INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT Chapter 2: Culture and International Management
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Chapter 2
CULTURE AND INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
2. Explain conceptual models for better understanding the world’s cultures.
4. Identify distinctive management styles that exist in different countries.
General Teaching Suggestions
Provide an overview of the current scenario of global trade. Encourage discussion on the
cultural challenges an international marketer could face in such a scenario. Citing
relevant examples from global trade, encourage students to discuss the various strategies
one should adopt in a multicultural environment. Suggested activities: Divide the class
into groups and have them identify the major cultural challenges in different parts of the
world.
Opening Case Discussion Guide
The case “Cultural Confusion: An Accenture Manager in India” describes how the
cultural orientation of the Indian support staff at Accenture’s office in India worked
against the service expectations of customers from the UK and U.S. The manager’s
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CHAPTER OUTLINE: KEY CONCEPTS AND TERMS
Sections I through V of Chapter 1
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I. CULTURE DEFINED
1. Key Concepts
2. Key Terms
II. HOW CULTURE IS TRANSMITTED
1. Key Concepts
INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT Chapter 2: Culture and International Management
III. CULTURE’S IMPACT
1. Key Concepts
Culture can affect all aspects of the management of a firm including, but not
limited to, strategy, hiring, pay/promotion, organization, and evaluation of
performance.
• Communication: A wide range of cultural issues affects communication in an
international firm. Culture has an impact on not only how communication takes
2. Key Terms
• Face – Respect of a person’s peers; avoiding embarrassment.
• Parochialism – Belief that there is no other way of doing things except what is
done in one’s own culture.
• Ethnocentrism – The ethnocentric view of culture holds that an individual or a
firm will believe that their own way of doing things is the best, and will not seek
to adapt to local cultural practices.
IV. ANALYZING CULTURE
1. Key Concepts:
• Sociology Framework: Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck developed a framework called
dimensions of value orientation. This framework examines six dimensions, four
of which are especially helpful to international managers in understanding
important values of different cultures.
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• Psychological Framework: Another valuable cultural framework was created by
organizational psychologist Geert Hofstede who identified four dimensions along
which cultures can be distinguished:
i. power distance
ii. individualism-collectivism
iii. uncertainty avoidance, and
iv. masculinity–femininity.
• Integrating Hofstede’s Dimensions: The clustering of Hosfstede’s cultural factors
into various two-dimensional graphs helps to show how nations can share similar
• Expansive Framework: Another cultural framework developed by Fons
Trompenaars included seven dimensions:
i. individualism versus collectivism,
ii. time orientation,
• The GLOBE Study: The GLOBE study is a recent, large scale research effort that
involved over 150 researchers from 61 different countries. This research sought
employed as guidelines to help the manager, not as laws written in stone.
2. Key Terms
V. SUMMARY
1. Key Concepts:
• Four major frameworks can be used to help one understand cultural settings.
• These frameworks (Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck, Hofstede, Trompenaars, and
INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT Chapter 2: Culture and International Management
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END-OF-CHAPTER GUIDE
* MANAGERIAL GUIDELINES
* OPENING VIGNETTE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
* DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
MANAGERIAL GUIDELINES
A number of managerial guidelines should be used to direct the actions of managers,
based on culture and its role in the organization.
1. It is important to recognize that culture is pervasive in business. Businesses that
2. Managers must evaluate the cultural differences that exist between themselves
and others as they begin to conduct business across national borders.
3. The greater the cultural difference, the more crucial it is for the manager to
5. Do not project your own culture and value system onto others. Projection means
that you assume other people think the way you do.
7. Communication is affected by culture; so not only what you say but how you say
it is important.
8. Almost all businesspeople understand that you may not know all the intricacies of
9. One way to learn about a culture is to carefully observe how the locals behave,
particularly the leaders of a society.
OPENING VIGNETTE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. How could the problems that arose in the opening vignette have been avoided?
2. If you were in charge of sensitivity training for Accenture, what do you think
should be included in the training prior to sending someone to India?
3. Based on the vignette, discuss what the cultural characteristics of India, using the
Hofstede model to describe these characteristics.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Compare and contrast the differences and similarities in the various culture
frameworks discussed in the chapter.
2. Is cultural convergence occurring in the world? That is, do you think that the
various world cultures are coming closer together, or are they getting more
different and prone to conflict? Why or why not?
Some students may argue that cultural convergence is a reality in the globalized
3. If you were going to conduct cultural-sensitivity training for someone coming to
your country, what do you think they would need to know to successfully
navigate the culture?
4. What would be a common list of issues you should be taught about, if you were
about to be sent to China to conduct business?
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IN-CLASS EXERCISES
1. Your Mexican executive is upset at her Taiwanese colleague’s refusal to accept
her invitation for a dinner and a chance to go the annual festival in Mexico City.
2. You have been assigned to help prepare a key employee, Raymond, a chemical
engineer from Mainland China, to relocate his whole family into a neighborhood
activities to check their cultural awareness and responsiveness.
3. Compare your answers given in Exercise A with those in Exercise B (both i and
ii). Did you prepare Raymond for the problems that came up in Exercise B?
Knowing about these problems, how could you have better prepared Raymond, as
asked in Exercise A?
TAKE-HOME EXERCISES
1. Go to the Web site http://www.executiveplanet.com and select two different
nations. Contrast the impact of culture on negotiations in those nations. Report
your findings to the class.
2. Form a team and summarize what you believe the primary cultural aspects of your
home country to be. Report your findings to the class.
3. In your view, how do foreign nationals misunderstand your country? Make a list
of the most important of these. Are they cultural in nature? Historical? Political?
Other? What types of training could a firm pursue to overcome these
misunderstandings?
Students are encouraged to form groups of two or more from differing cultural
4. In 2005, a number of Chinese firms sought to buy U.S. firms. This includes the
China National Offshore Oil Corporation purchase of Chevron, the Lenovo
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purchase of IBM’s laptop business, and Haier’s purchase of Maytag. Research
one of these proposed acquisitions. Which ones were completed? What would be
SHORT CASE QUESTIONS
1. What are some of the major differences you see in doing business in Germany if
you are an American?
2. Renault Motors is a French firm that owns Nissan Automobile of Japan. Why do
you think this merger worked when the Daimler Chrysler merger did not?
3. Think of ways that the Daimler Chrysler merger could have been encouraged to
succeed.