International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 3
Module 3: Sociocultural Forces
Use this Instructor Guide to incorporate the unique content of this product and facilitate your Face–to–
YOUR CONTENT
Summary
Learning Objectives
Key Terms & Key Terms with Definitions
Content Outline
ENGAGEM ENT & APPLICATION (FACE TO FACE & O NLINE & HYBRID )
BOXED TEXT DISCUSSION QUESTIONS WITH SUGGESTED ANSWERS
IB IN PRACTICE
GLOBAL DEBATE
GET THAT JOB! FROM BACKPACK TO BRIEFCASE
Team Exercises
Supplemental Lecture
Tools & Tricks
Controversial Issues
Teaching Suggestions
Instructor Guide to Module 3
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 3
Assigning Interactives
Instructor Guide to Module 3
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 3
YOUR CONTENT
their possible influence on activities related to business. We then explore the importance of a global
mindset for international managers and briefly review the Map-Bridge-Integrate model for addressing
cultural issues in organizations. The module concludes with a section on the limitations of frameworks
to predict cultural behavior.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO 3-6 Discuss cautions for using cultural frameworks in business.
KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
achievement vs. ascription
(p. 80)
What a person does contrasted with who a person is
aesthetics (p. 66)
A culture’s sense of beauty and good taste
communitarianism (p. 80)
Belief that the group is the beneficiary of actions
context (p. 74)
The relevant environment
cultural paradox (p. 83)
Contradictions in a culture’s values
ethnocentricity (p. 62)
The belief that your own culture is superior to other cultures
global mindset (p. 83)
Involves an openness to diversity along with an ability to
Instructor Guide to Module 3
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 3
4 Instructor’s Manual – Module 3 | Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball © 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education.
This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. Thi s
synthesize across diversity.
material culture or artifacts
(p. 69)
All human-made objects
monochonic (p. 75)
Having to do with linear time, sequential activities
neutral vs. affective (p. 80)
The withholding of emotion contrasted with its expression
particularist (p. 80)
Conditions in which context determines what concepts apply
polychromic (p. 75)
Having to do with simultaneous activities, multitasking
specific vs. diffuse (p. 80)
Life divided into public and private spheres contrasted with life
undifferentiated.
universalist (p. 80)
Conditions in which concepts apply to all
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Instructor Guide to Module 3
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 3
CONTENT OUTLINE
The following section provides the flow of information using the LEARNING OBJECTIVES as a guide, KEY
TERMS learners will need to take away from the course and a notation of when to use POWERPOINT
SLIDES with LECTURE NOTES to drive home teaching points.
LO 3-1
Describe what culture is.
• Introduction
• What is culture and why is it important?
• Definitions of culture
• Importance of culture
Key Terms:
I. ethnocentricity
Lecture Outline and Notes:
I. Introduction: Need in IM to recognize that “our way” is not the only way or even the best way.
II. What is culture? Definitions
The sum total of the beliefs, rules, techniques, institutions, and artifacts that characterize human
populations. (Anthropologist)
Culture is learned, interrelated, with shared patterns mutually constructed through social
interaction, and defines the boundaries of different groups.
III. Ethnocentricity is a common response to cultural difference.
A. IM can learn to avoid ethnocentric responses
1. Hall: Lifetime in a culture or extensive training program, including study of culture and
language.
2. Factual knowledge of culture, culture frameworks, language, experience. Experience is
critical.
3. Realize that there are other cultures. This sounds simple, but is not.
LO 3-2
Identify the ways culture affects all business activity.
IV. Production and procurement
V. Accounting and Finance
VI. Preferred Leadership Styles
Key Terms:
I. Marketing
Instructor Guide to Module 3
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 3
6 Instructor’s Manual – Module 3 | Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball © 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education.
This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. Thi s
document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
potential customers.
Many costly errors, especially in product design, advertising and pricing.
Must remember that we don’t know what we don’t know.
II. Human Resources
A. Which is rewarded, the individual or group? Achievement or social role?
How is authority understood? Is manager a patron or first among equals?
III. Production and Procurement
A. How change is understood?
Culture affects plant layout (linear assembly line vs. more group-oriented patterns
How does firm acquire resources? Based on social relationships or price?
IV. Accounting and Finance
A. Accounting controls rest of assumptions about people’s basic nature.
4. Tight controls suggest lack of trust.
5. Loose controls suggest people will act honestly when not closely monitored.
Example of U.S. expatriate paying taxes —in NY and Italy.
V. Preferred leadership styles
A. Vary by culture
Paternalistic? Heroic? Focused on group or individual?
LO 3-3
Describe how culture shows itself.
• Aesthetics
• Religion
• Material Culture
• Language and communication
• Societal organization
• Gift giving in business
Key Terms:
VII. aesthetics
VIII. material culture or artifacts
Lecture Outline and Notes:
I. Aesthetics: A culture’s sense of beauty and good taste.
A. Expressed in many areas—art, drama, music, folklore, dance
Applies to bodies as well (weight, tattoos, etc.)
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Instructor Guide to Module 3
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 3
document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
III. Religion
A. Responsible for many attitudes and beliefs that influence human behavior.
Knowledge of religion’s basic tenants in markets is useful.
Ethnocentric beliefs can be quite strong in religions.
1. Christianity – one god, killed by Roman Empire officials, came back to life and
ascended into heaven.
8. Islam – 7the century CE, one god (Allah) whose will is revealed through the Qur’an and
messengers.
9. 3. Buddhism – founded between 6th and 4th centuries BCE in India, based on teachings
of Siddhartha Gautama. Earthly life is the cause of human suffering and nirvana is
reached when we escape the reincarnation cycle and become enlightened.
