Review and Discussion Questions
Question 1: Culture and Attitude
Culture entails the large part of the social aspects of human life. The definition of culture is based on the practices that can be used to identify a particular group of people collectively. Mostly, culture is based on the intangible social aspects, although material objects that are common to a particular group can be considered. Although culture may not include the social structure and economic organization of a group, a connection exists between the cultural practices and the social and economic structures. For example, the economic organization of a group of people may be affected by the cultural activities associated with the group.
The interaction and behavior that define a group of people are, in most cases, taken as a culture. Values and attitudes in a particular group come up due to how the people in such a group understand situations. Several approaches exist, and how the attitudes are measured differentiates cultures. For example, the culture in the USA, Germany, and Japan can be compared using the attitudes held by the people of the three nations.
Attitudes can be measured differently depending on the perceptions of individual people. For example, decision making may be either centralized or decentralized. Centralized decision making is whereby the managers in an organization make crucial decisions. On the other hand, decentralized decision making involves depending on decisions made at several levels of the organization in question. Additionally, different cultures behave differently while taking risks. Some cultures believe that taking high risk promises more returns while other cultures believe that no risk should be taken. Similarly, the rewarding system varies between cultures. Some companies prefer rewarding employees at individual levels while others reward employees as a group in a bid to motivate teamwork.
Moreover, organizational loyalty varies between cultures. Employees identify themselves depending on their loyalty towards the company. High organizational loyalty is defined as a situation where the employees only identify themselves as one of the company employees. Low organizational loyalty is seen where the employee is identified according to their profession. Additionally, a company is always set between cooperation and competition. The choice of whether to choose between cooperation and competition depends on the market factors within the company’s area of operation. The economic approaches in the US, Germany, and Japan are different owing to the difference in cultures.
The approaches towards business are different in the US, Germany, and Japan. However, several methods are similar in two or all three countries. On decision making, decentralization is more vigilant in the US. Japan, on the other side, is based on a centralized system of decision making, whereas Germany does not have a clearly defined decision-making system. Companies in the US and Germany are always working towards high returns and thus take more risks compared to those in Japan. Also, companies in Japan are more concerned with teamwork than those in Germany and the US. Therefore, Japanese companies give group rewards at the expense of individual awards, as seen in the US and Germany. Additionally, organizational loyalty is lower in the US and Germany compared to Japan, where employees identify with their employer companies.
Generally, cultures impact organizations and the way they operate differently. The impact of culture on organizations has negatives and positives. An organization will be impacted depending on the area of operation and the goals of the business taken. The behavior of people changes to suit the cultures prevailing in their setups.
Question 2: Cultural Values
Culture is mainly built on people’s perception of what is deemed right or wrong. Values come in to define the convictions of people towards making a judgment on right and wrong. Cultural values are always learned from the cultural setting within which an individual is brought up. For individuals who grow up in mixed cultures, variations may occur although the dominant culture defines the values that the individual grows up with. For example, values defining gender roles may easily be affected by neighboring cultures where the roles are different. Therefore, values do not purely grow from an individual’s family culture but also the environment within which one grows. Managerial practices are largely affected by cultural values. Therefore, the difference in values between cultures leads to variation in administrative practices across the world.
Cultural values are different in different regions of the world. The difference in values is brought about by the difference in beliefs and the definition of right and wrong. However, similarities exist among several cultural groups in terms of managerial practices and approaches. The economic activities affect the values held by a particular group of people. For example, the people in far-east countries believe in collectiveness and teamwork. On the other side, western countries such as the US find in individual efforts and thus do not encourage group work. The difference between the perception of teamwork in the west and far-east countries are seen in the reward systems in companies. Companies in Japan, for example, reward employees in groups, whereas companies in the US reward employees at an individual level. The uniqueness of values between countries or groups of people is used to identify cultures. Generally, activities that are seen to be right in western countries are found to be wrong in the context of far east countries.
