IM_J2

MGT 6306, Intercultural Management 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit II Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

2. Analyze approaches to diversity in workplaces in the United States. 2.1 Describe some of the most common biases. 2.2 Explain the stages of social perception. 2.3 Compare the three views of culture. 2.4 Summarize acculturation strategies for adaptation.

Course/Unit

Learning Outcomes Learning Activity

2.1, 2.2 Unit Lesson Chapter 3 Unit II Assessment

2.3, 2.4 Unit Lesson Chapter 4 Unit II Assessment

Required Unit Resources Chapter 3: The Role of Cognitive Processes in Cross-Cultural Management Chapter 4: Views of Culture and Acculturation Unit Lesson

Introduction Culture in many ways defines how we think and guides how we look at life in general. The way we apply our cultural assumptions, values, and beliefs in our interactions with others is bound to be different from others. Unfortunately, such assumptions could turn a compliment into a stereotypical comment like in the example with the opening case in Chapter 3 by Bharat Mohan. The intention is not to undermine the expertise of Mohan, but the comments from the audience inadvertently did by making such general assumptions. Culture also guides the way we respond to characteristics such as education, social class, race, physical attributes, and other factors. This unit will examine the different views of culture, and the social perception process.

Evaluating Job Candidates According to Hofstede et al. (2010) and Trompenaars et al. (2012), what a manager may focus on when evaluating job candidates is likely to be influenced by culture. In the United States, individuals are hired based on their educational qualifications and professional experience that add economic value to the organization. “In Lebanon and many other parts of the Middle East, the key information is who recommended the candidate and the community and social networks they belong to, factors that are irrelevant and even inappropriate to consider in the United States” (Nahavandi, 2022, p. 95). When hiring in the United States, every candidate seeking a position is accorded equal employment opportunity. This may not be the same hiring practice in other countries. For example, in the United States, it is against the law to discriminate based on candidates’ age or disability, while in other countries they may clearly state both age and ability requirements on the job advertisement.

UNIT II STUDY GUIDE Views on Culture

MGT 6306, Intercultural Management 2

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title

Social Perception Process As explained by Nahavandi (2022), “Social perception is the process of gathering, selecting, and interpreting information about others” (p. 91). Perception, simply put, is the way we can all develop different opinions about the same situation depending on our views. To further illustrate, review the situational example presented in Chapter 3. A surgeon and his son were involved in a car accident, and the father died. After arriving at the hospital, the ER surgeon said, “I can’t possibly operate on this boy – he is my son.” Most people that would read this will be confused how the surgeon that was supposed to be dead was the ER surgeon. Did you assume the ER surgeon was the son’s father rather than consider it could be his mother? This is just one of example of an occurrence based on social perception process, where certain professions are identified with a certain gender. One example of social perception may assume that everyone working at a car repair shop is male, and there are no female mechanics. Another example is that female nurses are more appreciated than male nurses. The social perception process has three stages. These are attention, organization, and interpretation. When we are in the first stage of attention, we are subconsciously and involuntarily filtering out appearance and cues. In the second stage we are connecting cues and other information to categories and knowledge that are already familiar to us. We are grouping based on predictability which creates a mental structure for responses and reactions. Finally, we interpret a person’s behavior or something about the situation that we just witnessed. On some occasions, one can also improvise when there is limited information and may opt to make assumptions instead, which is referred to as closure (Nahavandi, 2022).

Heuristics We are not always presented with all the information required to make a decision; rather, we intend to use what is available to us at that particular time. This is referred to as heuristics, defined as “efficient shortcuts, methods, strategies or rules of thumb that are used to derive a solution” (Nahavandi, 2022, p. 101). We make mental decisions when assessing events based how much information we have about that situation. If an event happened in a neighborhood, people would relay different versions as to what they believe led to the event based on their individual assessments. Tverskty and Kahgneman (1974) and Kahneman (2011) addressed some of the most common heuristics that link to our culture-as-meta-context (CMC) and cultural perspectives. These are availability, representativeness, framing, and theory-induced blindness (Nahavandi, 2022). Let’s look at the representatives, which is a tendency to judge an event, or a person, purely based on how they resemble each other. Think of a situation where a customer believes he or she is buying a silk material because it looks and feels like silk. In the real sense, the material is actually refined polyester. Even though the heuristics approach uses efficient shortcuts, it helps to make decisions faster, more frugally, or more accurately than more complex methods (Gigerenzer & Gaissmaier, 2011).

