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intercultural_management_powerpoint.pptxIntercultural Management
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Definitions of National Culture
“Culture is the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one human group from those of another. Culture in this sense is a system of collectively held values.” -- Geert Hofstede
“Culture is the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organization, that operate unconsciously and define in a basic ‘taken for granted’ fashion an organization's view of its self and its environment.” -- Edgar Schein
A social glue. Learned behavior; a way of life for one group of people.
The set of norms, behaviors, beliefs and customs that exist within the population of a sovereign nation.
National culture refers to specific characteristics of a nation such as language, religion, ethnic and racial identity, and cultural history & traditions. National culture influences family life, education, economic and political structures, and, of course, business practices.
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Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions
Power distance index (PDI): "Power distance is the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally." Cultures that endorse low power distance expect and accept power relations that are more consultative or democratic.
High Power: higher power distance countries believe that inequality is good, everyone has a specific place, people should depend on their leader, and that the powerful should not hide their power and are entitled to many privileges. For example In Saudi Arabia, the monarchic system and religion have an impact of power structure. Obeying your superiors and supporting the government is of upmost importance.
Low Power: Those holding inferior positions are willing to question and challenge those in superior positions, whether it comes to decisions making or suggesting a new idea.
He is recognized internationally for having developed the first empirical model of “dimensions“ of national culture, thus establishing a new paradigm for taking account of cultural elements in international economics, communication and cooperation. Hofstede can be regarded as one of the leading representatives of intercultural research and studies. The findings of his research and his theoretical ideas are used worldwide in both psychology and management studies.
Individualism (IDV) vs. collectivism: "The degree to which individuals are integrated into groups". In individualistic societies, the stress is put on personal achievements and individual rights. People are expected to stand up for themselves and their immediate family, and to choose their own affiliations. In contrast, in collectivist societies, individuals act predominantly as members of a lifelong and cohesive group or organization. People have large extended families, which are used as a protection in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. For instance USA is an individualistic society whereas Japan is a collectivistic society.
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Uncertainty avoidance index (UAI): "a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity". It reflects the extent to which members of a society attempt to cope with anxiety by minimizing uncertainty. People in cultures with high uncertainty avoidance tend to be more emotional. They try to minimize the occurrence of unknown and unusual circumstances and to proceed with careful changes step by step planning and by implementing rules, laws and regulations. In contrast, low uncertainty avoidance cultures accept and feel comfortable in unstructured situations or changeable environments and try to have as few rules as possible. People in these cultures tend to be more pragmatic, they are more tolerant of change.
Masculinity (MAS), vs. femininity or Quantity of Life vs. Quality of Life. "The distribution of emotional roles between the genders". Masculine cultures' values are competitiveness, assertiveness, materialism, ambition and power, whereas feminine cultures place more value on relationships, work-life balance and quality of life. In masculine cultures, the differences between gender roles are more dramatic and less fluid than in feminine cultures where men and women have the same values emphasizing modesty and caring.
Long-term orientation (LTO), vs. short term orientation: First called "Confucian dynamism", it describes societies' time horizon. Long-term oriented societies attach more importance to the future. They foster pragmatic values oriented towards rewards, including persistence, saving and capacity for adaptation. In short term oriented societies, values promoted are related to the past and the present, including steadiness, respect for tradition, preservation of one's face, reciprocation and fulfilling social obligations.
Indulgence versus restraint (IVR): The extent to which members of a society try to control their desires and impulses. Whereas indulgent societies have a tendency to allow relatively free gratification of basic and natural human desires related to enjoying life and having fun, restrained societies have a conviction that such gratification needs to be curbed and regulated by strict norms.
