Understanding the Role of Culture

1. Understanding the Role of Culture Chapter 3 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 Chapter 3

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

4. 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 individual’s culture. Chapter 3

5. 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. Chapter 3

6. Definitions of Cultural Terms • Self-reference criterion refers to the unconscious reference point of one’s 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 assumptionthat their ways of doing things are best – no matter where or under what conditions they are applied. Chapter 3

7. 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. Chapter 3

8. 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. Chapter 3

9. 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. Chapter 3

10. What are Values? • Values are a society’s 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. Chapter 3

11. 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. Chapter 3

12. GLOBE Research ProjectSelected Findings(Example of countries for each factor) Factor Least Medium Most Assertiveness Sweden Egypt Spain Performance Orientation Russia Sweden USA Future Orientation Russia Slovenia Denmark Humane Orientation Germany (West) Hong Kong Indonesia Chapter 3

13. Hofstede’s 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. Chapter 3

14. Power Distance(Selected Countries) Orientation Toward Authority High Low US MAL FRA JPN AUT Chapter 3

15. Uncertainty Avoidance(Selected Countries) Desire for Stability High Low GER GRE FRA US SIN Chapter 3

16. Individualism(Selected Countries) High Low Collectivism Individualism AUL US FRA MEX SIN Chapter 3

17. Masculinity(Selected Countries) Low High Relational Assertive/Materialistic JPN US FRA CHC SWE Chapter 3

18. Country Clusters • Ronen and Shenkar (synthesizing Hofstede’s 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 Chapter 3

19. Trompenaar’s 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. Chapter 3

20. Trompenaar’s 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. Chapter 3

21. 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. Chapter 3

22. 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. Chapter 3

23. The American-Japanese Cultural Divide(Exhibit 3-10) Japanese American Man within nature Man controlling nature Caution Risk-taking Incremental improvement Bold initiative Deliberation Spontaneity 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 Chapter 3

24. 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 Chapter 3

25. The American-Japanese Cultural Divide(contd.) Japanese American Rewarding seniority Rewarding performance Loyalty Track record Generalists Specialists Obligations Opportunities Untiring effort Fair effort Shame Guilt Dependency Autonomy Dutiful relationships Level playing field Industrial groups Industrial competition Strict ranking Ambiguous/informal ranking Racial differentiation Racial equality Gender differentiation Gender equality Equality Hierarchy Chapter 3