Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Environment
Cultural Orientations Influence
Everyday Behavior
Interpersonal exchanges- greeting and parting rituals.
How far apart to stand, what to say, and whether to touch or
smile.
Ceremonies may vary as a function of the age, gender, and
status of the greeters.
Value-chain operations, such as product and service design,
marketing, and sales, e.g. red may be beautiful to the Russians;
it is the symbol of mourning in South Africa.
Gift-giving rituals- inappropriate items such as knives or scissors
imply cutting off the relationship or other negative sentiments;
chrysanthemums are typically associated with funerals; and
handkerchiefs suggest sadness.
The sum total of beliefs, rules, techniques, institutions, and artifacts that characterize
human populations.
Culture is:
Not right or wrong culture is relative. There is no cultural absolute.
Different nationalities simply perceive the world differently.
Not about individual behavior culture is about groups. It refers to a
collective phenomenon of shared values and meanings.
Not inherited culture is derived from the social environment. We are not
born with a shared set of values and attitudes; we learn and acquire as the
grow up.
Language Religion
Values and
Attitude
Customs and
Aesthetics
Manners
Education
Material Goods
Sociocultural Components
Components of Culture
Aesthetics
Attitudes and beliefs
Religion
Material Culture
Education
Language
Societal organization
Legal characteristics
Political structures
Aesthetics
Art
Colors, symbols, numbers convey meaning
Nike air symbol
Architectural styles different
Feng shui
Music and Folklore
Musical tastes vary
Folklore discloses way of life
Cowboys in Chile or Argentina
Mexican singing cricket
Nike air Allah logo
Three Approaches to Interpreting Culture
Idioms exist in virtually every culture and are used as a short way of saying
something else. Examples:
"To roll out the red carpet" is to extravagantly welcome a guest; no red
carpet is actually used.
In Spanish, the idiom "no est el horno para bolos literally means "the oven
isn't ready for bread rolls," yet really means "the time isn't right."
In Japanese, the phrase uma ga au literally means our horses meet, yet
really means we get along with each other.
Work Ethic
Europeans and Americans generally view work as a moral virtue and look
unfavorably on the idle.
6-12
Islam
6-19
Educational Mix
European business schools patterned on American model because of
Increased competition in the EU
Return to Europe of American business school graduates
Establishment of American-type schools with American faculties
6-20
Education
Womens Education
Brain Drain
Fall in illiteracy rate
The emigration of highly educated
Most governments now provide
professionals to industrialized
nations education for both genders
Educated women have fewer, healthier,
Reverse Brain Drain
The return of highly educated
and better educated children
Educated women achieve higher labor
professionals to their home countries.
Korea and Taiwan are luring home
force participation and wages
engineers and scientists
Spoken Language
Language is the key to culture, and without it, people find themselves locked
out of all but a cultures perimeter
Many languages can exist in a single country, but one usually serves as
communication vehicle
Lingua franca or link language
English primary language of business
Language
Must speak the local language
Still need translators
Use back translations to avoid errors
Technical words do not exist in all languages
Usually resort to English
Many cultures avoid saying anything disagreeable
Unspoken Language
Nonverbal communication, such as gestures and body language.
2-25
Copyright 2011 Pearson Education
Societal Organization
Kinship Associations
Extended family Social units based on age,
gender, or common interest,
Includes blood relatives and not on kinship.
relatives by marriage.
This is a source of Age
employees and business Manufacturers of consumer
goods are well aware of the
connections. importance of segmenting a
Members responsibility market by age groups.
Although the extended This segmentation often
family is large, each cuts across cultures.
members feeling of
responsibility to it is strong.
Societal Organization
Associations
Gender
As nations industrialize, more women enter the job market and assume greater
importance in the economy
Free association
people joined together by a common bond: political, occupational, religious or
recreational
Understanding National
Culture
Hofstedes Dimensions of Culture
Safety vs Risk
Cooperation vs Competition
Stability vs Innovation