Values have been continually changing over time. Several factors can be associated with the change in values between cultures. For example, the interaction of people from different cultures has led to a shift in values. Individuals have been borrowing cultural practices from foreign cultures and creating them to suit individual needs. Besides, cultures from developed countries have found a way into less developed countries in the name of civilization.
Additionally, inventions and innovations have rendered specific cultural values obsolete, and thus, change has been inevitable. Moreover, culture is flexible, and any positive change in values is always welcome. Generally, cultural values have been changing over time with some values becoming extinct, while new values are brought on board.
The collection of values that are individual to a country or a group of people is defined as culture. Therefore, values play the role of modifying culture and giving identity to the particular culture. A culture cannot be identified without considering the values associated with the culture. Also, the strength of a specific culture is measured by the way the values are kept from external erosion. Generally, cultural values are the pillars that determine how strong culture will withstand the external forces that may erode a culture or even lead to the extinction of a culture.
Question 3: Geert Hofstede’s Dimensions on Culture
People behave differently depending on their beliefs and cultural values. Geert Hofstede found out that human behavior is affected by four dimensions of culture. The aspects that Hofstede found are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and masculinity (Beugelsdijk, Kostova & Roth, 2017). Hofstede later introduced additional dimensions. However, the original dimensions covered the possible reasons why human beings behave as they do and the reason why the values are different in various cultures. Generally, culture is based on the mindset of individuals sharing the same ideas about life. Hofstede found his research on the notion that human minds of people within a specific category are programmed similarly, and thus the beliefs will be similar for such a category. The categories in Hofstede’s research would mean nations, groups, parts of a country, and any other collection of people with similar cultural values.
Power distance defines a situation whereby some members in an organization are given lesser powers than others. The individuals with less power are found to be in acceptance of the fact that power has been shared unequally. Members of cultures with power distance are not against the issue of unequal power division since they expect such formations. Some cultures have higher power distance than others, depending on the acceptability of the power divided by the people with less power.
Uncertainty avoidance comes up where members devise ways of avoiding risks that occur regularly. Members of some cultures create ways of doing away with ambiguous events by coming institutions that specialize in avoiding the situations. The methods devised in this dimension are aimed at avoiding the stress that comes along with future uncertainty. Cultures are differentiated in this dimension, depending on whether uncertainty avoidance is strong or weak. Weak uncertainty avoidance involves leaving an option for flexibility, while strong uncertainty avoidance consists in avoiding risk at all costs.
Individualism and collectiveness are defined in terms of the way different people care about each other. In individualism, a person is concerned by their welfare and the welfare of their immediate families. On the other hand, collectiveness is based on the welfare of a group in exchange for loyalty. Generally, individualism defines how individuals value the idea of remaining in groups.
Masculinity and femininity are based on the way societies distribute their emotional roles between genders. Several cultures have defined roles depending on genders. For example, masculinity is dominant in organizations that value money and success. On the other hand, femininity is dominant in societies that value caring and welfare of other people. Different cultures give different attention to masculinity and femininity.
Different countries score differently when Hofstede’s dimensions are used to rate cultures. The US scores highly in terms of individualism but has a lower rating in terms of power distance. On the other hand, Latin America shows opposite scores compared to the US. For example, individualism is little in Latin America, while power distance is high. Also, masculinity is high in Latin America. Asian countries bring out cultures based on high power distance but low individualism. European countries are characterized by low uncertainty avoidance but high masculinity levels.
The difference in social profiles between the regions poses a challenge when individuals from the different groups interact. For example, individuals from the US will be viewed as selfish in Asian countries due to individualism. Hofstede added the fifth and sixth dimensions to cover the issue of long-term and short-term orientation as well as the degree of happiness to further differentiate between cultures.
References
Beugelsdijk, S., Kostova, T., & Roth, K. (2017). An overview of Hofstede-inspired country-level culture research in international business since 2006. Journal of International Business Studies, 48(1), 30-47.