Week 15: Virtual Teams

For last class we talked about something which is getting stronger with globalization, which is virtual teams, although it can be develop within teams from a same country it is common for it to be developed in multicultural teams that are formed by people of different locations.

It’s been said that people need to personally interact with each other in order to develop strong bonds, but internet has proved them wrong, nowadays you find people that even fall in love through internet and only meet when they’re getting marry, so if it works for love in must certainly work for business.

So there where two main knowledge I gained this week, the first one is to understand why a virtual team exists, and it turns out there are many reasons for it, the most common one is that people who live in different locations can work together, but there are also some virtual teams that exist because of the lack of time people have to meet, may be because they’re traveling all the time or because they have a busy schedule, and finally some virtual teams are created in order to have an extended domain of a market or a knowledge.

The second thing I learned is that there are four factors for virtual teams to be successful, the first one is having a common goal clear for everyone in the team, if you don’t know where you’re going you may as well get lost, the second one is to create trust, although it is harder to create trust virtually a strategy in order to get to know the people behind the screen must be develop, the third is to have a coordinated work and communication process, lack of communication is the main source of misunderstanding in teams, so there must be a  define set of communication rules in order to share information successfully, and the fourth one is to preparing cultural and technical training, this is so teams can work in the same page and can understand where the others are coming from.

Knowing about virtual teams is very relevant today because it is one of the working styles of the future. As globalization increases and companies expand, executives travel much more adn have less time, therefore, forming virtual teams are a good choice in order to overcome distance and time barriers. Also, I think it is an excellent way of taking adavantage of technological development and promoting intercultural exchange.

Research Question: What are the best ways to motivate millennials?

Millennials are the generation between 18 and 35, there a big part of the actual workforce of the world and by 2020 will almost have of the workforce of the world, they represent a challenge for today’s companies since they have different motivations sources than passed generations. Many times companies encounter with the problem of having great employees that resign fast looking for motivation elsewhere. Last week I attend a conference on teamwork at the university, and the lecturer proposed the following recommendations in order to get millennials motivated:

• Explain what the company is, where they’re projecting themselves and what they want to achieve.
• Give opportunity to be part of community service, they believe in being part of a better world so they want to work hard to get it.
• Develop in between positions, for them is really important to move forward and faster, so it is important to have positions they can escalate to.
• Keep up the feedback, they like to know how their work is perceived and how they can improve it.
• Offer more flexibility, they like to own their time and be autonomous, so it is really important to offer different kind of conditions to do their job. 
• Provide educational and professional development, since they want to keep getting better.
• Give them time for personal projects, they need independence and have a desire to fulfill their personal expectations as well as their professional goals.

Week 14: Motivating Across Cultures

This week we talked about motivation, as we had already approached what successful teams act like, we had to go to the source of all mankind success, which is indeed motivation.

Motivation is what encourages someone to fulfill some goal or task, that I already knew, but I also found out about some curious stuff, like motivations changes according to the type of culture someone belongs to, so for example if you are in an individualistic culture you will often find that one person will attribute the achievements to themselves, while in collective cultures people recognize the achievement as product of a group effort and attribute the team’s failures to themselves, also, in individualistic cultures people work harder when they have to do a job by themselves so the recognition is for them, but when they work in teams they work less harder since they would have to share recognition with all his teammates. On the contrary, collective cultures work harder when they’re in teams and actually like to share achievements. What was most impressive, was the fact that not only because you’re part of an individualistic culture means your pattern behaviors are individualistic, many times you can develop collective skills, and that is a prove of how diverse human beings are.

The second thing I learned is that just like taste of music, sources of motivation change according to the culture, so in many countries money is the main motivator, I bet that’s the case of Colombia, many times you find people bored in a working position because of their salaries, while in other countries, like Japan, harmony is the main motivator, as Japan is a country where conditions and environments are more important than anything else, and finally you find countries like Germany, where what matters is how interesting the job is, doesn’t matter that much the money or your teammates, but how much you can get out of your job and how challenging it is.

Reserach Question: What are the best companies to work in the world?

It’s been a while since companies like Google are at the top of the list of the best companies to work at, looking deeper inside into those companies I found out they have some common characteristics like they all encourage people to study and get into social work, also it gives employees the opportunity to create their own schedule and decide where they work, likewise they have quite horizontal teams, meaning everyone has a defined role  and have autonomy to do it and lastly they work in spaces specially build to offer diverse environments where employees can go to do their job or have a break.

References

Great Place to Work. (2014). 2014 FORTUNE’s 100 Best Companies to Work for. Retrieved from: http://www.greatplacetowork.com/best-companies/100-best-companies-to-work-for

Tkaczyk, C. (2014). 10 Great Workplaces for Millennials. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2014/05/15/10-great-workplaces-for-millennials/

Week 13: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning

This week we took a look building multicultural teams and how to manage them in an effective way. I am not going to talk about two points, but only about the most important one (and which I found very useful for my future professional life): Bruce Tuckman’s five-stage model.

It was developed in 1965 as methodology to reach high-performance multicultural teams. In the beginning, the model consisted on four stages: forming, storming, norming and performing; and later, the fifth stage, adjourning, was added to the others. This model has proved to be applicable since ample evidence has been found about the existence of the stages.

