Lesson-10: International Organisational Behaviour

1. Learning Outcome
2. Introduction
3. Impact of Culture on International Organizational Behaviour
4. Communication in an International Organizational Behaviour
5. Motivation across Culture
6. Managerial Leadership across Cultures
7. Summary

1. Learning Outcome:
After completing this lesson, the students will be able to:
 Understand the impact of Culture on International Organizational Behaviour.
 Describe the problems in communication between the different cultures.
 Understand the difference in motivational cues and managerial Leadership across Cultures.
2. Introduction:
In the recent years, International Organizational Behaviour becoming more important as the
businesses is operating across borders. There is a significant difference in the thinking and
behaviour of the people between the countries. Management styles, leadership styles differ
significantly between European, Japanese, and Chinese from U.S countries. It is important to
understand cultural differences and how cultures vary and people behaves within these cultures.
This module discusses the familiar concepts like communication, motivation and leadership but
in an international context.

3. Impact of Culture on International Organizational Behaviour:

Culture refers to the acquired knowledge used by the people to interpret a specific situation and
generate a social behaviour according to it. It is difficult for an individual to adjust in a different
cultural background where the values and beliefs of the people are different. People interact and
communicate with others according to their cultural values.

The chance of failure during a foreign assignment (expatriate) is more to U.S business houses in
comparison to European or Japanese companies because the culture of the U.S countries are
more dominating than of Eastern countries.

3.1 Dimensions of Culture:

 Self Image: In some countries, people are treated as honest and trustworthy whereas in other
countries, people are viewed as distrust and suspicion. When people travel outside their home
country, they carry their values with them. People get surprised by the way they are treated
by the people of foreign countries.
 Relationship with World: In some societies, people try to dominate their surrounding while
in other; people try to build harmony with their environment. For instance, people form
United States and Canada attempt to dominate their environment while Asian countries work
in harmony with their environment. Asian people plant crops in according to environmental
conditions.
 Individualism versus Collectivism: Some countries of the world have cultural values that
encourage individualism. The United States, Great Britain, and Canada are the countries
where culture promotes individualism. In other countries, like Japan, China and Israel
promote collectivism and emphasize on group harmony, unity, commitment and loyalty.
These differences affect the hiring practices. In countries where individualism is important,
job applicants are evaluated on the basis of personal, educational and professional
achievements. In collectivism supporting societies, applicants are evaluated on the basis of
trustworthiness, loyalty and compatibility with coworkers. The employees tend to show high
level of commitment toward their organization.
 Time Dimension: Some societies are more oriented toward the past while others are more
focused on the present. In United States and Canada, people are more concerned with present
and the near future. European people give more importance to past in comparison to North
Americans. The Japanese firms have a long-term future orientation and when they hire
employees, they often retain them for life time.
 Public and Private space: In some of the countries, culture promotes the use of public space
while in others private space is favored. For instance, people in North America prefer private
 space. If a manager is more restricted or confined then the individual is considered as more
important. People coming to meet the manager has to go to the secretary first then to the
manager. On contrary, in Japan bosses usually sit together with their employees in the same
room. These cultures are more public oriented.

3.1a) Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions:

According to Hofstede, there are four major cultural dimensions:

Individualism/Collectivism: Individualism is the tendency to take care of oneself and one’s

immediate family. Collectivism is characterized by a tight social framework in which people
distinguish between their own group and other groups.

 Power Distance: In OB, Power distance is the extent to which employees accept that their
boss has more power than they do. Power distance is the degree of acceptance by the less
powerful members of the organisation toward the unequal distribution of power.
 Uncertainty Avoidance: Uncertainty avoidance is the degree to which people try to avoid
ambiguous situations and extent to which people feel threatened by vague situations. It can
be avoided by
a) Enhancing job stability
b) Establishing more formal rules
c) Avoiding deviant ideas and behaviours
d) Attainment of expertise in a particular area.
 Masculinity/femininity: Masculinity refers to the degree of importance; people give to
assertiveness, acquisition of money and other materialistic things. Femininity refers to the
degree of to importance, people give to relationship among people, concern for others, and
interest in quality of work life.

3.1b) Trompenaars’s Cultural dimensions:

Trompenaar’s model is used to understand people from different countries and cultural
backgrounds. It helps in reducing misunderstandings between the people of different cultures.
Trompenaars’s Cultural dimension is useful in doing business with people of different cultures.
There are seven dimensions of culture and they are:
 Fons Trompenaars' Seven Dimensions of Culture

 Universalism vs. Particularism: This dimension is used to measure relationships.

Universalist societies used to follow general rules and regulations. These people tend to
follow the rules in all the situation and try to find the single best way of dealing with all
cases. People assume that the standards followed by them are the correct standards and try to
change the attitudes of others. In Particularistic societies, people give more importance to
that particular circumstance than rules. Response of the people to a situation may vary
according to the circumstances and the people involved.

