Deck 1: A Strategic Approach to Organizational Behavior

Question 1

Individual Cultural Self-Awareness. As summarized in , which values do you think best reflect your personal orientation on each of the six dimensions? Why? Think of an example of your own behavior that fits each values orientation.

Answer 1

The six of the basic dimensions which reflects the orientation of culture towards societies are:
1. Value oriented: Perception of individual which may have dimensions of good, good and evil and evil
2. World: Perception of world which may have dimensions dominant, harmony or subjugation
3. Human relations: Human relation perception which may have dimensions of individual, laterally extended or hierarchical groups
4. Activity: Activity perception of people which may have dimension like doing, controlling or being
5. Orientation in time: Time which may have dimensions of future, present or past value orientation
6. Orientation in space: Space which may have dimension of private, mixed or public value orientation
The values which best reflect personal orientation on each of the six dimensions is human relation. Human relation relates and explains people's individual activities and its relationship with others and to the world. The primary activities and the orientation towards time and space are also predicted through human relation. Example the relationship between employers and workers in organization reflects the human relation.
The behavior of being informative and understanding is applicable and suits well to all the value oriented dimensions effectively.

Question 2

National Cultural Self-Awareness. Describe your country's dominant culture on each of the six values orientations. What concrete evidence do you have supporting the position of your country's culture on each dimension? If managers from a foreign country were observing your culture for the first time, what would they observe that would convince them of your culture's position on each of the values orientations?

Answer 2

Country I's dominant culture on each of the six value orientation lies in its traditional based culture. The six value orientation dimensions show the traditional based culture of country I and they are described one by one:
1. People qualities of individual dimension shows that they are accustomed towards the traditional cultural pattern;
2. People of the country have harmony relationship with the world.
3. People have laterally extended groups dimension human relationships with others.
4. Primary type of activities based on traditional culture is mostly agricultural and manufacturing based.
5. Time of the present and past is taken into consideration to work out the future processes of work.
6. Orientation towards space or gap is mixed. Some are private and some are public in dimensions.
People of the Country I is more concerned about their traditional and cultural background and hence behaves accordingly.
Concrete evidences for supporting the country I's culture on each of the value oriented dimensions are as follows:
People have a traditional lifestyle of behaving, serving food and ways of speaking to elders. There is harmony relationship with the other cultures inside the country and outside the country. There are diversification and good relationships among various groups of people. Country I have the agricultural activity as the traditional source of income for most number of people. Present and past ethics and culture followed are taken into consideration to frame the future strategies. There is mixed public and private sectors operating in the country.
Managers from the foreign country when observing the culture of country I for the first time would be satisfied. This is because the traditional culture and its positioning in the various mixed sectors have so well matched the value orientation. Managers will find there is smooth functioning of organizations with competent labor force dedicated to work on this traditional based culture.

Question 3

Cross-Cultural Awareness. Think about a cross-cultural situation you have been in-a situation in which you are working or negotiating with people from another culture. Describe their values orientations on each of the six dimensions. Where do your own values and their values orientations differ? What problems have been caused or might be caused by the differences in your values orientations? What benefits could you potentially gain by using the differences between your two cultures to your advantage?

Answer 3

Working in an organization which has cross culture pattern of workforce needs negotiation and understanding of the different culture. An employee X when working as a leading sales representative in another country A for the same Company Y. He needs to understand the culture of that country he is working properly.
Country A in which the Company Y has set its industries has got different culture. The employee who is the leading sales representative and belongs to country B faces different cultural pattern in country A. The value orientation of the country A on each of the six dimensions is as follows:
• Perception of individual with good dimension
• Perception of world with dominant dimension
• Perception of human relation with individual dimension
• Perception of activity with doing dimension
• Perception of time with future dimension
• Perception of space with private dimension
The value orientation of country A and country B differs in the following respect:
1. Perception of individual in country A has good dimension while country B has good and evil dimension
2. Perception of world in country A has dominant dimension while in country B has harmony dimension
3. Perception of human relation in country A has individual dimension while in country B has laterally extended group
4. Perception of activity in country A has doing dimension, while in country B has controlling dimension
5. Perception of time in country A has future dimension while in country B it has present dimension
6. Perception of space in country A has private dimension while in country B it has mixed dimension
Problems of understanding and explaining the culture of different people is time consuming and may cause misunderstanding and wrong judgment of facts.
The difference in the two cultures grows the ability to understand and know the various cultural aspects and cooperative workforce.

Question 4

Cross-Cultural Interaction Skills. Select a situation reported in the international press involving people from more than one culture (such as Russians negotiating a trade agreement with Indians). Analyze the situation using one or more of the values dimensions. In what ways do the values differences increase the probability of a successful outcome? In what ways might the values differences decrease the chances of success?

Question 5

Parochialism and Ethnocentrism. In what ways is your culture parochial? In what ways is it ethnocentric? Give concrete examples from situations that you have observed or that you have read about in the press. As a consultant, how might you help the managers from your culture to act in a less parochial way? How might you assist them to act in a less ethnocentric way?