This would certainly be the case for any organization creating a virtual development team of engineers from Japan for example, which has a MAS score of 95, reporting to women in the U.S. Conversely the countries of Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands, with some of the lowest MAS scores, would find these working arrangements in a virtual team amendable and easily adapted to. Two additional measures included in the Cultural Dimensions Index, are the Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) and Long-Term Orientation (LTO). UAI is a measure of risk aversion in a culture and LTO is one that defines the perspective of time itself in a culture. Not surprisingly China leads all nations included in the index in LTO as their culture greatly values the ordering of relations and the defining of status over time.
Taken together all of these factors provide insight into how a lack of awareness or perception of cultural differences can lead to ethnocentrism relatively quickly (Hammond, Axelrod, 2006). When these factors are taken into account from the Cultural Dimensions Model it is also apparent how critically important it is for dialogue to be frequent, genuine, and deliberately seek to create shared trust between individuals, groups and organizations involved.
While the speed of globalization is only going to increase, the use of frameworks such as the Cultural Dimensions Model are critically important for creating more of a foundation for understanding. The basic determinants of culture emanating from material objects, ideas, values and attitudes and most important expectations and perceptions of patterns of behavior, must be taken in context and not assumed to be in a familiar context. For any member of a virtual team for example, the need to create the proper context of their role in an organization is predicated on having insights into these cultural dimensions. For the manager of a virtual team to have the cultural sensitivity to gain the greatest level of cooperation from each team member, and most importantly, to give them the best possible support to ensure their success, an appreciation and sensitivity of cultural dimensions is critical.
Dialogue and Trust
From the more strategic or macro-view of intercultural and international communication to the interpersonal one where dialogue (Yankelovich, 1999) is critical, this paper...
As these examples convey, it is highly important that anyone who will be engaged in cross cultural communication be familiar with the nuances in behavior or even the lack of behavior of other nationalities as dictated by their cultures. In American business culture, communication tends to be more dynamic compared to the Japanese (Lee, 2). Most Americans expect a lively discussion when they are involved in negotiations. In American business
In that regard, fundamentally different interactions between the genders is one element of cultural practices that differs most substantially from national culture to culture and even among individuals of different ethnic or religious backgrounds within the dominant national culture. Typically, individuals of Muslim and Jewish religious traditions (and others) avoid any incidental or polite physical contact between members of the opposite gender, even though such gestures (like handshaking) might be
Cross Cultural Leadership Cultural Differences in Leadership Cultural differences determine certain leadership traits and portions of our personality. It is easy to discredit the importance of cross-cultural differences and their influences on various leadership styles. Different cultures are known for certain traits. For instance, the Australian culture is known for it egalitarianism. Chinese culture is known as an authority oriented culture (Sharpe, 2007). These differences in culture result in the development of
Employees to Foreign Country Sending Employees to Foreign Countries Cross-cultural training is essential when companies opt to send employees to foreign countries to accomplish company's objectives. Sending employees without training them on the diverse culture they will encounter is a bad decision, which can lead to accumulation of losses. In addition, the approach used by the company to train their employees, also plays a role in the success of the employee
opportunities to improve the cross-cultural and cultural-awareness training at Hilton Hotels International, Inc. This study was important because Hilton Hotels compete in 78 countries across six continents and hosts guests from virtually every country in the world during a given year. In order to continue to its efforts that began in the late 1990s to rebuild its eroded brand, Hilton Hotels has sought to exceed customer expectations at every
However, gender expectations of different nations can impede free and open discussion in intercultural communications, if a particular culture has yet to accept that it is appropriate for women to confidently assume positions of authority. Although cross-cultural communication presents a challenge, globalization has made understanding the difference between high-context and low-context cultures even more vital than ever before. Implied meanings in different cultures have different levels of signification, based upon
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