.Chapter

05

Culture, Management Style And

Business Systems

Modular:Afjal Hossain

Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing

PSTUMcGraw-Hill/Irwin International Marketing, 13/e

Required Adaptation

• Adaptation is a key concept in international marketing.• As a guide to adaptation, all who wish to deal with individuals, firms, or

authorities in foreign countries should be able to meet 10 basic criteria:– 1) open tolerance– 2) flexibility– 3) humility– 4) justice/fairness– 5) ability to adjust to varying tempos– 6) curiosity/interest– 7) knowledge of the country– 8) liking for others– 9) ability to command respect– 10) ability to integrate oneself into the environment

Degree of Adaptation• Essential to effective adaptation is awareness of

one’s own culture and the recognition that differences in others can cause anxiety, frustration, and misunderstanding of the host’s intentions.

• The self-reference criterion (SRC) is especially operative in business customs.

• The key to adaptation is to remain American but to develop an understanding of and willingness to accommodate the differences that exist.

Cultural Imperatives• The business customs and expectations that must be

met and conformed to or avoided if relationships are to be successful.

• Friendship motivates local agents to make more sales.• The significance of establishing friendship cannot be

overemphasized, especially in those countries where family relationships are close.

• In some cultures a person’s demeanor is more critical than in other cultures.

• What may be an imperative to avoid in one culture is an imperative to do in another.

Cultural Electives and Exclusives• Cultural electives:– Relate to areas of behavior or to customs that cultural

aliens may wish to conform to or participate in but that are not required.

– A cultural elective in one county may be an imperative in another.

– Cultural electives are the most visibly different customs and thus more obvious.

• Cultural exclusives:– Those customs or behavior patterns reserved exclusively

for the locals and from which the foreigner is barred.

Authority and Decision Making: PDI

• "Power distance is the extent to which less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally."

• Power distance describes also the extent to which employees accept that superiors have more power than they have. Furthermore that opinions and decisions are right because of the higher position some has.

• In countries with high power distance employees are too afraid to express their doubts and disagreements with their autocratic and paternalistic bosses. The index for power distance describes the dependence of relationships in a country

Authority and Decision Making: PDIHi PDI Low PDI

Hierarchical Value Equality

Social Role and Inheritance = Power Knowledge and respect = Power

Manipulation is more common More egalitarian views

Higher distrust of others (not in their group) stronger boundaries

More trusting of others

Less written/formal information Tasked centered: What needs to be done

Knowledge is situational; relational Knowledge is more transferable (codified)

More internal understanding of what is communicated: less direct

Rule oriented, people play by external rules

More long term relationships More short term relationships

Power is coercive rather than legitimate Power is more legitimate

Those who hold power are entitled to such Employees are less afraid to question superiors

Authority and Decision Making: PDI

• Influencers of the authority structure of business:– High PDI Countries

• Mexico, Malaysia– Low PDI Countries

• Denmark, Israel• www.kwintessential.co.uk/map/hofstede-power-distance-index.html

• Three typical authority patterns:– Top-level management decisions– Decentralized decisions– Committee or group decisions

Management Objectives and Aspirations

• Culture influences affect the attitude of managers towards innovation, and conducting business. To fully understand the management style of a country we must understand that nations values:– Personal security and job mobility• Relate directly to basic human motivation and therefore have

widespread economic and social implications.– Personal life• Worldwide study of individual aspirations, (David McClelland).

– Greece, work gets in the way of enjoying life– America, work ethic = standard of living– Japan, work = sense of purpose

• Is profit more important than personal life

Management Objectives and Aspirations

• Culture influences affect the attitude of managers towards innovation, and conducting business. To fully understand the management style of a country we must understand that nations values:– Affiliation and social acceptance• In some countries, acceptance by neighbors and fellow

workers appears to be a predominant goal within business.– In Asian countries high importance is placed on fitting in with a group

» Question: What do you do for a living» American Answer: I’m an engineer (Individualist) » Japanese Answer: I work for Mitsubishi (Collective)

– Power and achievement• South American countries business leader = social or

political power• America, business leaders = money

Annual Hours WorkedBritain 1,719

Canada 1,776

Germany 1,480

Hong Kong 2,287

Japan 1,842

Norway 1,399

Singapore 2,307

United States 1,979

Contextual Background of Various Countries

• Insert Exhibit 5.1

Contextual Background of Various Countries

• High Context Culture: Communication depends heavily on the contextual or nonverbal aspects of communication– Who says it– When it is said– How it is said

• Low Context Culture: Communication depends on more explicit, verbally expressed communication – Germans, very low context oriented: Just give the

facts, very frank and blunt

Communication Styles• Face-to-face communication:

– Managers often fail to develop even a basic understanding of just one other language.

