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Student name:__________
TRUE/FALSE – Write ‘T’ if the statement is true and ‘F’ if the statement is false.
1) We are each born with a unique culture.
⊚ true
⊚ false
2) Anthropologist E. T. Hall suggests that there are hundreds of ways managers can learn
the characteristics of other cultures.
⊚ true
⊚ false
3) When adjusting to other cultures, the first step managers can take is to compare their
current culture to another to assess its value.
⊚ true
⊚ false
4) Since all cultures have the same attitude toward authority, the role of the manager is
comparable across cultures and is not a matter of concern for human resources.
⊚ true
⊚ false
5) Leadership traits may vary some by culture, but underneath, they all build on the basic
idea that all people want to be led and directed.
⊚ true
⊚ false
6) A business with tight accounting controls suggests a culture with low levels of trust.
⊚ true
⊚ false
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7) A culture’s aesthetics refers to the sense of moral behavior taught to the young.
⊚ true
⊚ false
8) Understanding how religion affects cultural attitudes is important for marketing
professionals to know.
⊚ true
⊚ false
9) Gift giving across cultures is viewed as a simple kindness and not a reflection of intent.
⊚ true
⊚ false
10) Christianity has many denominations and within each denomination is a different belief.
⊚ true
⊚ false
11) Buddhism is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Guatama.
⊚ true
⊚ false
12) In high-context cultures, nonverbal language plays a minor role. Business professionals
rely more on the spoken word.
⊚ true
⊚ false
13) There are three main classes of social institutions, based on the conditions of their
formation: family, kinship, and free association.
⊚ true
⊚ false
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14) In Hall’s use, context is the irrelevant environment in a communication act.
⊚ true
⊚ false
15) In high-context cultures, people tend to form long-lasting relationships that endure over
time.
⊚ true
⊚ false
16) Hofstede is primarily concerned with social values and the dimensions he identified that
help parents understand their children.
⊚ true
⊚ false
17) Feminine cultures in Hofstede’s dimensions care about relationships and are not focused
on business success.
⊚ true
⊚ false
18) Hofstede’s pragmatic versus normative dimension reflects an assessment of how
individuals handle unexplainable aspects of their lives.
⊚ true
⊚ false
19) Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck developed their cultural values classification system based on
universal problems, such as people’s relationship to nature.
⊚ true
⊚ false
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20) The MBI model is linked with the global mind-set since it can be used to connect cultures
across diversity boundaries.
⊚ true
⊚ false
MULTIPLE CHOICE – Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or
answers the question.
21) A basic cultural concept is
A) our way is the best way.
B) our way is not the only way.
C) Western culture leads others.
D) power goes to those who take it.
22) Because culture is not directly observable,it is
A) best learned about by observation of how it manifests itself.
B) best ignored in foreign sales, to avoid mistakes.
C) best studied through language, since language is closest to culture.
D) likely to be impossible to comprehend.
23) Ethnocentricity gets in the way of communication across cultural borders because
A) it provides a channel for active listening.
B) people with inferior cultures will not want to communicate.
C) cultural borders promote an ethnocentric approach.
D) people living in their own culture are often unaware of its influence on them.
24) Culture is a group of shared worldviews, social rules, and interpersonal dynamics that is
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A) chosen consciously by each group to set themselves apart from other groups.
B) learned, interrelated, and shared.
C) used as a way to separate economic classes.
D) a collection of noble pursuits including opera, art, ballet, and classical music.
25) Molly has lived in Ireland her entire life and believes that the only way to do things is
“the Irish way.” This belief is an example of
A) stereotyping.
B) cultural adaptation.
C) social hierarchy.
D) ethnocentrism.
26) When interacting with an international affiliate, business professionals should remember
that ethnocentrism
A) can be beneficial to negotiations.
B) is detrimental and noninclusive.
C) is atypical behavior and uncommon in most cultures.
D) should be practiced whenever possible.
27) When you assert that a certain aspect of your own culture is superior, you are probably
exhibiting
A) objective observation.
B) ethnocentric behavior.
C) your understanding of truth.
D) material culture.
28) E. T. Hall suggests that to learn another culture, you have to undergo extensive training
or spend
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A) a lifetime in the other culture.
B) considerable time with people of the other culture, but perhaps outside that culture.
C) time studying the language of the other culture.
D) considerable amounts of time and money taking guided tours in the other culture.
