C3- Differences In Culture Flashcards
(27 cards)
What is culture?
What is cross-cultural literacy?
Culture is a system of value and norm shared among human that are passed down from generation to generation.
cross-cultural literacy is the understanding of how cultural differences across nation will affect the business.
-culture is not static, can evolved (dulu pakai baju kurung je, sekarang dah berfesyen)
-ada relationship between culture and cost of doing business
What is society?
group of people sharing common set of value and norms
Value and norms
Values: context within which society’s norms are established and justified
Norms: social rules that govern people’s actions toward one another
-Folkways: routine convention of everyday life (eg: attitude towards time) -makan tangan kanan, salam parents
-Mores: norms that are acceptable to a society but more strict
Cth: negara malaysia haramkan judi and arak for muslim. So it become culture for malaysia to avoid ir
The determinants of culture (the forces that lead to differences in social structure)
- political philosophy
- economic philosophy
- religion
- education
- language
- social structure
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Individual vs Group
Group: two or more individuals who shared sense of identity and interact with each other in structure ways on expectations about each other’s behavior
-emphasized in non-westernized countries (Japan, Korea, China)
-encourage teamwork & cooperation
-life time employment is common (kerja situ sampai pencen)
-individual initiative and creativity may be surpressed
Individual
-emphasized in western countries (US, BRAZIL, MEXICO)
-promote individual achievement and entrepreneurship
-fosters managerial mobility (encourage managers change departments for development)
-encourage job switching, competition between individuals than teamwork, lack of loyalty to firm
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Social stratatification
Societies stratified on hierarchiral basis into social categories (known as social strata)
-define by family background, income, occupation (ingat pyramid of social tu)
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
4 basics principle of social stratatification
- It’s a trait of society, not reflection of individual differences
- Carries over generation to next generation
- universal, but variable (all social strata berbeza-beza ikut country)
- Involve inequality and beliefs
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Social mobility
Social mobility: the extent which the individuals can move out of strata into which they are born
- caste system-social position determined by family into which a person is born, and change in that position is unlikely.
- Class system-position a person has by birth can be changed through achievement/luck
*When born in low income family, u will less likely to get opportunities like the privileged background who will get a lot of opportunities despite ur talent and determination
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
The significance of social stratatification
- match ability with the most important position
- encourage to hard work- people at upper strata work hard to live up their position and status
- provides motivation to acquire higher position
RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL SYSTEMS
What is religion?
A system of faith and worship of God
RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL SYSTEMS
What is ethical system?
set of moral values that used to guide and shape behaviours
RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL SYSTEMS
Christianity
- most widely practiced religion
- in 1904, Max Weber suggested Protestant work ethic (forcus to hard work, wealth creation, frugality) drive the capitalism
- Protestantism gave freedom to individuals to develop their own relationship with God which may paved way to economic freedom
RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL SYSTEMS
Islam
- Adherents of Islam are referred as Muslim
- One true omnipotent God
RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL SYSTEMS
Economic implications of Islam
- Quran establishes explicit (detail) economic principles many of which are pro-free enterprise
- Under Islam, people do not own property, but act as stewards for God: thus take care the property in which they have been entrusted with.
- Islam is supportive of business.
- Prohibit the business from making profit through exploitation of others, by deception or by breaking contractual obligations
- prohibited the payment or receipt of interest
- Mudarabah- similar to profit sharing
- Murabaha- most wildely used and also refered as cost-plus financing
Definition: islamic financing structure where seller and buyer agree to the cost and markup of an assets (the markup takes place of interest)
RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL SYSTEMS
Islamic bank
Islamic bank cannot pay or charge interest
RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL SYSTEMS
Hinduism
- World’s oldest religion
- Dharma: an individual’s duty fulfilled by observance of custom or law
- Karma:force generated by a person’s actions
- Believe in karma and reincanation
- Believe that individuals should be judged by their spiritual achievements
- promotion and adding new responsibilities may not a goal of employee, are not infeasible due to employee’s caste
RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL SYSTEMS
Buddhism
- stress the spiritual growth and the afterlife rather than achievement in this world
- The Noble Eight Path: the Buddhist teaching of the means of attaining Nirvana through rightness of belief, resolve, speech, action, livelihood, effort, thought, and meditation
- Buddhism doesn’t support caste system; so individuals can work with others from different classes
- Entrepreneurial activity is acceptable
RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL SYSTEMS
Confucianism (yinyang)
- official ethical system of China until 1949
- not a religion
- high moral and ethical conduct and loyalty to others
- attain personal salvation through right action
- three key of this belief: loyalty, honesty, reciprocal obligations
LANGUAGE
Two form of language
- Spoken (verbal)
- Unspoken (non-verbal)
LANGUAGE
Spoken Language
Countries with more than one spoken language have more than one culture (eg: Malaysia with different race)
-english the most widely spoken language used worldwide
-chinese is the mother tongue of largest people in world
LANGUAGE
Unspoken Language
-unspoken language: facial expression, hand gestures
-important to communication
-might resulted to misunderstanding because got intepreted differently
Education & how education influence culture?
