Managing across cultures

1. Presented by:-
Sunpreet Kaur Dhir

2. “Culture is the set of important understandings that
members of a community share in common”. It
consists of a basic set of values, ideas, perceptions,
preferences, concept of morality, code of conduct, etc,
which create a distinctiveness among human groups.

3. A variety of learned traits that influence human
behavior can contribute to the culture of a social group,
the major constituents, include:
Value system
Norms
Customs and traditions
Language
Religion

4. 1.Value system: are the shared assumptions of a
group about how things out to be or abstract ideas
about what a group believes to be good, desirable
or right. Value systems vary among managers
across different countries.

5. 2.Norms: are the guidelines or social rules that
prescribe appropriate behavior in a given situation.
International managers need to know what is
acceptable, unacceptable in foreign culture. They
also need to know cultural tolerance to business
customs that may be grouped as:-

6. Cultural Imperatives
Cultural Exclusives
CulturalAdiaphora
CULTURAL IMPERATIVES: It refers to norms that
must be followed/avoided in a foreign country.
For eg: To much eye contact in Japan is considered
to be completely offensive. On the other hand , in
the gulf, strong eye contact is necessary with an
Arab, to establish trustworthiness.

7. CULTURAL EXCLUSIVES- Social patterns which
are considered appropriate for locals and in which
foreigners are not expected to participate.
For eg: Foreigners should stay away from
discussions on local country politics, social
customs and practices.
CULTURALADIAPHORA- social customs in
which a foreign may participate, so that the
international manager may decide whether to
participate or avoid.

8. Foreg: Bowing in Japanese culture is not expected
from foreigners.
3. Aesthetics- Ideas and perceptions that a cultural
group upholds in terms of beauty and good taste. It
includes areas related to music, dance, painting,
drama, architecture, etc.
For eg: colors have different aesthetic value in
different cultures:
 Africa- bright colors are favorites

9. Japan- pastel colors preferred as they express
harmony.
China- red is lucky color but associated with craft
inAfrica.
America- blue and grey are perfect for official
environments whereas blue is evil inAfrica.
4. CUSTOMS ANDTRADITIONS-
customs- it is an established pattern of behavior
within a society.
Tradition- the elements of culture passed down from
generation to generation.

10. Learned
Shared
Trans-generational
Symbolic
Patterned
Adaptive

11. Turn stall defined organizational culture as “ A
general constellation of beliefs, morals, value
systems, behavioral norms, and way of doing
business that are unique to each corporation”.

12. IndividualAutonomy
Structure
Management support
Identify
Performance Reward system
Conflict tolerance
Risk tolerance
Communication patterns
Outcome orientation
People orientation

13. Observed Behavioral regularities
Norms
Dominant values
philosophy
Rules
Organizational climate

14. Understanding, appreciating, and using cultural factors
that can affect behavior
Appreciating the influence of work –related values on
decisions, preferences and practices.
Understanding and motivating employees with
different values and attitudes
Communicating in the local language
Dealing effectively with extreme conditions in foreign
countries
Utilizing a global mindset(using a worldwide
perspective to constantly assess threats or
opportunities).

15. Ray Kroc worked as a salesman
Started a sideline business with partner
Took the rights for franchisee of MacDonald and
then bought McDonald.
Culture followed in McDonald:
 Four basic concepts-quality, cleanliness, price
and services.
Ray died but left the culture behind
“ If you’ve got the time to lean, you’ve got time to
clean”.

16. McDonalds corporate strategy is to do the right
things and provide the best to the customers and
community they serve..
McDonalds has a strong corporate culture and
supportive about the global youth employment.
In McDonalds every procedure has a very
particular rules and regulations of how it should be
carried out.
It tries to provide best support to it employees.

17. It is dedicated to provide the customers unique level of
quality, cleanliness, value and service.
They are in the believe that well trained team will serve
the best by working together and, so they are
committed with people and encourages team building
and teamwork.
McDonalds set out all aspects of business with
integrity and honesty.
They believe in celebrating the achievement and are
strived for new higher goals and its accomplishments.
They are highly committed to customer’s expectation
and satisfaction.
McDonalds have performance based rewards for the
employees which provide a platform for the workers to
deliver the best to the day to day activities.

