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Mar. 7, 2005 This column will examine how national culture impacts behaviour at work in India and the United Kingdom. In doing so it will refer to some of the main studies in this area, such as those by Hall and Hofstede and see how their findings can explain the differences between the two work cultures. A good starting point to this question is to define culture. A study by Kroeber & Kluckhon (1952), reviewed over 500 descriptions of culture as a concept. They said that culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behaviour acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e., historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, and on the other as conditioning elements of further action. They state: “culture is something that is shared by all or almost all members of some social group, something that the older members of the group try to pass on to the younger members, and something that shapes behavior.” (p118) Brislin (1993) offers some further insights into the nature of culture. He asserts that it consists of ideals, values, and assumptions about life that are widely shared among people and that guide specific behaviours. It is created by people, transmitted from generation to generation, and emotional reactions often occur when cultural values are violated or when a culture’s expected behaviours are ignored. The influence of religion on work behaviour should also be kept in mind as especially in a country like India religion encompasses all aspects of daily life and is not a private matter like in the United Kingdom. Culture per se is therefore not containable by imaginary lines of border but is transient through regions and states. Of course national culture is that which conversely can be defined within these imaginary lines. There is no doubt that the cultures of Britain and India are significantly different, so how does this influence the work practices that are followed in the two countries? Firstly some of the more prominent work of Hofstede in this area will be examined. Drawing on his research in different offices of a multinational firm, Hofstede in his combined works, provided a framework of cultural dimensions for understanding cultural differences. Based on the data he collected, Hofstede showed how individuals from different national cultures compare to one another in four main variables: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism and masculinity/femininity. Power Distance is the degree to which a culture believes how institutional and organizational power should be distributed whether it be equally or unequally and how the decisions of the power holders should be viewed - challenged or accepted. In other words, people in high power distance cultures are much more comfortable with a larger status differential than low power distance cultures. What then are the predictors of power distance? Firstly climate, measured by geographical latitude. Cultures in high-latitude climate (moderate or cold climates) tend to have low Power Distance Index (PDI) scores. Cultures that have tropical climate tend to have high PDI scores. Then population must be looked at, generally, the more people within the culture, the greater the power distance is likely to be. Also, the more unequally the wealth is distributed within a culture, the greater the culture's power distance. From these factors the United Kingdom and India appear to be at the opposite ends of the scale for power distance scores. The United Kingdom will have a far lower score than that of India. What are the consequences of this in a work environment? In the United Kingdom then, under Hofstede’s model one could correctly assert that there will be a tighter hierarchy, that is rather more multi layered than its Indian counterpart. There is also likely to be more mechanisms to allow feedback from the lower order to the top of the management order in the United Kingdom. In the Indian context complaining will be seen as a lack of discipline as one is reminded of the millions who do not even get three square meals a day. This is a personal example from my days as a reporter between 1990 and 1995. Newspaper offices are known for their lack of resources. Management is the art of achieving results through people. The next factor is the Uncertainty Avoidance dimension and this refers to the extent to which a culture feels threatened by uncertain situations and then tries to avoid them by establishing more structure. The high positive scores on the uncertainty avoidance index (UAI) indicate low tolerance for ambiguity. These cultures prefer to avoid uncertainty and dissent as a cultural value and desire consensus. As a result, high uncertainty avoidance cultures prefer formal rules and any uncertainty can express itself in higher anxiety than those from low uncertainty avoidance cultures. Cultures with low UAI scores have a high tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity, believe in accepting and encouraging dissenting views among cultural members and in taking risks and trying new things. Thus, cultures which ranked low (compared to other cultures), feel much more comfortable with the unknown. What are the predictors of uncertainty avoidance? Hofstede found that there were no clear-cut predictors. But in general, high UAI cultures tend to be those that are beginning to modernize and are characterized by a high rate of change. This would be country such as India. Again this correlates with the hierarchal, more formal nature of Indian business, dissent or even questioning of ones superiors is not frequent and the emphasis is on consent. Conversely, low UAI cultures tend to have reached the level of modernization and have more stable or predictable in their rate of change, such as the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom would seem to follow the model of Hofstede as that it encourages comparatively informal work practices, for example the encouragement of more informal