IB: Chapter 4 – Flashcards
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Cross-Cultural Literacy
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understanding how the culture of a country affects the way business is practiced
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Culture
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a system of values and norms that are share among a group of people and that when taken together constitute a design for living
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Can MNCs themselves be engines of culture?
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YES
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Values
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abstract ideas about what a society believes to be good, right, and desirable
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What do values provide the context for?
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Values provide the context within which a society's norms are established and justified
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Norms
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social rules and guidelines that prescribe appropriate behavior in particular situations
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Society
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group of people who share a common set of values and norms
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Norms can be subdivided further into two major categories:
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folkways and mores
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Folkways
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routine conventions of everyday life
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Mores
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norms seen as central to the functioning of a society and to its social life
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What shows that mores have a much greater significance than folkways?
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certain mores have been enacted into law
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Is there a strict one-to-one correspondence between a society and a nation-state?
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NO, there is not a strict on-to-one correspondence between a society and a nation-state
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Determinants of Culture
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1) Social Structure 2) Religion 3) Political Philosophy 4) Economic Philosophy 5) Education 6) Language
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Social Structure
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the basic social organization of a society
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What are the two dimensions of social structure
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1) The degree to which the basic unit of a social organization is the individual as opposed to the group 2) The degree to which a society is stratified into classes or castes
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Do the value systems of many western societies emphasize individual or group achievement?
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Individual
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In the context of social structure, American society is characterized by a low degree of?
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Social Stratification, high degree of mobility between strata (India has high degree of Social Stratification, high degree of mobility between strata)
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Group
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an association of two or more individuals who have a shared sense of identity and who interact with each other in structured ways on the basis of a common set of expectations about each other's behavior
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Downsides to individualism:
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-it makes it difficult to build teams within an organization to perform collective tasks -lead to managers with a lack of company-specific experience, knowledge, and a network of contacts among managers
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What is an implication of Japan's emphasis on the group v. the individual?
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There is a low degree of movement from company to company among managers and workers
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One of the downsides to emphasizing the primacy of group identification over individualism is
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it leads to a lack of dynamism and entrepreneurship
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Social Strata
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hierarchical social categories often based on family background, occupation, and income
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Are individuals born into a particular social stratum?
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YES
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Social Mobility
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the extent to which individuals can move out of the social strata into which they are born
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Caste System
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a system of social stratification in which social position is determined by the family nto which a person is born, and change in that position is usually not possible during an individual's lifetime (most rigid system of stratification)
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Class System
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a system of social stratification in which social status is determined by the family into which a person is born and by subsequent socioeconomic achievements; mobility between classes is possible (less rigid form of social stratification)
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Describe the social mobility of a class system
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individuals born into a class at the bottom of the hierarchy can work their way up; conversely individuals born into a class at the top of the hierarchy can slip down
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Although upward social mobility was possible in Britain, what was the problem?
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It could not normally be achieved in one generation
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What are the difference between the US and Britain's class systems
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US: places greater emphasis on economic achievement, successful individuals from humble origins are highly respected in American society GB: place a greater emphasis on background and schooling
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Class Consciousness
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a tendency for individuals to perceive themselves in terms of their class background
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What limits the impact of class consciousness in American Society
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the high degree of social mobility and extreme emphasis on individualism
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Impact on business of operating in a society with a high degree of class consciousness?
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It is more difficult for companies based in countries with a high degree of class consciousness to establish a competitive advantage in the global economy Also increase in the costs of production
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Religion
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a system of shared beliefs and rituals concerned with the realm of the sacred
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Ethical Systems
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a coherent of beliefs about the right way to behave
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Which religion/ethical system has the highest number of adherents in the world today?
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Christianity
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Which 3 religions are monotheistic?
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Christianity, Judaism, and Islam
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Max Weber theorized that what religion's ethics encouraged the development of capitalism?
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Protestant
