AHBETE

[miniMBA_09] Cross-cultural Management

Culture and Culture Shock

Culture Characteristics

• • Culture is shared by members of a group.
  • Culture is learned through membership in a group.
  • Culture influences the behaviors of group members.

Common Themes Across Cultures

• • Power distribution - hierarchy vs. egalitarianism
  • Social relationships - individual relationships vs group relationships
  • Environmental relationships - control the environment vs coexist with environment
  • Time and work patterns - one task at a time vs multi-tasking
  • Uncertainty - tolerate ambiguity vs reduce ambiguity

Psychological Adjustment Stages

1. 1. Honeymoon period - initial excitement and positivity with high expectations
   2. Disillusionment - setbacks or unmet expectations with negative attitude toward culture
   3. Adaptation - development of coping strategies and more realistic expectations
   4. Biculturalism - successful adjustment to living environment and cultural norms

Socio-cultural Skill Interactions

• 1. Separate - reject new local culture and retain the home culture
  2. Assimilate - lose home culture and fully adopt the new local cultural norms
  3. Integrate - balance our home culture and new local culture

Reverse Culture Shock Categories

• • Alienated returnee - reject home culture
  • Resocialized returnee - assimilate back into home culture without bringing experience learned
  • Proactive returnee - renewed energy and optimism while using lessons learned

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Cross-Cultural Partnerships

Partnership Considerations

Benefits

• • Promote growth
  • Access to new technologies
  • Increased pool of customers
  • Increased pool of clients

Drawbacks

• • Resistance sharing key personnel
  • Reveal lack of long-term commitment
  • Reduced control over decisions

Partnership Compatibility

When deciding to form a cross-cultural partnership, compatibility is key. Consider the following as you decide who to partner with:

1. 1. Compatibility of strategic goals and tactics
   2. Complementary value-creating resources
   3. Complementary organizational cultures
   4. Shared commitment to the partnership
   5. Compatibility of organizational philosophy and operation

Communication Barriers

Selective perception

• • Filtering information
  • Focus on affirmations of beliefs
  • Ignore challenge to beliefs

Cultural Logic

• • Use own assumptions to interpret actions of others
  • Problematic when cultural backgrounds are not similar

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Cultural Perspectives of Ethics and Morality

3 Major Ethical Philosophies

1. 1. Deontology / Kantian ethics - ethical judgement is based on behavior itself
   2. Utilitarianism - judgement of ethicality is based on “greatest good for greatest number of people”
   3. Virtue ethics - regard which “ideal” is demonstrated

Moral Disengagement

The psychological process by which an individual convinces him/herself that ethical standards to not apply within a particular situation.

8 Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement

1. 1. Moral Justification - adopting the view “the ends justify the means”
   2. Advantageous comparison - comparing unethical conduct to what is perceived as a more severe form of unethical conduct
   3. Euphemistic labeling - sanitizing actions by using neutralizing phrases or words
   4. Minimizing or misconstruing the consequences - denying unethical behavior by claiming others are making too much of a big deal about the behavior
   5. Dehumanization - labelling or characterizing people as objects that do not deserve humane treatment
   6. Attribution of blame - perpetrators claiming that the victims somehow brought it upon themselves
   7. Displacement of responsibility - justifying unethical actions because of simply “following orders” of their organizational superiors
   8. Diffusion of responsibility - attributing unethical actions mainly to the structure of an organization, rather than one person in particular

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Conflict Resolution

Conflict Resolution Strategies

1. 1. Accommodation - used when the relationship with the person is more important than the outcome
   2. Collaboration - used when the importance of the relationship and the outcome are high
   3. Competition - used when the outcome is more important than the relationship
   4. Avoidance - used when the importance of the relationship and the outcome are low
   5. Compromise - used when the importance of the relationship and the outcome are moderate

Strategic Approach to Conflict Resolution

1. 1. Prepare people
   2. Assess the situation
   3. Explore past and present
   4. Envision the future
   5. Create a win-win solution
   6. Rejuvenate and reflect
   7. Value relationships

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Leadership & Decision-Making as Cultural Constructs

Leadership Characteristics

Leadership is a cultural construct that varies widely based on cultural dimensions such as distribution of power and social relationships, there are some shared characteristics across cultures.

Facilitators of Leadership Effectiveness (Ethical Leadership)

• • Trustworthiness
  • Visionary
  • Inspirational
  • Team builder

Impediments of Leadership Effectiveness (Unethical Leadership)

1. • Self-protective
   • Non-cooperative
   • Abusive
   • Autocratic

Decision-Making Types

• Centralized - decisions made by leader individually with little input from others (U.S., U.K., Mexico); allows for quick decision-making, but slower acceptance and implementation
• Consultative - leader proactively seeks input and then makes decisions (Japan, South Korea); slower decision-making, but quicker acceptance and implementation
• Collaborative - leader works with others to build consensus and make decisions together (Germany, Netherlands); slower decision-making, but quicker acceptance and implementation