Cross cultural context

1. Group 1

3. What is Cross-Cultural Context ?
 Cross Cultural Communication in an organization
deals with understanding different business Customs
, beliefs and communication Strategies
It becomes Strategically important due to the Impact of
globalization in business

4. ORIGIN OF CROSS CULTURE
 During the Cold war, the economy of the United States was largely
self-contained because the world was polarized into two separate
and competing powers: the East and the West
 Business transformed from individual-country capitalism to Global
Capitalism
 Thus, the study of cross-cultural communication was originally found
within businesses and government, both seeking to expand globally
 They began to offer language training to their employees and and
also to train employees to understand how to act in abroad
 With this also came the development of the Foreign Service Institute
or FSI, through the where government employees received trainings
and prepared for overseas posts

5. ASPECTS OF CROSS CULTURE
 There are several parameters that may be perceived
differently by people of different cultures :
 High Context Vs Low Context Cultures
 Non Verbal , Oral & Written
 Emblems
 Illustrators
 Regulators

6. High Vs Low Context Culture
 The concept of high- and low-context
culture relates to how an employee's thoughts,
opinions, feelings and upbringing affect how they act
within a given culture

7. NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION
 Gestures and eye contact are two areas
of nonverbal communication that are utilized
differently across cultures
 For eg : American workers tend to wave their hand
and use a finger to point when giving nonverbal
direction. Extreme gesturing is considered rude in
some cultures. While pointing may be considered
appropriate in some contexts in the United States,
Japanese would never use a finger to point towards
another person because that gesture is considered
rude in Japan

8. LANGUAGE DIFFRENCES
 Linguistic differences between the employees or with
the management plays a vital role with companies
which compete globally
 Certain norms are followed by the organisation ,
when there is communication between the native
employees and the Foreign Clients in order to bring
out rapport between them

9. POWER DISTANCE
 Power Distance relates to how power is distributed
within the organization
 Typically , American Companies utilize a low power
distance and have more informal hierarchies that
allow for interaction between subordinates and
executives

10.  Companies with high power distance are very
hierarchal in nature and have severe differences in
authority
 Japanese companies use different power structure
when compared to the American Companies

12. General Cross Culture Aspects
 Age
 Gender
 Country
 Values
 Ethnicity
 Customs

13. Leadership and
Culture

14. Strategic Leadership: Embracing Change
 Telecommunications, computers, the
Internet, and one global marketplace have
increased the pace of change exponentially
during the past 10 years
 The leadership challenge is to galvanize
commitment among people within an
organization as well as stakeholders outside
the organization to embrace change and
implement strategies intended to position
the organization to succeed in a vastly
different future

15. Clarifying Strategic Intent
 Leaders help their company embrace
change by setting for their strategic
intent—a clear sense of where they want to
lead the company and what results they
expect to achieve
 Leader’s vision—an articulation of a simple
criterion or characterization of what the
leader sees the company must become to
establish and sustain global leadership
 Make clear the performance expectations a
leader has for the organization, and
managers in it, as they seek to move toward
that vision

16. Building an Organization
1. Education and leadership development is the
effort to familiarize future leaders with the skills
important to the company and to develop
exceptional leaders among the managers you
employ
2. Perseverance is the capacity to see a commitment
through to completion long after most people would
have stopped trying
3. Principles are your fundamental personal
standards that guide your sense of honesty,
integrity, and ethical behavior

17. Shaping Organizational Culture
 Passion, in a leadership sense, is a highly
motivated sense of commitment to what you do
and want to do
 Leaders also use reward systems, symbols,
and structure among other means to shape the
organization’s culture
 Leaders look to managers they need to execute
strategy as another source of leadership to
accept risk and cope with the complexity that
change brings about

18. Recruiting and Developing Talented
Operational Leadership
 New leaders will each be global
managers, change agents, strategists,
motivators, strategic decision makers,
innovators, and collaborators if the
business is to survive and prosper
 Today’s need for fluid, learning
organizations capable of rapid
response, sharing, and cross-cultural
synergy place incredible demands on
young managers to bring important
competencies to the organization

19. Ex. 12.5 What Competencies Should Managers
Possess?

20. Sources of Power and Influence
Organizational Power
 Position power
 Reward power
 Information power
 Punitive power
Personal Influence
 Expert influence
 Referent influence
 Peer influence

21. Ex. 12.6 Management Processes and Levels of
Management

22. Organizational Culture
 Organizational culture is the set of
important assumptions (often unstated) that
members of an organization share in
common
 Every organization has its own culture
 Assumptions become shared assumptions
through internalization among an
organization’s individual members

23. The Role of the Organizational
Leader
 The leader is the standard bearer, the
personification, the ongoing embodiment of the
culture, or the new example of what it should
become
 How the leader behaves and emphasizes those
aspects of being a leader become what all the
organization sees are “the important things to
do and value.”