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Implications for Business – Intercultural management
Meetings, Negotiations Business-related entertaining, Presentations, business cards, rituals and etiquette, decision making, Leadership Style Customer Behavior, Working on virtual teams
Project management
Job promotion/firing
Body language and Space
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| Linear-active | Multi-active | Reactive |
| Talks half the time plans ahead step by step polite but direct partly conceals feelings confront with logic dislikes losing face rarely interrupts job-oriented uses mainly facts truth before diplomacy sometimes impatient limited body language separates the social and professional Does one thing at a time within a fixed schedule. See compartmentalization of sequential programs, schedules, procedures as the surest route to efficiency. Time is money, scarce- keep moving and be on time. The present and future are more important. See Sven and Antonio. Also read this article Meetings are opened punctually in a "businesslike" fashion. minimal chitchatting, Strict "bullet-point" agendas are followed, task are segmented and approached in sequence . Meetings are there to make decisions and get things done. Read document “When cultures Collide” provided in iTunesU. | Talks most of the time plans grand outline only emotional displays feelings confronts emotionally has good excuses often interrupts people-oriented feelings before facts flexible truth impatient unlimited body language interweaves the social and professional Does several things at once - completing a human transaction is more important than keeping appointments or being on time.Time is a subjective commodity which can be manipulated, molded, irrespective of what the clock says. Tasks not completed today can be finished tomorrow. Exchange pleasantries for 10-25 minutes. Agendas are roundabout or circuitous. Meetings serve as a forum to get support or express eloquent ideas. Prefer to take points in random order or in order of importance and discuss them for hours. | Listen most of the time looks at general principles polite, indirect conceals feelings never confronts must not lose face does not interrupt very people-oriented statements are promises diplomacy over truth patient subtle body language connects the social and professional Time is cyclic, and there is plenty of it. The past is the background to present decisions. Problems/tasks are inside a pool and after a suitable period of reflection, decisions are made as to which ones to tackle, or to drop. There is a proper time and way for everything. Platitudes are mandatory and a fixed period of time has to elapse before the senior person indicates the work has begin. first sessions are occasions to establish status and trust. Things are not black or white, arguments ultimately converge and merge harmoniously. |
Richard Lewis’ Cultural Type Model
10/1/2015
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Erin Meyer’s Cultural Map
Communicating: explicit vs. implicit
Evaluating: direct negative feedback vs. indirect negative feedback
Persuading: deductive vs. inductive; specific vs. holistic
Leading: egalitarian vs. hierarchical
Deciding: consensual vs. top down
Trusting: task vs. relationship
Disagreeing: confrontational vs. avoid confrontation
Scheduling: structured vs. flexible
Let’s take a test: http ://erinmeyer.com/tools/
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The Culture Map (Erin Meyer)
When we say that someone is a good communicator, what do we actually mean? The responses differ wildly from society to society. The Communicating scale measures the degree to which people are high- or low-context, a metric developed by the American anthropologist Edward Hall (to be discussed next). In low-context cultures, good communication is precise, simple, explicit, and clear. Messages are understood at face value. Repetition is appreciated for purposes of clarification, as is putting messages in writing.
In high-context cultures, communication is sophisticated, nuanced, and layered. Messages are often implied but not plainly stated. Less is put in writing, more is left open to interpretation, and understanding may depend on reading between the lines.
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Edward T. Hall Low vs. High Context Societies
High context: In a high-context culture, there are many contextual elements that help people to understand the rules. As a result, much is taken for granted. This can be very confusing for a person who does not understand the 'unwritten rules' of the culture.
Low context: In a low-context culture, very little is taken for granted. While this means that more explanation is needed, it also means there is less chance of misunderstanding particularly when visitors are present.
Example: French contracts tend to be short (in physical length, not time duration). American contracts tend to be longer in order to explain the detail.
Why Americans Don’t get Irony.
High-context cultures tend to have a long shared history. Usually they are relationship-oriented societies where networks of connections are passed on from generation to generation, generating more shared context among community members. Japan is an island society with a homogeneous population and thousands of years of shared history, during a significant portion of which Japan was closed off from the rest of the world. Over these thousands of years, people became particularly skilled at picking up each other’s messages — reading the air.
