IHRM UNDERSTANDING CULTURE

AND MULTICULTURALISM
Rohini M Budhiraja

Influence of National Culture on

organisation culture
Organisation behaviour shaped by cultural
preferences of employees and leaders
National Culture influences the extent to which
leadership, teams and employees are socially
valued and supported
Directive styles of leadership fail in North
America, North Europe, Australia and New
Zealand
Sweden
and
Japan
support
employee
Involvement

Influence of National Culture on

organisation culture The Family
Person-oriented
Culture

Face to face and Hierarchical: father-children

relationship
Work in this time is more like home
Japanese recreate the family in their corporate
culture
Indulgence to younger and respect to elder
Pressure is moral rather than legal
Relationship is for long term and one of loyalty
Culture clusters: Greece, Italy, Japan, Singapore,
South Korea, Spain, other nations which
industrialized late and smaller companies
The impact of culture 11/20/01

The Eiffel Tower Culture

Hierarchies Bureaucratic division of
roles,coordinated from top of hierarchy.
Boss has legal authority confined to office
Ascribed status to a role and not to a person
Careers are assigned to professional qualification
Personal relationships are not desired

Culture clusters: Austria and Germany

The impact of culture 11/20/01

The Guided Missile Culture

Egalitarian impersonal and task focussed
Project focussed is undertaken by teams and
groups
Status is achieved
Individualistic
Must do whatever it takes to complete the
project and what is needed is unclear
Culture clusters: USA, Norway, Ireland

The impact of culture 11/20/01

The Incubator Culture

Person-oriented organisation is secondary
to fulfillment of individual
Personal Egalitarian
Minimal hierarchies and structure
Creative and spontaneous
Leadership is achieved
Culture Clusters: Sweden,USA (Silicon
Valley), UK (Silicon Glen) and smaller
companies
The impact of culture 11/20/01

Characteristics of Trompenaars Four Types

of Corporate Culture
Family

Eiffel Tower

Guided
Missile

Relationship
between
employees

Diffuse relationships
to organic whole to
which one is bonded

Specific role in
mechanical system
of required
interactions

Specific tasks in
cybernetic system
targeted upon shared
objectives

Diffuse,
spontaneous
relationships
growing out of
shared creative
process

Attitudes toward
authority

Status is ascribed to
parent figures who
are close and
powerful

Status is ascribed
to superior roles,
which are distant
yet powerful

Status is achieved by
project group
members who
contribute to
targeted goals

Status is achieved
by individuals
exemplifying
creativity and
growth

Ways of thinking
and learning

Intuitive, holistic,
lateral, and errorcorrecting

Logical, analytical,
vertical, and
rationally efficient

Problems centered,
professional,
practical, crossdisciplinary

Process oriented,
creative, an hoc,
inspirational

Attitudes towards
people

Family members

Human resources

Specialists and
experts

Co-creators

Ways of changing

Father changes
course

Change rules and

procedures

Shift aim as target

moves

Improvise and
attune

Ways of
motivating and
rewarding

Intrinsic satisfaction
in being loved and
respected

Promote to greater
position, larger role

Pay or credit for

performance and
problems solved

Participating in the
process of creating
new realities

Variables

Incubator

CULTURE DIMENSIONS
Globe Project
The GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organisational Behaviour
Effectiveness) project team identified nine cultural dimensions
distinguishing one society to another

Assertiveness - individuals in organisations or societies are

expected to be tough, confrontational and competitive versus modest
Future Orientation - future-oriented behaviours, delaying immediate
gratification.
Performance Orientation - strive for continued improvement and
excellence.
Human Orientation - individuals are encourage and reward for being
altruistic, generous, caring and kind to others.

CULTURE DIMENSIONS
Globe Project
Gender Differentiation - role differentiation and gender
discrimination.
In-group Collectivism - individuals express pride, loyalty, and
cohesiveness in their organisations or families.
Collectivism/Societal - organisational and societal practices
encourage and reward collective distribution of resources and
collective action.
Power Distance - power should be unequally distributed.
Uncertainty Avoidance - relying on social norms, rituals and
bureaucratic practices lo minimize the unpredictability of future
happenings

Kluckhohn and Strodthbeck

Pattern of behavior and thinking
S.No

Orientation of People

Pattern of Behaviour
and Thinking

What is the nature of

people?

Good ,Evil, Mixed

What is a persons
relationship to nature?

Dominant, harmony or
subjugation

What is the persons

relationship to others?

Hierarchial, collectivist or
others?

What is the modality of

human activity?

Doing, being or
containing

What is the temporal

focus of human activity?

Future,present or past

What is the conception of Private,Public or mixed

Space?

