culture and business-2

8/14/2019 Culture and Business-2

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Cultural Environment

An Understanding of Culture & its Impact on Business


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What IS Culture ?

The integrated sum total oflearned behavioural traits that armanifest & sharedby members of society

OR

The way in which people in a society collectively

attach meanings to concepts & contexts around

them & respond on the basis of those meanings


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MeaningOrganization culture has been defined as the

philosophies, ideologies, values, assumptions,beliefs, expectations, attitudes & norms thatknit an organization together & are shared byits employees.


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4 feature are distinct to

cultureBeliefs, arts, customs

Passed on from generation to generation

Shared phenomenonNormative value


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Characteristics of CultureIndividual Initiative The degree of responsibility,freedom & independence that individuals have.

Risk Tolerance The degree to which the employeesare encouraged to be aggressive, innovative & risk

seeking.Direction The degree to which the organizations

creates clear objectives & performance in a coordinatedmanner.

Integration The degree to which units within theorganizations are encouraged to operate assistance &

support to their subordinates.Management Support The degree to which managers

to provide clear communication assistance & support totheir subordinate.


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ContinueControl The number of rules & regulations & the amount ofdirect supervision that is used to oversee & control employeebehavior.

Identity The identity to which members identity with theorganization as a whole rather than with their particular workgroup or field of professional expertise.

Reward system The degree to which reward allocation arebase on employee, performance criteria in contrast to seniority,favoritism & so on.

Conflict Tolerance The degree to which employeesencouraged the air conflicts & criticism openly.

Communications Pattern The degree to whichorganizational communications are restricted to the formalhierarchy of authority.


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What IS Culture ?

Culture as ways of living

Conscious and unconscious values, ideas, attitudes,

and symbols that

shape human behaviour

Culture is learned, not innate

Culture defines the boundaries between different

groups

All facets of culture are interrelated


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Levels of cultureNational Culture

Management

Organizational Culture OccupationalCulture

Business Culture


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National CultureIt is dominant culture with in the political

boundaries of the nation state. The dominantculture usually represents culture of the people

with greatest population or the greatest politicalor economic power.

National culture has considerable significancefor the international mangers who need to

manage culture diversities.


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Business CultureIt represents norms, values & beliefs that

pertain to all aspects of doing business in aculture. Business culture tells people the

correct, acceptable ways to conduct business ina society.Selection Process of Employee

Motivational Program

StructureStrategies

Negotiation with other business people


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Occupational CultureSuch as physicians, lawyers, accountants &

craftspeople, have distinct cultures calledoccupational culture.

The occupational culture cannot be ignoredby the manager just because of the dominantimportance of national & business culture


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How is culture created?External Adaptation & survivalMission & strategyGoalsStrategyMonitoring

Internal IntegrationLanguageTeam ValueReward & Punishament


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Material Life

Value System

Education Religion

Aesthetics

Language

SocialInteraction

Componentsof culture

language hastwo parts: the

spoken and the

silent language

social interactions among people; nuclear

family, extended family; reference groups

ideas and

perceptions that

a culture upholds

in terms of

beauty and good

taste

communitys set of beliefs

that relate to a reality

that cannot be verified

empirically

One of the major vehicles to

channel from one

generation to the next

technologies that areused to produce,

distribute, and

consume goods and

services

values shape

peoples norms

and standards

Components of Culture


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Differences in CultureIncreasingly, managers must deal with multiple

ethnic groups with very different cultures.Thanks to globalization, you are likely to workwith Japanese, French, Chinese, German and all

sorts of other nationalities. It is important torecognize that people from different cultureshave are different in a variety of ways,including

different ways of looking at things

different ways of dressing

different ways of expressingpersonality/goodness


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A) High Context vs Low Context

A low context culture is one in which things are fully (though concisely)spelled out. Things are made explicit, and there is considerable dependenceon what is actually said or written. A high context culture is one in which thecommunicators assume a great deal of commonality of knowledge and views,so that less is spelled out explicitly and much more is implicit orcommunicated in indirect ways. In a low context culture, more responsibility isplaced on the listener to keep up their knowledge base and remain plugged

into informal networks. Low context cultures include Anglos, Germanics and Scandinavians. High

context cultures include Japanese, Arabs and French. Implications Interactions between high and low context peoples can be problematic.

Japanese can find Westerners to be offensively blunt. Westerners can find Japanese tobe secretive, devious and bafflingly unforthcoming with information

French can feel that Germans insult their intelligence by explaining the obvious, while

Germans can feel that French managers provide no direction Low context cultures are vulnerable to communication breakdowns when they

assume more shared understanding than there really is. This is especially truein an age of diversity. Low context cultures are not known for their ability totolerate or understand diversity, and tend to be more insular.


