Culture and Organizations Flashcards
Individualism
Pertains to societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family
Collectivism
Pertains to societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong cohesive in-groupps, which throughout people’s lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty
High power distance
Hierarchical organizations; they develop rules, mechanisms, and rituals that serve to maintain and strengthen status and power dynamics among members
Low power distance
More egalitarian organizations, minimizing rules and customs
Uncertainty avoidance
Highly refined rules and rituals vs. a more relaxed attitude concerning uncertainty and ambiguity and mandate fewer rules and rituals for their employees
Masculinity versus feminity
Value success, money, and achievements vs. prioitize nurturing and caring of its members over money and achievement
long versus short term orientation
Focus on building relationships and market positions vs. short-term, bottom-line profits
Indulgence vesus restraint
Relatively freer gratifaction of basic and natural human desires vs. suppress the gratifications of such desires and refulate through stricter social norms
Criticism of Hofstede’s cultural values
- Minkov, 2017
- Do IBM employees represent national culture? Do the values replicate with other groups and the general public
- Does the questionnaire measure the values well?
- is the cultural variation meaningful?
- Ecological fallacy: some caution with interpretation
Organizational culture
Information system shared within an organization and transmitted across successive generations
Person-culture match
- Workers who had values that were congruent with those of their supervisor were more satisfied and committed
- Organizational identification associated with employee turnover
- but fit less important when less choice
Normative commitment
Degree to which one’s ties to the organization are boun by duty and obligation
Affective commitment
Level of personal feelings associated with one’s relationship to an organization
Leaders in high power distance culture
Tend to be autocratic or paternalistic in their decision making and interaction style
- close supervision positively evaluated by subordinated
Leaders in low power distance cultures
Particiapative and consensual
- close supervision negatively evaluated by subordinates
Paternalistic leadership
hierarchical relationship in which superior provides guidance, nurturance, care and subordinate responds with loyalty
- leader acts as a father figure + role model - both participative and authorative
differences and similarities in leadership styles
- culture is bound to differentiate between leadership in different societies
- but universal leadership goals: task performance and group maintenance
- common/global technological imperatives and industrial practices harmonize management pratices across cultures
Decision making individualistic cultures
Individual decisions are considered better than group decisions
Decision making collectivistic cultures
Group decisions are considered better than individual decisions
Low power distance in decision making
Managers are seen as making decisions after consulting with subordinates, and informal employee consultation is very possible
High power distance in decision making
Managers are seen as making decisions autocratically and paternalistically
Oligarchy
Organizational structure where rule- or decision-making power is held by few
Ringi
Japanese process of decision making, which involves the circulation of a proposal amongst all stakeholders
- Nemawashi: broad-based consensus building procedure
Culture shock
Disorientation, anxiet, confusion, doubt, distress, or nervousness that occurs in the process of adapting to new and different cultures
Optimistic view of diversity –> information-processing approach
- Diverse groups have more relevant information and perspectives available than homogeneous groups (i.e., have more available resources)
- Need to reconcile conflicting viewpoints → thorough processing task-relevant information, reduced risk group think
- When groups can combine these resources well (= good process), they can achieve superior performance
Pessimistic view of diversity –> social categorization perspective
- Diversity creates social divisions which harm teamwork
Similarity-attraction theory - People attracted to similar others
- Social identity theories: People categorize themselves and others into groups, with which they identify and which they try to promote (i.e., favoring the ingroup above the outgroup, thereby harming intergroup relations)
- Intercultural misunderstandings
Diversity as a double-edged sword
More creativity, increased performance, high quality decisionc
- More conflict, less effective communication, though more satisfaction with work
