hey everyone welcome back i'm lon shift bauer and today we are going to talk about culture and how culture influences international business relations organizations things like that so let's come over to our powerpoint here and let's first kind of introduce the idea of culture a little bit if you will i mean after all what is culture you know oftentimes there's always words that we understand and we know and we use in in sentences and conversation but if you really get down to it can you define culture so let's go ahead and do that now a dictionary definition of culture that you're going to run into is something like this culture a system of values and norms shared among a group of people that directs and justifies how the members operate live and behave now there is a lot to this let me break it down a little bit a system okay a culture is a full system all interconnected it's not just one or two things it's all kinds of things all influencing one another a system of values and norms we are going to explore what we mean by values and norms shared among a group of people anytime you have two or more people together there is a culture present and this system directs directs how people behave but interestingly check this out also justifies how people behave it's one thing to have a culture direct how we behave but to actually lend some sort of moral justification to what we do that is the power of culture and so we are directed and we are justified in how we operate live and behave okay now one of the ways i like to look at culture is much as how morpheus in the matrix described the matrix he might say culture is everywhere it is all around us even now in this very room you can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television you can feel it when you go to work when you go to church when you pay your taxes culture truly does permeate every aspect of our lives and furthermore in many ways it's quite invisible or if it's visible we're so used to seeing it that we don't see it anymore i kind of like to look at it as a computer's operating system of course the software that we see in front of us and so forth we can manipulate that we can see it we can understand it but there's a whole you know software system and operating system including firmware that directs how the computer runs and operates all the customer facing user facing software well we don't see this and yet it really directs how our computer operates so let's take a moment and look at the elements that comprise culture all right first and foremost is going to be religion now even if you say well now hold on i'm not religious that's fine you may not be practicing religious in any way or shape or form but that doesn't mean that religion has not profoundly affected your culture so for instance i'm in the united states and the united states tends to be a judeo-christian society now whether i'm practicing religious or not is pretty irrelevant when it comes to culture our culture is themes life do unto others as you would have them do unto you be honest be virtuous um you know practice integrity these are very judeo-christian concepts and values now they are not solely isolated to jodeo judeo-christian cultures right these these ideas can be found in many many other cultures as well but other cultures and their religions may emphasize different factors such as buddhism emphasizing filial piety you know kind of family um worship and so forth i don't know that worship is the right word probably more just like um reverence of the family um and other cultures will emphasize different things the cultures associated with islam really value hospitality and loyalty this is because the religion islam and the koran their their their sacred writing theirs holy scripture really emphasizes the inten the the importance of being um of practicing hospitality okay so we have religion next we have political philosophy the political philosophy that a certain country or region follows really permeates the the culture in many many ways so for instance if i am in the united states or many western cultures as well um see democracy as kind of the prevailing political philosophy well then it may be that even in meetings we ask for a vote and we we you know decide what we're going to do going forward in a corporate meeting based on majority rules that's kind of a democracy idea versus if we follow more of a socialism idea or a collectivism ideal we really want to make sure we have group consensus before we move forward this is how political philosophy can enter into our day-to-day expression of our cultural selves we also then have economic philosophy does your culture really emphasize free markets open and free competition or does it emphasize um uh kind of um how should i put this the centralized control of key industries such as we see in socialism and so forth so for example economic philosophy might say hey to what degree should there be gaps between the rich and the poor to what degree should there be redistribution of wealth well your your ideas along these ideas of gaps between rich and poor and redistribution of wealth could very well be founded in the economic philosophies of your particular culture next we have communication and we're talking both verbal and non-verbal communication as we're going to see in a little bit um not everybody communicates the same way at all the way that we communicate is is really driven by our cultural differences and this is particularly key because what is international business but communication what is social relationships and and um and um social behavior but communication right so understanding how we express ourselves and how we communicate ideas and feelings and thoughts is very important when we look across the globe and try to find ways to work together we also have social structure right and