Riassunto Intercultural Business Management
Culture
History:
• Historical perspective: intrinsic link between culture and history, because in any society,
culture implies a reference to the past
• 15th century: refer to the tending of crops or to rearing animals
• 16th + 17th: refer to nurturing the human mind
• 18th: associated with arts and scholarship → in philosophy and history it stood for the
wealthy
• Generalized or essentialized cultures were regarded as collective heritage of the national
groups and identified with particular ethnic groups
Definitions:
• = a set of assumptions and values that are shared by a group of people and that guide the
group people’s interaction
• = shared body of beliefs and values that define the “should” and the ought” of life + taught
unconsciously
• = collective programming of mind which distinguishes one group from another
• = assumptions and values which identify what is successful, that isn’t, what is to be
prioritized, how people should behave
Concept:
• Culture is learned, it is not innate pyramid
• C. should be distinguished from human nature on one side and from individual’s personality
on the other
• Culture makes action simpler and more efficient
o people know how to interact to each other and how to coordinate, what to prioritize,
in business and in social interactions
• Culture provides an important source of social identity for its members
o people satisfy their social need of belonging to groups by acting in accordance with
the norms and values, and separating from outsiders
• Culture is dynamic: is not fixed but in continuous evolution
o Respecting and maintain traditions, but on the same time innovation and changes
are inside culture’s processes
Identity layers and multi-cultural identity
= culture is multi-faced and intersectional
Examples: sexual orientation, gender, hobby, ageing, nationality, corporate, religion, ethnicity,
professional role
Multi-cultural identity:
• Individual’s sense of belonging to and identification with multiple cultures or cultural
backgrounds
• Can arise when a person has been exposed to, influenced by, or has roots in more than one
cultural group
• Can vary from person to person
• Some persons strongly identify with one culture over others, while others may equally
embrace all of their cultural backgrounds
• Today, in a globalized world, multicultural identities are becoming more common and
contribute to the richness and diversity of societies
Global Sustainable Manager:
• Has expertise working effectively in international complex contexts, and across countries
• In order to achieve results in complex settings, an executive must both, manage and lead
Managing globalization = managing complexity
• Executives face more variety than before
o More diverse domestic workforce
o Increment of customers segments or niches
o Many different 4legal, tax and economic environments
o Making decisions and taking action are more complicated
• More interdependency between countries and reciprocity between their people
o Increased permeability of barriers and of cross-border flows
o Events that occur in one part of the world influence decisions taken in other part of
the world
o More difficult to predict the impact of a specific action
• More ambiguity and lack of clarity
o Difficult to see cause-effect relations due to interconnectedness and variety
o Reliability of information is not always clear
o Decision-making and action are much more challenging
Intercultural management challenges
• Multicultural teams (in presence & virtually) with different cultural background
• Relocation and global mobility
• Being an expat in a foreign country → managing a local team
• Develop business strategies, considering corporate’s KPI but also local culture expectations
• Lead a change management process in a foreign country
• Face ethical decisions
Difference between “manager” and “leader”:
Management Leadership
• Coordinating • Visioning and direction setting
• Decision making • Motivating
• Organizing and controlling aspects of a job • Aligning
• Empowering people
Process of global manager skills’ conscious development:
Global Mind-set = capacity to develop and interpret criteria for personal and business performance
that are independent from the assumptions of a single context; and to
implement those criteria appropriately in different contexts
• Cognitive complexity
o Ability to perceive multiple aspects of complex issues from multiple perspectives,
and to be able to see different interpretations
o Ability to see interactions and interactive effects and to synthesize/integrate new
and more complex understanding
• Cosmopolitanism
o Tolerance
o Ability to actively valuing and seeking out diversity which is seen as an asset
o Openness to different cultural experiences
o Willingness to explore, learn and change
• Awareness
Individual Organization
Self Myself Own organization
Understand myself and how I Understand my own
