Define the term culture, and explain how societal culture and organizational culture combine to influence on-the-job behavior. Culture is a set of beliefs and values about what is desirable and undesirable in a community of people, and a set of formal or informal practices to support the values. Culture has both prescriptive and descriptive elements and involves taken-for-granted assumptions about how to think, act, and feel. Culture overrides national boundaries. Key aspects of societal culture, such as customs and language, are brought to work by the individual. Working together, societal and organizational culture influence the person’s values, ethics, attitudes, and expectations.
Define ethnocentrism, and distinguish between high-context and low-context cultures. Ethnocentrism is the belief that One's native culture, language, and ways of doing things are superior to all others. People from low-context cultures infer relatively less from situational cues and extract more meaning from spoken and written words. In high-context cultures such as China and Japan, managers prefer slow negotiations and trust-building meetings, which tend to frustrate low-context Northern Europeans and North Americans who prefer to get right down to business.
Identify and describe the nine cultural dimensions from Project GLOBE. (1) Power distance—How equally should power be distributed? (2) Uncertainty avoidance—How much should social norms and rules reduce uncertainty and unpredictability? (3) Institutional collectivism—How much should loyalty to the social unit override individual interests? (4) In-group collectivism—How strong should One's loyalty be to family or organization? (5) Gender egalitarianism—How much should gender discrimination and role inequalities be minimized? (6) Assertiveness— How confrontational and dominant should one be in social relationships? (7) Future orientation—How much should one delay gratification by planning and saving for the future? (8) Performance orientation—How much should individuals be rewarded for improvement and excellence? (9) Humane orientation—How much should individuals be rewarded for being kind, fair, friendly, and generous?
Distinguish between individualistic and collectivist cultures, and explain the difference between monochronic and polychroniccultures. People in individualistic cultures think primarily in terms of "I" and "me" and place a high value on freedom and personal choice. Collectivist cultures teach people to be "we" and "us" oriented and to subordinate personal wishes and goals to the interests of the relevant social unit (such as family, group, organization, or society). People in monochronic cultures are schedule driven and prefer to do one thing at a time. To them, time is like money; it is spent wisely or wasted. In polychromic cultures, there is a tendency to do many things at once and to perceive time as flexible and multidimensional. Polychronic people view monochronic people as being too preoccupied with time.
Specify the practical lesson from the Hofstede cross-cultural study. There is no one best way to manage across cultures. Management theories and practices need to be adapted to the local culture.
Explain what Project GLOBE researchers discovered about leadership. Across 62 cultures, they identified leader attributes that are universally liked and universally disliked. The universally liked leader attributes—including trustworthy, dynamic, motive arouser, decisive, and intelligent—are associated with the charismatic/transformational leadership style that is widely applicable. Universally disliked leader attributes—such as noncooperative, irritable, egocentric, and dictatorial—should be avoided in all cultures.
Explain why US managers have a comparatively high failure rate on foreign assignments. American expatriates are troubled by personal and family adjustment problems and homesickness. A great deal of money is wasted when expatriates come home early. More extensive cross-cultural training is needed.
Summarize the research findings about North American women on foreign assignments, and tell how to land a foreign assignment. The number of North American women on foreign assignments is still small, but growing. Self disqualification and prejudicial home-country supervisors and staffing policies are largely to blame. Foreigners tend to view North American women primarily as foreigners and secondarily as women. North American women have a high success rate on foreign assignments. Foreign language skills, a strong and formally announced desire, foreign experience, networking, family and supervisory support, and visibility with upper management can increase the chances of getting a desired foreign assignment for both women and men.
Identify four stages of the foreign assignment cycle and the OB trouble spot associated with each stage. Stages of the foreign assignment cycle (with OB trouble spots) are (1) selection and training (unrealistic expectations); (2) arrival and adjustment (culture shock); (3) settling in and acculturating (lack of support); and (4) returning home and adjusting (reentry shock).
