BE 6901 / BE2714 Cross Cultural Studies
Official (Closed), Non-Sensitive
TOPIC: NATIONAL CULTURE VERSUS CORPORATE CULTURE
National Culture
Groups of people naturally develop their own cultures. They have common
beliefs, experiences, values and expectations that make them unique.
Culture is one important defining factor of their own identity, providing them
with a sense of belonging, self-awareness and protection.
For ease of study and understanding cultural phenomenon, most
classifications are restricted to national belonging. Inhabitants of the same
country in general share the same history, exposed to the same media,
respect the same laws and have to adapt to similar situation. The
homogeneisation can explain why people from the same country could in most
cases be identified with a common culture.
Cross cultural communication | Pellegrino Riccardi | TEDxBergen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMyofREc5Jk
UPBRINGING DIFFERENCES IN COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHPuLfolJPc
Corporate Culture
What is corporate culture?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=gficoigz1xs
Organizational Culture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJia_p0c3BY
Companies have their own cultures which are different from those of other
companies. Organizational culture is comprised of broad guidelines which are
rooted in organizational practices learned on the job.
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BE 6901 / BE2714 Cross Cultural Studies
Official (Closed), Non-Sensitive
McDonald’s
http://panmore.com/mcdonalds-organizational-culture-analysis
Walt Disney Company Culture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEkksmYMvjY
IBM: A service Culture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ruPddoO48s
Life at Google
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA54HWLZ2e4
With globalization, there is a need for uniformisation of practices across
borders. Cases like McDonald’s demonstrate that a brand can carry with it
the signature of a particular corporate culture and align it with practices or
values that are global.
Standardisation or adaptation
Swedish furniture retailer IKEA sells many of the same products worldwide
without modification, adapting only the language used in the advertisements
and including different languages in the instructions and manuals.
Brand Culture
IBM - Smarter Marketing: The Branding of Culture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz3wb45FZLM
Brand culture is the culture that a company cultivates in order to powerfully,
consistently and competitively deliver its brand to market. It is how people
work together to bring the brand alive for customers. But brand cultures are
more than an expression of the brand itself; they are, by necessity, an
expression of the people who work for that brand and the decisions and ways
of working and behaving that they agree to work within.
The way brands connect with consumers has changed drastically over the
years. Today, brands need to look more actively and purposefully at the
culture buzzing around them—in entertainment, in fashion, in news, on social
media—and use that awareness to inform how they should best position and
integrate themselves into the world.
This is a more powerful form of branding, because by engaging with culture
more directly, brands in effect can become a part of that culture, thereby
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BE 6901 / BE2714 Cross Cultural Studies
Official (Closed), Non-Sensitive
deepening their relevance and connection with customers. And that has
never been more prescient or necessary.
Now, if companies develop brands in a silo and ignore what’s going on
around them, they come off as out of touch. Consumers no longer want to be
told what their culture looks like, nor what stories define it—they want to take
part in that development. Your brand must be a part of the culture, because
consumers are a part of that culture.
The goal for brands today, then, is this: tell stories that ingratiate your brand
in the culture so you become a part of it, too.
To accomplish this, the most successful brands integrate aspects of the
culture into their core message, and/or connect their brand to recent events
or moments that reflect what they want to stand for.
KFC: Because one ‘make a meal of it’ moment deserves another.
https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/film/kfc_keep_rolling
UOB Private Bank ‘The Book’ TV Commercial: Honesty. Integrity. These are
the values that define us, and guide our decisions and actions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSffykkToW8
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BE 6901 / BE2714 Cross Cultural Studies
Official (Closed), Non-Sensitive
National Culture Versus Corporate Culture
Two large research projects into culture differences (Hofstede 1980;
Hofstede et al. 1990) showed that national cultures differ mostly at the level
of values, while organization cultures differ mostly at the level of the more
superficial practices: symbols, heroes, and rituals. National cultures oppose
otherwise similar individuals, institutions and organizations across countries;
the pioneer study on national cultures was based on different national
subsidiaries of one large international business company. Organizational
(also called corporate) cultures oppose different organizations within the
same countries.
Intercultural Communication Adventure with Little Pilot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSt_op3fQck
Organizational cultures are rooted in practices learned on the job, and
they can change much faster. Their implications for management are
quite different.
The fact that national cultures were found to differ primarily in their values,
and organizational cultures in their practices, has profound implications for
the management of culture.
National cultures are rooted in values acquired in our childhood, they are
passed on from generation to generation, and their study belongs to
anthropology. They change over time because of outside influences,
following their own logic; they cannot be changed according to anyone’s plan,
neither by political nor by religious nor by business leaders. International
managers should see them as the material they have to work with.
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BE 6901 / BE2714 Cross Cultural Studies
Official (Closed), Non-Sensitive
On the other hand, organizational cultures, rooted in practices that can be
learned and unlearned throughout people’s lives, are basically changeable,
and their study belongs to organization sociology. They were created, usually
unconsciously, by the organizations’ founders and early members; their
development was influenced by managers and other significant members;
they can be changed and monitored, given enough time, money and
management attention.
International companies and international organizations always consist of
members with different national values. The way they function is through a
shared company or organization culture based on common practices.
Establishing, monitoring and adapting corporate or organizational practices is
a core strategic task for international management. Proper practices are what
keeps multinationals together.
Changing organizational culture is difficult and takes time. What is often
overlooked or at least underestimated when two or more companies
merge/integrate is how the underlying personal values of employees impact
how they perceive the corporate culture change efforts.
A person can learn to adapt to processes and priorities, and a person can be
persuaded to follow the exemplar behaviors of leaders in an organization.
But if these priorities and leadership traits go against the deeply held national
cultural values of employees, corporate values (processes and practices) will
be undermined. What is appropriate in one national setting is wholly
offensive in another. What is rational in one national setting is wholly
irrational in another. And, corporate culture never trumps national culture.
Day in the Life of a Typical Japanese Office Worker in Tokyo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdiWTYkY1uY
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