By contrast, the United States, a country with a mere few hundred years of shared history, has been shaped by enormous inflows of immigrants from various countries around the world, all with different histories, different languages, and different backgrounds. Because they had little shared context, Americans learned quickly that if they wanted to pass a message, they had to make it as explicit and clear as possible, with little room for ambiguity and misunderstanding.
Americans are the most explicit or low-context culture there is (low-context meaning their conversation assumes relatively little intuitive understanding). This is not surprising for a young country composed of immigrants that prides itself on straight-talking.
Japan and other East Asian countries represent the other extreme. The most basic solution, is simply to be aware. Thus Americans in Japan should pay attention to what’s not being said; while Japanese in America should brace themselves for direct language.
Edward Hall’s metric
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Examples
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Evaluating
Americans may be very explicit communicators, but they are in the middle of the spectrum when it comes to giving negative feedback — as anyone who has been to an American school knows (tendency to say three good things for every negative or "if you do not have anything good to say do not say anything").
Israelis, Russians, and Dutch are among the most direct when it comes to negative feedback.
Japanese are among the most indirect.
All cultures believe that criticism should be given constructively, but the definition of “constructive” varies greatly. This scale measures a preference for frank versus diplomatic negative feedback. Evaluating is often confused with Communicating, but many countries have different positions on the two scales. The French, for example, are high-context (implicit) communicators relative to Americans, yet they are more direct in their criticism. Spaniards and Mexicans are at the same context level, but the Spanish are much more frank when providing negative feedback.
Dutch are too honest to be polite, and the British are too polite to be honest.
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Persuading
The ways in which you persuade others and the kinds of arguments you find convincing are deeply rooted in your culture’s philosophical, religious, and educational assumptions and attitudes. The traditional way to compare countries along this scale is to assess how they balance holistic and specific thought patterns. Typically, a Western executive will break down an argument into a sequence of distinct components (specific thinking), while Asian managers tend to show how the components all fit together and are interconnected and interdependent (holistic thinking)min.2.43 . See the two images that resulted when an American and a Japanese were asked to take a picture of a person. (Nisbett and Masuda study)
Beyond that, people from southern European and Germanic cultures tend to find deductive arguments (what is referred to as concepts-first arguments) most persuasive, focusing on evidence and analysis of that evidence before reaching conclusions. They want to know the why first.
Whereas American and British managers are more likely to be influenced by inductive logic (applications-first logic). focusing on a theoretical argument and its applications. They want to know the how first.
An example: How a person learns a language ( in some countries syntax, rules and grammar is learned first, in others you begin with conversations first)
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Leading
In Denmark, it is understood that the managing director is one of the guys, just two small steps up from the janitor,” This represents one extreme in attitudes toward leadership.
On the other side of the spectrum in countries like Japan and Korea, however, the ideal boss should stand far above the workers at the top of a hierarchy.
America’s outlook on leadership falls somewhere in the middle.
This scale measures the degree of respect and deference shown to authority figures, placing countries on a spectrum from egalitarian to hierarchical. The Leading scale is based partly on the concept of power distance, first researched by the Dutch social psychologist Geert Hofstede, who conducted 100,000 management surveys at IBM in the 1970s. It also draws on the work of Wharton School professor Robert House and his colleagues in their GLOBE (global leadership and organizational behavior effectiveness) study of 62 societies.
The case of Northern vs. Southern European countries.
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Deciding
This scale, measures the degree to which a culture is consensus-minded. We often assume that the most egalitarian cultures will also be the most democratic, while the most hierarchical ones will allow the boss to make unilateral decisions. This isn’t always the case. Germans are more hierarchical than Americans, but more likely than their U.S. colleagues to build group agreement before making decisions. The Japanese are both strongly hierarchical and strongly consensus-minded.
The Japanese famous ringi system, which involves building consensus at a lower level before bringing a proposal to a higher level, thus enabling broad corporate consensus. It usually starts at the mid-management level. when the proposal reaches each person, they read it, sometimes makes changes or suggestions, and then put their stamp of approval on it. Once everyone has approved at one level, it passes on to the next. This process continues until the idea reaches the highest management level and is or it is not implemented.