(based on Tversky and Kahneman (1974) and Kahneman (2011), as cited in Nahavandi, 2022)

MGT 6306, Intercultural Management 3

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title

Biases There are common biases that may occur because of the consistent systematical use of the heuristics approach. According to Garcia-Marques and Mackie (2001), the cognitive ease with which people connect premise and conclusion provides an underlying psychological mechanism for the effects of argument familiarity. We tend to address what we are familiar with, whether it is to do with our cultural values or preference. We are comfortable to discuss and defend a concept that we are familiar and experienced with because we have all the facts to address the argument. Such confidence that one is well versed in a topic could also lead to certain misconceptions or misinterpretation of information or a situation. Extensive descriptions of these common biases are listed in Table 3.2 in Chapter 3.

In-Groups and Out-Groups Part of having a cultural identity is the sense that you belong to a specific group. Having a group that is familiar to you, safe, and predicable, is considered an in-group. The people in your in-group are trustworthy and are likely your friends. People who do not conform to the characteristics of your in-group are considered an out-group. Who is considered in or out depends on how different you see someone as when comparing that person to yourself. Your typical actions and behaviors to situations or those actions and behaviors from members of the in-group are considered normal to you. Everything experienced outside of those actions and behaviors is seen as abnormal to you. When there are in-groups and out-groups, it creates an us-versus- them mentality. This mindset can create a negative work environment, especially if working as a manager for a multinational or cross-cultural organization.

Three Views of Culture In Unit I, we began to explore three different views of culture: parochialism, ethnocentrism, and pluralism. In Chapter 4, these different views are examined in greater detail. These three views show how complex cultures are and the challenges that they pose. Parochialism is defined as having a strong attraction to one’s in-group and being centered on one’s own community, region, religion, or culture (and even organization). They see their world as the only one and there is a lack of awareness of bias. Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s own country, culture, ethnic group, tribe, or way of life (and even organization) is unique, predominant, and superior to others (Levine & Campbell, 1972). They see other groups but maintain a sense of superiority to these other groups. Pluralism is defined as the view that all cultures have equal value and should all be respected and appropriately represented. They try to counteract biases as they occur and recognize the differences of groups that are different than their own.

Acculturation Cultural differences can influence interactions with people of different backgrounds in our workplace, especially those not in your in-group. Acculturation is a process used to address two cultural groups that have been in contact for a long period of time, not in short-term contact or a one-time contact situation. The purpose of acculturation is to facilitate business interactions while sustaining long-term and continuous relationships with both individuals and business partners. Acculturation is the dual process of cultural and psychological change that takes place as a result of contact between two or more cultural groups and their individual members (Berry, 2015). Berry (2015) further explains that for the acculturation process to be successful, social changes would need to take place at the institutional level. For the individual members, the goal is to change both behavior and attitude. It is not enough for someone to change their behavior and tolerate a co-worker, but it is also expected for attitudinal change to take place. Attitudinal change will result in accepting and appreciating cultural richness of all members. Research shows that it will take a long time for acculturation to happen, as this requires sustained and continuous interactions.

MGT 6306, Intercultural Management 4

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title

Another focus is on how expatriates (expats) should adapt in their new cultures. These are people who have settled abroad, outside of their native country. Organizations that have global presence may engage in expatriate initiatives by sending some employees or managers to operational locations in other parts of the world. These employees may be gone for a short time (6 months) to long time (1–2 years). It is important to note that one of the eligibilities is that these individuals are considered experts in their field. Apart from this, they should have other skills such as adaptability, cultural sensitivity, excellent communication, and interpersonal skills, which are all needed to interact with people in diverse cultures. For these expats, acculturation would also involve not only when they are in foreign countries but also when they repatriate. Expats who have been away from their home countries for a long time could experience reverse culture shock and would need the assistance to ease back into the workforce. The opening case in Chapter 4, “I Became Just Zeki” is an example of some of the challenges expats may face fitting back into their own culture.

