Hi guys, welcome back to global business environment. This is module four, and it'll be part two of module four in which we try to understand the role of culture in the global business environment today. Last part, we were talking about the dimensions of national cultures and the different aspects that different authors, or researchers have put on cultural dimensions. And so, one of the things I wanted to do first is to go through these a little more formally with you, and to talk about each of these dimensions. Power distance again this is one of Hofstede's national cultural dimensions, is a reflection of the respect for, or the distance between individuals in positions of authority and others without that authority. And so, societies or cultures that have lower scores on this power distance index tend to be countries that expect more consultation collaboration. An input into decision making with people in authority. This can be reflected in, in the business place but also in politics obviously. So some societies are more dem, democratic have democratic values, and institutions in place that reflect those values. Others in the business environment have leaders who have authority and consultation or collaboration, perhaps is not as highly valued in the decision making process. That might be reflected in something as simple as a suggestion box in your company office setting. Whether or not they have that suggestion box with ideas from regular employees or not. Individualism versus collectivism we talked about already last time. Let's move to uncertainty avoidance. Uncertainty avoidance looks at the, or tries to understand de, degree to which a society or people, values risk and risk taking. And the potential upside or benefits from taking risk or whether society prefers stable and re, reducing uncertainty. Now this is important to business for things like entrepreneurship, because in cultural settings where risk taking is not as rewarded or not as valued, you may not see as much entrepreneurship. In places where you see less embracing of risk. You may see perhaps less degrees of conflict in political matters, because people may prefer to reduce conflict, and to have to, just avoid those types of situations. Masculinity versus femininity obviously talks about traditional gender rules, and identities with certain genders. And so some societies embrace certain aspects of what we might call masculinity to a higher degree than others. And it just reflects values and traditions and histories. And this place this has an important role in the business world because in some societies the relationships between genders, for example, may not be permitted to the same degree as in others. So you need to be aware of that. Long-term orientation. In some ways, I think that this is linked to uncertainty avoidance, but in some societies there is much more of a short term instant gratification culture, and in other places, there's much more of a, a long-term culture. This place out in, in business in things for example like savings countries that have as values that embrace a longer term orientation may be more likely to focus on a, a higher savings rates. And therefore maybe better able to invest in the future. Other societies may place more focus on consumption and short term gratification and a, a much shorter time horizon in their, in their business settings. This could, could be reflected in society in things like the value of share prices of stocks, of equities in companies as some companies are operating from quarter to quarter. And that's a very short term orientation versus, versus building a long-term successful business that may not have success in one quarter or the next. So that's a very important aspect to consider. And so all these things are related to, to our understanding of the global business environment because whether we use Hofstede's very successfully utilized in today's world in research. For example, his dimensions of culture or whether we use one that focuses perhaps more on religion. It does help us understand the role of culture in business. And let me give you a couple of examples. Here is a location in the Middle East where we see financial transactions occurring. It's called a bank in this setting. But in some cultures, based on certain religious traditions and values. Money lending or usury, at high interest rates or at any interest rate is prohibited, or has less emphasis to some degree. So you need to be very aware of that if you were operating in an economy where financial institutions operate under different values and norms. You may not be able to invest as quickly or you may not be able to exist at all if you were a bank trying to enter into a, a country that had different values related to, to that, type of industry or sector, the, the financial services industry. Here's another example. In some parts of the world that have long traditions. Values are placed on on history and societies embracing of, of ancient structures and burial grounds. And so sometimes, companies make very big mistakes not recognizing the, the value that societies placed on this history and their ancestors and will do things like destroy these structures or build commercial retail outlets very close to them and this type of thing can get businesses into trouble. And so, my point in sharing these with you is to let you know that, that, understanding culture is a lot more than understanding whether you should bow or whether you should give a handshake. It's about understanding the day-to-day life of people, customers, businesses and the complex integration of all these norms and values into society and business transactions. So what we're going to do in the rest of the module is go through a case or an example to try to understand how societies and businesses develops in certain ways and how their business settings reflect that that trajectory of those values and norms. So this ends part two of module four of global business environment and we'll you see you back next time. Thank you.
