Hofstede’s dimensions of cultural differences are high and low power distance, individualism and collectivism, masculinity and femininity, high and low uncertainty avoidance and long and short term orientation. This study helps the companies to designed their framework and strategy according to the specific country.
The objective of this study is to compare Singapore, Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and Australia, based on Hofstede’s studies.
POWER DISTANCE: This concerns the degree of acceptance of each society in relation to the unequal distribution of power. Comparing the values amongst the countries ,Australia has a low power distance (36) when compared to Singapore (74) and Dubai (90).Australian low power distance is more like the western countries where their lifestyle , workplace surrounding and ability to give their opinion freely makes them less distanced from person in charge while Singapore have mixed race people and culture which make them higher than Australia , DUBAI is based on one religion and particular culture based country make it higher on number due to their customs and following their boss.
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INDIVIDUALISM: This parameter shows the individuals commitment toward them self and family rather than society or company .Australia is very high (90) while Singapore (20) and Dubai (25) are low. It shows that Australian are highly individual and hardly follow the social structure other than their family on the other side Singapore and Dubai is more social whether as a groups, organisations , events . For them , not only their self but everyone matter and respect and politeness is a part of their lifestyle.
MASCULINITY: The cultures in which this dimension is present tend to value assertiveness and materialism, where material achievements end up being a trophy for performance. There’s no big difference between countries with Australia (61), Singapore (48) and UAE (50). It shows that Australian adopt the competition and race at very early stage of their study and follow it to their work and other activity while in other country , value and people matter more than achievements and self-satisfaction.
UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE: It concerns the way people deal with security and avoiding conflicts, which is why societies with strong Uncertainty Avoidance tend to minimize life’s inherent uncertainty by planning everything and applying strict laws and rules. Highest to lowest in this parameter , Dubai (80) while Australia (51), and lowest Singapore (8) shows that Dubai avoid having high uncertainty situation, they follow the same rule and do believes in their government or boss. While Singapore shows high acceptance of ideas , new strategies and not afraid of changing and implementing new rules . Australian in this dimension is in middle show they connect to their believes but like to try new ideas as well.
LONG-TERM ORIENTATION: It expresses whether a society is oriented toward the future. The chart studied shows that Australia (21) is not strongly oriented towards the long future, opposite from Singapore. It is not possible to establish any comparison in relation to the UAE, since this data was not presented in the chart.
INDULGENCE: It is related to the allowance of a society in relation to the joy of life, which means that the more indulgent a society is, the more this respective culture will tend to be focused on individual wellbeing and happiness. Australia (71) with high score shows a significantly higher level of indulgence than Singapore (46), shows that people more focused on enjoying their time with the activity they like and tend to spend money on new experiences and activity .
REFERENCES:
Nelson, Debra L, Quick, J. Campbell (2016). ORGB5. United States of America: 4LTR Press;
2) My response on other student’s discussion forum
a) by Truptibahen Hemrajbhai Chaudhary –
Hello Hameed,
You have mentioned Australia’s cultural dimensions comparing with Singapore, and UAE. Moreover, the impact of high power distance on employees and job role seems me too impressive, and the depiction of the chart was a great read.
Regards,
Trupti.
b) by Truptibahen Hemrajbhai Chaudhary –
Hey Daniel ,
I have read your post and I like how you give beautiful explanation with points to support your ideas.
well I am agree that in all culture religion play a major role whether in company or in society . In some countries, religious believes and customs drive the whole country like UAE, and some developing countries .In this kind of countries, company need to adopt a different strategy than they have in other country to do not hurt the feeling of people and their belief.
overall, you present your idea so on point with different aspects.
TRUPTI.
3) other students response on my discussion board
a) by Reema Sachdeva – Thursday, 16 August 2018, 9:03 PM
The way you presented the whole data is appreciating. It gives insight about all the dimensions
b) by Abdul Hameed Ur Rahim Mohammad – Friday, 17 August 2018, 4:28 PM
Hi TRUPTI,
Good work and reader friendly!
Cheers,
Hamid.
2) learning journal
A) Build-a-Bear Case Study
1) Maxine Clark’s personality and her personality characteristics as the CEO of Build-A-Bear
She is a daring person and reliably pursues her fantasies which made her begin an organization with an out-of-the case thought of furnishing a stuffed bear encounter just with an objective of reproducing her “extraordinary inclination from adolescence”. Her diversion changing thought set another format for intuitive test retailing beguiling buyers and wowed the Money Road. She isn’t just inventive yet pushes her representatives to draw out their inventiveness.
