Chapter 2 Understanding Cross-Cultural Management Dimensions

Chapter 2 Understanding
Cross-Cultural
Management Dimensions
Managing Organizations in a Global
Economy: An Intercultural Perspective
First Edition
John Saee
Copyright  by South-Western, a division of Thomson Learning. All rights reserved.

 Global Strategy and Culture
 To succeed, corporations must develop
global strategies. Recent decades saw
the growing importance of global
strategies, at least among leading firms
and management scholars; however, the
new millenium made it imperative
(Adler 1997).
Cross–Cultural Management
 Cross–Cultural Management
The growing importance of world
business has created a demand for
managers sophisticated in global
management skills and working with
people from other countries.
 Cross–cultural management describes
organizational behavior within countries
and cultures; compares organizational
behavior across countries and cultures;
and seeks to understand how to improve
the interaction of co–workers, managers,
executives, clients, suppliers, and
alliance partners from around the world.
 Global versus Domestic Organizations
Two fundamental differences between
global and domestic organization are
geographic dispersion and
multiculturalism.
Multiculturalism means that people from
many cultures interact regularly.
What Is Culture?
To understand the differences between
domestic and global management, it is
necessary to understand the primary ways
in which cultures around the world vary.
 Culture is:
Something that is shared by all or almost
all members of some social group.
Something that the older members of the
group try to pass on to the younger
members.
Something that shapes behavior or
structures one’s perceptions of the world.
 Cultural Orientations
The cultural orientation of the
society reflects the complex
interaction of values, attitudes, and
behaviors displayed by its members.
Individuals express culture and its
normative qualities through the
values that they hold about life and
the world around them (Adler 1997)
 How Do Cultures Vary
As shown in Table 1, six basic dimensions
describe the cultural orientation of
societies: people’s qualities as individuals,
their relationship to nature and the world,
their relationship to other people, their
primary type of activity, and their
orientation in space and time.
Individual Dimensions
The following dimensions answer the

questions
 Who am I?
 How do I see the world?
 How do I relate to other people?
 What do I do?
 How do I use space and time?

 How People See Themselves
 People’s Relationship to the World
What is a person’s relationship to the
world? Are people dominant over their
environment, in harmony with it, or
subjugated by it?
 Personal Relationships: Individualism
or Collectivism
 Activity: Doing or Being
North Americans generally see
themselves as dominant over nature.
Other societies, such as Chinese and
Japanese, attempt to live in harmony
with nature. They see no real
separation between people and their
natural environment.
Table 3: Comparative Work Goals: German, Japanese, and
American Respondents’ Rankings
Work goals Germany Japan USA
Interesting work 3 2 1
Good pay 1 5 2
Good interpersonal
relations 4 6 7
Good job security 2 4 3
A good match between you
and your job 5 1 4
A lot of autonomy 8 3 8
Opportunity to learn 9 7 5
A lot variety 6 9 6
Convenient work hours 6 8 9
Good physical working
conditions 11 10 11
Promotion 10 11 10
Source: England (1986, P. 181)
 In another international study of
management–performance appraisals
in the U.S.A., Saudi Arabia, and Japan
conducted by Harris and Moran
(1991), it was found that performance
appraisal differed significantly across
cultures.
 A seminal research by Hofstede (1980)
went further in showing how the
underlying values of the cultures
across the world permeate through to
affect relationships, work, and social
values.
 Hofstede (1980) undertook a
comprehensive study on worldwide
sociocultural factors influencing
management. Hofstede’s research
compared work–related attitudes across
a range of cultures. From his survey of
116,000 employees in 40 countries,
Hofstede isolated 4 major dimensions
which were congruent with different
cultural values of specific countries.
These socio–cultural factors were:
1.Collectivism vs. Individualism
2.Small vs. Large Power Distance
3.Weak vs. Strong Uncertainty Avoidance
4.Femininity vs. Masculinity

Fifth Cultural Dimension
 Hofstede, in collaboration with Bond
(1984), identified an additional cultural
dimension by which nations can be
classified: Confucian Dynamism.
Confucian Dynamism is also referred
to as Long Term Orientation vs. Short
Term Orientation.
 Confucianism is not a religion, but a
system of practical ethics prevalent in
China.
 The five basic relationships are:
Ruler–subject
Father–son
Older brother–younger brother
Husband–wife
Older friend–younger friend.
 Harmony in the family must be
preserved, and harmony is the
maintenance of one’s face, that is, one’s
dignity, self respect, and prestige.
Treating others as one would like to be
treated oneself is virtuous behavior.
Skills for Effective Cross-Cultural Management
 Respect.
 Tolerating ambiguity.
 Relating to people
 Being nonjudgmental
 Personalizing one’s observations.
 Empathy—the ability to “put yourself in
another’s shoes.”
 Persistence.

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Copyright  by South-Western, a division of Thomson Learning. All rights reserved.

The following dimensions answer the

 How do I see the world?

 How do I relate to other people?

 How do I use space and time?

2.Small vs. Large Power Distance

3.Weak vs. Strong Uncertainty Avoidance

4.Femininity vs. Masculinity

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