The Acculturation Process Acculturation plays an important role in the way we interact in the workplace as well as in the business-to- business interactions in mergers and acquisitions (Nahavandi & Malekzadeh, 1988). An in-depth understanding and application of the acculturation process will help facilitate work processes in multicultural organizations. For example, if a United States-based company is involved in business with a company based in Saudi Arabia, the acculturation process would mean that meetings would not be held on a Sunday (for the U.S. members) nor on a Friday (for the Saudi Arabian members). Acculturation is not dominance, but rather a way to remain in business for the long haul. Examples of different types of acculturations are presented in Chapter 4 of the textbook. These examples show the extent to which companies would go to maintain and sustain business continuity. The acculturation process is depicted in Figure 4.3 of the textbook. It shows that first step is when people come together for a purpose (contact). Once the interaction starts, different views and opinions could result in a lot of disagreements (conflict). The last step is when all groups (or individuals) devise positive ways to work and respect one another (resolution/adaption). We can liken this process to the states of team formation, where the team has to go through forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning (Tuckman, 1965).

Acculturation Strategies We have already learned that when each individual values their culture more than others and believes that theirs is better than others, it is ethnocentrism. It is understandable, therefore, to appreciate that some individuals or groups may need more time to fully embrace the need for acculturation. Figure 4.4 in Chapter 4 maps out strategies to adopt in order to facilitate acculturation. They include assimilation or accommodation, integration or synergy, separation or dominance, and deculturation or marginalization (Nahavandi, 2022).

Conclusion Imagine being born with green glasses, which means that all you see is green. Another born with red glasses can only see red. Each of these individuals will be right when they say the world is green or red, respectively, and each will be correct in their stance. It is only when they decide to swap glasses that they will begin to understand and appreciate the reason for each other’s line of argument. This is analogous with culture. Every society has a strong value and belief system that will be very difficult to influence. To succeed in an overseas business setting, management must understand and adapt to foreign ways of thinking and acting. The figure below shows how the belief system is at the core of our attitudes, which is the most fundamental component of our values.

MGT 6306, Intercultural Management 5

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title

(O’Rourke, 2019)

According to O’Rourke (2019), beliefs are at the core of the system, acquired early in life and are the most fundamental of our values. Attitudes are outgrowths of our beliefs, are dependent on them and tend to be consistent with them. Opinions are at the fringes of our belief system and are the least stable. With all these comes the challenges faced by businesses. Throughout our lessons in this course, we are presented with the essential cultural self-awareness that supports the development of a cultural mindset. This includes how we view our culture, whether parochially, ethnocentrically, or plurally. These views show that there will always be challenges when working alongside people from different cultures, whether individually or as groups.

References Berry, J. W. (2015). Acculturation. In J. E. Grusec & P. D. Hastings (Eds.), Handbook of socialization: Theory

and research. The Guilford Press. Garcia‐Marques, T., & Mackie, D. M. (2001, February 1). The feeling of familiarity as a regulator of persuasive

processing. Social Cognition, 19(1), 9–34. Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J., & Minkow, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind.

McGraw-Hill. Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Levine, R. A., & Campbell, D. T. (1972). Ethnocentrism. Wiley. Nahavandi, A. (2022). The cultural mindset: Managing people across cultures. SAGE. Nahavandi, A., & Malekzadeh, A. R. (1988). Acculturation in mergers and acquisitions. Academy of

Management Review, 13(1), 79–90. O’Rourke, J. S. (2019). Management communication: A case-analysis approach. Pearson. Trompenaars, F., & Hampden-Turner, C. (2012). Riding the waves of culture: Understanding diversity in

global business. McGraw-Hill.

MGT 6306, Intercultural Management 6

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title

Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384–399. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0022100

Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science, 185, 1124-

1131. Suggested Unit Resources In order to access the following resources, click the links below. Watch the following video to learn more about ethnocentrism as a view of culture. Educational Video Group (Producer). (2005). Ethnocentrism (Segment 4 of 13) [Video]. In Overcoming

Barriers to Intercultural Communication: Successful Speaking. Films on Demand. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS&url=https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPl aylists.aspx?wID=273866&xtid=49198&loid=165185

The transcript for this video can be found by clicking the “Transcript” tab to the right of the video in the Films on Demand database. Read the following article to learn more about how diversity plays a role in organizational culture. Syed, A., Karim, A., Zaki, R., & Mubeen, H. (2019). Managing workforce diversity in multicultural

organizations: Some observations. Pakistan Journal of European Studies, 35(1), 79. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A589808772/PPDS?u=oran95108&sid=bookmark- PPDS&xid=59f2d416

Learning Activities (Nongraded) Nongraded Learning Activities are provided to aid students in their course of study. You do not have to submit them. If you have questions, contact your instructor for further guidance and information. Complete the Self-Assessment 3.1: Your Cultural Identity in Chapter 3 of your textbook. Note your responses for each question in a personal journal.