2.) desired personality characteristics of Build-A-Bear associates.
To be in successful associate with Build a bear , associate must be compassionate ,creative and must have to be empathetic. They should also able to listen carefully and understand the customers need and be innovative enough to help them create a unique product according to their emotions.
3) the perceptions that Maxine Clark has of Build-A-Bear customers.
She always believe that anything made by customer are always close to their heart and join to their emotions . she also think that making a unique products are a way to express the feeling and overcome the difficult situation in customers life , that’s why any products made in Build a Bear is unique and special in its own way.
4) Would you enjoy or not enjoy working at Build-A-Bear Workshop?
This company is everything one ask for when it’s come to engage with different people and have fun at the same time while working so its fits very well for me ,I’ll definitely join the Build A Bear in future if I got a chance.
B) Case Study: Smart phones
1.) interpersonal communication model in understanding the impact of Smart Phone usage.
With the understanding and knowing of the way people interpret direct face to face ,one can predict the emotional aspect of this method and can be realize the effect of replacing this model with the smart phones. Over the few years smartphones has changed the way we live and communicate with each other. Nothing but by knowing the daily conversations and amount of time we spend on smartphones and by filming it one can get the idea about how much it changed the old way of communication.
2.) How Smart Phones transform job responsibilities?
Cell phones have changed the manner by which we speak with each other, and it has affected the manner by which we play out our activity duties in constructive and pessimistic ways. Smartphones have made it simple for individuals to be associated consistently; for instance, one no longer should situate before a PC to get and react to messages; this is to a great degree valuable in the expert world, particularly for administration, because of it makes it conceivable to know about any circumstance occurring at the workplace regardless of whether they are not physically present.
3.) Smart Phones impact on college students .
The highest number of people using smartphones are college going students , not as a communication form but in many other way. Due to the high availability of social media like WhatsApp ,messenger and Facebook and easily access to internet make them more convenient in talking in texting than calls or face to face . smartphones on the other hand give them more freedom and it is sometime made the students unfocused in study and day to day life.
4.)technological connection and negative impact on interpersonal connections.
I have been raised in era of non-technological environment ,which gave me more time to communicate and spend time with people I love, I believe that although technology made your life more convenient and easy , but at the end of the day ,people find them more lonely and stressed than ever before , and it has also changed the way we live .
C) Johnson ; Johnson
1) describe J;J’s organisational structure.
Johnson and Johnson is a worldwide American human services maker established in 1886. The Group of Organizations – as they call themselves – comprises of in excess of 250 working organizations in 60 nations utilizing around 118,000 individuals around the world. (J&J)
The organizations of the family are sorted out into three business fragments: consumer business which deals with range of baby products; baby shampoo, baby powder and band aid, etc. , second on the list is Medicinal Gadgets, services and Diagnostics which is highest in used, and last one is Pharmaceuticals, which make up to the almost 40% of business . It is an average example of an item based divisional association that gathers all capacities added to a given item under one division. This model makes it simpler to deal with a wide assortment of items, clients, and geographic locales
2) J&J balance globalisation with a local focus when needed.
Popularity of j&j products worldwide shows the company’s ability to balance the globalization with the need of locals .Their decentralization program in which, the company hired the locals to run a business that is responsive to the local need are the major reason of their success in globalization. Johnson ; Johnson had also distributes decision-making power among departments and divisions. This policy provides managers with a sense of ownership and control at the company. As the example given by company CEO, it says that Japanese manager better understand the needs of locals and their government work policy than anyone else , which make them most suitable to work in that environment.
3) How can a company like J;J promote consistent ethical behaviour across all of its many autonomous operating companies?
To create the consistency of behaviour in the big company like j;j is not easy task , but with the constant evaluations and updated models and policy will surely work on the longer time. Here , company CEO stated that they do not only focused on the stake holder of company but also the employees(120,000) and their family which is possible to achieve by creating a model and set a feedback approach by regular meets and providing early access to services
3) DIEP REFLECTION
Individual characteristics
Describe
For me personally, watching people and know different people is one thing that always excite me as I get to know their lifestyle and culture .In session 3 where we learn the understanding of individual characteristics in organisation are more helpful to me as I have learn other aspects of it. We have started our class with pre session include the different Self-Assessment Questionnaire including Big Five Personality File ,Work Locus of Control File, and also to learn about our self and about How Machiavellian we are.
