Paradoxes of Culture and Globalization

PREFACE: A THIRD PERSPECTIVE 1.1 PARADOXES, EDUCATION AND TRAINING 1.2 EXERCISE: INTRODUCING THE BOOK 1.3 A NOTE ON WRITING 1.4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PART 1: CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS CHAPTER 1: THINKING PARADOXICALLY 1.1 ESSENTIAL CONCEPTS 1.2 LIMITATIONS 1.3 TAKEAWAYS 1.4 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1.5 EXERCISES CHAPTER 2: CONCEPTUALIZING AND PERCEIVING CULTURE 2.1 CONCEPTUALIZING CULTURE Paradox 2.1 Why are there so many definitions of culture? Paradox 2.2 Can there be a very large and a very small number of cultures? Paradox 2.3 Can collectivists be self-centered and selfish? Paradox 2.4 Value paradoxes exist in all cultures. For example, how can a national culture value freedom and dependence simultaneously? Paradox 2.5 How are cultural values and cultural practices related? Paradox 2.6 Does culture matter? Paradox 2.7 Are demographics more important than culture? Paradox 2.8 Should we advocate only one perspective on culture? 2.2 PERCEIVING CULTURE Paradox 2.9 Do proper introductions and greetings simultaneously involve kissing, bowing, and shaking hands? Paradox 2.10 Are cultural stereotypes valid? Paradox 2.11 Are the distinctions between levels of culture relevant in a globalizing world? Paradox 2.12 Do insiders understand their own cultures better than outsiders? Paradox 2.13 Can global citizenship and the effects of root cultures exist simultaneously? Paradox 2.14 Can cultures change quickly? 2.3 TAKEAWAYS 2.4 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 2.5 EXERCISE: CHAPTER 1 2.6 EXERCISE AFTER EACH CHAPTER PART 2: BEHAVIORAL ISSUES CHAPTER 3: LEADERSHIP, MOTIVATION, AND GROUP BEHAVIOR ACROSS CULTURES Paradox 3.1. Framing leadership: Is the essence of leadership being stuck on the horns of a dilemma? Paradox 3.2 Who is more effective: The instrumental/visionary/transformational leader or the Headman? Paradox 3.3 When should a leader involve subordinates in decision making? Paradox 3.4 Can an effective leader be someone who publicly humiliates subordinates? 3.2 MOTIVATION Paradox 3.5 Is the relationship between motivation and ability additive or multiplicative in the prediction of individual success and performance? Paradox 3.6 Can an individually-based need hierarchy exist in a collectivistic culture? Paradox 3.7 Do effective executives attribute success to themselves or to others? 3.3 GROUP BEHAVIOR Paradox 3.8 Are there free riders or equally-responsible contributors in small groups? Paradox 3.9 Do the personalities of individuals primarily reflect the influence of culture both in general and in small groups? Paradox 3.10 Should multi-cultural groups be managed differently than single-culture groups? 3.4 TAKEAWAYS 3.5 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 3.6 EXERCISES 3.7 ANSWERS CHAPTER 4: COMMUNICATING ACROSS CULTURES 4.1: LANGUAGE Paradox 4.1 How can knowing the language of another culture be a disadvantage? Paradox 4.2 How can languages be rapidly dying while becoming more influential? Paradox 4.3 Critical words and phrases: How can there be immediate recognition by Paradox 4.4 Are proverbs effective descriptors of a culture? 4.2 CONTEXT AND BEYOND Paradox 4.5 Can a culture be simultaneously monochronic and polychronic? Paradox 4.6 Can a culture be simultaneously low-context and high-context? 4.3 SYMBOLISM Paradox 4.5 Can a culture be simultaneously monochronic and polychronic? Paradox 4.6 Can a culture be simultaneously low-context and high-context? 4.3 SYMBOLISM Paradox 4.7 How can the same phenomenon represent different symbolic meanings? Paradox 4.8 How can the same phenomenon represent different symbolic meanings? 4.4 TECHNOLOGY AND MEDIATED COMMUNICATION Paradox 4.9 Can face-to-face communication be functionally equivalent to mediated communication, either individually or in small groups? Paradox 4.10 Is the Internet integrating the world or creating wide differences? Paradox 4.11 Is colonization or communitarianism winning in the battle for the Internet? Paradox 4.12 Why is the information superhighway a poor metaphor for describing modern communication systems such as the Internet? 4.5 TAKEAWAYS 4.6 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 4.7 EXERCISE (CRITICAL INCIDENT) CHAPTER 5: CROSSING CULTURES 5.1 CULTURE-BASED ETHICS: RELATIVISM VERSUS UNIVERSALISM Paradox 5.1 Are ethical norms and standards universal or relative to the situation? 5.2 GENERIC CULTURES AND ETHICS Paradox 5.2 Are there universal ethics across generic cultures, or do ethics vary by the type of generic culture? 5.3 EXPATRIATE PARADOXES Paradox 5.3 Is the general stereotype of the host culture valid? Paradox 5.4 How can the Expat manager be simultaneously powerful and powerless? Paradox 5.5 How can the Expat manager be simultaneously free of home country norms and restrained by host country norms? Paradox 5.6 How can the Expat manager simultaneously accept the ideal cultural values of the home culture and realize that they do not exist in the home culture or only in attenuated form? Paradox 5.7 How can the Expat manager resolve the conflict between contradictory demands of the home office and the host culture subsidiary? Paradox 5.8 How can the Expat manager simultaneously give up some home country values and strengthen other home country values? Paradox 5.9 Is it possible for the Expat manager to become more cosmopolitan and more idiosyncratic simultaneously? Paradox 5.10 How can the Expat manager think well of the host culture and avoid being taken advantage of? Paradox 5.11 How can the Expat manager be simultaneously at home anywhere in the world but fit comfortably nowhere? 