IBUS1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Iceberg, Geert Hofstede, Intercultural Competence
5 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
LO:
3.1 Understand culture and cross - cultural risk
3.2 Learn the dimensions of culture
3.3 Appreciate the role of language and religion in culture
3.4 Appreciate culture's effect in international business
3.5 Learn models and explanations of culture
3.6 Understand managerial implications of culture
3.1 Understand culture and cross - cultural risk
culture = the values, beliefs, customs, arts, and other products of human thought and work
that characterize the people of a given society (can be risk and opportunity)
•
Shared by members of group
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Relative
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Not inherited but learned
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Influence behaviour and attitudes
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Culture characteristics:
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Must understand culture to do international business/successful partnerships/brand
effectively
•
risk is where a cultural miscommunication can put business at risk.
○
Opportunity is where culture differences provide an opportunity for business to learn
and benefit
○
Cross-cultural risk = situation or event in which a cultural misunderstanding puts some
human value at stake (misunderstanding and miscommunication arise because people
have differing values and expectations)
○
Cross - cultural risk and opportunities:
•
Socialization = process of learning the rules and behavioural patterns appropriate to
one’s society
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Society rules can be explicit and implicit
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Breaking a rule amounts to a failure to conform.
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Socialization is cultural learning and provides the means to acquire cultural
understandings and orientations that a particular society shares.
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Acculturation = process of adjusting and adapting to a culture other than one’s own.
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Socialization and acculturation:
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Culture and Cross - Cultural Risk
Chapter 3 - The Cultural Environment of International
Business
Tuesday, 20 March 2018
10:31 PM
Textbook Page 1
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3.2 Learn the dimensions of culture
culture illustrates the differences among societies based on language, habits, customs, and
modes of thought.
•
most of us are not completely aware of how culture affects our behaviour until we encounter
people from other cultures.
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certain characteristics are visible, but invisible to the observer, is a massive base of
assumptions, attitudes, and values.
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These invisible characteristics strongly influence decision making, relationships, conflict, and
other dimensions of international business.
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Dimensions of culture
Culture as an iceberg:
Textbook Page 2
Values = represent a person’s judgments about what is good or bad, acceptable or
unacceptable, important or unimportant, and normal or abnormal.
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basis for our motivation, behaviour, guide the development of our attitudes and preferences
and decision making.
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Attitudes = similar to opinions but are often unconsciously held and may not be based on
logical facts. Prejudices are rigidly held attitudes, usually unfavourable and usually aimed at
particular groups of people
•
Values and attitudes:
Manners and customs are ways of behaving and conducting oneself in public and business
situations (Eating habits, meal times, work hours, drinking, handshaking, role of women)
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Some countries are characterized by informal cultures (people treat each other as equals and
work together cooperatively)
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other countries, people tend to be more formal (status, power, and respect are relatively
more important).
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Manners and customs:
Time has a strong influence on business.
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It affects people’s expectations about planning, scheduling, profit flows, and promptness in
arriving for work and meetings.
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Example = Japanese managers tend to prepare strategic plans for long periods, such as a
decade. The planning horizon for Western companies is much shorter, typically a few years.
•
People in past-oriented cultures believe plans should be evaluated in terms of their fit
with established traditions, customs, and wisdom
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Innovation and change do not occur very often and are justified to the extent they fit
with experience.
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Europeans are relatively past-oriented and prefer to conserve traditional ways of doing
Past orientated culture/monochronic:
•
Perceptions of time:
Textbook Page 3
Document Summary
Chapter 3 - the cultural environment of international. 3. 1 understand culture and cross - cultural risk. Culture and cross - cultural risk culture = the values, beliefs, customs, arts, and other products of human thought and work that characterize the people of a given society (can be risk and opportunity) Must understand culture to do international business/successful partnerships/brand effectively. Cross - cultural risk and opportunities: risk is where a cultural miscommunication can put business at risk. Opportunity is where culture differences provide an opportunity for business to learn and benefit. Cross-cultural risk = situation or event in which a cultural misunderstanding puts some human value at stake (misunderstanding and miscommunication arise because people have differing values and expectations) Socialization = process of learning the rules and behavioural patterns appropriate to o(cid:374)e"s so(cid:272)iet(cid:455) Breaking a rule amounts to a failure to conform. Socialization is cultural learning and provides the means to acquire cultural understandings and orientations that a particular society shares.
