MODULE I
INTRODUCTION
Lesson 1
Managing in a Global Environment
Lesson 2
Hofstede’s Framework for Assessing
Cultures
Lesson 3
The Global Leadership and Organizational
Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) Framework
for Assessing Cultures
Lesson 4
The Filipino Culture
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MODULE I

INTRODUCTION
Globalization has been an ever-present reality of the human world. One way or the
other humans have been working as agents of globalization along with the
technology produced with the time (Özşahin, Ed., 2019).
According to Ritzer, “globalization is a trans planetary process or set of processes
involving increasing liquidity and the growing multidirectional flows of people,
objects, places, and information as well as the structures they encounter and
create that are barriers to, or expedite, those flows…” (Ritzer, 2010: 2).
Culture on the other hand can be defined as “patterns, explicit and implicit, of
and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive
achievements of human groups, including their embodiment in artifacts; the
essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e. historically derived and
selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the
one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other, as conditional
elements of future action” (Kroeber & Kluckhohn 1952: 181).
OBJECTIVES
After studying the module, you should be able to:
1. Define Multiculturalism and Globalization.
2. Assess cultural differences using Hofstede’s Framework.
3. Identify dimensions on which national cultures differ using GLOBE.
4. Explain the strong Filipino values in the workplace

DIRECTIONS/ MODULE ORGANIZER
There are four lessons in the module. Read each lesson carefully then answer the
exercises/activities to find out how much you have benefited from them. Work on
these exercises carefully and submit your output to your subject instructor.
In case you encounter difficulty, discuss this with your instructor during the faceto-face meeting. If not contact your instructor at the College of Management,
Hospitality Department.
Good luck and enjoy reading each lesson.
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Lesson 1

Managing in a Global
Environment
The Political/Legal Environment
U.S. managers are accustomed to a stable legal and political system. Changes tend
to be slow, and legal and political procedures are well established. Elections are
held at regular intervals, and even when the political party in power changes after
an election, it’s unlikely that anything too radical will happen. The stability of
laws allows for accurate predictions. However, this certainly isn’t true for all
countries. Managers must stay informed of the specific laws in the countries where
they do business. For instance, the president of Zimbabwe is pushing ahead with
plans to force foreign companies to sell majority stakes to locals. Such a law would
be a major barrier to foreign business investment. In China, foreign businesses are
finding a less-than-welcoming climate as government policies are making it more
difficult to do business there. And Swedish retailer Ikea has halted further
investment in Russia because of continual governmental red tape delays. Per
Kaufmann, Ikea’s Russia country manager said the decision was “due to the
unpredictability of the administrative processes in some regions” (Robbins and
Coulter, 2012).
Also, some countries have risky political climates. Chicago-based Aon Corporation
does an annual political risk assessment, and its 2010 report found that businesses
faced the highest level of risk in Afghanistan, Congo DRC, Iran, Iraq, North Korea,
Somalia, Sudan, Venezuela, Yemen, and Zimbabwe. Company analysts said that
political and financial instability remained a feature of the business landscape as a
result of the global recession. They also said that “2010 will see elevated political
risk levels continue before an overall tendency for improving global business
conditions becomes established.” Managers of businesses in countries with higher
risk levels face dramatically greater uncertainty. In addition, political interference
is a fact of life in some regions, especially in some Asian countries such as China.
Keep in mind that a country’s political/legal environment doesn’t have to be risky
or unstable to be a concern to managers. Just the fact that it differs from that of
the home country (the United States or other) is important. Managers must
recognize these differences if they hope to understand the constraints and
opportunities that exist (Robbins and Coulter, 2012).
The Economic Environment
A global manager must be aware of economic issues when doing business in other
countries. First, it’s important to understand a country’s type of economic system.
The two major types are a free market economy and a planned economy. A free
market economy is one in which resources are primarily owned and controlled by
the private sector. A planned economy is one in which economic decisions are
planned by a central government. Actually, no economy is purely a free market or
planned. For instance, the United States and the United Kingdom are toward the
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free market end of the spectrum but do have governmental intervention and
controls. The economies of Vietnam and North Korea are more planned. China is
also a more planned economy, but until recently had been moving toward being a
more free market. Why would managers need to know about a country’s economic
system? Because it, too, has the potential to constrain decisions. Other economic
issues managers need to understand include currency exchange rates, inflation
rates, and diverse tax policies (Robbins and Coulter, 2012).
The Cultural Environment
Countries have cultures too. National culture includes the values and attitudes
shared by individuals from a specific country that shape their behavior and their
beliefs about what is important. Which is more important to a manager—national
culture or organizational culture? For example, is an IBM facility in Germany more
likely to reflect German culture or IBM’s corporate culture? Research indicates that
national culture has a greater effect on employees than does their organization’s
culture. German employees at an IBM facility in Munich will be influenced more by
German culture than by IBM’s culture. Legal, political, and economic differences
among countries are fairly obvious. The Japanese manager who works in the United
States or his or her American counterpart who works in Japan can get information
about laws or tax policies without too much effort. Getting information about
cultural differences isn’t quite that easy! The primary reason? It’s difficult for
natives to explain their country’s unique cultural characteristics to someone else
(Robbins and Coulter, 2012).
THINK!
Explain the relevance of the political/legal, economic, and cultural environments
to global business.
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LESSON 2