am is associated with the organizations and how their
context I am in characteristics and
effectiveness are associated
with the context we are in
Other Others Other organizations
Understand how Understand how
characteristics of people from characteristics and
other countries, cultures, and effectiveness of organizations
contexts are associated with from other countries, cultures,
the context they are in and contexts are associated
with the context they are in
How to develop a global mind-set:
• Active learning: by engaging problems where you have to assess the situation, see options,
make decisions, receive feedback
• Developing awareness of your own assumptions: by confronting with others’ assumptions
and practices (particularly about management), and thought self-reflection, becoming aware
of how they shape your perceptions, values, and behaviors
Continuous Learning:
• Continually seeking to understand the world around you
• Acting as a motivator to learn about why people in other cultures behave and think the way
they do
• Self-awareness:
o Be aware of your personal values, strengths, weaknesses, interpersonal style, and
behavioral tendencies and their impact on others
o Reflect on this knowledge in order to engage in personal development and learning
activities
• Exploration:
o Openness to understanding ideas, values, norms, situations, and behaviors that are
different from your own
o Inquisitiveness, curiosity, and an inner desire to learn
o Seek out new experiences that can cause learning or a change in your perspective
o Ability to learn from mistakes and to make adjustments to your personal strategies
Interpersonal Engagement:
• Your interest in other cultures and the importance of developing relationships with people
from other cultures
• Development of positive interpersonal relations is essential for effective performance in an
intercultural environment
• Global Mindset:
o Be interested in and seek to actively learn about other cultures
o Expand your global knowledge about people and their cultures
• Relationship interest:
o Initiate and maintain relationships with people from other cultures
o Engaging others is an energy-producing activity
o Willingness to use a foreign language in developing new relationships
Hardiness:
• Ability to be open-minded and nonjudgmental about ideas and behaviors that are new to
you
• Not get upset, stressed, frustrated, or angry when you encounter situations, people,
behavior, and ideas that are different from what you are used to
• Managing your emotions constructively and learning from failures and setbacks
• Positive regard:
o Assuming the best about people and being more accepting of different behaviors
o Not resorting to negative stereotypes
• Emotional resilience:
o Emotional strength and ability to cope with challenging emotional experiences
o Recover quickly from psychologically and emotionally challenging situations
The importance of knowing culture
• (multi-)culture is the context of International Management- → knowledge about culture is
one of the most important foundations of global sustainable leaders
• Culture provides guidance for how to decide and behave + = source of identity for its
members
Culture influence on individual behaviors
Different dimensions
Human Relationships
Individualism Collectivism
Individual initiative and achievement are Consensus decision-making and group work is
rewarded rewarded
Hierarchical Egalitarian
Culture depends on clear lines of authority, Culture empowers people based on their
often based on ascribed privilege, and demonstrated competencies, independent of
expressed through formal symbols of status any ascribed privilege, and dimmish expressions
of status and rank
Transactional Relationship
Culture puts a primary value on successful task Culture requires trusting relationship first in
accomplishment which justifies, and then order to accomplish tasks
results, in a relationship
Situational Rules-based
Culture sees particular circumstances as Culture sees universal rules, processes, and
determining action (rules are meant to be procedures as the reasons for action (rules are
broken) meant to be obeyed)
Time
Polychronic Monochronic
Culture normally has a flexible view of time, Culture sees time as linear, progressive, and
seeing it as a fluid constant and a kind of controllable, with human activity being
context in which human activity occurs determined by the clock, calendars, and
agendas
External Control Internal Control
Culture sees individuals and organizations as Culture sees individuals and organizations as in
subordinate to forces beyond their control control of future events
Risk avoidant Risk comfortable
Culture puts energy and time into reducing all Culture feels secure with risk, uncertainty, and
risk, uncertainty, and ambiguity before making ambiguous situations, enabling them to make
decisions or taking steps forward quick decisions
Process Results
