans tend to value individual
  achievement over group goals for others,
  conformity and cooperation takes precedence over
  individual achievement.

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The American-Japanese Cultural Divide(Exhibit
3-10)
Japanese American
Man within nature Man controlling
nature Caution Risk-taking Incremental
improvement Bold initiative Deliberation Sponta
neity Adherence to form Improvisation Silence
Outspokenness Memorization Critical
thinking Emotional sensitivity Logical
reasoning Indirectness Clarity and
frankness Assuaging Confronting Avoiding
Threatening Consensus building
Decisiveness
Patience
Action
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The American-Japanese Cultural Divide(contd.)
Japanese American
Conformity Individuality Group convention
Personal principle Trusted relationships
Legal safeguards Collective strength Individual
independence Maintain the group Protect the
individual Modest resignation Righteous
indignation Saving face Being heard Oppressive
unanimity Chaotic anarchy Humble
cooperation Proving oneself
Harmony
Freedom
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The American-Japanese Cultural Divide(contd.)
Japanese American
Rewarding seniority Rewarding performance Loyalty
Track record Generalists Specialists Obligati
ons Opportunities Untiring effort
Fair effort Shame Guilt Dependency Au
tonomy Dutiful relationships Level playing
field Industrial groups Industrial
competition Strict ranking
Ambiguous/informal ranking Racial
differentiation Racial equality Gender
differentiation Gender equality
Equality
Hierarchy