Chapter 3
Understanding the Role of Culture
PowerPoint by
Kristopher Blanchard
North Central University
© 2006 Prentice Hall
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Overview
Culture and its effects on organizations
Cultural variables
Cultural value dimensions
The Internet and culture
Developing cultural profiles
Culture and management styles around the
world
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Key Terms
Culture Savvy
Cultural Sensitivity or Cultural Empathy
Culture of a society
Self reference criterion
Parochialism
Ethnocentrism
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Culture and Its Effects on
Organizations
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Culture and Its Effects on
Organizations
Once upon a time there was a
great flood, and involved in this
flood were two creatures, a
monkey and a fish. The monkey,
being agile and experienced, was
lucky enough to scramble up a
tree and escape the raging waters.
As he looked down from his safe
perch, he saw the poor fish
struggling against the swift
current. With the best of
intentions, he reached down and
lifted the fish from the water.
The result was inevitable.
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Cultural Variables
Never assume that a manager can transplant
American, or Japanese, or any other
country’s styles, practices, expectations, and
processes
Managers need to develop a cultural profile
that identifies the specific differences found
in each country
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Subcultures
Residents of the country only conform to
the national character to a certain degree
Could be from ethnic, geographic, or other
variables
Good managers treat people as individuals
and they avoid any form of stereotyping
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Influences on National Culture
Kinship – guides family relationships
Education – formal or informal education of
workers affects workplace expectations
Economy – means of production and
distribution in a society influences all
aspects of the resource allocation
Politics – system of government imposes
varying constraints on an organization
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Influences on National Culture
Religion – spiritual beliefs of a society are so
powerful that they overpower all other cultural
aspects
Associations – the formal and informal groups that
make up a society
Health – system of health care affects employee
productivity
Recreation – the use, attitude, and choice of how
to use leisure time
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Cultural Value Dimensions
Values are a society’s ideas about what is
good or bad, right or wrong
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Project GLOBE Cultural
Dimensions
Assertiveness: tough, confrontational, and
competitive vs. modest and tender
Future orientation: planning and investing vs.
short term or instant gratification
Performance Orientation: performance
improvement and excellence, initiative and a sense
of urgency vs. tradition, loyalty, family, and an
association of competition with defeat
Humane Orientation: fairness, generosity, caring
and kindness vs. power and self-enhancement
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Cultural Clusters
Ten cultural clusters
MNCs may find it less risky and more
profitable to expand into more similar
cultures rather than those which are
drastically different.
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Hofstede’s Value Dimensions
Power Distance
– How much people accept equality in power; high power
distance reflects an acceptance of power inequality among
institutions, organizations, and individuals. Low power
distance means people expect equality in power
Uncertainty Avoidance
– The degree to which members of a society feel
uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity and thus
support beliefs and behaviors that promise certainty and
conformity
Individualism
– A value for a loosely knit social framework in which
individuals are expected to take care of themselves
Collectivism
– A preference for a tightly knit social framework in which people
look out for one another and organizations protect their
members’ interests
Masculinity
– A preference for achievement, heroism, assertiveness, work
centrality, and material success
Femininity
– A preference for relationships, cooperation, group decision
making, and quality of life
Rank Orderings of 10 Countries Along Four
Dimensions of National Value Systems (adapted)
Country
Australia
Costa Rica
France
India
Japan
Mexico
Sweden
Thailand
United States
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Power
Uncertainty
Individualism
Masculinity
7
8
3
2
5
1
10
4
6
7
2 (tie)
2 (tie)
9
1
4
10
6
8
2
10
4
6
7
8
3
9
1
5
9
7
6
1
2
10
8
4
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Critical Operational Value
Differences
Time
Change
Material factors
Individualism
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The Internet and Culture
Norms of information privacy differ among
nations and have their roots in culture and
history, e.g. Europeans attitudes toward
privacy are much stricter than in the US>
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Developing Cultural Profiles
Composite pictures of working
environments, people’s attitudes, and norms
of behavior developed from research,
personal observations, and discussions with
people.
Used to anticipate differences in things like
motivation, communication, ethics, loyalty,
and individual and group productivity
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Comparative management in Focus
See examples in text
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Culture and Management Styles
See examples in text of Saudi Arabia and
China.
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Looking Ahead
Chapter 4 - Communicating Across Cultures
– The Communication Process
– The Culture – Communication Link
– Information Technology
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Culture Savvy
A working knowledge
of the cultural
variables affecting
management decisions
Return
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Cultural Sensitivity or Cultural
Empathy
An awareness and an
honest caring about
another individual’s
culture.
Return
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Culture of a society
Comprises the shared values,
understandings, assumptions, and goals that
are learned from earlier generations,
imposed by present members of a society,
and passed on to succeeding generations.
Return
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Self reference criterion
The unconscious
reference point of
one’s own cultural
values
Return
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Parochialism
Occurs when a Frenchman, for example,
expects those from or in another country to
automatically fall into patterns of behavior
common in France.
Return
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Ethnocentrism
Describes the attitude of those who operate
from the assumption that their ways of
doing things are best – no matter where or
under what conditions they are applied
Return
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