Culture requires logical processes and all the Culture requires just enough information to
details before reaching a conclusion (deductive justify the decision (inductive logic)
logic)
Communication with others
High Context Low Context
Culture embeds information in the style and Culture uses words explicitly and specifically to
context of their communication, and not in the carry the exact meaning of their
specific words communication, and avoid implied context-
determined information
Harmony Confrontation
Culture is conflict-avoidant, and communicate Culture explicitly expresses skepticism, doubt,
difficulty or negativity obliquely and negativity in an effort to efficiently find a
solution
Formal Informal
Culture values the expression of protocols, Culture deemphasizes the importance of ritual
ritual, and etiquette formalities
Achievement Balance
Culture sees work as an opportunity for Culture sees work as just one element of the
personal, competitive advantage, advancement, larger social fabric of life for all
and achievement
Cultural Types: The Lewis Model
Linear-active Multi-active Reactive
• Talks half of the time • Talks most of the time • Listens most of the
• Does one thing at the • Does several things at time
time once • Reacts to partner’s
• Plans ahead step by • Plans grand outline action
step only • Looks at general
• Polite but direct • Emotional principles
• Confronts with logic • People-oriented • Polite, indirect
• Job-oriented • Feelings before facts • Never confronts
• Sticks to facts • Relationship-oriented • Very people-oriented
• Sticks to agenda • Roams back and forth • Statements are
promises
• Written word • Spoken word • Harmony-oriented
important important • Face-to-face contact
• Restrained body • Unrestrained body important
language language • Subtle body language
Limits of cross-cultural framework
• Individuals do not always conform to their cultures
• Some individuals of one cultural group are more like those of another cultural group
• Cultures are much more complex than can be described by cultural orientations
• Cultures are dynamic, always changing
MBI
= Map, Bridge, Integrate
• Map: understand the differences (team members’ diversity)
o Describe different perspectives objectively
▪ People motivations, interests
▪ Preferred communication styles
▪ Skills, experiences, needs
o Cultural orientations framework
o Personality, function, gender, etc.
• Bridge: communicate across the differences (try to develop team identity)
o Prepare with motivation and confidence
▪ Empathy & Decentering
▪ Establish common goalss
▪ Reduce the tendency toward in-group/out-group behavior
▪ Define goals, roles, effectiveness measures
▪ Adapt communication and strategy to team diversity
o Decenter without blame
o Recenter to commonalities
• Integrate: Mange the differences (try to lead & manage diversity)
o Engage participation
▪ Clarify team vision
▪ Solve conflicts
▪ Build on new ideas
▪ Set goals, plans and monitor all
o Resolve conflict
o Build on all ideas
Biculturalism
= describes the co-existence, to varying degrees, of two originally distinct cultures. It typically
emerges in countries that have emerged from a history of national or ethnic conflict in which
neither side has gained complete victory. The term bicultural also describes a state of having or
inheriting two or more cultures or two or more ethnic traditions
➢ Higher creativity
➢ Greater professional success
➢ Ability to consider different perspectives
➢ Increased problem-solving skills and flexible reaction in case of challenging situations
➢ Bigger social network
A global company
• Operates globally, in multiple locations
• Has plants and subsidiaries in many countries
• Sells its products and services around the world, and derives more of its revenues from
international sales than domestic sales
• Its strategy is executed by, and its operations are managed by, people of one country
operating with people from another country
➔ Companies aren’t globalized, unless their people are globalized
Who are expats?
• Individual living and/or working in a country other than their country of citizenship; often
temporally and for work reasons
• May leave home for more lucrative employment or to fulfil their search for new adventures
• Usually earn more than they would at home, and more than local employees
• Get benefits such as relocation assistance and hosting allowance
Critical aspects:
• Expenses: higher salaries associated with relocating expatriates and their family, which
include many benefits
• ROI: measuring the performance of international assignees and the return on investment on
local plant’s performance. Local culture understanding and intercultural MGT are measured
at the end on the ROI
• Dual career partners: spouse not being employed during the international assignment most
of the time. What will they do? How will they impact on their partner wellbeing and
performance?