First stage is forming. It is the first contact among the members of the team; everyone has its own expectations and attitudes toward the team. It is time to get to know each other and share those expectations. Once a good and comfortable atmosphere has been developed, it is time to define roles and goals.

Second stage is storming. This is a highly critical stage in which norms and standards are set. Commonly, this is when members start to disagree and question how the team will work, because in a multicultural team each person has a different working style. Mediation and respect are the keys to overcome this stage.

Third stage is norming. A collectivistic orientation starts to emerge as members interact and know more about each other. People continue socializing, therefore giving positive feedback about the work done. Differences turn into agreements and strengths.

Fourth stage is performing. The team is now articulated; everyone knows its functions and duties and complies with them, developing specialized skills. Frictions and differences are mitigated, and performance improves.  

Last stage is adjourning. Work has come to an end, goals were achieved. It is time for the team to disintegrate; however, up to this point close relationships might have been formed making it not easier to say goodbye. Developing long-lasting professional relations is fundamental for future teamwork opportunities.

Whenever we are working in teams, especially in multicultural teams, identifying or propitiating these stages can be very effective to quickly articulate the group and achieve the proposed objectives. I consider forming and storming the most critical stages, because in these stages bases are built and the future of the team is at stake as the common saying states: “Since breakfast you know how dinner will be”.

Research Question: What strategies to manage multicultural teams do exist?

When working in cross-cultural environments, setting the basic standards under which teamwork will be guided is fundamental to grant a good working environment. For example, as simple as defining a common language or channel of communication can make the difference between failure and success. According to Brett, Behfar and Kern (2006) most successful multicultural teams’ managers apply four strategies when dealing with cultural challehenges:

1. Adaptation: acknowledging the existence of cultural gaps and designing strategies to avoid misunderstandings. Team members must learn to coexist with those cultural differences.
2. Structural intervention: organizing the team strategically by forming sub-groups based on common shared values and customs.
3. Managerial intervention: setting up rigorous standards aimed at avoiding conflicts and defining mechanisms of resolution.
4. Exit: remove members not able to adapt to the multicultural environment when previous strategies have failed.

The least managerial intervention is desired. The two last strategies are last-resort measures, then, managers must propend for achieving the implementation of the two first strategies. The ideal is the team can overcome cultural differences within a environment free of strong regulatory frameworks.

References

Brett, Behfar and Kern (2006). Managing Challenges in Multicultural Teams. Retrieved from: http://web.merage.uci.edu/~kbehfar/papers/managing.pdf

Week 12: Ethics in Business

This week we approached a very controversial topic: business ethics. And when talking and debating about it (without never coming to a conclusion), it is inevitable to mention the dichotomy of Relativism vs. Universalism. For this reason, this was the most relevant point debated in class.

Universalism refers to the existence of a universal and general criterion under which actions are judged and evaluated.  It means everybody should act according to same standards no matter what your religion, nationality, race or gender is. On the other side, relativism argues standards are adapted to the conditions and characteristics of every society. Therefore, judging people’s actions in other regions or countries would be a mistake and might be a sign of ethnocentrism. However, I think this is an endless debate and one has to make up his own mind about it.

The second point I found relevant was the different types of briberies. I got kind of amazed that something that is not correct, or even illegal, has a classification. The three types of briberies seen in class are [1]:

• Whitemail Bribes: Intended to induce someone (usually a government official) to do or omit doing something in violation of his lawful duty, or to exercise his (or her) discretion in favor of the payer’s request for a contract, concession, or privilege on some basis other than merit. They usually are universally condemned.
• Lubrication Bribes (gratuities): Facilitate, expedite or speed up government approvals to which the company would be legally entitled. Its acceptability is greater than whitemail bribes.
• Extortion: A government official seeking payment for an action or omission to which the company would be legally entitled.

The way I see it, knowing which countries accept which kind of bribes can be very useful when doing business abroad, because you know if you can use them and/or if you can expect to receive them. I think it is also an issue of tactics, if you choose not to do it in a country where it is not perceived as bad and your competitor does it, then you are in disadvantage.

Research Question: What institutions do people consider as the most corrupt?

To answer this question I resorted to Transparency International’s 2013 annual report [2]. Out of 107 countries surveyed, 51 perceive political parties to be among the institutions most affected by corruption (countries shown below), 20 countries chose the judiciary institutions and 36 elected police as the winner. Colombia belongs to the group blaming political parties as the most corrupt, but it is also one of the few countries (7 in total) who also said the parliament and legislature to be one of the most corrupt institutions.  

                                                                            

Source: http://www.transparency.org/gcb2013/results

References

[1] Prof. Heiko Schmidt – Intercultural Management. Class slides.

[2] Transparency International (2013). Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.transparency.org/gcb2013/report

Week 11: Confucian and Southern Asia

The cultural cluster presented this week was Confucian and Southern Asia. In my case, I have always found Asia as a very intriguing region, being culture the main reason. Furthermore, the increasing importance of China in world’s economy and its expansion throughout the world have turned Asian cultures into very popular in western countries and people getting interested in learning more about them, especially if we are told that no matter if you have the most innovative product, knowing their culture in deep is critical if you really want to do business with Asians. The two more important aspects about these clusters’ culture for me were:

In first place, I corroborated that Japan and China, as high-context countries, place a high importance on relationships. Relationships they establish are based on trust. They do not deal with anyone who are not trustworthy; in fact, when doing business with Chinese, in the first meeting you shouldn´t be surprised if they invite you to a karaoke or to their homes. Rejecting the offer can be a show of disrespect. We as westerners may think “I took this long trip to do business, not to play a karaoke”, but for them building a close relationship is the starting point.