to what degree our members in a given social structure mobile different parts of the world have different social structures some social structures are very flat meaning there's not really that many hierarchies within a structure and the structure is is pretty permeable people can move up and down or across a structure pretty well other cultures the structure is pretty darn set and it's very difficult to change your structural strata for instance next we have the history of a region or the history of a culture you know many of the things that you individually believe uh to be true the things that have uh um kind of given form to your opinions are based on what you have experienced in the past if you had a particularly good or bad experience that really affected you at a fundamental way sometime in the past it's likely to have um formed and influenced your opinions today well cultures are really no different but the history goes back much much further right so for for instance here in the united states we're a really young country we're 200 plus years old i mean we're really really young whereas some european and asian cultures go back centuries and centuries thousands of years and during those thousands of years they've experienced all kinds of historical events that have really shaped who they are and so history has a profound influence on our cultural character and then we have customs and traditions these are kind of the fun things to kind of see as you travel around the world to see the different customs and traditions and and see what people enjoy doing and then finally we have stories and mythologies um like histories stories and mythologies are the stories that cultures tell to basically reinforce a a value of that culture to reinforce the things that are considered good and noble and desirable versus things are considered bad and immoral and things to be eschewed so the stories and mythologies really reinforce cultural norms and behaviors now with that said i want to go ahead and take a moment and talk about values norms folkways moires and taboos things that really kind of you know give flavor to a culture things that we see quite often now as i do this i want to really make sure that we understand something before we go forward cultures are not good or bad right or wrong i want to embrace this as we go forward and talk about this now to be clear there are many cultural practices around the world that i really really really disagree with but in the same way there are many cultural practices that i embrace here in the united states that others really really disagree with um it's not a matter of right and wrong culture is amoral that's not moral that's not immoral it is amoral meaning it has no moral value it's like fire is fire good or bad it's amoral it just depends on how it's applied the thing with culture though is since culture is this invisible operating system running in the background of our lives and how we see the world it is really tempting to look at another cultural practice and can and and perceive it as good or bad or moral and immoral for the moment i want us to try our best to set that aside and just understand that cultures are different different doesn't mean bad it's just different okay so let's come back over to this and let's look at these ideas and to do this i'm going to go ahead and get out of the way so that we can explore this a little better let's first look at values okay values are principles that a society believes to be good right and desirable so for example in the united states we value freedom equity human rights now i want to be clear just because we value it doesn't mean that we are the ultimate personification of these values many times values are aspirational we we aspire to inhabit these these values in asia discipline hard work frugality are very valued in europe there's a value for humanistic thinking and the arts and rationality the middle east really values loyalty duty honor hospitality obviously these are all really positive ideas right um but different regions different countries will value them in different ways next we have norms norms are the social rules and guidelines that prescribe appropriate behaviors so for example um us and australia we tend to be i say we in the u.s and australia they tend to be open friendly and very helpful when it comes to strangers but the truth is we are kind of distrustful of strangers and we don't really trust them ultimately um but we don't exhibit this when we work with them directly we want to be perceived as open and friendly and helpful whereas in europe they're a little bit more reserved towards strangers and frankly a little more blunt and so if somebody from australia or the us is visiting europe europeans may be perceived as rather rude and direct and blunt because well gee you're not being all friendly and nice and bending over backwards to help me whereas in the middle east hospitality is the driving factor absolutely core even when working with strangers next we have folkways fog ways and everything else leading you know from here on are a subset of norms these are the routine conventions of everyday life just how you run your life without even really thinking about it so for example in western cultures they eat with silverware whereas in southeast asia eating with your hands is very very very common even when eating things like rice and curries and so forth um i've been there i've eaten with my hands and i they had to train me they had to teach me how to do it right in the u.s we consider it uh impolite to burp after eating whereas in some parts of china and taiwan burping after eating is complementary it says i really enjoyed that meal thank you very much in the u.s and other western cultures eye contact is maintained when talking with others whereas in asia they might avert eyes