Mapping Cultures

1
Mapping Cultures

• THE MANY FACETS OF CULTURE AND HOW THEY AFFECT
  ORGANIZATIONS AND THE PEOPLE WITHIN THEM

2
Prerequisites for International SuccessorHow
does a firm overcome its"Liability of
Foreignness"?

• Motivation
• Strategy
• Organization
• People

3
CULTURE IN CONTEXT
Transformation Process
Culture
Input
Output
Environment Cultural Political Legal Economic Fin
ancial Historical Competitive
Organizational Group Individual
Task
Formal Organizational Arrangements
Individual
Feedback
From Nadler Tushman, A General Diagnostic
Model for Organizational Behavior
4
SOURCES OF POWER INFLUENCE

• Field Power
• Institutional
• Political
• Legal
• Demographic
• Educational
• Business
• Structure
• Interfirm alliances
• Financial
• Cultural
• National Local
• Historical
• Linguistic

• Arena Power
• Venture Structure
• Subsidiary, IJV, etc.
• Organizational structure
• Formal
• Informal
• In-group cultural ties
• Home office ties
• Interpersonal
• Centrality, Criticality
• Expert
• Language

5
External Influences on International Business

• Understanding a Companys Physical and Societal
  Environments
• Managers in the worldwide environment must
  understand
• Social science disciplines
• All functional business fields
• Each country has its own laws regulating
  business. Agreements among countries set
  international law.
• The Competitive Environment

6
WHAT IS CULTURE?
Culture is the pattern of shared values,
expectations, and behaviors developed and learned
by a group of people interacting over time.
7
WHAT IS CULTURE?
Culture is learned H.E.L.P.
H abits E xpectations L anguage P erception
8
Culture is a system of H.E.L.P.

• Habits
• Patterns of behavior and thought
• Expectations
• For ourselves and others, accepted norms
• Language
• Language and symbols with shared meaning
• Perspective
• About how the world works, assumptions

9
PERCEPTION
The cultural perspective that people bring with
them to an interaction affects not only their own
behaviors, but also their perceptions of the
behaviors of others.
10
HOW OTHERS SEE AMERICANS
GROUP B
GROUP A
RESERVED RUSHED/ TIME CONSCIOUS REALISTIC/
HARD-HEADED TEAM WORKER QUALITY
CONSCIOUS UNEMOTIONAL SERIOUS/ BUSINESSLIKE SELF-C
ONTROLLED
FRIENDLY/ OUTGOING RELAXED/ EASYGOING OPTIMISTIC I
NDEPENDENT OUTPUT-ORIENTED EMOTIONAL FUN-LOVING/JO
KING SELF-INDULGENT
11
DOES CULTURE MATTER?
12

• When Im angry I.......
• If I dont agree with an idea I.......
• When someone in my team has done a good job
  I.......
• If someone hasnt been pulling his/her load
  I.......
• A meeting is to...........
• If Im shown a picture of someones family and
  one of the members is fat

grin and bear it say that its interesting and
Ill think about it reward the group leave it
up to group pressure formalize a
decision laugh and comment on persons health
13
UNDERSTANDING CULTURE
Scheins Three Layered Diagnostic Model of
Culture -Artifacts On the surface, that can be
sensed easily -Values That can be or
inferred, or articulated - Assumptions Hidden
-- about man and the environment, about human
nature, human roles relationships, reality,
time, risk-taking..
14
Core Cultural Axioms

• Combines dimensions and values
• Focuses on major beliefs/values and links them to
  behavior relevant to business contexts

15
Cultures Influence on Work

16
Cultures Influence on Work
17
Cultures Influence on Work
18
Culture in Business

• Social Stratification System
• Vertical vs. flat organizational structure
• Age-seniority vs. expertise
• Gender-based distinctions
• Family-based groups
• Industrial groups
• Occupational distinctions

19

• Relationship Preferences
• Power distance
• Individualism vs. collectivism
• Communication
• Obtaining information
• High and low context cultures
• Explicit versus implicit communication
• Task and Information processing
• Precision of language
• Categorization of information
• Monochronic vs. polychronic

20

• Risk-taking Behavior
• Uncertainty avoidance
• Trust
• Fatalism
• Negotiation Decision-making
• Length of different stages of process
• Team sizes
• Power and authority issues
• Data versus stories as evidence
• Comfort with ambiguity
• Influence tactics--consensus-building,
• persuasion, fiat, reciprocity . . .

