Understanding the Role of Culture

Chapter 3

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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)
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

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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 (Englishspeaking 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 Project

Selected 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

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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)

High

MAL

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Orientation Toward Authority

FRA

JPN

US

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Low

AUT

14

Uncertainty Avoidance
(Selected Countries)
Desire for Stability

High

GRE

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FRA

GER

Low

US

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SIN

15

Individualism
(Selected Countries)
High

Low

Individualism

AUL US

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Collectivism

FRA

MEX

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SIN

16

Masculinity
(Selected Countries)
Lo
w

High

Relational

Assertive/Materialistic

JPN

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US

FRA

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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 viceversa.
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. maana 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

Patience

Man within nature

Caution
Incremental improvement
Deliberation
Adherence to form
Silence
Memorization
Emotional sensitivity
Indirectness
Assuaging
Avoiding
Consensus building

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American
Man controlling nature
Risk-taking
Bold initiative
Spontaneity
Improvisation
Outspokenness
Critical thinking
Logical reasoning
Clarity and frankness
Confronting
Threatening
Decisiveness

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Action

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The American-Japanese Cultural Divide

(contd.)

Japanese

Harmony

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Conformity
Group convention
Trusted relationships
Collective strength
Maintain the group
Modest resignation
Saving face
Oppressive unanimity
Humble cooperation

American
Individuality
Personal principle
Legal safeguards
Individual independence Freedom
Protect the individual
Righteous indignation
Being heard
Chaotic anarchy
Proving oneself

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The American-Japanese Cultural Divide

(contd.)

Japanese

Hierarchy

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Rewarding seniority
Loyalty
Generalists
Obligations
Untiring effort
Shame
Dependency
Dutiful relationships
Industrial groups
Strict ranking
Racial differentiation
Gender differentiation

American
Rewarding performance
Track record
Specialists
Opportunities
Fair effort
Equality
Guilt
Autonomy
Level playing field
Industrial competition
Ambiguous/informal ranking
Racial equality
Gender equality

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