bus 302 final
Cultural value that underlies the widespread use of honorific language such as "keigo" in Japan
cultures with high power distance use it as a sign of respect
Management practices appropriate to handle challenges of cultural diversity like: different preferences communication
defensiveness and withdrawal: strategy: incorporation do not try to assimilate stereotypes: deconstruct stereotypes miscommunication: communication strategies divergent values: "win-win" (integrative) negotiation
Examples and cultural significance of "mitigated speech"
high power distance cultures: saving face and showing respect Levels of Speech Mitigation (Gladwell) Command (it will be implemented) Team Obligation Statement (we need to try...) Team Suggestion (let's make an approach) Query (don't you think it rains more in this area here?) Preference (perhaps we should look at these alternatives) Hint (this has helped us a lot)
A major cultural reason for the success of micro-lending in poor countries, where loans are made to groups of women
"a key premise of microlending is that borrowers must organize into groups of five, and guarantee each other's loans. the reason is twofold: it spreads the lender's risk, and it uses peer pressure to encourage borrowers to pay off the debt Cultural Reasons: loans given to groups of women to start a business Joint Liability: concept: loans made to groups; collective approval and responsibility COLLECTIVISM
Ashby's "law of requisite variety" is:
"the variety in the control system must be equal to or larger than the variety of the perturbations in order to achieve control" The more complex the external environment, the more complex the internal control system must be
Business in Finland, expect:
modest, don't socialize much, less emotion, don't brag (neutral), can't self romote, work not play, not very confrontational, avoid openly/willingly expressing opinions, self-control is very important in Finland, Can't show anger it means you can't cope
Complete Edward Hall's observation that "the essence of effective cross-cultural communication lies not in sending the right message, but in..."
releasing the right response
Meaning of Edward Hall's phrase "the silent language"
the silent language refers to the importance of nonverbal communication and the role it plays in some cultures to the relationships people have (high context cultures); much communication resides not in words but in context
What are distinctive features of traditional Japanese capitalism?
- Most unions are company rather than industry unions - mergers and acquisitons are uncommon - companies are like family; they aren't bought and sold - cross shareholding Keiretsu: companies are united - not a highly entrepreneurial economy
Groups that include members with diverse perspectives can perform some TASKS BETTER than non-diverse groups. These tasks are
- better creativity - better problem solving - better estimation, forecasting, and prediction - better perception & observation
Relationships between characteristics of organizations (structure, formalization, etc) and cultural values
- diffuse/specific: employee/firm relationships - achievement/ascription: sources of authority - inductive/deductive: ways of thinking and learning - relationships/expertise: attitudes to people - flexible/inflexible: attitudes toward change - intrinsic/extrinsic: ways of motivating and rewarding - avoid/confront/negotiate: conflict & conflict resolution Dimensions of Organizations: -Structure (steep v flat) - Formalization (explicit v tactic) -Routinization (repetitive v ad hoc) - Prganization/employee/customer relationships (specific v. diffuse)
Good ways to prevent stereotypes from arising in culturally diverse settings
- walkabout: meet people from other cultures - focus on individuals & their distinctive characteristics - practice perspective taking - treat it as a generalization
What potential COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES can arise from cultural diversity in an organization?
1. Better decisions "diversity trumps ability" avoid dangers of "groupthink" 2. Alignment (access and legitimacy) with culturally diverse markets- Ashby's "law of requisite variety" 3. Diversity expands the pool of employee talent 4. Satisfies legal requirements 5. Contributes to equality and social progress
Psychology terms for the following cognitive processes
1. an incompatibility between a person's values, behaviors, or information that leads the person to modify one or another of them in order to eliminate psychological discomfort cognitive dissonance, trivializing information to deal with cognitive discomfort Stereotype "ecological fallacy" A caricature or exaggerated characteristic attributed to all members of a social group A belief about another person that leads one to behave in ways that in turn influences that other person to behave in a way that confirms one's original belief. Incorporation will hopefully resolve stereotypes (assimilation/segregation are bad solutions to stereotypes) Self-fulfilling prophecy: if you have a belief about people from another ethnic group, our perceptions might become actualized- behave in ways that fullfill your beliefs. (Pygmalion)
In Arab cultures, what is the protocol for men holding hands with other men
Accepted; seen as the warmest expression of affection and equality; a subordinate wouldn't hold hands with a superior
Communication strategies that work in a multicultural environment to ensure that other persons understand you
Ask them to demonstrate understanding -" can you tell/show me" instead of "do you understand?"
