Cross Cultural Communication

1. Cross Cultural Communication Chapter 8 How We Accord Status Chapter 8

2. Learning Outcomes • Importance of Status in a society • How we accord status? • Ascription Vs Achievement • Correlation between status and other social factors • Ascription and performance • Business negotiations and Status • Practical tips for having business dealing with Ascription and Achievement oriented cultures Chapter 8

3. Achieved vs. Ascribed Status • Achieved status • According status to people on the basis of their achievements • Refers to doing • Ascribed Status • According status to people by virtue of their age, class, gender, education, and so on • Refers to being Chapter 8

4. Achieved vs. Ascribed Status • Achieved status • On the basis of performance ( top division salesperson for five consecutive years) • Ascribed Status - status is ascribed on the basis of : • Age ( a more experienced salesperson) • Gender ( very masculine and aggressive) • Social connections ( friends in the highest places) • Education ( top scholar in the institution) • Profession ( electronics is the future) Chapter 8

5. Importance of status in society • Status is the social recognition and position of an individual in a society • There are variations in Status levels • Everyone is constantly striving to get status • The higher status you have in a society the higher respect and privilege one can enjoy • All societies give higher status to certain of their member than others • People can accord status more one way • If the status of a person is lowered or undermined the person seems to be worried or annoyed in a society Chapter 8

6. How We accord Status? • People with higher status are focused upon in a society (the personality and activities) • Political leaders • Film actors & actresses • Celebrities • Societies accord status to people on the basis of : • Ascription – called ascribed Status • Achievement – called achieved status Chapter 8

7. Achieved Status USA, Canada, and Norway are the countries strongly believe in achieved status The track record of a person helps in earning/achieving the status Best employee of the month for the past 8 months consecutively Best performance record for the past 12 years consecutively Ascribed Status Arab nations, Indian sub-continent, most of European nations, and Asian countries, strongly believe in ascribed status People get respect depending on certain factors such as family background, age, class, gender, education, etc. Ascription Vs Achievement Chapter 8

8. Ascription Vs AchievementExercise - I • Mark following statements on a five-point scale ( 1- strongly agree, 5-strongly disagree) • The most important thing in life is to think and act in the ways that best suit the way you really are, even if you do not get things done. • The respect that a person gets is highly dependent on their family background. Chapter 8

9. Ascription Vs AchievementExercise – I : Findings • Fig.8.1 & 8.2 show the percentage of participants who disagree with each of the statement • In Fig.8.1, those countries which disagree in minority are ascriptive cultures. In America, 75% disagree to statement A • In Fig.8.2, 87% of Americans disagree that status depends mainly on family backgrounds. Chapter 8

10. Correlation with Social Factors • Status and: • Age ( a senior salesman in the company) • Gender (a particular gender holds higher status) • Education (the name of institution where you graduated from; the type of degree you have earned) • Profession (the nature of profession) • Money (how rich you are) • Position (the position you hold in your organization) Chapter 8

11. Correlation with Social Factors • Status and: • Possession (properties, etc.) • Citizenship (Are you a US citizen?) • Marriage –(married people are respected well) • Religion • Protestantism – achieved • Catholic, Buddhism, Hinduism - ascribed • Class (social strata) • Relationships/connections • Attitude ( the nature of your attitude determines the altitude of your status) Chapter 8

12. Ascription and Performance • Assumes and expects that a person is the expert in his/her area • Questions the person’s expertise if a small piece of information is unknown • Ascribing and Achieving are interrelated. • Ascription is necessary to achieve many things • Ascription contributes a lot to achieving Chapter 8

13. Achievement and Ascription oriented cultures’ Negotiations • Achievement culture find difficult to adjust when the ascribed team of negotiators has some obligations towards some senior person who influences their opinion. • Ascription culture negotiators may feel upset from aggressive team of men and women in achieving team. • In some some Ascriptive cultures (especially Japanese) older people actually are wiser for the years they have spent in the corporation, gone through extensive training and in-house education and for the sheer numbers of subordinates briefing them Chapter 8

14. Achievement and Ascription oriented cultures’ Negotiations • The Translator’s Role : • In Achievement Culture : expected to be neutral, not serving the interests of either party • In ascription Cultures: more of an interpreter, not only of language, but also of gesture, meaning and context. Very much on the side of own team. Chapter 8

15. Achievement and Ascription oriented cultures’ Negotiations • The Role of Titles: • In Achievement Culture : qualification matters, if it is relevant to task at hand • In diffuse Cultures: important to tie in your status with your organization. • Achievement as an individual may be discounted, compared to the status organization ascribes to you. • Chief of ( Marketing, Production, Finance etc.) • Deals may be lost because the representative was not seen to have high status back home • Ascriptive cultures need assurance that your organization has great respect for you and that you are at or near the top position. Chapter 8

16. Achievement and Ascription oriented cultures’ Negotiations • Relationship with Mother Company : • In Achievement Culture : • Representative’s “word”would be honored by company. • The individual has delegated authority to use personal judgment. • In ascription Cultures: • Representative can not commit without extensive consultations, unless he or she is the head of the organization Chapter 8

17. Reconciling Achievement and Ascription • See Fig.8.3 for reconciliation process. • Both views develop together. • Those who “start” with ascribing usually ascribe not just status but future success or achievement and thereby help to bring it about. • Those who “start” with achievement usually start to ascribe importance and priority to the persons and projects which have been successful. • Hence all societies ascribe and all achieve. It is once again a question of where the cycle starts. Chapter 8

18. Reconciling Achievement and Ascription : Exercise - II • There are different grounds for according status to employees based on what people have succeeded in doing or on what qualities are attributed to them by the social system. Consider the statements opposite : • Status should lie in the permanent attributes of employees, i.e. their education, seniority, age, position and the level of responsibility ascribed. status should not change according to occasion or just because of the recent successes. It reflects intrinsic worth, not the latest forays. • Status should lie in the permanent attributes of employee, i.e. their education, seniority, age, position and the level of responsibility ascribed.Such status tends to be self-fulfilling, with achievement and leadership resulting from what the corporation values in you and expects of you. • Status is a matter of what the employee has actually achieved, his or her track record. Yet over time, this deserved reputation becomes a permanent attribute, allowing success to be renewed and enabling even more achievement to occur. • Achievement or success is the only legitimate source of status in business. The more recent the achievement, the better and more relevant it is to current challenges. Achievement gets its significance from the humble nature of the individual’s birth and background, and from beating the odds. Indicate with “1” the approach you believe would be favored by your closest colleague at work, and with “2” the approach which you believe would be their second choice. Chapter 8

19. Reconciling Achievement and Ascription : Exercise - II • If you have chosen 2 or 3 you have expressed a belief in reconciling achieved and ascribed status. • Answer 2 affirms socially ascribed status which leads to achievement and success. • Answer 3 affirms achieved status that is believed to lead to social ascription. • Answer 1 & 4 respectively reject achieved and ascribed status. Chapter 8

20. Practical tips for doing the business in ascription and achievement oriented cultures • Table 1 / Pg.118 highlight the differences between achievement –oriented and ascription oriented cultures • Table 2 / Pg.118 shows tips for doing business in both cultures • Table 3 / Pg.119 shows when managing and being managed in both cultures Chapter 8