ASSIGNMENT 1. Culture and business (Due 26-Jan- 2016)
REQUIREMENTS:
Background reading: Chapter 4
TASK:
Search the internet for articles/websites on business culture and etiquette for a country of your choice. Try
searching with the key words "doing business in". But be sure you get articles/websites on culture not
national regulations. ANSWER BOTH QUESTIONS.
1. Briefly explain how some of the insights discussed might be explained by the country's Hofstede
scores.
2. Identify a cultural paradox-what advice in the website seems to contradict the country's Hofstede
score
EXAMPLE: USA (DO NOT SELECT THE USA AS YOUR COUNTRY)
Step 1: Access Hofstede cultural dimension scores
You should be able to get this in your textbook, my slides, or from a google search. For example,
If you go to
http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html
and select the USA, you get
http://geert-hofstede.com/united-states.html
Look at the scores on the culture page: the US seems to be very high on Individualism and low on power
distance scores
2. Access Business culture websites for a country of your slide
For instance, if I put a google search on "Doing Business in America culture", I get a link to this site
below
http://www.worldbusinessculture.com/American-Management-Style.html
3. Identify the cultural fit and cultural paradox. For example:
Cultural fit with Hofstede index: The web pages suggests that business teams in America would often get
together to work on a specific project, and break up as soon as the project is complete. Teams are
transitory, and team break-up is less traumatic than in other cultures, suggesting a fit with a high
individualism-low collectivism culture that the US is.
Possible cultural paradox: The website suggests that "Titles can be very confusing within American
organisations with a bewildering array of enormously important-sounding job descriptors on offer
(Executive Vice-President etc.). Titles, in any case, tend to be a poor reflection of the relative importance
of an individual within a company. Importance is linked to power, which could be determined by a
number of factors such as head-count responsibility, profitability of sector or strategic importance to the
organisation at that point in time".
This emphasis on titles and the existence of a power structure seems to mark a deviation from a relatively
low power distance country, as determined in Hofstede index.
Note: Hofstede has recently added two more dimensions. Feel free to discuss these as well if you want.