Business practices that arise from the prevalence of various cultural values
Bonuses: individualism, punctuality: monochronic, "cold calling": low uncertainty avoidance direct sales: collectivism
In the Bob Chen/David Shorter case, what cultural difference between Bob Chen and the company partners at James Williams made them unable to reach agreement?
Chen comes form a collectivist culture where relationships are important and those were broken over his time at the company; he was very indirect about answering questions if he was going to take on the case; he never said yes but by him not responding they thought that meant yes when anything but yes means NO to hhim
What cultural value underlies the Japanese aversion to awarding personal cash bonuses to employees as a reward for scientific and other innovations in a company.
Collectivism- believe that all salarymen are equal and no individual should rise above the others. it should be more about the company itself than individual talent. High Uncertainty Avoidance
Cultural value associated with a high importance of "face" in certain cultures
Collectivist cultures, cultures that use mitigated speech, high power distance
In the Johannes van den Bosch case, what cultural "script" did Pablo use to express his disagreement with Johannes?
Collectivist; reluctant to communicate negative information; asks a lot of questions
According to Marshall McLuhan, if the medium is the message," then what determines the content of communication?
Content of the message must be the audience
In the Blue Ridge Spain case, what major business issue led to the deterioration of the relationship between Delta and their Spanish joint venture partners at Terralumen? Why did Delta & Terralumen have different positions on that issue?
Delta wanted to increase their future growith ratesl they wanted acquisitions rather than joint ventures; they set their growth rate really high and Terr said they couldn't do it; when Delta forced the issue, Terr agreed to half and it shattered the relationship between them
Assan Motors' Japanese employees in the film seemed motivated mainly by
Doing work for the sake of the company; unpaid overtime just to get the job done; intrinsic motivation; wanted to be accepted; ribbons of shame
Cultural value associated with the occurrence of "Pronoun drop" of the first person singular pronoun
Dropping the "I" takes the spot light off of the individual; common in collectivist cultures
In what country was it estimated that a lack of punctuality (polychronic) costs about 4.3% in GDP.
Ecuador
Author of the idea that "language arranges the furniture of the mind"
Edward Hall: The silent language; evaluates the importance of nonverbal communication
What was Moscow's key strategic challenge to achieve sustainability?
Employees didn't see it as a career and had expatriates working for them and it became expensive to have so many people managing the hotel because no locals wanted the jobs
What aspect of culture is shown by the difference between European ("opt-in") and US ("opt-out") laws with respect to the legality of commercial "spam?"
Europeans value privacy more than americans
Identify key behavioral characteristics of Russia employees and link them to underlying cultural values
Family comes first - high in group collectivism lack of punctuality - polychronic low regard for individual rewards - low individualism live for now - low future orientation take orders - high PD diffuse ignorance of working behavior -drinking on the job, weak social skills, affective rote learning-avoid questions - high PD Unfamiliarity with making choices - Low individualism - High Uncertainty Avoidance
Environmental factors that correlate with certain cultural values
GDP: wealth is associated with individualism Moderate/cold weather: individualism Warmer/more comfortable: more collectivist cultures
In the David Shorter/Bob Chen case, what Chinese "cultural script" did Bob Chen use to express disagreement with superiors? Why is this script characteristic of Chinese culture?
He was very indirect: polite, can't say no, ambiguous, and use of intermediaries/third parties, and told the client not his boss; went through lower management. power distance & collectivism mitigated speech -- used to preserve harmony
According to Shalom Schwartz, the CULTURAL LEGACY of communism in Russia and East and Central Europe was to accentuate which of his three cultural value dimensions?
Hierarchy, embeddedness, de-emphasis of autonomy, mastery and egalitarianism
What cultural values were demonstrated in the 2005 national campaign in Japan to convince employees not to wear suits to work
Hierarchy: igh power distance. by asking the major companies to change to not suits the other companies would feel more comfortable Collectivism: wearing suits is a sign of collectivism within a company.
