Transcript What is culture?

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INTRODUCTION
When doing business abroad, a company
first should determine whether a usual
business practice in a foreign country
differs from its home-country experience.
Understanding the cultures of groups of
people is useful because business
employs, sells to, buys from, is regulated
by, and is owned by people.
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The Concept Of Culture
Culture: consists of specific learned norms
based on attitudes, values, and beliefs, all of
which exist in every society.
A system of values and norms shared among
a group of people and, when taken together,
constitute a design for living.
Culture cannot easily be isolated from such factors
as economic and political conditions.
Isolation tends to stabilize a culture, whereas contact
tends to create cultural borrowing
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What is culture?
• Culture is everything that people have,
think or do as members of their society
– shared by two or more people
– transmitted by a learning process
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CULTURE CONSISTS OF:
– Material objects
– Ideas, values and attitudes
– Normative or expected patterns of behaviour
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Norms and Values
• Norms:
– Social
rules
and
guidelines that prescribe
appropriate behaviour in
particular situations.
– Folkways:
• Routine conventions
of everyday life.
– Mores:
• Central to functioning
of society and its
social life.
• Values:
– Abstract ideas about
what
a
group
believes to be good,
right, and desirable.
– The
bedrock
of
culture.
– Have
emotional
significance.
• Freedom.
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Cultural Awareness in International Business
• Building cultural awareness is not an easy task.
• Business people agree that cultural differences exists
but disagree on what they are.
• Problems areas that can hinder managers’ cultural
awareness are:
– Subconscious reactions to circumstances
– The assumption that all societal subgroups are
similar.
• A company’s need for cultural knowledge increases as– Its number of foreign functions increases
– The number of countries of operations increases
– It moves from external to internal handling of
operations.
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Nations and Culture
National culture
Nation states build museums and monuments to
preserve the legacies of important events and people
Subculture
Group of people that share a unique way of life within a
larger culture (language, race, lifestyle, attitudes, etc.)
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Components of Culture
Physical
environments
Education
Aesthetics
Culture
Personal
communication
Values &
attitudes
Manners &
customs
Social structure
Religion
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01. Aesthetics
Music
Painting
Dance
Drama
Architecture
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02. Values and Attitudes
Values
The Ideas, beliefs and
customs to which people
are emotionally attached
• Freedom
• Responsibility
• Honesty
Attitudes
Positive
or
negative
evaluations, feelings and
tendencies people hold
toward objects or concepts
• Time
• Work
• Cultural change
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03. Manners and Customs
Manners
Customs
Appropriate behavior,
speech and dressing
in general
Traditional ways or
behavior in specific
circumstances
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04. Social Structure
Social structure
Culture’s groups, institutions, social
positions and resource distribution
Social stratification
Process of ranking people into social layers
Social mobility
Ease of moving up or down a culture's
"social ladder"
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05. World Religions
 Christianity
 Islam
 Hinduism
 Buddhism
 Confucianism
Origin of
Human Values
 Judaism
 Shinto
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06. Language Blunders
 Braniff Airlines’ English-language slogan “Fly in Leather” was
translated into “Fly Naked” in Spanish.
 Sign in English on a Majorcan storefront read, “English welltalking” and “Here speeching American.”
 Sign for non-Japanese-speaking guests in a Tokyo hotel read,
“You are respectfully requested to take advantage of the
chambermaids.”
 English sign in a Moscow hotel read, “If this is your first visit to
the USSR, you are welcome to it.”
 Japanese knife manufacturer labeled its exports to the United
States with “Caution: Blade extremely sharp! Keep out of
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children.”
Mixed Signals
"Okay"
"Vulgar gesture"
"Crazy"
"It's a secret"
"Very nosey"
"
Very Clever
"
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07. Education
Cultures pass on traditions, customs, and values through
schooling, parenting, group memberships, etc.
Education level
Well-educated attract high-paying jobs, while poorly educated
attract low-paying manufacturing jobs
Brain drain
Departure of highly educated people from one profession,
geographic region or nation to another
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08. Physical and Material Culture
These influence a culture’s development and pace of change
Topography
Physical features characterizing the surface of a geographic region
Climate
Weather conditions of a geographic region
Material Culture
Technology used to manufacture goods and provide services
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Global Business
Etiquette/Protocol/Manner
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Dress code
Punctuality
Non-verbal greetings
Forms of address
Verbal greeting
Exchange business cards
Gifts
Refreshments
Wining and dining
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Identification and Dynamics of Cultures
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•
•
•
The nation as a point of reference
Cultural formation and dynamics
Language as a Cultural Stabilizer
Religion as a Cultural Stabilizer
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Religion
• Shared beliefs and rituals concerned with
the realm of the sacred.
