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Gastón Fornés, PhD International Business Gaston Fornes, PhD gaston.fornes@ International culture What is culture? The sum total of the beliefs, rules, techniques, institutions, and artefacts that characterise human populations The collective programming of the mind Socialisation process: the influence of parents, friends, education, and the interaction with other members of a particular society as the basis for one’s culture These influences result in learned patterns of behaviour common to members of a given society Definitions vary according the unit of analysis and disciplinary approach Key elements: language, religion, values, attitudes, customs, and norms of a group or society The importance of culture in different business contexts Key dimensions of culture Two levels Psychic or psychological (psychic distance as a measure of distance between groups) The similarity or difference between two cultures Institutional level: looks at national (or group) culture embodied in institutions (government, education, and economic institutions as well as in business organisations) Key studies Hofstede’s four dimensions of culture I Power distance the extent to which a culture accepts that power in organisations is distributed unequally. High power distance equates with steep organisational hierarchies, with more autocratic leadership and less employee participation in decision making Uncertainty Avoidance: The degree to which members of a society feel uncomfortable with risk and uncertainty. High uncertainty avoidance will be reflected in the high priority placed on rituals, routines, and procedures in organisations and society in general. Countries with low uncertainty avoidance tend to emphasise flexibility and informality rather than bureaucracy Hofstede’s four dimensions of culture II Individualism The extent to which people are supposed to take care of themselves and be emotionally independent from others. The tendency of people to look after themselves and the