What cultural perspective led David Shorter to believe that Joe would not give Bob poor performance appraisals if he (Bob) worked hard in the future
High Individualism so task prevails over relationship
Cultures in which communication by email or other channels is likely to be acceptable
High context cultures: nonverbal communication plays an important role in how one perceives a message; the medium is the message; prefer face to face interaction; China, Japan, France, Thailand Low context cultures: the message is the message; prefer emails and brief notes; US, Germany, Holland, Scandinavia
What cultural value orientation led Bob Chen to avoid public disagreement with his superiors?
High power distance (saving face), collectivism
Aspects of Japanese culture that make it difficult to introduce a jury-style trial system
High power distance;; reluctant to express opinions in public, to argue with one another, and to question authority, they value harmony collectivist
Trompenaars' and Hofstede's four models (or images) of the relationship between culture and organization and how do they differ?
Hofstede: power distance (who has the power, how unequal are relationships), uncertainty avoidance (what/how many rules or procedures will be followed), Masculinity (touch or tender), and individualism (team or individuals) Tropenaars: Family, Eiffel Tower, Guided Missile, Incubator
Hunt and Sakamoto leadership styles
Hunt: Direct/Informal, affective/ power comes from past experiences; specialize in certain areas Sakamoto: Indirect, formal, neutral; arises from position rather than empowerment; only one way to get it done; everyone should have the same skill set
The stoic (neutral) tradition in Britain of "stiff upper lip" in putting up with hardships can have a negative effect on improvement in the quality of services.
In Britain, their goods and servies don't improve as quickly because people don't complain. In US, restaurants change their operations quickly based on customer reviews/complaints In Europe, this is not as common so they are not as quick of a learning curve compared to the US
What instrument do wealthy families use in some countries to maintain tight control over a large group of companies despite owning only a small equity stake in most of the companies
In India, family holds a controlling stake in a company at the top of the pyramid, the firm holds similar stakes in a second tier of companies, controlling from the top to bottom; separation of ownership and control (pyramiding)
Cultural bases of "perspective-taking"
Independent cultures (Johannes) are self-focused and behave more egocenric Interdependent Cultures (Pablo) are other-focused and more adept at perspective taking in interpreting actions
Sakamoto's communication style
Indirect and neutral
In the Blue Ridge Spain case, what cultural value orientation underlies Delta's emphasis on the legal contract terms regarding growth targets for the joint venture?
Individualism; Long term orientation (Spain) Short term orientation (US)
Hunt's communication stly during his "pitch" to Assan executives in Japan
Informal, affective, direct, he incorporated humor into the business meeting
Cultural values revealed in the difference between Japanese and Chinese approaches to refueling airplanes
Japanese are all about THE way of doing things China is all about finding A way of doing things
When Robert Putnam says that cultural diversity brings out "the turtle in all of us" he means"
KP LOOKS LIKE A TURTLE - growing diversity leads to a drop in civic participation. Heterogeinity leads to unpredictability & withdrawal. people pull into their shells and withdraw from community because people like people who are like themselves so aren't eager to assiciate with people who aren't like themselves
Some consequences that do and don't mark future tense
Languages that are futureless are more long term oriented (Chinese & Indonesian) Future languages are short term oriented (English & French)
Idea propsed by Kurt Lewin underlies the distinction between diffuse and specific cultures
Life Space: U-Type (American): small private space, large public space divided into many segments G-Type (German): large guarded private spaces Specific: Direct, work and personal lives are separate; relationships don't have much an impact on work objectives and people can work together without having a good relationship (US, UK, Germany) Diffuse: Indirect, overlap between work and personal life; good relationships are vital to meeting business objectives (Argentina, Spain, Russia, India, China)
Cultural value differences likely to create problems in joint ventures
Long term orientation: Valuing relationships over growth of company High power distance: Hierarchy of company, following rules, saving face
In the Moscow Aerostar case, what aspect of Russian culture explains the reluctance of people to provide objective personal reference letters in the hiring process? What cultural values are revealed in the nature of the employment application form adopted from Aeroflot? How did the Russians deal with the job interview questions?
