Cultural Practises and Values in Russia based on the Globe study PDF

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Cultural Practises and Values in Russia

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An Intercultural Analysis of Russia with special focus on Cultural Practises and Values based on empirical data from the GLOBE research Dimitri Trauter 17IMB, Leipzig University of Applied Sciences

Intercultural Communication Paper

Table of Content

Cultural Practises and Values in Russia based on the GLOBE data

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An Intercultural Analysis of Russia...............................................................................4 GLOBE Research...........................................................................................................4 Robert J. House..........................................................................................................4 “Culture, Leadership and Organizations – The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies”...4 Hofstedes Research................................................................................................5 GLOBE cultural dimensions..................................................................................5 Russian Cultural Profile.............................................................................................6 Institutional collectivism........................................................................................7 Group collectivism.................................................................................................7 Gender Egalitarianism............................................................................................8 Assertiveness..........................................................................................................9 Power Distance.......................................................................................................9 Performance Orientation......................................................................................10 Future orientation.................................................................................................10 Uncertainty Avoidance.........................................................................................11 Humane orientation..............................................................................................11 Discussion....................................................................................................................11 Conclusion....................................................................................................................12 Bibliography.................................................................................................................13 Appendix......................................................................................................................15

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Introduction

“Don't try to get it with your mind, Don't try to fit in your dimension: There is no Russia of your kind - Here your belief is only mention.” (commonly used proverb in Russia). Even though the proverb sounds mysterious, Russia isn’t a mystery itself. Tradition, the 20th century and societal revolutions shaped the country as it is now. People changed over the years, the society changed and globalization started only in the late 90’s. All there are interesting facts and a profound basis for an analysis of Russian Culture, as it is today and as it was in the past. Therefore, this paper is going to deal with the cultural aspects of Russia regarding the GLOBE study published in 2004. It aims to answer the question if the results from 1996 to 1998 research can be still applied in 2019. Moreover, it will explain the reasons for the scores with political, historical or cultural facts, including own experience. It aims to explain the general gap between Practise and Values, and to argue why the results vary from the global average. GLOBE will be the basis for every conduction to be made.

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An Intercultural Analysis of Russia GLOBE Research The GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness) is as multi-phase and multi method research program, founded by Robert J. House.. Since 2004, three books have been published, equivalent to the three phases of the project. Examining the culture and leadership in 62 societies in the first one, it continued into taking a closer look into 25 of those in the second book. Most recently, in 2014, the third book was published, dealing with strategical leadership from CEO’s in 24 countries. [CITATION GLO191 \l 1031 ]. The first phases results are giving insight into cultural values and practises from managers in the industry, organization and society. The researcher looked at different levels of values and practises from 17,300 managers in 951 organizations. The main data for Russia had been collected in 1996-1998 trough surveys from 450 managers in the financial, foodprocessing and telecommunication sectors.

Robert J. House. Robert J. House was born on June 16 and received his Ph.D. in management in the 1960, at the Ohia State University and became one of the leading professionals on leadership across cultures. He authored more than 130 journal articles, and in the early 1990s he founded GLOBE and became the principal investigator, visiting around 40 countries. Besides this project, House is well-known for the Path-Goal Theory of Leader Effectiveness in the year 1971, which led to the development of the theory of Charismatic Leadership in 1976. On the 28th February 2011, Robert House was honoured with the International Leadership Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.[ CITATION GLO191 \l 1031 ] House had a very specific approach. E.g., he revised his work later with bringing in new theories. Therefore, he quoted D.O. Hebb’s maxim which says that a good theory only need to work long enough to let you make a new, better theory. [ CITATION Heb69 \l 1031 ]

“Culture, Leadership and Organizations – The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies” The first book published was published in 2004 by the “Sage Publications Inc.”. It delivers results for the nine cultural dimensions. It took the research finding of Hofstede and dedicated its goal into explore the cultures dimensions and differences.

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Hofstedes Research Geert Hofstede dedicated his research to global international leadership. It focused on how values influenced the cultural workplace. He invented 6 dimensions of national culture. Individuals measures to which extent people feel independent, Power Distance analyses how the less powerful members accept that power is distributed unequally, Masculinity describes the expected emotional gender role, Uncertainty Avoidance deals with tolerance for unexpected events, Long-term Orientation describes how people plan for changes in the future, and Indulgence is about the good times in life. [ CITATION Gee19 \l 1031 ] Some of this dimension will be recognized in the GLOBE study.

