week 9 Flashcards
Hofstede cultural dimensions
Explored 6 categories defining national cultures. Power distance, individualism or collectivist, masculinity vs femininity, uncertainty avoidance index long term vs short term, indgulgance vs restraint.
Power distance
Refers to how comfortable a society with power imbalances like hierarchy. In high power distace, there is a significant power imbalance between subordinates and managers, obeying them with no questioning.In low power distance, the power is similar and emphasis on participation.
Uncertainty avoidance index
Refers to the comfortability of society regarding uncertainty. High uncertainty avoidance prefer rules and certainty where low avoidance are okay with being uncertain and more flexible adapting to change
Masculine vs femininity
Preference for being more masculine which means assertiveness or more feminine being more cooperation. In masculine the assertiveness and personal achievements matter while femininty cooperating with teams are more important
Individualism vs collectivism
Whether the society put more emphasis on the group or the individual.If collectivist, the groups self interest is more important the individuals forming it. In individualistic, personal achievements are more important.
Long term or short term
Refers which time period a society focuses on more.Long term focuses on future and savings.Short term focuses on short term wins more..
Indulgence and restraint
Refers to how people manage their impulsesçIn restraint society control impulses and self regulation.Indulgance more about fulfilling impulses and desires.
National cultural difference is a key part of the organisational culture diversity around the modern international organisation. Use the ideas of Hofstede, applied to the case companies, to test this assertion.
It is right, google uses variation of culture diversty as an organisation. It emphasises low power distance as it encourages participation, low uncertaintiy as it encourages risk taking by encouraging it by telling stories of how a member took risk, prioritise the teams achievements as they work as team, more feninine as build on cooperation, focus on more short term goals as okr are set every quarter and are an emphsis on indulgence as the 20% time allows individuals to indulgance in their impulses of their own independent work. Thus while it offers creativity and innovation, the assertiveness and risk taking must be managed effectively to not effect the success of the teams.
It is sometimes said that good leaders are born rather than made, the Trait Theory of leadership. Applying this idea to leading modern companies such as the case companies, how would you assess its relevance?
I agree, the intelligence, having foresight and charisma of a leader are innate features that cannot be developed. For Google, Pichai had a significant foresight in the importance of artificial intelligence saying how important it is since 2014, has great intelligence by finishing engineering and having experience in product management and lastly very charismatic as having strong communication skills explaining difficult subjects like layoffs.
The cultural web is a way in which to analysis the culture within an organisation business.
The cultural web is used to understand and anaylse culture of a firm. It consists of stories, symbols power structures organisational structures control systems and rituals.
Stories
Refers to the stories passed down to people.In google’s case it is how the firm has started in a rented garage to inspire workers.
Rituals and routines
The rituals and routines adopted in the firm. Google uses thank god its friday fun events every friday , uses OKR rewives as a routine to keep everyone focus on the goals
The symbols
Representations of firms culture , include dress code and office layout. Comfortable office layout and informal dress code demonstrates the relaxed but flexible culture of google
Organisational structure
Uses the cross functional structure by using cross functional teams- according to product features the team is build by the expertise of the staff and decision making is done by teams, how the responsbilities are delegated and decision making process.
Power structure
How power is disseminated- flat hierarchy by eliminating middle managers.
