Global Human Resource Management

1

Managing across culture issues
perspectives Sun Lilu, Lecturer Department of
Human Resource Management School of Economics
Trade,CQIT Chongqing 400037 Peoples Republic of
China
2
Cultural Styles

• Reference
• Trompenaars, Fons and Hampden-Turner, Charles.
  Riding the Waves of CultureUnderstanding
  Cultural Diversity in Global Business (2nd
  edition). New York McGraw-Hill,1998, pages
  1-10, 29-36, 49-53, 68-75, 80-81, 105-111,
  121-122.

3
Theories and Themes

• Late 1950s Edward Hall Anthropologist.(????)
• World War II -- U.S. Army in Europe
  and the Philippines. Later, Director of the
  Foreign Service Institute training program. He
  observed first hand the many difficulties created
  by failures of intercultural communication.
• Proxemics ????? human use of space within the
  context of culture
• Personal space and community (town)
  space, Also looked at monochromic (???)and
  polychromic(???) time

4

• Late 1960s Geert Hofstede
• Founded and managed personnel research
  dept of IBM Europe.
• Surveyed 116,000 IBM employees in 40
  countries on preferences around management style
  and work environment
• 4 dimensions where differences by country were
  significant
• power distance
• uncertainty avoidance
• individualism/collectivism
• masculinity??/femininity??
• later discussed a 5th dimension long term view
  (Asia)

5

• Late 1980s Fons Trompenaars and Charles
  Hampden-Turner Consultants
• By 1998 15 years of research questionnaire
  based. Framework from Talcott Parsons, US
  Sociologist (Harvard 1927-1973)
• 30 companies, 50 countries, 30,000 people
• 7 fundamental dimensions of culture
• relationships with people
• universalism vs. particularism
• individualism vs. communitarianism (collectivism)
• neutral vs. emotional
• specific vs. diffuse
• achievement vs. ascription
• understanding of time attitudes toward
  environment

6

• Late 1990s Robert J House et al Project GLOBE
• Professor at Wharton since 1988. by
  2004 10 years of research, 150 researchers,
  18,000 managers in 62 countries.Questionnaire. A
  few industries.
• 9 cultural dimensions
• assertiveness
• future orientation
• gender differentiation
• uncertainty avoidance
• power distance
• collectivism vs. individualism
• in-group collectivism
• performance orientation
• humane orientation
• Plus looking for leadership traits that are
  consistent across cultures charisma

7
Todays topics

• Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner 4
  of their 7 fundamental dimensions of culture
• relationships with people
• universalism vs. particularism
• individualism vs. communitarianism (collectivism)
• neutral vs. emotional
• specific vs. diffuse
• achievement vs. ascription

8

• Before we start, I
  reiterate some caveats
• There will be anecdotes and stereotypes. Show
  each other respect. Try not to offend each
  other.
• This is about NOT making assumptions!!!
• These continua are frameworks. Lenses through
  which you can assess a situation AND yourself. Do
  not expect your own experiences to map perfectly
  to the anecdotes you hear.
• This course looks to build your awareness that
  the same action/activity/situation may very well
  have different meanings.

9
Social Dimensions

• 
  Reference
• Javidan, Mansour and House, Robert J. Cultural
  Acumen for the Global Manager Lessons from
  Project GLOBE. Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 29,
  No. 4, pages 289-304, Spring 2001.
• House, Robert J. Hanges, Paul J. Javidan,
  Mansour Dorfman, Peter W. and Gupta,
  Vipin.Culture, Leadership, and Organizations The
  GLOBE Study of 62 Societies. Thousand
  Oaks,California, 2004, pages 410, 411 365, 366
  622, 623 539, 540 250, 251 573, 574.
• Schneider, Susan and Barsoux, Jean-Louis.
  Managing Across Cultures (2nd edition).
  Essex,England Pearson Education Limited, 2003,
  pages 87-95.

10
Theory

• Reminder -- Late 1960s Geert Hofstede
• Founded and managed personnel research dept of
  IBM Europe.Surveyed
• 116,000 IBM employees in 40 countries on
  preferences round management
• style and work environment 4 dimensions where
  differences by country
• were significant
• power distance
• uncertainty avoidance
• individualism/collectivism
• masculinity/femininity
• 5th long term view (Asia)

• GLOBE takes masculine/feminine and creates 2
  categories
• assertiveness
• o gender differentiation
• Additional studies did not always get the same
  results. Dimensions still useful even though
  results variable. (World is different not just
  IBM being studied)

11
Assertiveness and Gender Differentiation

• (Schneider Barsoux) High masculine
• 1. Task not relationships
• 2. Motivation by money and things, not quality of
  life
• 3. Leadership ensure bottom line profits and
  set targets
• 4. Feminine leader would safe-guard employee
  well-being and demonstrate concern for social
  responsibility
• (GLOBE) Gender Differentiation society
  maximizes gender role differentiation. Who gets
  status and decision-making power
• (GLOBE) Assertive society encourages people to
  be tough, confrontational, assertive and
  competitive (not modest and tender). Can-do vs.
  cooperation and harmony.
• Uncertainty avoidance deals with a society's
  tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity.

12

• (Schneider Barsoux) High uncertainty avoidance
• 1. More formalization, more written rules and
  regs
• 2. Risk avoidance
• 3. Motivated by stability and security
• 4. Leaders plan, organize, coordinate, control
• (GLOBE) society seeks orderliness, consistency,
  structure
• NOTE Be explicit about difference between
  discomfort in unstructured situations (are there
  traffic rules for crossing the street) and risk
  avoidance
• Power distance, the extent to which the less
  powerful members of organizations and
  institutions (like the family) accept and expect
  that power is distributed unequally. 