• Conflicts: between employees and groups in the local environment, due to the reproduction
of colonialism power relationship
• Lack of knowledge sharing: experiential knowledge that needs to be shared face-to-face
within and across the organization
Expats are transferred from and to a parent company to:
• Learn about affiliated operations in other countries
• Fill skills’ gaps
• Transfer knowledge and technology
• Launch projects
• Facilitate integration of global value chain
• Transfer corporate culture
• Develop their management skills
Global Talents Management: → next to classical expats assignments, increasing non-standard
international assignments modalities
• Commuting
• Role and country rotations
• Managing global teams remotely
• Short term assignments
• Hiring locally – foreigners living in the local country, such as young fresh graduates
• Hiring high-skilled professionals form third country nationals with a local contract
Global Talents Selection:
➔ For the success of the abroad assignment and to justify the investment it’s important to find
the appropriate candidate
• Main selection criteria:
o Technical expertise
o Leadership skills
o Organizational skills
o Adaptability (not only of the expats, but also of their family)
o Communication and interpersonal skills
Expats support practices
• Pre-departure preparation (for expats and their families)
• Language training
• Network connections (international and local expats community)
• Network connections (international and local expats community and local colleagues,
welcome party…)
• Newsletter, guides, information exchange…
Women as Global Mangers
• More and more women have graduated from business schools and are in line for senior
management and international careers
• Many women want to be international managers
• Employment equity guidelines and legislation in several countries require women promotion
into high positions with responsibility
Diversity
Advantages Disadvantages
• Activate curiosity and enrichment • Activate stereotypes and prejudges and
through ethnorelativistic behaviors other ethnocentric behaviors
• Increasing divergent teams’ processes: • Team members may have difficulty in
creativity and new ideas becoming aligned around a solution
• Unstructured tasks can take advantages • Routine tasks don’t need diversity: it
of diverse perspectives doesn’t bring any advantages
• Diverse groups tend to have broader • Homogeneous groups tend to have
set of networks narrow set of networks
• Diverse groups can be better set up to • Homogeneous groups tend to be more
implement change effectively resistant to change
Diversity & High Performance
• Diverse teams’ high performances depend on how teams’ interactions are managed, and on
people perception of respect, inclusion and belonging
• Teams’ equalizer
o Focus on similarities of their members
o Don’t use resources and don’t realize its potential
o Sub-optimize decision quality and their implementation
• Teams’ destroyers
o let the differences lead to destructive conflicts
o ending up with poor solutions
o suppress and pretend that the differences don’t exist
• Teams’ creators
o Use their diversity effectively
o Combining ideas
o Building on them to create new and better way
What is gender?
• Sexual differences → biological determined
• Gender:
o Self-representation, in relation to others
o Impact on people choices, behaviors, desires, …
o … about personal and professional goals and career choices
Organizations have their gender:
• Horizontal segregation → stereotypes
o Roles/Tasks linked with caring, services, relationship management
o Roles/Tasks linked with force, decisions, visibility
• Vertical segregation C-suite → roles
o Mostly women at the bottom of the hierarchical pyramid
o Mostly men at the top of the hierarchical pyramid
• Directive → management styles
• Cold, with no personalization → layout
• Formalism --< work climax
• Jokes, scurrilous → language
• Success, career, status → Values
• Overwork, “Face time” → Time Management
Benefits of gender & diversity for organizations:
• Women in teams contribute with variety of opinions, less propensity to borrow, greater
caution in managing Cash flows, better management of HR
• If men and women feel more included, they are mor engaged and committed to work, and
teams’ performances levels are higher
• Most inclusive organizations have a higher level of productivity, innovation, and of market
share
• Most inclusive organizations are more attractive for Millennials; and if they invest in, and
communicate they’re on D&I and CSR, they are more attractive for stakeholders
Inclusion
• Organizational effort and practices in which different persons are culturally and socially
accepted and welcomed
• People feel respected and valued for who they are
• People feel a level of supportive energy and commitment from others so that they can do
their best at work
• = shift in an organization’s mind-set and culture → visible effects, such as participation in
meetings, how offices are physically organized or access to particular facilities or information
DEI Management
• Diversity, Equality, and inclusion = management strategy
• Aim to increase employees’ sense of belonging, thus they can feel free to give their best to
their company and outperform, therefore corporates can outperform too and be competitive
on the global
Ethic, Cultural Differences and Global Sustainable Practices
What is ethics?
