Кросс-культурный менеджмент = Cross-cultural management

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2017

МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ И НАУКИ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ

УРАЛЬСКИЙ ФЕДЕРАЛЬНЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ 
ИМЕНИ ПЕРВОГО ПРЕЗИДЕНТА РОССИИ Б. Н. ЕЛЬЦИНА

Е. С. Голоусова

КРОСС-КУЛЬТУРНЫЙ 
МЕНЕДЖМЕНТ

CROSS-CULTURAL 
MANAGEMENT

Учебное пособие

Рекомендовано методическим советом УрФУ
для студентов, обучающихся по программе бакалавриата
по направлению подготовки 42.03.02 «Журналистика»

© Уральский федеральный университет, 2017
ISBN 978-5-7996-2189-6

Р е ц е н з е н т ы:
А. В. Владыко, учитель английского языка 
(гимназия № 210 «Корифей», Екатеринбург),
старший эксперт региональной предметной комиссии 
Свердловской области по ЕГЭ (английский язык), 
методист Представительства Кембриджских экзаменов в России,
устный экзаменатор Кембриджских экзаменов;
А. Г. Логинова, заведующий международным отделом
Библиотечного центра «Екатеринбург»

ББК С506я73-1
        Г617

Голоусова, Е. С.
Кросс-культурный менеджмент = Cross-cultural management : 
[учеб. пособие] / Е. С. Голоусова ; М-во образования и науки Рос. 
Федерации, Урал. федер. ун-т. — Екатеринбург : Изд-во Урал. ун-та, 
2017. — 76 с. — Загл. парал. рус., англ. — Текст англ.

ISBN 978-5-7996-2189-6

В учебном пособии освещаются вопросы управления отношениями, 
возникающими на границе национальных и организационных структур. 
Авторская интерпретация ключевых понятий и концептов курса и конкретные примеры помогут студентам анализировать все уровни культуры, преодолевать коммуникативные барьеры и эффективно общаться с носителями 
различных культурных традиций. 
Для студентов, изучающих международный менеджмент, международные отношения, а также для специалистов в сфере комму никаций.

c617

ББК С506я73-1

На обложке:
центр Буэнос-Айреса; фото Е. С. Голоусовой (2016)

Preface .............................................................................................................. 4 

Chapter 1. The specifi cs of cross-cultural management .................................. 7

Chapter 2. Cross-cultural skills and cross-cultural awareness ...................... 14 

Chapter 3. Preparing to work in the intercultural community ...................... 22 

Chapter 4. Models of international management and main features 
 
of managers’ training in different cultures................................... 29

Chapter 5. Intercultural competence ............................................................. 34

Chapter 6. The current state of the Russian business culture: origins, 
 
problems, and perspectives .......................................................... 45

Chapter 7. Main issues in the global business culture ................................... 54

Self-assessment tasks  .................................................................................... 67

Final exam questions  ..................................................................................... 73

References  ..................................................................................................... 74

CONTENTS

The idea of this book began to take shape back in the 1990-s and 
is largely based on the author’s personal experience. In 1995, I spent 
an academic year in the USA as an exchange student. I studied at the US 
high school and lived with an American host family, which certainly affected my worldview and enabled me to open up new cultural horizons. 
I realized that this experience would stay with me forever and it would 
be great to share it with a larger audience. Deep inside I knew that there 
had to be a way to incorporate this tremendous experience into my future 
both from personal and professional point of view. Starting from that 
moment I became determined that cross-cultural experience and anything 
related to it should become an indispensable part of my life. Luckily, it 
happened. I entered the Department of Journalism of the Ural Federal 
University and wrote a diploma on foreign media, where I compared 
Russian and American approach to news coverage. 
Moreover, I was also fortunate to work for a number of international 
projects, including Joint River Management Program, established by 
the European Union and aimed at water quality assessment of transboundary rivers. We had people from many different countries working on 
this project, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Germany, England, Ukraine, 
Georgia. I also worked for the local offi ce of American Councils for International Education, fi rst as an alumni assistant and later as recruiting 
assistant. I got to travel with our American boss across the Ural region 
and while on the way to the city of our destination or back home, we 
would talk a lot about cultural issues, people’s behavior under different 
cultural conditions. A few years later, I decided to focus on my academic 
career and started working on my PhD, which again had to do with 
foreign media and extreme news coverage. Upon completing my PhD, 