Low individualism (they don't like to brag about themselves); Application is diffuse in Russia (required information about age, parent membership, diseases); diffuse culture (hire a friend); respond to interview questions based on their activities, not their accomplishments; Motivate through gifts
What cultural values most support a belief in the benefits of cultural diversity in organizations
Low uncertainty avoidance; individualist; long term oriented cultures Japan has strict immigration laws with high uncertainty avoidance and are a collectivist cultures
Difference between a recipient oriented and a transmitter oriented communication style
Malcolm Gladwell recipient-oriented: it is the responsibility of the recipient to decode the message sent by the transmitter; ask questions to clarify; ASIAN CULTURES Transmitter- oriented: it is the responsibility of the transmitter to make sure they are clearly communicating what they want to the recipient; WESTERN CULTURES
When Johannes van den Bosch sent a series of schedules and deadlines to Pablo Menendez, his demonstrated a cultural orientation of:
Monochronic, individualism, low power distance
Practices that arise from a monochronic or polychronic attitude towards time
Monochronic: one thing at a time, time is scarce and shouldn't be wasted, punctuality is very important, short term oriented, agendas Polychronic: multiple things at a time, time is fluid and flexible, relationships trump time, long term oriented
Is it a good way for a company to benefit from the diversity of employee perspectives to promote their assimilation into the dominant culture?
NO, don't make others "just like us" assimilation deprice of potential benefits from diversity Incorporation not assimilation
Is it good to practice in culturally diverse organizations to keep each cultural group separate from the others so they feel comfortable?
NO, incorporate, don't segregate of assimilate Don't segregate others within the organization ("asset allocation" provides insurance "live and let live" Do incorporate group identities into a new, inclusive sense of "we"
Cultural interpretations of various degrees of emotional expressivity
Neutral: Mask emotions, self-control, respect for authority, high power distance, collectivists, UK's Stiff Upper Lip (wont send food back) and Thailand's Land of smiles Affective: Wear your heart on your sleeve, low power distance, individualist, US, Iran (men holding hands in public) 7 Universal emotions: happiness, sadness, contempt, fear, surprise, anger, disgust
When Johannes van den Bosch decided to cool off and edit his email to Pablo Menendez, what cultural trait did it demonstrate
Neutrality
In China, the government's "one child" rule introduced in the 1970s contributed to a change in what cultural value
One child receives attention ,erodes the basis of collectivism 6 people take care of one person... crazy- gender egalitarianism
Issues that demonstrate the difference between the US and Europe with respect to the cultural value of privacy
Opt-In: in europe you have the choice to be a part of something Opt-out: in US you have to choose to be taken off the list Google Maps: Europeans were upset that Google was taking pictures that invaded their privacy; Americans liked the street view Neighboring houses: In Europe there are high walls in between houses; proximity doesn't imply a relationship; in the US proximity is a basis for a relationship
Do most airline crashes occur when the pilot or second-in-command is flying?
PILOT: tow major reasons for miscommunication 1. cultural and is measured by power distance index, driven by respect to authority and attitude toward hierarch. 2. ranking of subordination on the job. causes co-pilot to use highly mitigated speech and to avoid confronting the main pilot when necessary.
In the Johannes van den Bosch case, how did Johannes and Pablo differ culturally, using the Hofstede/Trompenaars frameworks?
Pablo: indirect, affective, high context, collectivist, high power distance, polychronic Johannes: direct, neutral, low context, individualism, low power distance
In the Blue Ridge Spain case, why did Eduardo Rodrigo, the first managing director of the Blue Ridge joint venture in Barcelona, avoid growing the company?
Rodrigo was from Catalonia dn didn't want to deal with people from Madrid because people have very strong regional ties in Spain
In what country do people have a cultural aversion to borrowing money from banks for purposes like house mortgages
Russia experienced hyperinflation and a national debt so they become more willing to take on more dept rather than borrow
Which business practice characterizes a long-term future orientation?
Savings, reports annually or semi annually instead of quarterly, spending time making decisions, focus on market share rather than profitability (Asian cultures)
In the Blue Ridge case, what aspect of the Spanish business environment made it difficult for the joint venture to expand throughout the country?