29) Kya believes an annual review should be a reflection of an employee’s accomplishments
from the year while Marcus believes an annual review should be used to motivate an employee
to work harder. Their beliefs are based on the culture in which they were raised. Which business
function is being affected by culture in this scenario?
A) marketing
B) production
C) human resources
D) accounting
30) Accounting controls directly relate to a culture’s assumptions about
A) the basic nature of people.
B) inventory policy.
C) efficiency.
D) leadership.
31) Two basic ways to understand the role of leadership are to provide direction for a
collection of individuals or to
A) limit the freedom of individual group members.
B) integrate a group.
C) link top management with workers.
D) organize workers for production.
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32) The assembly line found in automobile manufacturing facilities is an example of how
culture affects
A) accounting.
B) marketing.
C) procurement.
D) production.
33) The focus group participants were asked if they liked the website for Welby Appliance
Corp. The majority responded that they did. Months later, the manufacturer was surprised when
people in certain parts of the world were angry that no instructions came with the appliance they
purchased and were told they could find them on the website. However, these particular
customers didn’t have access to a computer. In this instance, what department of Welby
Appliance failed to take into account culture?
A) finance
B) marketing
C) production
D) human resources
34) Culture exerts an influence on all business disciplines
A) except accounting, which is objective.
B) because they all aspire to be culturally central.
C) because they exist in a social world in which culture operates.
D) except finance and accounting, which are quantitative.
35) Aesthetics is
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A) an area of psychology that deals with truth.
B) a measurement used in the Middle East, similar to a hectare.
C) an area of philosophy that deals with beauty.
D) the area of medicine concerned with hygiene.
36) Connor’s manager told him not to make the “OK” sign with his hand when meeting with
the representatives from France as that gesture is viewed as vulgar and inappropriate in their
culture. Which aspect of culture is his manager referring to?
A) spoken language
B) material culture
C) nonverbal communication
D) religion
37) Religion is a part of a group’s culture because
A) it is a symbol of worship.
B) religion is culture.
C) groups choose their religion, and culture is chosen.
D) it influences behavior through attitudes and beliefs.
38) The marketing team decided to develop two promotional campaigns: one featuring
slender models and the other using curvier models to address the cultural differences of their
audience. With what aspect of culture is the marketing team concerned?
A) artifacts
B) gift-giving
C) aesthetics
D) verbal communication
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39) Real Country Boots was surprised when its marketing campaign featuring a cowboy fell
flat in some South American countries but prospered in the United States. They later determined
that a cowboy was considered “just another job” in parts of South America so it held little appeal
to consumers. In this instance, the company used what aspect of aesthetics incorrectly?
A) gift-giving
B) nonverbal communication
C) folklore
D) art
40) When Corinne was introduced to the manager from the overseas office, she noticed he
tended to lean in as he spoke with her. This made her uncomfortable, so she did her best to put
some space between them during the meeting. What is causing Corinne to feel uncomfortable?
A) aesthetics
B) conversational distance
C) material artifacts
D) polychronic time constraints
41) In a business setting, anthropologist Marcel Mauss viewed the ritual of gift-giving as a
way to
A) unfairly influence or bribe prospective customers/clients.
B) obtain a huge advantage for international managers.
C) show fondness.
D) publicly acknowledge interrelationships and obligations.
42) Kinship and free association are examples of
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A) choices people make about their friendships.
B) the two basic types of social institutions.
C) social clubs that operate as microcosmic cultures.
D) ethnocentric forms of communication.
43) What is the basic unit of institutions based on kinship?
A) education
B) wealth
C) corporation
D) family
44) Material culture includes
A) only things that are used in production processes.
B) the makers of things but not those who use them.
C) all human-made objects.
D) all textiles and fabrics.
45) Kendrik decided not to take the overseas position because he knew managers worked
alongside their staff and did not have private offices in this particular international culture. He
thought this made managers look less important and inconsequential. What aspect of culture is
he concerned with?
A) verbal communication
B) aesthetics
C) unspoken language
D) folklore
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46) When Maddie got to her manager’s office, she noticed the door was closed and decided
the manager was busy so she should come back later. What aspect of culture is affecting her
decision to return later?
A) ethnocentric values
B) spatial relationships
C) performance issues
D) conversational distance
47) The music and folklore associated with a society are one way to communicate a culture’s
A) ethnocentrism.
