The Impact of American

Culture on Management
• “Master of destiny” viewpoint
• Independent enterprise as the
instrument of social action
• Personnel selection and reward based
on merit
• Decisions based on objective analysis
• Wide sharing in decision making
• Never-ending quest for improvement
• Competition producing efficiency
Authority and Decision Making

• Influencers of the authority structure

of business:
- High PDI Countries
• Mexico, Malaysia
- Low PDI Countries
• Denmark, Israel
• Three typical authority
patterns:

- Top-level management decisions

- Decentralized decisions
- Committee or group decisions
Management Objectives
and Aspirations
• Security and mobility
- Relate directly to basic human
motivation and therefore have
widespread economic and social
implications.
• Personal life
- Worldwide study of individual
aspirations, (David McClelland).
• Affiliation and social acceptance
- In some countries, acceptance by
neighbors and fellow workers
appears to be a predominant goal
within business.
• Power and achievement
- South American countries
Communication Styles

• Face-to-face communication:
- Managers often fail to develop even a basic
understanding of just one another’s
language.
- Much business communication depends on
implicit messages that are not
verbalized.
• Internet communications:
- Nothing about the Web will change the extent
to which people identify with
their own language and cultures.
- Estimates are that 78% of today’s Web site
content is written in English,
but an English e-mail message cannot be
understood by 35% of all Internet
users.
- Country-specific Web sites
- Web site should be examined for any
symbols, icons, and other nonverbal
impressions that could convey an unwanted
message.
Corruption

• Types of Corruption:
- Profits (Marxism)
- Individualism (Japan)
- Rampant Consumerism (India)
- Missionaries (China)
• Criticisms of Mattel and Barbie:
- Sales of Barbie declined
worldwide after the global
standardization
- Parents and government did
react
- Mattel’s strategy boosted sales
The Western Focus on Bribery

• 1970s, bribery became a national issue

with public
disclosure of political payoffs to foreign
recipients by
U.S. firms.
• The decision to pay a bribe creates a
major conflict
between what is ethical and proper and
what is profitable
and sometimes necessary for business.
• OECD Convention on combating the
bribery of foreign
Bribery: Variations on a Theme

• Bribery and Extortion:

- Voluntary offered payment by
someone seeking unlawful
advantage
is bribery.
- If payments are extracted under
duress by someone in authority
from
a person seeking only what he or
she is lawfully entitled to that is
• Subornation and Lubrication:

- Lubrication involves a relatively

small sum of cash, a gift, or a
service given to a low-ranking
official in a country where such
offerings are not prohibited by
law.
- Subornation involves giving
large sums of money, frequently
not
properly accounted for, designed
to entice an official to commit an
illegal act on behalf of the one