The second aspect I found important is Chaebol model in South Korea. It is a structure of conglomerates composed of companies from different economic sectors. The collaboration and strategic alliances formed among them allow the Chaebol to report high growth, diversify their business, mitigate risks and promote innovation. This economic model is the reflection of teamwork and collectivism characteristic of Asian countries. In fact, similar business structures are found in Japan, named Zaibatsu and Keiretsu.

Knowing, understanding and analyzing these concepts is a good advantage to negotiate with Asians. Actually, here in Colombia we find many small and big entrepreneurs wanting to do business with Chinese; however, they think this is the same as how they do business in Panamá. Therefore, I think it would be very important entrepreneurs can have access to training on Chinese culture since, unfortunately, in our country little importance is given to culture when doing business.   

Research Question: What is the impact of guanxi when doing business with China?

Guanxi, a concept which has no translation in English, makes reference to the importance of building relationships in China. As a matter of fact, its growing importance not applies for interpersonal but also to business relationships. According to Sullivan and Goh (2011), a Chinese company will feel more comfortable doing business with a company which they have a strong guanxi  because they believe it will make it far easier for them to trust their business counterpart. Establishing guanxi is not only important with customers, but also suppliers, partners and even the government, to the extent that when having problems and facing legal obstacles, the stronger your guanxi is, the easier you can overcome those difficulties.

Reference

Sullivan, M. & Goh, A. (2011). The Most Misunderstood Business Concept In China. Business Insider. Retrieved from: The Most Misunderstood Business Concept In China

Week 10: Arab Cultures and Sub-Saharan Africa

Last class we had the presentation on Arab cultures and Sub-Saharan Africa. I liked it very much because I just know few things about these regions, so I learned a lot. I got quite interested in the values promoted in their cultural systems and how they can be applied to business environment. The two most relevant points, for me, in the presentation were the Ubuntu, and Islamic Banking.  

Ubuntu is a philosophy and ethical principles prevalent in Southern Africa. The term is derived from the expression: “umuntu, nigumuntu, nagamuntu“, that means a person exists because of others. I have already heard about it, and it seems interesting to me because it evidences the collectiveness implicit in these people’s minds, as defined by the Liberian activist Leyma Gbowee: “I am because we are”. Therefore, the existence of the individual makes sense because it coexists with others; I see this principle as the confirmation of Aristotle’s famous quote “Man is by nature a social animal”. Even though, it is one of the most beautiful cultural values I’ve seen so far, many others argue this has become an obstacle for Africa’s development. We held a debate in class about this issue, but in the end is not easy to come up with a final answer.

The second point was about Islamic Banking. I had already read a couple of times in the Bible about the charging of interest as usury but I did not know it was actually applied today. Many people defending banks argue that interest is banks’ gains so it is completely right to charge it. However, the huge growth Islamic banking system has experienced, is defying savage capitalism. And going deeper, all this is based in a principle of ethical investment and risk-sharing.

 Knowing these rooted cultural values is very important in my opinion because this is how you really identify the essence of a culture. But also they are very useful tools when interacting with people from these regions because you can kind of anticipate their behavior and be prepared regarding the way they perceive things. All this can really make a difference between success and failure if trying to establish a relationship with a person or a company in those countries.

Research Question: Has Ubuntu proved to be successful when implemented as a management style?

One of the most successful cases in the implementation of Ubuntu culture is the African Bank Miners Credit, which since 1993 provides access to financing and financial services to South African miners. In 2003, the company decided to start work in the Investors in People (IPP) recognition, as Tom Mile, the National Manager, says: “Some of our people lacked sufficient formal education and we felt that if we spoke about Investors in People, it might be quite difficult for some of them to understand. This swayed our decision to implement Investors in People, using the uBuntu philosophy. Irrespective of which ethnic group they belonged to, we knew all South Africans understood the concept of uBuntu, and they would therefore, be able to identify with the concept very easily”. The company’s management identified five key business areas: growth, security, equality, social responsibility and safety in the workplace. All of the work and strategy was communicated to every person in the organization through the use of music, stories and sharing sessions where Ubuntu measure was promoted. The commitment achieved from the entire organization led them to finally obtain the IPP recognition.

Reference

Mangaliso, M. (2003). "Building Competitive Advantage fro Ubuntu".  Academy of Management Executive, 15(3), 23-33. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Bedoya, J., Chaverra, S. & Bustamante, L. (2014) Case Study Analysis. Retrieved from: https://es.scribd.com/doc/219150807/Case-Study-O-C

Week 9: Germanic and Eastern Europe

In this week’s class the teacher shared with us the cases from two multinational companies which faced problems, misunderstandings and obstacles arising from cultural differences. Their experiences were the two most relevant topics of the class for me, because real-life cases proofs the critical role culture plays in business. Then, I am going to sum up the most interesting points I found in each company’s experience.