• Ethical Systems:
– Moral principles or values used to guide and
shape behavior.
• Shapes attitudes toward work and
entrepreneurship and can affect the cost of
doing business.
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Religion and Economic Implications
• Christianity
– “”Protestant Work Ethic” and “The Spirit of Capitalism””.
• Islam
– Favors market-based systems.
– No payment or receipt of interest.
• Hinduism
– Asceticism may have an impact.
– Caste (Racial) system plays a role.
• Buddhism
– Little emphasis on entrepreneurial behavior.
• Confucianism
– Loyalty, reciprocal obligations, and honesty in dealings.
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Behavioral Practices Affecting Business
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Social Stratification Systems
Motivation
Relationship Preferences
Risk Taking Behavior
Information and Task Processing
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01. Social Stratification Systems
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Group memberships
Performance orientation
Gender-Based Groups
Age-Based Groups
Family-Based Groups
Occupation
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Behavioral Practices Affecting Business ..
1. Group Affiliation: a person’s affiliations
reflecting class or status.
2. Role of Competence: rewarded highly in some
societies. Seniority in Japan
3. Gender Based Groups: there are strong countryspecific differences in attitudes towards males and
females.
4. Age-Based Groups: many cultures assume that
age and wisdom are correlated
5. Family-Based Groups:
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Behavioral Practices Affecting Business
6. Importance of Work: protestant ethic, belief in
success and reward; work as a habit, high-need
achiever.
7. Need Hierarchy: people try to fulfill lower-order
needs sufficiently before moving on to higher ones.
The hierarchy of needs theory is helpful for
differentiating the reward preferences of employees.
8. Importance of Occupation: The importance of
business as a profession
9. Self-Reliance: uncertainty avoidance, trust, fatalism,
individual versus group
10. Preference for Autocratic versus Consultative
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Management
Social Stratification….
Typically defined by
family background,
occupation, and income.
Caste:
Virtually no mobility
Class:
some social
mobility
Class Consciousness:
May play a role in
a firm’s operations
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02. Motivation
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•
•
•
Materialism and Leisure
Expectation of Success and Reward
Assertiveness
Need Hierarchy
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03. Relationship Preferences
• Power Distance
• Individualism versus Collectivism
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04. Risk-Taking Behavior
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•
•
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Uncertainty Avoidance
Trust
Future Orientation
Fatalism
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05. Information and Task Processing
• Perception of Cues
• Obtaining Information
• Information Processing
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Strategies for Dealing with Cultural Differences
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Making Little or No Adjustment
Communications
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Spoken and Written Language
Silent Language
Cultural Shock
Company and Management Orientation
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Polycentrism
Ethnocentrism
Geocentrism
Strategies for Instituting Change
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Value system
Cost Benefit of Change
Resistance to Too Much Change
Participation
Reward Sharing
Opinion Leaders
Timing
Learning Abroad
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Language
Language: all languages are complex and
reflective of Environment
Translating one language into another.
Silent Languages: color associations, sense of
appropriate distance, time, body language.
Low-Context cultures, High-context cultures
Monochronic versus Polychronic
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Language
• Allows people to communicate.
• Structures the way the world is
perceived.
• Directs attention to certain features of the
world rather than others.
• Helps define culture.
• Creates separatist tendencies?
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Spoken Language
6%
5%
4%
3%
Other
62%
20%
Chinese
English
Hindi
Russian
Spanish
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Language dimensions
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The spoken language
The written language
The official language
Linguistic pluralism
Language hierarchy
International language
Mass media language
The non-spoken language/ body- language
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Nonspoken Language
• Nonverbal cues:
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eyebrows
fingers/thumbs
hand gestures
feet
personal space
body gestures
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Education
Formal education
supplements family role
in teaching values
and norms
For int’l business, it is a
determinant of national
competitive advantage
Medium to learn
language, conceptual,
and math skills
Cultural norms such as
respect, obedience, honesty
Value of personal
achievement and
competition
Focus on facts of social
and political nature
of society
Obligations of
citizenship
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Reconciliation Of International Differences
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Stereotypes
Cultural Shock
Polycentrism
Ethnocentrism
Geocentrism
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Preparation
• Define Culture. Discuss different components
of Culture that affect the international
business.
• How do the Religion and Language influence
international business? Discuss different
types of language in brief.
• Explain different types of Strategies for
Dealing with Cultural Differences for
managing international Business.
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