when speaking with others to not seem so aggressive so these are folkways routine conventions of just living our lives day to day but then we have mores mores um are the norms of morality seen as central to the functioning of society we have to maintain these conventions of society if we are going to get along with one another these are mores now i'll give you an example here in the u.s where i am drug abuse dishonesty public nudity polygamy these are considered mores you don't do these things and if you do you're going to get a pretty severe chastisement from society it's not necessarily illegal you know there are laws and there are regulations but they're definitely moires but these are not shared universally for example in norway nudity on public beaches is not a big deal and in many african cultures polygamy is common so mores are not universal as are folkways norms or values none of these things are universal in the same way taboos they are not universal at all taboos are behaviors considered abhorrent and absolutely forbidden you don't do taboos as a matter of fact as i'm sitting here presenting i'm about to talk about some taboos and it makes me uncomfortable to even say the words that is the power of a taboo so in many cultures for example incest cannibalism bestiality these are taboos and yeah it was uncomfortable saying the words um but now watch this in the u.s we don't eat dog and horse all right dog and horse eating horse and dog in the u.s is considered taboo but in some parts of asia eating dog is just fine in france eating horses fine and yet think about this in india eating cow eating beef is taboo and yet what is life in the u.s or argentina where there's a strong you know gaucho i think is the word i'm not quite sure i apologize if i got that wrong or cowboy culture what what are these cultures without eating beef so you see how one thing that is esteemed in one culture such as eating beef in argentina or the us can be a taboo in another culture india marrying outside of one castes forgoing menstruation traditions these are things that are utterly foreign to many folks such as myself in the united states i don't understand a caste system in that way i don't understand you know menstruation traditions to me as an american that is backwards and and misogynistic but it is a taboo in another culture and that's something that i have to respect to some degree now respect to some degree let's play with that idea for a moment and and this is a real thing that we really need to think about universality of human rights versus cultural relativism okay let's take universality for a moment human rights have been granted in the international treaties and conventions and they're universal applied to all countries and must prevail even when they are in conflict with cultural or religious practices so for instance the picture i have here is talking about female circumcision we could have the same conversation around the idea that menstruation is dirty or something um it's very very tempting i mean very tempting to the point of where i agree with it for me to say universality there need to be a universal recognition of of human rights remember human rights were a big deal to um those of us in the u.s culture and i like to say that hey no matter what country you're in no matter what your culture no matter what your religion there are some things that are just plain wrong i want to say that on the other hand there's also cultural relativism which is permitting international norms to override the dictates of culture and religion is a violation of state state sovereignty so in other words it's like who are you to come into my culture and tell me that something we have practiced for 4 000 years is wrong what kind of cultural imperialism is that listen you have your culture and i don't tell you how to live i have my culture and you shouldn't tell me how to live so back off who died and made you king i get that i really get that it's not easy the the the kind of dissonance between these two ideas very difficult um i like to think that i'm very very very um accepting and embracing of of international cultures and ideals and so forth but yeah every once in a while i run into one that is so abhorrent to my own culture that i have a hard time processing it but do i have that right that's what this is about okay let's continue on and talk about some of these cultural values and and how they juxtapose how they compare across different cult countries different countries now to do this i'm going to use hofstede's framework and i'll put a link to this uh to hofstede's framework down in the description below and to the tool that i've used to bring up these various values what hofstede's framework does is it looks at six different cultural values power distance individualism masculinity uncertainty avoidance long-term orientation and indulgence okay now because i am in the united states i have the i will be comparing this particular framework with all the other countries i show but i'm going to include other countries for each one of these values countries in which i have lived or have done business extensively so i can speak to it with some level of credibility so with that let's look at power distance power distance is the extent to um to which the less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally okay let me put that in human terms there's power and it's going to be distributed among the people but to what degree will it be distributed equally will everybody have equal power okay and to what degree do they expect or accept that it is unequal so for example in malaysia they scored a 100 now that means that in malaysia they are very very comfortable with the idea of unequal distribution of power doesn't bother them it's fine and when you look at their political system uh it's a it's a