cross-national groups. 2 2 hinds & bailey: conflict in distributed teams problem is not simply...
TRANSCRIPT
Cross-national groups
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Hinds & Bailey: Conflict in distributed teams
• Problem is not simply cultural differences• Stable content of cultural differences is important too
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Culture
• Integrated system of learned behavior patterns which are characteristic of the members of a group (society, corporation, fraternity)
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Geert Hofstede
• Dutch social psychologist
• Industrial psychologist at IBM from 1967-73
• Surveys from 116,000 IBM employees from 40 countries
• Factor analysis to identify first 4 & then later 5 distinct dimensions of cultural values
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Hofstede’s Framework
• Primarily descriptive taxonomy about how cultures differ• Individualistic vs Collectivist dimensions used
most
• Not a theory, with causal explanations for • Why the cultural differences came to be• Predictions about their consequences
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Hofstede’s values
The nature of the differences matter
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Individualism vs Collectivism
Degree to which individuals are integrated into groups.
The fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members. It has to do with whether people´s self-image is defined in terms of “I” or “We”. In Individualist societies people are supposed to look after themselves and their direct family only. In Collectivist societies people belong to ‘in groups’ that take care of them in exchange for loyalty.
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Individualism vs Collectivism
Individualism• Ties between individuals are
loose: everyone is expected to look after him/herself and his/her immediate family.
• Stress on personal achievements and individual rights
• Everyone expected to fulfill their own needs
• Everybody has the right to own opinion.
Collectivism• People are integrated into strong,
cohesive in-groups, often extended families (with uncles, aunts and grandparents) which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.
• Stress on group pride & solidarity
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Continuum of values
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Measure of Individualism vs Collectivism
How much do you agree with the following statements:• Individuals should sacrifice self-interest for the group.• Individuals should stick with the group even through difficulties.• Group welfare is more important than individual rewards.• Group success is more important than individual success.• Individuals should only pursue their goals after considering the
welfare of the group. • Group loyalty should be encouraged even if individual goals
suffer.
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Array yourself on the 7-point scale
• Individualism vs Collectivism• You have a 14 year old brother. He has been
taking piano lessons since he was seven. He now wants to quit, and start playing electric guitar in a band with some buddies, but your parents are opposed. They think the piano is a better instrument and that your brother will regret his decision when he gets older. Who do you support – brother or father?
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Array yourself on the 7-point scale
• Individualism vs Collectivism• How should I grade the Wikipedia assignment: Give
everyone in a team the same grade or weight their grade by the amount they contributed?
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Scores by country: Individualism
http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_dimensions.php
http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/individualism/
Rank Country IDV 1 United States 912 Australia 903 United Kingdom 894 Netherlands 805 New Zealand 796 Italy 767 Belgium 758 Denmark 749 France 71
10 Sweden 7121 Israel 5422 Spain 5123 India 4824 Argentina 4625 Japan 4626 Iran 4127 Jamaica 3928 Brazil 3829 Egypt 3840 Mexico 3041 Ethiopia 2742 Kenya 2743 Portugal 2744 Tanzania 2745 Zambia 2746 Malaysia 2647 Hong Kong 2548 Chile 2349 China 2050 Ghana 2060 Indonesia 1461 Pakistan 1462 Colombia 1363 Venezuela 1264 Panama 1165 Ecuador 866 Guatemala 6
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Power Distance • Extent to which the less powerful members of
organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.
Measurement:• People in higher positions should make most decisions without
consulting people in lower positions.
• People in higher positions should not ask the opinions of
• people in lower positions too frequently.
• People in higher positions should avoid social interaction with
• people in lower positions.
• People in lower positions should not disagree with decisions by people in higher positions.
• People in higher positions should not delegate important tasks to people in lower positions.