1. Daimler-Chrysler merger took place in 1998. Between the American Chrysler  Corporation and the German Daimler-Benz. After the merger, DC was one of the biggest automotive company in the world. However, during the merger both companies gave priority to business issues and did not pay much attention to the cultural issues; in fact, projects of corporate culture and management styles were not incorporated within the negotiation and management of the merger. Both of them were ignoring the fact that they came from different countries and they were trying to merge two different corporate cultures; two different ways of doing business; in the end, this translated into a poorer performance of the firm. From this experience, we can learn that synergies in a merger not only emerge from the economic resources and expertise of its members, but also from the cultural values and practices employees have. That is why every dimension of the business should be incorporated in the implementation process and establishing appropriate channels of communication that allow intercultural exchange between both companies. 
2. By 1997 Walmart had set up a store in Germany to take advantage of the highly-profitable retail market of the European country. However, by 2006 this strong multinational was leaving German territory. The reason was clear: German did not embrace Walmart’s philosophy as other countries had done. Practices such as chanting “Walmart, Walmart, Walmart!” every morning, feigned smiling at every customer (Germans are not comfortable with smiling at a stranger), spying on co-workers to report misconducts and not listening to employee’s feedback were not well-seen by Germans.

These two cases provide us with valuable learning about the management of culture in an international context and how to integrate it with the financial and strategic management of every business. I would dare to say that if you do not manage culture appropriately, you are not only discarding a source of synergies and new opportunities, but also creating a big obstacle. Therefore, there should be a stronger commitment from multinationals to properly deal with cultural differences.

Research Question: What stereotypes on German culture are actually true and describe real values adopted in their behavior?

Nick Schäferhoff in his post “9 German Stereotypes That Are Straight Up True” share with us some very popular beliefs about German culture which may be true.

First: Germans are direct. Sometimes rude and characterized but being not much diplomatic as they want to get to the point; they are characterized by being very goal-oriented. Second: Germans love structure and organization. There are several laws regulating different aspects of life and Germans obey them; however, this can lead to certain degree of inflexibility. Third: Germans are punctual. In fact, it is considered a virtue. (I imagine we Colombians are not their preferred counterparts jaja). Fourth: Germans love soccer. It is not only popular, but they are really good at it. Fifth: Germans are well-insurance. You can secure almost anything, they like feel protected. Sixth: Germans are distant. Their personal space is definitely wider than in other cultures. Seventh: Germans love beer. Eighth: Germans know how to bake bread. Baking has a long-standing tradition in the country and bread is part of traditional German cuisine. Ninth: Germans love sausage. Meat in general is a mainstay of German cuisine.

References

Schäferhoff, N. (n.d.). 9 German Stereotypes That Are Straight Up True. Retrieved from: http://www.fluentu.com/german/blog/german-stereotypes/

Week 8: Anglo Cultures and Northern Europe

In this week’s presentation we took a look into Anglo cultures (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand) and Nordic cultures (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweeden and Iceland). In this post, I will approach three concepts related to these cultural clusters: The Law of Jante, the LAGOM concept and, in the research question, the Tall-poppy syndrome. 

The Law of Jante, a concept rooted in Scandinavian countries, highlights the socially-praised modesty. According to this law, any sign of individual success and outstanding is collectively rejected, then you must not excel over other (or at least do not show you do). The Law of Jante comprises 10 laws:

You’re NOT to

1. think you are anything special

2. think you are as good as we are

3. think you are smarter than we are

4. convince yourself that you are better than we are

5. think you know more than we do

6. think you are more important than we are

7. think you are good at anything

8. laugh at us

9. think anyone cares about you

10.think you can teach us anything

Aligned with the Law of Jante, the concept of LAGOM, a swedish term that has no translation in english, highlights the importance of moderation. No extreme is good, and the justification is that when someone wants to win more, someone else has to lose. Then, if everyone is moderated, in the end everyone will have the same opportunities. As our classmates told us, both concepts are the reflection of equality as a common and shared value in Scandinavia.

As evidenced so far, every cultural cluster has strong identities and values tied to them. The countries within a cluster possess deep differences regarding their cultural systems, but still we can find values and principles that are commonly shared. The way I see it, the study of these clusters we are covering with the presentations, gives us a view of the world from a cultural perspective. I mean we stop seeing the world as a group of continents categorized by geographical location, but as a group of cultural clusters where behaviors, values, rituals, customs, language, etc can be grouped. For this reason, we as International Negotiators must see the world in this way and look for business opportunities arising from these cultural inter-cluster and intra-cluster similarities or dissimilarities.

Research Question: What are the effects/consequences of Tall-Poppy Syndrome?

As complimentary to the two previous concepts on equality in Scandinavia, the last concept is the tall-poppy syndrome and I wanted to do further research about it. This cultural behavior takes place in Australia and New Zealand, and its origin dates back when Australia was a British Penal Colony. All the criminals sent there were angry people who rapidly gained a resentment against society, specially, those with successful lives (the lives they did not have). Unfortunately, this resentment and hostility against successful people became part of Australia’s culture.