PREFACE

I was invited to work as a lecturer at the Department of Journalism and 
that is when my idea of writing a book on cross-cultural management 
was developed. Within last fi ve years, we had a number of guests from 
different countries, who came to speak about media issues and the state 
of journalism in the framework of conferences and discussion sessions. 
We had experts from Poland, Finland, Hungary, Sweden, USA, China 
and Argentina. With most of our guests, we continue to keep in touch 
and look forward to having mutual projects in future. 
I am sure that the same or even more considerable amount of international contacts exists at many departments of educational centers all 
over Russia. The only thing that remains unclear for some of the local 
scholars and nonprofessionals is how to actually communicate with 
people from abroad. “How to get a message through to a representative 
of another culture” — seems to be one of the most common questions 
in terms of cross-cultural management. In this respect, the role of crosscultural awareness in today’s life should not be underestimated. 
Therefore, the main goal of this manual is to introduce students 
to the main concepts and various defi nitions of cross-cultural communication. One of the top objectives of the course is to provide students 
with basic theory related to cross cultural communication, that will enable them to distinguish the attributes of another culture, no matter what 
code system is being used, and be aware of signifi cant cultural elements 
present in the behavior of an individual or a group. 
Consequently, among the objectives pursued by the author were 
the following: 
— to explain the specifi cs of cross-cultural management;
— to explain possible ways of understanding different aspects 
of cultures; 
— to introduce the students to the concept of cultural literacy offered 
by Eric Donald Hirsch and the cultural dimensions theory presented by 
Geert Hofstede; 
— to introduce the students to the phenomenon of culture shock and 
ways to manage cross cultural confl icts. 
The manual consists of theoretical part (seven chapters), practical training (seven sets of workshops), Self-Assessment Tasks, Exam 

Questions, and Bibliography. The students are supposed to study each 
chapter carefully and afterwards complete two individual assignments. 
There are fi ve different types of assignments — article, essay, letter, 
review, presentation, or case study. Upon fi nishing working with the last 
chapter, the students should proceed to Self-Assessment Tasks. This section is meant to help students better evaluate their personal progress and 
give an idea of what part of the course should perhaps be studies more 
carefully or revised. After completing the part Self-Assessment Tasks 
the student might want to move on to the section Exam Question to get 
an idea in order to prepare more effectively to the fi nal exam. 
Approximate time spent for working on every chapter — fi ve academic hours. It is supposed, however, that the students will work independently, studying additional sources and analyzing material offered 
by numerous electronic sources. Thus, the total time for working with 
the entire manual is 35–40 academic hours. 
The students majoring in Communication, Public Relations, Business 
Administration and International Management should fi nd the following 
manual useful. 

Chapter 1

THE SPECIFICS OF CROSS-CULTURAL 
MANAGEMENT 

Defi nitions of the key terms — culture, communication, management. The theory of cultural dimensions offered by Geert Hoftstede. 
The Iceberg Analogy or Model 

Cross-cultural management is a relatively new fi eld of study and is 
based on theories and research from the following disciplines:
— cross-cultural communication;
— international management;
— psychology of communication.
As we see it, the key issues here are “culture”, “communication”, 
and “management”. What is the best way to defi ne culture? According 
to the concept which is being commonly used both by the experts and 
the representative of mass audience, culture refers to the cumulative 
deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, and attitudes. It is also 
related to meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial 
relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions 
acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. The word “culture” derives from a French 
term, which in turn derives from the Latin “colere”, which means to tend 
to the earth and grow, or cultivation and nurture. “It shares its etymology with a number of other words related to actively fostering growth”, 
Cristina De Rossi, an anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College 
in London, told Live Science [Zimmerman et al.]. 
Today culture is also regarded the following way: 
— culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large 
group of people;
— culture in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person’s learned, accumulated experience which is socially 
transmitted, or more briefl y, behavior through social learning.

Culture is symbolic communication. Some of its symbols include 
a group’s skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, and motives. The meanings of the symbols are learned and deliberately perpetuated in a society 
through its institutions.
Southgate College in London, told Live Science [Zimmerman et al.]. 
A Spanish liberal philosopher and sociologist José Ortega y Gasset 
defi ned culture “labor, creation of human things; creation of science, 
moral principles, and art. When we talk about higher or lower level 
of culture, we are talking about larger or smaller ability to create human 
things” [Graham, p. 300]. However, in this case where can we draw 
a line between the culture and the civilization? a German philosopher 
Oswald Schpengler, one the founders of the contemporary culture philosophy, focuses on the collective soul as integral part of culture. As 
for the civilization, the rational principal and intelligence are guiding 
it [Spengler]. 
Culture is not something concrete or tangible, as it cannot be seen 
or touched. However, we know it exists because people from the same 
society have roughly the same customs or behavior, basic beliefs and 
values, and way of viewing the world. Culture causes this to happen. 
We informally or tacitly acquire our primary culture well before adolescence during our formative years as our basic personality is taking 
shape. The concept of culture has always had a somewhat psychoanalytic meaning, with a heavy emphasis on the importance of its hidden 
or unconscious aspects [Weaver]. 
It is likely that spirituality helps to transform the culture to one 
of the fundamental ethnic-forming factors. Moreover, it is due to the culture the individual is capable of realizing his/her own national identity 
and perceives himself as part of the certain community with the same 
historical background, similar values, and aspirations. The person can 
identify himself with a particular group of people only when he considers himself the bearer of their cultural values. That is what appears to be 
more signifi cant referring to the national identity than the voice of blood. 
For example, a leading Latin American literary fi gure Alejo Carpentier 
though born in Lausanne to a French father and a Russian mother claimed 
throughout his life that he was Cuban-born [Weaver].