Slide 1.

Part one: Culture and management

Introduction: Part one
Outlines
Definitions of the concept of culture
Research in the field of culture in management
Provides
Some understanding of business culture in
international environment
Helps to develop
Desirable behaviours in a specific cross-cultural
context
Browaeys & Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2nd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 1.2

Chapter 1: Determinants of culture

Concept 1.1: Facets of culture
What does culture really mean?
Norms and values
Cultural assumptions in management

Concept 2.2. Levels of cultures

From national culture to culture and management.

Browaeys & Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2nd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 1.3

The concept of culture

What culture is?/is not?
Culture is a code of attitudes, norms and values,
the way of thinking...
Culture determines:
How we see ourselves
How we see the world

Culture is not right or wrong, inherited, about

individual behaviour...

Browaeys & Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2nd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 1.4

Three layers
The concept of culture has three layers:
1) Artifacts and attitudes
Behavioural or explicit level

2) Norms (rules) and values

Every culture has its own system

3) Basic assumptions
Difficult to describe or explain

Browaeys & Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2nd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 1.5

Comparison of value systems of societies

Four categories (Ruano-Borbalan, 2002)
Traditional society (Arab countries)
Religion plays an important role

Rational society (Germany)

Interests of the individual come first

Society where materialism is predominant

(ex-communist countries)
Post-modern society (Scandinavia)
Tolerant and democratic
Browaeys & Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2nd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 1.6

European Culture
What is important in the forming process of a
European culture?
Meeting of diversity
Complementarity of ideas
Interaction and interference within opposite
values :
Religion/rationality
Mythical thought/critical thought
Humanism/science
(Morin,1987)

Browaeys & Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2nd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 1.7

Levels of cultures in a business context

Cultures can develop at different levels:

Culture and nation

National culture
Organizational culture
Corporate culture
Professional culture
Culture and management

Browaeys & Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2nd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 1.8

Culture and nation

Influence of culture/nation on organizations:
Macro level
Laws and economic institutions
The nation must be considered by organizations
going about their business.

Micro level
The organization is influenced through a number of
cultural elements relating to:
employeremployee relationships
behaviour among employees

Browaeys & Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2nd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 1.9

National culture
Elements that contribute to the creation of a
national culture:
Physical environment
History of the nation

Institutions that contribute to the establishment of

a national culture
Family/Religion/Education
Mass communication media
The multinational company as culture-building
institution.
(Tabey, 2003)

Browaeys & Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2nd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 1.10

Organizational culture
In organizations, culture affects the way:
strategy is determined
goals are established
how the organization operates

The personnel of the organization:

are influenced by their cultural backgrounds
share their own values and perceptions.
(Schein, 1999)

Browaeys & Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2nd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 1.11

Cultural assumptions in management

Edgar Schein defines culture as:
a set of basic assumptions shared solutions
to universal problems of external adaptation
(how to survive) and internal integration (how
to stay together) - which have evolved over
time and are handed down from one
generation to the next
(Schein, 2004, p.4)

Browaeys & Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2nd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 1.12

Corporate culture
Corporate culture is a combination of:
Organizational culture
National/regional culture

Two differing views on the influence of corporate

culture on a (multi-) national company:
Success depends on it having either

1. A clearly defined corporate culture, or

2. A flexible culture.
Internal factors play an important role, in
particular the extent of cultural control.
Browaeys & Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2nd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 1.13

Professional culture
Three professional cultures in management:
Operators
involved in production (goods/services)

Engineers
design and monitor the technology
Executives
senior managers
(Schein, 1996)

The question remains: how do these professional

cultures co-exist?
Browaeys & Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2nd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 1.14

Culture and management

Cross-cultural management
Explains the behaviour of people in organizations
around the world
Describes and compares organizational
behaviour across countries and cultures
Seeks to understand and improve the interaction
of : co-workers, managers, executives, clients,
suppliers and alliance partners.
(Adler, 2002)

Browaeys & Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2nd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2011

Slide 1.15

Conclusion to Chapter 1
Chapter 1 shows how difficult it is to give a
definition of the word culture.
Chapter 1 also shows that the individuals in a
group form a culture that can be national,
organizational or professional.

Browaeys & Price, Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, 2nd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2011