5.4 UNDERSTANDING CROSS-CULTURAL INTERACTIONS VIA CULTURAL SENSEMAKING 5.5 REENTRY TO THE HOME CULTURE 5.6 TAKEAWAYS 5.7 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 5.8 EXERCISES 5.9 ANSWERS TO THE TWO-ITEM SURVEY CHAPTER 6: CROSS-CULTURAL NEGOTIATIONS 6.1 FUNDAMENTALS AND BEST PRACTICES 6.2 CASE STUDY: ENTERING THE CHINESE MARKET 6.3 NEGOTIATING METAPHORS Paradox 6.1 Is chess more influential than the Chinese board game of Go for strategy and negotiation? Paradox 6.2 Why do veteran international negotiators from one national culture frequently complain that their counterparts from a dissimilar national culture are simultaneously both very sincere and very deceptive? Paradox 6.3 When negotiating, is it best to make the opening offer or respond to it? 6.4 TIME, FACE, AND THE YINYANG DYNAMIC Paradox 6.4 How can time be considered as three circles (past, present, and future) as well as only one circle? Paradox 6.5 Is the yinyang dynamic exclusively Asian? Paradox 6.6 Is there only one type of face? 6.5 TAKEAWAYS 6.6 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 6.7 CASE STUDY: GENERATOR AND ITS ASIAN PARTNERS PART 3: THE BROADER CONTEXT CHAPTER 7: MULTI-ETHNICITY, RELIGION, GEOGRAPHY, AND IMMIGRATION 7.1 MULTI-ETHNICITY Paradox 7.1 Do multi-ethnic groups impede or facilitate the formation of national cultures? Paradox 7.2 Is there, or will there be, a clash of civilizations? Paradox 7.3 Can national cultures exist in a multi-ethnic and borderless world? Paradox 7.4 Should all cultural practices be equally acceptable? 7.2 RELIGION Paradox 7.5 Must religion be anthropomorphic? Paradox 7.6 Does a religion necessarily require dogmas and creeds? 7.3 GEOGRAPHY Paradox 7.7 Do geographic maps reflect cultural beliefs? Paradox 7.8 Has "the death of distance" nullified the importance of geography? 7.4 IMMIGRATION Paradox 7.9 Will the issue of immigration derail globalization? Paradox 7.10 How can restricting immigration facilitate and promote it? Paradox 7.11 Is immigration compatible with an equality matching culture? 7.5 TAKEAWAYS 7.6 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 7.7 EXERCISES CHAPTER 8: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND CULTURE 8.1 BACKGROUND 8.2 TRADE, DEMOCRACY, AND OPEN AND FREE MARKETS Paradox 8.1 Are democracy and free markets opposed to one another? Paradox 8.2 Does trust increase trade among nations? Does increased trade lead to conflict and war among nations? 8.3 CULTURE AND CHANGE Paradox 8.3 Are institutions more important than culture for explaining economic development? Paradox 8.4 Does economic development and globalization lead to individualism? Paradox 8.5 Why do citizens vote for and accept stationary bandits as political leaders? 8.4 TAKEAWAYS 8.5 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 8.6 EXERCISE CHAPTER 9: GLOBALIZATION AND CULTURE 9.1 RISK Paradox 9.1 Can global economic integration occur without political and cultural integration? Paradox 9.2 Is globalization a myth? Paradox 9.3 Is globalization an old or a new phenomenon? 9.2 UNCERTAINTY Paradox 9.4 Is there a reasonable probability that a global financial collapse will occur and undermine globalization? Paradox 9.5 Does globalization encourage nationalism? Paradox 9.6 Are nations becoming more and less powerful simultaneously because of globalization? Paradox 9.7 Can one nation dominate the global economy and political system? Paradox 9.8 Is globalization doomed? 9.3 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES Paradox 9.8 Does globalization increase prosperity and inequality simultaneously? Paradox 9.9 Who are the winners and losers in a globalizing world? Paradox 9.10 Is increased education the anti-dote for outsourcing? 9.4 TAKEAWAYS 9.5 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 9.6 EXERCISES CHAPTER 10: STRATEGY, BUSINESS FUNCTIONS, AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 10.1 STRATEGY Paradox 10.1 Is there an ideal mode for entering the global marketplace? Paradox 10.2 Is there an ideal structure for the global firm? Paradox 10.3 Are organizations worldwide becoming more similar? Paradox 10.4 Is China a very large or a very small market? 10.2 BUSINESS FUNCTIONS Paradox 10.5 Can accounting and financial systems be standardized or harmonized throughout the world? Paradox 10. Should global advertising be tailored to each national and ethnic culture? Paradox 10.7 Is it possible to create and operate airplane-based metropoli (the aeropolis) for efficient global logistics and transportation? 10.3 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Paradox 10.8 How can IHRM be both central and peripheral when going global? Paradox 10.9 How should the conflict between internal pay equity and the forces of the external marketplace be resolved? Paradox 10.10 Should multi-national corporations impose their values when going global? Paradox 10.11 Which works best in a global firm, individual-based or group-based reward systems? Paradox 10.12 Is the role of IHRM different from that of domestic-only HRM? Paradox 10.13 Are HRM requirements similar throughout the globalizing world? 10.3 TAKEAWAYS 10.4 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 10.5 EXERCISE References