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Power DistanceRank ountry PDI
1 Malaysia 1042 Guatemala 953 Panama 954 Philippines 945 Mexico 816 Venezuela 817 China 808 Egypt 809 Iraq 8010 Kuwait 8011 Lebanon 8012 Libya 8013 Saudi Arabia 8014 United Arab Emirates 8015 Ecuador 7816 Indonesia 7817 Ghana 7718 India 7719 Nigeria 7720 Sierra Leone 7721 Singapore 7422 Brazil 6923 France 6824 Hong Kong 6825 Poland 6826 Colombia 6727 El Salvador 6628 Turkey 6629 Belgium 6530 Ethiopia 6431 Kenya 6432 Peru 6433 Tanzania 6434 Thailand 6435 Zambia 6436 Chile 6337 Portugal 6338 Uruguay 6139 Greece 6040 South Korea 6041 Iran 5842 Taiwan 5843 Czech Republic 5744 Spain 5745 Pakistan 5546 Japan 5447 Italy 5048 Argentina 4949 South Africa 4950 Hungary 4651 Jamaica 4552 United States 4053 Netherlands 3854 Australia 36
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Hofstede’s other dimensions
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Extending the Hofstede modelHouse et al. (2002). Understanding cultures & implicit leadership theories across the globe.
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Nisbett: Cognitive differences btw Westerns & Eastern cultures
• What are the differences?• What is the evidence that these differences
exist• Historical observation to argue that the
differences are long standing• Etiology
Geography
Social arrangements
Cognitive accommodations
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Types of cognitive differences Dimension Western EasternFocus of attention
Focus on parts Focus on wholes
Focus on objects Focus on relationshipsEase of abstracting object from field Field dependenceBeliefs about/Illusion of Control Less influenced by perceptions of control
Explanation & prediction
Explanation focus on actor Explanations focus on context
Subject to fundamental attribution error Not subject to fundamental attribution error when placed in the coercive stituation
Holistic prediction & postdiction
Less subject to hindsight bias More subject to hindsight bias
Surprised when expectations violated Not surprisedCategorization Similarity based on category membership Similarity based on family resemblence
Categories basis for induction Categories less basis for inductionRule-based category membership Exemplars as basis for category membershp
Law of noncontraction
Avoid appearance of self-contractions Don't avoid appearance of self-contractions
One position is 'right' Seek the middle wayWeight of strong arguments enhanced when compared with weaker arguments
Weight of strong arguments weakened when compared with weaker arguments
Use of simple rules to justify choice Use of multiple source to justify choice
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Correspondence & the Fundamental Attribution Error
• In the West, subjects attribute behavior internally, to actors’ attitudes, dispositions or motivations• E.g., In Jones & Harris, Western subjects judge target’s attitude on a controversial issue based on position in an
essay, regardless of whether target chose the position or was randomly assigned
• Choi & Nisbett replication• Subjects merely told of lack of choice• Subjects experience lack of choice• Subjects experience lack of choice
& given arguments to use in essay
• Correspondence bias reduced amongAsian subjects when they directlyexperienced the lack of choice
Choi, I., & Nisbett, R. (1998). Situational salience and cultural differences in the correspondence bias and actor-observer bias. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 9(24), 949-960.
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Prediction & postdictionKind & religious seminary student hurrying across campus to deliver a sermon. On route, he encounters a man lying in a doorway asking for help.
• Prediction: What will he do?• Postdiction: What do you think he would have done?• Amount of surprise at what he actually did
ResultPrediction
of helpPostdiction
of helpSurprise Prediction
of helpPostdiction
of helpSurprise
Unknown 80% NA NA 80% NA NAHelp given 80% 80% No 80% 80% NoHelp not given 80% 80% Yes 80% 50% No
Americans Koreans
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Nisbett R E , Masuda T PNAS 2003;100:11163-11170
Which two go together?”
2424Nisbett R E , Masuda T PNAS 2003;100:11163-11170©2003 by National Academy of Sciences
“Which group does the target object belong to?” Target bears a family resemblance to group on the left but can be assigned to group on the right on the basis of a rule.
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Nisbett R E , Masuda T PNAS 2003;100:11163-11170
©2003 by National Academy of Sciences
Percent of participants basing similarity judgments on family resemblance vs. rule.