18. They believe in balance of work as higher burden
of time and work pressure will deteriorate the
performance of the employees of the workforce.
Customer service is fast .
Decision making is simple.
The premises of the restaurants are clean.
Food safety is the important consideration of the
company.
Standards are based on value, quality, and
cleanliness.

19. Ethnocentricism
Polycentricism
Regiocentricism
Geocentricism

20. It is the tendency of people to evaluate a foreigner’s behavior by
the standards of their own culture, and to believe that their own
culture is superior to all others.
A fundamental assumption of ethnocentric people is that theirway
of doing things is right, proper and normal and that of other
cultures is wrong and inferior.
For example:- People in the U.S think of themselves as being
particularly conscious of cleanliness. They tend to criticize
hygiene practices of others. Little do they understand that thereare
societies that are critical of the hygiene practices of the
Americans.
For example:- East Africans think thatAmericans have no sense of
hygiene because they defecate in rooms(the bathroom) that are
frequently located adjacent to that part of the house where food is
cooked(the kitchen).

21. Polycentrism can be defined as a host country
orientation; which reflects host countries goals and
objectives with respect “to different management
strategies and planning procedures with regard to
international operations.”Under a polycentric
perspective, a company’s management team believes
that in international business practices local
preferences and techniques are usually found most
appropriate to deal with the local market conditions.

22. Regiocentric is the policy that involves hiring and
promoting employees based on specific regional
context where subsidiary is located. This approach
is used when regional employees are needed for
important positions. However both employees
from host countries and a third party are employed.

23. Geocentric staffing approach is used when
companies adopt a transnational orientation. It is
best used when companies need the best personnel
to work at subsidiary. Employees are selected
regardless where they come from. This strategy is
reliable for all subsidiaries because best employees
are selected and sent from the company’s
worldwide network.

24. Globe Project Team
Hofsede’s Model
Trompenaars’ 7d Cultural dimensionmodel

25. Power Distance is the extent to which the less powerful
members of institutions and organizations accept that power
is distributed unequally. Countries in which people blindly
obey the orders of superiors have high power distance.
High power distance countries have norms, values and
beliefs, such as:
Inequality is fundamentally good,
Every one has a place; some are high, some are low,
Most people should be dependent on a leader,
The powerful should not hide their power

26. Uncertainty avoidance is the extent to which people
feel threatened by ambiguous situations, and create
beliefs and institutions that try to avoid them. Some
countries have high uncertainty avoidance while some
are characterized by low uncertainty avoidance.
High uncertainty avoidance countries are characterized
by norms, values, and beliefs

27. Individualism is the tendency of people to look
after themselves and their family only. Opposite of
this is collectivism which refers to the tendency of
people to belong to groups and to look after each
other in exchange for loyalty.
Individualism is common in the US, Canada,
Australia, Denmark and Sweden. The people of
Indonesia, Pakistan and a number of South
Americans countries exhibit collectivism.

28. Countries high in individualism have norms , values
and beliefs which accept that:
People are responsible for themselves
Individual achievement is ideal, and
People need not be emotionally dependent on
organisations or groups.

29. In cultures with universalistic orientation, people
believe in abstract principles such as rules of law,
religion or cultural principles. In universalistic the
focus is more on formal rules than on
relationships, business contracts are adhered to
very closely, and people believe that a ‘ deal is a
deal’.
On the other hand , particularism is the belief that
circumstances dictate how ideas and practices
should be applied. In a particularistic culture, legal
contracts are often modified, and the way deals are
executed also changes, depending on the situation.

30. In individualistic societies, the focus is on ‘I’ or
‘me’ and the orientation is on one’s own growth.
People are trained from childhood to be
independent, and each person assumes individual
responsibility for success or failures.
In collectivistic societies the focus is on groups
including family, organization and community.
Responsibility, achievement and reward are group
based.

31. Motivation
Leadership
Communication
HR practices
Teams
Negotiation
Work values

32. Achieving Leadership Diversity
Structural Integration
Bias-free Organization
Organizational Identification
Minimizing Inter-group conflict

33. Culture
Perception
experience

34. Learn the Language of the Host country
Learn to Neutralize Language accents
Be Aware of the Fact that Cross-Cultural Barriers
do Exist
Use straight Forward Language and Speak Clearly
Be Sensitive to Non-verbal Communication
Develop Cultural Sensitivity

35. THANK YOU