© 2013 Cengage Learning

Outline  Cultural Differences in Work-Related Values: Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions  Power Distance  Uncertainty Avoidance  Individualism-Collectivism  Masculinity-Femininity  Long- versus Short-Term Orientation

Outline (cont’d.)  Organizational Culture and Organizational Climate  Cultural Differences in Organizational Culture  Culture and Person-Organization Fit  Culture and Attitudes About Work and Organizations  Culture, Motivation, and Productivity  Culture, Leadership, and Management Styles  Cultural and the Meaning of Leadership  Culture and Leadership Behaviors

Outline (cont’d.)  Culture and Decision-Making Processes  Organizational Decisions  Organizational Fairness  Consumer Decisions  Culture and Negotiation  Intercultural Issues Regarding Business and Work  Overseas Assignments  Working with an Increasingly Diverse Workforce Population

Outline (cont’d.)  Culture and Sexual Harassment  Conclusion

C ULTURAL D IFFERENCES IN W ORK -R ELATED V ALUES : H OFSTEDE ’ S C ULTURAL D IMENSIONS

Power Distance  Diversity of people according to roles, functions, and positions is vital to successful operation of organization  Power Distance: degree to which different cultures encourage or maintain power and status differences between interactants  Cultures high on Power Distance: develop rules to maintain and strengthen status relationships  Cultures low on Power Distance: minimize those rules and customs

Uncertainty Avoidance  Uncertainty Avoidance: degree to which different cultures develop ways to deal with anxiety and stress of uncertainty  Cultures high on Uncertainty Avoidance: develop highly refined rules and rituals that are mandated and become part of a rubric and normal way of operating  Cultures low on Uncertainty Avoidance: less concerned with rules and rituals to deal with stress and anxiety of uncertainty

Individualism-Collectivism  Individualism-Collectivism: degree to which individuals sacrifice personal goals for sake of ingroup  Individualistic cultures foster less sacrifice for group and focus on individual goals, wishes, and desires  Collectivistic cultures foster more compliance with company policies and exhibit more conformity in group, section, or unit behavior

Masculinity-Femininity  Masculinity-Femininity: degree to which cultures foster or maintain differences between sexes in work-related values  Cultures high on Masculinity-Femininity—Japan, Austria, Venezuela, and Italy—greatest degree of sex differences in work-related values  Cultures low on Masculinity-Femininity— Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden—fewest differences between sexes

Long- versus Short-Term Orientation  Long- versus short-term orientation: degree to which cultures encourage delayed gratification of material, social, and emotional needs  Cultures with long-term orientations based on two principles:  Unequal status relationships leads to stable society  Family is typical of all social organizations

O RGANIZATIONAL C ULTURE AND O RGANIZATIONAL C LIMATE

Cultural Differences in Organizational Culture  Organizational culture: information system shared within organization and transmitted across successive generations  Organizational climate: perception of organizational policies, practices, procedures  Low Power Distance cultures: less fear of disagreeing with boss; more cooperativeness  High Power Distance cultures: greater fear of disagreeing with boss; more reluctant to trust each other

Culture and Person-Organization Fit  Appropriate match between employees and organizational culture of company is important  Do ‘‘mismatches’’ create conflicts?  Do successful ‘‘matches’’ lead to more productive companies?  Organizations struggle with cultural match between employee and company  New ways of assimilating newcomers into organizations are being developed from cultural perspective

C ULTURE AND A TTITUDES A BOUT W ORK AND O RGANIZATIONS

Culture and Attitudes About Work and Organizations  Different cultures differ in levels of organizational commitment  Normative and affective commitment are predictive of organizational commitment, but to different degrees across cultures  In collectivistic cultures, work, colleagues, and organization become synonymous with self  In individualistic cultures, people have an easier time separating themselves from their work  There are cultural differences in psychological contracts