theocracy no no no they're in a monarchy but their political system is their their official state religion is islam and they followed the tenets of islam very very closely and so it's not surprising i think a light just went out on me that they would be okay with the uneven distribution of power because they're in a monarchy on the other hand israel no no no no they are not comfortable with uneven distribution of power when i worked with israelis they are very very in the guts of it they want to have their say they feel they should have equal say in just about everything no matter where they are in the hierarchy very fascinating united states by the way scores of 40 whereas israel 13 okay let's go ahead and look at individualism versus collectivism all right uh the degree to which people prefer to act as individuals rather than members of a group and i know it's a little hidden here we have united states and china united states is founded on individualism they really it's you know i came to this country with 27 of my jacket on my back uh nobody ever gave me anything i built this from the ground up i'm a self-made person all these things are phrases that are very very familiar to an american individualism is is everything versus in china no no china and many other asian countries practice strong collectivism the right direction to go is whatever is right for the collective even if individuals need to give up some of their own individual rights if it's good for the collective then it's the right direction to go then we have masculinity and femininity the degree to which the culture favors traditional masculine values versus feminine values now frankly i think this is kind of kind of an unfortunate naming of these particular values because i think we kind of get hung up in masculine and feminine male female and i think that might distract us from the main point that hofstede is trying to make but so let me go into a little bit more detail here and i am comparing i know you can't see it i apologize um japan and france so japan very masculine country france more of a feminine country well now what do we mean by that well here are some traditionally masculine values according to hofstede very ego oriented lived to work versus more feminine cultures such as france relationship oriented work to live right um masculine kind of sees work preference for higher pay versus feminine preference for fewer work hours um masculine girls cry boys don't boys fight girls don't whereas in a female feminine society both boys and girls cry neither fight i really like this last one failing is a disaster in a traditionally masculine culture versus failure is a minor incident and just part of life in a more feminine culture okay so that's what we're looking at in terms of masculine and feminine then we have uncertainty avoidance to what degree is a culture fine with ambiguity how well does it operate in ambiguity well japan functions in ambiguity just fine they're very very comfortable in working with ambiguity um if a degree to which a per people in a country prefer structured over unstructured situations um japanese are fine with that in malaysia scoring a 36 which is kind of close to the u.s which is a 46 they want a little bit more structure they want to know what's expected what what success looks like and what tasks they're going to follow to get to that and then we have long-term versus short-term orientation all right long-term orientation looks at the future short-term values adhere to the you know look at the here and now china in the united states china very long-term orientation i'm telling you what the chinese make plans today that will come to fruition in 30 years not exaggerating so they look very very very long term whereas the us check this out the us car scores a 26. i'm always pointing out that if you look at an american corporation how far ahead into the future do they look basically quarter by quarter they're fixated on the quarterly earnings reports because that's when the stock market is either going to reward or punish them and so it's difficult for a corporation to think ahead you know more than a few years the united states government we have term uh limitations to our to those serving in the government so two to four years is about as far ahead as you can you know look and plan sure in the us we have longer term plans but those can change at any time and we know it so we tend to think more short term and then the last one is indulgence versus restraint you know the degree to which a society indulges or restrains the basic and natural drives related to enjoying life and having fun well in the united states yeah we're not too good at restraint all right now 68 isn't the worst out there right but pretty much we want to have what we want to have and we want to have it now where's china oh they can totally put off you know kind of enjoyment of life and having fun and short-term needs for a greater future and furthermore they do this with a collectivist mindset so you can kind of see the differences here and imagine in all these cases how this can influence business when all these different cultures are coming together and trying to work together all right okay now there's also a difference in how different cultures communicate we have low context versus high context cultures now if we look down here at this chart we see low context are the swiss the germans usa whereas high context sends to be tends to be japan uh the arabian cultures some latin american all right well what's the difference well low context cultures those that we just looked at down below are logical linear individualistic and action-oriented all right so they're very clear direct and informative say what you mean mean what you say that sort of thing when it comes to problem solving get right to the issue and address it