• Study of morals and systems or morality, principles of conduct
• What is right, is wrong, what should, what should not about decisions and actions
• Not all questions of right and wrong are ethical issues → rules of etiquette
• Human behavior in society with relationships, duties, obligations between people. Group,
organizations
• Human consequences associated with decisions and actions
Dilemma = situations in which difficult choices have to be made between two or more alternatives,
especially ones that are equally undesirable
• E.g., war Russia – Ukraine, China – working conditions
• Social networks
• Products’ production
• Products’ safety
• Human Rights and Security
• Labor and Employment
• Bribery and Corruption
Managers’ Ethical Issues
• Moral thinking and analysis, by corporate decision makers regarding the motives and
consequences of their decisions and actions
• Not fully addressed by financial, marketing, accounting, or legal perspectives
• Not separate from strategy, marketing or operating decisions are multi-faceted, although
managers may break-up them by functional area
• Require that you extend consideration beyond your own self-interest (or of your company),
to consider the interests of a wider community of stakeholders
• Advocate behaving according to what would be considered better or higher standards of
conduct, not necessarily the minimum acceptable by law
Global Sustainable Leaders
Leadership is about influence, power, and impact on others
• Have to create a shared sense of meaning and purpose through which they can raise a higher
level of motivation and commitment for achieving sustainable value creation and responsible
change
• How?
o Focusing on communication: with themselves, with their self and public image;
within and outside the company
o Caring for people: people are more than economic resource; they are not owned by
the company → diversity or multicultural management hep to manage employees
o Developing new corporate cultures: base on values and moral convictions
o Becoming global citizenship: with political co-responsibility of global MNCs for socio-
political issues
• Ethical behavior → decisions and behavior of an individual or of a small group of people
• Corporate citizenship → decisions and behavior, or formal initiative of an organization
• Acting with integrity → acting in accordance with one’s highest self-accepted norms of
behavior, and imposing on oneself the norms demanded by ethics and morality
Responding to ethical problems
• Avoiding the ethical dilemma
o Through rationalization and focusing more on some other aspects of the problem:
they might transform the ethical problem into a legal or accounting problem
o Seeing the problem as only a small piece of a larger puzzle: assuming that someone
higher up in the organization must be looking after such as ethical considerations
• Compliance with law and with professional regulations is a minimum requirement for
responsible managers
• Corporations have the responsibility to make clear to their employees what behavior is
expected of them: executives have responsibility for providing guidance to subordinates
Ethical vs Legal Behavior
• If one act legally, in accordance with law, isn’t sufficient?
• Not all of society’s norms regarding moral behaviors have been codified or made into law…
many instances of questionable behaviors are not illegal
• Not all laws are moral, e.g., Apartheid in South Africa
Ethical Theories
• Consequential → focus on consequences, outcomes, or results of decisions and behavior:
doing the maximum amount of good and the minimum of harm
• Rule-based → focus on moral obligations, duties, and rights, both absolute or universal and
conditional
• Cultural theories → emphasize cultural differences in standard of behavior: local standards
Leading Changes Across Cultures
Management techniques → coffee talks, one-to-one talks, monthly/weekly team meetings, creating
together a codex book