24. Build Time in the Organization
 Some leaders have been with the
organization for a long time
 Many leaders in recent years, and inevitably
in any organization, are new to the top post
of the organization
 In the other situation, a new leader who is
not an “initiated” member of the culture
faces a much more challenging task

25. Ethics
 Ethical standards are a person’s basis for
differentiating right from wrong
 The culture of an organization, and particularly the
link between the leader and the culture’s very
nature, is inextricably tied to the ethical standards
of behavior, actions, decisions, and norms that
leader personifies

26. Shaping Organizational Culture
 Emphasize key themes or dominant values
 Encourage dissemination of stories and legends
about core values
 Institutionalize practices that systematically
reinforce desired beliefs and values
 Adapt some very common themes in their own
unique ways
 Manage organizational culture in a global
organization:
 Social norms
 Values and attitudes
 Religion
 Education

27. Ex. 12.9 Managing the Strategy-Culture
Relationship

28. Manage the Strategy-Culture
Relationship
 Link to mission
 Maximize synergy
 Manage around the culture
 Reformulate strategy or culture

29. Organizational Structure
and Culture

30. Organizational Structure and Culture
Organizational
Structure
Organizational
Culture
The formal system of work roles and
authority relationships that govern
how associates and managers
interact with one another.
Involves the values and norms
shared by managers and associates
that influence behavior. It is a
powerful force in organizations.

31. Fundamental Elements of Organizational
Structure
Structural
Characteristics
Structuring
Characteristics
Hierarchy

32. Structural Characteristics
Span of Control
HeightDepartmentation

33. Functional Organization
VP
Research and
Development
VP
Research and
Development
VP
Operations
VP
Human
Resources
VP
Finance
VP
Marketing
CEO

34. Divisional Organization
CEO
Head of
Operations
Head of
R&D
Head of
Human
Resources
Head of
Finance
Head of
Marketing
V.P.
Product/Service
Area 1
Head of
Operations
Head of
R&D
Head of
Human
Resources
Head of
Finance
Head of
Marketing
V.P.
Product/Service
Area 1
Head of
Operations
Head of
R&D
Head of
Human
Resources
Head of
Finance
Head of
Marketing
V.P.
Product/Service
Area 1

35. Structuring Characteristics
Centralization Standardization
Formalization Specialization

36. Freedom
Substantial freedom may exist, but
1. Freedom is not unlimited
2. Alternative mechanisms are used to ensure that
individuals are working for the good of the
organization
3. Values are shared
4. Reward systems are used to promote appropriate
behavior

37. Factors Affecting Structure
Corporate
Strategy
Growth
Diversification

38. Developing Organizational Culture
Organizational
Culture
Norms
Reinforcing
Outcomes
Shared
Values
Individual and
Group Behavior

39. Organizational Culture
Effectiveness
Cohesion and Morale
Leadership
Mentors and Coaches
Clan
Effectiveness
Creativity and Innovation
Leadership
Entrepreneurs and
Innovators
Adhocracy
Effectiveness
Goal Achievement and
Winning
Leadership
Hard Drivers and
Competitors
Market
Effectiveness
Efficiency and Order
Leadership
Monitors and Organizers
Hierarchy
Internal Focus/Integration External Focus/
Differentiation
Stability/Control
Flexibility/
Discretion

40. Cultural Audit
A tool for assessing and understanding the culture
of an organization. Use these five steps for
conducting the cultural audit:
Analyze
process
and
content
Analyze
responses
to critical
incidents
Analyze
values
and
beliefs of
culture
creators
Explore
anomalies
or
puzzling
features
Examine
linkage –
culture
with
goals
Subcultures – groups that share values
that differ from the main values of the
organization.

41. CULTURE AND STRATEGY

42. Strategy and corporate culture
 The relationship between company culture and
strategy:
- Strategy is a product of culture
- Culture is a product of strategy
 Definition of culture could also be used as the
definition of strategy:
- solution to the problems of external adaptation
and internal integration

43. Cultural models of strategy
Strategic management:
- Two main types according to their behaviours, values
and assumptions:
 Controlling model
- information about its environment
- quantitative and objective
 Adapting model
- Information from personal sources
- qualitative and subjective

44. Culture shock
 Culture shock refers to unpleasant experience with
other cultures
 International managers experience culture shock at
three levels:
- Emotions
- Thinking
- Social skills and identity