Hofstede’s Framework for
Assessing Cultures
Geert Hofstede developed one of the most widely referenced approaches to
helping managers better understand differences between national cultures. His
research found that countries vary on five dimensions of national culture. These
dimensions are described in Exhibit 3-5, which also shows some of the countries
characterized by those dimensions (Robbins and Coulter, 2012).
THINK!
How are Hofstede's cultural dimensions useful?
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Lesson 3

The Global Leadership and Organizational
Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) Framework
for Assessing Cultures
The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) research
program extended Hofstede’s work by investigating cross-cultural leadership
behaviors and giving managers additional information to help them identify and
manage cultural differences. Using data from more than 18,000 managers in 62
countries, the GLOBE research team (led by Robert House) identified nine
dimensions on which national cultures differ. Two dimensions (power distance and
uncertainty avoidance) fit directly with Hofstede’s. Four are similar to Hofstede’s
(assertiveness, which is similar to achievement-nurturing; humane orientation,
which is similar to the nurturing dimension; future orientation, which is similar to
long-term and short-term orientation; and institutional collectivism, which is
similar to individualism-collectivism). The remaining three (gender differentiation,
in-group collectivism, and performance orientation) offer additional insights into a
country’s culture (Robbins and Coulter, 2012).
Here are descriptions of these nine dimensions:
1. Power distance: the degree to which members of a society expect power to
be unequally shared.
2. Uncertainty avoidance: a society’s reliance on social norms and procedures
to alleviate the unpredictability of future events.
3. Assertiveness: the extent to which a society encourages people to be tough,
confrontational, assertive, and competitive rather than modest and tender.
4. Humane orientation: the degree to which a society encourages and rewards
individuals for being fair, altruistic, generous, caring, and kind to others.
5. Future orientation: the extent to which a society encourages and rewards
future-oriented behaviors such as planning, investing in the future, and
delaying gratification.
6. Institutional collectivism: the degree to which individuals are encouraged by
societal institutions to be integrated into groups within organizations and
society.
7. Gender differentiation: the extent to which a society maximizes gender role
differences as measured by how much status and decision-making
responsibilities women have.
8. In-group collectivism: the extent to which members of society take pride in
membership in small groups, such as their family and circle of close friends,
and the organizations in which they’re employed.
9. Performance orientation: the degree to which a society encourages and
rewards group members for performance improvement and excellence.
Exhibit 3-6 provides information on how different countries rank on these nine
dimensions (Robbins and Coulter, 2012)
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THINK!
How might the cultural differences in the GLOBE dimensions affect how
managers (a) use workgroups, (b) develop goals/plans, (c) reward
outstanding employee performance, and (d) deal with employee conflict?
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Lesson 4

The Filipino Culture
The Roots of the Filipino
The Malay
• Charm- virtues like faith, hope, and charity;
• Readiness to adjust to new things and desire to be above all nice;
• Willingness to accept a new concept or a new master.
• Religion- a mixture of Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity.
• Nature-lover
• Loves fiesta.
• Motivated by rewards.
• He is carefree.
• Highest pride: marunong makisama.
• Conditioned to expect defeat and to think small.
• Family is his best social security system.
The Chinese
• Introduced pottery-making and agricultural development.
• Mind: blend of philosophy and pragmatism.
• Ideals: Filial Piety, man as a “social being” and “shagginess within and
kingliness without”
The Indian
• The Indian elements in the Filipino lie mainly in art, manners, beliefs, and
language.
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The Heart of the Filipino
Spanish Christian and Greco- Roman Culture
• Christianization and social organization
• Spanish Catholicism- is based on folk Christianity mixed with pre-Spanish
superstitions and pagan beliefs.
• Quixoticism
• Delicadeza
• Emphasis on appearance, reputation, privilege, and status.
The Mind of the Filipino
American and Pragmatism
• The public health system, road system, mass education, English language,
democracy, public service and administration, presidential system,
congress, and municipal government
• The Filipino became pragmatic- deals with things sensibly and realistically.
• Protestant ethics of rationality, questioning, independent thinking, and of
direct communication.
THINK!
Cite Filipino values commonly seen in the workplace.
References:
Ivancevich, J. M., Konopaske, R., Matteson, M. T. (2014) Organizational Behavior
& Management. Tenth Edition
Özşahin, C.,(Ed., 2019) Globalization: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach
Robbins, S. P., Coulter, M. (2012) Management. Eleventh Edition
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