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“Are cultural profiling frameworks still relevant in the age of global convergence?” discuss 指导assignment Cultural framework is a term used in social science to denote the longstanding background traditions, value systems, myths and symbols that are widespread in a given population (Mead, 1998). Generally, to assess a particular culture, it always identifies the culture into several dimensions, such as the culture model made by Hofstede. It is beacuse the cultural framework could create boundaries used for analyzing the elements included in the culture. In this case, to identify and study the perspectives of an unknown culture, especially those cultures which most people do not similar with, creation of cultural framework provides an effective method to learn and understand the different culture. However, it is also argued that cultural profiling frameworks are not relevant in the age of global convergence, due to developed frequency of communications among cultures. It is certainty that the communications among culture had never been as activeness as today in the globalization environment. It dose not only lower down the costs to understand other cultures, but further integrate different cultures into one place. Nevertheless, the problem is whether the integration of cultures could directly lead to the conclusion that culture framework is irrelevant. It is the aim of this paper. To achieve such purpose, this paper will firstly discuss the definition and usage of culture framework. In this part, several important frameworks will be introduced to emphasize the importance of cultural frameworks in understanding the different cultures. After that, this paper will review the changing of world, specifically related to the changes caused by globalization. It will mainly include the impact of globalization to the integration of cultures. At last of this paper, it will discuss whether it is necessary to create cultural frameworks and whether cultural frameworks will contribute to the understanding of different cultures in the globalization atmosphere. Cultural Framewok The culture that we are embedded in inevitably influences our views about leadership (Hofstede,. & Hofstede, 2005). To make sense of the different types of cultural influence, Brendan, (2003) developed the three cultures model, which posits three cultural influences at work in corporations: personal culture, national culture, and organizational culture. They state that the model is based on work in global corporations, but it is our premise that it captures cultural influences in both global and non-global corporations. Personal culture is the shared combination of an individual’s traits, skills, and personality formed within the context of his or her ethnic, racial, familial, and educational environments. Every one has a unique personal culture. National culture is a shared understanding that comes from the combination of beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors that have provided the foundation for the heritage of a country. Although national culture is a shared understanding, as is well known, individuals within a nation still have a very wide range of beliefs about their nation.#p#分页标题#e# Corporate culture is a combination of widely shared institutional beliefs, values, and the organization’s guiding philosophy that is usually stated in its vision, mission, and values statements (Haggett, 001). Similar to national culture, individuals within an organization often view their organization differently. These varying views often align themselves with individuals’ levels within the company hierarchy. This results in leaders often having different views about their corporate culture compared to those in the lower levels in the organization. Keeping in touch with how these views differ is an important part of every leader’s job. For interactions within organizations, culture is a mix of personal, national, and corporate culture. The focus of this book is on the personal culture that has developed within the national culture that takes place within the corporate culture. Culture is not external but is “within the person”; it is not separate from other learned competencies. Developing multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills should be seen as a professional obligation as well as an opportunity for a leader. With the millions of employees living and working in diverse environments, there are abundant opportunities for enhancing multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. People who live in an unfamiliar culture are likely to become more multicultural in their awareness of alternative values, habits, customs, and lifestyles that were initially strange and unfamiliar (Ho, 1970). Sometimes they have learned to adjust even more profoundly and effectively than they themselves realize. They have learned to respond in unique ways to previously unfamiliar situations and come up with the right answers without always being aware of their own adjustment process. Again, as stated earlier, given demographic changes, understanding culture has great implications both domestically and internationally. Hofstede has found five dimensions of culture in his study of national work related values. Replication studies have yielded similar results, pointing to stability of the dimensions across time. The dimensions are (Hofstede, 2001): Small vs. large power distance: How much the less powerful members of institutions and organizations expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. In cultures with small power distance, people expect and accept power relations that are more consultative or democratic. People relate to one another more as equals regardless of formal positions. Subordinates are more comfortable with and demand the right to contribute to and critique the decisions of those in power. In cultures with large power distance, the less powerful accept power relations that are autocratic or paternalistic. Subordinates acknowledge the power of others based on their formal, hierarchical positions. Thus, Small vs. Large Power Distance does not measure or attempt to measure a culture's objective, "real" power distribution, but rather the way people perceive power differences.