330G chap 3

Define culture P62

According to anthropologists, it is the sum total of the beliefs, rules, techniques, institutions, and artifacts that characterize human populations. Culture also can be understood from the individual level as the individual worldviews, social rules, interpersonal dynamics characterizing a group of people set in a particular time and place. Culture is learned, we are not born with a culture. The various aspects of culture are interrelated. Culture is shared, patterned, and usually constructed through social interaction. Culture defines the boundaries of different groups. Society is composed of people living in their culture, often unaware of its influence on them.

Describe these cultural dimensions from Trompenaars: achievement VS. ascription P81

Ascription cultures consider who a person is in terms of his or her family lineage, age, or other attributes. You are valued for who you are. Achievement cultures are meritocracies that reward what you do. In the United States, for example, achievement is a primary determinant of social status. This dimension may be especially helpful to keep in mind for staffing and interpersonal relationships.

List the five major world religions P68

Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism

Explain high and low context cultures P75

Context: the relevant environment. Communication's context: The total relevant environment beyond the words, including, for instance, the participants' body language, their places in the room, and the order in which they speak. High context: less verbally explicit communication; less written/formal information. More internalized understandings of what is communicated. Multiple cross cutting ties and intersections with others. Long-term relationships. Strong boundaries - insider/outsider. Knowledge is situational relational. Decisions and activities focus around personal face to face relationships, often around a central authority person. Low context: rule oriented, people play by external rules. More knowledge is codified, public, external, and accessible. Sequencing, separation - of time, of space, of activities, of relationships. More interpersonal connections of shorter duration. Knowledge is more often transferable. Task-centered; decisions and activities focused around what needs to be done; division of responsibilities. This includes the United States and the United Kingdom. In a high-context (HC) culture much communication is conveyed by the context. The explicit communicator in a Low-context culture is direct, unsbtle (an undesirable trait in HC) and unambiguous: what you say is what you mean. Doing is a strong low-context culture value, where as being in the moment is valued in high-context cultures. Low-context cultures tend to focus on the future, where as high-context cultures tend to focus on the past and be more influenced by tradition, as in Asia.

Describe these cultural dimensions from Trompenaars: Neutral vs. effective (Unemotional vs. Emotional) P80

How do members of a culture express emotions? People in neutral cultures tend to withhold emotional expressions, while people in effective cultures are much more expressive. You can imagine that this dimension would come into play in communication patterns. Someone from an affective culture might be seeking responses that would not be normal for another person from a neutral culture to give. If you think back to the British petroleum oil spill, United States needed emotion, and the British crisis manager's approached communication with what would work in the united kingdom, a stiff upper lip.

Define ethnocentricity P62

The believe that your own culture is superior to other cultures. When outsiders attempt to introduce their home culture's approach in a business environment (the "German way," the "Chinese way,"), The stubborn resistance they are likely to meet is a sign of this ethnocentricity.

Describe these cultural dimensions from Hofstede: uncertainty avoidance

This describes a society's level of comfort with uncertainty. Hofstede points out that this dimension "ultimately refers to man's search for truth" because it describes the extent to which a culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations. Cultures that avoid uncertainty try to minimize the possibility of unstructured situations by "strict laws and rules, safety and security measures." Strong uncertainty avoidance cultures resist change, including career change and organizational change; they expect clear procedures and preserve the status quo. Weak uncertainty avoidance cultures see conflict as having positive aspects, expect innovation, encourage risk-taking, and reward career change. Strong uncertainty avoidance cultures include Greece, Portugal, Guatemala, etc. Examples of weak uncertainty avoidance cultures include the United States and Canada, but they do not reference the United Kingdom.

Describe these cultural dimensions from Trompenaars: universalism vs. particularism (rules versus relationships) P80

This dimension addresses whether rules or relationships regulate behaviors. People in universalist cultures apply rules across the board, to all people, and all situations. People in particularist cultures consider the context before they apply the rule. Universalist cultures tend to be rule-based, while particularist cultures tend to be relationship-based. This dimension has wide applicability to our understanding of ethics in other cultures. The United States tends to be moderately rule-based, and US adults tend to think everyone should follow the guidelines or rules, such as the foreign corrupt practices act. In other cultures, this judgment is situational - it all depends. It might depend on who is involved, on the specific circumstances of the event such as its location, or on other variables. You can see how cultural misunderstandings around ethics might arise between universalist and particularist cultures.

Describe these cultural dimensions from Hofstede: masculinity - femininity P78

This dimension describes the distribution of roles between the sexes. Hofstede's data indicates that "women's roles across culture differ less then do men's, and that men's values among countries very considerably, from very assertive and competitive and maximally different from women's values on the one side, to modest and caring and similar to women's values on the other." The assertive pole is masculine, and the caring one feminine. " The women in feminine countries have the same modest, caring values as the man; in the masculine countries they are somewhat assertive and competitive, but not as much as the men, so that these countries show a gap between men's values and women's values." Notice that this dimension is about the gap between men's and women's roles in the culture. In a feminine culture, there is relatively less variation between male and female roles, which suggests that leadership and decision-making rolls are equally open to men and women. Also in a feminine culture, quality of work life is important; people work in order to live, and environmental issues matter from a business perspective. In a masculine culture, male roles are more likely to be task-focused and female roles relationship-focused, achievements are emphasized, economic growth is central, people live in order to work, and business preference is the primary goal. [They give examples of masculine cultures and they do not reference the United States or the United Kingdom.]

Describe these cultural dimensions from Trompenaars: specific VS. diffuse P80

This dimension distinguishes among cultures based on their differentiation between private life and public or work life. In specific cultures such as the United States, people make distinctions between their work relationships and other relationships, so that work relationships do not carry over beyond work. In diffuse cultures such as those of East Asia, the work relationships carry over to other areas of life and influence them. Low-context cultures, to use Hall's terms, such as Germany, Canada, and the United States, tend to be specific, while hi-context cultures, such as Japan and Mexico tend to be diffuse. Characteristics of specific dimensions include: communication is direct, to the point, purposeful. Style is precise, blunt, definitive, transparent. Principles and morals stands tend to be universal. Characteristics of diffuse dimensions include: communication is indirect, seemingly "aimless". Style is invasive, tactful, ambiguous, opaque. Morality is situational (person and context)

Describe these cultural dimensions from Hofstede: power distance P78

This dimension is the extent to which members of a society expect power to be distributed unequally and except that it is. Power distance is similar to inequality, but defined from below, not from above, and suggests that a society's level of inequality is indorsed by followers as well as by leaders. In large-power-distance societies, security, age, rank, and title are important. People will want direction, and formality is emphasized. In small-power-distance environments, A consolidative style of leadership predominates, and formality tends to be the norm, and there is or there is thought to be equal distance among people. For example from season ticket holders of box seats at major sporting events to minimum-wage fast-food workers, just about everyone in the United States, a low-power-distance culture, self-identifies as middle class. Examples of large-power-distance cultures are Malaysia, Guatemala, Panama, etc. they do not reference the United States or the United Kingdom for this one however for large-power-distance cultures they do reference Canada.

Describe these cultural dimensions from Hofstede: individualism - collectivism P77

This dimension measures the degree to which people and the culture are integrated into groups. People in highly collectivistic cultures belong to strong, cohesive in-groups that look after them in exchange for loyalty. In contrast, people in highly individualistic cultures are more loosely connected and look after themselves and their immediate family. The United States is highly individualistic; the culture rewards independence; the education system rewords outstanding individuals. This dimension plays out strongly in employee motivation and decision making. Countries with predominately individual list cultures include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, etc.