Amazingly, this syndrome is seen by Australian experts and economists as a factor that has ruined the success of many outstanding professionals in the country hitting its economic performance (Larsen, 2002). Despite sounding like a “stupid” explanation, if we think one more time, we do can establish a relationship between this cultural phenomenon and something “less-abstract” as the economic performance. In conclusion, culture does impact business world.

References

Larsen, J. (2002) The Tall-Poppy Syndorme. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 38 (1), 36-56.  Retrieved from: http://www.businesspsych.org/articles/244.html

Week 7: Latin America and Latin Europe

This week my team presented the Latin America and Latin Europe clusters from the GLOBE Study and we developed some interesting activities in which our classmates participated and it was funny. I would like to highlight two moments from the presentation.

Before talking about wine as the French Metaphor, we decided to do a short quiz on French culture for our classmates to see how much they knew about it. It was very interesting because one of them is from France, so he ratified many of the facts and, for others, he told us it may depend on the circumstances, age or the region in France. This way we realized and confirmed that we cannot generalize people’s behavior just because they belong to a certain country.

The second moment was the final activity of our presentation which consisted on forming groups and thinking of the best Colombian metaphor. They were required to argue the reasons and characteristics that reflected those of the Colombian culture. We asked the class’ foreigners to form one group because we wanted to know the perception they had about our culture, and they were precisely the winners. Their metaphor was Colombian coffee and folkloric dances being their main argument that since there are different types of coffees and different dances like cumbia o sanjuanero, they reflect the diversity found in Colombia but without losing the essence of what being Colombian means.

How this would become relevant? When we talk about a country, we have a mental picture about their culture based on what we know or what we have learned. However, when we check those beliefs against cultural studies we find that, in reality, many of them are just generalizations and stereotypes. In our research, we found metaphors to be a good approach and description of these countries’ culture, though some of them, as in France’s case, generalize things that might not be true for the entire country. Learning the common characteristics according to which these countries are linked and grouped into the same clusters, let us to identify critical points to be taken into account in an international negotiation.

Research Question: How is women’s role in business perceived in Latin America and Latin Europe?

Nowadays, woman is gaining ground as an agent of change. It is evidenced, for example, in this year’s Nobel Peace Prize: Malala Yousafzai. But this is not only happening in the social dimesion, but also in business and politics world in which we can see more women leading the biggest companies or strongest countries (e.g. Angela Merkel, Janet Yellen, Dilma Rouseff). But how do people perceive women’s performance in business?

I took a look on the World Values Survey (2009), specifically for Latin American and Latin European countries, and it is very clear how this perception has improved. Initially, I had expected certain differences between Latin America and Latin Europe, since here in Latin America there is still a rooted machista culture, however the survey showed a high similarity with respect to Latin Europe. For example, one of the most relevant items was: Men make better business executives than women do, and most people answered either disagree or strongly disagree as follows:

Retrieved from: http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSOnline.jsp

Week 6: Is globalization a forced acculturation?

Yesterday’s class we took a look on globalization and its increasing impact on cultural identity, in fact, I would say, globalization has turned into a culture itself nobody can escape from since it is a reality we face today. That is why I wanted to give this post the title above. The two aspects I would like to highlight from class are: first, the role of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) in globalization; and second, the hybridization of culture.

MNEs play a fundamental role on how globalization affects and alter cultural identities and that influence can be either positive or negative (unfortunately, being more criticized rather than praised). As a matter of fact, MNEs acts as vehicles through which the culture from one country gets into contact with cultural values from other countries. The example of Coca-Colonization clearly evidences the tremendous impact that a brand can have on the cultural values of a community. I think this is fundamental for us when working in multinational company in order to understand and identify the firm’s corporate culture and how workers and members of the organization adopt it as part of their own cultural identity, to the extent that, when negotiating with other person, we should not only know about its national culture, but also the culture of the company they work for.

The spread of multinational corporations throughout different cultures and nations has contributed to the second relevant topic of the class: the hybridization of culture.  As presented by the teacher, the traditional relation existing between nationality and culture is getting weaker and losing ground in today’s globalized work. Nationality does not seem to be a criterion to define cultural groups anymore.  For example, we can find cultural sub-groups within a same nation as the micro-nations seen in class: Scotland and Québec. But also the cultural clusters identified in some studies such as GLOBE Study (Latin America and Latin Europe, for example). Furthermore, nowadays, we can find new individual cultures which have emerged based on other common values different to nationality as music, social classes, professions, religion and language. For this reason, and as I previously argued, as part of a professional’s cultural abilities, we need to understand and study those cultural sub-groups when dealing with people in an intercultural scenario and not only studying about the culture of their country. It can really make a difference and even be a source of professional competitive advantage.

Research Question: Does the BIG MAC Index really reflect differences in Purchasing Power Parity among countries?

Since we approached the BIG MAC Index in class, I wanted to take this post as an opportunity to share a recent short research I made on the real usefulness of the index to find purchasing power differences worldwide. Next, I present the main conclusion of the work but I attach the file where the complete information is contained.

