1. International Organizational Behavior
Chapter Fifteen
International Organizational Behavior
Thomson South-Western Wagner & Hollenbeck 5e

2. Chapter Overview This chapter examines the following topics:
International Dimensions
Uncertainty Avoidance
Masculinity-Femininity
Individualism-Collectivism
Power Distance
Short-Term/Long-Term Orientation
Effects on Organizational Behavior
Cultural Trends: Four Scenarios
Organizational Effects
Cross-Cultural Differences
Managing International Differences

3. Introduction
With multinationalization and globalization come differences in nationality and culture that can have major effects on micro, meso, and macro organizational behavior
Today’s managers must take international differences seriously if they expect to compete and succeed in global markets

4. International Dimensions
Dutch researcher, Geert Hofstede, discovered that most differences among national cultures were described by four cross-cultural dimensions:
Uncertainty avoidance
Masculinity-femininity
Individualism-collectivism
Power distance
In later research, Canadian researcher Michael Harris Bond, uncovered a fifth dimension
Long-term/short-term orientation

5. Uncertainty Avoidance
The degree to which people are comfortable with ambiguous situations and with the inability to predict future events with assurance is called uncertainty avoidance
People with weak uncertainty avoidance feel comfortable even though they are unsure about current activities or future events
People with strong uncertainty avoidance are most comfortable when they feel a sense of certainty about the present and future

6. Masculinity-Femininity
Hofstede used the term masculinity to refer to the degree to which a culture is founded on values that emphasize independence, aggressiveness, dominance, and physical strength
Femininity according to Hofstede, describes a society’s tendency to favor such values as interdependence, compassion, empathy, and emotional openness
Together, the extremes of masculinity and femininity delineate the dimension of masculinity-femininity in Hofstede’s analysis of cross-cultural differences

7. Individualism-Collectivism
According to Hofstede, individualism-collectivism is a dimension that traces cultural tendencies to emphasize either satisfying personal needs or looking after the needs of the group
From the viewpoint of individualism, pursuing personal interests is seen as being more important and succeeding in the pursuit of these interests is critical to both personal and societal well-being
The collectivist perspective emphasizes that group welfare is more important than personal interests
The members of collectivist national cultures tend to ignore personal needs for the sake of their groups, ensuring group welfare even if personal hardships must be endured

8. Power Distance
Power distance is a dimension that reflects the degree to which the members of a society accept differences in power and status among themselves
Power distance influences attitudes and behaviors by affecting the way that a society is held together

9. Short-Term/Long-Term Orientation
The dimension of short-term/long-term orientation reflects the extent to which the members of a national culture are oriented toward the recent past and the present versus oriented toward the future
The short-term orientation supports immediate consumption and opposes the deferral of pleasure and satisfaction
A longer-term orientation favors the opposite strategy, that is, doing what is necessary now whether pleasant or unpleasant, for the sake of future well-being

10. Effects on Organizational Behavior
The five-dimensional model based on the research by Hofstede and Bond does not lack for critics
Nonetheless, the model is the most comprehensive cross-cultural framework currently available and it can stimulate useful insights into ways in which organizational behavior varies from one national culture to another

11. Cultural Trends: Four Scenarios
For an in-class project, use the five dimensions of Hofstede and Bond’s model to explain the four scenarios described in the text, pages , which deal with the following topics:
Feelings about progress
Tendencies toward confrontation or consensus
Locus of control
Status and social position

12. Organizational Effects
The four scenarios illustrate how the Hofstede-Bond five-dimensional model can diagnose differences in national culture and help identify some of the cultural roots of everyday customs and behaviors
To understand how these cultural differences can influence organizational behavior, consider first the national culture of the United States and its effects on American theories and practices

13. Cross-Cultural Differences
To further understand how the differences highlighted in the Hofstede-Bond model can influence behavior in organizations, consider the various areas of organizational behavior as practiced in organizations throughout the world

14. Cross-Cultural Differences: Decision-Making and Motivation
On an Israeli kibbutz (a self-contained community) decision making is shared among the adult membership
Japanese organizations are well known for their use of ringisei
In contrast, Korean organizations seldom use groups to make decisions
Japanese motives and motivation are influenced by the relatively strong collectivism that characterizes Japan’s national culture
Collectivist loyalty is encouraged in large Japanese firms by the nenko system of wage payment
Seniority is the single most important factor in determining a Japanese worker’s compensation

15. Cross-Cultural Differences: Work Design
Jobs in the Swedish automotive industry are organized not around the assembly-line processes commonly found in the United States and elsewhere, but instead according to the principles of reflective production

16. Cross-Cultural Differences: Leadership
Consistent with cultural proclivities favoring low power distance, mangers in Sweden often do not supervise employees directly nor do they issue direct orders to coordinate work activities
Groups and committees fulfill leadership functions in many Swedish firms
Works council: composed of worker representatives who are elected by their peers and management representatives who are appointed by top management
Special-interest committees: composed of worker and manager representatives who provide the works council with advice on specific issues

17. Cross-Cultural Differences: Organization Structure
The structures of family businesses in China reflect the ideology of patrimonialism, which brings together the elements of paternalism, hierarchy, mutual obligation, responsibility, and familialism that grow out of the Chinese national culture’s high collectivism and power distance
The kinds of dependence relations and communication patterns formed in Japanese organizations create a latticework structure of vertical and horizontal relationships among the company's managers

18. Cross-Cultural Differences: Organizational Change
In general, national cultures that are highly supportive of organizational change tend to have low power distance, high individualism, and low uncertainty avoidance

19. Managing International Differences
Diagnosing and understanding the primary features of national cultures are critical to success in the management of international organizational behavior because this represents the first step toward determining whether familiar management practices must be reconfigured before being used abroad
Certain trends seem to support the convergence hypothesis, which suggests that national cultures, organizations, and management practices throughout the world are becoming more homogeneous