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The value of stereotypes

  • 1.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-14-2006 16:09
    In my attempt to whittle down the mountain of messages from AoM listservers, I've spent an hour reading various tirades, many reflecting the development of a thoughtless politically correct attitude concerning stereotyping. We seem to have  evolved  (devolved?) the meaning of stereotype to indicate only an  incorrect use of the concept, that of stopping at the stereotype rather than using it as a valuable tool. Stereotyping is valuable; in our publications, an average (mean) is a stereotype; However, when I see a mean I don't conclude "Hmm, so that's how those New Zealanders behave." Stereotypes reflect an attempt to give order to our ecology. They provide the place we use to start every evaluation. The dimensions we use to talk about culture among ourselves, high & low context, individualism/collectivism, humane orientation, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, universalism, are stereotypes. Useful further discussion is provided in:
    How Hardwired Is Human Behavior?       By: Nicholson, Nigel. Harvard Business Review, Jul/Aug98, Vol. 76 Issue 4, p134-147, 14p, 3c; (AN 780282)

    "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
    Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An f�na� fi�in
    Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
    http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
    http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
    PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
    hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/

    Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com



  • 2.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-15-2006 10:22
    In a message dated 5/14/2006 3:16:34 P.M. Central Daylight Time, littrellaom@yahoo.co.nz writes:
    Stereotyping is valuable; in our publications, an average (mean) is a stereotype; However, when I see a mean I don't conclude "Hmm, so that's how those New Zealanders behave." Stereotypes reflect
    THE MEAN IS A MATH PARAMETER AND NOT A STEREOTYPE OF A CULTURE. STEROTYPES MAY BE PRESENTED AS MEANS OF A SMALL SAMPLE OF OUTSIDERS PERCEPTIONS. GLOBE IS A GREAT EXAMPLE: IT STEREOTYPES CHINA WITH 300 CHINESE
    MANAGERS FROM ONE SITE IN CHINA. CHINA HAS OVER A HUNDRED DIFFERENT CULTURES AND ABOUT 1.3 BILLION PEOPLE. HOW USEFUL IS THAT?
     
    GEORGE GRAEN


  • 3.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-15-2006 14:25
    Hello George, statistical analysis processes provide numbers to which we assign cognitive meaning. Using means to describe cultures is stereotyping them, to me at least. That's why whomever invented medians, modes, standard deviations, skewness, and kurtosis measures and bar charts, radar diagrams, smallest space analysis diagrams, and distribution curves invented them. We're still developing depictions of data and printing journal articles as if we're in the 19th century. (Me too; I promise I'll do better.)
    Regards,
    Romie


    Lmxlotus@AOL.COM wrote:
    In a message dated 5/14/2006 3:16:34 P.M. Central Daylight Time, littrellaom@yahoo.co.nz writes:
    Stereotyping is valuable; in our publications, an average (mean) is a stereotype; However, when I see a mean I don't conclude "Hmm, so that's how those New Zealanders behave." Stereotypes reflect
    THE MEAN IS A MATH PARAMETER AND NOT A STEREOTYPE OF A CULTURE. STEROTYPES MAY BE PRESENTED AS MEANS OF A SMALL SAMPLE OF OUTSIDERS PERCEPTIONS. GLOBE IS A GREAT EXAMPLE: IT STEREOTYPES CHINA WITH 300 CHINESE
    MANAGERS FROM ONE SITE IN CHINA. CHINA HAS OVER A HUNDRED DIFFERENT CULTURES AND ABOUT 1.3 BILLION PEOPLE. HOW USEFUL IS THAT?
     
    GEORGE GRAEN



    "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
    Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An f�na� fi�in
    Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
    http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
    http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
    PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
    hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/

    Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com



  • 4.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-16-2006 05:42
    HI ROMIE
     
    WHAT ABOUT YOUR DYSFUNCTIONAL STEREOTYPES THAT ARE ABUSED BY THE MASSES? IT IS BETTER TO UNDERSTAND THE REAL CULTURE THAN DEPEND ON SOUNDBITES OF BIGOTS I BELIEVE. OF COURSE, YOU MAY BELIEVE THE OPPOSITE
     
         GEORGE
     
    message
    dated 5/15/2006 1:51:38 P.M. Central Daylight Time, littrellaom@yahoo.co.nz writes:
    Hello George, statistical analysis processes provide numbers to which we assign cognitive meaning. Using means to describe cultures is stereotyping them, to me at least. That's why whomever invented medians, modes, standard deviations, skewness, and kurtosis measures and bar charts, radar diagrams, smallest space analysis diagrams, and distribution curves invented them. We're still developing depictions of data and printing journal articles as if we're in the 19th century. (Me too; I promise I'll do better.)
    Regards,
    Romie


