Cross-Cultural Management

Veronica Velo

• Publisher: Business Expert Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781606493502
• eBook ISBN: 9781606493519
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

If you are employed or studying cross-cultural management—what is culture and to what extent is it important in international business—then you will need to have this book, as it answers these questions through an exploration of the major theories that have been developed in the fields of business anthropology and international management.

Dr. Velo also discusses the application of previously analyzed cultural frameworks as a basis for the elaboration of new ideas relating to current issues in organizational behavior. International organizations often deal with relationships between the employee as a socialized individual and the culture of his/her organization, managing in a globalized context, the development and management of cross-cultural teams, and negotiating intercultural with potential conflicts. This outstanding contribution to this field will help explain these relationships, questions, and possible conflicts in the world of cross-cultural management.

PART I

Introduction to Cross-Cultural Management

CHAPTER 1

Introduction to Cross-Cultural Management

Contextualizing Background Information

Globalization has probably developed faster than our capacity to “digest” all the changes it involves. One of the most stunning revelations that accompany globalization is the notion that geographical distance has changed, and with it, the way business is done.

Although globalization was estimated to have only limited effects, this is simply not the case any longer. Businesses that aim to remain mononational would simply lose too many competitive advantages to survive in any market. This obvious reality, no matter how hard to swallow for some, has been dealt with by technology quite efficiently. But the main aspects that could determine whether a business of any size would survive or die are relationships and communication: technology being an asset that is available to all players at the same level, the main competitive success factors remain (1) innovation and (2) the capacity to develop, entertain, and maintain business across borders.

Those who manage to gain the latter will probably win over those who do not, and to profit from that extra mile, the understanding of other cultures and their dynamics becomes crucial.

Many authors have tried to define what culture is and how it develops. The most commonly used definitions have originated in varied social sciences including psychology, sociology, and anthropology.

Some of these definitions include Sigmund Freud’s “Culture is a construction that hides the pulsional and libido-oriented reality,” Herder’s “Every nation has a particular way of being and that is their culture,” Kardurer’s “Culture is the psycho characteristic configuration of the basis of the personality,” and Sapir’s “Culture is a system of behaviours that result from the socialisation process.” Most of these definitions have in common the relationship between the individual and the society (s)he belongs to, and point to the “cultural” factor as being the key element of the dynamics that enhances the rapport between the two.

The notion of culture had not been thoroughly explored (or at least the concept had been not thoroughly disseminated) in management science until the 1970s. It was only in the 1980s that Dutch researcher Geert Hofstede wrote about business anthropology for the first time in his book Culture’s Consequences,¹ which opened the door to a new discipline that studied the impact of cultural diversity on business.

Since Geert Hofstede’s initial work, much has taken place in terms of updating of his data and applying it to the study of cross-cultural management. The most famous one is probably the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) study, which included research on 62 societies and their approaches to leadership.² Similar updates have been published, but not many have included a significant number of countries.

Hofstede’s definition of culture, which is certainly the most widely considered by both academics and practitioners in the management arena, states that:

Culture is the mental programming of the human spirit that allows distinguishing the members of one category in comparison with the members of another category. It is the conditioning that we share with the other members of the same group.

The key word in Hofstede’s definition of culture is certainly “mental programming.” It appears as both the link that “glues” all members of a group through a common set of assumptions and the behaviors resulting from them. At the same time, this collective similarity defines members by the exclusion of those who do not share the same background, and signs and symbols are therefore designed to exteriorize and, if possible, make visible who is part of which category and who is not.

Mental programming is a learnt attitude to life and a set of expected behaviors that could easily lead to stereotyping, as a safety net produced by society, to avoid the expected delusion that could naturally lead to frustration in having to face reactions that do not match with what is supposed to be “the natural way of acting and feeling” according to what the reference group has taught its members since their early childhood.

The Notion of Mental Programming

Geert Hofstede, who as mentioned above could be considered the father of business anthropology, has developed the concept of “mental programming.” Mental programming is what makes us expect a certain type of behavior from others. Any other action or reaction will be interpreted in varied ways, from “weird” to “shocking.” Interpretations of the same behavior may differ and vary from culture to culture.

For example, if I am from a culture where the boss has to show authority at all times and his/her decisions are not to be contested or even questioned by subordinates, then my mental programming will make me surprised when confronted with a situation in which a trainee openly objects to a comment made by the Director General in a meeting in front of all the other employees. Perhaps, in a different culture the same behavior would be interpreted as extreme interest, enthusiasm, and willingness to contribute, as expressed by the trainee.

