Etic and Emic Perspectives of Culture Notes PDF

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Notes for an essay plan for the Etic and Emic perspectives of corporate culture - differences and similarities...

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Intro – Define Culture and the Areas Associated with it 

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French (2015) argues that culture is a multifaceted concept that is manifested in both individuals behaviours and attitudes, as well as at a macro and institutional level and is thus hard to define. Schein (1985) organisational culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category from another. Culture is considered by some researchers to have 5 main characteristics – learned, shared, made up of symbols, integrated and dynamic (Kashima, 2014). Due to its importance in institutions and in every day life – a lot of research is carried out about culture: these are broken down into two types of field research that look at culture from two different perspectives. Etic – The operations that are suitable for identifying the comparable aspects of society through the use of quantitative data. Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture Emic - The emic perspective is concerned with the unique aspects emphasising the need to understand social systems from the inside using qualitative data. Hall’s Cultural Factors ‘This essay will critically analyse the assertion that…’.

Explanation of Cross-Cultural Management Models Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions (Etic)

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Hofstede’s (1991) study involved 116’000 questionnaires with over 60’000 respondents in over 72 countries. proposed that there were 5 core dimensions that look to identify and address problems that all cultures must deal with. They are: masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term/short-term orientation, individualism/ collectivism and finally power distance. These were identified on the national level. Minkov (2007) added indulgence. Hofstede provided the first large collection of data demonstrating national culture’s effects on organisational behaviour – nowadays, few managers with international experience will deny the fact that culture matters in international business (Minkov and Hofstede, 2012).

Hall’s Cultural Factors/Language Theory (Emic) Halls (1976) cultural language theory is an example of the emic approach; Hall (1976) identified two key contexts Low-context vs High-context and later identified the differences between monochronic vs polychronic societies. Halls (1976) cultural language theory  Low-context vs High-context (Hall 1976) Low context = more verbal communication necessary High context = less verbal and deeper modes of communication  Monochronic vs Polychronic (Hall 1985) Monochronic = one task at a time, conscious of being prompt and on time (tend to be low context – need lots of background info and context) Polychronic = do many things at once, less concerned with specific times (tend to be high context – already know or thing they know)  Important for individuals/organisations to not just know ‘what to say but how to say it’ (Barrett, 2006) – gestures, body language etc speaks a message

Etic Analysis

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The etic perspective to cultural research is concerned with comparable aspects of society and attempts to establish general laws from large number of responses, usually using quantitative data. It examines variance and co-variance between cultures. This type of research usually entails the researcher making assumptions from the large amount of results that they obtain and identifying objective trends based on the data. It is nomothetic which relates to the study or discovery of general scientific laws (Cheung et al, 2011). Etic perspectives are widely used by researchers and managers alike (such as Hofstede’s Dimensions (1984)) to assist with issues such as international communication as it provides an insight into the beliefs and values of other countries/cultures so that the best way to communicate is identified (Minkov and Hofstede, 2012). – General Electric’s Case Study Etic perspectives are also useful for international management decisions as they must be made based on countries customs and values. Hofstede’s dimensions provide culturally acceptable learning and data that can be utilised during HRM practices. Useful for organisations to understand cultures - helps to manage across borders

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Critique of Etic 

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Could be argued that due to the nature of Hofstede’s research that the questions on the questionnaires may be interpreted differently in different cultures – does a question mean the same in different cultures and contexts? e.g. America vs China – More risk averse countries may take ‘how long do you plan to work here for?’ question in a more negative way than a less risk averse one. Be aware of ecological fallacy (Brewer and Venaik, 2014) – not to generalise on different levels (individual, departmental and organisational/institutional level) of analysis/the organisation (e.g. sales department in a business with a feminine culture will still possess masculine traits) Cultural Homogeneity – country is made up of several different ethnic groups (such as in China where there are 56 identified different ethnic minorities (Mead and Andrews, 2009)) so you can’t generalise entire country/culture Utilise emic methods (Jones, 2007).

