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Chapter 4:
The Role of
Culture
International Business, 4th Edition
Griffin & Pustay
4-1
©2004 Prentice Hall
Chapter Objectives_1
 Discuss the primary characteristics of
culture
 Describe the various elements of culture
and provide examples of how they influence
international business
 Identify the means by which members of a
culture communicate with each other
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Chapter Objectives_2
 Discuss how religious and other values
affect the domestic environments in which
international businesses operate
 Describe the major cultural clusters and
their usefulness for international managers
 Explain Hofstede’s primary findings about
differences in cultural values
 Explain how ethical conflicts may arise
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Culture
Behaviors
Values
Beliefs
Culture
Attitudes
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Customs
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Characteristics of Culture
 Learned behavior
 Interrelated elements
 Adaptive
 Shared
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Figure 4.1 Elements of Culture
Language
Communication
Social Structure
Culture
Values/ Attitudes
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Religion
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Social Structure
 Individuals, families, and groups
– Importance of family
– Definition of family
– Importance of individual relative to the group
 Social stratification – categorization based
on birth, occupation, educational
achievements
 Social mobility – ability to move from one
stratum of society to another
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Language
 3000+ different languages worldwide
 10,000+ different dialects
 Primary delineator of cultural groups
 Lingua Franca
– English is the common language of
international business
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Map 4.1 World Languages
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Map 4.2 Africa’s Colonial Heritage
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Translation Disasters
 KFC’s Finger Lickin’ Good
– Eat your fingers off (China)
 Pillsbury’s Jolly Green Giant
– Intimidating green ogre (Saudi Arabia)
Sunbeam’s “Mist-Stick” mist producing hair
curling iron
– Excrement (German)
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Yes and No Across Cultures
 Latin America
– meaning of “manana”
 Japan
– meaning of “yes” versus “yes, I
understand”
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Caterpillar has
developed its own
simplified language
instruction program
–Caterpillar
Fundamental
English
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Table 4.1 Forms of Nonverbal
Communication_1






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Hand gestures
Facial expression
Posture and stance
Clothing/ hair style
Walking behavior
Interpersonal
distance
 Touching
 Eye contact
 Architecture/
Interior design
 Artifacts and nonverbal symbols
 Graphic symbols
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Table 4.1 Forms of Nonverbal
Communication_2
 Art and rhetorical
forms
 Smell
 Speech rate, pitch,
inflection, volume
 Color symbolism
 Synchronization of
speech and movement
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 Taste, symbolism of
food, oral gratification
 Cosmetics
 Sound signals
 Time symbolism
 Timing and pauses
 Silence
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Religion
 Christianity
– Catholicism
– Protestant
– Eastern Orthodox
 Islam
 Hinduism
 Buddhism
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72% of the
world
adheres to one
of these four
religions!
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Map 4.3 Major World Religions
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Two million
Muslims annually
descend on the
Grand Mosque in
Mecca, Saudi
Arabia as part of
the Haij
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Values and Attitudes
 Values: accepted principles and standards
 Attitudes: actions, feelings, and thoughts
that result from values
–
–
–
–
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Time
Age
Education
Status
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Theories of Culture
 Hall’s Low-Context, High-Context
Approach
 Cultural Cluster Approach
 Hofstede’s Five Dimensions
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Hall’s Low-Context,
High-Context Approach
 Low-context: words used by speaker
explicitly convey speaker’s message
 High-context: the context in which a
conversation occurs is just as important
as the words spoken; cultural clues are
critical to communication
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Chinese
Low
Context
Korean
Japanese
Vietnamese
Arab
Greek
Spanish
Italian
Britain
U.S./ Canadian
Scandinavian
Swiss
German
Figure 4.2 High- and Low-Context
Cultures
High
Context
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Map 4.4 A Synthesis of Country Clusters
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Table 4.2 Cultural Differences in Negotiating Styles
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Hofstede’s Five Dimensions
 Social Orientation
 Power Orientation
 Uncertainty Orientation
 Goal Orientation
 Time Orientation
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Social Orientation
Individualism
Collectivism
Relative importance of the
interests o the individual versus
interests of the group
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Power Orientation
Power Respect
Power Tolerance
Appropriateness of
power/authority within
organizations
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Uncertainty Orientation
Uncertainty Acceptance
Uncertainty Avoidance
An emotional response
to uncertainty and change
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Goal Orientation
Aggressive Goal Behavior
Passive Goal Behavior
What motivates people
to achieve different goals
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Time Orientation
Long-term Outlook
Short-term Outlook
The extent to which
members of a culture
adopt a long-term or a short-term
outlook on work and life
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Figure 4.4 Social Orientation
and Power Orientation
Patterns
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Understanding New Cultures
 Self-reference criterion
 Cultural literacy
 Acculturation
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