    Lmxlotus@AOL.COM wrote:
    In a message dated 5/14/2006 3:16:34 P.M. Central Daylight Time, littrellaom@yahoo.co.nz writes:
    Stereotyping is valuable; in our publications, an average (mean) is a stereotype; However, when I see a mean I don't conclude "Hmm, so that's how those New Zealanders behave." Stereotypes reflect
    THE MEAN IS A MATH PARAMETER AND NOT A STEREOTYPE OF A CULTURE. STEROTYPES MAY BE PRESENTED AS MEANS OF A SMALL SAMPLE OF OUTSIDERS PERCEPTIONS. GLOBE IS A GREAT EXAMPLE: IT STEREOTYPES CHINA WITH 300 CHINESE
    MANAGERS FROM ONE SITE IN CHINA. CHINA HAS OVER A HUNDRED DIFFERENT CULTURES AND ABOUT 1.3 BILLION PEOPLE. HOW USEFUL IS THAT?
     
    GEORGE GRAEN



     


  • 5.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-16-2006 10:24
    All -- I believe that it was Einstein who said and I am paraphrasing here: Sometimes what counts most can't be counted. I am not sure that you can reduce a culture to a number all neat and tidy.
    best regards,
    Rusty
     
    -------------- Original message --------------
    From: Lmxlotus@AOL.COM
    HI ROMIE
     
    WHAT ABOUT YOUR DYSFUNCTIONAL STEREOTYPES THAT ARE ABUSED BY THE MASSES? IT IS BETTER TO UNDERSTAND THE REAL CULTURE THAN DEPEND ON SOUNDBITES OF BIGOTS I BELIEVE. OF COURSE, YOU MAY BELIEVE THE OPPOSITE
     
         GEORGE
     
    message
    dated 5/15/2006 1:51:38 P.M. Central Daylight Time, littrellaom@yahoo.co.nz writes:
    Hello George, statistical analysis processes provide numbers to which we assign cognitive meaning. Using means to describe cultures is stereotyping them, to me at least. That's why whomever invented medians, modes, standard deviations, skewness, and kurtosis measures and bar charts, radar diagrams, smallest space analysis diagrams, and distribution curves invented them. We're still developing depictions of data and printing journal articles as if we're in the 19th century. (Me too; I promise I'll do better.)
    Regards,
    Romie


    Lmxlotus@AOL.COM wrote:
    In a message dated 5/14/2006 3:16:34 P.M. Central Daylight Time, littrellaom@yahoo.co.nz writes:
    Stereotyping is valuable; in our publications, an average (mean) is a stereotype; However, when I see a mean I don't conclude "Hmm, so that's how those New Zealanders behave." Stereotypes reflect
     
    THE MEAN IS A MATH PARAMETER AND NOT A STEREOTYPE OF A CULTURE. STEROTYPES MAY BE PRESENTED AS MEANS OF A SMALL SAMPLE OF OUTSIDERS PERCEPTIONS. GLOBE IS A GREAT EXAMPLE: IT STEREOTYPES CHINA WITH 300 CHINESE
    MANAGERS FROM ONE SITE IN CHINA. CHINA HAS OVER A HUNDRED DIFFERENT CULTURES AND ABOUT 1.3 BILLION PEOPLE. HOW USEFUL IS THAT?
     
    GEORGE GRAEN



     
     


  • 6.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-16-2006 11:25

    Rusty and colleagues,

     

    Obviously, we all (or 99% of us) can identify with Einstein's (or whoever was the one who really said it) statement. I also think that you will find very few people who will endorse "reducing a culture to a number all neat and tidy"; I definitely would not and neither, I believe, would Romie. So, let us depart from erecting feeble straw-men and let's discuss these matters on a more serious, scholarly-based level.

     

    My personal dilemma, as a researcher and educator is this: if I have 10-30 contact hours with students, who know little of cross cultural issues, and given that this may be the only course they will take (say, during their undergraduate years) that deals with such matters and given that I wish to have them gain more understanding of the meaning of cross cultural differences at the end of this one-semester course, which approach do I take? Obviously, if we had unlimited resources of time and energy, we could go into depth into dozens of cultures and explore the intricacies of each such rich culture. But what can be done to optimize the cultural learning process given our limited resources? This is posed not as a rhetorical, but rather as an open question.  

