Define the Cultural Environment Terms Flashcards

-Collection of values, beliefs, behaviors, customs, and attitudes that distinguish one society from another-Set of shared norms and values-Learned behavior that is transmitted from one member of a society to another.-The elements of culture are interrelated.-Because culture is learned behavior, it is adaptive; that is, the culture changes in response to external forces that affect the society.-Culture is shared by members of the society and defines the membership of the society.

-Social structure = the overall framework that determines the roles of individuals within the society, the stratification of the society (categories of people), and individual mobility within the society (to move from one stratum to another)-Language = indicator of diversity in a country’s population (lngua franca = predominant common language of international business [English]; backtranslation = one person translates a document, then a second person translates the translated version back into the original language)-Religion affects how members of a society relate to each other and to outsiders (ex: sociologist Max Weber has attributed the rise of capitalism in Western Europe to the Protestant ethic, which stresses individual hard work, frugality, and achievement as means of glorifying God)-Values = the principles and standards accepted by members of society (time, age, education, etc.) -Attitudes = the actions, feelings, and thoughts that result from values

-In a low-context culture, the words used by the speaker explicitly convey the speaker’s message to the listener (ex: advertising is more fact oriented)-In a high-context culture, the context in which a conversation occurs is just as important as the words that are actually spoken, and cultural clues are important in understanding what is being communicated. (ex: advertising is more emotion oriented)

*see range*

• -cultural cluster = countries that share many similarities, although differences do remain.
• -United States = Anglo w/ UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand

• 1) Social orientation
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• 2) Power orientation
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• 3) Uncertainty orientation
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• 4) Goal orientation
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• 5) Time orientation

• Social orientation is a person’s beliefs about the relative importance of the individual and the groups to which that person belongs. The two extremes of social orientation are individualism and collectivism.
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• Individualism is the cultural belief that the person comes first. Key values of individualistic people include a high degree of self-respect and independence. These people often put their own career interests before the good of their organizations, and they tend to assess decisions in terms of how those decisions affect them as individuals. Hofstede’s research suggested that people in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Netherlands tend to be relatively individualistic.
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• Collectivism is the belief that the group comes first. Societies that tend to be collectivistic are usually characterized by well-defined social networks, including extended families, tribes, and co-workers. People are expected to put the good of the group ahead of their own personal welfare, interests, or success. Individual behavior in such cultures is strongly influenced by the emotion of shame; when a group fails, its members take the failure very personally and experience shame. In addition, group members try to fit into their group harmoniously, with a minimum of conflict or tension. Hofstede found that people from Mexico, Greece, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Peru, Singapore, Colombia, and Pakistan tend to be relatively collectivistic in their values.

• Power orientation refers to the beliefs that people in a culture hold about the appropriateness of power and authority differences in hierarchies such as business organizations.
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• Some cultures are characterized by power respect. This means that people in a culture tend to accept the power and authority of their superiors simply on the basis of the superiors’ positions in the hierarchy. These same people also tend to respect the superiors’ right to that power. People at all levels in a firm accept the decisions and mandates of those above them because of the implicit belief that higher-level positions carry the right to make decisions and issue mandates. Hofstede found people in France, Spain, Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, and Singapore to be relatively power respecting.
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• In contrast, people in cultures characterized by power tolerance attach much less significance to a person’s position in the hierarchy. These people are more willing to question a decision or mandate from someone at a higher level or perhaps even refuse to accept it. They are willing to follow a leader when that leader is perceived to be right or when it seems to be in their own self-interest to do so but not because of the leader’s intangible right to issue orders. Hofstede’s work suggested that people in the United States, Israel, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Germany, and New Zealand tend to be more power tolerant

• Uncertainty orientation is the feeling people have regarding uncertain and ambiguous situations.
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• People in cultures characterized by uncertainty acceptance are stimulated by change and thrive on new opportunities. Ambiguity is seen as a context within which an individual can grow, develop, and carve out new opportunities. In these cultures certainty carries with it a sense of monotony, routineness, and overbearing structure. Hofstede suggested that many people from the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia are uncertainty accepting.
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• In contrast, people in cultures characterized by uncertainty avoidance dislike ambiguity and will avoid it whenever possible. Ambiguity and change are seen as undesirable. These people tend to prefer a structured and routine, even bureaucratic, way of doing things. Hofstede found that many people in Israel, Austria, Japan, Italy, Colombia, France, Peru, and Germany tend to avoid uncertainty whenever possible.

• Goal orientation is the manner in which people are motivated to work toward different kinds of goals.
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• People who exhibit aggressive goal behavior tend to place a high premium on material possessions, money, and assertiveness. Cultures that value aggressive goal behavior also tend to define gender-based roles somewhat rigidly. Many people in Japan tend to exhibit relatively aggressive goal behavior. Many people in Germany, Mexico, Italy, and the United States exhibit moderately aggressive goal behavior.
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• People who adopt passive goal behavior place a higher value on social relationships, quality of life, and concern for others. Men and women in passive goal behavior cultures are more likely both to pursue diverse careers and to be well represented within any given occupation. People from the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland tend to exhibit relatively passive goal behavior.

• Hofstede’s fifth dimension, time orientation, is the extent to which members of a culture adopt a long-term versus a short-term outlook on work, life, and other aspects of society.
  Some cultures, such as those of Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea, have a long-term, future orientation that values dedication, hard work, perseverance, and thrift.
  Other cultures, including those of Pakistan and West Africa, tend to focus on the past and present, emphasizing respect for traditions and fulfillment of social obligations.
  Hofstede’s work suggests that the United States and Germany tend to have an intermediate time orientation.

When dealing with a new culture, many international businesspeople make the mistake of relying on the self-­reference criterion, the unconscious use of one’s own culture to help assess new surroundings.
There are numerous ways to obtain knowledge about other cultures to achieve cross-cultural literacy. Cross-cultural literacy is the first step in acculturation, the process by which people not only understand a foreign culture but also modify and adapt their behavior to make it compatible with that culture.