C ULTURE, M OTIVATION, AND P RODUCTIVITY

Culture, Motivation, and Productivity  What type of settings influence productivity?  Social loafing: when individual productivity tends to decline in larger groups  True of Americans  Social striving: when group work enhances individual performance  Characteristic of Asians  Many American companies are adopting practices, including increasing teamwork in daily work behaviors, to enhance social striving

C ULTURE, L EADERSHIP, AND M ANAGEMENT S TYLES

Culture and the Meaning of Leadership  Leadership: "process of influence between a leader and followers to attain group, organizational, or societal goals"  In American culture, leaders are decision makers: "movers and shakers" of organizations  In other cultures, leaders are not necessarily seen as dynamic or action-oriented  Leadership and managerial styles also differ across cultures in boundaries of leadership

Culture and Leadership Behaviors  Leaders in high Power Distance cultures are autocratic or paternalistic in decision making and interactional style  Leaders in low Power Distance cultures are more participative and consensual  Managers in high Uncertainty Avoidance Cultures are selected on basis of seniority  Low Uncertainty Avoidance cultures tend to select managers on criteria, such as merit

C ULTURE AND D ECISION - M AKING P ROCESSES

Organizational Decisions  Oligarchy: organizational structure where rule- or decision-making power is held by a few  Decision-making is different in different cultures  Groupthink: underlies social loafing and general apathy toward work and productivity; plagues decision-making  Teamthink: constructive; involves encouragement of divergent views, open expression, awareness of limitations, recognition of uniqueness, discussion of collective doubts

Organizational Fairness  Cultures differ on definitions of fairness and procedures by which to achieve it  Equity: are one’s contributions and efforts considered in making organizational decisions?  Equality: are demographic characteristics of individuals considered primarily?  People of different cultures apply different criteria in making allocation decisions, and these criteria are based on situational cues

Consumer Decisions  Cultural differences in status maintenance and expressing emotions affects consumer decisions  Endowment effect: tendency for owners and potential sellers of goods and products to value those products more than potential buyers  East Asians show smaller endowment effect compared to Americans and Canadians  Differences attributed to idea that ownership of product enhances self more in individualistic contexts

C ULTURE AND N EGOTIATION

Culture and Negotiation  In U.S., objective of negotiation is to get job done: requires problem solving and bargaining  Negotiation processes in other cultures challenge American assumptions  In international negotiation, negotiators come as representatives not only of companies but of cultures as well  Factors playing role in international negotiating sessions: space between people; greetings; what to call each other; kinds of expectations

I NTERCULTURAL I SSUES R EGARDING B USINESS AND W ORK

Intercultural Issues Regarding Business and Work  Multinational and international corporations: work organizations having subsidiaries, satellite offices, and work units in more than one country  Increasingly, companies need to deal with people of diverse and varied backgrounds  Internationalization of business brings with it more intercultural issues and challenges  As companies become increasingly dependent on other companies in other countries, they face ever-larger number of intercultural issues

Overseas Assignments  Many corporations with subsidiaries and business partners in other countries find it increasingly necessary to send workers abroad  Overseas assignments can give rise to myriad of problems because of cultural differences and limited language skills and differing expectations of person on assignment and hosts

Working with an Increasingly Diverse Workforce Population  Organizations around world are dealing with an increasingly diverse workforce population with those coming from overseas  American companies dealing with increasing diversity solely on basis of increasing diversity in America  Problems that occur when two cultures clash are magnified when people from multiple cultures are thrust together to interact and work toward common goal

C ULTURE AND S EXUAL H ARASSMENT

Culture and Sexual Harassment  Complex issues concerning gender and sex are commonplace in organizations working cross- culturally  Sexual harassment: verbal or physical conduct of sexual nature in which submission to such behavior is condition to employment and interferes with work environment  Sex- and gender-based discriminatory actions— both in terms of behaviors and words—may be tolerated more across different cultures

C ONCLUSION

Conclusion  Cultural differences that people bring with them to organization present challenges unprecedented in modern industrialized period  To meet challenges, business, government, and private organizations look to research and education about cultural diversity as it relates to work  Major growth in organizational consulting regarding managing diversity, intercultural communication, and competence training