 Individualism vs. Communitarianism: This dimension is about the conflict between desire
of an individual and the interests of the group which they belong. People in an Individualistic
culture, take their own decisions and try to satisfy their own needs. In such societies, the
quality of life is based on personal freedom and individual development. The decisions taken
by the people are often on the spot and without prior consultation from others. While in
communitarian society, people be a part of a group which provide them help and protection.
People show a strong sense of loyalty toward the group from which they belong. People
 believe that the quality of life of individuals improve when take care of each other. People
give more importance to community and people are mainly oriented towards common goals
and objectives. Decisions are based on consensus. Individualism is very much evident in
modern society, whereas Communitarianism is a part of traditional societies. But exceptions
are always there, even some modern societies such as Japan which has a strong
communitarian orientation.

 Specific vs. Diffuse: This dimension concerned with the view of people toward life and the
degree of involvement in relationships. In specifically-oriented cultures, people analyze
elements separately, then put them back together again. In contrast, people from diffusely-
oriented cultures see each element in the perspective of the complete picture. They consider
that all elements are related to each other. On the relationship level, specifically-oriented
individuals affecting single levels of personality and engage others in specific areas of life.
Diffusely-oriented individuals affecting various levels of personality at the same time and
engage others in multiple areas of life. In such societies, every life space and level of
personality tends to be interwoven.

 Neutral vs. Emotional: Neutral vs emotional focus on the degree to which people express
their emotions, and the interplay between reason and emotion in human relationships. Every
culture has strong norms about how easily emotions should be revealed. In culture high on
affectivity, people freely express their emotions. In a neutrally-oriented culture, people are
taught that it is incorrect to overtly show feelings. In such a culture, it is accepted to show
one’s feelings spontaneously.

 Achievement vs. Ascription: This dimension is concerned with assignment of personal status
of the people in a society. In some of the societies, people drive their personal status on the
basis of their performance, whereas in other societies status is based on gender, age, social
standing, education, and so on. When the status is based on what the individual does then is
called Achieved status while ascribed status based on what they are.

 Sequential time vs. Synchronous time: The time dimension has two parts, the relative
importance cultures gives to the past/present/future, and their approach to structuring time. If
a culture is past oriented, then future is considered as a repetition of past experiences. In a
culture focused more towards the present, daily experiences are likely to direct lives of
people. In a future-oriented culture, most human activities are directed toward future
prospects. In such cultures, the past is not considered to be much significant to the future.
People who structure time sequentially view time as a series of passing events. They tend to
do one things at a time, and prefer planning and keeping to plans once they have been made.
Time commitments are taken seriously and staying on schedule is a must. People structuring
time synchronically view past, present, and future as being interrelated. They usually do
several things at once. Time commitments are desirable but are not absolute and plans are
easily changed.

 Internal directed vs. Outer directed: This dimension is related with the importance people
give to their environment. Internal directed people take the responsibilities of their deeds and
 view themselves for determining the right action. While in outer directed people try to match
their actions with actions of others. This is also called “organic” view and people give more
importance to their surrounding instead of themselves.

4. Communication in an International Organizational Behaviour:

Effective communication is a difficult task to perform even within a country between the people
of same culture but it become more complex and difficult when employees communicate in
different languages and are from heterogeneous cultural background. For instance; Japanese
managers hardly encounter a situation of a direct ‘No’ on another request.

4.1 Communication problems across Cultures:

 Perceptual Problems: Perception affects the way people see and interpret the reality related
to a given thing or situation.
 Stereotyping Problems: Stereotyping is a phenomenon where it is perceived that a particular
person belongs to a particular class. Stereotyping ignores individual differences within a
culture. It is a kind of communication barrier. It is used to develop an overall profile of other
people.
 Ethnocentric Problems: The sense of superiority that lies in the mind of the members of a
particular culture and is known as Ethnocentrism. For instance; people from U.S countries
believes that they are best in all the areas. All cultures promote ethnocentrism and it leads to
communication problems when people of different cultures interact with each other.

4.2 Improving Communication effectiveness across Cultures:

Source: Slideshare
 It is important to learn the culture of foreign country before visiting there. Some of the firms
use the techniques of ‘Cultural assimilator’ to make the participants able to deal with
 situations that they are likely to face in the foreign countries. In this technique, participants
are asked to read about a particular situation and then they have to choose a language and
action to deal with it. The right answer related to that particular situation is explained to the
participants.
 The employees are provided with the study materials related to social structure, religion,
values, language and history. It is known as ‘Complementary Approach’. It helps the
participants to develop an understanding of a culture of foreign country where they are about
to visit. For instance; in Japan, if a foreign lawyer expatriate often mention that she had done
her graduation from a reputed university and discuss the important cases she had worked on
then it will help her to build status and effective in giving immediate respect.
 The expatriates are trained in pro-social behaviour of a specific culture. Pro-social behaviour
includes introducing, thanking or apologizing to someone or asking for a favour. It is known
as ‘Skill Streaming’.