B) polychronic time.
C) uncertainty avoidance.
D) aesthetics.
48) The most obvious cultural distinction a company must take into account when deciding to
undertake international business is
A) religion.
B) language.
C) aesthetics.
D) finance.
49) Material culture includes
A) manufactured goods.
B) the services associated with marketable goods.
C) objects of which the culture is proud.
D) produced goods that affect the symbolism of a culture.
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50) Understanding a person’s body language and facial expressions would be especially
important during business conversations in which type of culture?
A) low context
B) high context
C) polychronic
D) monochronic
51) Joshua realized the company’s marketing materials should avoid the color red in South
Africa because it is the color of mourning in that country. What part of culture is Joshua taking
into consideration?
A) stereotypes
B) spoken language
C) gift-giving
D) aesthetics
52) When considering whether or not to give a gift in a new cultural business situation, the
first practical question you should ask is
A) What is an acceptable gift?
B) When should I give the gift?
C) How many gifts should I get?
D) Should I wrap the gift?
53) Culture frameworks are helpful, but their use may
A) oversimplify and limit our understanding and learning after a point.
B) give too much emphasis on culture.
C) result in too much empathy for a different culture.
D) lead to further frameworks and further complication.
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54) After college, Thomas moved from California to take a job overseas. He was surprised to
find that the city he moved to had strict curfew laws and all the shops and restaurants closed by
10 pm. The culture he moved into seems to want to minimize unpredictable situations which
reflects which of Hofstede’s dimensions?
A) uncertainty avoidance
B) masculinity-femininity
C) power distance
D) individualism-collectivism
55) Hofstede’s masculinity-femininity dimension is a measure of a culture’s
A) distribution of roles between the sexes.
B) inclination to be kind and caring or task-focused and linear.
C) tolerance of gender-based workplace rules.
D) commitment to work (masculine) or family (feminine).
56) Trompenaars’s universalism-particularism dimension addresses
A) a culture’s inclination to have a global foreign policy.
B) whether rules or relationships regulate behavior.
C) the degree to which the individual (particularist) is the focus of social attention.
D) which matters most to people in the society, universal goodness or particularist
emotions.
57) Trompenaars’s diffuse cultures are called diffuse because
A) their differentiation between public and private life is spread out freely (diffused).
B) specific responsibilities are spread over a wide area, that is, nonhierarchical.
C) they extend the concept of culture to religion and other institutions.
D) diffusion exists to moderate cultural differences.
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58) According to Trompenaars’s seven dimensions, which type of culture tends to be rule-
based?
A) universalist
B) particularist
C) individualist
D) collectivist
59) In Trompenaars’s ascription culture, a person’s identity is based on
A) socioeconomic norms.
B) his or her work achievements.
C) his or her family lineage.
D) educational diversity.
60) Jay-yeong is the finance director of a firm in Seattle. He often attends meetings for work
and it is not uncommon for these meetings to overlap one another so he is finishing up with one
while he should be at another. Trompenaars would say that Jay-yeong works at a company that
reflects what dimension of time?
A) ethnocentric
B) polychronic
C) theocentric
D) monochronic
61) Based on the work of Edward Hall, the explicit communicator in a low-context culture is
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A) direct, unsubtle, and unambiguous: What you say is what you mean.
B) subtle, nuanced and indirect: Meaning accrues through not exactly what is said or
done.
C) unprepared and wary: The message is in the context.
D) ready to act: Communication will happen regardless of cultural differences.
62) How do the dimensions of Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s framework help us to better
understand other cultures?
A) They are meant to help us decode kinship patterns.
B) They present choices that cultural members make when they act.
C) They help us decode evil.
D) They help us to further understand beliefs and actions in other cultures.
63) Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s framework reveals that low-context cultures tend to focus on
A) cultural traditions.
B) the future.
C) the collective.
D) the past.
64) Trompenaars’s specific-diffuse dimension has to do with
A) social patterns for child-rearing.
B) patterns for public and private life.
C) regard for the individual or the collective.
D) whether rules or relationships regulate behaviors.
65) Trompenaars’s achievement versus ascription dimension describes social status based on
what one does or who one is. In the United States, where people build who they are through
work, social status tends to be
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A) based on achievement.
B) ignored because the United States does not have classes.
C) based on ascription.
D) a subtle form of prejudice.
