Deck 4: Sociocultural Forces

Question 1

Leadership traits may vary some by culture, but underneath they build on the idea that all people want to be led and directed.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Hofstede's individualism-collectivism dimension measures the degree to which people tend to be integrated into groups.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Cultural attitudes toward change can influence the acceptance of new production methods.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Low-context cultures such as the United States have explicit communication patterns.

Question 5

In high-context cultures, people tend to form long-lasting relationships that endure over time.

Question 6

When operating in other cultures, if we realize that, underneath it all, we are all the same, we will be fine.

Question 7

The United States and Canada are small power distance countries because they expect a level playing field, socially, at least at the ideal level.

Question 8

International business managers need to be able to communicate across cultural borders, even if they don't speak foreign languages.

Question 9

Business makes few costly mistakes in product introductions into foreign markets.

Question 10

In Hall's use, context is the irrelevant environment in a communication act.

Question 11

Anthropologist
E. T. Hall suggests that to learn another culture, you need to spend two weeks in it with a training program.

Question 12

Hofstede's framework is based on social science theory.

Question 13

Hofstede describes his Confucian dynamism dimension as dealing with Virtue regardless of Truth.

Question 14

When we use cultural frameworks to build our understanding of another culture, we use our own culture as an implicit reference point.

Question 15

We are each born with a unique culture.

Question 16

Hall's high-and low-context framework is based upon communication styles.

Question 17

Low-context cultures tend to be polychronic, with a lot going on at one time.

Question 18

Feminine cultures in Hofstede's dimensions care about relationships and are not focused on business success. It is quality of life that matters.

Question 19

Although some business areas are affected by culture, accounting and finance are objective and thus universal.

Question 20

In human resources, laws administered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, (EEOC) allow an American company to be successful on the cultural front in all foreign labor markets.

Question 21

The specific-diffuse dimension has to do with social patterns for child rearing.

Question 22

Culture includes everything objective, and religion contains values and is thus not a part of culture.

Question 23

The family is the basic unit of institutions based on free association.

Question 24

A culture's aesthetics is the sense of moral behavior taught to the young.

Question 25

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do" is a solid, moral guideline.

Question 26

There are three main classes of social institutions, based on the conditions of their formation: family, kinship, and free association.

Question 27

Trompenaars' dimension of individualism vs. communitarianism differs greatly from Hofstede's individualism-collectivism dimension.

Question 28

There are few cultural misunderstandings in the discipline of marketing.

Question 29

Facebook is a social institution based on free association.

Question 30

Material culture describes how people make things, who makes what, and why.

Question 31

Religion is not an important aspect of culture in countries that are secular and have split the church from the state.

Question 32

Trompenaars' dimension of universalism vs. particularism measures whether rules or rewards regulate behaviors.

Question 33

Trompenaars' achievement vs. ascription dimension describes social status based on what one does or who one is. The United States is a culture in which people build who they are through work, so its social status tends to be based on ascription.

Question 34

Material culture includes all human-made objects.

Question 35

Human resources are influenced by cultural values because values are the foundation of motivation and evaluation.

Question 36

Spoken language does not demarcate culture, but body language does.

Question 37

Leadership is universal; all people want to be led by a strong leader.

Question 38

Gift-giving across cultures is a simple kindness and need not be complicated with attempts to understand. The act of generosity says everything in and of itself.

Question 39

The unspoken language cannot tell the international manager something that the spoken language does not.

Question 40

Your neighbor's business is cutting down an acre of first-growth, virgin forest and planting a lawn and garden beds at its HQ. You are likely to be in an Anglo culture, where domination of nature seems normal.

Question 41

Most developed nations have:

A) small power distance.
B) high individualism.
C) strong uncertainty avoidance.
D) all of the above.

Question 42

An achievement culture is one in which members are:

A) rewarded with social status for who they are in a spiritual sense.
B) rewarded for what they do, what they have accomplished, and so what they are.
C) not rewarded at all because achievement is a doing mentality.
D) rewarded for their lineage.

Question 43

In high-context cultures, face-to-face relationships tend to be important and:

A) knowledge is situational.
B) decisions focus around personal relationships.
C) long term.
D) all of the above.

Question 44

Uncertainty avoidance describes man's search for Truth, according to Hofstede, because:

A) Truth is primary to our human value system; everything else depends upon it.
B) it describes how comfortable the culture's members feel in an unstructured situation.
C) once you have Truth, you can avoid change, which is always disruptive.
D) All of the above.