#p#分页标题#e# Individualism vs. collectivism: How much members of the culture define themselves apart from their group memberships. In individualist cultures, people are expected to develop and display their individual personalities and to choose their own affiliations. In collectivist cultures, people are defined and act mostly as a member of a long-term group, such as the family, a religious group, an age cohort, a town, or a profession, among others. This dimension was found to move towards the individualist end of the spectrum with increasing national wealth. Masculinity vs. femininity: The value placed on traditionally male or female values (as understood in most Western cultures). In so-called 'masculine' cultures, people (whether male or female) value competitiveness, assertiveness, ambition, and the accumulation of wealth and material possessions. Another reading of the same dimension holds that in 'M' cultures, the differences between gender roles are more dramatic and less fluid than in 'F' cultures; but this strongly depends on other dimensions as well. Weak vs. strong uncertainty avoidance: How much members of a society are anxious about the unknown, and as a consequence, attempt to cope with anxiety by minimizing uncertainty. In cultures with strong uncertainty avoidance, people prefer explicit rules (e.g. about religion and food) and formally structured activities, and employees tend to remain longer with their present employer. In cultures with weak uncertainty avoidance, people prefer implicit or flexible rules or guidelines and informal activities. Employees tend to change employers more frequently. Long vs. short term orientation: A society's "time horizon," or the importance attached to the future versus the past and present. In long term oriented societies, people value actions and attitudes that affect the future: persistence/perseverance, thrift, and shame. In short term oriented societies, people value actions and attitudes that are affected by the past or the present: normative statements, immediate stability, protecting one's own face, respect for tradition, and reciprocation of greetings, favors, and gifts. These cultural differences describe averages or tendencies and not characteristics of individuals. A Japanese person for example can have a very low 'uncertainty avoidance' compared to a Filipino person even though their 'national' cultures point strongly in a different direction. Consequently, a country's scores should not be interpreted as deterministic. Globalization and Culture The latest summit between G8 leaders brings with it the usual litany of complaints about globalization: environmental degradation, exploitation of sweatshop labor, and alleged Western capitalist hegemony. Some argue that globalization-induced increases in material well-being are superficial and trifling, sometimes quoting William Wordsworth’s statement that “in getting and spending we lay waste our powers.” The trade-offs include reduced cultural distinctiveness, increased social instability, and unsavory cultural by-products. The G8 protesters are correct that globalization has some costs; however, these costs are small relative to the benefits. Globalization is an experimental process that produces a host of political problems because the process of “creative destruction” continually upsets the status quo. These insights also apply to cultural globalization. It is argued that global cultural competition is beneficial. By preventing it, people deprive themselves of new cultural forms as well as exposure to what the rest of the world has to offer. One concern is that increasing globalization creates “winner-take-all” markets for cultural outputs. However, it will create niche markets in which everyone’s preferences, no matter how esoteric, can be satisfied. This is something the G8 protesters overlook. Another concern is that globalization has undesirable moral consequences. At first glance, it appears that increased access to pornography is an identifiable cost of globalization and technological change. The actual effects are more subtle: it is has shown, rates of sex crimes fell as internet pornography became more widespread (Byrne, 2001). Those who are predisposed to commit sex crimes substitute such acts with pornography as it becomes more widely available. The moral costs of globalization and technology may in fact be benefits as people commit fewer brutal sex crimes. The key to a robust cultural environment is to preserve the institutions that allow the search process to operate rather than trying to freeze cultural time. The market process is the process by which efficient modes of production are revealed.? It is also said that we can’t have that specific knowledge (Geoff, 2009) Encouraging experimentation—and therefore giving people the freedom to fail—is essential to the discovery process. Data from various polls suggests that on the whole, people do not trust globalization (Chhokar, Brodbeck, & House, 2007). It is argued that people have systematically biased views of economic processes. One needs only to scan newspapers or magazines to find large photo spreads of people investing scarce resources in attempts to maintain the status quo. Socially, these resources are wasted. Global commerce in culture and morality can also be ennobling. It is also argues “[t]he economical advantages of commerce are surpassed in importance by those of its effects, which are intellectual and moral.” (Brendan, 2002)/ He points out that as commerce has replaced war as the chief way in which cultures engage one another, the opportunities to improve our “arts or practices” as well as “points of character” continue to expand.