Lecture 2

International Human Resource Management

Lecture Objectives
1. Discuss the definitions of culture
2. Discuss the various Cultural concepts

3. Examine intercultural mgmt. studies:

Hofstede, GLOBE, Trompenaars, & others

4. Review cross-cultural mgmt. research
5. Development of cultures

Kluckhohn & Kroeber

Thinking

Feeling

Reacting

The essential core of culture

traditional ideas &

their attached values

Hansens 4 elements of culture:

Standardization of

1. Communication
2. Thought
3. Feeling
4. Behaviour

Scheins concept of culture

A culture has 3 levels:
1. Artifacts - visible
2. Values intermediate level of consciousness
3. Underlying assumptions invisible,

unconscious

In Summary The Nature of Culture

Culture defined: Acquired knowledge that
people use to interpret experience and
generate social behavior. This knowledge
forms values, creates attitudes, and influences
behavior.

The Hofstede study

Cultural Dimensions
Work by Gert Hofstede research of IBM
1. Power distance
2. Uncertainty avoidance
3. Femininity vs. masculinity
4. Individualism vs. collectivism
5. Confucianism or long-term orientation

How Culture Affects

Managerial Approaches
Centralized vs. Decentralized Decision Making
Safety vs. Risk

Individual vs. Group Rewards

Informal Procedures vs. Formal Procedures
High Organizational Loyalty vs. Low Organizational
Loyalty
Cooperation vs. Competition
Short-term vs. Long-term Horizons

Stability vs. Innovation

Values in Culture
Values
Learned from culture in which individual is reared
Differences in cultural values may result in varying
management practices
Basic convictions that people have about

Right and wrong

Good and bad
Important and unimportant

Development
of Cultures &
There is increasing
Culture
1. International connectedness
2. Global economy coordination
Change

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?

Vocabulary
Culture
cross-cultural management
Hofstede:

power distance, uncertainty avoidance, feminity vs. masculinity,

individualism vs. collectivism, long-term orientation
Confucianism, Confucianism dynamics
GLOBE:
ingroup, in-group collectivism vs. institutional collectivism
organizational culture, national culture, gender egalitarianism,
assertiveness, performance orientation, humane orientation
Trompenaars, & Hampden-Turner:
universalism vs. particularism, communitarianism, neutral vs.
emotional, diffuse vs. specific, ascriptive vs. achievement,
sequential vs. synchronic time, internal vs. external control
Hall & Hall:
high vs. low context, spatial orientation,
polychrome vs. monochrome time