Cross Cultural Communication

Cross Cultural Communication Chapter 1 & 2 Chapter 1 & 2

Learning Outcomes • Understanding the meaning of culture • Understanding our own culture and cultural differences, in general • Learning how to recognize the differences and cope up with these in a business context • Providing some cultural insights into the global Vs local dilemma facing international organizations • Understanding our own culture, assumptions, and expectations about how people should think and act is the basis for success Chapter 1 & 2

Definition of Culture • A set of values that are shared by a group • The collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another. • Consists of Values passed down from one generation to the next • The essence of culture is not what is visible on the surface but it is the shared ways groups of people understand and interpret the world. Chapter 1 & 2

Definition of Culture • To provide people with meaningful context in which to meet, to think about themselves and face the outer world • The means by which people communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about attitudes towards life. • The fabric of meaning in terms of which human beings interpret their experiences and guide their actions • The culture is the way in which a group of people solve problems and dilemmas. Chapter 1 & 2

What is Culture? • Culture is: • Man-made • confirmed by others • conventionalized and • passed on to younger people or new comers to learn • There are many products and services becoming common to world markets, it is important: • Not to consider what they are • Not to consider where they are • But to consider what they mean to people in culture Chapter 1 & 2

What is Culture? • The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. • These patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population: Edwardian culture; Japanese culture; the culture of poverty. • These patterns, traits, and products considered with respect to a particular category, such as a field, subject, or mode of expression: religious culture in the Middle Ages; musical culture; oral culture. • The predominating attitudes and behavior that characterize the functioning of a group or organization. Chapter 1 & 2

Understanding Meaning of Culture • A shared definition of a situation by a group • Shared beliefs and their influence on the interactions between members of an organization • Meaningful interaction • Mutual expectations • When expectation of the two are same, there is mutuality of meaning • Culture is like gravity Chapter 1 & 2

Human Nature: The human ability to feel: fear, anger, love, joy, sadness, the need to associate with others, to play and exercise, observing environment and talk about it to others It is common to all Inherited by birth It determines one’s physical and basic psychological functioning It is the operating system Culture Culture is learned Not inherited Derives from one’s social environment Different from human nature and individual personality It is the mental software Human Nature & Culture Chapter 1 & 2

Importance of understanding other Cultures • To achieve corporate goals • To implement policies • To sell products and services • To compete in the global market • To balance between consistency and adaptation for corporate success Chapter 1 & 2

Impact of Culture on Business • Need for international managers to understand and learn cultures of the world • Most modern management philosophies for universal management solutions: • TQM – total quality management • SBU – strategic business unit • JIT – just in time • CFT – customer first team • MBO – management by objectives • Success and failure of these philosophies mainly depending on the cultural background of the employees and management Chapter 1 & 2

Impact of Culture on Business • Things are tough for international managers to achieve their objectives because: • They belong to one culture • The culture in which they are working is different • The culture of the organization which employs them may be different as well • The following phenomena are different from one culture to another: • Authority • Bureaucracy • Creativity • Good fellowship • Verification • Accountability • Recognition Chapter 1 & 2

Culture and Globalization • If people want to gain understanding of their corporate goals, policies, products and services, wherever they are doing business, they must understand what those and other aspects of management mean in different cultures • As companies go global and markets globalize, the need for standardization in organizational design, systems and procedures increases • Managers are under pressure to adapt their organizations to the local characteristics of the market, legislation, the fiscal regime, the socio-political system, and the cultural system • Globalization Vs Glocalization Chapter 1 & 2

Culture and Globalization • Technology Vs Man • The Japanese business model Vs American business model • Japanese model recognizes the multi-dimensional character of the business (when in Rome, understand the behavior of the Romans, do as the Romans do) • American business model treats management as a profession and regards emotionally detached rationality as scientifically necessary • Globalization of business life requires more knowledge of cultural patterns Chapter 1 & 2

Crossing the Cultural Borders • Culture is like gravity: • You do not experience it until you jump six feet into the air • Local managers do not feel the differences in cultures until they cross the cultural borders • How the following concepts are different in different cultures: • Number of functions in an organizations • Level of hierarchy – chain of command • Degree of specialization • Cultural differences establishes the cultural borders • Culture in east coast and west coast of USA • Cultural differences between Europe and Asia • Cultural differences between Dutch and Belgians Chapter 1 & 2

Culture as a solution • Culture is the way in which people solve problems • Understand the layers of culture • Observe the cultural aspects of a country • Language, food or dress • Understand the Norms and Values • Understand basic assumptions and unquestioned reality • Culture is the context in which things happen; out of context, even legal matters lack significance Chapter 1 & 2

National, Corporate, and Professional Cultures • Levels of culture: • National or Regional culture • Corporate or Organizational culture • Professional or functional culture • This course will deal with the differences in culture at National level only. Chapter 1 & 2

Basis of Cultural Differences • Every culture distinguishes itself from others by the specific solutions it chooses to certain problems • Problems/Differences could be approached on the following grounds: • Relationships with people • Attitudes to time • Attitudes to the environment • There are five orientations broadly dealt in this course Chapter 1 & 2

Basis of Cultural Differences • Relationships with people • Universalism vs. particularism • Individualism vs. communitarianism • Neutral vs. emotional • Specific vs. diffuse • Achievement vs. ascription • Attitudes to Time • Attitudes to the Environment Chapter 1 & 2

Cross Cultural Communication