Culture & Management
• Definitions of culture
•Theoretical frameworks of culture
•How culture affects management

What is culture?
• For a culture to exist, its members need to have:
– shared meanings
– shared understanding
– shared sense making

Culture
• Culture is a collection of behavior patterns
– such as thoughts, manners and actions which members have shared, learned and passed on to succeeding generations

At a fundamental, basic level, culture is a group’s solution to human needs and problems
(individual and collective) that has evolved over generations.
Each culture has its own: logic, rules of behavior & conduct

A culture cannot exist without a society
A society is the group of people who create and give significance to its shared ways.

Other definitions of culture
• A collective programming of the mind
(Hofestede)
• A complex whole which includes:
– knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, customs, habits, and values

Sathe’s levels of culture
• Basic assumptions
– underlying assumptions of society’s relationship to nature/others/themselves
• expressed values
– values & beliefs - “shoulds” “oughts” “musts”
• observable aspects/manifest culture
– artifacts, symbols, rituals, gestures, dress, heroes

Beliefs
• Statements of fact about the ways things are

Values
• Preferred states about the ways things should be
• Ideals

Key elements of Culture humans’ relationships to:
Nature
Status & Power
Self
Others
Communication styles

How is culture learned?
Primary socialization - a complex process through which we learn appropriate age, gender, ethnic and social class behavior

How else is culture learned?
Subculture socialization appropriate behavior in a distinct cultural group that might differ from the dominant group secondary socialization knowledge skills to achieve adult roles -such as educational and workplace training

We learn culturally appropriate behaviors from our families, friends, schools, religious institutions media

Organizational culture
• Like national cultures, organizations have their own cultures that consist of:
– structured systems of policies/procedures
– shared assumptions and values
– a collective sense of belonging

Culture & Management
• Culture affects management in various ways
• It informs such questions as:
– What is valued?
– Whom is the company for?
– What are are goals?
– How far ahead do we plan?
– Who are we as company - collective identity

Culture & Management
Historically, culture has been the most neglected influence on management practices. Nonetheless, management means different things to different people in different cultures

Theoretical frameworks for understanding culture
• Hofestede
• Hall
• Kluckhohn & Strodbeck
• Tropenaars

Hofestede
• 4 distinct dimensions
– power distance (hierarchy)
– uncertainty avoidance (the need to avoid ambiguity)
– individualism vs. collectivism (attachment to a group)
– career success (masculinity) vs. quality of life
(femininity)

Strengths & Weaknesses
• Work-related values are not universal
• Local values affect interpretations of rules
• He assumes cultural homogeneity
• He worked within a single industry & company

Edward Hall
• High Context vs. Low Context cultures

High context
• High context depends heavily upon:
– external environment
– situational context
– non-verbal behavior
– meaning indirectly conveyed
– relationships are long-lasting
– agreements may be verbal & changeable

Low context
• External environment less important
• Direct, often blunt communication
• Non-verbal behavior less important
• Explicit information given, ambiguity avoided
• Meaning directly conveyed
• relationships are shorter-term

Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck
• 6 basic orientations
– What is the person’s relationship to nature?
– What is the person’s relationship to others?
– What is the modality of human activity?
– What is the temporal focus of human activity?
– What is the person’s concept of space?

What is the nature of people?
• Fixed
• Changeable
• Good
• Evil
• Mixed

What is the person’s relationship to others?
• Lineal (hierarchical)
• Individualistic
• Collectivist

What is the modality of human activity?
• Doing
• Being
• Contained (controlling)

What is the temporal focus of human activity?
• Future oriented
• Past oriented
• Present oriented

What is the person’s concept of space?
• Private space
• Public space
• mixed

Tropenaars- Seven parameters
– Group/individualism: collective vs. individual
– Feelings/relationships: neutral vs. emotional
– How far we get involved: specific vs. diffuse
– How we accord status: achievement vs. assigned
– Nature: control vs. harmony
– Time: a commodity or relational
– Relationships/rules: universalism vs. paticularism