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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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Organizations Perspective
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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Organizations Perspective
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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Organizations Perspective
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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