directly it's not personal we're just here to solve a problem so just the facts ma'am one two three abc this that we just want to get straight to the point solve the problem nothing getting in the way that is a low context culture however in terms of communication high context cultures as we see down here um they're very relational collectivist intuitive and contemplative much more ambiguous much more nebulous right in terms of communication they use formal language loaded with implied meaning not explicit direct meaning but implied meaning cannot be understood outside the context around the situation so this form of communication is alluding to and implying factors that are in the current situation and things that have led up to the current situation so if you don't understand the nature of what's going on and what brought about what's going on you're not going to understand the conversation when it comes to problem solving they work on the proof periphery of an issue to solve it never addressing it directly calling attention to the problem directly is a sign of disrespect and may cause the others to lose face now i have had a great deal of experience working with low context and high context communicators and i'm going to just go ahead and tell you i am a very low context communicator very very low context and it has been a challenge for me to communicate effectively with high context cultures nevertheless if we're going to do this successfully if we're going to work together successfully we need to know how to do it now just so that we call some things out if i'm low context i look at high context people and i think just get to the point just why are you going on and on and on about all these things that have no relevance to what you're talking about would you just please get to the point however high context cultures look at low context communicators like me and go you're like a caveman with a rock you know ugh me use words to hit you with right we have no finesse no style we don't care about relationships we don't care about you know the the situation in which we're in and all the nuances associated with it we're just like morons with rocks so you have to understand this is how we perceive one another and if we're going to work together in international business and relations we need to understand how this works there's another thing that we need to take a look at and that is our perception of time different cultures perceive time in different ways so we have m time and p time m time is monochronic time all right very common in low context cultures such as united states time is something to be parsed out measured and managed after all time is money people in end time cultures often complain that somebody is always late it's impolite to be late whereas polychronic time very common in high context cultures time is something to be savored and invested in and invested in the building of strengthening strengthening of relationships this cannot be divided out in nice little neat 15-minute increments so p-time cultures might complain that somebody is always prompt yeah so in parts of uh in in arab cultures and so forth it's perfectly fine in fact considered polite appropriate and expected for you to be about 15 to 20 minutes late whereas in germany if you're not 15 minutes early you're late that's kind of a difference between p m time and p time one more here on values is kind of our pace of life what's the pace of life in a given culture now i know this is a difficult chart to understand to read i should say it's a difficult chart to read so let me just talk you through the key points it was a study done that said okay this researcher levine said all right i'm going to look at the walking speed of a culture i'm going to look at how fast the post office does its job you know when you wait in line at the post office and how accurate are the clocks in this culture and he kind of figured this gives me an overall sense of the pace of life well i'm going to go ahead and pull out the united states but then i'll show you a couple others united states well when it came to walking speed we actually walked pretty quick we ranked number six in the world of the cu of the countries that he studied we rate number six that's pretty quick when it came to our post office holy smoke have you waited in line at the post office here in the united states lately it's awful you're going to spend half a day there we're 23rd and accuracy of public clocks oh yeah you know darn well here in the united states when you're driving along and you see public clocks or clocks at the school at the school where i teach salt lake community college they haven't even changed it from daylight savings time yet it's an hour behind we don't care public clocks are not very accurate on the other hand let's look at switzerland well when it comes to walking speed they're third they've places to go things to do people to see get out of my way their postal service number two in the country's study postal service good and quick i have been at a post office in switzerland it's amazing and clock accuracy it's switzerland for crying out loud of course their public clocks are going to be the most accurate you've ever seen right but now let's take down here at the bottom let's look at mexico close friend and trading partner of the united states well in terms of walking speed number 17. i'll get there when i get there now that's not the worst right but you know when it comes to this postal speed oh yeah it's even worse than the united states you're going to be there forever and then when you look at the accuracy of their clocks 26th we're 20. so actually in many ways united states and mexico are pretty darn close when it comes to you know the the pace of life all right um so just something to think about there all right so this brings me to