relationships at work, and the ready exchanging or bouncing off of ideas in the workplace, even between members of the organisation at different levels. The next concept that Hofstede developed was that of Individualism-Collectivism. This describes the degree to which a culture relies on and has allegiance to the self or the group. One of the main predictors here is economic development. Wealthy cultures tend to be individualistic, whereas poor cultures tend to be collectivistic. Again the climate is a factor. Cultures in colder climate tend to be individualistic, whereas cultures in warmer climates tend to be collectivistic. It is not surprising when looking at India and the United Kingdom that Hofstede found a strong negative correlation between a culture's scores on the power distance index and its scores on the individualism-collectivism index. High PDI cultures tend to be collectivistic, whereas low PDI cultures tend to be individualistic. Collectivistic cultures such as India tend to be group-oriented, impose a large psychological distance between the in-group and out-group members and in-group members are expected to have unquestioning loyalty to their group. In situations involving conflict, members of collectivistic cultures are likely to use avoidance, intermediaries, or other face-saving techniques. Conversely, people in the individualistic cultures do not perceive a large psychological distance between in-group and out- group members. They value self-expression, see speaking out as a means of resolving problems, and are likely to use confrontational strategies when dealing with interpersonal problems. This again seems to fit in with the way that work practices that have developed in the two countries for the reasons stated above. Finally Hofstede looked at Achievement- Nurturance or the Masculinity-Femininity dimension, as it is more commonly known. This indicates the degree to which a culture values such behaviors as assertiveness, achievement, and acquisition of wealth or caring for others, social supports and the quality of life. It basically refers to expected gender roles in a culture. According to Hofstede, people in High Masculinity Index (MAS) cultures believe in achievement and ambition, in ostentatious manliness, with very specific behaviors and products associated with male behavior. The cultures that scored towards what Hofstede referred to, as "masculine" tend to have very distinct expectations of male and female roles in society. Low MAS cultures believe less in external achievements and/or manliness, and more in quality of life such as helping others and sympathy for the unfortunate. Feminine cultures also prefer equality between male and female and less prescriptive role behaviors associated with each gender. The more feminine cultures have a greater ambiguity in what is expected of each gender. Again climate is a predictive factor. Masculine cultures tend to live in warmer climate near the equator and feminine cultures are likely to locate in colder climates away from the equator. The consequences of this are that members of high MAS cultures believe that men should be assertive and women should be nurturing. Gender roles are clearly differentiated, and sexual inequality is seen as beneficial. The reverse is true for members in the feminine cultures. Needless to say this effects how women are perceived in the Indian workplace compared to how they are perceived in the workplace in the United Kingdom. There is little room for a woman to be assertive in the workplace in India, let alone begin to rise to the ranks over and above men. Of course such prejudices still exist in the United Kingdom but to a far lesser degree. This is also is indicative that there is a more of dominant hierarchy in India rather than one that nurtures the exchange of ideas between work members. Such attitudes are also bound to have a bearing on the differing laws as to equal payment of men and women, satisfactory work conditions for all, provisions relating to maternity and so on. Later work with Bond (Hofstede & Bond, 1987), produced another dimension meant to explain the rapid economic development of many Asian countries, including India. This dimension refers to the selective promotion of particular set of ethics found in Confucian teachings and is known as Confucian Dynamism. Particular teachings that lead to economic development include thrift, perseverance, a sense of shame, and following a hierarchy. Other Confucian teachings are less emphasized such as tradition, and protecting face. Again this would seem to fit in with the work practices that are prevalent in India (Pathak & Kulkarni, 2004) . Next we shall look at the work of E.T. Hall. He developed the concept that there are three important concepts about cultural differences. Hall described these as time, context, and space. Hall said that: “time is one of the fundamental bases on which all cultures rest and around which all activities revolve. Understanding the difference between monochronic time and polychronic time is essential to success..." (Hall 1990, p179). Monochronic time is characterized as linear, tangible, and divisible. In monochronic time, events are scheduled one item at a time and this schedule takes precedence over interpersonal relationships. Monochronic time focuses on the time is money approach and is couched in terms such as time spent, time wasted, time lost and so on. Polychronic time, on the contrary, is characterized by "the simultaneous occurrence of many things and by a great involvement with people" (p.14) and is more focused on completing human transactions than it is on the holding on of schedules. Hall asserts that those cultures that are monochronic do one thing at a time and concentrate on the job at hand, and take commitments seriously. They are more likely to value promptness and are accustomed to short- term relationships. In contrast Polychronic cultures focus on doing many things at a time, are more distractible and are likely to base their promptness on