1 CHAPTER II CROSS- CULTURAL BUSINESS National Business Environment INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

2 Learning Objectives Describe culture and explain the significance of both national culture and subculture. Identify the components of culture and describe their impact on business activities around the world. Describe cultural change and explain how companies and culture affect one another. Explain how the physical environment and technology influence culture. Describe the two main frameworks use to classify cultures and explain their practical use.

3 WHAT IS CULTURE? Culture Set of values, beliefs, rules and institutions held by a specific group of people.

4 WHAT IS CULTURE? Accommodating Culture- Avoiding Ethnocentricity Ethnocentricity: Belief that one’s own ethnic group or culture is superior to that of others. Understanding Cultural - Developing Cultural Literacy Cultural Literacy: Detailed knowledge about a culture that enables a person to function effectively within it

5 NATIONAL CULTURE & SUBCULTURE? National Culture: Nations- states support and promote the concept of a national culture by building museums and monuments to preserve the legacies of important events and people. Subculture: A group of people who share a unique way of life within a larger, dominant culture.

6 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE Aesthetics Values and Attitudes Manners and Customs Social Structure Religion Personal Communication Body language Education Physical and Material Environments

7 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE Aesthetics: What a culture considers to be in ”good taste” in the arts, the imagery evoked by certain expressions and the symbolism of certain colors.

8 Values and Attitude Value: Ideas, beliefs and customs to which people are emotionally attached. Attitude: Positive or negative evaluations, feeling and tendencies that individuals harbor toward objects or concepts. COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

9 Cultural diffusion: Process whereby cultural traits spread from one culture to another Cultural Imperialism : Replacement of one culture’s traditions, folk heroes, and artifacts with substitutes from another COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

10 Cultural trait : Anything that represents a culture’s way of life,including gestures, material objects, traditions, and concepts. COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

11 Manners and Customs Manners : Appropriate ways of behaving, speaking, and dressing in a culture. Customs: Habits or ways of behaving in specific circumstances that are passed down through generations in a culture. Folk Custom: Behavior, often dating back several generations, that is practiced by a homogeneous group of people Popular Custom: Behavior shared by a heterogeneous group or by several groups. COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

12 Social Structure A culture’s fundamental organizations, its system of social positions and their relationships, and the process by which its resources are distributed. Social Group Associations Social Status Social Mobility COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

13 Religion Christianity Islam Hinduism Buddhism Confucianism Judaism Shinto COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

14 Personal Communication System of conveying thoughts, feelings, knowledge, and information through speech, actions, and writing. Social structure : A culture’s fundamental organizations, its system of social positions and their relationships, and the process by which its resources are distributed. Social Group: Collection of two or more people who identify and interact with one another. COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

15 Social Structure Social structure : A culture’s fundamental organizations, its system of social positions and their relationships, and the process by which its resources are distributed. Social Group: Collection of two or more people who identify and interact with one another. COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

16 Cultural diffusion: Process whereby cultural traits spread from one culture to another Cultural Imperialism : Replacement of one culture’s traditions, folk heroes, and artifacts with substitutes from another COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

17 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE… Social Structure Social structure : A culture’s fundamental organizations, its system of social positions and their relationships, and the process by which its resources are distributed. Social Group: Collection of two or more people who identify and interact with one another.

18 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE … Social stratification : Process of ranking people into social layers or classes. Social mobility : Ease with which individuals can move up or down a culture’s “social ladder”. Caste system: system of social stratification in which people are born into a social ranking, or caste, with no opportunity for social mobility Class system: System of social stratification in which personal ability and actions determine social status and mobility

19 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE … Religion : human values often originate from religious beliefs.different religions take different views of work,savings,and material goods Personal communication Communication: System of conveying thoughts, feelings, knowledge, and information through speech, actions, and writing. Lingua franca: third of “link” language that is understood by two parties who speak different native languages

20 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE… Body language: Language communicated through unspoken cues, including hand gestures, facial expressions, physical greetings, eyes contact, and the manipulation of personal space.

21 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE… Education: Education is crucial for passing on traditions, customs, and values. Each culture educates its young people through schooling, parenting, religious teachings, and group memberships. Brain drain : Departure of highly educated people from one profession, geographic region, or nation to another.

22 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE… Physical and Material Environments Topography: All the physical features that characterize the surface of a geographic region. Climate: Weather conditions of a geographic region. Material Culture: All the technology used in a culture to manufacture goods and provide services.

23 CLASSIFYING CULTURES Kluckhohn- Strodtbeck Framework: Framework for studying cultural differences six dimensions, such as focus on past or future events and belief in individual or group responsibility for personal well-being.

24 CLASSIFYING CULTURES Hofstede Framework: Framework for studying cultural differences along four dimensions, such as individualism versus collectivism and equality versus inequality. Individualism vs Collectivism Power distance Uncertainty avoidance Achievement vs Nurturing

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