- Medium for individuals to learn language, conceptual, technical skills that are indispensible in modern society
- Give competitive advantage to market if country’s citizen have knowledge base, training, educational opportunities (make it less or more attractive to expand business)
- Good education=good indicator for the products sell to that location or type of promotional materials might be successful (sebab diorang ada education yang bagus, so diorang ada ilmu untuk jual produk tu)
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NOTES
Provide people with knowledge that ultimately alters the way they perceive the world and their place in it.
If a country’s population is well-educated, there are more people who are competent enough to create cultural artefacts that will be able to convey the country’s beliefs and ideas, which will lead to a generation that understands and value its culture.
CULTURE AND BUSINESS
Geert Hofstede isolated 5 dimensions that summarized different cultures. What is it?
- Power distance
=The power distance index considers the extent to which inequality and power are tolerated. In this dimension, inequality and power are viewed from the viewpoint of the followers – the lower level.
•A high power distance index indicates that a culture accepts inequity and power differences, encourages bureaucracy, and shows high respect for rank and authority.
•A low power distance index indicates that a culture encourages flat organizational structures that feature decentralized decision-making responsibility, participative management style, and emphasis on power distribution.
•Hofstede found that low-power-distance cultures emphasized equality and minimized power and status. The following is an example of this:
Susan is the president of a large manufacturing business. Although she is in a position of leadership and authority, she takes a “hands off management approach” to her employees, and in meetings provides a participatory, democratic engagement process.
- Individualism vs collectivism
=The individualism vs. collectivism dimension considers the degree to which societies are integrated into groups and their perceived obligations and dependence on groups.
•Collectivism and individualism example: For example, in many Latino cultures, the concept of family,la familia, is critical to their cultural history and social systems.La familiais the most important social unit and includes extended family members. Decision making, conflict resolution, and negotiation are based on group needs rather than individual preferences; through paying attention to group and collective needs, harmony and relationships are intact. Alternatively, in individualistic cultures, the need of the individual comes first. U.S. culture teaches this to children at a young age. Eg: buy icecream by themselves teach them to decide which flavor they like or dislike by their own.
- Uncertainty avoidance
=The uncertainty avoidance index considers the extent to which uncertainty and ambiguity are tolerated. This dimension considers how unknown situations and unexpected events are dealt with.
•A high uncertainty avoidance index indicates a low tolerance for uncertainty, ambiguity, and risk-taking. The unknown is minimized through strict rules, regulations, etc.
•A low uncertainty avoidance index indicates a high tolerance for uncertainty, ambiguity, and risk-taking. The unknown is more openly accepted, and there are lax rules, regulations, etc.
- masculinity vs feminity
=The masculinity vs. femininity dimension is also referred to as “tough vs. tender” and considers the preference of society for achievement, attitude toward sexuality equality, behavior, etc.
•Masculine cultures tend to emphasize ambition, control, competition, assertiveness, and achievement.
•Feminine cultures emphasize nurture, care, sharing, quality of life, and relationships.
•Hofstede indicated that cultures that rate high in masculinity, such as Japan and Italy, revealed a high proportion of males in dominant structures; in low masculine cultures, such as Denmark and Netherlands, women were treated more equally in their social systems.
- long-term vs short-term orientation
=The long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation dimension considers the extent to which society views its time horizon.
•Long-term orientation shows focus on the future and involves delaying short-term success or gratification in order to achieve long-term success. Long-term orientation emphasizes persistence, perseverance, and long-term growth.
•Short-term orientation shows focus on the near future, involves delivering short-term success or gratification, and places a stronger emphasis on the present than the future. Short-term orientation emphasizes quick results and respect for tradition.
A move to add sixth dimension: indulgence vs restraint
•Indulgence indicates that society allows relatively free gratification related to enjoying life and having fun.
•Restraint indicates that society suppresses gratification of needs and regulates it through social norms.
CULTURE AND BUSINESS
Why Hofstede’s work got critized?
- Assume one-to-one relationship between culture and nation-state
- Research may be culturally bound
- Certain social classes excluded from research
- Informant only worked within single industry and within one company
But his work represents a starting point for managers trying to understand cultural behavior