#p#分页标题#e# Economists are criticized for an alleged blind faith in the market, particularly among those who are likely to be represented among the G8 protesters. However, our zeal for market processes does not represent blind faith or ideological slavery but a humble admission that human knowledge is too imperfect to articulate ideal solutions to broad social problems. The market is not an end unto itself; rather, it is a means by which the most effective ways to solve problems are revealed, as Hayek has pointed out and as distinguished economists like New York University development economist William Easterly have echoed. As it is noted, the very essence of the market process is to define the arrangements that produce order and to discard those that do not (Best, 2001). In the final analysis, it should not fret about the alleged moral and cultural depravity of modernity. Rather, it should maintain and preserve the processes and institutions conducive to the development of art and culture. Discussion People differ in many ways. Some of these differences are due to their personality, socioeconomic class, or education, but the most profound differences may be cultural. For example, many health professionals think that if they just treat each patient with respect, they will avert most cultural problems. But that is not always the case. Some knowledge of cultural customs can help avoid misunderstandings and enable practitioners to provide better care. Multinational companies and international business relations are crucial for the development of the world economy and the progress of the humankind. Cross-cultural differences play an important role in international business together with differences in communication, managerial styles, and business practices. International Human Resource Management (IHRM) has increasingly been recognized as a major determining factor of success or failure in international business and human capital is more often seen as the main source of sustainable competitive advantage available to companies. In the recent years, many companies have generated considerable revenues outside of their home countries. When involved in international business, MNCs should not underestimate the importance of the cultural specificity of the host countries because different staffing, selecting, training, motivating and compensating practices should be applied in accordance with the characteristics of the local cultural context. In the international scene, knowing and identifying cultural differences can make a big difference between successful business negotiations and mortifying rejections. International business communication plays a major role in this, as knowing how to communicate through their point of view is a great advantage. Each country has their own way of saying things, what may not be offending to others may be offending to them. International business communication all about knows the important thing that lays behind peoples words in the international arena.#p#分页标题#e# International business communication is communicating across cultures and the first thing people must always put in mind is the basic understanding that one size doesn’t fit all. Always putting in mind that the cultural practices or habits you have does not mean that everyone else around the globe does. The most important and worrying variables in the international scene of business are the cultural differences that most international business executives fail to comprehend resulting in most international business slip-ups. The failure to identify and adapt to these differences through effective international business communication can mean the difference between a closed deal and a faceless failure. Assuming cultures affect the way people communicate with each other and language above all else, is the core of culture. Culture is the different ways in which people behave, act, or think towards themselves, families, and other people in the society. It includes customs connected with social, political, family, and religious values. Different cultures have deviating values for time and its use, for personal space, and for family values and chats. These differences must be identified and recognized to bridge the gaps between cultures and for real communication to take place. Learning effective international business communication is communicating across cultures, and it takes great sensitivity and awareness by studying cultures and becoming more perceptive and adaptable in communication efforts. As the conclusion, Focusing on cultural frameworks and how they governed reactions to state crises and shaped state reconstruction provides an entry point for such an explanation. Different ideological legacies, embedded in state reconstruction after the seventeenth-century crises, profoundly influenced the later divergence of the countries.指导英国assignment Conclusion Brendan, M. (2002). Hofstede's Model Of National Cultural Differences And Their Consequences: A Triumph Of Faith - A Failure Of Analysis. Human Relations, vol.55, pp.89–118. Becker, J.& Ayman, R. (2002)‘Discrepancies in Self/Subordinates’Perceptions of Leadership Behavior: Leader’s Gender, Organizational Context, andnLeader’s Self-monitoring’, Group and Organization Management 27(2): 226–44. Best, D.L. (2001) ‘Gender Concepts: Convergence in Cross-cultural Research and Methodologies’, Cross-Cultural Research 35(1): 23–43. Byrne, B.M. (2001) Structural Equation Modeling with Amos. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Carless, S.A. (1998) ‘Gender Differences in Transformational Leadership: An Examination of Superior, Leader, and Subordinate Perspectives’, Sex Roles 39(11/12): 887–902. Chhokar, J.S., Brodbeck, F. and House, R.J. (2007) Culture and Leadership around the World: The GLOBE Book of In-depth Studies of 25 Societies. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Den Hartog, D.N., House, R.J., Hanges, P.J., Ruiz-Quintanilla, S.A. and Dorfman, P.W. (1999) ‘Culture Specific and Cross-culturally Generalizable Implicit Leadership Theories: Are Attributes of Charismatic/ Transformational Leadership Universally Endorsed?’, Leadership Quarterly 10(2); 219–56. Emmerik, H. V. Euwema, M. C. & Wendt, H. (2008) Leadership Behaviors around the World: The Relative Importance of Gender versus Cultural Background. Cross Cultural Management, vol. 8, pp. 297-315 Haggett, P. (2001). Encyclopedia of World Geography, Volume 23. Edition 2, illustrated. New York: Marshall Cavendish publishing. Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture's Consequences: comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations (2nd ed.). CA: SAGE Publications. Hofstede, G. & Hofstede, G. J. (2005). Cultures and organizations: software of the mind (Revised and expanded 2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Ho, P. T.(1970) n Estimate of the Total Population of Sung-Chin China. Études Song, vol.1, pp. 33–53. Geoff, W. (2009) The Polity of Yelang and the Origin of the Name 'China'. Sino-Platonic Papers, vol. 188, pp. 6ff. Mead, R. (1998) International management: cross-cultural dimensions. London: Wiley-Blackwell
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