GLOBE cultural dimensions The GLOBE measures cultural values and practises on a seven-point response scale with respect to nine units of measurement or Cultural Dimensions. Practises are the ISSituation, how the society handles the specific dimension and what measures and laws it has to establish a certain level. On the other hand, values are how people want the society to be, how they picture it.[ CITATION Hou04 \l 1031 ] Following up will be definitions of the dimensions as well as some examples and explanations. Uncertainty Avoidance “is the extent to which a society, organization, or group relies (and should rely) on social norms, rules, and procedures to alleviate unpredictability of future events. The greater the desire to avoid uncertainty, the more people seek orderliness, consistency, structure, formal procedures, and laws to cover situations in their daily lives.”[ CITATION Hou04 \l 1031 ] People tend to live structured lives with few unexpected events, and requirements are spelled out so citizens know what they are expected to do. Order and Consistence are more important than experiments and innovation. [ CITATION GLO192 \l 1031 ] Assertiveness “is the degree to which individuals are (and should be) assertive, confrontational, and aggressive in their relationship with others.”[ CITATION Hou04 \l 1031 ] It can be connected to the mindset “Just do it”. Gender Egalitarianism “is the degree to which a collective minimizes (and should minimize) gender inequality.”[ CITATION Hou04 \l 1031 ] The collective encourages boys and girls in the same way to attain higher education, sport programs. Woman and Men are both equally serving in high offices. [ CITATION GLO192 \l 1031 ] Performance Orientation “is the degree to which a collective encourages and rewards (and should encourage and reward) group members for performance improvement and

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excellence.” [ CITATION Hou04 \l 1031 ] Societies with a high score tend to value training and development, give more attention to results than to people, value your work more than you as a human being and view feedback as necessary to improve. [ CITATION GLO192 \l 1031 ] Humane Orientation “is the degree to which a collective encourages and rewards (and should encourage and reward) individuals for being fair, altruistic, generous, caring, and kind to others.” [ CITATION Hou04 \l 1031 ] People are very concerned about each other and very careful in their choice of words. In-Group Collectivism “is the degree to which individuals express (and should express) pride, loyalty, and cohesiveness in their organizations or families.” [ CITATION Hou04 \l 1031 ] Children are proud of their parents or should be. Aging parents live with their children, and vice versa, children are living with their parents until they get married. [ CITATION GLO192 \l 1031 ] Institutional Collectivism “is the degree to which organizational and societal institutional practices encourage and reward (and should encourage and reward) collective distribution of resources and collective action.” [ CITATION Hou04 \l 1031 ] The group is more important than individuals, and collective interest are maximized. Being accepted by other members is very important. [ CITATION GLO192 \l 1031 ] Power Distance “is the extent to which the community accepts and endorses authority, power differences, and status privileges.” [ CITATION Hou04 \l 1031 ] In such societies, a person’s influence is based primarily on the authority of one’s persons and followers are expected to follow their leaders without questions and disagreement. Higher rank and positions come with special privileges. [ CITATION GLO192 \l 1031 ] Future Orientation “is the extent to which individuals engage (and should engage) in future-oriented behaviours such as planning, investing in the future, and delaying gratification.” [CITATION Hou04 \l 1031 ] Society take life as events occur and accept the status quo. People place more emphasis on planning for the future. [ CITATION GLO192 \l 1031 ]

Russian Cultural Profile The Russian scores are displayed in both Table 1 and Image 1. In Table 1, you can see the empirical data from Russia and the average from the 61 other societies. Although generalizations cannot be differed clearly from stereotypes, they can explain the findings and examine the nine dimensions.

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Institutional collectivism. The practice score is 4.50 and slightly higher then the average score. While Russians care a lot about family and relatives, it is less important what happens to others. People care in first place about themselves, and will do anything to gain advantage, no matter which sector and no matter what the consequences will be for others. For example, while a building is made, if the manager notices that they used cheap materials and it might result in a collapse, he will rather bribe the local public authorities than replacing the material, no matter what will happen if there are people inside when it collapses. And after the collapse, he will bribe the local journalist to sustain a good image in public. [ CITATION Nei18 \l 1031 ] On the other side, the score isn’t 7, so there is still a other side of the medal. Russia’s historical background permitted a low level of individual freedom. Loyalty to the political system merged groups together, people just didn’t have enough time to break the habit of thinking more for the group, and less for the individual. In the Soviet Era, people shared everything with each other, not only to survive, but also to escape political pursuit. Big shares of lands were privatized by the state, and people had rather nothing. This developed a group thinking and helping.

Group collectivism. Group collectivism practice score ranks in 5.36, slightly higher than the average score. This is clearly visible in Russia. Children are living with their parents until marriage and sometimes even longer. Apartments for rent are expensive in Russia and are mostly held in private hand. Therefore, it is hard to find a suitable apartment. If young adults aren’t working, it is not rentable to move out, even after marriage. Therefore, it happens a lot that at the time the children want to move out, the parents are growing old and are in need for help. Nursing Homes are pretty expensive in Russia, and so, even today, most people spend their whole life’s with their parents and children. However, marriage shouldn’t be taken seriously in Russia. Most of the parents want their children to get married as soon as possible, not matter if there is love or not. Adults, which are getting married around 20, are most likely to have a divorce in maximum five years. Parents are relatively proud of the achievements of their younger generation and like to speak about it a lot. A normal phone conversation between two parents consist of 90% gushing about their children.