Mental programming has to do with the glass through which we see life. We understand other people’s behavior (or we fail to understand it) according to the perspective from which we explore their attitudes and actions, and these viewpoints are strongly hardwired in the notions we have incepted through the socialization process.

In social sciences’ jargon, the word “socialization” refers to the process through which one learns the basic notions of “good,” “bad,” “acceptable,” “non-acceptable,” “okay,” and “not okay.” Social learning (or socialization) does not occur in a formal manner, but in an informal way, through experience and trial and error. When a mother suggests to her female children that they ought to learn how to do the cleaning and the washing at home, whereas their brothers are dispensed from that task, little girls learn that they are expected to assume a social role later on in life that is more connected to the care and service of their families, rather than with what is considered as “male activities” (the activities the boys of their age are expected to perform).

We are socialized by what our parents tell us, also by how they talk to us, how they react to others, and in particular by how they react to us, according to whether they consider our own behavior to be acceptable or not. Showing emotions in public, for example, can be considered as acceptable and even desirable in Southern European cultures, as it is commonly considered that those who are “poker faced” are not to be trusted. On the other hand, in Scandinavian cultures, not being able to control your emotions is perceived to be a sign of immaturity and related behaviors can be punished by a generalized shunning of the person exposing them.

However, parents are by far not the only socialization factor. Equally important are school, TV programs, and the media, which teach us what is correct or incorrect, normal or abnormal, acceptable or unacceptable. For instance, since the mid-2000s, European TV has made efforts to show representatives of minorities. Suddenly, weather presenters were not exclusively White and Asian, Latino, and Black Bond girls invaded the cinema screens in an attempt to generate a larger inclusion of previously neglected minority groups, who had been subconsciously receiving the message that “only white people are nice and showable on TV” and “Bond girls are usually blond”, and therefore may have understood “I can never be fully included in this society, which is basically not designed for people like me.”

Socialization can therefore be defined as a means to learn how to behave in a particular society, and is a basic element of our mental programming, which is the link that defines our belonging to a culture by the exclusion of those who do not share it.

The Facebook trail below illustrates a real-life case of cultural misunderstanding experienced by a British traveler (Stephen Gabbutt), on a business trip to Italy with his family, and the reactions of some of his compatriots (a few, a bit fueled by the author of this book).

Stephen Gabbutt	None of the horde of Italian kids on today’s BA flight have sat in the right seats, so none of the Brit families and couples can sit together, classic Italianess. Can we go now?
Veronica Velo	Get culturally sensitive by kicking those kids’ arses. Latin parents (whether they are Latin American or Latin European) tend to outsource to strangers the setting of limits to their children because they fear the loss of their love. Too much Francoise Dolto in their readings, see?... Actually, my cousins’ children usually refer to me as “the ugly witch who lives by a scary Castle in Europe”.
	July 25 at 1:02 pm · LikeUnlike · 1 person Ged Casey likes this.
Candice Hart	Give the ex lax and pretend it’s chocolate and when they pooping their pants outside the toilet you can steal their seats.
	July 25 at 1:36 pm · UnlikeLike · 1 person Loading...
Alison Clark	Its probably BAs fantastic seat allocation system. We were on a flight to Paris once and had to sit behind each other, as did another couple near us. Hope you found a quiet corner!
	July 25 at 2:01 pm · LikeUnlike
Stephen Gabbutt	Thanks for the comments Ladies, just seeing a load of pooped British BA customers trying to explain to 11 year old Italians that they where sitting in their seat using hand gestures and pointing at their tickets was priceless. I’m sorry to say Lady V I don’t do culturally sensitive and it just makes me shout loader and point more.
	July 25 at 5:50 pm · LikeUnlike
Veronica Velo	I am about to start up a birth control campaign just to piss the Pope off. Will you travel to Rome with me in order to distribute free condoms? It sounds like a long term solution...
	July 25 at 6:00 pm · LikeUnlike
Veronica Velo	Why did you not ask the BA onboard crew for assistance? They should have replaced all the children in the right seats, shouldn’t they?
	July 26 at 10:29 pm · LikeUnlike
Stephen Gabbutt	They tried, but many of the single travelling business blokes just sat somewhere else to save the time...

Table of contents

• Cross-Cultural Management
• Part I Overview of Cross-Cultural Management
• Part II Frameworks for Cultural Analysis
• Part III Cross-Cultural Management in Action
• Part IV Th e Future of Cross-Cultural Management
• Notes
• References
• Index