Culture and Management

1. Culture and Management Chapter 2

2. Outline • What is culture? • Hofstede's model of culture • Trompenaars' model of culture

3. What is Culture? • Pervasive and shared beliefs, norms, values, and symbols that guide everyday life. • Cultural norms: both prescribe and proscribe behaviors • What we should do and what we cannot do. • Cultural values: what is good/beautiful/holy, and what are legitimate goals for life. • Cultural folkways: customs with no moral significance

4. What is Culture? (2) • Cultural beliefs: represent our understandings about what is true. • Culture is pervasive in society • Affects all aspects of life • Not all aspects are observable • Culture is learned

5. Sub-cultures and Cultural Change • Groups within a culture may form a sub-culture that varies in some ways from the national culture. • Cultures can change gradually over time. • People who have worked outside their own country or have friends from other cultures may pick up some attitudes or behaviors from the other culture.

6. How Cultures View Each Other • Stereotyping: assumes that all people within one culture behave, believe, feel, and act the same. • Ethnocentrism: occurs when people from one culture believe that theirs are the only correct norms, values, and beliefs. • Self-reference criterion: the assumption that people in another culture will behave like people in your culture

7. Culture and Ethics • Moral universalism: the belief that there are universal standards for right and wrong • Cultural relativism: the belief that all cultures, no matter how different, are correct and moral for the people of those cultures.

8. Hofstede’s Model of National Culture • Five dimensions of basic values • Power distance • Uncertainty avoidance • Individualism • Masculinity • Long-term orientation

9. Power Distance • Power distance concerns how cultures deal with inequality and focuses on • Norms that tell superiors (e.g., bosses) how much they can determine the behavior of their subordinates • Values and beliefs that superiors and subordinates are different kinds of people

10. Power Distance (2) • High power distance countries have norms, values, and beliefs such as • Inequality is fundamentally good • Everyone has a place: some are high, some are low • Most people should be dependent on a leader • The powerful are entitled to privileges • The powerful should not hide their power

11. Exhibit 2.2: Managerial Implications for Power Distance

12. High Uncertainty Avoidance • Norms, values, and beliefs regarding tolerance for ambiguity • Conflict should be avoided • Deviant people and ideas should not be tolerated • Laws are very important and should be followed • Experts and authorities are usually correct • Clear rules and procedures are important. • Consensus is important

13. Exhibit 2.3: Managerial Implications of Uncertainty Avoidance

14. Individualism/Collectivism • Focus is on the relationship between the individual and the group • Countries high on individualism have norms, values, and beliefs such as • People are responsible for themselves. • Individual achievement is ideal. • People need not be emotionally dependent on organizations or groups.

15. Individualism/Collectivism • Collectivist countries have norms, values, and beliefs such as • One’s identity is based on group membership. • Group decision making is best. • Groups protect individuals in exchange for their loyalty to the group.

16. Exhibit 2.4: Managerial Implications of Individualism/Collectivism

17. Masculinity • Tendency of a culture to support traditional masculine orientation • High masculinity countries have beliefs such as • Gender roles should be clearly distinguished. • Men are assertive and dominant. • Machismo/exaggerated maleness in men is good. • Men should be decisive. • Work takes priority over other duties. • Advancement, success, and money are important.

18. Exhibit 2.5: Managerial Implications of Masculinity

19. Long-Term Orientation • Belief in substantial savings • Willingness to invest • Acceptance of slow results • Persistence to achieve goals • Sensitivity to social relationships • Pragmatic adaptation

20. Exhibit 2.6: Managerial Implications of Long-term Orientation

21. Exhibit 2.7 Hofstede’s Classification of Countries by Clusters

22. Exhibit 2.7 Hofstede’s Classification of Countries by Clusters

23. Trompenaars' Dimensions of Culture • Universalism vs. Particularism • Neutral vs. Affective • Specific vs. Diffuse • Achievement vs. Ascription

24. Exhibit 3.9Universalism vs. Particularism Universalism Particularism

25. Exhibit 2.11: Neutral vs. AffectiveExhibit 2.11 in the book is backward Neutral Affective

26. Exhibit 2.12: Specific vs. Diffuse Specific Diffuse

27. Achievement vs. AscriptionExhibit 2.13 Ascription Achievement

28. Exhibit 2.16: 7d Percentile Rankings for Selected Countries