66) Low-context cultures such as the United States tend to have these kinds of
communication patterns:
A) subtle.
B) nondirective.
C) loudly voiced.
D) explicit.
67) Holly is a multitasker and prefers to work on more than one project at a time at work.
Edward Hall would say that Holly favors which approach to time?
A) monochronic
B) mnemonic
C) polychronic
D) ionic
68) What is Hall’s high- and low-context framework based on?
A) communication styles
B) level of industrialization
C) presence of power in society
D) scientific data
69) When we use frameworks to help us understand culture, it’s important to remember that
frameworks
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A) describe other cultures with precision.
B) can’t be used to describe our own cultures.
C) are comparative, with our own culture the reference point.
D) accurately describe reality.
70) Referring to Hall’s high- and low-context framework, in a high-context culture
A) communication is explicit.
B) the context carries much of the communication.
C) communication is direct and focused on the topic.
D) the context is irrelevant.
71) Monochronic time is best illustrated by
A) the flight schedule at an airport.
B) a rock concert.
C) the multitude of activities required by new parents.
D) individual sleep patterns.
72) In low-context cultures it is common to find
A) subtlety and innuendo during conversations.
B) that communication tends to be explicit.
C) indirection is prized because it recognizes the ability of the other.
D) leadership is mostly from behind, allowing the workgroup to self-direct.
73) In high-context cultures, direct conversations that “tell it like it is” would be viewed as
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A) appropriate.
B) expected.
C) humorous.
D) rude.
74) Hofstede’s individualism-collectivism measures
A) the degree to which people in the culture are integrated into groups.
B) the tendency to differentiate male roles.
C) the degree to which social inequality is tolerated.
D) the amount of social distance between relatives.
75) The fact that almost everyone in the United States self-identifies as middle class suggests
that the United States
A) is a successful meritocracy.
B) measures low on the uncertainty avoidance dimension.
C) economy has failed to support an aristocracy.
D) measures low on the power distance dimension.
76) In a low power distance culture,
A) people will want direction, so top-down leadership styles are appropriate.
B) seniority, rank, and title are important.
C) first names are likely to be used in the office because the ideal is equality.
D) relatives will be welcomed into the workforce.
77) Uncertainty avoidance describes the search for truth, according to Hofstede, because
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A) truth is primary to our human value system; everything else depends upon it.
B) it describes how comfortable the culture’s members feel in an unstructured situation.
C) once you have truth, you can avoid change, which is always disruptive.
D) truth describes reality.
78) Shondra grew up in eastern Europe but moved to New York after college. Compared to
her friends that stayed in Europe, she enjoys much more freedom with her time and is able to
enjoy leisure activities and be active in her career. Which of Hofstede’s dimensions does this
demonstrate?
A) indulgence vs. restraint
B) pragmatic vs. normative
C) masculinity vs. femininity
D) uncertainty avoidance
79) Hofstede’s masculinity-femininity dimension suggests that, as an international manager,
you might
A) avoid feminine cultures because their production levels will lag.
B) avoid highly masculine cultures because they violate EEOC standards.
C) find men and women equally ready to assume leadership roles in a feminine culture.
D) find women too competitive in a feminine culture.
80) Hofstede’s power distance dimension can be described as
A) the expectation by individuals that uncertainty is possible.
B) the expectation that power will be equally distributed amongst members of society.
C) the extent to which society expects power to be distributed unequally.
D) the expectation that uncertainty will be kept at a distance from society.
81) Which characteristic would be typical in a feminine culture?
A) People live in order to work.
B) Quality of work life is important.
C) Environmental matters are a personal, not a business, concern.
D) Strong variation between male and female roles.
82) Trompenaars’s particularist dimension describes a culture in which
A) the judgment of something depends on the situation.
B) rules never apply.
C) rules rather than relationships regulate behaviors.
D) all rules apply to all people at all times.
83) In Trompenaars’s affective culture, emotions are seen as
A) responses to be freely displayed.
B) private, and therefore, not displayed.
C) a weakness, and therefore hidden.
D) appropriate to share with family members only.
84) An achievement culture is one in which members are
A) rewarded with social status for who they are in a spiritual sense.
B) rewarded for what they do, what they have accomplished, so what they are.
C) not rewarded at all because achievement is a doing mentality.
D) rewarded for their lineage.
85) According to Trompenaars, a culture’s attitude toward the environment can range from