Chapter 3 Flashcards
Expatriate assignments:
A temporary job abroad with a multinational company
Informal institutions:
Rules that are not formalised but exist in, for example, norms, values and
ethics
Artefacts of culture:
Physical objects that represent the visible surface of culture
Power distance:
The extent to which less powerful members within a country expect and accept
that power is distributed unequally
Individualism:
The perspective that the identity of an individual is fundamentally their own
Collectivism:
The idea that the identity of an individual is primarily based on the identity of their
collective group
=> People coming from collectivists are more collaborative when dealing with in-group members compared to people coming from individualistic cultures
In-group:
Individuals and firms regarded as part of ‘us’
Out-group:
Individuals and firms not regarded as part of ‘us’
Masculinity:
Values traditionally associated with male role such as assertive, decisive and aggressive
Femininity:
Values traditionally associated with female role, such as compassion, care and quality of life
=> Example society is Sweden
Hofstedes feminity dimension:
- In a feminine society a stylised manager is lead visible, intuitive rather than decisive and accustomed to building consensus
=> The Netherland’s is an example of a feminine culture
Uncertainty avoidance:
The extent to which members in different cultures accept ambiguous situations and tolerate uncertainty
=> High uncertainty avoidance: Sweden
=> Low uncertainty avoidance: Singapore
Long-term orientation:
A perspective that emphasizes perseverance and savings for future
betterment
Holy
Holy: An item or activity that is treated with particular respect by a religion
Secular societies:
Societies where religion does not dominate public life
Language:
A system of shared meanings that enables people to effectively communicate
Language barriers:
Communication barriers between people who speak different mother
tongues and lack a shared language in which all are fluent
Corporate language:
The language used for communications between entities of the same MNE
in different countries
Lingua franca:
The dominance of one language as a global business language
Subcultures:
Groups within a nation sharing a culture that substantially varies from the national
average
Cultural convergence:
Hypothesis that cultures are becoming more similar
Cultural divergence:
Hypothesis that cultures are becoming less similar
Organizational culture:
Culture shared by people working in the organization
Cultural tightness-looseness:
The strength of social norms and the degree of sanctioning within
societies
Cultural cluster:
Countries that share similar cultures
Cultural distance:
The difference between two cultures along sone dimensions of value or subjective affinity
Institutional distance:
The extent of similarity or dissimilarity between the regulatory, normative and cognitive institutions of two countries
Ethics:
The principles, standards and norms of conduct governing individual and firm behaviour
Ethical relativism:
The idea that what is considered morally right or wrong can vary from one culture or society to another—there are no universal ethical standards that apply to everyone
Ethical imperialism:
The absolute belief that ‘there is only one set of Ethics and we have it’
=> An American operating in the Middle East is trying to enforce rules against sexual discrimination against Muslim women working in its management
Code of conduct:
Written policies and standards for corporate conduct and ethics
Corruption:
The abuse of public power for private benefits, usually in the form of bribery
Cultural intelligence:
An individual’s ability to understand and adjust to new cultures
The Local
A person who works well with people from similar backgrounds but doesn’t work effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds
The Analyst
A person who observes and learns from others and plans a strategy for interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds
The Natural
A person who relies on intuition rather than on a systematic learning style when interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds
The Mimic
A person who creates a comfort zone for people from different cultural backgrounds by adopting their general posture and communication style. This is not pure imitation, which may be regarded as mocking
The Chameleon
A person who may be mistaken for a native of the foreign country, He/she may achieve results that natives cannot due to his/her insider’s skills and outsider’s perspective. This is very rare
Stereotypes:
A set of simplistic and often inaccurate generalisations about a group that allows
others to categorise them
Hofstede identified five dimensions:
(1) power distance,
(2) individualism/collectivism,
(3)masculinity/femininity,
(4) uncertainty avoidance and
(5) long-term orientation.