13
Schneider and Barsoux) High power distance

• 1. More hierarchy
• 2. More supervision (narrow span of control)
• 3. More centralized decision-making
• 4. Motivated by status and power
• 5. Leaders revered or obeyed as authorities
• (GLOBE) expectation that power is shared
  Unequally.
•  
• Correlation across two dimensions
• Hofstede found that there was a correlation
  between power distance and uncertainty avoidance
  that provided insight into the kinds of
  organization that tend to be successful in those
  environments.

14
Orientation to Time and Space

• Reference
• Trompenaars, Fons and Hampden-Turner, Charles.
  Riding the Waves of CultureUnderstanding
  Cultural Diversity in Global Business (2nd
  edition). New York
• McGraw-Hill, 1998, pages 123128, 132-144.
• Gesteland, Richard R. Cross-Cultural Business
  Behavior Marketing,Negotiating and Managing
  across Cultures (2nd edition). CopenhagenCopenhag
  en Business School Press, 2000, pages 55-62.
•  

15
Time

• Past vs. present vs. Future Know what matters!
• Ascription vs. current achievement vs. potential
• History as determinant (bloodlines)
• Current abilities as determinant (current race)
• Monochronic Polychronic Richard Gesteland
• Number of concurrent tasks Single task to
  multi-task
• Flexibility of schedule time allocation AND
  sequencing rigid to fluid
• Degree of punctuality absolute to absent

16
Space

• Size of personal bubble Edward Hall
• What is too close in what situations?
• Close family
• Close friends
• Business partners
• Social acquaintances
• Business acquaintances
• Strangers

17
What is private?

• If I work with you, how much access do you expect
  to have to my office space,my personal life and
  home?
• re Specific vs. Diffuse -- (level of
  involvement) access is to a specific portion of
  someones life or diffuse access to one
  private area is access to all private areas. Plus
  wide range of delineation of what is public
  (shared readily) and what is private (your
  refrigerator or your car?). Separation of
  business and private vs. merging of biz and
  private. How do you create a private space?
  (physical barriers, visual delineations, aural
  cues, eye contact, etc)
•  

18
Leadership Effectiveness

• Reference
• Kouzes, James and Posner, Barry. The Leadership
  Challenge. San FranciscoJossey-Bass, 2002 (3rd
  edition), pages 13 22, 24-25. Goleman, Daniel.
  Leadership that Gets Results. Harvard Business
  Review,March-April 2000, pages 78-90.
• Derr, C. Brooklyn Roussillon, Sylvie and
  Bournois, Frank. Cross-Cultural Approaches to
  Leadership Development. Westport, Connecticut
  Quorum Books,2002, pages 290-292.
• Graham, John l. and Lam, N. Mark. The Chinese
  Negotiation. Harvard Business Review, October
  2003, pages 82-91.

19
Theories

• Kouzes Posner
• Model the Way behavior that wins you respect,
  lead from own values, examples are often on the
  simple things spending time with people,
  working side by side, telling stories, being
  visible during crisis/uncertainty
• KP list (top four)
• Honest
• Forward Looking
• Competent
• Inspiring

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• Inspire a Shared Vision vision of what could
  be, total belief in making that vision a reality,
  AND can inspire commitment to that vision in
  others. Forging a unity of purpose. Incredibly
  enthusiastic
• Challenge the Process take risk. Pioneer.
  Willing to step into the unknown and change the
  status quo. Dont have to invent do have to
  adopt early. Help others feel safe in
  risk-taking. Problems shape leaders who learn
  from failure (and successes).
• Enable others to Act trust, empowerment,
  teamwork. Give people the chance of autonomy,
  discretion, authority. Provide both the resources
  and the safety net. 
• Encourage the Heart help others feel strong and
  capable. Show appreciation. Create celebration.
  Recognition. (from the heart). Lship IS about
  strong and sustainable relationships.

21
Goleman

• Threshold capabilities (intelligence, appropriate
  skills, cognitive skills bigpicture thinking,
  long-term vision)
• Emotional Intelligence (twice as important for
  outstanding performance)
• Self-awareness
• Self-regulation reasonable people create an
  environment of trust and fairness. Roll with the
  changes.
• Motivation achieve for the sake of achievement
• Empathy
• Social Skill knack for building rapport

22
Welch (4 Es)

• Integrity
• Intelligence (breadth of knowledge plus
  emotional intelligence)
• Energy
• Energize
• Edge (courage to make tough decisions)
• Execute
• Passion

23
Leadership metaphors

• Derr, Rousillon and Bournois
• USA The Free Agent, superstar
• Latin America The General, strong man in
  charge
• France The Genius, intellectual elite
• UK The Diplomat
• Germany The Master, expert in field
• Japan Senior Statesman
• China Warlord, has local power( Traits of
  Chinese
• Leader )

24
Graham and Lam (Chinese Negotiation)

• Guanxi (Personal connections and individual
  social capital)
• Zhongjian Ren (The intermediary)
• Shehui Dengji (Social status and deference to
  superiors)
• Renji Hexie (Interpersonal harmony)
• Zhengti Guannian (Holistic thinking)
• Jiejian (Thrift)
• Mianzi (Face)
• Chiku Nailao (Endurance)