     

    Ciao,

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Jacob Eisenberg, Ph.D.
    <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">UCD</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place> of Business,
    <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype> <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dublin</st1:place></st1:city>,
    Belfield, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dublin</st1:place></st1:city> 4,
    <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region>

    Tel:  +353-1-716 4774
    Fax:  +353-1-716 4762
    Email: Jacob.eisenberg@ucd.ie
    http://www.ucd.ie/busadmin/

    From: <st1:personname w:st="on">Management Education and Development Discussion</st1:personname> [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of rustyrae@comcast.net
    Sent: 16 May 2006 15:24
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes

     

    All -- I believe that it was Einstein who said and I am paraphrasing here: Sometimes what counts most can't be counted. I am not sure that you can reduce a culture to a number all neat and tidy.

    best regards,

    Rusty

     

    -------------- Original message --------------
    From: Lmxlotus@AOL.COM

    HI ROMIE

     

    WHAT ABOUT YOUR DYSFUNCTIONAL STEREOTYPES THAT ARE ABUSED BY THE MASSES? IT IS BETTER TO UNDERSTAND THE REAL CULTURE THAN DEPEND ON SOUNDBITES OF BIGOTS I BELIEVE. OF COURSE, YOU MAY BELIEVE THE OPPOSITE

     

         GEORGE

     

    message

    dated 5/15/2006 1:51:38 P.M. Central Daylight Time, littrellaom@yahoo.co.nz writes:

    Hello George, statistical analysis processes provide numbers to which we assign cognitive meaning. Using means to describe cultures is stereotyping them, to me at least. That's why whomever invented medians, modes, standard deviations, skewness, and kurtosis measures and bar charts, radar diagrams, smallest space analysis diagrams, and distribution curves invented them. We're still developing depictions of data and printing journal articles as if we're in the 19th century. (Me too; I promise I'll do better.)
    Regards,
    Romie



  • 7.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-16-2006 15:34
    For me this arguement tends to disappear once I get to my preferred
    position on the trait/type arguement. I constantly attack type based
    thinking.

    I use typologies like Hofstede as well as Kolb's typology of Learning
    Styles, and psychology's big 5 traits to teach my students to understand
    traits and the differences they can make (or more accurately,
    describe)in human reactions and behavior.

    I teach a profound disrespect for typing as a conceptualization, but
    value it as a way to look for true differences in behavior and response.
    And not to believe their thinking until they have tested it with
    experience.

    What really helps them with cultural types is when I point out that when
    they meet fellow students from other countries, those students are often
    far from the mean type of that culture. If people match the majority on
    traits they tend to stay home. Most of my international students agree.
    They feel more comfortable escaping some of those traits in their home
    culture.

    Then I apply the same traits to differences between disciplines,
    industries, and even cities in the area, the traits start to become useful.

    They use them as hints to guide their actions to get experience that
    results in true learning.

    But, more importantly, they learn to be suspicious of type based language.

    Which leads us to a discussion of type based thinking in others and how
    to deal with it...



    --
    Christopher M. Barlow, PhD
    The Co-Creativity Institute
    551 Roosevelt Road #112
    Glen Ellyn, Illinois 60137
    Voice: (630) 221-9456
    mailto://barlow@cocreativity.com
    http://www.cocreativity.com


  • 8.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-16-2006 17:30
    Jacob, in our business and culture paper/course I start with understanding ethnocentrism and then culture shock (fortunately in New Zealand I have classes with majorities of foreign students from up to 10 cultures who can personally relate to culture shock), then go to dimensions of culture from GLOBE, Hofstede, Inglehart, Schwartz, and E.T. Hall, all except Hall's reprsented by national mean scores, and then relate these dimensions to oral communication and then to negotiation behaviour. More if it's a 39-contact-hour paper, such as leadership, gender, expatriation issues, etc.
    Romie

    Jacob <Jacob.Eisenberg@UCD.IE> wrote:
    Rusty and colleagues,
     
    Obviously, we all (or 99% of us) can identify with Einstein�s (or whoever was the one who really said it) statement. I also think that you will find very few people who will endorse �reducing a culture to a number all neat and tidy�; I definitely would not and neither, I believe, would Romie. So, let us depart from erecting feeble straw-men and let�s discuss these matters on a more serious, scholarly-based level.
     
    My personal dilemma, as a researcher and educator is this: if I have 10-30 contact hours with students, who know little of cross cultural issues, and given that this may be the only course they will take (say, during their undergraduate years) that deals with such matters and given that I wish to have them gain more understanding of the meaning of cross cultural differences at the end of this one-semester course, which approach do I take? Obviously, if we had unlimited resources of time and energy, we could go into depth into dozens of cultures and explore the intricacies of each such rich culture. But what can be done to optimize the cultural learning process given our limited resources? This is posed not as a rhetorical, but rather as an open question.  
     
