Chapter 4a

Five Rules of Thumb helpful for any business person when working in a foreign country

1. Be prepared 2. Slow Down! 3. Establish trust 4. Understand importance of language 5. Respect local culture • An addition aspect: understand components of culture i.e. surface vs. beliefs.

Anthropologist's Culture

1. Culture is learned; we are not born with a culture 2. The various aspects of culture are interrelated 3. Culture is shared, patterned, and mutually constructed through social interaction 4. Culture defines the boundaries of different groups

Ethnocentricity

Assuming one's own culture to be superior to other cultures

Long-Term Orientation/Confusion Dynamism

Dealing with virtue regardless of truth, that is, the level to which people in the culture will persevere to overcome obstacles they cannot overcome with will or strength.

Sociocultural

Description of the social world through which we observe the effects of culture- (society is composed of people living within their cultural frameworks, so to understand a specific society, how it works, whtat its norms and values are, we need to understand its culture)

Culture and Its Role In Business

Marketing, Human Resources, Production, Accounting & Finance, Preferred Leadership Styles (p.65)

Culture

Sum total of the beliefs, rules, techniques, institutions, and artifacts that characterize human populations. Culture consists of the "individual worldviews, social rules, and interpersonal dynamics characterizing a group of people set in a particular time and place.

Hofstede's Five Dimensions

These provide managers with way to understand how cultural differences affect organizations and mgmt methods. They also assist in showing that mgmt skills are culturally specific. (maybe here, but not there concept). Individualism-Collectivism Power Distance Uncertainty Avoidance Masculinity-Femininity Long-Term Orientation/Confucian Dynamism

High Context

o Less verbally explicit communication, less written/formal information o More internalized understanding of what is communicated o Long term relationships o Strong boundaries - insider/outsider o Knowledge is situational, relational o Decisions and activities focus around personal face to face relationships, often around a central authority person

Low Context

o Rule oriented, people play by external rules o More knowledge is codified, public, external, and accessible o Sequencing, separation - of time, of space, of activities, of relationships o More interpersonal connections of shorter duration o Knowledge is more often transferable o Task-centered. Decisions and activities focus around what needs to be done, division of responsibilities.

Individualism-Collectivism

• Cohesive groups (example: Japan, China, Indonesia, Panama) or individual thinking (U.S., Canada, U.K, Germany, Australia)

Power Distance

• Large: Seniority, age, rank, are important (when the groups is large). People prefer direction. Example (India, Singapore, Philippines, middle east) • Small: Much more consultative and informal (example: Canada, Sweden, U.S.

Uncertainly Avoidance

• Level of comfort with uncertainly • Strong uncertainty avoidance • Weak uncertainty avoidance • Masculinity - Femininity

L' exception culture role Francoise

•Everything culture must be protect from the of the markets, the state being regulator and when necessary, the sponsor of cultural policies •Cultural products not life other products. o Example: protect by France film industry plans for a transatlantic: free trade area with North American

Global Business and Culture

•Transnationalism free movement of people culture people products ideas nation borders no longer identified with single place of origin •Local Culture experiences of everyday life lived by ordinary people in specific cultures. Central to maintaining local culture are dietary patterns attends towards food and notions of what conditions a proper need the other central issue is language.