Culture and ManagementOrganizational Behavior – Session 4

Dr. S. B. Alavi, 2009.

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Table of Contents• Culture

– What is culture?– Why studying OB across culture?– Level of Analysis Issues– Why using cultural dimensions?– Values across culture (Hofstede’s Studies)– Emic and Etic Approches– GLOBE Studies

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What is culture?

• Issocial pattern including shared beliefs, norms, and values

• According to Hofstede, culture is a multi-layer phenomenon, and people’s assumptions and values are at the centre of the phenomenon.

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Why studying OB across cultures?

• Working with people in other cultures, through Globalization;

• Development of modified behavioral models for local management.

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Level of analysis issue

• Cultural level: – comparing cultures

• Individual level: – Comparing individuals

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Why using cultural dimensions?

• Cultures can be compared using universal dimensions.

• Using cultural dimensions, we can investigate and understand the impacts of different aspects of a culture on OB.

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Values across cultures: Hofstede’s studies• Individualism/collectivism;

• Power distance;

• Femininity/Masculinity– Quality of life/Quantity of life

• Uncertainty avoidance;

• Long-term/short-term orientation

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1. Individualism/Collectivism

• Individualism is the degree to which individuals are supposed to look after themselves or remain integrated into in-groups.

• Individualistic cultures highly valueHedonism, independence, and freedom

In contrast

• Collectivistic cultures highly valueinterdependence, self-sacrificing, and loyalty

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1. Individualism/Collectivism (con.)

• Some Consequences:

Verbal Communication

Non-verbal communication

Privacy issues

Conflict management styles

Teamwork

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2. Power Distance

• The extent to which power is unequally distributed and people accept this situation

High PD

• Ideal boss is a well-meaning autocrat or a god father

• Subordinates expect to be told

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3. Femininity/Masculinity

• Masculinity refers to – the extent to which values such as

assertiveness, toughness, and competition prevail.

• However, femininity refers to – the degree to which employees value relations

and show sensitivity and emotions for the welfare of others.

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4. Uncertainty avoidance

• The extent to which people feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situation.

• Unstructured situations are novel, unknown, surprising, different from usual.

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4. Uncertainty avoidance (con.)

• Some consequence of High UA:

high work stress

Tendency to stay with same employer

more resistance to change

Preferences for larger organizations

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5. Long term orientation

• The extent to which people accept delayed gratification of their material, societal, and emotional needs

• A long-term orientation culture encourage people to

Value thrift, investment, and persistence.

And DisvalueLeisure time

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Etic and Emic approaches

• Etic approach: – Studying behavior from a

position outside the system; examining many cultures and comparing them,

– criteria are considered universal.

• Emic approach: – Studying behavior from

within the system; examining only one culture,

– criteria are relative to internal characteristics.

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GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness project)

• This project wasconducted in 61 countries

• The aim of this project was to investigate the existence of universally acceptable and universally unacceptable leadership attributes and to identify those attributes that are culture specific

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Cultural dimensions in GLOBE

• Uncertainty avoidance• Gender egalitarianism• Societal collectivism• In-group collectivism• Human orientation• Power distance• Performance orientation• Future orientation• Assertiveness

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Iranian sample in GLOBE

• Sample– 300 Iranian middle managers from three

industries of

banking,

telecommunications, and

food processing

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Iranian sample in GLOBE

• Important results– Fairly high levels of power distance (5.43)

Maximum score in GLOBE list: 5.80

Ranking: 14 out of 61

– Quite low levels of societal collectivism (3.88)

Minimum score in GLOBE list: 3.25

Ranking: 13 lowest country

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Iranian sample in GLOBE

• Conclusion for ‘what is’ – Iranian managers reported

one of the highest in-group collectivism

high power distance

one of the lowest societal collectivism

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Iranian sample in GLOBE• The ‘should be’ part

– strong desire to decrease power distance in their culture.

The differences between ‘what was’ and ‘what should be’ for power distance was the highest difference of all the dimensions (5.43 ‘what was’ versus 2.80 ‘what should be’)

– Iranian managers were also likely to improve societal collectivism

Given the difference between ‘what was’ and ‘what should be’ for societal collectivism (3.88 ‘what was’ versus 5.44 ‘what should be’).

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General Conclusions

• Cultural issues of Iranian society must be included in our leadership models in Iranian organizational contexts.

• Iranian managers who work in cross-cultural business contexts must develop their cultural competencies.