ICB summary second year

WEEK 1
(Lecture 1 &Chapter 1+2– Verluyten)

CHAPTER 1 – Verluyten

 What is Culture?
 Culture = Values and Practices that are acquired and shared by people in a group (Key
attribute: Shared with other members of the group).
 Artefacts of culture =Anything you can see (Skin colour, symbols, language, rituals,
clothes, colours, etc.)  Gives you an idea of the culture
 Norms and Values =The behaviour of people
 Basic Assumptions =What do you genially belief what is good/ bad/ right/ wrong ?

 Culture = Nation State ?
 Many modern nation states are themselves culturally varied.
 Arguments in favour of using country membership as a primary cultural group:
 A convenient number (good and easy for surveys etc ~200 Countries)
 Clear membership (clear defined borders)
 A clearly defined societal framework (legal, political, educational, economical)
 Empirical evidence (result of the work of many researchers)
 Ecological Fallacy: Error of ascribing characteristics of groups to all individuals belonging to
that group (may lead to a form of racism).

 Culture = Language?
 The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: The (native) language we use shapes the way in which we view
and categorize the world, including deep-seated cognitive categorization related to the way
we view space
 potentially strong relation between language and culture

 Subcultures
 Dimensions, having influence on and defining the unique human being and its personal
behaviour  makes you different from other people of the same country!
- Continent
- Country
- Ethnic
- Regional
- Urban/rural
- Religion
- Social class
- Gender
- Age
- Profession
- Hobby

CHAPTER 2 – Verluyten

 Don’t rely on your own SRC – Take cultural differences into consideration!
 SRC =Rely on a set of norms, stored in your mind, that will guide your decision.
 Problem: The frame of reference of one person may be different from yours (Different
norms, values and habits).

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,  Now more than ever, economic success means doing business internationally and globally.
 Situations where you have to exchange ideas and emotions and bring your cultural
background and frame of reference to the venue, appear almost everywhere nowadays.
 Contact Hypothesis (Allport, 1954): More contact between cultural groups lead to better
understanding.
 Need intercultural training, before dealing with intercultural situations.
Cost of failure (returning home prematurely) is likely to be higher than the cost of a
fully-fledged intercultural training program.
 The more you learn about a culture, the less likely you misinterpret words and deeds
of the other culture.
- Having contact with people from other cultures
- Buy and sell abroad (negotiations and contracts)
- Represent your country at international conferences/ meetings
- Welcome foreign visitors to your country or company
- Market and adapt goods or services internationally
- Work as an expatriate
- Getting into a joint venture or a merger
- Better integrate migrant workers

 Attribution
 Attributing a meaning, ascribing an interpretation to what people around you say and do
(Within own or in different cultures).
 Attribution Mistakes: Ascribe to the other person’s words or deeds a meaning which does not
correspond to the intended meaning.
 Normally increases when there is an increase in the cultural differences.
 Reversibility of attribution errors: Person B may get a mistaken impression of A (Loud &
Pushy), while A may get the reverse mistaken impression of B (Cold & Distance).
 Transitivity of attribution errors:The impression person B gets from A, might be the same
person C gets from B and vice versa.

A  Distant  B  Distant  C
A  Pushy  B  Pushy  C



LECUTURE NOTES

 Programming
 Learning what is right for us to do.
 Programmed through upbringing, socialisation, norms and Ind
values ivi
du
 3 Levels of Programming: al

 Individual: Personal Preferences Cultural
 Cultural: Food on a plate, knife on the right side etc.
 Human Nature: Must eat food to survive. Human Nature



 Hall’s Model
 Why do we have different cultural behaviours
 High and low context communication
 Monochronic and polychromic time
 Personal space
 Fast and slow messages
 Fast and slow information
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,  Action chains: What behaviour do you expect to happen after you have done something?


