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Integrating Culture and Management |
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A major challenge of doing business internationally (be it structuring your organization, establishing foreign relations, selling, or getting the work done) is to adapt effectively to different cultures. Such adaptation requires an understanding of cultural diversity, perceptions, stereotypes, and values.
Because different cultures exist in the world, an understanding of the impact of culture on behavior is critical to the study of international management. If international managers do not know something about the cultures of the countries they deal with, the results can be quite disastrous.
The GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) project reflects an additional approach to measuring cultural differences. The GLOBE project identified nine cultural dimensions and extends and integrates previous analyses of cultural attributes and variables from researchers such as Geert Hofstede, Michael Bond, and Fons Trompenaars.
A quick overview (Table-1) illustrated below, shows a great deal of cultural diversity around the world. But thanks to the nine GLOBE dimensions, we have more precise understanding of how cultures vary. Closer study reveals telling cultural patterns, or cultural fingerprints for nations.
For example, the United States (US) managerial sample, for instance, scored high on assertiveness and performance orientation. Accordingly, Americans are widely perceived as pushy and hardworking. Switzerland’s high scores on uncertainty avoidance and future orientation help explain its centuries of political neutrality and world-renowned banking industry. Singapore is known as a great place to do business because it is clean and safe and its people are well educated and hardworking. This is no surprise, considering Singapore’s high scores on social collectivism, future orientation, and performance orientation. In contrast, Russia’s low scores on future orientation and performance orientation could foreshadow a slower than hoped for transition from a centrally planned economy to free enterprise capitalism.
Table -1
Countries Ranking Highest and Lowest on the GLOBE Cultural Dimensions |
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Dimension |
Description |
Highest |
Lowest |
Power distance |
Defined as the degree to which members of an organization or society expect and agree that power should be unequally shared |
Morocco, Argentina, Thailand, Spain, Russia, South Korea, India |
Denmark, Netherlands, South Africa-black sample, Israel, Costa Rica |
Uncertainty avoidance |
Defined as the extent to which members of an organization or society strive to avoid uncertainty by reliance on social norms, rituals, and bureaucratic practices to alleviate the unpredictability of future events |
Switzerland, Sweden, German-former West, Austria, Japan, Spain |
Russia, Hungary, Bolivia, Greece, Venzuela, Denmark, Great Britan |
Societal collectivism |
Refers to the degree to which organizational and societal institutional practices encourage and reward collective distribution of resources and collective action |
Sweden, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Denmark |
Greece, Hungary, Germany-former east, Argentina, Italy |
In-group collectivism |
Refers to the degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty, and cohesiveness in their organizations or families |
Iran, India, Morocco, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan |
Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand, Netherlands, Finland, United States (US), Canada, Australia |
Gender egalitarianism |
Defined as the extent to which an organization or a society minimizes gender role differences and gender discrimination |
Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Denmark, Sweden |
South Korea, Egypt, Morocco, India, China |
Assertiveness |
Defined as the degree to which individuals in organizations or societies are assertive, confrontational, and aggressive in social relationships |
Germany-former East, Austria, Greece, United States (US), Spain |
Sweden, New Zealand, Switzerland, Japan, Kuwait |
Future orientation |
Defined as the degree to which individuals in organizations or societies engage in future-oriented behaviors such as planning, investing in the future, and delaying gratification |
Singapore, Switzerland, Netherlands, Canada-English speaking, Denmark |
Russia, Argentina, Poland, Italy, Kuwait |
Performance orientation |
Refers to the extent to which an organization or society encourages and rewards group members for performance improvement and excellence |
Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Taiwan, United States (US) |
Russia, Argentina, Greece, Venzuela, Italy |
Humane orientation |
Defined as the degree to which individuals in organizations or societies encourage and reward individuals for being fair, altruistic, friendly, generous, caring, and kind to others |
Philippines, Ireland, Malaysia, Egypt, Indonesia |
Gremany-former West, Spain, France, Singapore, Brazil |
* Source: Adapted from M Javidan and R J House, “Cultural Acumen for the Global Manager: Lessons from Project GLOBE,” Organizational Dynamics. Spring 2001, pp 289-305
References:
Hofstede, G. Cultural Dimensions.
Hodgetts, R., & Luthans, F. (2006). International management: Culture, strategy, and behavior (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Varner, I., & Beamer, L. (2005). Intercultural communication in the global marketplace. New York: McGraw-Hill.
McShane−Von Glinow. (2004). Organizational Behavior (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Kreitner−Kinicki. (2003). Organizational Behavior (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
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