The escalation of globalization has strengthened the worldwide social relations and expansion of transnational organizations. The resultant is increased interdependency between nations and interrelation between people from different cultural backgrounds. In different organizations, culture is seen as a powerful influence on the way individuals responds to their environment. It directly affects how one interacts and converse with others. To avoid cultural conflicts it is necessary to take time and learn our own culture and those of other societies. Cultural dissimilarities can lead to misunderstanding, lack of respect and eruption of conflict even between countries and the end result may be catastrophic. In an attempt to minimize cultural frictions a globe research was conducted and some cultural taxonomy were outlined. The taxonomies are essential tools that help people understand other peoples behaviors. For instance, a German citizen may find it difficult to understand his or her colleagues from the United States. However, he or she will have to respect their cultural differences as no culture is better than the other, only that people handles similar issues differently.
Power distance
Power distance deals with the fact that all individuals in a given society are not equal in supremacy and expresses the different attitudes towards this inequalities. It can also be seen as the extent to which individuals accepts and endorse authorities and status privileges. In societies where power distance is at high levels, they have their society or organization differentiated into classes and upward social mobility is limited. Also, the information flow is localized and hoarded limiting its access to the common citizen and employee. Contrary, to high power distance societies, low power distance society is filled with middle-class citizens and the information is widely shared. Comparing the power distance index between Germany and United States, Germany has a lower power distance on the cultural scale of 35 while the United States scores 40 on the same. It means that in Germany one is likely to rise in the society and organization leadership more swiftly as compared to the United States (Caprar et.al, 2015)
Uncertainty avoidance
Uncertainty avoidance is the extent at which cultures feel vulnerable to unexpected occurrences. It entails the establishment of structures, rule, regulation, mandatory practices, and rituals with intention of giving guidelines in case of any unexpected event. As a country having high levels of uncertainty avoidance means that the lives of the citizens are well structured and secure. The presence of rules and institutionalized processes reduces stress and anxiety while dealing with ambiguous issues. Therefore, people are under a provision of certain rules but the extent at which one need to adjust makes thing possible even under the set rules. The rules restricts individuals from taking drastic measures for their own good without considering the welfare of other members in the society.
In-group collectivism
In-group collectivism outlines the extent at which people in a society are integrated into a group. People in a group feels a sense of belonging and retain a certain degree of pride, loyalty and remain cohesive to their families, society, and organization (Caprar et.al, 2015). In-group collectivism, people are fastened with undoubted loyalty and every individual is willing to support each other in case of conflict or any wanting circumstance. Societies with high levels of group collectivism have obligation and duties as primary determinants of social behaviors.
Institutional collectivism
Institutional collectivism describes the extent at which society values and rewards cooperative actions and resource distribution. For instance, in a country where institutional collectivism is high, the critical decisions are made by the group as the society tends to maximize the interests of the communes. In most cases, members of an institution believe that they are highly interdependent with the organization. Also, rewards are driven by seniority and must be within the group equity. Nevertheless, in low institutional collectivism societies members are independent of the organization and are in pursuit of individual goals.
Gender egalitarianism
Gender egalitarianism tends to minimize gender inequality in place of work and organizations. It is one of the main characteristics admired by many in successful leaders. Today the societies worldwide are fighting for equal chances between men and women. It is evident from the way of life today that more women are getting into managerial positions and there is minimal sex segregation if any. The entire processes started by offering women a chance to attain same education level as their male counterparts. In the current setting, it is almost impossible to find an organization flooded with men as women are being empowered by securing an agreed percentage of job opportunities.
Assertiveness
Assertiveness describes the degree at which people feel confident to confront and relate with others. In assertive society, people are in a position to communicate directly and in an unambiguous way. Also, the society values success, competition, and progress. However, in a low assertive society people value cooperation and warm interrelation. In most cases the society expects us to remain in harmony with the environment rather than taking control over it. Therefore, in most cases, we are restrained to low assertiveness in our societies.
Performance orientation
Performance orientation refers to the degree at which culture rewards and encourages people for their achievements. Almost every culture have its own way of rewarding great performance from its members. High performance-oriented society advocates for sustainable training, development, materialism, competitiveness and overall performance improvement of the entire organization and society at large. In leadership, performance orientation is widely associated with charismatic value based form of leadership. In most cases, the success of a business and society is measured by its achievement and this explains why the globe taxonomy index ranked all countries above the mid-point level (Mueller et.al, 2012). Therefore we are obliged to retain a high level of performance to be successful and compete favorably with others.
Future orientation
Future orientation describes the plans laid down by societies to conquer forthcoming events. It involves long-term planning, investigation and delayed gratification based on experiences from past and present moments. The main reason behind future orientation is to save for the future and encourage working for a long-term success. However, future orientation is not strongly associated with global leadership dimension but it is an important part of organization leadership (Vecchi & Brennan, 2011).
Humane orientation
Humane orientation refers to the level at which societies rewards and encourage their members for being compassionate and kind towards others. It also promotes self-gratification. In most cases, especially in leadership, those who express concern and support others are widely admired in the society. In societies where high humane orientation is the observed interest of others are important and all forms of discrimination are discouraged (Vecchi & Brennan, 2011). Therefore, having high levels of humane orientations ensures that people live to respect others and their way of life.
In conclusion, though various countries can be clustered differently based on the globe cultural taxonomies index, cultural conflict is widely limited where people adheres to the above cultural arrangements. Also, not only do they advocate for peaceful coexistence but also effective leadership qualities. If societies would take the time to understand the nine cultural taxonomies racial discrimination would be an issue of the past as no culture is better than the other.
References
Caprar, D., Devinney, T., Kirkman, B., & Caligiuri, P. (2015). Conceptualizing and measuring culture in international business and management: From challenges to potential solutions. Journal of International Business Studies, 46(9), 1011-1027. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2015.33
Mueller, K., Hattrup, K., Spiess, S., & Lin-Hi, N. (2012). The effects of corporate social responsibility on employees' affective commitment: A cross-cultural investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(6), 1186-1200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0030204
Vecchi, A. & Brennan, L. (2011). Quality management: a crosscultural perspective based on the GLOBE framework. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 31(5), 527-553. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01443571111126319
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