Question 45

According to Trompenaars, a culture's attitude toward the environment can range from:

A) peaceful to warlike.
B) overwhelmed by aesthetics to dominating the environment.
C) control over the environment to harmony with it.
D) submission to atheism.

Question 46

Monochronic time is best illustrated by:

A) university scheduling patterns.
B) a rock concert.
C) high-context cultures, such as Arab and Asian cultures.
D) all of the above.

Question 47

As we use frameworks to help us understand culture, it's important to remember that frameworks:

A) describe other cultures with precision.
B) can't be used to describe our own cultures.
C) are comparative, with our own culture being the reference point.
D) all of the above.

Question 48

In a small power distance culture:

A) people will want direction, so top-down leadership styles are appropriate.
B) seniority, rank, and title are important.
C) Small power distance suggests informality, such as the use of first names in work relationships.
C) first names are likely to be used in the office because the ideal is equality.
D) A and

Question 49

In an affective culture (Trompenaars), emotions are seen as:

A) responses to be freely displayed.
B) private and, therefore, not displayed.
C) a weakness and, therefore, hidden.
D) appropriate to share with family members only.

Question 50

That almost everyone in the United States self-identifies as middle class suggests that:

A) the United States is a successful meritocracy.
B) the United States measures low on the uncertainty avoidance dimension.
C) the U.S. economy has failed to support an aristocracy.
D) the United States measures small on the power distance dimension.

Question 51

A culture's sense of beauty and taste is:

A) universal, as described in Homer's The Odyssey.
B) an aesthetic concern of no interest to the international manager.
C) an aesthetic concern that may interest the trailing spouse and is good to know a little about.
D) expressed in the culture's art and music and important for international managers to know about.

Question 52

Individualism-collectivism measures:

A) the degree to which people in the culture are integrated into groups.
B) Individualism-collectivism measures the degree to which people are integrated into groups.
B) the tendency to differentiate male roles.
C) the degree to which social inequality is tolerated.
D) A and

Question 53

Culture plays a significant role in the discipline(s) of:

A) marketing, but not finance, because it is quantitative.
B) leadership, accounting, finance, marketing, human resources, and production.
C) marketing and human resources, but not production, finance, and accounting.
D) all foreign businesses, but not businesses of the home country.

Question 54

In low-context cultures:

A) there is subtlety and innuendo.
B) what you say tends to be what you mean, in that communication tends to be explicit.
C) indirection is prized because it recognizes the ability of the other.
D) leadership is mostly from behind, allowing the work group to self-direct.

Question 55

Referring to Hall's high-and low-context framework, in a high-context culture,

A) communication is explicit.
B) the context carries much of the communication.
C) communication is direct and focused on the topic.
D) the context is irrelevant.

Question 56

Hofstede's long-term orientation tends to be found in:

A) Asian cultures.
B) Canada.
C) Brazil.
C) Long-term orientation is characteristic of many Asian cultures. The table lists China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and India.
Refer To: Table 4.1, Characteristics of long-term and short-term orientation
D) A and

Question 57

Culture is a group of shared worldviews, social rules, and interpersonal dynamics that is:

A) chosen consciously by each group to set themselves apart from other groups.
B) learned, interrelated, and shared.
C) used as a way to separate economic classes.
D) a collection of noble pursuits including opera, art, ballet, and classical music.

Question 58

Trompenaars' particularist dimension describes a culture in which:

A) people apply the rules equally to everyone.
B) context is considered when rules are applied.
C) In particularist cultures, the particular circumstances matter when rules are applied. Relationships are a part of that context.
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C) relationships rather than rules regulate behaviors.
D) B and

Question 59

Hofstede's masculinity-femininity dimension suggests that, as an international manager, you might well:

A) avoid feminine cultures because their production levels will lag.
B) avoid very masculine cultures because they violate EEOC standards.
C) find men and women equally ready to assume leadership roles in a feminine culture.
D) find women too competitive in a feminine culture.

Question 60

Culture includes everything but:

A) religion.
B) religion and politics.
C) higher education and universal values.
D) none of the above.

