7. Managing Culture Flashcards
What is above water line (percepta-level) in the Iceberg Model?
Symbols and behavior
What are Determinants of Corporate Culture?
- Conciseness (exact specification, everyone can align one’s actions to it)
- Diffusion rate (major part of employees are convinced by the values and norms)
- Depth of Implementation (cultural pattern became basis of daily actions)
What are Positive Effects of Corporate Culture?
Stability, orientation for actions, little formal control necessary
Easy communication
Fast decision-making and implementation
Motivation and team spirit
What are Negative Effects of Corporate Culture?
Separation from other cultural groups
Focus on traditional patterns, degradation of new orientations
What are the Types of Corporate Culture?
Risk tolerance in decision making and Speed of feedback from the market HIGH, LOW-Bet your company HIGH, HIGH-Tough Guy Macho LOW, LOW-Process LOW, HIGH-Work Hard, Play Hard
slide 121 chart
What are three categories of Corporate Culture Changeability?
Culturalists
Corporate culture is an organic environment, which may not be influenced
Cultural engineers
Cultures may be systematically structured and systematically changed
Course correctors
Accept the idea of a planned change in the sense of initiating change in a process; criticisms about the actual culture give impulses for cultural change
Cultural Coordination and Internationalization Strategy
Box slide 124
Benefits of globalization x need for localization
high benefits/high need example: pharma industry
low benefits/high need example: insurance company
low and high benefits/low need: makes sense to have unitary culture influenced by HQ/parent company
What are the subcultures of Corporate Culture?
Home Country Generational Hierarchical Gender Department Industry Host Country Professional
What is Host Country Subculture culture-free thesis?
„Culture-free thesis“
Managerial concept and corporate culture can be internationally standardized
Low Risk/ Low Speed Type of Corporate Culture
Type of Corporate Culture: Process
- Process-oriented
- Focus on technical perfection, avoidance of failure
ex. government agencies, insurance companies
bureaucratic style
Low Risk/ High Speed Type of Corporate Culture
Type of Corporate Culture: Work Hard, Play Hard
- fun and action follow intense work
- focus on good customer service in a dynamic environment
ex. retailers, manufacturers of commodities
High Risk / Low Speed Type of Corporate Culture
Type of Corporate Culture: Bet Your Company
- Analytical project culture
- Reducing risk through diligence and hierarchy
ex. plant engineering, can take a long time before costly mistake becomes obvious
High Risk / High Speed Type of Corporate Culture
Type of Corporate Culture: Tough Guy Macho
- Make or break mentality
- High risk, fast feedback, personality cult
Ex. Management consulting, stock broking, entertainment, clothes, consumer product
If there is a mistake, you realize it relatively quickly
- National Culture - Power Distance Tolerance
Culture dimensions by Hofstede
Acceptance of unequal distribution of power
Power Distance Tolerance - Implications for Structural Coordination
Number of hierarchical levels
Centralization of decisions
Differentiation of roles and tasks
- National Culture - Uncertainty Avoidance
Culture dimensions by Hofstede
Threat by uncertain and unknown situations
Uncertainty Avoidance - Implications for technological coordination
Formalization
Standardization
- National Culture - Individualism vs. collectivism
Culture dimensions by Hofstede
Degree to which individuals view themselves as independent of groups
Individualism vs. collectivism - Implications for personal coordination
Relationships between employers and 3 employees as well as among employees
Importance of communication
- National Culture - Masculinity vs. Femininity
Culture dimensions by Hofstede
Importance of dominance and material orientation
Masculinity vs. Femininity - Implications for personal coordination
Career opportunities
Participation
Use of power vs. arguments to solve conflicts
Competition among employees
- National Culture - Long-term Orientation
Culture dimensions by Hofstede
Extent to which a society is “future-oriented”
Long-term Orientation - Implications for personal coordination
Status-oriented hierarchy
Time to get feedback
Incentives and goals
The 5 Culture Dimensions (five) by Hofstede (as it pertains to National Culture)
- Power Distance Tolerance
- Uncertainty Avoidance
- Individualism vs. collectivism
- Masculinity vs femininity
- Long-term Orientation
The 7 Cultural Dimensions by Trompenaars (as it pertains to National Culture)
Aggregation in 7 dimensions
- Universalism vs. particularism
- Individualism vs. collectivism
- Neutral vs. emotional
- Specific vs. diffuse
- Achievement vs. ascription
- Sequential vs. synchronic
- Internal vs. external control
- Universalism vs. particularism
Cultural dimensions by Trompenaars
What is more important, rules or relationships?
- Individualism vs. collectivism
Cultural dimensions by Trompenaars
Do we function in a group or as individuals?
- Neutral vs. emotional
Cultural dimensions by Trompenaars
Do we display our emotions?
- Specific vs. diffuse
Cultural dimensions by Trompenaars
How separate do we take our private and working lives?
- Achievement vs. ascription
Cultural dimensions by Trompenaars
Do we have to prove ourselves to receive status or is it given to us?
- Sequential vs. synchronic
Cultural dimensions by Trompenaars
Do we do things one in a time or several things at once?
- Internal vs. external control
Cultural dimensions by Trompenaars
Do we control our environment or are we controlled by it?
What is below water line (concepta-level) in the Iceberg Model?
Attitudes, values, norms, convictions, basic assumptions
What is Host Country Subculture culture-bound thesis?
„Culture-bound thesis” Managerial concept and corporate culture should be adjusted to host country
