IBM 445 Cross Cultural Management Part I Answer the questions : (35%) 1. What is social cognition? How are its main components affected by culture? (2.5) 2. How do culturally stereotypic expectations affect other aspects of thought and behavior?(2.5) 3. What does rational decision making mean? How do cognition and culture limit it?(2.5) 4. What are heuristics and how does culture affect them?(2.5) 5. Below is Austria's culture based on Hofstede's framework. Use the framework to answer the question below.(10 marks) 79 70 55 11 Power Individualism Masculinity Uncertainty Distance Avoidance a. Describe the culture of Austria based on the scores above. b. What sort of leadership style will Austrian employees prefer? c. Discuss two ways to motivate Austrian employees. Part II : Case analysis Sino-Dutch cultural differences (15 marks) Many IJVs (International joint ventures) and alliances have been formed between Chinese an Dutch enterprises (Sino-Dutch partnerships). However, many of them have failed. One of the reasons that caused failure is cultural conflict. The broad minded and democratic Dutch are used to openly discussing issues in business life, this is why they normally utilize full top to bottom company creativity to solve problems in the best interest of the company. We can see this method also in the Dutch school system where creativity is encouraged and rewarded. In China however, people focus on relationships over business issues, and are more likely to saving face,and decisions are taken by high ranking managers that hold substantial power over their employees. In the Chinese school system the focus is more on adopting knowledge instead of creative thinking. The teacher is seen more as a role model with substantial authority rather than a discussion partner. One joint venture manager said: "Dutch people are planners, and use creativity of the employees for their ideas, hereby the Dutch are able to predict future actions more. The Chinese are more hierarchical, all decisions come from above, which leads to oneman type decisions, which employees simply follow. The responsibilities for Dutch employees are spread throughout the organization, employees have substantial responsibilities and creative input. The Chinese are more focused on pleasing the boss and inputs only come from the top of the hierarchy. 1. Use Hofstede's four cultural dimensions to describe the differences between the Chinese and Dutch. 2. What would you recommend to Dutch managers when they have to do business in China? Discuss