presentation on 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.
For example- Korean companies like Lg, Posco,
Samsung and Cisco, Koreans working in these
companies in India had not only learn Hindi, Kannada,
and oriya, but adopted local names too( like Anurag is
the adopted name of chang chyone jung).

3.  Posco which has 30-35 expats working in India,
has made it mandatory for its expat employees to
learn odiya for a better understanding of the local
environment. Oriya classes were introduced for
Korean employees of Posco India during the first
half of 2006, and are held every year by an in
house resource person.

4. 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
 Aesthetics
 Customs and traditions
 Language
 Religion

5. 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.
For eg: US managers have high achievement
orientation where as Japanese managers – how to
have a growth and size orientation and comparing
Indian managers to US and Japanese manager they
have – moralistic orientation.

6. 2.Norms: are the guidelines or social rules that
prescribe appropriate behavior in a given situation.
For eg: In Japan, aggressive selling is not perceived
in the positive spirit.
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:-

7.  Cultural Imperatives
 Cultural Exclusives
 Cultural Adiaphora
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.

8. 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.
CULTURAL ADIAPHORA- social customs in
which a foreign may participate, so that the
international manager may decide whether to
participate or avoid.

9.  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

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

11.  Learned
 Shared
 Trans-generational
 Symbolic
 Patterned
 Adaptive

12. 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”.

13.  Individual Autonomy
 Structure
 Management support
 Identify
 Performance Reward system
 Conflict tolerance
 Risk tolerance
 Communication patterns
 Outcome orientation
 People orientation

14.  Observed Behavioral regularities
 Norms
 Dominant values
 philosophy
 Rules
 Organizational climate

15. DEFINITION:
It involves the ability to recognize and embrace
similarities and differences among nations and cultures
and then approach to organizational and strategic
issues with an open and curious mind.
CULTURE– The dominant pattern of living, thinking,
and believing that is developed and transmitted by
people consciously, to subsequent generations.
CULTURAL VALUES- Those consciously and
subconsciously deeply held beliefs that specify general
preferences, behaviors, and define what is right and
wrong.

16.  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).

17.  Doing Business in Russia
- When dealing with the Russians, one
must
- Build personal relationships with
partners
- Use local consultants
- Consider business ethics
- Be patient
- Stress exclusivity
- Deal with just one firm at a time
 Keep financial information personal
 Research about the company
 Stress mutual gain
 Clarify terminology
 Be careful about compromising or
settling things quickly
 Doing Business in China
- When dealing with the Chinese, one
must :
- Be a good listener
- Understand that the Chinese are less
animated than Westerners.
- Understand that the Chinese place
values and principles above money and
expediency
- Allow Chinese host to signal the
beginning of a meeting
- Understand that Chinese are slow to
decode on a course of action, but stick
to the decision once made
- Understand that reciprocity is important
in negotiations
- Not display emotions during
negotiations

18.  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”.

19.  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.

20.  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.

21.  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.

22.  Ethnocentricism
 Polycentricism
 Regiocentricism
 Geocentricism

23. 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 their way
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 there are
societies that are critical of the hygiene practices of the
Americans.
For example:- East Africans think that Americans 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).

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27.  Globe Project Team
 Hofsede’s Model
 Trompenaars’ 7d Cultural dimension model

28.  Globe – Global Leadership and Organizational
Behavior effectiveness.
 The GLOBE project team comprises 170
researchers who have collected data, over seven
years, on cultural values and practices and
leadership attributes, from 17000 managers in 62
countries covering as many as 825 organisations.

29. The research team has identified 9 cultural dimensions
that distinguish one society from another and have
important managerial implications:
 Assertiveness
 Future Orientation
 Human Orientation
 Gender Differentiation
 In-group Collectivism
 Collectivism/ Societal
 Power Distance
 Uncertainty Avoidance

30. VARIABLES HIGH RANKING MEDIUM
RANKING
LOWEST
RANKING
Assertiveness Spain, US Egypt, Ireland Sweden, New
Zealand
Future Orientation Denmark , Canada Slovenia, Egypt Russia, Argentina
Performance
Orientation
US, Taiwan Sweden, Israel Russia, Argentina
Human Orientation Indonesia, Egypt Hong Kong,
Sweden
Germany, Spain
Gender
Differentiation
South Korea, Egypt Italy, Brazil Sweden, Denmark
Collectivism/societ
al
Demark, Singapore Hong Kong, US Greece, Hungary
Power Distance Russia, Spain England, France Denmark,
Netherlands

31. VARIABLES HIGH RANKING MEDIUM
RANKING
LOWEST
RANKING
Uncertainty
Avoidance
Austria,
Denmark
Israel, Us Russia, Hungary
In-group
collectivism
Egypt, China England,
France
Denmark,
Netherlands

