Deck 4: Sociocultural Forces

Question 1

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

Answer 1

True

Question 2

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

Answer 2

True

Question 3

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

Answer 3

False

Question 4

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

Question 5

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

Question 6

Hofstede's framework is based on social science theory.

Question 7

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

Question 8

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

Question 9

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

Question 10

In Human Resources,the American employee protection laws (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission-EEOC)allow an American company to be successful on the cultural front in all foreign labor markets.

Question 11

We are each born with a unique culture.

Question 12

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

Question 13

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

Question 14

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

Question 15

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

Question 16

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

Question 17

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

Question 18

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

Question 19

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

Question 20

Low context cultures such as the U.S.have explicit communication patterns.

Question 21

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

Question 22

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

Question 23

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

Question 24

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

Question 25

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

Question 26

There are few cultural misunderstandings in the discipline of marketing.

Question 27

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

Question 28

Leadership is universal; all people want to be led.

Question 29

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 30

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

Question 31

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

Question 32

Facebook is a social institution based on free association.

Question 33

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

Question 34

Material culture includes all human-made objects.

Question 35

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

Question 36

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

Question 37

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

Question 38

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

Question 39

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

Question 40

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

Question 41

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 42

That almost everyone in the U.S.self-identifies as middle class suggests that

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

Question 43

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 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

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 46

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 workgroup to self-direct.

Question 47

Material culture includes

A)what people in the culture make,such as tools,art,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 48

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 49

Culture plays a significant role in the disciplines 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 50

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 51

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,so what they are.
C)not rewarded at all because achievement is a doing mentality.
D)rewarded for their lineage.

Question 52

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 53

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 54

Most developed nations have

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

Question 55

Culture includes everything but

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

Question 56

A culture's sense of beauty and taste

A)is universal,as described in Homer's The Odyssey.
B)is an aesthetic concern of no interest to the international manager.
C)is 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 57

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 the reference point.
D)all of the above.

Question 58

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 59

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 60

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 61

While Trompenaars was trained as an economist,Hofstede and Hall were trained as

A)anthropologists.
B)business scholars.
C)accountants.
D)strategic planners.

Question 62

Hall suggests the communication tends to be implicit and indirect in

A)the U.S.
B)HC/high context.
C)LC/low context.
D)Australia.

Question 63

Facebook is a(n)

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

Question 64

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 65

In high context cultures,relationships tend to be

A)short term
B)medium term,except for family
C)long term
D)pragmatic

Question 66

In HC cultures,time tends to be

A)loosely conceived.
B)tightly planned.
C)monochronic.
D)polychronic.

Question 67

Accounting controls directly relate to a culture's assumptions about

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

Question 68

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 U.S.

Question 69

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.

Question 70

For countries where people are relatively loosely connected and tend to focus on themselves and their immediate family,Hofstede would describe them as

A)myopic.
B)xenophobic.
C)self-referential.
D)individualistic.

Question 71

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 72

Monochronic cultures tend to be

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

Question 73

The only cultural framework we describe in this 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 74

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 75

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 76

The extent to which members of a society expect and accept power to be distributed unequally is termed by Hofstede as

A)uncertainty avoidance.
B)feminist.
C)power distance.
D)non-democratic.

Question 77

If people belong to strong,cohesive in-groups that look after them in exchange for loyalty,the culture is likely to be

A)low context.
B)collectivist.
C)economically underdeveloped.
D)democratic.

Question 78

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 79

Hall's high and low context is based upon communication styles,and specifically on the role of

A)the speakers.
B)nonverbal behavior.
C)the medium.
D)context.

Question 80

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