10. Hinduism—oldest of major world religions, began in India, ethically good life achieved
through self-discipline, sharing of wealth, adherence to the Vedas (scriptures).
11. Judaism – began around 1900 BCE, believes in one god who acts in human history.
Enslaved by foreign powers, Jews were freed by God’s power acting through figures
such as Abraham, Moses, and David.
IV. Material culture: all the human-made objects of a culture. Concerned with how people make
V. Language and communication (Fig 3.3 major languages of the world)
A. Most obvious and distancing cultural distinction is language
Nonverbal communication also reveals a lot about social interactions and values, especially in High
Context cultures (Hall).
1. Gestures and their meanings vary between cultures.
12. Spatial relationships may differ greatly (closed door in US suggests privacy, in Germany,
A. Kinship is the family, and its definition and closeness varies by culture, with the extended family
important is some cultures, less so in others.
VII. Free association may be formed by other commonalities—such as age, gender, shared
interests. Social media represent evolving forms of free associations.Gift giving in business—
an often confusing practice across cultural borders
A. A way to acknowledge interrelationships and social obligations (Mauss).
The exchange of gifts creates a social bond that requires you to be a giver, receiver, and holder of an
obligation.
Learn the patterns of the relevant cultures
LO 3-4
Describe four frameworks for analyzing culture
Key Terms:
Instructor Guide to Module 3
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 3
• Introduction
• Frameworks
o Hall’s High and Low Context
o Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck
o Hofstede’s Dimensions
o Trompenaars’s Dimensions
IX. Context
X. Monochronic
XI. Polychronic
XII. Universalist
XIII. Particularist
XIV. Communitarianism
XV. Neutral vs. affective
XVI. Specific vs. diffuse
XVII. Achievement vs.
ascription
I. Introduction: remember that your own culture functions as a reference point, and the
frameworks are just the beginning, the tip of the iceberg.
II. Frameworks are sophisticated stereotypes.
A. Hall’s High and Low Context in communication patterns
1. High Context –much of the communication is conveyed by the context. (Japan,
China, many other Asian, Latin American, African cultures). Social ties are long–
standing and close, communication tends to be implicit and indirect.
15. Low Context—most of the communication is carried in words. (U.S., Canada, other
Anglo cultures, Germany, Scandinavian cultures). Social ties are of shorter duration,
communication is explicit.
16. (See Fig. 3.4, 3.5)
cultures tend to be ploychronic, with several activities going on at once.
Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s Cultural Orientations Framework
• What relationship should people have to nature? That is, how should they think
about their activities with regard to nature?
• What sorts of relationships should exist among individuals?
• What is the best way to think about time?
a. Measures the degree people of the culture are integrated into groups.
Instructor Guide to Module 3
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 3
9 Instructor’s Manual – Module 3 | Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball © 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education.
This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. Thi s
document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
b. Individualist cultures include U.S., Canada, UK, the Netherlands, Australia, New
Zealand
c. Collectivist cultures include China, Japan, West and East Africa, Ecuador,
Guatemala, Indonesia
20. Power Distance
d. the extent to which members of a culture expect power to be distributed
unequally and accept that it is.
e. Similar to inequality, but defined from below, and suggests the inequality is
endorsed by followers as well
f. Small power distance countries include the U.S., Austria, Israel, Denmark,
Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Germany
g. Large power distance countries include Malaysia, the Philippines, India, West
African countries, India, Singapore.
k. Weak uncertainty avoidance cultures include Jamaica, Singapore, Sweden,
Denmark, U.S., Canada, Norway, Australia.
e. Feminine cultures include Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Costa Rica, the
Netherlands, Finland.
24. Pragmatic vs. Normative (modification of earlier Confucian Dynamism)
a. Measure of how people deal with the unexplainable in their lives.
b. In normative societies, strong desire to explain and know the Truth. (Venezuela,
perseverance are important. (France, China, Japan)
Trompenaars’s Seven Dimensions
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Instructor Guide to Module 3
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 3
10 Instructor’s Manual – Module 3 | Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball © 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education.
This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. Thi s
document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
b. Universalist cultures apply rules across the board (Anglo cultures, eg. U.S. Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act). Rules are more important than relationships.
c. Particularist cultures consider context when they apply rules. Relationships are
more important than rules.
26. Individualism vs. Communitarianism
a. Whether people plan their action with reference to individual or group benefits.
b. Similar to Hofstede’s individualism-collectivism dimension and Kluckhohn and
Strodtbeck’s relationship value.
27. Neutral vs. Affective (Unemotional vs. Emotional)
a. Addresses how members of a culture express emotion.
b. Neutral cultures tend to withhold emotional expression (UK, Japan).
c. Affective cultures are emotionally expressive (Mexico, Italy).
28. Specific vs. Diffuse
a. This describes how a culture differentiates between private and public/work life.
b. Specific cultures make distinctions between work and private life relationships
(U.S.)
c. Diffuse cultures carry work relationships over to other areas of life (East Asia) (see
table 3.2)
29. Achievement vs. Ascription
a. This describes the basis for valuing the individual.
30. Attitudes toward Time: Two aspects
evolving.
b. Are actionssequential (monochronic) or synchronous (polychromic)? Low context
and Strodtbeck’s relationship to nature.
b. In internal direction cultures, people believe they control nature.
LO 3-5
Describe the global mindset and the MBI model
• Global Mindset: When does culture matter?
Key Terms:
XVIII.
time, but in different ways at different times.
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