“The methodology of the Big Mac Index shows Colombia to be quite close to PPP conditions with a historical low deviation and a market exchange rate close to its theoretical level. However, we may make two critiques of this Index: first, it cannot be generalized to the overall level of prices of the economy since we are basing the analysis on only one product. Second, the Big Mac Index does not completely reflects Purchasing Power Parity, it justs shows the purchasing power of the currencies in nominal terms, not real because it does not take into account the income gap existing accross countries. In Colombia, a worker earning a minimum wage (most of the Colombian workers) takes almost 3 hours to earn enough money to buy a Big Mac, it is five times more than what they would take in the United States. In conclusion, even though the Big Mac Index shows the colombian peso is close to Purchasing Power Parity conditions with the dollar and that it is overvalued; in reality, the colombian peso has much less purchasing power than the dollar; in simple words, we could do much more with one dollar in U.S. than what can be done with COP 1.911 (the PPP implied rate) in Colombia.”

Link to the file:

https://www.wetransfer.com/downloads/c7e7e0b1843613418806ff3ccbbaee7b20141107172118/0fda000932ce94797ac39b5a6ce0c76820141107172118/c55ee6

Week 5: Describing Culture

Martin Gannon

This week’s class was centered on cultural metaphors as a way for describing cultures. The two most relevant elements, for me, were:

Firstly, metaphors are not objective; they come from the author’s interpretation of experiences and observations rather than findings through a scientific method. In fact, it is possible to find elements in other studies as Hofstede’s or Meyer’s which are not coherent with what the metaphor of a country tells us. And that is why one of the main critics made to metaphors, and recognized by professor Gannon, is that metaphors incorporate part of the stereotypes commonly held about a culture, and that can distort the real cultural profile of a country (however, Gannon argues stereotypes can be value-adding [1]). So, one of the questions I made myself was: then which study (Hofstede’s, Meyer’s, Gannon’s, etc) should I choose? Finally, I came up with the conclusion that they are not mutually exclusive but complimentary, and then it is important to contrast them in order to find differences and similarities, getting a wider panorama of the country studied.

Secondly, and since Spain is part of Latin Europe that is one of the clusters my team will be presenting in class soon, I found that Gannon presents  for both Spain and Portugal the same metaphor, but amazingly they are very opposite in their meaning. Whereas in Spain the bullfight represents a tragic and solemn ritual, in Portugal the bullfight is a party. The Spanish bullfight celebrates death; the torero shows its domain over the bull which finally dies. The Portuguese bullfight highlights the courage and pride of men who face the bull, but the bull’s killing is prohibited. Then, we can evidence how subjective a metaphor can be, and that it is a very graphical and exemplifying tool for understanding cultures but can also lose objectivity.

From my viewpoint, the type of study one chooses to get information and build a mental picture about another country’s culture is crucial for negotiating or just to interact with natives from that culture. Therefore, I consider there should be an appropriate mix of objective and quantitative information with qualitative and not-very objective information when looking for information. Metaphors are an example of not-very objective information on culture that contributes with very valuable elements of the country’s culture. However, we must be careful in order not to fall in adopting stereotypes that might be reflected in a metaphor. Then a good judge and criteria are necessary when choosing information sources on cultures and contrasting them. This is how I think these topics can become relevant in an international scenario.

Research Question: Who is professor Martin Gannon?

Despite of being a question easy to answer, I decided to look for more information about him because I wanted to know how did he come up with the metaphors for so many countries.

Martin J. Gannon (Ph.D., Graduate School of Business, Columbia University) is Professor of Strategy and International Management. Professor Gannon has been a Senior Research Fulbright Fellow in West Germany, Thailand, London Business School, Italy, Dublin, Poland and has lectured at many other universities in the world. Professor Gannon has emphasized three overlapping areas of programmatic research: International management and behavior; business strategy; and the contingent workforce, particularly studies of temporary help employment. Much of his work in international management and behavior is described in depth in the book, Understanding Global Cultures: Metaphorical Journeys Through 29 Nations, Clusters of Nations, Continents, and Diversity. His research and writing have appeared in over 90 articles and papers. Currently Professor Gannon teaches three courses at California State University: Managing in Different Cultures; Cross-Cultural Negotiations; and Strategic Management in a Global World.

Professor Gannon has served as a consultant and trainer to a large number of organizations, including Chemical Bank of New York, the U.S. General Accounting Office, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the Upjohn Company, the American Federation of Government Employees, ARINC,  Northrop-Grumman and GEICO. Professor Gannon has served on and chaired numerous committees in universities and professional/academic associations. He has lived and lectured in over 25 nations for various periods of time extending from one week to a year or more [2].

References

[1] Professor Heiko Schmidt’s Slides. Describing Culture: The Case of Spain

[2] California State University San Marcos webpage. Retrieved from: https://www.csusm.edu/coba/about/meet-our-faculty/gannon.html

Week 4: Measuring Culture

In this week’s class we, basically, approached two topics which were quite interesting in the sense that it made me think that not everybody perceive things as I do, as I have unconsciously assumed in many occasions.

The first topic we talked about was Particularism vs. Universalism, whereas Particularist societies base their social interactions in the relationships established and give a strong importance to the obligations they imply, Universalists are more tied to abstract societal codes, then, when making a decision, Universalists firstly assess what is socially perceived as good or bad. Therefore, the criteria used to judge situations are very different, emerging as a possible source of misunderstanding. An excellent example was the case presented by the teacher in which your friend, who was driving the car at overspeed, runs down a pedestrian: from a Universalist individual’s point of view, no matter if the driver was your friend, he was exceeding speed limit what is not right, and then they would testify the real speed. On the contrary, a Particularist individual would argue that, given the relationship with your friend, they feel sort of a duty to help him by testifying a lower speed. It resulted interesting when we were asked how our positions would change depending on whether the pedestrian was very injured or not; in fact, most of us took us a longer while to think about it.