5. Motivation across Culture:

The frameworks of motivational theories work across all the cultures. The people of all the
cultures have a hierarchy of needs (Maslow), factors that prevent dissatisfaction and lead to
motivation (Herzberg), and a level of achievement motivation (McClelland). But the content and
application of these theories vary across the cultures. It means all cultures have a hierarchy of
needs but the ordering of these needs may differ from culture to culture.

5.1 Motivational difference across Cultures:

 Religion: The difference in religious values has direct and sometimes indirect impact on the
motivational levels of its followers. For instance; in the Hindu religion followed in India, it is
believed that events happens by their own so one should let the things happen whereas in
North America, people follow the religion to control the events. Some religion promotes
collectivism while other believes that individualism is important for getting the capabilities to
help others. These religious values affect the working style and ultimately the growth of the
economy.
 Uncertainty: The motivational differences are influences by cultural consideration related to
ambiguity and uncertainty. If the cultural values of an employee support him to live in
uncertainty then he will be switching the jobs frequently and least bothered with the security
of the job. While the people having high uncertainty avoidance will prefer to specialize,
avoid conflicts, interact with the people around to understand the current scenario of the
company.
 Power distance: The motivational difference is affected by the power distance that is whether
the people of country accept the fact that others are more powerful from them or not. It is
observed that the people from U.S, Britain, and Canada have trouble in accepting the fact that
others are having more power than them. So the empowerment programmes are more
successful in these countries.
6. Managerial Leadership across Cultures:
Leadership is process of influencing others to direct their efforts toward the fulfillment of
particular goals. Due to globalization, the understanding of difference in the leadership styles of
different countries become more important. Leadership is concerned with the managerial
activities and style. The leadership styles remains the same across the culture but the approaches
and applications of it may differ from culture to culture. The factors leads to difference in the
leadership styles are;
 Personal value: The personal values of managers help them to shape their perception toward
a situation and influence the process of finding solution to a particular problem and have an
effect of decision making abilities. The personal values of employees affect the working of
managers. Personal values affect the acceptance level of authority, power distance, loyalty
and commitment of the employees. These personal values of both managers as well as
subordinates vary from culture to culture. For instance; the person from individualistic
culture is likely to follow the leadership style which is more driven by the self-interest and
take personal responsibility whereas collectivistic leaders are more team oriented and take
joint responsibility.
 Managers’ Backgrounds: Managers’ background influence the way they led their
subordinates. In U.S managers come from all economic backgrounds and colleges. They all
have equal chances of promotion whereas in Japan, the person from prestigious school has a
higher chance of becoming top manager of a company. The family background also makes
difference. In U.S mangers come from all the classes while in Poland, business leaders are
from middle-class and in Turkey, most of them are from upper-class. The family upbringing
and values also affects the leadership style. In India, it is common to accept the authority of
elders. The leadership style is more directive and little delegation of authority. On the
contrary, the people from liberal family backgrounds are more likely to take decision in
participatory manner and delegate the authority.
 Interpersonal skills: An effective leader must be aware and sensitive to the gestures and
behaviour while dealing with the people of other countries. The mangers differ significantly
across the cultures in relation to their interpersonal skills. Spanish managers are more
concerned with the welfare of their subordinates while Germans and French are less willing
to do such things. The managers in India find themselves more dependent on higher
positional level while Germans find themselves more independent. It is important to deal
with the issues of local employees well on time by the expatriate managers.
 Trans-nationally competent managers: It is observed that the traditional leadership styles
are not really effective at the international level. Managers are required to learn some of the
transnational skills to survive in the global economy. The manager needs to understand the
cultural, communication, motivational and leadership differences between the different
countries. The transnationally competent managers must have the following;
 a) The perspective of managers should be global while understanding the business
worldwide.
b) Managers should learn foreign cultures, technologies, trends, approaches to conduct
business.
c) Managers should be competent in dealing with people of different cultures.
d) Managers should be able to adapt in the cultures of other countries and also need frequent
visit to the different countries.
e) Managers should daily interaction with foreign colleagues and clients.

7. Summary:
In the recent years, International Organizational Behaviour becoming more important as the
businesses is operating across borders. There is a significant difference in the thinking and
behaviour of the people between the countries. It is difficult for an individual to adjust in a
different cultural background where the values and beliefs of the people are different. The
dimensions of culture lead to differences in the organizational behaviour of the employees.
People interact and communicate with others according to their cultural values. It becomes
more complex and difficult for the employees to communicate in different languages and
when they are from heterogeneous cultural background. Perception, stereotyping and
ethnocentrism affects the communication between different cultures. The frameworks of
motivational theories work across all the cultures. But the content and application of these
theories vary across the cultures. Due to globalization, the understanding of difference in the
leadership styles of different countries become more important. It is important to learn the
culture of foreign country before visiting there. The employees are provided with the study
materials related to social structure, religion, values, language and history. The perspective of
managers should be global while understanding the business worldwide. Managers should
learn foreign cultures, technologies, trends, approaches to conduct business.