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B) Monochronic vsPolychronic Monochronic cultures like to do just one thing at a time. They value a

certain orderliness and sense of there being an appropriate time andplace for everything. They do not value interruptions. Polychroniccultures like to do multiple things at the same time. A manager'soffice in a polychronic culture typically has an open door, a ringingphone and a meeting all going on at the same time.

Polychronic cultures include the French and the Americans. TheGermans tend to be monochronic.

Implications Interactions between types can be problematic. German

businessman cannot understand why the person he is meeting is sointerruptible by phone calls and people stopping by. Is it meant toinsult him? When do they get down to business?

Similarly, the American employee of a German company is disturbedby all the closed doors -- it seems cold and unfriendly.


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C) Future vs Present vs PastOrientation

Past-oriented societies are concerned with traditional values and waysof doing things. They tend to be conservative in management and slowto change those things that are tied to the past. Past-oriented societiesinclude China, Britain, Japan and most spanish-speaking LatinAmerican countries.

Present-oriented societies include the rest of the spanish-speakingLatin American countries. They see the past as passed and the futureas uncertain. They prefer short-term benefits.

Future-oriented societies have a great deal of optimism about thefuture. They think they understand it and can shape it through theiractions. They view management as a matter of planning, doing andcontrolling (as opposed to going with the flow, letting things happen).The United States and, increasingly, Brazil, are examples of future-

oriented societies.


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D)Quantity of Time In some cultures, time is seen as being a limited resource which is constantlybeing used up. It's like having a bathtub full of water which can never bereplaced, and which is running down the drain. You have to use it as it runsdown the drain or it's wasted. In other cultures, time is more plentiful, if notinfinite. In old agricultural societies, time was often seen as circular, renewingitself each year.

Implications

In societies where time is limited, punctuality becomes a virtue. It is insulting towaste someone's time, and the ability to do that and get away with it is anindication of superiority/status. Time is money. In cultures where time isplentiful, like India or Latin American, there is no problem with making peoplewait all day, and then tell them to come back the next day.

Time-plentiful cultures tend to rely on trust to do business. Time-limited culturesdon't have time to develop trust and so create other mechanisms to replace

trust (such as strong rule-by-law).


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E) Power DistanceThe extent to which people accept differences in powerand allow this to shape many aspects of life. Is the bossalways right because he is the boss, or only when he getsit right?

Implications

In high power distance countries (most agrariancountries), bypassing a superior is unsubordination. Inlow power distance countries (US, northern europeans,Israel), bypassing is not usually a big deal.

In the US, superiors and subordinates often interact

socially as equals. An outsider watching a party ofprofessors and graduate students typically cannot tellthem apart.


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F) Individualism vs Collectivism In individualist cultures, individual uniqueness, self-determination is valued. A

person is all the more admirable if they are a "self-made man" or "makes uptheir own mind" or show initiative or work well independently. Collectivistcultures expect people to identify with and work well in groups which protectthem in exchange for loyalty and compliance.

Paradoxically, individualist cultures tend to believe that there are universal

values that should be shared by all, while collectivist cultures tend to accept thatdifferent groups have different values. Many of the asian cultures are collectivist, while anglo cultures tend to be

individualist. Implications A market research firm conducted a survey of tourist agencies around the world.

The questionnaires came back from most countries in less than a month. But theagencies in the asian countries took months to do it. After many telexes, it was

finally done. The reason was that, for example, American tourist agenciesassigned the work to one person, while the Filipinos delegated the work to theentire department, which took longer. The researchers also noticed that thetelexes from the Philippines always came from a


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Indian Values & workplace behavior India is diverse & demographically complex country.Dominant Indian values are affinity to family, humility, non

competitiveness, spiritual harmony, respect for wisdom & age,patience, cosmic harmony, cooperation, generosity.

The famous Indian scriptures Bhagavad Gita focuses onKarma or work & considers it to be the sacred duty of everyperson.

Perform good deeds,Bhagavad Gita summarizes that work done with ideals of truth

& selfishness & love & not for personal gains of money, power& fame, equips us with great power. However, times have

changed & so have people.


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Current Practices

Training!!

70% of US companies provides no cross-culturaltraining.

Employees for international assignmentsFlexible work timings

Clear Communicators

Comfortable in new situations


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Ultimately

Think Globally. Act

Locally.~ Derek Torrington, 1994

Learn Globally and Deliver Locally

culture and business-2

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