What is Culture?
A system of values and norms shared among a group of people and, when taken together, constitute a design for living.
Norms and Values
Norms:
Social rules and guidelines that prescribe appropriate behavior in particular situations.
Folkways:
Routine conventions of everyday life.
Mores:
Central to functioning of society and its social life.
Values:
Abstract ideas about what a group believes to be good, right, and desirable.
The bedrock of culture.
Have emotional significance.
Freedom.
Culture, Society and the Nation-State
Not a strict one-to-one correspondence
Nation-
States are political creations
Determinants of Culture
Economic
Philosophy
Education
Political
Philosophy
Culture:
Norms and
Value
Systems
Language
Social
Structure
Religion
Social Structure
Group two or more individuals with a shared sense of identity
Individual
Hard to
Build
Teams
Western
Mobile
Managers
Entrepreneurship
Lack of
Loyalty
Eastern
Group
Identity
Nonmobile
Managers
Lack of
Entrepreneurship
Lifetime
Employment
Social Stratification
Typically defined by family background, occupation, and income.
Caste:
Virtually no mobility
Class: some social mobility
Class Consciousness:
May play a role in a firm’s operations
Religion
Shared beliefs and rituals concerned with the realm of the sacred.
Ethical Systems:
Moral principles or values used to guide and shape behavior.
Shapes attitudes toward work and entrepreneurship and can affect the cost of doing business.
43%
World’s Religions
20%
4%
5%
10%
18%
Christian
Islam
Hindu
Buddhist
Confucian
Other/Nonreligious
Religion and Economic Implications
Christianity
“ Protestant Work Ethic” and “The Spirit of
Capitalism ”.
Islam
Favors market-based systems.
No payment or receipt of interest.
Hinduism
Asceticism may have an impact.
Caste system plays a role.
Buddhism
Little emphasis on entrepreneurial behavior .
Confucianism
Loyalty, reciprocal obligations, and honesty in dealings.
Language
Allows people to communicate.
Structures the way the world is perceived.
Directs attention to certain features of the world rather than others.
Helps define culture.
Creates separatist tendencies?
Spoken Language
6%
5% 4% 3%
20%
62%
Other
Chinese
English
Hindi
Russian
Spanish
Nonspoken Language
Nonverbal cues: eyebrows fingers/thumbs hand gestures feet personal space body gestures
Education
Formal education supplements family role in teaching values and norms
For int’l business, it is a determinant of national competitive advantage
Medium to learn language, conceptual, and math skills
Cultural norms such as respect, obedience, honesty
Value of personal achievement and competition
Focus on facts of social and political nature of society
Obligations of citizenship
Hofstede
Study (IBM) is a general way to look at differences between cultures.
4 dimensions:
Power distance.
Individualism versus collectivism.
Uncertainty avoidance.
Masculinity versus femininity.
But:
Assumption of one-to-one relationship between culture and nation-state.
Research may be culturally bound.
Respondents worked within a single company.
Work is beginning to look dated (1967-1973).
Work Related Values for Selected Countries
Argentina
Brazil
France
India
Japan
Mexico
Netherlands
U.S.A.
Power
Distance
49
81
38
40
69
68
77
54
Uncertainty
Avoidance
86
Individualism
46
Masculinity
56
82
53
46
76
86
40
92
30
80
91
38
71
48
46
49
43
56
95
69
14
62
Table 3.1
Culture is Dynamic
Cultural Change
Culture and Competitive Advantage
The connection suggests:
Which countries are likely to be the most viable competitors.
Which countries in which to locate production facilities and do business.
Culture and Ethics
Do the “right” thing.
Thomas Donaldson’s Three Principles:
Respect for core human values (human rights), which determine the absolute moral threshold for all business activities.
Respect for local tradition.
The belief that context matters when deciding what is right and what is wrong.
