Values and attitudes: attitude to time, changes, achievements and wealth essay
Values and attitudes in society are closely linked with religious sentiments. They are often unconscious, but determine the choice in a particular situation. Formation of the system of values and attitudes is individual for each person. However, there are four important elements of the system that are relevant to international business: the attitude to time, changes, achievements and wealth.
There are traditional and contemporary attitudes to time. In ancient times, mankind lived in a natural rhythm when time was measured by large segments. The rhythm had a recurring nature, everything recurred sooner or later. This perception of time is often called circular (traditional) (Hall, 1990).
The modern perception of time is called linear when the past times do not return. With such perception of time, it is important to save it, time is money, it is necessary to plan the use of time. This attitude was being formed as the number of people employed in agriculture was reducing and the number of urban population was growing. In today’s society, there are countries which have both attitudes to time. Thus, in Western societies the accuracy and respect to the time are considered the only markers of rational behavior. This means that meetings should be held in exactly the appointed time, projects should be carried out in accordance with the plan, agreements should have exact start and end validity dates. Working hours became distinguished from other types of time (leisure, family, religious) and it plays a dominant role (Hall, 1990; Meschi, 1997).
At the same time, in some countries, such as the Eastern, believe that increased attention to time may lead to limited, narrower understanding of the issue, and to decrease of creative possibilities. In business contacts the inconsistencies with different perception of time often cause shock (Meschi, 1997). Thus, the construction of state-subsidized dam in an Indian reservation turned into chaos, as there were large differences between the representations of the Indians about the time and the concept of time of white people. For white people time is objectified, for Indians it is living history. For the whites time is a noun, for the Indians it is a verb. Intervals of time for white people are shorter than for Indians. The concept of time is the mechanism of organization of social action, so ignoring this fact led to the disruption of the dam. In this regard, we can conclude that the study of international relations, intercultural communication and cross-national comparison not taking into account the fundamental differences in perception of time will always result in incorrect benefits.
In relation to organizations, there is monochronic time (the events are distributed as separate units and are organized in sequence) and polychronic time (events occur simultaneously). Bureaucratic organizations in these time systems operate differently. Monochronic cultures make accents on management strategies, are based on the accounting and regulations. Polychronic cultures are less dependent on routine events, include more activities, and are largely based on leadership. As a result, they have different administrative structure, different principles of production and different models of bureaucratic organization. In general, the time in organizations has rigid frames. For example, industrial production is organized according to a fixed sequence of phases or stages. If the duration and order are disturbed, the production process stops (Hall, 1990; Meschi, 1997; Peterson & Sondergaard, 2008).
Attitude to achievements and wealth have been shaped over a long period of history under the influence of religion. In ancient times, labor activity was considered a less worthy occupation than thinking, and was incompatible with the rules of good taste. In many religious circles, it was believed that praying was more important than being industrious or business-minded. Material gain and spiritual development were considered irreconcilable. Later, as researchers note, some religions began to encourage hard work and enterprise (Tarakeshwar, 2003). Thus, there were, for example, significant differences in attitudes to achievements among the Catholics and Protestants in Canada.
Countries differ in attitude to methods of gaining income. As in many societies, for example, in India, the land and the production of goods are controlled by the ruling classes, foreign entrepreneurs are forced to use only long-term lease or work as mediators. However, income earned in this way is often considered suspicious (Thomas, 2008).
Many countries have a negative attitude to money-lenders (Islamist societies). Often, it is forbidden to lend money at interest, and Exporters are forced to adjust to this economic regime. Moreover, royalties may be considered as the use of the weakness of the payer even after the acquisition of relevant skills and making his own profit. An acceptable alternative in this situation is a lump sum payment or fee within the first few years (Thomas, 2008).
The differences in attitudes to the traditions in national cultures cause different attitude toward institutional change. While the Western culture is convinced that changes are good only insofar as they are understandable and accepted by the performers, other cultures may have the belief that changes are good insofar as the boss thinks so (and subordinates are not to discuss these issues, but simply to follow orders) (Silverthorne, 2005). For instance, the Japanese management culture involves intensive information exchange between the levels of management hierarchy for a more responsible decision-making, which is a kind of intermediate form of the national model of management (Gelade et al., 2008).
Another example of national cultural differences which an international manager should take into account is the approach to assessing the achievements of an employee. In Western culture for any country the success, achievement and rational evaluation of an employee play crucial roles in the performance management of the organization (Chew & Horwitz, 2004). As for Eastern cultures, the role of personal achievement and personal success as powerful motivators for effective work is insignificant. However, even here the differences are great: for example, in the Indian cultural stereotype inner achievement or self-development plays a much larger part, in Japanese culture, personal achievement is far less important than the employee’s participation in the success of the group (Merriman, 2010; Marsella & Leong, 1995). One thing is clear: if an international manager tried to work in the same way in different cultural contexts, in some cases, the results would be very far from effective.
