Group Dynamics (Cross Cultural Issues)

8/2/2019 Group Dynamics (Cross Cultural Issues)

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GROUP DYNAMICS

CROSS CULTURAL ISSUES


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What is Culture?

We all belong to an entire collection ofcultures

national cultures

subcultures (based on regions, tribes etc)

organizational or corporate cultures

industry cultures

professional or functional cultures


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Culture

Culture can be defined as a sharedsystem of values, beliefs, and attitudes

It affects our own actions and the way wedistinguish the actions of others. Culture isnot a product of a single individuals

personality, nor does it usually change

significantly from one generation to thenext.


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What is Culture?

Culture is a complex concept, with manydifferent definitions.

We tend to limit our thinking about culture to

racial and ethnic differences. A broader viewalso includes religion, class, gender, etc.

Simply put, culture refers to a group orcommunity that shares common experiences

that shape the way they understand the world. Itincludes groups one is born into, such asgender, race or national origin. It also includesgroups we join or become part of.


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What is Culture? continued

Culture refers to the socially transmitted values,

beliefs and symbols that are more or less sharedby members of a social group. Kevin Avruch,

Culture as Context Culture is a common system of knowledge and

experiences that result in a set of rules orstandards; these rules and standards in turn

result in behavior and beliefs that the groupconsiders acceptable. Pat K. Chew, The

Pervasiveness of Culture in Conflict


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What is Culture? continued

Culture is an iceberg, of which we see only the visibletip, also called as explicit culture. Explicit culture isrepresented by artifacts and products, such as language,food, artistic expression, behaviour and lifestyle (pace,public display of emotions, noise, physical contact, work

ethics etc).

Culture is an onion, with layers that must be peeledaway to reach the core of implicit culture, the universaltruths of the culture.

Culture is a mirror image, in which the values (what wewould like to do, how we would prefer to see ourselves)and norms (what we know we should do) are not samebut are transposed and sometimes opposite.


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Geert HofstedesDimensions of Culture

Uncertainty Avoidance

Power Distance

Individualism versus Collectivism Masculinity versus Femininity

Confucian Dynamism (added later)


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Uncertainty Avoidance

Low Uncertainty Avoidance High Uncertainty Avoidance

Willing to take risks Risk averse

Appreciate flexibility and informality inwork place

Favour rigid, formal decision-makingprocesses in work place

Self fulfilment is a strong motivator Security is a strong motivator

Latitude and discretion in decision

making rather than rigid internal rulesand regulations.

Order and predictability is paramount.

Rules important and must be obeyed.

United States, Malaysia, India, theUnited Kingdom, Singapore, Denmark,Sweden, Hong Kong

Germany, Spain, Portugal, Turkey,South Korea, Greece, Portugal, LatinAmerica, Belgium, Japan, France

Extent to which people feel comfortable when they are exposed to anambiguous or uncertain situation


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Organizations Perspective

Impact on Manager: A compensation specialist advisesa Singapore company to adopt a different compensationplan for its sales force in Japan. Unlike the home salesforce, which has low base pay and high commissions,

the Japanese sales representatives will receive highbase pay and lower commissions.

Impact on Managed: Before beginning a project, aFrench employee of a global non-profit organization asks

copious questions to ensure perfect understanding of themanagers expectations.


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Power Distance

Large Power Distance Small Power Distance

Power concentrated at the top Power equally distributed

Mechanistic characteristics Organic characteristics

Inequality among the members in thesociety

Lack of hierarchical authority

Lack of free communication acrossdifferent levels of the hierarchy

Promotes lateral communications

Centralized control Less centralization

Malaysia, Latin America, Middle East,China, Mexico, Panama, Indonesia,and India

Austria, Australia, New Zealand,Ireland, Denmark, Israel,Scandinavian Countries, the UnitedKingdom, and the United States

Extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and

organisations within a country expect and accept that power isdistributed unequally


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Impact on Manager: A U.S. manager in a LatinAmerican country plans to promote an individual basedon her work on an important project. Other managersexplain that they use a broader range of factors in thisdecision, including evidence of loyalty.

Impact on Managed: The performance of a SouthKorean sales force improves dramatically whenincentives are changed from individual rewards to teambonuses.


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Masculinity versus Femininity

Masculine Culture Feminine CulturePerformance-driven society whererewards and recognition are given forperformance.

People tend to emphasize the qualityof the whole life rather than money,

success and social status, which areeasier to quantify.

Major innovations are simply theoutcome of financial rewards, prestigeand a sense of accomplishment.

People are competitive, ambitious,and assertive and risk taking, in orderto achieve their goals. Give the utmost

respect and admiration to thesuccessful achiever .

Less competitive, higher priority onconcern for others and little distinctionis made between men and women in

the same position.

Switzerland, the United States, theUnited Kingdom, Mexico, Germany,Japan, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria,

Venezuela, Italy

Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden,Scandinavian Countries, Netherlands,Chile, Thailand


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Impact on Manager: A Swedish company promotesemployee development practices such as coaching andmentoring that emphasize providing empathy andsupport. A manager in Japan has trouble performing this

part of job. Impact on Managed: An HR department in Austria has

been instructed by its Danish headquarters to implementa new work-life balance program. They try, but the

program is not well accepted or implemented locally.


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Impact on Manager: A Chinese manager faced withpromoting one of two Nigerian supervisors chooses theone with the most tenure and best work attendance.

Impact on Managed: A Nigerian supervisor cannot

understand why hes been passed over for promotion inhis Chinese-owned company, though he is well placed inthis community and has given his manager appropriategifts.


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Cultural Dimensions(Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner)

Universalism versus Particularism

Specific versus Diffuse Cultures

Achievement versus Ascription Cultures

Individualism versus Communitarianism

Affective versus Neutral Culture

Time as sequence vs. Time as synchronization

Inner-directed versus Outer-directed


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A hi A i i


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Achievement versus AscriptionCultures

Countries that exhibit achievement cultures: the United States,Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Netherlands

Countries that exhibit ascription cultures: Egypt, Argentina,Czech Republic, Korea, Poland

From Organizations Perspective Impact on Manager: A British manager supervising a Czech office

senses hostility among the office employees after promoting ayoung worker. They obviously disagreed with the choice.

Impact on Managed: An ambitious young Australian who has

struggled to educate and establish herself is baffled by her Egyptianmanagers, who seem more impressed with the connections of herEgyptian team members than with her achievements.

I di id li


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Individualism versusCommunitarianism

Countries that exhibits individualistic cultures: Israel, Canada,the United States, Denmark

Countries that exhibits communitarian cultures: Egypt, Mexico,India, Japan, France

From Organizations Perspective Impact on Manager: A Japanese team leader has trouble creating

harmony within a global design team composed of Americans andMexicans.

Impact on Managed: An Indian employee assigned to a Canadian

office is perplexed by the competition among project teams that theoffices managers try to create.


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Inner-directed versus Outer-directed(Thinking)

Countries that exhibit inner-directed cultures: Israel, Norway, theUnited States, the United Kingdom, France

Countries that exhibit outer-directed cultures: Venezuela, China,Russia, Kuwait, Singapore

From Organizations Perspective Impact on Manager: A British company has outsourced design of a

component to a Russian firm. The British expect a design thatensures top performance across the full range of criteria and thelatest technology. The Russians argue that the British should think

more about what their end customers really require. Impact on Managed: A Norwegian employee assumes that if he

works hard enough, he will be rewarded with a promotion.


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Group Dynamics (Cross Cultural Issues)

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