the last point i want to bring up there are lots and lots of cultural differences lots of cultural differences and as i also demonstrated earlier there are some cultural differences that frankly make us really really really uncomfortable and this is going to bring about culture shock now culture shock is inevitable it's inevitable and it's expected and to a certain degree it can be forgiven but there's a certain point of which culture shock becomes very problematic and needs to be addressed so let's talk about how to work our way through culture shock now culture shock starts with one thing we expect everybody to be like us we really do now i know i know i know you understand that not everybody is like you and you understand there are differences and so on so forth but at a core cultural level in that operating system in the background we kind of expect everything to be like us right so when i'm loading a program into my you know pc if it it expects every program i load into it to be pc compatible if i try to load in a mac program it's going to spit in my face it expects everything to be compatible with its operating system likewise we expect everybody to agree that cowboys are awesome or that chewing with your mouth open is rude or that showing the bottom of your shoe is rude if you're in an arabic arab country thing is we're not all alike not everybody is like us culturally and when we see that people are not like us a cultural divide occurs i look at a culture that practices one thing that my culture is abhorrent and a divide occurs and at this point this causes an emotional reaction an emotional response fear anger disrespect things like that now at this point everything that we talked about is understandable to be expected it is leveraging normal psychological mechanisms we are all forgiven for feeling this we are all forgiven for feeling um an emotional response when we see a cultural divide however it's at this point that we can choose one of two paths the first path is the path i want to invite you not to follow what we do is we take this anger fear and disrespect as we look at a cultural divide and we create false attribution about their behavior well they're kind of a backwards people well you know they're a dirty people well they're not exactly civilized well you know they're all murderers and rapists this is where we are creating a false attribution about the behavior of a people based on fear and disrespect we make up a reason that belittles them and raises up us we look at their culture as somehow uncivilized and our culture as the beacon of all things righteous and push them down well what we then do is we discount them and withdraw from engagement after all if they're kind of a dirty backwards people i don't need to really engage with them unless of course i want to come in and be the savior the cultural savior of who they are and make them a better people you see how nasty that is no no or we say we don't want to have anything to do with you you stay on your side i stay on my side i don't want our cultures mixing it's just ugly and yet come on you can see it this is where the majority of our international problems lie i'm telling you the majority of the of the disputes that we have internationally all lie in fear disrespect anger false attribution and behavior and withdrawal from engagement what are we going to do instead i'm going to show you what we're going to do instead first we're going to become aware of our reaction hey don't beat yourself up for feeling anger fear or disrespect become aware of the emotion become aware that you're feeling it okay you're allowed to feel it but now we need to analyze it we need to reflect on the causes why are we feeling this you know they're doing a i'm used to doing b um where's the disconnect why am i feeling this way why am i looking at somebody you know killing a dog and slaughtering it and eating it as abhorrent well because in my culture and i've got a couple dogs right down here dogs are man's best friend you don't we anthropomorphize our dogs and you don't do that right you kind of reflect on the causes and then you kind of let the reaction subside emotions kind of need some time to express themselves and to figure themselves out let these emotions subside and then observe and decode the cultural differences in the situation so if i'm looking at somebody who's eating dog i can go well okay listen it's not what i would do i mean i love my puppies right yeah i know i said puppy he's down there um but meat is meat right i mean just because i eat you know beef and somebody in india considers that a taboo well i don't necessarily feel bad well somebody who's eating dog therefore shouldn't necessarily feel bad just because i think eating dog is a taboo we all eat something that somebody else says is gross right okay so we kind of decode that and then we can develop culturally appropriate expectations we are no longer going to be caught off guard when somebody does something that is different from what we thought they should do based on our own cultural expectations now when we go to a market we say that there's dog hanging in the market and it's just a way way it is in the same way when i see beef hanging in the market in the u.s it's fine and when i go to france and i see horse hanging in the market that's fine we all eat what we eat okay and therefore we can go about and continue to have a relationship with these folks continue to work together to respect one another you don't have to agree but you can ex still you can ex respect the cultural differences okay and so there we are folks fantastic job i really hope you got something of value out of this because for me personally there's nothing more fascinating than cultural differences i absolutely love them all right um have a fantastic day and uh we'll see you again later