Transcript What is culture?

TEAL 7810:
Diversity for Leaders
Dalai Lama XIV:
 “Peace
does not mean an
absence of conflicts; differences will
always be there. Peace means
solving these differences through
peaceful means; through dialogue,
education, knowledge, and
through humane ways.”
Source:
 Information
for this Power Point was taken
from:
 Connerley, M. L., & Pedersen, P.B. (2005).
Leadership in a diverse and multicultural
environment: Developing awareness,
knowledge, and skills. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage Publications, 39 – 53.
Cultural Frameworks
 What
is culture?
 “Culture has been defined as the source
of ties that bind members of societies
through an elusive “socially constructed
constellation” consisting of such things as
practices, competencies, ideas, schemas,
symbols, values, norms, institutions, goals,
rules, artifacts, and modification of
physical environment” (Fiske, 2002, p. 85, in
Connerley & Pederson, 2005).
Leaders and Culture
 Personal
Culture:
 Shared combination of an individual’s
traits, skills, and personality formed within
the context of his or her ethnic, racial,
familial, and educational environments.
Everyone has a unique personal culture.
 Write a short description of your Personal
Culture.
Leaders and Culture
 National
Culture:
 “National culture is a shared
understanding that comes from the
combination of beliefs, values, attitudes,
and behaviors that have provided the
foundation for the heritage of a country.
Individuals within a nation have a very
wide range of beliefs about their nation.”
 Write a brief description of your national
culture.
Leaders and Culture
 Corporate
Culture:
 Corporate culture is a combination of
widely shared institutional beliefs, values,
and the organization’s guiding philosophy
that is usually stated in its vision, mission,
and values statements (Gardenswartz, et al.,
2003, in Connerly & Pederson, 2005).
 Write
about your organizational culture.
Motivational Values Across
Cultures:
 Power:
Social status and prestige. Level
of dominance or control over people or
resources that is valued by culture.
 Achievement: Demonstrating
competence according to social
standards of the culture.
 Stimulation: Challenge, excitement, and
novelty in life as valued by the culture.
Motivational Values Across
Cultures:
 Self-Direction:
Level of independent
thought and action that is valued by the
culture.
 Hedonism: Level of pleasure and selfgratification that is valued by the culture.
 Security: Level of harmony, stability, and
safety of society, relationships, and self
that is valued by the culture.
Motivational Values Across
Cultures:
 Conformity:
Accepted level of restraining
actions or impulses that would likely upset
or harm others and violate social
expectations.
 Tradition: Accepted level of
commitment, respect, and acceptance
of the ideas and customs that traditional
culture and religion provide.
Motivational Values Across
Cultures:
 Benevolence:
Accepted level of the
importance of preserving and enhancing
the welfare of all people with whom one
is frequently in contact.
 Universalism: Accepted level of the
importance of being broadminded and
having and appreciation, understanding,
and tolerance for the welfare of all
people and for nature.
Motivational Values Across
Cultures:
Values
Power
Achievement
Stimulation
Self-Direction
Hedonism
Security
Conformity
Tradition
Benevolence
Universalism
Self
Nation
Organization
Globe Research: Five
National Cultural Dimensions
 Assertiveness:
Extent to which a society
encourages individuals to be tough,
assertive, and competitive vs. modest and
tender.
 Future Orientation: Level of importance a
society attaches to future-oriented
behaviors such as planning, investing, and
delaying gratification.
Globe Research: Five
National Cultural Dimensions
 Performance
Orientation: Degree to
which a society encourages and rewards
groups members for performance
improvement and excellence.
 Humane Orientation: Extent to which a
society encourages and rewards people
for being fair, caring, generous, altruistic,
and kind.
Globe Research: Five
National Cultural Dimensions
 Gender
Differentiation: Extent to which a
society maximized gender role
differences.
 Why
does this matter?
 How would this knowledge affect
leadership behavior?
 Examples?
Culture and Context:
 Cultures
Hall (1976)
vary in terms of how contextual
information is viewed and interpreted.
The context of a situation is crucial to
communication, often heavily influencing
not only what is said and how it is said,
and how the information is perceived.
 Ex: In some cultures, what is unsaid is
more important than what is said. Other
examples?
Levels of Intercultural Sensitivity
Ethnocentric: One’s own culture is
experienced as central to reality.
 Level 1: Denial of Differences: One’s own
culture is experienced as the only real one.
May act aggressively to eliminate differences.
 Level 2: Defense against Difference: One’s
own culture is experienced as the only viable
one. Other cultures are viewed negatively.
‘Us vs. them.’

Levels of Intercultural Sensitivity
 Ethnocentric
(cont.)
 Minimization of Differences: Acceptance
of superficial cultural differences. People
are viewed as similar biologically,
philosophically, etc. Universal absolutes
may obscure or trivialize deeper cultural
differences. For those from dominant
culture, minimization masks recognition of
institutional privilege it provides to its
members.
Levels of Intercultural Sensitivity
 Ethnorelative:
One’s own culture is
experienced as just one of a number of
equally viable alternatives. Different but
equal.
 Acceptance of Difference: One’s own
culture is experienced as just one of a
number of equally viable alternatives.
Different cultures are viewed as different
but equal.
Levels of Intercultural Sensitivity



Ethnorelative (cont.)
Adaptation to Difference: Develop
communications skills to allow interaction with
those who are culturally different from
ourselves. Empathy. Ability to shift frame of
reference to understand and be understood
across cultures.
Integration of Differences: Internalization of
bicultural or multicultural frames of references.
Individuals construe their identities at the
margins of two or more cultures.
Three Stage Model:
(Sue, teal., 1982).
 Awareness,
Knowledge and Skills:
 Awareness: This stage emphasis increased
awareness about assumptions about
cultural differences and similarities in
behavior, attitudes and values. Increased
awareness provides more freedom of
choice to those who become more
aware of their own multiculturalism.
Three Stage Model:
 Knowledge:
Expands the amount of facts
and information about culturally learned
assumptions.
 Skills:
Applies effective and efficient
action with people of different cultures
based on the participants’ clarified
assumptions and accurate knowledge.
Case Study:
 Whose
holiday is it anyway?
References



Connerley, M. L., & Pedersen, P.B. (2005). Leadership
in a diverse and multicultural environment:
Developing awareness, knowledge, and skills.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 39 – 53.
Fiske, A. P. (2002). Using individualism and
collectivism to compare culture: A critique of the
validity of measurement of the constructs: Comment
on Oyserman et. Al, (2002). Psychological Bulletin,
128, 78 – 88.
Gardenswartz, L., Rowe, A., Digh, P., & Bennett, M. F.
(2003). The global diversity desk reference:
Managing an international workforce. San
Francisco: Pfeiffer.
References
 Hall,
E.T., (1976). Beyond culture. Garden
City, NY: Anchor.
 Sue, D.W., Berneir, J. E., Durran, A.,
Feinberg, L., Pedersen, P., Smith, E. J., &
Vasquez-Nuttall, E. (1982). Cross-cultural
counseling competencies. Counseling
Psychologist, 19 (2), 45 – 52.