Needs to write Leadership Portfolio

NATIONAL CULTURE IDENTITIES 1

NATIONAL CULTURE IDENTITIES 1

BU521 Organizational Leadership

Week 9 Assignment

National Culture Identities

By Raushan Ibrayeva

Southern States University

Dr. Michelle L. Clemons

June 09, 2019

National Culture Identities

The term national culture is used particularly to refer to the various norms and beliefs that are used as a basis for behavior in a given country. They provide direction on how people of that country live and behave. These cultures are adopted by the people and make them common; these cultures also create a foundation for the establishment of organizational culture in the county since many organizations usually extract their cultures from the national cultures. However, different countries have different national culture basing on the value they espouse. Geert Hofstede in his research identified five value dimensions that help us to comprehend the cultural difference of different countries in the world (McNett, 2015).

Individualism versus Collectivism (IDV): This category of culture involves a situation where people put significance or priority either to oneself or the group. Individualism is where a person focuses only upon his/ her own interest first. People focus to fulfills their own interest to make sure they are satisfied first. This is the category I fall because I believe that it enhances personal freedom and provides room for an individual to explore self-abilities that can lead to invention and innovation especially if we are focusing in a business organization. Through individualism, a person can be able to make sound and correct decisions and judgement and get motivated to carry out certain stuff (McNett, 2015). However, collectivism, on the other hand, tends to shift more focus on the reliant groups. This is where people help each other in one way or another regardless of who and where they come from. Focus on self is greatly reduced in this category. This category work to enhance the personal relationship that in turn contributes towards peaceful coexistence. Certainly, both of them have their various pros and cons and therefore we should include both of them at some point in life.

Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI): Uncertainty is where a person is not aware of what is coming. This type of national culture explains the extent to which the people of a given country feel disturbed by the fact that the future is actually unknown and they tend to find ways to deal with this fact. High-uncertainty culture refers to a scenario where people don’t stand to put up with risk, they try the best they can to avoid unknown. They feel comfortable only when the future is known, they usually keep firm rules and polies of beliefs and behavior. arguably, this is the category I fall because it challenges people to do more in order to secure themselves against the unknown, this might result to hard work, invention, and innovation which may lead to development and success of various sectors. However, when it comes to the low-uncertainty avoidance culture people are just contented with whatever they have and they usually accept the unknown and usually accept risk. Not only that but in this culture, people are also more relaxed but they put more emphasis on the practice rather than rules and regulations (Piepenburg, 2011).

Power Distance Index (PDI): In any nation or society, there will always be variations in power, this kind of culture seeks to explain situations in the society where power is unevenly distributed such that there are those who are more powerful than others. This culture also influences the acceptance and endorsement of a work characteristic that relates to certain authority. high power distance culture has such characteristics where the people with little power always have expectations and tend to accept this uneven distribution of power and they, therefore, accept a hieratical order in the society. This is the category I fall because this category of culture enhances respect for age for instance children are taught to respect the elders as they grow, honor of titles for example respect for authority in a business organization, in this category also, people are expected to follow laws and regulation that enables life to be better and sane. High power distance culture also enhances empowerments by the seniors as stated by ("Leadership in High Power Distant Cultures," 2016). Moreover, in low Power Distance, people strive to balance this situation amongst all individuals in the community.in this category, disparities in cultures cannot be condoned for instance in a business organization where employees wish to be consulted especially during decision making process and for such reasons, they intend for a leader who is democratic and competence.

Long Term Orientation versus Short Term Normative Orientation (LTO): Different countries uphold or preserve certain associations with their past circumstances. This normally enables it to be able to tackle certain challenges as they arise in present days or in the future. short term normative orientation culture refers to a culture where people normally hold on to their past events for long, for instance, they might prefer to preserve their time-honored traditions and norms, members of this category of culture in most cases fear and resist any change. However, long term Normative orientations is a category I fall and, in this case, people rarely focus on the past but they keep moving with changes as they occur while preparing themselves for the future, they embrace the modern style of doing things such as technology, modern education and so forth. These changes help them to prepare and focus on the future. People in this category of culture are dynamic and future oriented as they work hard to make life better, they also save more and cut on the level of their expenditure, they are always determined in whatever they do (McFarlin & Sweeney, 2012).

Masculinity versus Femininity (MAS): This kind of culture depicts the different roles people play in society that is always competitive. Masculinity culture put more emphasis on the different gender roles such that men undertake in order for them to realize success, acquire power and so forth whereas on the other hand femininity culture depicts a situation where women focus on caring values, they spend most time making life quality by practicing humility, kindness, modesty and so forth certainly gender roles in this category seem to be overlapping. In this category, I remain neutral to both sides because men and women have different levels of the brain (Poelmans, Green Haus, & Maestro, 2013).

References

Leadership in High Power Distant Cultures. (2016). doi:10.4135/9781473990869

McFarlin, D. B., & Sweeney, P. D. (2012). International Organizational Behavior: Transcending Borders and Cultures. Routledge.

McNett, J. M. (2015). Hofstede'S Cultural Dimensions. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 1-1.

Piepenburg, K. (2011). Critical Analysis of Hofstede's Model of Cultural Dimensions. Munich, Germany: GRIN Verlag.

Poelmans, S., Greenhaus, J., & Maestro, M. L. (2013). Expanding the Boundaries of Work-Family Research: A Vision for the Future. London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.