Managing across cultures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Managing across cultures - Essay Example DR Geert Hofstede, a psychologist identified four distinct cultural dimensions that served to differentiate one culture from another. Later on in his study he added the fifth one. The five dimensions of culture that Hofstede distinguished include (Aaldering 2010): Power/distance: this is initially the degree of inequality that is present and is accepted among people with or without power. The score that one gets points that society accepts an unequal distribution of power and people in the system. Whereas a low score indicates that the power is shared and well dispersed. For example in a high PD country like Malaysia an organization would send reports only to the top hierarchy management with the involvement of few high level managers. Individualism (IDV). This indicates the strong ties between individuals. The following diagram shows how it works : Characteristics Tips High IDV High Valuation on peoples time and their need for freedom. An enjoyment of challenges, and an expectation of rewards for hard work. Respect for privacy. Acknowledge accomplishments. Don’t ask for too much personal information. Encourage debate and expression of own ideas. Low IDV Emphasis on building skills and becoming masters of something. Work for intrinsic rewards. Harmony more important than honesty. Show respect for age and wisdom. Suppress feelings and emotions to work in harmony. Respect traditions and introduce change slowly. Masculinity (MAS). This actually talks about how much the organization looks at the traditional values of male and female. In today’s world one could clearly see how men and female are treated with equal opportunities. Uncertainty/ A voidance index (UAI). This is basically the degree of anxiety that the members of an organization or a society feel when there situations are unknown or uncertain. Long Term Orientation (LTO). This talks about how much society put value in the long term standing- as opposed to short term traditions and values Thi s article basically talked about the five basic dimensions and how these could be used in order to meet the needs of individuals working with different culture employees. Trompenaars four diversity culture: Another culturalist Trompenaars along with Hampden-Turner came with other cultural factors that talk about these few points on how to face the cultural differences in the organization. The article ‘Cultural frame of reference’, (Jeurissen 2007) talks about universalism vs. particularism which generally talks about how an organization can find and work on the general rules instead of forcing on the existing rules and demotivating the entire team. It also talks about analyzing vs. integrating which is decomposing to find the details and integrating to bring all those things together in order to have a big picture to understand better. Individualism vs. communitarianism is where the individual’s rights are put forward along with the rights of the whole group or t eam. Another one that Trompenaar talks about is inner directed vs. outer directed. This is where the assumption is made that thinking is the most powerful tool to approach an idea. And then seeking the data in the outer world or in other words to be optimistic. This article basically just talks about how looking at a thing , analyzing it and then giving it a status changes the way we look at things and culture differences are the same thing. One should be