Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior - Soltanieh ...

MAKE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE FIT NATIONAL CULTURES AND THE GLOBAL CULTURE 623
reflect different values. The former represents cultural values of individualism and the
importance of personal achievement, whereas flat salary or team - based rewards represent
cultural values of collectivism, where productivity is often measured on the team level and
compensation is based on team performance. Top - down communication systems represent
high power distance cultures, whereas a two - way communication system represents low
power distance cultures.
Formal rules and regulations and extensive written documentation represent high
uncertainty avoidance, whereas flexibility, risk taking, and low levels of formality represent
low uncertainty avoidance. Long - term investment in R & D represents future time orientation,
whereas short - term goals and balance sheets reported every quarter represent a short - term
orientation. Finally, the high percentage of women in socially oriented professions rather
than in engineering and sciences, and their low representation at the top managerial levels,
represent masculine rather than feminine cultures.
Very often, consultants and practitioners serve as agents of certain managerial techniques.
They advise management how to implement these techniques, following success achieved
in other places, while overlooking the cultural and ideological meaning of such techniques.
For example, the CEO of one steel company in Israel, who came to the company
after many years of military service, was known for his authoritarian leadership style. He
visited the steel industry in Japan and was very impressed with the participative management
approach and the quality control circles he saw. Upon his return to Israel he
called in all his senior managers, told them about his visit, and instructed them that “ from
now on, you are going to implement participative management in the organization. ”
Obviously, his style of dictating to his subordinates was not a good model for participative
management.
The three principles – understanding the cultural values, knowing your motives and
values, and understanding the values refl ected by various managerial approaches – should
serve managers when selecting and implementing managerial practices. These principles
enable the fi t between people - oriented management practices and local cultural values.
MATCHING MANAGEMENT PRACTICES TO CULTURAL VARIATIONS
Management practices represent the way things are done in the organization: The way
managers delegate authority, allocate rewards, make decisions, and design jobs.
Figure 33.3 depicts the differences in management practices between collectivistic versus
individualistic cultures, in combination with high versus low power distance.
The following section elaborates on the implementation of goals and feedback, reward
allocation, participation in decision making and empowerment, and quality improvement
systems in different cultures.
Goals and feedback
One major responsibility of managers is to set goals and motivate their employees to
achieving them. There are different ways to set goals – either by assigning them or by
involving employees in making the decision about them – and different ways to realize
them. In some cases, employees can be empowered to set their own work goals. Employees