1) What is the nature of people

Doughlas MC Gregor Human side enterprise
1960 descibed the theory X and theory Y
Task is change organisation
structure,management practice,HR practice to
allow individual potential to be released
Evil -Self centered, Indiff to org needs,lazy,lack
ambition,dislike resp
Good-Potential to develop and assume
resp,persue org goals, democracy exists with
delegation of authority(Japan & Saudi Arabia)
Mixed Middlemen exist and business contracts
are specific legal contracts are
flourishing(America and India)

2) What is persons relationship with

nature
Locus of control is external or InternalDominant,Harmony or Subjugation
Americans dominant by nature think everything
can be controlled and spend huge amounts of
money on space research,weather control and
biotech
Diff of views is encouraged,org change is easy to
implement and consultants play an imp role
Eastern Countries believe in harmony and
there should be peace in man and nature avoid
conflicts
Middle east and India have subjugation believe
in destiny and god is controlling
everything,astrology affects success and failure
god

3) What is persons relationship with

other
Hierarchial, collectivist and others/individualistic
Importance of hierarchy, seniority age and sex,
Official Position
Thialand, China,Indonesia have follower ship
than leadership
Org culture taller and communication is top
down
Seniors are obeyed and diff of opinion is avoided
America is individualist and individual excellence
is valued in society
The needs of group are uppermost and people
strive to consensus

4) What is modality of human

activity
Doing,being or containing
Doing- German, Americian, and English self
identification is imp and focussed on actions and
performance
Rate of Innovation is high
Being- People are philosophical and spend time
in abstract thinking
Middle East,India and China Status is from
birth,age and sex,family and social connection
Japan and Thailand focus on self control balance
between feeling and doing

5) What is the temporal focus on

human Activity
America is future oriented and believe it can be
planned and controlled
India ,Pakistan and Middle east countries base
decisions on past

6) What is the Conception of Space

China space is public
Western countries space is private

Hofstede
1,16,000 employees, 70 countries 3
regions East and West Africa, Saudi
Arabia
Assumptions
Work related values are not universal
Underlying values persisit where MNC
tries to impose same norm on foreign
interest
Local values determine how headquarters
are interpreted
MNC that insist on uniformity is in danger
of creating morale problems and

Power Distance
Less powerful member accept power is distributed
unequally
Distance b/w individual at different levels of hierarchy
Countries that obey blindly orders of superiors have high
power distance
Eg Mexico,India,South Korea,Finance,Indonesia and
Singapore have high PD
Greatest in Malaysia and least in Ireland and Austria
If the supervisory levels are less then highly qualified
people are employed
Salary gap is higher
Symbols and status will be highly valued and have high
motivation appeal
Organisations with low PD are decentralised, flatter
structure
US, Austria, Ireland, Norway,New Zeland

Uncertainty Avoidance
People feel threatened by ambiguous situations and have
created beliefs and instructions and avoid these
High uncertainty oriented nations tend to have high need
for security and strong belief in expert and knowledge
Germany, Spain and Japan are anxiety prone and have
stress, high premium on job security career planning and
health insurance
Clear rules and regulations are welcomed and those who
give clear instructions are respected, low labour turnover,
less ambitious employees
Low uncertainty are more entreprenuerial,innovative and
exhibit less emotional resistance to changeDenmark,Britain
Swedes are shy and positive and feel suppressing
emotions is good and talkativeness is negative they adopt
a rational approach, new technology, encourage people to
assume responsibity for actions

Individualism
Tendency to look after themselves and family only
Tendency to look after group and feeling of belongingness
in exchange of loyality Collectivism
Individualist dont have a strong emotional bond and are
loyal as long as it suits them
Americans high on Individualist score go to court against
authority and claim rights,individual decisions are valued
over group
USA,Canada, Sweden,Denmark are high on individualist
score
Collectivist feel WE Employer and Employee are one
family and relationship prevails task and duty
Promotion is on loyality and seniority
Pakistan, Latin America low on individualist score and low
GNP

Masculinity
Dominant values are success,money and things
Japan high on masculinity lays importance of earning and
recognition,high on job stress
Germany and Spain are large scale enterprises and high
economic growth and low on conservation
Norway low on Masculinty as a cooperative,friendly
atmosphere and has employment security

MULTICULTURALISM
Multiculturalism means that people from many
cultures (and frequently many countries) interact
regularly.
Global firms are repositories of multiculturalism.
Not that the domestic firms have only
monocultures.

Cultural Predispositions
Ethnocentrism
The home countrys culture is sought to be imposed on
subsidiaries.
The MNC exports its HR policies and practices from home
office to foreign locations.
Ethnocentric policy is justified on the following reasons:
Need to maintain a unified corporate culture among all subsidiaries.

An ethnocentric policy - disadvantages:

Expatriate managers may not be able to adapt to local conditions
easily and early.
Expatriate managers are often poorly trained for international
assignments and tend to commit mistakes.

Cultural Predispositions
Polycentricism
Multinational Corporation seeks to adapt to the local
cultural needs of subsidiaries
Polycentricism is more pronounced in the context of
human resource practices
Does not bestow absolute freedom to subsidiary heads as
stand alone units
Host-country managers visit home offices for extended
periods to get acquainted with the company's culture and
are taught how to protect the nuances of corporate culture,
respecting of course, the host country's beliefs and values.

Cultural Predispositions
Regiocentricism
Regiocentric approach operates in the same way
as polycentricism
IHRM practices are applicable to regions.

Cultural Predispositions
Geocentricism
Subsidiary operations are managed by the best
qualified individuals, regardless of their nationality
The capable managers adapt easily and well to
different cultures and usually arc bilingual or
multilingual