Sales & Marketing Management - July/August 2008 - (Page 35)

Culture is not static, but it tends to change slowly. People get set in their habits, particularly when values are involved. But sometimes events and policies can speed up change. Take offshore oil platforms, which are known for a macho culture of men working in isolation from the rest of society. When an oil company discovered that a high rate of accidents was cutting profitability, it introduced sensitivity training, rewarded cooperation and changed the culture from a macho stereotype in the direction of a more caring and cooperative culture, and the rate of accidents declined. 7 Even at the national level, impressive cultural changes occur. Japan had a militaristic culture in the 1930s, but changed to “Japan, Inc.” with an intense economic focus after the shock of losing World War II. A Japanese leader cannot come to power today with the bellicose and nationalistic style that would have been essential in the 1930s. Economic and social trends also produce cultural change. A century ago, China’s poor economic performance was attributed to its “Confucian” culture and India was said to be limited to a “Hindu rate of growth.” Today both are ranked among the fastest growing economies in the world, and the success of Chinese and Indian political leaders now depends heavily on economic growth for their legitimacy. Asian companies are known for a secretive family style of leadership, but this culture may be changing. Quinn Mills of Harvard Business School speculates, “As Asian companies rely more on professional employees of all sorts, and as professional services become more important in Asian economies, the less autocratic and more participative and even empowered style of leadership will emerge. Asian leadership will come to more resemble that of the West.”8 At the same time, it is unlikely that all aspects of cultures will converge under the pressures of modernization and globalization. Japan has weathered a century-and-a-half of responses to globalization, but no one would say that its culture resembles that of Europe or the United States. A Dutch scholar observes that “leadership in Holland presupposes modesty, as opposed to assertiveness in the United States. No U.S. leadership theory has room for that.” In his view, American culture skews American management theories which feature three elements not present in other countries: market processes, emphasis on the individual and a focus on managers rather than workers.9 But a single European culture does not exist. Theorists have identified at least four patterns in Europe: Anglo market orientation; French pyramidal structures; Scandinavian consensual approach; and German machine efficiency. A European leader has to understand these differences. A two-hour meeting in Germany may take all day in Southern Italy. 10 Even though German-speaking countries, Germany, Austria www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com and Switzerland show significant cultural differences.11 At the national level, a comprehensive review of nearly 400 studies concluded that cultural values in a country will determine the optimum leadership profile for that country. 12 The GLOBE Project administered 17,300 questionnaires in 62 societies, and on that basis identified 10 cultural clusters with different leadership characteristics: Latin America, Anglo, Latin Europe, Nordic Europe, Germanic Europe, Eastern Europe, Confucian Asia, Southern Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. 13 And within each of these clusters, national, regional, local, religious, organizational and other subcultures exist. Leaders face daunting challenges in understanding national differences in cultural context. Some people are better able than others at encountering different environments—whether national or organizational—and learning the appropriate cues to figure out quickly what is happening in a culture. Such skills can also be learned. Just as some people are naturals in learning foreign languages while others have to struggle, similar patterns exist in cultural intelligence (which is a subset of contextual intelligence). People can alert themselves or be trained to increase the complexity of their thinking, experience crosscultural settings, overcome negative stereotypes and imagine other cultural viewpoints. 14 Notes 1 Edgar H. Schein, “Defining Oranizational Culture,” in J. Thomas Wren, ed., The Leader’s Companion: Insight on Leadership Through the Ages, New York, Free Press, 1995, p. 281. 2 P. Christopher Earley and Soon Ang, Cultural Intelligence: Individual Interactions Across Cultures, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2003, pp. 4-5. 3 Earley and Ang, cited above, p. 11. 4 New York Times, May 2007. 5 Daniel Burnham, personal interview, 2006. 6 9/11 Commission. 7 Robin J. Ely and Debra E. Meyerson, “Unmasking Manly Men: The Organizational Reconstruction of Men’s Identity,” Working Paper No. 07-054, Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA, 2007. 8 D. Quinn Mills, “Asian and American Leadership Styles: How Are They Unique?” Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, June 27, 2005. 9 Geert Hofstede, “Cultural Constraints on Management Theories,” in Wren, cited, pp. 259, 267. 10 A. Kakabadse, A. Myers, T. McMahon and G. Spony, “Top Management Styles in Europe: Implications for Business and Cross-National Teams,” in Keith Grint, ed., Leadership: Classical, Contemporary and Critical Approaches, cited, p. 194. 11 Erna Szabo, Gerhard Reber, Jurgen Weibler, Felic Brodbeck and Rolf Wunderer, “Values and Behavior Orientation in Leadership Studies: Reflections Based on Findings in Three German-Speaking Countries,” Leadership Quarterly 12 (2001), pp. 219-244. 12 Triandis (1994), and Mansour Javidan and Dale E. Carl, “East Meets West: A Cross Cultural Comparison of Charismatic Leadership Among Canadian and Iranian Executives,” Journal of Management Studies 41, 4 (June 2004). 13 Robert J. House, Paul J. Hanges, Mansour Javidan, Peter W. Dorfman and Vipin Gupta, eds., Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies, Thousand Oaks, Sage, 2007. 14 Earley and Ang, cited above, pp. 4, 267. JULY/AUGUST 2008 SALES&MARKETING MANAGEMENT 35 http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com

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Sales & Marketing Management - July/August 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Brian Tracy University Smart Sales Sales Strategy Smart Marketing Marketing Strategy Smart Management Management Strategy The Mother Lode of All Market Data Returns Embracing the Future Training Technology Incentives/Motivation Don't Become a Target Abroad Book Excerpt On the Road The Way I See It

Sales & Marketing Management - July/August 2008

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