One: Two very different cultures exist at the investment firm that I work for. In the individual office setting, the culture in my role is characterized by traditional masculinity. In the offices that I oversee, the Financial Advisors are men and their assistants are women. These men, for the most part, are “assertive, tough, and decisive” (Nelson & Quick, 2019). They are the face of their business for clients whose investments they oversee and are naturally confident individuals. The women are the voice. They answer every call, listen to personal problems, and comfort their clients in times of need. They cower when a Financial Advisor is voicing their displeasure and quietly look for solutions.
At the corporate headquarters, the culture is shifting to traditional femininity, where “men and women are expected to assume both assertive and nurturing roles”. (Nelson & Quick, 2019). Our executive leadership team, department heads, directors, and managers consist of both men and women. It is the expectation that everyone treat each other with respect and as a partner, regardless of job level, race, gender, beliefs, etc. I have worked in both locations and the cultural differences are incredible, considering it is all the same organization.
Similar to Saint Leo University’s core value of integrity, are many organization’s core values and commitment to ethics. Eventually, I do think that ethics and social responsibility with continue to become more similar across cultures. With continuous enhancements of technology, communication, and the ability for individuals to instantly connect around the world, I feel that it will be demanded. Social responsibility and ethics are now a part of company’s brands and images. Some consumers choose who to do business with based on company’s behaviors. For example, consumers called for boycotts of Jimmy John’s after photos of CEO Jimmy JohnLiautaud surfaced that show him posing with a dead elephant and dead leopard that he had hunted and killed. These photos have resurfaced over the years and caused additional calls for boycotts of the restaurant. This is a great example of social responsibility and the impact that poor decisions, in the eyes of consumers, can have. Nelson and Quick (2019) discuss that the Four-Way Test is now used in over 166 nations, which also shows how important ethical behavior in business truly is.
Nelson, D. & Quick, J. (2019). ORGB6 Organizational Behvior. Boston, MA: Cengage.
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Two: Differences in Cultures
The six dimensions of cultural differences according to Hofstede are the following:
“Power Distance — related to the different solutions to the basic problem of human inequality;
Uncertainty Avoidance — related to the level of stress in a society in the face of an unknown future;
Individualism versus Collectivism— related to the integration of individuals into primary groups;
Masculinity versus Femininity —related to the division of emotional roles between women and men;
Long Term versus Short Term Orientation — related to the choice of focus for people's efforts: the future or the present and past; and
Indulgence versus Restraint — related to the gratification versus control of basic human desires related to enjoying life” (Hofstede, pg. 8).
Considering the above cultural differences, the significant differences in cultures I have witness in between working in construction culture versus doing administrative culture. The main difference between the two is working in construction the culture is more masculinity as employees are expected to be assertive and tough and the focus is on achieving various goals throughout the job until it is complete and then moving on to the next job so money can be made quickly and working long hours is expected. While working in the administrative culture is more femininity as employees are focused more on building relationships and been nurturing and focuses on balancing work/family life. When I worked in construction I felt as if all that was expected of me was to complete jobs as fast as possible and move to the next in order to make money for the organization and when I started doing administrative work the focus was not on completing a job as fast as possible, but was on building relationships not only with clients but with co-workers as well.
The website http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_dimensions…. was not working at the time of this writing. So, the two cultures I chose to compare and contrast is America and Japan. The main difference found between the two is America is more individualism, meaning “the social framework is loose and employees put loyalty to themselves and families ahead of loyalty to their company or work group” (Nelson, pg. 21). While Japan is more collectivism, meaning they have a “tightly knit social framework in which individual members depend strongly on others and group decisions are valued and accepted” (Nelson pg. 21). Some other differences in the culture is Japan “utilize bowing instead of shaking hands, and it is “insulting to tip because doing so is considered to be an affront to an employee's salary, while in America, tips are meant to show appreciation” and “workers in Japan tend to only work for one company all their lifetime” while American workers tend to work for different companies throughout their lifetime (Aliasis).
Saint Leo University core values of integrity is “the commitment of Saint Leo University to excellence demands that its members live its mission and deliver on its promise. The faculty, staff, and students pledge to be honest, just and consistent in word and deed” (Saint Leo University). When using this core value as the foundation to form an opinion concerning whether the developing global economy will cause ethics and social responsibility to become more similar or more distinct across cultures my response would be it would cause some differences and then some similarity but each would still have their own unique culture different from the others. The reason I say this is each culture will be true to the values and mission of the culture, but all would be honest, and just and consistent in their word and deed, which would cause a likeness in the global economy.
References
Aliasis. (2018, November 25). Cultural Differences Between the USA and Japan. Retrieved October 17, 2019, from https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/Cultural-Differences-Between-the-US-and-Japan.
Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014
Nelson, Debra, L. (2019). Orgb. S.l.: CENGAGE LEARNING.
Saint Leo University. Florida Catholic University. http://www.saintleo.edu/about/florida-catholic-university.aspx.
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