21
DECISION-MAKING
22
CULTURAL SPHERES
National
Organizational
Occupational
23
Various Focus Points of Culture

• National Culture
• Hofstedes dimensions of national culture
• Power distance, Uncertainty Avoidance,
  Individualism-collectivism, Masculinity-Femininity
  
• Sub-national cultures
• Organizational Culture
• The culture of Matsushita and Sony versus
  Japanese culture
• Individual culture
• Function of different affiliations, extent of
  socialization, learned through experience . . .
  , Stereotypes

24
Discussion Simulations

• Different Contexts of Culture

25
Feeling Upset at Work
26

• Choose between the following two extremes to
  conceive of a company what do you think is
  usually true? What do you think most people would
  prefer?
• A. One way is to see a company as a system
  designed to perform functions and tasks in an
  efficient way. People are hired to perform these
  functions with the help of machines and other
  equipment. They are paid for the tasks they
  perform.
• B. A second way is to see a company as a group of
  people working together. They have social
  relations with other people and with the
  organization. The functioning is dependent on
  these relations.

27
Two Ways to Work
G R O U P
System

28
Question

• A defect is discovered in one of the
  installations. It was caused by negligence of one
  of the members of a team. Responsibility for this
  mistake can be carried in various ways.
• A. The person causing the defect by
  negligence in the one responsible.
• B. Because he or she happens to work in a team,
  the responsibility should be carried by the group.

29
Four Building Blocks

• Concept of Self (How we interpret the human
  condition)
• Individualist-Collectivist
• Concept of Responsibility (Our relationship with
  others)
• Personal versus Societal Responsibility
• Concept of Time
• Monochronic-Polychronic
• One thing at a time-Multi-tasking
• Locus of Control (Fate)
• Internal-External

Based on Hall, 1959, 1977 Klukhohn Strodtbeck,
1961
30
RESPONSIBILITY
31
CONCEPT OF TIME
32
RELATIONAL TIME
33
LOCUS OF CONTROL
34
National Cultures
35
Hofstedes Dimensions of Workplace Culture

• Power Distance -- extent to which the less
  powerful members of institutions and
  organizations within a country expect and accept
  that power is distributed unequally, society is
  hierarchical
• Uncertainty Avoidance -- extent to which members
  of a culture feel threatened by uncertain or
  unknown situations. This feeling is, among other
  things, expressed through nervous stress and in a
  need for predictability a need for written and
  unwritten rules.
• Masculinity/Femininity -- Masculinity pertains to
  societies in which social gender roles are
  clearly distinct (i.e., men are supposed to be
  assertive, tough, and focused on material
  success, whereas women are supposed to be more
  modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of
  life) Femininity pertains to societies in which
  social gender roles overlap (i.e., both men and
  women are supposed to be modest, tender, and
  concerned with the quality of life).
• Individualism/Collectivism -- the degree to which
  the ties between individuals are loose (everyone
  is expected to look after himself or herself) or
  strong (people are integrated into strong,
  cohesive ingroups from birth onwards which
  protect them in exchange for unquestioning
  loyalty).

36
National Cultures
37
National Cultures
38
National Cultures
39
National Cultures
40
BILLIARD BALLS
U
.
S
.
J
A
P
A
N
G
E
R
M
A
N
Y
O
v
e
r
l
a
p
S
Y
N
C
H
R
O
N
Y
S
e
q
u
e
n
t
i
a
l
S
y
n
c
h
r
o
n
i
c
H
I
E
R
A
R
C
H
Y
R
a
n
k
A
g
e
E
x
p
e
r
t
i
s
e
T
I
M
E
S
h
o
r
t
-
t
e
r
m
L
o
n
g
-
t
e
r
m
L
o
n
g
-
t
e
r
m
C
o
n
s
e
n
s
u
s
D
E
C
I
S
I
O
N
-
T
o
p
-
D
o
w
n
C
o
n
s
e
n
s
M
A
K
I
N
G
u
n
d

O
r
d
e
n
P
R
O
B
L
E
M
-
O
b
j
e
c
t
i
v
e
S
u
b
j
e
c
t
i
v
e
O
b
j
e
c
t
i
v
e
S
O
L
V
I
N
G
R
I
S
K
-
H
i
g
h
L
o
w
L
o
w
T
A
K
I
N
G
41
CULTURAL ZONES
Outliers within the culture holding more extreme
beliefs. (HN) The dominant attitude set.
(CN) Outliers not so committed to normal
beliefs. (MN)
Hyper-normal Cultural norm(al) Marginall
y normal
42
PERSON-FIT WITH CULTURAL NORM
43
CULTURAL LEVELS
National
Organizational
Occupational
44
NEGOTIATED CULTURE
Culture in global ventures is negotiated over
time between members having differing cultural
orientations regarding work. THUS, given
cultures A and B, A B ? AB or AxBBUT,
an adaptation of both A and B
45
COLLABORATIVE SPACES
Norms and Values
46
CULTURAL HYBRID
- People who are experienced in moving from
one cultural frame of reference to another.
NATIONAL
ORGANIZATIONAL
- Learned another H.E.L.P. system.
- Acquired bridging skills.
OCCUPATIONAL
47
Your Project Teams