The second part of the class, we reviewed Hofstede’s dimensions of culture. Even though I had already approached them several times in previous courses, I liked a lot the analysis presented by the professor regarding the implications for communication and negotiation when dealing with someone from a country with a high/low score on every dimension. Besides, it was the first time I heard about a critic of the dimensions, I did not know some issues about the study (that the information had been collected from people from the same company in different countries for example), so now I’ve got a much better perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of the model and how to take them into account when using it as a cultural research tool.

Finally, I found both topics very important not only in a business context but in daily life. Everyday, even within our social circle (friends, family, classmates, etc) we deal either with Particularist or Universalist individuals, and many misunderstandings arise from those different ways of approaching situations. Then, if we are able to identify which orientation our counterparty has, we will be able to hold much better communication and relationships, and it applies from treating with your best friend to negotiating with a partner in other country. Regarding Hofstede’s dimensions, I have always found them as a good tool to get a perspective on a country’s cultural profile, but now I can apply them better knowing the implications and weaknesses they have.

Reasearch Question: What alternative tools, apart from Hofstede’s, does a cultural researcher have when assessing cultural profile?

As one of the most renowned cultural studies in the world, almost every student interested in the cultural dimension of international business knows, even by memory, Hofstede’s dimensions of cultures. In fact, his work has been cited by lots of scholars and practitioners, probably being one of its key success factors that it is a multi-dimensional model. In their work, curiously named “Why not everybody loves Hofstede?”, Shaiq et al. (2011) analyze, for every dimension, its main shortcomings and assumptions, but also present alternative models to Hofstede’s. Unfortunately, many, if not most, models found in literature are dichotomic, it is they present a ying-yang in which the classify individuals, communities and countries, for example: low-context/high-context cultures, particularist/universalist  cultures, monochromic/polychromic cultures, etc. Therefore, a good alternative to Hofstede’s model are other multi-dimensional models that integrate more than a unique dimension. A good choice is the GLOBE Study which studies cultural clusters (comprising 62 countries) by improving and going deeper into Hofstede’s original dimensions and finally presents nine dimensions and six more for cultural implicit leadership. Shaiq et al (2011) also draw their own model that adds, apart from the ones from Hofstede, five dimensions: assertiveness, performance orientation, degree of formality, pragmatism and gender egalitarian.

References

Shaiq, Khalid, Akram & Ali (2011) Why not everybody loves Hofstede? What are the alternative approaches to study of culture?. European Journal of Business and Management.mISSN 2222-2839 (Online). Vol 3, No.6, 2011. Retrieved from:   http://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/EJBM/article/view/539/425

Week 3: Barriers to Communication

In this week’s class the two most relevant aspects seen, for me, are: first, non-verbal communication as a barrier; and second, the concept of face. It’s just incredible the different barriers that can arise when communicating, so it’s of high importance to learn, not only how to cope with them once they arise; but also how to prevent them; in other words: to come up with both preventing and corrective strategies.

From these barriers, I see non-verbal communication as the most common and critical one due to the high weight it has in the communicative process.

“Non-verbal communication is actions that have socially shared meaning, are intentionally sent or interpreted as intentional, consciously sent or consciously received”

Source: Prof. Heiko Schmidt – Intercultural Management

And this especially relevant in high-context cultures in which the non-verbal component is even more important. When individuals fail to overcome communication barriers and the communicative process is frustrated it causes anxiety, anger and shame what is related to the second most relevant aspect of the class: the loss of face. Face can be simply understood as a person’s reputation and dignity.

These two aspects are interrelated, then, they become relevant whenever we are negotiating in an intercultural context.  Is a duty of the negotiator to previously do some research on the culture to understand the role non-verbal communication plays in it. The context of communication will influence the output of the negotiation, and then it can either become an advantage or an obstacle depending on the involved parties’ actions. For example, only a gesture that can be misinterpreted by your counterparty (even if you did not have any intention to offend him) can make a deal fail, but on the other hand, it can make you lose your face and create a bad atmosphere. A good example: http://www.allhatnocattle.net/Bush_Hu_Jintao_Loan.jpg. That is why identifying likely sources of misunderstandings is an anticipation strategy that cross-cultural negotiators should develop.

Research Question: Are perceptions and sensations objective?

Since sensation is all what we perceive through our senses: sight, hearing, tasting, smell and touch; we tend to believe that sensations cannot be questioned. For example, if you ask people what color blood is, you will expect everybody to answer “red”. However, according to Jay Neitz, a color vision at the University of Washington, recent experiments have evidenced we do not all see the same colors. “Our neurons aren't configured to respond to color in a default way; instead, we each develop a unique perception of color. Color is a private sensation” (Wolchover, 2012). Then, if something as evident as color is not really the same for everyone, perceptions and sensations, even obtained through our senses, can actually be subjective at all.

