Session - Culture
Session - Culture
Session - Culture
Session Objectives
• Understand ways in which cultural risk poses a
challenge to the effective conduct of business
• Examine ways in which cultural knowledge can
be acquired and individuals and organizations
prepare for cultural interactions
• Define and demonstrate the effect of culture’s
dimensions on business
• In what ways do cultural differences, language
and religion influence international investment
and trade?
• What are the major models for comparison of
different cultures? 2
Snippet 1
Korean Air had many fatal accidents between
1970 and 1999, during which time it wrote off 16
aircraft in serious incidents and accidents with
the loss of 700 lives.
The last fatal accident, Korean Air Cargo Flight
8509 in December 1999 led to a review of what
was a cause of the accidents.
What was the probable cause of the accidents?
Source: Wikipedia
Session - Culture 3
Snippet 1
Korean cultural attitudes had contributed
to poor crash history. Korean Air co-pilots
and flight engineers rarely suggested
actions that would contradict the
judgements of their captains.
Challenging one’s superior in Korea was
considered culturally inadequate
behavior.
12 December 2018 Session - Culture 4
Snippet 2
Source: http://www.campaignasia.com/BlogEntry/359532,Cultural+blunders+Brands+gone+wrong.aspx
Source: http://www.campaignasia.com/BlogEntry/359532,Cultural+blunders+Brands+gone+wrong.aspx
Culture Risk
The probability that cultural forces will
negatively affect a multinational’s profit or
impede the attainment of other critical business
objectives.
Language
Values and Aesthetics
(Verbal and Nonverbal)
Attitudes
Religion Education
Manners and Customs
– 40 countries
– 100,000 individuals
Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture
• Geert Hofstede’s cultural typology is the most often
used.
• It is based upon a study of 100,000 IBM employees who
work in IBM divisions throughout the world.
• Hofstede’s survey revealed four underlying dimensions
of culture:
– Power Distance
– Uncertainty Avoidance
– Individualism/Collectivism
– Masculinity/Femininity
– Long-Term Orientation
Source: https://www.geert-hofstede.com/
58
Long-Term Orientation (LTO)
• Originally called Confucian Dynamism
because of anchoring in the Confucian value
system.
• Represents such values as thrift, persistence,
and traditional respect of social obligations.
• Organizations likely to adopt longer planning
horizon, with individuals ready to delay
gratification.
73
Fons Trompenaars’s 7 Dimensions
• Specific v Diffuse
– Specific behaviour puts contractual before personal concerns;
Diffuse behaviour overlaps the two sets of issues, and takes
time to weave them together
– USA, UK, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Finland, Germany, White
South Africa, Netherlands and Argentina, Spain, Russia, India,
China
• Achievement v Ascription
– Achievement-oriented attitudes judge you on what you have
recently accomplished. E.g. USA, Canada, Australia Ascription-
orientation awards status according to birth, kinship, gender,
age, connections, school. E.g. France, Italy, Japan
74
National Cultural Clustering
• The grouping of cultures based on their relative
similarity.
– Ronen and Shenkar
• A synthesis of eight earlier studies
• Eight clusters: Near Eastern, Nordic, Germanic, Anglo, Latin
European, Latin American, Far Eastern, and Arab, as well as
Independent
– Huntington
• Based on historical and political observations
• Distinguishes seven civilizations: Sinic, Japanese, Hindu,
Islamic, Western, Latin American, and African
Source: Everything you always wanted to know about culture, Saba Safdar,
TEDxGuelphU
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