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Etiology & Maintenance• Homeostatic system, in which material & economic
conditions shape social arrangements which shape cognitive preferences
West EastGreek topology => less agricultural & more herding & fishing=>individualistic
Agriculturally based => substantial coordination with neighbors
Politically decentralized Politically centralized
Rule-based problem solving (12-step programs) Feng shui
Narrow career path Job rotationModulairty & division of laborChess GoMeetings for discussion & decision Meetings for ratificationConflict as persuasion tactic Conflict avoidance normsClassroom participation & challenging Lack of classroom participationArgument from principles & assumptions Less reliance on Western normative
rhetorical formsCodified laws & courtrooms Negotiations, not lawsContracts as agreements Contracts as negotiationsOne true religion Religious blendingBabies learn nouns Babies learn verbs
Origins
Homeostatis
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Evidence for Etiology: Context
• Compare present-day fisherman & farmers (social) vs herders (individualistic)
• Herders were less accurate in the relative tas• Farmers and fishermen were less accurate in the absolute task
than were herders.
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Evidence for Etiology: Grouping
• Farmers and fishermen more often grouped objects on the basis of similarities and relationships
• Herders more often group based on categories.
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Evidence for Etiology: Grouping
• Farmers and fishermen more often grouped objects on the basis of holistic similarity
• Herders more often group based single rule (straight stem)
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Cramton & Hinds (2009): The dialectical struggle to resolve cross-national differences
Global cultural differences are the surround for differences (& reactions) all the way down
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Reactions to differences
• Cultural & organizational mismatches cause problems
• These mismatches aren’t stable• Individuals & managers on one side react to
mitigate or work around the differences• These changes may consolidate in changed
organizational policy• The other side may react to the initial reactions
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Research sites
•Global software engineering firm•Two years of observation
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The difference a low-power distance orientation makes
• Power orientation: US (40)=Germany (35) is lower than India (77) • US & Germany care less about hierarchical differences than Indians
• US & Germany are meritocracies
• Software developers in US & Germany are in less demand than in India
In India, lots of concern about one’s own hierarchical position vis a vis others
In US, relatively equality between engineer & supervisor• “Before the program manager can be worth anything to the
team, he or she must be thoroughly disabused of the notion that he or she has any direct control. Fortunately, in the healthy team, no one needs to take any special steps to see that this happens: the program manager's teammates will quickly disabuse him or her of any delusions of control that he or she may be harboring"
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Tensions in exercise of authority & reward
Start w. western individual contributor model.
High Indian turnover
Communication goes thru unofficial Indian liaison; Monitoring Liaison-role
institutionalized
Western managers don’t get enough control; Indian workers don’t get enough face-time with western bosses
Matrix management rejected as cumbersome
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Quotes• Problems with western management
• I made a very bad experience. I gave the development of one topic, big topic, to Bangalore and … guys all told me, "Yes, no problem. I will do this. I’m able to do this. And he started on this issue…And somewheres, oh, about 70 percent of the time, I went back to the guy and asked him, "And now your thing should be finished for testing to show it to me. He said, "Yes, I’m ready. I finished." Then I made some very first testings and I think nothing was done. So I think it was my fault, I should have monitored him, this guy, much more often in much more detail what I didn’t done before… I don’t come up to this guy maybe on a daily base to ask him, "How far are you already or do you have problems?“
• Westerners do more monitoring• If I give a task to India, I have to make a clear
monitoring. So this means day by day, I have to ask them, "How are you? What’s the process? Have you finished? Have you problems? And so on. This must be done.
• Appoint Indian coordinators• I’m not able to monitor each task from another
location … And in some cultures maybe you have to do this. So I think… it was the right decision to have one manager onsite who is the human resource manager, and then in addition he is also working on the…is also responsible for the project
• Dissatisfaction with Indian coordinators as impeding communication
• Indian coordinator: “We don’t want the developers directly talking to people over there (in the U.S.) because then it’s a multi-way channel and we don’t know what’s happening. So we want to keep the channel of communications very clear.”
• Encourage decentralization & empowerment• It was…a counterpart in India with same (ideas
about) freedom…The team members…will take the responsibilities if you will let them…It was a new manager and it was very important for us to fix, to find a manager who is working in this way.
• Indian managers don’t want to give up control• Indian coordinator to Indian developer: “Don’t
spend a lot of time trying to understand something on your own.” .
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Tensions in project control
Start w. western project management.
Indians weren’t working unless monitored, Didn’t provide warnings if project was derailed
Western managermonitor more frequently
Indian coordinator
Western managers don’t get enough control; Indian workers don’t get enough face-time with western bosses
Matrix management rejected as cumbersome