32. Dutch scientist, Greet Hofstede has identified four
cultural dimensions around which countries have
been clustered with people in each group
exhibiting identical behaviors. The four
dimensions are:
 Power Distance
 Uncertainty Avoidance
 Individualism
 Masculinity

33. 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 are entitled to privileges, and
 The powerful should not hide their power

34. Countries like France, India, Singapore, Brazil,
Mexico and Indonesia are examples of societies
with high power distance.
Low Power Distance countries:
 Tend to decentralized and have flatter structures,
 They have a smaller proportion of supervisory
personnel,
 The lower level of workforce will be highly
qualified.
Countries like US, Austria, Norway, Ireland and
Newzealand represent cultures with low power
distance.

35. 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 which accept that:
 Conflict should be avoided,
 Deviant people and ideas should not be tolerate,
 Laws are very important and should be followed,
 Experts and authorities are usually correct, and
 Consensus is important

36. Low uncertainty avoidance societies are
characterized by:
 They have organisations settings with less
structuring of activities,
 Fewer written rules
 More risk taking by managers
 High labor turnover and more ambitious
employees.

37. SMALL POWER DISTANCE,
WEAK UNCERTAINTY
AVOIDANCE
NORDIC COUNTRIES,
ANGLO COUNTRIES, USA,
NETHERLANDS
LARGE POWER DISTANCE,
WEAK UNCERTAINTY
AVOIDANCE
CHINA, HONGKONG,
SINGAPORE, INDIA,
BANGLADESH, INDONESIA,
MALAYSIA
SMALL POWER DISTANCE,
STRONG UNCERTAINTY
AVOIDANCE
GERMAN SPEAKING
COUNTRIES, HUNGARY, ISRAEL
LARGE POWER DISTANCE,
STRONG UNCERTAINTY
AVOIDANCE
TAIWAN, THAILAND,
PAKISTAN, LATIN COUNTRIES,
JAPAN, KOREA

38. 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.

39. 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.
In contrast collectivist countries believe that:
 One’s identity is based on one’s group membership
 Group decision making is best, and
 Groups protect individuals in exchange for their loyalty
to the group.

40. Masculinity refers to a situation in which dominant values in
society are success, money and other material things.
Hofstede measured this dimension on a continuum, ranging
from masculinity to femininity.
High masculine cultures have norms, values and beliefs that:
 Gender roles should be clearly distinguished,
 Men are assertive and dominant,
 Machismo or exaggerated maleness is good,
 People, especially men, should be decisive,
 Work takes priority over other duties, such as family and
 Advancement, success and money are important

41. COLLECTIVIST, FEMININE
THAILAND, KOREA, VIETNAM,
INDONESIA, MALAYSIA,
SINGAPORE, COST RICA, CHILE,
PORTUGAL, RUSSIA
COLLECTIVIST, MASCULINE
HONG KONG, CHINA, JAPAN,
PHILIPPINES, INDIA,
BANGLADESH, MEXICO,
VENEZULA, GREECE, ARAB
WORLD
INDIVIDUALIST, FEMININE
SPAIN, FRANCE,
NETHERLANDS, NORDIC
COUNTRIES
INDIVIDUALIST, MASCULINE
CZECHOSLOVAKIA,
HUNGARY,POLAND, ITALY,
GERMAN SPEAKING
COUNTRIES,
ANGLO COUNTRIES, USA

42. Trompenaars, an European researcher, conducted an
extensive research with 1500 managers from 28
countries, representing 47 national countries model.
He describes differences using seven dimensions(the
theory is therefore called 7d cultural dimensions
model):
 Universalism versus Particularism
 Individualism versus Collectivism
 Specific versus Diffuse
 Neutral versus Affective
 Achievement versus Ascription
 Past versus Present, and
 Internal versus External control

43.  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.

44.  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.

45. In this dimension, Trompenaars focuses on the
appropriateness of expressing emotions in different
cultures.
 In neutral cultures, the tendency of the people is to
control one’s emotion so that it will not interfere
with judgment.
 In contrast, affective cultures encourage
expressions of emotions. Expression of anger,
laughter, gesturing and a range of emotional
outbursts are considered and acceptable.

46. The cultural dimension focuses on how a culture
emphasizes notions on privacy and access to privacy.
 In specific cultures, individuals have large public
spaces and relatively small private ones. While the
public space is open, private is guarded carefully and
shared with only close friends and associates.
 A diffuse culture does not allow any distinction
between public and private sectors. In diffuse cultures,
an executive’s office and home are not divided as
clearly as they are specific cultures and work
relationships often extend into personal relationships.