Interpret
For any organization to make a good decision and policy ,it is important that every employee work in it are treated equally despite of their ethnicity or any other background . in this part we have learn which is key personality traits and how they affect the behavior of any organization. Only after disusing in class where everyone id from different countries and ethnicity , I realized how does the individual characteristics can make a big difference in any organization .In the session we learned the Ethical behavior is affected by individual characteristics and organizational factors.
Evaluate
After finishing the session and discussing with other students I have come to realized how much we ignore the individual characteristics and personality traits in organizations. If the managers and boss of company encourage the unique and individual characteristics in organization ,by understanding the Relatively stable set of characteristics that influence an individual’s behavior which induced the trait theory indicates the braking down of individual behavior into serious of observable traits to understand the behavior .
Plan
With the broad knowledge of different personality traits and behaviour I intent to use it in my workplace where I have to deal with different kind of people everyday . it is also going to help me to understand my fellow co worker and my managers attitude and their work pattern and decision making capacity.
Conflict management
Describe
In week 6, I learnt the important concept of conflict management. My learning start with pre-session with a questionnaire about conflict emanating from unethical before. The more familiarization with the new concept of functional conflict, dysfunctional, diagnosing conflict, and the styles of managing them are known in lecture. I also had an opportunity of watching a video called “water boy” where I learned the ingredients of conflict and aggression
Interpret
In organization Conflict is endemic. It is unavoidable and therefore understanding conflict management is central to finding solutions to mitigate its effects on goal achievement. Managers’ understanding of the concept of conflict management styles is pivotal in finding amicable solutions rapidly to conflicts occurring interorganizational, intergroup.. I associated conflict previously with guns and catastrophe. Understanding of conflict through the engagement with this unit; I understand that functional conflict is beneficial.
Evaluate
This understanding of conflicts has changed the way I looked at the things and situation in my life ,in my past I had some experiences where I do not find better way to manage the conflict occur it is cause I do not know the reason behind it and my negative way of looking at conflicts always come in between to accept it. We also looked at conflict from a traditional viewpoint that it is always negative and not knowing that conflict can be healthy and harnessing it could lead to success.
Plan
over the past experiences of working in groups , when conflicts happened on any issues it has become hard to manage it without hurting anyone. After studying the other part of conflicts now I am going to see the real reason behind any conflicts and I am also going to apply it in practice in our next group meeting.
Change management
Describe
The importance of people in organizational change cannot be underestimated. I learned this during week 11. This was also delivered by using different techniques to increase the arena of understanding. This started as usual with a pre-seminar learning, followed by lectures-in the notes embedded video on change. We capped this session with a discussion board entry on resistance to change and its prevention. This last assignment gave me an opportunity to read some articles on resistance to change, change and management. I got to understand that change entails structure, process, strategy and most importantly people. I was familiarized with forces of change, Lewin’s change model, and dealing with resistance to change.
Interpret
Understanding change and its administration is not vital for associations, yet additionally for people. Change is inescapable and our comprehension is imperative in guaranteeing that we devise procedures that will guarantee smooth progress. These cooperation’s have helped me comprehend change intensely. Now I presently comprehend diverse measurements of progress and the variables that impact change in association. Beforehand, my comprehension of progress was small and did not include correspondence, support, and sympathy in managing it. I likewise came to comprehend the centrality individuals play in authoritative change and that we ought to dependably speak to the heart and brains of individuals in affecting change.
Evaluate
After the realization of this understanding now I can change anything in my life and in workplace as well. I am the person who is always afraid of change even in my workplace , even if the change is small and not going to affect much. I can barely manage the change in nice way at first . The lecture session discussion provide us the broad knowledge of how other people are evaluate and deal with the change in their life and in organization. It gives me courage to open up about all the obstacles I have faced and how a small change can affect my ability to perform normal tasks. Through this understanding, I can now put communication, participation, and empathy in dealing with these subtle words of resistance. My approach in applying Lewin’s change model will be that of placing people at the center of change and trying to win their hearts and minds .
Plan
After studying this unit and reading the different material , I start to realize new aspect of changes and other side of it. I can now confidently faced any change happened in my work place or even in my life. I can help my other fellow workers who faced the same problem as me. It is also help me to understand that change do not have to be always negative and it can be good for us . I will promote for the change of our change model based on Lewin’s model because whereas there have been changes in the organization, our reward system and motivation for behavior change has maintained the status quo.