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In this dimension, the time of the survey plays a special role. Not all conditions from the survey then can be transferred into today. For example, the 90s in Russia were shaped by a high criminality. The country was very poor, the unemployment rate was very high with above 13 percent. [ CITATION Int19 \l 1031 ] People tended to join the Mafia, and every company needed to adjust to that problem. Thus, people tried to stick together as much as possibly to help each other. Today, people don’t need to survive, they can live, and there was a lot of betrayal during the interviews period. So, people started to think more about themselves, and less about the group, focusing on their own benefits. However, it should be mentioned that people don’t see any big need in change, as the value score is only higher by 0.3.[ CITATION GLO192 \l 1031 ]

Gender Egalitarianism. The score for Gender Egalitarianism is close to the arithmetic mean 4.0. There are different sides of the medal, explaining this score not to exceed in the one or other direction. On the one hand, women and men have the same rights and possibilities to obtain higher education. While in the pre-revolutionary Russia of men and women roles were clearly defined, during Stalin’s repressions and World War II, the male population severely decreased, pushing women into traditional men roles. Afterwards, the soviet state provided access to both males and females applicant for higher education and job, controlling the “right” balance based on the political structure. Until today, men and women stand on an similar level in the society structure. Moreover, the proportion of women in senior positions in Russia is around 43%, the highest overall in the world. [ CITATION Lok19 \l 1031 ] However, not everything is perfectly equal. The political and decision-making sector is mostly dominated by men. From 20 ministers, only two are woman. Additionally, the older general sticks to the traditional role separation. It is necessary to mention that this picture is not only forced by men, but also by women. So, while the women “is forced” to manage the home, men “are forced” to go to work and earn money for the family. The more his payment is, the more likely it is that the wife won’t see any reasoning in working and will stay at home, spending the money her husband worked for. Furthermore, Russia is a country where a big part are Moslems, in which traditional believe, mixed with the Russian aspects, the role model is important. Finally, most women don’t see any need in change, due to the value average, because people in Russia tend to follow traditions rather than changing them, which will be examined in the dimension “Uncertainty Avoidance” later on.

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Assertiveness Assertiveness scores for 3.68 in practise, a bit lower than the arithmetic mean. While modesty is quite valued for women, men should be assertive and dominant. There can’t be made a general statement which sympathy the Russians tend to have, because the strong are mostly hated and envied for their wealth, and the weak are downgraded and hated for their lack of strength. However, relationship is by far more important than any success and progress. For example, while negotiating with a Russian manager, he will try to get you known as a person, spending time with you. He won’t care a lot about facts and figures, if he trusts you as a person, he will be willing to cooperate with you. Nevertheless, associate’s competition against each other and value competition over cooperation. Although people have an unjust-world believe, and are born into their societal status, they don’t really try to change them, accepting the circumstances as they are. This also explains the even lower value score 2.83.

Power Distance. The Power Distance score 5.52 is higher than the average score and is significant for Russian culture. The society is differentiated into two classes, the rich and the poor ones, there is only a small middle class. People can’t move out of the poor class, if they don’t receive big help from relatives or friends. Moreover, it happens a lot that parents pile high debts on their children and paying back takes a long time. The upward social mobility is limited. E.g., flats are mostly owned by private persons and inherited by their children. Flats are notable high in Russia and owning two or three of them can ensure you a lifetime without work. So, if your parents own at least 3, you don’t have to worry much about your future, while if your parents are not even working, chances for moving upwards are pretty low. In Russia, power is seen as source of corruption. Acting like everyone’s favourite, leaders abuse their power for their own profit, resulting in high corruption in every sector in Russia, even the police sector. Bribery happens daily, not only in the civil registry office with the aim of getting an earlier marriage date, but as well with police officers for driving away after and car accident. Sadly, I experienced this myself. While visiting my relatives in Russia, my cousin was involved in a car accident. It was clearly the fault of the other driver, but after the police arrived, they came up to the other guy, and then to our window, simply telling us that they just received around 500€ in cash and as long as we’re not willing to pay more, the

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accident never happened. Likewise, getting the best bachelor’s degree with only 1.0 in it can be bought with money, around 1000€. This explains big problems in the later job hierarchy and performance orientation. Moreover, corruption is not the only problem in Russia. Different groups have different involvement, without equal opportunities ensured by democracy. Education may be accessible for men and women, but it’s expensive, as well in secondary ...