Emic Analysis 

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The emic perspective is concerned with the unique aspects emphasising the need to understand social systems from the inside. It analyses the internal coherence of single examples. It is idiographic which relates to relating to the study or discovery of particular scientific facts and processes, as distinct from general laws. Emic is perceived by a number of educational scholars as being more relevant in the interpretation of a culture and in the understanding of cultural experiences within a particular group (Garcia, 1992). This approach involves, sustained, wide-ranging observation of a single cultural group: As shown in TechIn Case: The group focused on is Indian immigrants in TechIn in Australia. TechIn moved a lot of its employees from its parent country nation of India to its host country nation of Australia due to its struggle in attracting local Australians to work for them. Issues arose as Australian management observed that Indian culture had a direct effect on the companies decision-making process as well as the Indian staff admitting that they were having trouble communicating with the locals due to a lack of cultural and communication knowledge. This shows that although individuals/groups may reside within an area, it doesn’t mean they will adhere to the local/Australian culture (due to factors such as immigration) – meaning that different training methods had to be used to train these Indian staff through collectivist methods – something that wouldn’t be done

if the culture of the organisation was analysed in a less context specific way (etic) which highlights that an emic approach such as Hall’s Cultural Language Theory would be more appropriate here. An outsider's (etic) perspective can never fully capture what it really means to be part of the culture (Olive, 2014). It is impossible to truly comprehend and appreciate the nuances of a particular culture unless one resides or focuses on individuals within that culture.

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Critique of Emic 

More likely to provide rich data, however it’s very context specific to the organisation and less likely to be generalizable to the wider cultural comparisons covered in the etic perspective. This makes it difficult to compare to many cultures. Can give a more in depth understanding but can’t generalise this case study (Morris et al 1999).

IHRM Practices Affected by These Methods of Research (Dowling et al, 2013)

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Rewards and Compensation Provide cultures with high uncertainty avoidance (Korea, Greece etc) fixed compensation packages due to risk averseness. Provide cultures with low uncertainty avoidance (UK, USA) with variable compensation packages due to more of a willingness to take more risks for a higher reward. Training and Development TechIn Case where Host Country Nation Australia would potentially have to utilise more group based methods of training for staff coming in from the Parent Country Nation India due to the higher level of collectivism within the PCN. Recruitment and Selection In cultures that are high in collectivism a lot of the R/S process is around teamrelated skills (Dowling et al, 2013). Catanzaro, Moore and Marshall (2010) – Organisational culture can play a part in willingness of individuals to go for roles. Men more likely to go for roles in more competitive/masculine organisational culture while women are more likely to go for roles in more supportive/feminine organisational culture (Hofstede Masculinity scale). Both male and female applicants more willing to accept a lower salary for a more supportive organisational culture.

Conclusion  

Xia (2011) notes that although some view etic and emic as mutually exclusive, they can both complement each other greatly when studying organisational culture. Olive (2014) states that both etic and emic have specific shortcomings that limit them so it is vital for managers to utilise both perspectives to get the most accurate depiction of the culture that is being focused on – emic approach can shed light on the culture-specific meanings/issues of a task (such as the effect of immigration on TechIn’s organisational culture) while etic approach can provide an understanding of the culture as a whole (etic/emic thus reach different conclusions)

Case study (General Electric in Asia) Key areas of difference are: o The U.S. is an extremely individualistic society where as Japan is much more collectivist. This could explain why the Welch struggled to understand why Shiki needed to let Westinghouse know before singing a formal agreement. He would look out for others and not just focus on their own personal gain, unlike the U.S> -> "required Mitsubishi to inform Westinghouse of its intentions to change partners before

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signing a formal agreement with GE. But when Shiki mentioned this obligation to Welch, Welch questioned why this was necessary." Japan have an extremely high uncertainty avoidance when compared with the U.S.. This could explain the Japanese CEO (Shiki) wanting to take time with the deal (5 weeks) in order to ensure every aspect of the deal could be analysed and negotiated before confirming. "he (Depew) estimated that a deal could be reached after approximately five months of further cultivation and negotiation." Japan views the world with a long-term oriented view where as the U.S. is much more short term. Japan use a life time career orientation where as boundary less careers model is more western.

Helfrich (1999) proposed a framework that attends to both cultural patterns (etic) and personal experience) to compensate for weaknesses for both etic/emic perspective. Involves focusing on three interacting components of human performance: individual (emic), task and culture (etic)...