2. DEFINITION
“Culture is a set of beliefs and values about
what is desirable and undesirable in a
community of people, and a set of formal or
informal practices to support the values”
Culture is a subtle but pervasive force.
6. Importance of cultural sensitivity for
global business
• To communicate effecively with
customers, suppliers, foreign
employees, business partners etc.
• Conduct negotiations
• Predict trends in social behaviour likely to
affect foreign operations
• Predict Impact of cultural differences on
advertisements and promotion
7. Importance of cultural sensitivity for
global business
• Understand ethical standards and social
responsibility
• Conduct efficient meetings
• Understand how people interpret market
research and other information
8.
9. Hofstede Studies
• Studied impact of national culture on
organisational culture
• Covered 70 countries and 3 regions, East
Africa, West Africa and Saudi Arabia
10. DIMENSIONS OF STUDY
Power Distance
Extent to which less powerful
members of organization
accept that power is
distributed unequally.
High power distance – Mexico,
S.Korea, India
Low Power Distance-Israel,
Austria
11. Uncertainty Avoidance
The extent to which people feel threatened by
ambiguous situations and have created beliefs
and institutions that try to avoid these.
High Uncertainty Avoidance Nations (Germany,
Spain, Japan)
Low Uncertainty Avoidance Culture (Sweden,
US, UK):
12. Individualism (Sweden, US, UK):
Tendency of people to look for themselves and their
immediate families only.
High Individualism (USA, Canada, Denmark, Sweden)
Low Individualism (Pakistan, Latin American countries)
13. Masculinity
A situation in which the dominant values in society are
success, money and things.
High masculinity index (Japan, Germany, Spain)
Femininity
A situation in which the dominant values in society are
caring for others and quality of life.
Low masculinity index (Norway)
14. HALL’S THEORY OF CULTURAL
CONTEXT
High context culture (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese
and other Asian countries)
• Long lasting relationships, personal
involvement
• Loyalty of subordinates
• Agreements are spoken
• Distinction between outsiders and insiders
• Cultural patterns too slow to change
16. Low context culture (US, Sweden, Britain)
• Relationships of short duration
• Messages explicit
• Personal responsibility difficult to be pinned
down
• Agreements written
• Insiders and outsiders distinguished
• Cultural patterns faster to change
21. The foreign assignment cycle
Home country
Foreign country
experience
experience
1.Selecting and
training
“unrealistic
expectation
4. Returning
home and
adjusting
“recovery shock”
2. Arrival and
adjustment
“culture shock”
3. Settling in and
acculturating
22. Culture shock
Anxiety and doubt caused by an
overload of new expectations and
social cues
Work related problems were found to be major problems for
repatriated Finnish, Japanese, and American employees
24. Expatriate Success Factors
Willingness and motivation to go abroad
Technical ability
Adaptability
Good interpersonal skills
Good communication ability
Supportive family
