1. Introduction 1.1 Definitions of Culture Culture can be simply considered as "the way we do things around here", said Cartwright (2004, pp.85). A further understanding given by Deresky (2006, pp.83) is that a culture is composed by 'shared values, understandings, assumptions, and goals that are learned from earlier generations, imposed by present members of a society and passed on to succeeding generations'. It can be seen that culture is formed by lifestyle and knowledge acquisition of people from a certain region, and then it stands for a general preference, opinion, and value of them. So that's why people from the same place may have much in common. 1.2 The role of Culture in Management Decisions As culture may impact people's behaviours generation by generation, in other words, the consumer's need of business in some level depends on cultural influence. Cultural influence lies in a variety of forms, from laws, regulations, religions to personal interests. For instance, automobiles in countries like the UK, Australia, India, New Zealand and so on, must run on the right side of the road, while those in the US, China, France, etc., run on the left side. This totally determines which kind of car should be designed and sold to that country. Another example is Starbucks' logo problem in Saudi Arabia. Due to the country's Islamic convictions, Starbucks' green mermaid logo was thought to be inappropriate and immoral and forced to remove the mermaid with only its brand's name left. (Daniels, Radebaugh, and Sullivan, 2004; Fox, 2011) As a result, culture plays a vital role in expanding international business with its impacts from general strategic direction to details like logo. 2. Four Dimensions of National Culture 2.1 Po... ... middle of paper ... ...-national work settings: Incidence and outcomes. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 35(4), pp.440-451. Starbucks, 2012. Our heritage. [online] Available at: < http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/our-heritage> [Accessed 22 April 2012] Svensson, G., 2001. 'Globalization' of Business Activities: A 'Global Strategy' Approach, Management Decision, 39(1), pp.6-18. Thomas, D. C., and Ravlin, E. C.,1995. Responses of employees to cultural adaptation by a foreign manager. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80(1),pp.133–146. Wanasika, I., Howell, J.P., Littrell,R., Dorfman, P., 2011. Managerial Leadership and Culture in Sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of World Business, 46(2), pp.234-241. West, J., and Graham, J. L., 2004. A linguistic-based measure of cultural distance and its relationship to managerial values. Management International Review, 44(3), pp.239-261.
Impact of culture on marketing strategies can be is explained by taking an example of Disneyland, launched Euro Disney and maintained its standard tried and tested formula with the assumption that customers would seek the authentic Disney experience. But shortly into the launch, Euro Disney was declared a failure. Of the many reasons that were attributed to Euro Disney’s failure, the one that stood out clearly was Euro Disney’s lack of localizing the brand experience. Euro Disney followed the brand policies to the word – English-only instructions, no wine consumption on park grounds, high ticket prices, and standardized merchandise and food items. This resulted in wide spread dissatisfaction among the customers. But Euro Disney was just following the golden rule of branding – consistency in its brand elements.
The concept culture have some difficult meanings. One of them is culture as in music, preforming, theatre and so. The other meaning of it is culture as in Peoples Identity. It tells something about who you are, where you come from, and what you believe in, in this way, we can see that People have different culture and its all about where you live and where you have been raised.
Any group of people in the world, small or large, can share a culture. Merriam-Webster defines culture as “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; also: the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time.” Just as cultures form originally, they can also adapt and borrow traits from other cultures that may be mixed within them or living in their close proximity or from prolonged contact with a different culture (acculturation).
Culture is a very broad concept, including the beliefs, values, and lifestyles of people. It is an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior. It is also the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.
Hofstede’s model has widely been used in the past two decades to explore meaningful differences between cultures. This culture-based model was established based on data collected from 117,000 IBM employees in 20 different languages within 53 countries and regions. The survey instruments were divided into 4 subsections of questions that were relevant to work satisfaction, personal goals and beliefs, and perceptions. Using this data, Hofstede was able to create a fundamental blueprint of four basic dimensions in which employees of different backgrounds could be meaningfully compared. However, like most pioneer models, the model of cultural-dimensions has inherent methodological flaws as it fails to account for extraneous variables and assumes that occupational and national cultures are not independent of each other.
Culture is “a system of shared beliefs and values that develops within an organisation and guides the behaviour of its members” (Schermerhorn et al. 2011). It plays an important role in any organisation. For instance, in Woolworths we can se...
A major challenge of doing business internationally is to adapt effectively to different culture. Such adaptation requires an understanding of cultural diversity, perceptions, stereotypes, and values (Hodgett &Luthans, 2005). Doing business overseas has its challenges as well as it rewards.
In the article, Cultural constraints in management theories, Geert Hofstede examines business management around the globe from a cultural perspective. He explains how he believes there are no universal practices when it comes to management and offers examples from the US, Germany, France, Japan, Holland, China and Russia. He demonstrates how business management theories and practices are very much subject to cultural norms and values and by understanding these differences, it can give managers an advantage in global business practices.
Value systems across cultures can help to explain the differences in behaviour amongst people from different countries (McCort and Malhotra, 1993), which tend to stay with people over time. There are many different cultures and in order for an organisation to be successful, they need to take many different into account to ensure that they are successful in different countries and cultures. Cultural values appear to have considerable effects on management decision making processes (Clark, 1990; Ken, 1985; Picken, 1987; Shane, 1988; Swierczek, 1991). Culture is defined as “the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and that it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs” (Unesco, 2002).
Gallant, M. (2013, September 6). The Business of Culture: How Culture Affects Management Around the World. [Web log]. Retrieved from http://www.halogensoftware.com/blog/the-business-of-culture-how-culture-affects-management-around-the-world
It is said that people are the greatest assets to an organization and it is their beliefs, customs, perspectives, attitudes, and values that constitute to the culture that prevails in an organization. Culture, a very common word in today’s world, plays a very vital role in organizations and it not only affects an employee’s professional development but also their personal harmony. Culture gives a sense of belonging to people, a sense of who they are and how productive they are at their work place. It helps in interacting with each other at a work place.
Understand and heed cultural differences - cultural variables in transacting international business. (1991, January 28). Business America. FindArticles.com., Retrieved March 20, 2009, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1052/is_n2_v112/ai_10412261/pg_4?tag=content;col1
Culture is shared. Culture is shared by a firmly large group of human beings living in organized societies and works as a linking force. Generally, common religion and language are the critical elements that largely help people share values, customs, norms and experiences.
Miroshnik, V. (2002). Culture and international management: a review' The Journal of Management Development 21(7): 521-544
Stonehouse, G., Campbell, D., Hamill, J. & Purdie, T. (2004). Global and Transnational Business (2nd ed.). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.