The Matrix of Culture

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The Matrix of Culture
Narrowly Shared, Deeply Held Violations in this cell usually result in informal but sometimes significant punishments. Widely Shared, Deeply Held Violation in this cell usually result in formal and significant punishments.
Narrowly Shared, Shallowly Held Violation in this cell usually do not result in uniform reactions but instead are more idiosyncratic. Widely shared, Shallowly Held Violation in this cell usually result in minor punishments or sometimes second chances
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Why Consider Culture?

• MNCs are radically different from export- based
  firms not least because of their foreign
  subsidiaries. Not only does physical distance
  pose a challenge for effective communication,
  even more so there is the challenge represented
  by cultural differences.

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• MNCs have regarded cultural differences as so
  important that they have preferred to operate as
  multi-domestics with decision-making, management
  style and product development highly
  decentralized. The attitude is that people in
  the subsidiaries know best and should be allowed
  to go their own ways.

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• If foreign subsidiaries are to be integrated for
  knowledge-sharing purposes, a starting point is
  an understanding of the mindsets of subsidiary
  management and employees in terms of their
  work-related values.

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• The management challenge for many MNCs is to be
  able to adapt their organizations to culturally
  distinct environments without losing
  organizational consistency.

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The Concept of Culture

• Culture refers to the systems of values, beliefs,
  expectations and goals - shared by members of a
  particular group of people and the ideal that
  distinguish them from members of other groups.

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• It is a product of the collective programming of
  the mind' (Hofstede, 1991), that is, it is
  acquired through regular interaction with other
  members of the group.

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• Cultural differences can be found at many
  different levels, professional, class and
  regional, but it is particularly potent at the
  national level because of generations of
  socialization into the national community.

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• As individuals, we generally only become aware of
  our own culture when confronted by another.
  However, what we usually observe are the
  artifacts of cultural dissimilarity - the
  numerous and often pronounced differences in
  greeting rituals, dress codes, forms of address
  and taste.

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• The underlying system of values is, however,
  neither readily observable nor readily
  comprehensible. The core differences in values
  between cultures go back to questions of what
  works for ensuring survival in relation to the
  natural environment.

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• This method means that cultures can be clustered,
  thereby pinpointing which cultures are similar
  enough to make a standardized management approach
  viable. Two frequently cited contributions are
  the work of two Dutchmen, Geert Hofstede and Fons
  Trompenaars.

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Classifying National Cultures

• Dissecting and explaining any foreign culture is
  potentially a never-ending exercise. As an
  alternative to in-depth single-country studies
  scholars have attempted to classify cultures in
  relation to one another by using a few,
  relatively broad fundamental dimensions that are
  particularly relevant to management practice.