86 Module 3 Sociocultural Forces LO 3-4 Describe four frameworks for analyzing culture. The four main frameworks we have reviewed are Hall, Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck, Hofstede, and Trompenaars. Hall’s framework differentiates on the issue of context, between HC and LC. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s cultural orientations framework includes the relationship of people to nature, relationships among individuals, preferred forms of human activity, the relationship with time, and the relationship with human nature. The first two frameworks are theoretical, while the final two are based on data; they are empirical. Hofstede’s framework is concerned primarily with work values. Its original four dimensions are individualism-collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity-femininity. He later added two additional dimensions, pragmatism vs. normative, and indulgence vs. restraint. Finally, Trompenaars’s seven-dimension framework addresses the culture’s patterns for relationships among people—actual behaviors—and time and nature. His dimensions are specific vs. diffuse, universalism vs. particularism (rules vs. relationships), individualism vs. communitarianism, neutral vs. affective (unemotional vs. emotional), achievement vs. ascription, attitudes toward time, and attitudes toward the environment. LO 3-5 Describe the global mind-set and the MBI model. Global mind-set describes a mind that is open to diversity and has an ability to synthesize across it. Such capabilities are needed in international management. They may well require a propensity to deal with complexity, yet they can be enhanced through experiences in different cultures. A useful tool for figuring out what matters when working across cultures is the Map-Bridge-Integrate model (MBI) because it helps to synthesize across the complexity. LO 3-6 Discuss cautions for using cultural frameworks in business. The frameworks are generalizations that are at best sophisticated stereotypes of the complex culture we are trying to understand. They are best used to establish likelihood; used to predict, they can be misleading because they ignore complexity and subtlety. This is an important caution. They are useful tools, especially when we recognize their limitations, for setting our expectations, but not for predicting. Meanwhile, culture matters all the time, but in different ways at different times. In some situations, international managers have been successful with initiatives that are not in line with cultural values. Knowing when culture matters in a primary way is a result of experience combined with a global mind-set, which involves an openness to diversity along with an ability to synthesize across diversity. KEY TERMS achievement vs. ascription (p. 80) aesthetics (p. 66) communitarianism (p. 80) context (p. 74) cultural paradox (p. 83) ethnocentricity (p. 62) global mind-set (p. 83) material culture or artifacts (p. 69) monochronic (p. 75) neutral vs. affective (p. 80) particularist (p. 80) polychronic (p. 75) specific vs. diffuse (p. 80) universalist (p. 80) 2. Your company has a policy of no gift giving or accepting. You are representing the company in negotiations in China for design of a multiphased manufacturing facility. Discuss the role of gift giving you might expect in a culture such as China and how you plan to approach this issue. CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS 1. Drawing on Hall’s high and low context, describe some of the communication issues that might well arise when an Arab manager in a global company who has spent his career in the Middle East is sent on temporary assignment to Germany for a year to integrate there a process developed in one of the Middle Eastern production facilities.
Geringer_InternationalBusiness
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