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Trusting
In some cultures, notably America, people don’t worry so much about trusting each other because they trust their legal system to enforce contracts, and so business negotiations focus on what’s practical.
In others, including many emerging market economies personal relationships are much more important, in part because people don’t trust their legal system to enforce contracts. Consider "wasta" "pituto", "palanca", "pistolao" or "guanxi way of doing business.
Cognitive trust (from the head) can be contrasted with affective trust (from the heart). In task-based cultures, trust is built cognitively through work. If we collaborate well, prove ourselves reliable, and respect one another’s contributions, we come to feel mutual trust. In a relationship-based society, trust is a result of weaving a strong affective connection. If we spend time laughing and relaxing together, get to know one another on a personal level, and feel a mutual liking, then we establish trust.
The case of Japanese drinking.
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Disagreeing
Different cultures actually have very different ideas about how productive confrontation is for a team or an organization. This scale measures tolerance for open disagreement and inclination to see it as either helpful or harmful to collegial relationships. In confrontational cultures attacking an idea is not the same as attacking the person. In non-confrontational cultures is not that easy to separate the opinion from the person.
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Scheduling
All businesses follow agendas and timetables, but in some cultures people strictly adhere to the schedule, whereas in others, they treat it as a suggestion. This scale assesses how much value is placed on operating in a structured, linear fashion versus being flexible and reactive.
Putting it all together, a TED talk on cross cultural communications
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The story of Sven and Antonio
Sven Svensson is a Swedish businessman living in Lisbon. A few weeks ago he was invited by a Portuguese acquaintance, Antonio, to play tennis at 10:00 AM. Sven turned up at the tennis court on time, in tennis gear and ready to play.
Antonio arrived half an hour late, in the company of a friend Carlos, from whom he was buying some land. They had been discussing the purchase that morning and had prolonged the discussion, so Antonio had brought Carlos along in order to finalize the details during the journey. They continued the business while Antonio changed into his tennis clothes, with Sven listening to all they said. At 11:00 they got on the court, and Antonio continued the discussion with Carlos while hitting practice balls with Sven.
When Sven remarked that the court had only been booked from 10:00 to 1:00, Antonio reassured him that he had phoned in advance to rebook it until noon. No problem.
It will probably come as no surprise to you to hear that Sven was very unhappy about the course of events. Why? He and Antonio live in two different worlds or, to put it more exactly, use two different time systems, Sven, as a good Swede, belongs to a culture which uses linear-active-time- that is, he does one thing at a time in the sequence he has written down in his date book. His schedule that day said 8:00 AM get up, 9:00 breakfast, 9:15 change into tennis clothes, 9:30 drive to the tennis court, 10:00-11:00 play tennis, 11:00- 11:30 beer and shower, 12:15 lunch, 2:00 PM go to the office and so on.
Antonio, who had seemed to synchronize with him for tennis from 10:00 to 11:00, had disorganized Sven’s day. Portuguese like Antonio follow a multi-active time system, that is, they do many things at once, often in an unplanned order.
If Sven had not been disorganized by Antonio, he would undoubtedly have played tennis, eaten at the right time and done some business. But Antonio had had breakfast, bough some land, played tennis , all by lunchtime. He had even managed to rearrange the tennis booking. Sven could never live like this, but Antonio does, all the time.
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Cultural Types: The Lewis Model
Must read "How different cultures understand time." See also word document “When cultures Collide.”
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Chart1
| 2010 | 2010 | 2010 |
| 2011 | 2011 | 2011 |
| 2012 | 2012 | 2012 |
| 2013 | 2013 | 2013 |
Sheet1
| Spring | Summer | Fall | |
| 2010 | 4% | 2% | 2% |
| 2011 | 3% | 4% | 2% |
| 2012 | 4% | 2% | 3% |
| 2013 | 5% | 3% | 5% |
| To update the chart, enter data into this table. The data is automatically saved in the chart. |