Spain has many diverse regions with different wants; they are very distrusting of foreigners and it takes a long time to build relationships; the company was more concerned with providing for the family, not pleasing the shareholders
Significance of the "tappers" and "listeners" psychology experiment
Tappers: have the previous knowledge of the song and the tune in their head; you can't forget what you already know; knowledge hinders your ability to communicate with others
Characterize the corporate culture and James Williams, using the cultural categories that Fons Trompenaars uses in his model of organizational cultures
Task-Oriented and Hierarchical: role-oriented culture (Eiffel Tower)
In Gung Ho, Hunt assumes he failed to convince the Japanese to invest because:
The Japanese were quiet and emotionless (neutral) after he was done with the presentation
What aspect of Russian culture is not compatible with the practice of "situational leadership" in which appropriate leader behavior depends on situational factors such as the competence and commitment of employees?
The Russians are good at memorizing, not how to handle different situations; high power distance (take orders) and low individualism (unfamiliar with making choices and expressing personal preference)
What aspects of Canadian job design and performance expectations for employees at Moscow Aerostar did not "fit" the cultural values of its Russian workers?
The Russians don't know what service is; had to be taught customer service (went through training sessions:;compared service to the way they prepare and treat guests coming to their homes
According to Marshall McLuhan's thesis that "the medium is the message," when Johannes van den Bosch sent his "stick to the facts" email to Pablo Menendez, the CONTENT of the message that Pablo received was determined by:
The audience: culture and recipients reality
In the Blue Ridge Spain case, what aspect of the restaurant industry made a joint venture an effective mode of foreign market entry into Spain for Blue Ridge? How did Blue Ridge's views on joint ventures differ from Delta's preferred mode of foreign market entry?
The joint ventre helped them understand the culture of restaurants in Spain; Delta preferred acquisitions, which wouldn't work in the restaurant industry; it only works for snacks because you don't need personal ties to the local environment
In the Bob Chen/David Shorter case, what strategic business goal made it important for the James Williams accounting firm to learn to manage culturally diverse employees like Bob Chen?
They wanted to expand business into Hong Kong and having someone who was fluent in Chinese and familiar with the culture would be a huge asset to acquiring business in China
The main motivation for Russian employees at Moscow Aerostar to attend the Supervisory Training Program was:
They were told to go (high power distance)
To MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THAT A PERSON FROM ANOTHER CULTURE MEANS, it is helpful to:
Time-Out "Go to the Balcony" William Ury - clarify own cognitive biases assumptions Perspective-taking- try on their shoes Overcome cultural barriers to participation (deference, face-saving) Elicit input: round-robin, media of input, brainstorm Use reflective (active) listening "If understand correctly..."
In the Blue Ridge Spain case, why did the Spanish representative at the Directors meeting throw the joint venture contract in the trash?
To show his disapproval of the way the meeting was being conducted and the issues t hand in the contact; deals are more about relationships rather than contracts (indirect, high context, collectivist)
What change did Google make to its website in Korea to adapt to Korean culture?
Top-ranked Korean news items, rotating view of popular Korean blogs and personalities; looks more like media outlets rather than search engines because Koreans don't know what to do with search engines that have a blank page and search box; Google likes simple but made changes for South Koreans
Difference between translation and interpretation
Translation: written word for word Interpretation: spoken
Geographic location of most of the world's languages
Tropical areas near the equator where the weather is warmer, India, Central Africa
In which country are women a large percentage of CEOs at major companies?
Vietnam- they also commonly control spending in their households as well
Why did Hunt's gf Audrey assume it was okay for her to remain with the men following dinner at Kaz's house?
When she asked if she could stay they didn't response; anything but yes means no in Japan
Theory that holds the grammatical structure of different languages affects the ways in which people who speak those languages think and behave
Whorfism: Linguistic relativity; language and thought are intertwined and the structure of language affects values, cognition, and decisions
Is the gap in cultural values between men and women greater in cultures that score high on masculinity than in feminine cultures?
Yes, the gap in cultural values between men and women are greater in cultures that score higher in masculinity; Finland (highest feminist culture) women and men share similar responsibilities
