The Cultural Context of IHRM

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Learn these key findings and themes:
1. Definitions of culture
2. Cultural concepts
3. Results of various intercultural mgmt.
studies:Hofstede, GLOBE, Trompenaars,
& others
4. Reflections on cross-cultural mgmt.
research
5. Development of cultures

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 Give a definition of national culture in your
own words. Give some examples of typical
behaviour in your own culture compared
with another.
 How does national culture affect
organizational culture?
 Why is time an important aspect of
culture? How might this concept affect the
behavior of employees in another culture
differently from in your own?

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 Explain how culture is relevant to leadership
style?
 If you were sending an expatriate to lead a
team of local employees in India, what style
would you advise him/her to use and why?
 What do you understand by cultural
adjustment?
 Why is this concept important for
International HR Managers who supervise
expatriate employees?

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 Culture consists in patterned ways of  Thinking
 Feeling
 Reacting
acquired & transmitted mainly by symbols,
constituting the distinctive achievements of human
groups, including their embodiments in artefacts;

The
essential traditional ideas &
consists of
core of their attached values
culture
Standardization of 1. Communication
2. Thought
3. Feeling
4. Behavior

How many
languages in the
world today?
A culture has 3 levels:

1. Artefacts - visible
2. Values – intermediate level of consciousness
3. Underlying assumptions – invisible,
unconscious
1. Nature of reality & truth
2. Time dimension
3. Effect of spatial proximity & distance
4. Nature of being human
5. Type of human activity
6. Nature of human relationships
 Describe organizational behavior
 Compare between countries & cultures

 Explain & improve interaction between

employees, customers, suppliers or business
in different countries & cultures
1. Power distance
2. Uncertainty avoidance
3. Femininity vs. masculinity
4. Individualism vs. collectivism
5. Confucianism or long-term orientation
 Great endurance, persistence in pursuing goals
 Position of ranking based on status
 Adaptation of traditions to modern conditions
 Respect of social & status obligations within
limits
 High savings rates & high investment activity
 Readiness to subordinate oneself to a purpose
 The feeling of shame
 Personal candor & stability
 Avoiding loss of face
 Respect of social & status obligations
without consideration of costs
 Low savings rates & low investment activity
 Expectations of quick profit
 Respect for traditions
 Greetings, presents & courtesies based on
reciprocity
Hofstede study: Power distance & individualism vs. collectivism
Impact of the cultural context on HRM practices
 Realization of cross-level studies
Consider groups, organizations, & country
levels

 Inclusion of cross-cultural differences

Consider intracultural variance

 Inclusion of theoretically relevant moderators

Consider sex, class affiliation, etc.

 Interaction between variables

 Are there leadership behaviors, attributes & org.
practices effective across all cultures?
 Are there leadership behaviors, attributes & org.
practices effective in some cultures only?
 How much do leadership attributes affect the
effectiveness of specific leadership behavior & its
acceptance by subordinates?
 How much do behaviors & attributes in specific
cultures influence the well-being of members in the
researched societies?
 What is the relationship between these socio-cultural
variables & an international competitive capacity
of the various sample societies?
1. Institutional collectivism
2. In-group collectivism
3. Uncertainty avoidance
4. Power distance
5. Gender egalitarianism
6. Assertiveness
7. Performance orientation
8. Humane orientation
Relationships 1. Universalism vs. particularism
between 2. Individualism vs.
people communitarianism
3. Emotional vs. neutral
4. Specific vs. diffuse
5. Ascription vs. achievement

Concept of time 6. Sequential vs. synchronic

concept of time

Concept of nature 7. Internal vs. external control

1. High vs. low context communication
2. Spatial orientation
actual distance between people when
communicating
3. Monochrome vs. polychrome time
sequential processes vs. parallel actions
4. Information speed
high or low information flow during
communication
There is increasing
1. International connectedness

2. Global economy coordination

3. Harmonization of laws & regulations

4. Migration

Cultures are not confined to given territories.

This means new challenges for HRM.

 How resistant are cultures to change?

 Generation Y are fast, self-organized & absorbed learners
with distinct work-life balance preferences
 Entire society workforces are aging