HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATION

MBA 218

International Dimension of
Organizational Behavior

By: MARICEL P. BUENO

 OVERVIEW
This chapter examines the following topics:

 International Dimensions
 UncertaintyAvoidance
 Masculinity-Femininity
 Individualism-Collectivism
 Power Distance
 Short-Term/Long-Term Orientation
 Effects on Organizational Behavior
 CulturalTrends: Four Scenarios
 Organizational Effects
 Cross Cultural Differences
 Managing International Differences
 Introduction
With multinationalization and globalization
come differences in nationality and culture that can
have major effects on micro, meso, and macro
organizational behavior. Today’s managers must
take international differences seriously if they expect
to compete and succeed in global markets
 International Dimensions
Dutch researcher, Geert Hofstede, discovered
that most differences among national cultures were
described by four cross-cultural dimensions:
 Uncertainty avoidance
 Masculinity-femininity
 Individualism-collectivism
 Power distance
In later research, Canadian researcher Michael
Harris Bond, uncovered a fifth dimension
 Long-term/short-term orientation
 Uncertainty Avoidance
The degree to which people are comfortable
with ambiguous situations and with the inability to
predict future events with assurance is called
uncertainty avoidance. People with weak uncertainty
avoidance feel comfortable even though they are
unsure about current activities or future events.
People with strong uncertainty avoidance are most
comfortable when they feel a sense of certainty
about the present and future.
 Masculinity-Femininity

Hofstede used the term masculinity to refer to

the degree to which a culture is founded on values
that emphasize independence, aggressiveness,
dominance, and physical strength. Femininity
according to Hofstede, describes a society’s
tendency to favor such values as interdependence,
compassion, empathy, and emotional openness.
Together, the extremes of masculinity and femininity
delineate the dimension of masculinity-femininity in
Hofstede’s analysis of cross-cultural differences
 Individualism-Collectivism
According to Hofstede, individualism-
collectivism is a dimension that traces cultural
tendencies to emphasize either satisfying personal
needs or looking after the needs of the groupFrom
the viewpoint of individualism, pursuing personal
interests is seen as being more important and
succeeding in the pursuit of these interests is critical
to both personal and societal well-beingThe
collectivist perspective emphasizes that group
welfare is more important than personal
interestsThe members of collectivist national
cultures tend to ignore personal needs for the sake
of their groups, ensuring group welfare even if
personal hardships must be endured
 Power Distance
Power distance is a dimension that reflects the
degree to which the members of a society accept
differences in power and status among
themselvesPower distance influences attitudes and
behaviors by affecting the way that a society is held
together
 Short-Term/Long-Term Orientation

The dimension of short-term/long-term

orientation reflects the extent to which the
members of a national culture are oriented toward
the recent past and the present versus oriented
toward the future. The short-term orientation
supports immediate consumption and opposes the
deferral of pleasure and satisfaction. A longer-term
orientation favors the opposite strategy, that is,
doing what is necessary now whether pleasant or
unpleasant, for the sake of future well-being
 Effects on Organizational Behavior

The five-dimensional model based on the

research by Hofstede and Bond does not lack for
criticsNonetheless, the model is the most
comprehensive cross-cultural framework currently
available and it can stimulate useful insights into
ways in which organizational behavior varies from
one national culture to another.
 Cultural Trends: Four Scenarios
For an in-class project, use the five dimensions
of Hofstede and Bond’s model to explain the four
scenarios described in the text, pages , which deal
with the following topics:Feelings about
progressTendencies toward confrontation or
consensusLocus of controlStatus and social position
 Organizational Effects
The four scenarios illustrate how the Hofstede-
Bond five-dimensional model can diagnose
differences in national culture and help identify some
of the cultural roots of everyday customs and
behaviors. To understand how these cultural
differences can influence organizational behavior,
consider first the national culture of the United
States and its effects on American theories and
practices
 Cross-Cultural Differences

To further understand how the differences

highlighted in the Hofstede-Bond model can
influence behavior in organizations, consider the
various areas of organizational behavior as practiced
in organizations throughout the world
 Cross-Cultural Differences:
Decision-Making and Motivation
On an Israeli kibbutz (a self-contained
community) decision making is shared among the
adult membershipJapanese organizations are well
known for their use of ringiseiIn contrast, Korean
organizations seldom use groups to make
decisionsJapanese motives and motivation are
influenced by the relatively strong collectivism that
characterizes Japan’s national cultureCollectivist
loyalty is encouraged in large Japanese firms by the
nenko system of wage paymentSeniority is the single
most important factor in determining a Japanese
worker’s compensation
 Cross-Cultural Differences:
Work Design
Jobs in the Swedish automotive industry are
organized not around the assembly-line processes
commonly found in the United States and elsewhere,
but instead according to the principles of reflective
production
 Cross-Cultural Differences: Leadership

Consistent with cultural proclivities favoring

low power distance, mangers in Sweden often do
not supervise employees directly nor do they issue
direct orders to coordinate work activitiesGroups
and committees fulfill leadership functions in many
Swedish firmsWorks council: composed of worker
representatives who are elected by their peers and
management representatives who are appointed by
top managementSpecial-interest committees:
composed of worker and manager representatives
who provide the works council with advice on
specific issues
 Cross-Cultural Differences:
Organization Structure
The structures of family businesses in China
reflect the ideology of patrimonialism, which brings
together the elements of paternalism, hierarchy,
mutual obligation, responsibility, and familialism that
grow out of the Chinese national culture’s high
collectivism and power distance.The kinds of
dependence relations and communication patterns
formed in Japanese organizations create a
latticework structure of vertical and horizontal
relationships among the company's managers
 Cross-Cultural Differences:
Organizational Change

In general, national cultures that are highly

supportive of organizational change tend to have
low power distance, high individualism, and low
uncertainty avoidance
 Managing International Differences
Diagnosing and understanding the primary
features of national cultures are critical to success in
the management of international organizational
behavior because this represents the first step
toward determining whether familiar management
practices must be reconfigured before being used
abroadCertain trends seem to support the
convergence hypothesis, which suggests that
national cultures, organizations, and management
practices throughout the world are becoming more
homogeneous