– Much business communication depends on implicit messages that are not verbalized.

• Internet communications:– Nothing about the Web will change the extent to which

people identify with their own language and cultures.– Estimates are that 78% of today’s Web site content is

written in English, but an English e-mail message cannot be understood by 35% of all Internet users.

– Country-specific Web sites– Web site should be examined for any symbols, icons, and

other nonverbal impressions that could convey and unwanted message.

• Formality and tempo

P-Time versus M-Time• Monochronic time:– Tend to concentrate on one thing at a time– Divide time into small units and are concerned with promptness– Most low-context cultures operate on M-Time

• Polychronic time:– Dominant in high-context cultures– Characterized by the simultaneous occurrence of many things– Allows for relationships to build and context to be absorbed as parts of

high-context cultures.

• Most cultures offer a mix of P-time and M-time behavior, but have a tendency to be either more P-time or M-time in regard to the role time plays.

• As global markets expand more businesspeople from P-time cultures are adapting to M-time.

Negotiations Emphasis• Business negotiations are perhaps the most

fundamental business rituals.• The basic elements of business negotiations are the

same in any country.– They relate to the product, its price and terms,

services associated with the product, and finally, friendship between vendors and customers.

• One standard rule in negotiating is “know thyself” first, and second, “know your counterpart.”

Gender Bias in International Business

• Women represent only 18% of the employees who are chosen for international assignments.

• In many cultures women are not typically found in upper levels of management, and men and women are treated very differently.– Asia, Middle East, Latin America

• Prejudices toward women in foreign countries• Cross-mentoring system– Lufthansa

• Executives who have had international experience are more likely to get promoted, have higher rewards, and have greater occupational tenure.

Female Directors on Corporate Boards as a % of Totals

• Insert Exhibit 5.2

Corruption Defined• Types of Corruption:

– Profits (Marxism)– Individualism (Japan)– Rampant Consumerism (India)– Missionaries (China)

• Criticisms of Mattel and Barbie:– Sales of Barbie declined worldwide after the global

standardization– Parents and government did react– Mattel’s strategy boosted sales of its competition

Bribery: Variations on a Theme• Bribery and Extortion:– Voluntary offered payment by someone seeking

unlawful advantage is bribery.– If payments are extracted under duress by someone in

authority from a person seeking only what he are she is lawfully entitled to that is extortion.

• Subornation and Lubrication:– Lubrication involves a relatively small sum of cash, a

gift, or a service given to a low-ranking official in a country where such offerings are not prohibited by law.

– Subornation involves giving large sums of money, frequently not properly accounted for, designed to entice an official to commit an illegal act on behalf of the one offering the bribe.

Bribery: Variations on a Theme (continued)

• Agent’s Fees:

– When a businessperson is uncertain of a country’s rules and regulations, an agent may be hired to represent the company in that country.

– The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act– Change will come only from more ethically and

socially responsible decisions by both buyers and sellers and by governments willing to take a stand.

Ethical and Socially Responsible Decisions

• In normal business operations, difficulties arise in making decisions, establishing policies, and engaging in business operations in five broad areas:– Employment practices and policies– Consumer protection– Environmental protection– Political payments and involvement in political affairs of the country– Basic human rights and fundamental freedoms

• Laws are the markers of past behavior that society has deemed unethical or socially irresponsible.

• Three ethical principles to help the marketer distinguish between right and wrong, determine what ought to be done, and properly justify his or her actions:– Utilitarian Ethics– Rights of the Parties– Justice or Fairness

Culture’s Influence on Strategic Thinking

• British-American– Individualistic

• Japan & Germany– Communitarian

• In the less individualistic cultures labor and management cooperate.

• A competitive, individualistic approach works well in the context of an economic boom.

• Fourth kind of capitalism – that common in Chinese cultures– Predicted by culture

A Synthesis, Relationship-Oriented vs. Information-Oriented Cultures

• Studies are noting a strong relationship between Hall’s high/low context and Hofstede’s Individualism/Collective and Power Distance indexes.

• Not every culture fits every dimension of culture in a precise way.

• Information-Oriented Culture– United States

• Relationship Culture– Japan

• Synthesis of cultural differences allows us to make predictions about unfamiliar cultures.