COLLAPSE SUBDISCUSSIONKathryn Kelly Kathryn Kelly 10:38amJun 12 at 10:38amManage Discussion Entry Hi Marcus, Thanks for a thorough post. One of the things you noted in the difference between national...

Kathryn Kelly

Hi Marcus,

Thanks for a thorough post. One of the things you noted in the difference between national and organizational cultures is the time a person becomes familiar with the culture. Because the national culture indoctrination begins at a young age, changing national culture's impact would be difficult. Organizational culture, even though it is learned only when someone enters the organization, is also hard to change, but many consultants have tried. One way is to address cultural change in an organization is to replace all the top management. Does this work, do you think?

Kathryn

Breanca Woods

CULTURAL DIMENSIONS AND COMPETENCE

The United States of America as a country is an individualist culture where people love and value independence compared to being interdependent. China on the other hand, is a collectivism culture where people know their place in society. The similarities between the two countries are the fact that they are both cultures, which present interesting things to learn. In the American culture individual choices are valued and people go for what makes them happy or brings the greatest joy to their lives. The fact that China is a collective culture leans towards hierarchy and people socialize based on their differences in hierarchy. Achievements and relationships are valued in both cultures with the United States of America coming across as a freer culture that empowers individual citizens to pursue things that they love and cherish. Ideally, American culture is loose compared to somehow tight structure in China (Alizadeh & Chavan, 2015).

Organizational culture is different from national culture in the sense that organizational culture is built around practices, which define how people do things in the organization, while national culture is about values. The ability for people to distinguish between right and wrong and in the process make informed choices. Values define how people interact with each other in a country.

One of the most important things that I learned about the country analysis is the fact that countries are different in terms of cultures and they are defined by what they believe in and appreciate and the values and cultures are spread across the country because people tend to learn about their cultures when they are young. I would definitely use Hofstede’s work in cross-sectional cultural differences in my future work by recognizing the differences among cultures and developing competence to create smooth working environments.

The knowledge is related to intercultural competence because it raises the importance of understanding differences among people and countries. Therefore, having leaders and culturally competent employees, help workplaces to create an element of diversity in the business and as such, make all people comfortable working together. People from different cultures should never feel isolated or misunderstood if global organizations want to make major milestones in their businesses.

Reference

Alizadeh, S. & Chavan, M. (2015). Cultural competence dimensions and outcomes: A Systematic review of literature.Health & Social Care in the Community, 24(6), p.45