Understanding Cross-Cultural Management

Fourth Edition

Part One
Culture and management

Chapter 1
Determinants of culture

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Slide 1.2

Icebreaker

Objectives:
• Name
• What are you studying
• Your career aspirations
• Favorite place you have visited or would like to
visit. Why?

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 The Concept of Culture

• What is Culture? Is Not?

• How would you define culture?

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Slide 1.4

1. Imagine that you are an Extraterrestrial

After spending time researching life in your

community/ school, find answers to the following
questions:
What explains:
• What is unique, different or interesting about your
community/ school?
• What explains why people in your community/
school think and act the way they do?

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management PowerPoints on the Web, 3rd edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 1.5

2. Extraterrestrial Observations

Groups of 3 or 4 to discuss and write down

observations/ provide examples:
• What is important to human beings?
• Why are some things about human beings the
same and why are some things different?
• Why don’t all people think and act the same way?
• What are the rules? How are they learned?
• What shapes how human beings see the world,
themselves and others?

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management PowerPoints on the Web, 3rd edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 1.6

3. Individual Observations

What explains…
• How and why do you dress the way you do?
• How and why do you celebrate certain holidays?
• The foods you eat and the way you’ve been
taught to eat them?
• What is the polite thing to do?
• The traditions in your family?
• What is important to you?
• What influences and shapes the way you think
and act?
Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management PowerPoints on the Web, 3rd edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 1.7

4. Think about Yourself…

What explains:
• How and why you dress the way you do
• How and why you celebrate certain holidays
• The food that you eat and the way that you eat
them
• What is the polite thing to do
• What is important to you
• What influences and shapes the way you think
and act

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management PowerPoints on the Web, 3rd edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 1.8

Culture

• These types of influences in our lives are called

“culture”
• Everyone has a culture.
• It shapes how we understand the world,
ourselves and others.

Why is it important to understand culture?

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management PowerPoints on the Web, 3rd edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2015
 Facets of Culture

What culture is / is not:

• Culture is a code of attitudes, norms and values, the
way of thinking.
• Culture determines:
– How we see ourselves
– How we see the world
• Culture is not right or wrong, inherited, about individual
behaviour…

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 Norms and Values

The concept of culture has three layers:

1. Behavioural or explicit level
- Artefacts and attitudes:
2. Norms (rules) and values:
- Every culture has its own system
3. Basic assumptions and beliefs:
- Difficult to describe or explain

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Slide 1.11

Culture is Like an Iceberg

Examine features of
culture to determine
which are visible and
which are invisible and
how the invisible affect
the visible

[Link]

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management PowerPoints on the Web, 3rd edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2015
 Cultural Assumptions in Management

Edgar Schein defines culture as:

‘A set of basic assumptions – shared solutions
to universal problems of external adaptation
(how to survive) and internal integration (how
to stay together) – which have evolved over time
and are handed down from one generation to
the next’.
(Schein, 2004, p.14)

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 Levels of Cultures

In a business context, cultures can develop at

different levels:
[Link] and nation
[Link] culture
[Link] culture
[Link] culture
[Link] culture
[Link] and management

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 1. Culture and Nation
Influence of culture on organisations at:
• Macro level:
– The nation’s laws and economic institutions must
be considered by organisations going about their
business.
• Micro level:
– The organisation is influenced through a number
of cultural elements relating to:
• employer–employee relationships.
• behaviour amongst employees.

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 2. National Culture
• Elements that contribute to the creation of a
national culture:
– Physical environment
– History of the nation
• Institutions that contribute to the establishment
of a national culture:
– Family/ Religion/ Education
– Mass communication media
– The multinational company as culture-building
institution
(Tabey, 2003)

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 3. Organisational Culture

• In organisations, culture affects the way:

– strategy is determined.
– goals are established.
– how the organisation operates.
• The personnel of the organisation:
– are influenced by their cultural backgrounds.
– share their own values and perceptions.
(Schein, 1999)

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 4. Corporate Culture

• Corporate culture is a combination of the

following:
– Organisational culture
– National/regional culture
• Two differing views about the influence of
corporate culture on a (multi-) national company:
– Success depends on it having either:
1. a clearly defined corporate culture, or
2. a flexible culture.
• Internal factors play an important role, in
particular the extent of cultural control.
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 5. Professional Culture
Three professional cultures in management:
• Operators:
– Involved in production (goods/services)
• Engineers:
– Design and monitor the technology
• Executives:
– Senior managers
(Schein, 1996)
The question remains: how do these professional
cultures co-exist?

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 6. Culture and Management
Cross-cultural Management:
• Explains the behaviour of people in organisations
around the world.
• Describes and compares organisational
behaviour across countries and cultures.
• Seeks to understand and improve the interaction
of co-workers, managers, executives, clients,
suppliers and alliance partners.
(Adler, 2002)

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Aboard the ISS: Why cross-cultural communication is a
matter of life or death | Chris Hadfield
[Link]

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 Conclusion

• Difficult it is to give a definition of the word

‘culture’. According to Schein, the third layer
‘assumptions’ can also be found in the culture of
an organisation.
• Cross-cultural management has to take into
account all of levels of cultures within and in
relation with companies of different countries.

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