47. This dimension describe the methods used to acquire
status.
 In achievement culture, an individual is accorded
status based on how well he/she performs his/her
functions. Status depends on achievement.
 An ascription culture is one in which status is
attributed based on who or what a person is,
his/her age, gender or social connections.

48. Time orientation has two dimensions:
 The first dimension of trompenaars’ is similar to
Hofstede’s: there are different emphases on the
past, present and future.
 The second refers to sequential versus synchronic
culture.

49.  The final cultural dimension of trompenaars relate
to one’s locus of control, a belief one entertains
that he/she is the master of his/her own destiny.
Where managers believe that they have control
over outcomes, they are said to be followers of
internal locus of control.
 Instead, if they believe that they have no control
over the outcomes, such managers deem to follow
the tenets of external locus of control.

50.  Increasing creativity and innovation,
 Demonstrating more sensitivity in dealing with foreign
customers,
 Hiring the best talent from anywhere,
 Demonstrating a global perspective,
 Creating a ‘superorganisational culture’, using the best
of all cultures,
 Greater flexibility within the organization, both to
adapt to a wider range of environments, and to change
within these environments.
 Evolve universally acceptable HR policies and
practices.

51.  Possess a strong personal identity,
 Have knowledge of and felicity with the beliefs
and values of the culture,
 Display sensitivity to the effective processes of the
culture,
 Communicate clearly in the language of the given
cultural group,
 Perform specially sanctioned behavior,
 Maintain active social relations within the cultural
group,
 Negotiate the institutional structures of that
culture.

52.  Motivation
 Leadership
 Communication
 HR practices
 Teams
 Negotiation
 Work values

53. AMERICAN JAPANESE ARAB
MANAGEMENT
STYLES
Leadership;
friendliness
Persuasion;
functional
group activities
Coaching;
personal
attention;
parenthood of
others
CONTROL Independence;
Decision-
making; space,
Time ,Money
Group harmony Parenthood
Emotional
Appeal
Opportunity Group
participation;
Company
success
Religion;
Nationalistic;
Admiration

54. AMERICAN JAPANESE ARAB
RECOGNITION Individual
contribution
Group identity;
Belonging to
group
Class/society;
Promotion
MATERIAL
AWARDS
Salary;
Commission;
Profit sharing
Annual bonus;
social services;
Fringe benefits
Gift for self/
family; family
affair; salary
increase
THREATS Loss of job Out of group Demotion
CULTURAL
VALUES
Competition,
Risk-taking;
Material
possession;
Freedom
Group
harmony;
Achievement;
Belonging
Reputation;
family security;
Religion; social
status

55. To be specific, the leader of an MNC needs to be
endowed with the following skills and abilities:
 Cosmopolitan
 Skilled at International Communication
 Culturally Sensitive
 Capable of Rapid Acculturation
 Knowledge about cultural and Institutional
Influences on management
 A commitment to continuous Improvement in self-
awareness and Renewal

56. UNIVERSALLY ACCEPTABLE AND
REJECTABLE TRAITS AND
BEHAVIOURS
CULTURAL SPECIFIC TRAITS AND
BEHAVIOURS
POSITIVE NEGATIVE
Honest Loner Group orientation
Encouraging Asocial Self-protectiveness
Good bargaining Non-
cooperative
Participative skills
Dynamic Non-
explicit
Humanness
Motivator Egocentric Autonomy
Confidence builder Ruthless Charisma

57. LEADER’S ROLE HEADQUARTERS SUBSIDIARY CULTURAL IMPACT
Visioneering Sets the corporate
visions and mission
Enforces the
corporate vision and
mission and set unit
goals
Not influenced by
host culture
Energizing Establishing
enabling
environment to
achieve
organizational
objectives
Ability to emulate
similar energy and
have the host unit
achieve its
objectives
Largely influenced
by the host
country’s culture
particularly with
reference to
directive,
participative and
charismatic styles
Efficiency Initiating the use of
necessary tools and
practices that drive
productivity
Ability to emulate
and, where
necessary, deviate
from parent
company’s tools and
practices
Local culture does
have impact on
leadership styles

58. LEADER’S ROLE HEADQUARTERS SUBSIDIARY CULTURAL
IMPACT
RESULTS Driving for
results
Driving for
results
Highly culture
sensitive
RULES AND
PROCEDURES
Country and
industry specific
Ensuring
coordination
and control as
desired by the
head office
High degree of
local
dependence as
well as
integrate
globally for
corporate
parity and
sense of equity

59.  Creating Pluralism
 Achieving Leadership Diversity
 Structural Integration
 Integration of informal Networks
 Bias-free Organization
 Organizational Identification
 Minimizing Inter-group conflict

60.  Culture
 Perception
 experience

61.  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

62. THANK YOU