Question 61

One danger of using the culture frameworks introduced in Chapter 4 is that if we apply them prescriptively:

A) we'll be able to understand too much detail of a culture, and this will slow down decision making.
B) we'll limit rather than enrich our perceptions.
C) We have to remember that these frameworks need to be applied to enrich our understandings of another culture rather than limit them. They are possible descriptors, what we might look for or be perceiving, and not prescriptions.
C) our perceptions will become stereotypes, however sophisticated.
D) B and

Question 62

Two basic ways to understand the role of leadership are as providing direction for a collection of individuals and as:

A) limiting the freedom of individual group members.
B) integrating a group.
C) linking top management with workers.
D) organizing workers for production.

Question 63

In order to really understand another culture:

A) living in it is important, but you don't need to know the spoken language.
B) both the spoken and unspoken languages are important to understand.
C) Languages are critical to building an understanding of another culture.
C) the unspoken language is enough because it allows you access to the culture.
D) A and

Question 64

The only cultural framework described in the text that is based on communication styles is:

A) Trompenaars' dimensions.
B) the Globe study.
C) Hall's high and low context.
D) Hofstede's dimensions.

Question 65

Musical tastes vary across cultures:

A) and are built on the solid foundation of the octave.
B) which is why they need to be understood by marketers who use music in commercials.
C) and come together in the Silk Road.
D) A and
D) Marketers need to understand what music connotes to their audiences.

Question 66

Gift-giving in many cultures is marked by:

A) specific etiquette and meaning that may be markedly different from what the international manager knows in the home culture.
B) graft and corruption; for example, a way to launder money.
C) humility not fitting an international manager.
D) drinking and late parties.

Question 67

Material culture includes:

A) what people in the culture make, such as tools, art, and everything material.
B) tapestries but not their frames and the wool or other fabric before it is woven.
C) only manufactures of which the culture is proud.
D) only pottery, glassware and eating utensils.

Question 68

Because of their close linkage, sociologists often combine the terms:

A) social and cultural.
B) social and kinship.
C) kinship and monogamy.
D) culture and monogamy.

Question 69

Monochronic cultures tend to be:

A) high context (HC).
B) low context (LC).
C) ethnocentric.
D) hierarchical.

Question 70

Production managers have discovered that their introduction of new production methods across cultures is affected by varying attitudes toward:

A) their personalities.
B) developed economies.
C) change.
D) technology.

Question 71

E. T. Hall suggests that to learn another culture, you have to undergo extensive training or spend:

A) a lifetime in the other culture.
B) considerable time with people of the other culture, but perhaps outside that culture.
C) time studying the language of the other culture.
D) considerable amounts of time and money taking guided tours in the other culture.

Question 72

Kinship and free association are:

A) structures for political action.
B) social structures used to develop marketing programs.
C) social institutions found in all societies and categorized by the conditions of their formation.
D) levels of the Masons found in Europe but not the United States.

Question 73

Lack of folklore knowledge is illustrated by:

A) Smirnoff's use of a Che Guevara image in Cuba, because Che is a national hero there.
B) Apple's use of an image of the Dalai Lama, because it offended China, where the government sees the Dalai Lama as a political dissident.
C) the U.S. NFL playing U.S. football in the UK.
D) A and B

Question 74

Understanding the religious beliefs of foreign markets is:

A) not really necessary because religion is one and the Truth is universal.
B) useful, because religions affect attitudes and beliefs across cultures.
C) not necessary because religion is not a part of culture; it is beyond culture.
D) useful because there is always the possibility of conversion.

Question 75

Accounting controls directly relate to a culture's assumptions about:

A) the basic nature of people.
B) inventory policy.
C) efficiency.
D) leadership.

Question 76

The presence of tattoos suggests social outcasts universally, based on:

A) their use in Japan by the Yakuza.
B) a primitive human desire to change and thus control the body.
C) a universal aesthetic.
D) nothing, because this statement is not accurate.

Question 77

Hall suggests that communication tends to be implicit and indirect in:

A) the United States.
B) high context (HC).
C) low context (LC).
D) Australia.

Question 78

Leadership may be influenced by sociocultural forces, and its model might be:

A) either anachronistic or contemporary.
B) reasoned, emotional, strategic, or planned.
C) exogenous or endogenous.
D) paternalistic, heroic, integrative, or directive.

Question 79

Facebook is:

A) an organization based on kinship.
B) an organization based on free association.
C) a tool that international marketers best avoid, given the complexities of culture.
D) a passing fad that will absorb many marketing budgets but won't produce much in the way of results.

Question 80

When you assert that a certain aspect of your own culture is superior, you are probably exhibiting:

A) objective observation.
B) ethnocentric behavior.
C) your understanding of truth.
D) your hunches.