the strength of a relationship, so keeping strangers waiting is far more acceptable than family. The next area that Hall looked at was that of context (1977). High and low context refers to the amount of information that a person can comfortably manage. This can vary from a high context culture where background information is implicit to low context culture where much of the background information must be made explicit in an interaction. People from a high context cultures often send more information implicitly, have a wider "network," and thus tend to stay well informed on many subjects. People from low context cultures usually verbalize much more background information, and tend not to be well informed on subjects outside of their own interests. The United Kingdom would be classified as a high context country and India as a low context one. The United Kingdom has well developed communication networks in the workplace and everyone receives far more information, whereas in India there is an emphasis on the restriction on the flow of information indeed the information can be said to be compartmentalised and usually will flow from a top executive who is surrounded by a small band of personnel who will control the information flow (Samarah, I. Et al, 2003). A large part of this can be apportioned to the type of work that goes on in each of the countries. In the United Kingdom the emphasis is more on the service industry and thus it is essential that information is distributed as it is far more likely to influence all levels of the structure, however in India the decisions from the top need only be passed down in a simple order like form. Finally Hall refers to space. Here space refers to the invisible boundary around an individual that is considered personal. This sense of personal space can include an area, or objects, that have come to be considered that individual's territory. This sense of personal space can be perceived not only visually, but also "by the ears, thermal space by the skin, kinaesthetic space by the muscles, and olfactory s pace by the nose" as well (Hall 1990, p.11). This is why higher-ranking officials in companies are often given more space. In the United Kingdom this theory goes someway in showing why workspace is higher per head for United Kingdom employees than it is for Indian employees. In India the employee is not seen as an individual but a part of the institution, one who is supposed to conform and give and not ask for too much from the employer. Again the more even hierarchal structure in the United Kingdom supports this conclusion. Conclusion In conclusion by analysing the work of Hofstede, Hall and others it is seen that there are many differences between the work cultures of India and the United Kingdom, and why many of these could be explained to have come about. However one could also stress that many of the variables, especially for example climate, did not exist when the United Kingdom had a comparative structure to the model that is now commonplace in India. Whilst the theories of Hall and Hofstede are somewhat enlightening it is perhaps easy to get wound up in them, often the development of a country depends on these and other factors such as level of education of its population which may be just as indicative of why differences between work cultures exist. BIBLIOGRAPHY Brislin, R., & Yoshida, T. (1994), Intercultural communication training: An introduction, Sage Publications, Inc, Thousand Oaks, CA Hall, E.T. (1959), The silent language, Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, New York Hall, E.T. (1977), Beyond culture, Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, New York Hall, E.T. (1983), The dance of life, Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, New York Hall, E.T. (1985), Hidden Differences: Studies in International Communication, Gruner & Jahr, Hamburg Hall, E.T. (1987), Hidden differences: Doing business with the Japanese, Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, New York Hall, E.T. (1990), Understanding cultural differences, Intercultural Press, Yarmouth, ME Hofstede, G. (1980), Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values, Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA Hofstede, G. (1986), Cultural differences in teaching and learning, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 10, 301-320, London Hofstede, G. (1991), Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind, McGraw-Hill, London Hofstede, G., & Bond, M. H. (1988), Confucius & economic growth: New trends in culture's consequences, Organizational Dynamics, 16 (4), 4- 21, London Hofstede, G (2004) India, Cultural Dimensions Explained http://www.geert- hofstede.com/hofstede_india.shtml Joshi, M. (1997), Passport to India. Your pocket guide to Indian business, customs and etiquette, World Trade Press, San Rafael, CA Kroeber, A. L., & Kluckhohn, C. (1952), Culture: a critical review of concepts and definitions, Vintage, New York Mead, R. (1988), International Management, 2nd. Edn., Blackwell Business, London Pathak, A.A. & Kulkarni, A.V. (2004), A Study of Managerial Competence as Career Anchor in relation to certain Self-perceived Abilities, Indian Journal Of Industrial Relations,Volume/No/Page No : Vol. 39, pp 431- 442, Gurgaon Rees, W. D. & Porter, C. (2001), The Skills of Management, 5th Edn., Thomson Learning, London Rohmetra (1998), Human Resource Development in Commercial Banks in India, Ashgate, London Samarah, I. Et al (2003), The Collaborative Conflict Management Style and Cultural Diversity in DGSS Supported Fuzzy Tasks: An Experimental Investigation, IIM, Calcutta TRADITIONAL VILLAGE CULTURE VS MODERN FACTORY IN SRI LANKA http://courses.essex.ac.uk/ac/ac939/restricted/Case%20Study%20-%20Culture.doc ------------ About the author: Mr. Ravindra Wickremasinghe is the Foreign News Editor of The Business Standard newspaper of Sri Lanka. Email: ravindrabdw@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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