 Kluckhohn’s Model
 Is you culture dominating or living in harmony with the nature?
 Subjegation harmony  Dominant
 Past (= History is important respect and learn from it), Present or Future (= What can we do
now to get good results in the future?) orientated?
 Doing or being (= it’s about the process not the result) cultures?
 Individualism or Collectivism?
 Is space private or public? (Would you let a good friend/stranger into your bedroom?)
 Human nature (=Theory X&Y, do we believe in the good of people or do we think people
cannot be trusted?)

 Hofstede’s Model
 Power Distance
 Individualism
 Masculinity vs. Femininity
 Uncertainty Avoidance
 Long-term Orientation (= Past, present & future orientated)

 From cultural Clash to Synergy
 Synergy = Truly understand how to work together and how to use the best from each culture
to get the best result possible!
 Look beyond borders to, grow beyond ordinary solutions and reach the extraordinary.
 Stages:
- Cultural Avoidance: Ignore the problem.
- Cultural Dominance: People must adopt to you.
- Cultural Accommodation: Try to adopt to others’.
- Cultural Compromise: Half of yours, half of theirs.
- Cultural Synergy: Address all view points, recognise underlying assumptions, consider
alternatives.




WEEK 2
(Lecture 2 & Chapter 3+8+9 – Verluyten& Chapter 1+2 - Adler)

CHAPTER 3 – Verluyten

 Time =Psychological construct in our mind (1 hour does not always feel like 1 hour)
 Experiencing time: Basic human cognitive mechanism & culture-specific
 Time Dimension
 Microscopic (Seconds, minutes)
 Macroscopic (Weeks, months, years, centuries)
 Conversational Structure
 Backchannelling: Feedback signals the listener provides to the speaker in a conversation
in order to communicate that he/she (the listener) is listening and basically understands
what the speaker is saying.
- Universal (Exists in every culture)
- Differences in Backchannelling between cultures may lead misunderstanding.
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,  Turn Taking (Wait for a moment of silence) vs. Interrupting
 Tolerance of Silence
 How much time do we have before providing an answer?
 A long silence can be interpreted the wrong way (negatively)
- Company drop their prices or lose the deal completely
 Punctuality
 Time lag: Time between the stated time and the time an event is really to start.
- Hora Mexicana: Time lag is tolerated
- Hora Americana: Punctuality is expected
 Temporal structure of a negotiation
 Getting Acquainted (Get to know each other)
- Guanxi (Chinese for ‘webs’, ‘networks’)
- Depending on the culture of your business partner it can take years of getting to
know each other and building trust, before you can close the first deal.
 Negotiating and Consulting
- Two basic ways to structure the timing of the negotiation process:
 ‘Zooming in’: Start with the general idea and then gradually move towards closer
detail. more typical for Japanese and Chinese culture
 Ringi-sho: A document that everybody in the decision-making hierarchy has
to sign.
 Japanese negotiating style: spiralling around the issuer rather than going to
the core problem in a straight line (preserving face and harmony)
 Emphasis on process: do things the ‘right way’
 ‘Zooming out’: Start with the details (Price, Payment, Delivery terms, Warranty,
tec.) and then work your way up to the general agreement. more typical for
western cultures.
 Deciding
- Formality of the contract depends on the country.
- Decision making in western cultures
- Direction taking in Asian cultures
- Social Ostracism (being excluded from society)
 Implementing the Decision
- Closure = Finishing off a task that was started
- A deadline for a task or an event has zero built-in flexibility in some cultures (Us,
Switzerland) and flexibility extending to infinity in other (Hopi)
 Short vs. long term Orientation
 Confucius: Stresses the importance of the family as the prototype for society n(harmony,
dignity, etc) and virtuous behaviour such as working hard, patience, perseverance and
moderation.
 Chinese Calue Survey (CVS) – Bond: Similar values to Confucius.
- Asian Cultures: Long-term
- Hofstede: Correlation between Long-term cultures and Confucian values and
economic growth
 Emphasize on increasing market share rather than profit  Comp. Advantage

Long-term Orientation Short-term Orientation
Persistence, Perseverance Personal steadiness and stability
Ordering relation by status and observing this Protecting your face
order
Having a sense of shame Reciprocation of greeting, favours and gifts
Thrift Respect for tradition


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