Cross Cultural Communication
Chapter 8
How We Accord Status
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Learning Outcomes
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Importance of Status in a society
How we accord status?
Ascription Vs Achievement
Correlation between status and other social factors
Ascription and performance
Business negotiations and Status
Practical tips for having business dealing with
Ascription and Achievement oriented cultures
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Achieved vs. Ascribed Status
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Achieved status
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Ascribed Status
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According status to people on the basis of their
achievements
Refers to doing
According status to people by virtue of their age,
class, gender, education, and so on
Refers to being
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Achieved vs. Ascribed Status
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Achieved status
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Ascribed Status - status is ascribed on the
basis of :
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On the basis of performance ( top division salesperson for
five consecutive years)
Age ( a more experienced salesperson)
Gender ( very masculine and aggressive)
Social connections ( friends in the highest places)
Education ( top scholar in the institution)
Profession ( electronics is the future)
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Importance of status
in society
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Status is the social recognition and position of an individual in a society
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There are variations in Status levels
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Everyone is constantly striving to get status
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The higher status you have in a society the higher respect and privilege one can
enjoy
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All societies give higher status to certain of their member than others
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People can accord status more one way
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If the status of a person is lowered or undermined the person seems to be
worried or annoyed in a society
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How We accord Status?
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People with higher status are focused upon in
a society (the personality and activities)
 Political leaders
 Film actors & actresses
 Celebrities
Societies accord status to people on the basis
of :
 Ascription – called ascribed Status
 Achievement – called achieved status
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Ascription Vs Achievement
Achieved Status
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USA, Canada, and Norway
are the countries strongly
believe in achieved status
The track record of a person
helps in earning/achieving
the status
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Best employee of the month for
the past 8 months
consecutively
Best performance record for the
past 12 years consecutively
Ascribed Status
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Arab nations, Indian subcontinent, most of European
nations, and Asian countries,
strongly believe in ascribed
status
People get respect
depending on certain factors
such as family background,
age, class, gender,
education, etc.
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Ascription Vs Achievement
Exercise - I
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Mark following statements on a five-point
scale ( 1- strongly agree, 5-strongly
disagree)
A.
The most important thing in life is to think and act
in the ways that best suit the way you really are,
even if you do not get things done.
B.
The respect that a person gets is highly dependent
on their family background.
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Ascription Vs Achievement
Exercise – I : Findings
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Fig.8.1 & 8.2 show the percentage of participants
who disagree with each of the statement
A.
In Fig.8.1, those countries which disagree in
minority are ascriptive cultures. In America, 75%
disagree to statement A
B.
In Fig.8.2, 87% of Americans disagree that status
depends mainly on family backgrounds.
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Correlation with Social Factors
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Status and:
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Age ( a senior salesman in the company)
Gender (a particular gender holds higher status)
Education (the name of institution where you graduated from; the type
of degree you have earned)
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Profession (the nature of profession)
Money (how rich you are)
Position (the position you hold in your organization)
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Correlation with Social Factors
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Status and:
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Possession (properties, etc.)
Citizenship (Are you a US citizen?)
Marriage – (married people are respected well)
Religion
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Protestantism – achieved
Catholic, Buddhism, Hinduism - ascribed
Class (social strata)
Relationships/connections
Attitude ( the nature of your attitude determines the altitude of your
status)
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Ascription and Performance
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Assumes and expects that a person is the
expert in his/her area
Questions the person’s expertise if a small
piece of information is unknown
Ascribing and Achieving are interrelated.
Ascription is necessary to achieve many
things
Ascription contributes a lot to achieving
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Achievement and Ascription oriented
cultures’ Negotiations
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Achievement culture find difficult to adjust when the ascribed
team of negotiators has some obligations towards some senior
person who influences their opinion.
Ascription culture negotiators may feel upset from aggressive
team of men and women in achieving team.
In some some Ascriptive cultures (especially Japanese) older
people actually are wiser for the years they have spent in the
corporation, gone through extensive training and in-house
education and for the sheer numbers of subordinates briefing
them
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Achievement and Ascription oriented
cultures’ Negotiations
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The Translator’s Role :
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In Achievement Culture : expected to be neutral,
not serving the interests of either party
In ascription Cultures: more of an interpreter, not
only of language, but also of gesture, meaning
and context. Very much on the side of own team.
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Achievement and Ascription oriented
cultures’ Negotiations
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The Role of Titles:
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In Achievement Culture : qualification matters, if it is
relevant to task at hand
In diffuse Cultures: important to tie in your status with your
organization.
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Achievement as an individual may be discounted, compared to
the status organization ascribes to you.
Chief of ( Marketing, Production, Finance etc.)
Deals may be lost because the representative was not seen
to have high status back home
Ascriptive cultures need assurance that your organization
has great respect for you and that you are at or near the top
position.
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Achievement and Ascription oriented
cultures’ Negotiations
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Relationship with Mother Company :
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In Achievement Culture :
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In ascription Cultures:
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Representative’s “word”would be honored by company.
The individual has delegated authority to use personal
judgment.
Representative can not commit without extensive
consultations, unless he or she is the head of the
organization
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Reconciling Achievement and
Ascription
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See Fig.8.3 for reconciliation process.
Both views develop together.
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Those who “start” with ascribing usually ascribe not just status
but future success or achievement and thereby help to bring it
about.
Those who “start” with achievement usually start to ascribe
importance and priority to the persons and projects which have
been successful.
Hence all societies ascribe and all achieve. It is once again a
question of where the cycle starts.
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Reconciling Achievement and
Ascription : Exercise - II
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There are different grounds for according status to employees based on
what people have succeeded in doing or on what qualities are attributed to
them by the social system. Consider the statements opposite :
1.
Status should lie in the permanent attributes of employees, i.e. their education, seniority, age,
position and the level of responsibility ascribed. status should not change according to occasion or
just because of the recent successes. It reflects intrinsic worth, not the latest forays.
2.
Status should lie in the permanent attributes of employee, i.e. their education, seniority, age,
position and the level of responsibility ascribed.Such status tends to be self-fulfilling, with
achievement and leadership resulting from what the corporation values in you and expects of you.
3.
Status is a matter of what the employee has actually achieved, his or her track record. Yet over time,
this deserved reputation becomes a permanent attribute, allowing success to be renewed and
enabling even more achievement to occur.
4.
Achievement or success is the only legitimate source of status in business. The more recent the
achievement, the better and more relevant it is to current challenges. Achievement gets its
significance from the humble nature of the individual’s birth and background, and from beating the
odds.
Indicate with “1” the approach you believe would be favored by your closest colleague at
work, and with “2” the approach which you believe would be their second choice.
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Reconciling Achievement and
Ascription : Exercise - II
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If you have chosen 2 or 3 you have expressed a belief in
reconciling achieved and ascribed status.
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Answer 2 affirms socially ascribed status which leads to
achievement and success.
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Answer 3 affirms achieved status that is believed to lead to
social ascription.
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Answer 1 & 4 respectively reject achieved and ascribed
status.
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Practical tips for doing the business in ascription
and achievement oriented cultures
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Table 1 / Pg.118 highlight the differences between
achievement –oriented and ascription oriented
cultures
Table 2 / Pg.118 shows tips for doing business in
both cultures
Table 3 / Pg.119 shows when managing and being
managed in both cultures
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