As generally understood, the culture of a society comprises the shared values, understandings, assumptions, and goals that are learned from earlier generations, imposed by present members of a society, and passed on to succeeding genera tions. This shared outlook results, in large part, in common attitudes, codes of conduct, and expectations that subconsciously guide and control certain norms of behavior. 6'7'8 One is born into, not with, a given culture, gradually internalizing its subtle effects through the socialization process. Culture results in a basis for living grounded in shared communication, standards, codes of conduct, and expectations. 9 A U.S. manager assigned to a foreign subsidiary, for example, must expect to find large and small differences in the behavior of individuals and groups within that organization. As depicted in Exhibit 3-1, these differences result from the societal, or sociocultural, variables of the culture, such as religion and language, in addition to prevailing national variables, such as economic, legal, and political factors. National and sociocultural variables thus provide the context for the development and perpetuation of cultural variables. These cultural variables, in turn, determine basic attitudes toward work, time, materialism, individualism, and change. Such attitudes affect an individual's motivation and expectations regarding work and group relations, and they ultimately affect the outcomes that can be expected from that individual.
The way these sets of variables can interact is illustrated by a policy change made by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, where the organizational culture responded to national cultural values and accepted practices. The culture of social responsiveness in the Netherlands was incorporated into business policy when the airline revised its travel-benefits policy for families of employees. For some time, many KLM stewards had protested the rule that only immediate family were eligible for low fares on KLM flights. They found it discriminatory that even just-married heterosexual spouses received the benefit, while long-term homosexual partners were not eligible. Upon reconsideration, KLM responded that any couple who formally registered as living together, which is a normal legal practice in the Netherlands, would be eligible for the low fares. However, a year had to elapse between partners before a new partner coUld be registered. By changing its policy, KLM put the emphasis on committed relationships rather than on marital status or sexual preference.1
As of 2001, McDonald's had 58 restaurants in Russia. Their experience with setting up businesses there for the last eleven years since the first restaurant opened in Moscow demonstrates the combined effects of national and cultural variables on work. There, local employees require lengthy training to serve up Bolshoi Maks in the McDonald's way. Unfortunately, Russians are still for the most part not familiar with working under the capitalist system; they have been victims of the inertia brought about by the old system of central planning for so long that productivity still remains low. As a result, Russians have few goods to buy, and the new free-market prices are so high that there is little motivation for them to work for rubles that won't buy anything.'1 (McDonald's in Moscow is further profiled in the opening profile at the beginning of Chapter 8.)
It is thus clear that cultural variables-shared beliefs, values, and attitudes- can greatly affect organizational processes. In fact, one example of how culture affects organizational processes is frequently evident as the use of technological applications in those processes spreads around the world. The result can be a clash between culture and technology, as illustrated in the accompanying E-Biz Box. Which organizational processes are most affected, and how, is the subject of ongoing cross-cultural management research and debate.'2 Some argue that the effects of culture are more evident at the individual level of personal behavior than at the organizational level, as a result of convergence.'3 Convergence describes the phenomenon of the shifting of individual management styleslo become more similar to one another. The convergence argument is based on the belief that the demands of industrialization and worldwide coordination and competition tend to factor out differences in organizational-level processes, such as choice of technology and structure. In a 2000 study of Japanese and Korean firms, Lee, Roehi, and Choe found that globalization and firm size were sources of convergence of management styles.'4 These factors are discussed in more detail later in this chapter.
The effects of culture on specific management functions are particularly noticeable when we attempt to impose our own values and systems on another society. Exhibit 3-2 gives some examples of the values typical of U.S. culture, compares some common perspectives held by people in other countries, and shows which management functions might be affected, clearly implying the need for the differential management of organizational processes. For example, American managers plan activities, schedule them, and judge their timely completion based on the belief that people influence and control the future, rather than assuming that events will occur only at the will of Allah, as managers in an Islamic nation might believe.
Many people in the world understand and relate to others only in terms of their own culture. This unconscious reference point of one's own cultural values is called a self-reference criterion. The result of such an attitude is illustrated in the following story: Once upon a time there was a great flood, and involved in this flood were two creatures, a monkey and a fish. The monkey, being agile and
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