References

Wolchover, N. (2012) Your Color Red Really Could Be My Blue. Retrieved from: http://www.livescience.com/21275-color-red-blue-scientists.html

Week 2: Communication, Perceptions and Sensations

Retrieved from: http://femaleleader.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/high-low-context1.gif

In the second week of the course, we took a look at the influence culture has on perceptions and sensations. The most remarkable lessons from this class were:

First, Edward T. Hall’s concept of High and Low Context cultures has a tremendous impact on the way we communicate in an intercultural environment. High-context cultures are characterized because context (everything apart from what is being explicitly said or written) carries the major part of the message; even the core of it so what is said can be just additional information but not the main idea. On the other side, in low-context cultures written and spoken word comprises the main portion of the message. I found this critical for international business and in multicultural organizations, because we can get an idea of how complex communication can be, but at the same time, how rich it is. When doing business, it is of vital importance to identify whether our counterpart comes from a high/low context culture, so we can pay attention to those other channels information might be transmitted through (non-verbal communication).

The second element to highlight from the class was the activity “The Derdians”, in which we had the opportunity to experience what was just mentioned above. The Derdians were a high-context culture, full of non-verbal sign that were indispensable when communicating, no matter how good the idea of the engineers was, if they were not able to understand and adopt those signs the bridge would have never been built. Even though Derdians’ rules are extreme in real life, it clearly shows that culture constitutes a fundamental input to any negotiation and, therefore, a strong determinant of the outcome of a business deal.

Research Question

Does gender influence on the interpretation of non-verbal communication?

Several studies have shown evidence of clearly differentiated patterns of behavior and way of thinking in men and women, also it is very common to hear about women’s sixth sense; but does it have any influence on how men and women perceive and correctly interpret non-verbal signs. According to the study carried out by Judith Hall (1987), women show better performance and accuracy when assessing non-verbal cues as they are better learners from those cues. Hall presents as an hypothesis that women, from school, are taught on the “how a girl ought act”; even though this does not give them direct advantage at judging non-verbal cues, overtime the added motivation to relate to others expressively and practice at attending to interpersonal expression might result in females' superior judging ability. In conclusion, gender per se does not influence on the interpretation of non-verbal communication, it is the differences in education for boys and girls what in the end gives women a better ability.  

References

Hall, A. J. (1978) Gender Effects in Decoding Nonverbal Cues. Psychological Bulletin 1978, Vol. 85, No. 4, 845-857. Retrieved from: http://www.communicationcache.com/uploads/1/0/8/8/10887248/gender_effects_in_decoding_nonverbal_cues.pdf

Week 1: The meaning of Culture

Retrieved from: http://www.cross-culture.de/pics/cultural_iceberg.jpg

In our first week of the course we made an approach to the concept of culture and the importance of managing it. The two points I want to highlight as the most relevant from this class are, first, that culture has no universal definition as it encompasses a diversity of components; and second, values and morality are relative, the scale of values for every person is highly influenced by the culture it belongs to.

Regarding the first point, culture is an abstract concept, we may understand what it refers to, but is difficult to express that in words. That explains the idea “Culture is what cultural scientists measure”, since culture involves language, behavior, values, artifacts, viewpoints, clothing, traditions, and too much more, a final definition will never be given I consider. The analogy of the Cultural Iceberg (Hall, 1976), supports the idea that what we usually identify as culture represents only 10% of what culture really is, the 90% left is the core of culture, so no definition would embrace the 100% of what culture means.

As a second point, it is very important how culture influences the relevance values have in people’s mind as well as the concepts of right and wrong as evidenced in the Abigail’s story exercise. It is that punctuality can be prior to service for Japanese, whereas Colombians may prefer helping someone even if that implies getting late to an appointment. These two points mentioned, gain high relevance when doing business in other countries, a good example is the custom of gift giving in China as explained by Steidlmeier (1999). Westerners usually identify gifts Chinese usually give as bribes and allege Chinese are very corrupt, what is not true. Steidlmeier argues “within Chinese culture there are, indeed, moral parameters to distinguish morally proper gift giving from bribery and corruption”and those parameters clearly differ from western parameters. All this is related with that 90% of Hall’s Cultural Iceberg.

Research Question

How does culture contribute to sustainability in business and society?

Sustainable development in the economic and environmental dimensions must be based on a value system that is sustainable as well. The value system we usually hear about in the media is the one which promotes an increasing consumption, what is clearly not sustainable (Hawkes, 2001). Then, how the value system is set in each target market is fundamental in order to grant long-term relationships with integrative deals, the most effective strategy may fail if it goes against people’s culture. In conclusion, culture manifest and preserve identity, values and beliefs that impact the business environment, becoming a prior variable to be taken into account when designing business strategies. As Hawkes (2001) states “A sustainable society depends upon a sustainable culture. If a society’s culture disintegrates, so will everything else”.

References

Hall, E. T. (1989). Beyond culture. Random House LLC.

Hawkes, J. (2001) The fourth pillar of sustainability: culture's essential role in public planning. Retrieved from: htttp://books.google.com.co [July 2014]

Steidlmeier, P. (1999) Gift Giving, Bribery and Corruption: Ethical Management of Business Relationships in China. Journal of Business Ethics. Vol. 20, No. 2M pp. 121-132. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25074125