    Ciao,
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Jacob Eisenberg, Ph.D.
    <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">UCD</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place> of Business,
    <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype> <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dublin</st1:place></st1:city>,
    Belfield, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dublin</st1:place></st1:city> 4,
    <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region>

    Tel:  +353-1-716 4774
    Fax:  +353-1-716 4762
    Email: Jacob.eisenberg@ucd.ie
    http://www.ucd.ie/busadmin/
    From: <st1:personname w:st="on">Management Education and Development Discussion</st1:personname> [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of rustyrae@comcast.net
    Sent: 16 May 2006 15:24
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes
     
    All -- I believe that it was Einstein who said and I am paraphrasing here: Sometimes what counts most can't be counted. I am not sure that you can reduce a culture to a number all neat and tidy.
    best regards,
    Rusty
     
    -------------- Original message --------------
    From: Lmxlotus@AOL.COM

    HI ROMIE
     
    WHAT ABOUT YOUR DYSFUNCTIONAL STEREOTYPES THAT ARE ABUSED BY THE MASSES? IT IS BETTER TO UNDERSTAND THE REAL CULTURE THAN DEPEND ON SOUNDBITES OF BIGOTS I BELIEVE. OF COURSE, YOU MAY BELIEVE THE OPPOSITE
     
         GEORGE
     
    message
    dated 5/15/2006 1:51:38 P.M. Central Daylight Time, littrellaom@yahoo.co.nz writes:
    Hello George, statistical analysis processes provide numbers to which we assign cognitive meaning. Using means to describe cultures is stereotyping them, to me at least. That's why whomever invented medians, modes, standard deviations, skewness, and kurtosis measures and bar charts, radar diagrams, smallest space analysis diagrams, and distribution curves invented them. We're still developing depictions of data and printing journal articles as if we're in the 19th century. (Me too; I promise I'll do better.)
    Regards,
    Romie




    "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
    Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An f�na� fi�in
    Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
    http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
    http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
    PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
    hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/

    Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com



  • 9.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-17-2006 10:28
    In a message dated 5/16/2006 3:56:38 P.M. Central Daylight Time, barlow@COCREATIVITY.COM writes:

    I teach a profound disrespect for typing as a conceptualization, but
    value it as a way to look for true differences in behavior and response.
      And not to believe their thinking until they have tested it with
    experience.

    What really helps them with cultural types is when I point out that when
    they meet fellow students from other countries, those students are often
    far from the mean type of that culture.  If people match the majority on
    traits they tend to stay home.  Most of my international students agree.
      They feel more comfortable escaping some of those traits in their home
    culture.

    Then I apply the same traits to differences between disciplines,
    industries, and even cities in the area, the traits start to become useful.

    They use them as hints to guide their actions to get experience that
    results in true learning.

    But, more importantly, they learn to be suspicious of type based language.

    Which leads us to a discussion of type based thinking in others and how
    to deal with it...



    --
    I LIKE YOUR APPROACH TO SHOWING THE POTENTIAL HARM OF CULTURAL STEREOTYPES.
     
    GEORGE


  • 10.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-18-2006 10:08
    Perhaps I can suggest another avenue for this discussion.
     
     I know that (especially in the USA) culture is often used as a principle means for capturing cross national differences. I am uncertain that the tool is sufficient to the task. I tend to feel that the notion of institutional differences is often more illuminating.
     
    Let me give an example. I have a PhD student who is studying the transfer of working practices from a British parent company to a series of Malaysian subsidiaries. Within the subsidiaries the senior team tend to be ethnic Chinese and the supervisors and frontline workers tend to be Bumiputra (indigenous Malay). A cultural perspective can shed some light as we note differences between British, Chinese (in Malasia) and Bumiputra cultures. However it misses a lot as well. For example, the relations between these ethnic groups in the subsidiaries reproduce the social relations of wider Malaysian society, which is ethnically stratified (ethnic Chinese dominate business), there is a legal backdrop (eg restrictions on Chinese ownership in Malaysia and emerging patterns of commercial law and law enforcement. and an economic backdrop (especially the current stage of economic development in Malaysia). Finally, some of the patterns of management in these companies have roots in a period of of British colonial rule.
     
    All of this turns out to be relevant to the process of translating British management practices into a Malaysian context. Culture gets us started but misses much of the important national context.
     
    best regards
     
    Mark

    From: Management Education and Development Discussion [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Romie Littrell
    Sent: 16 May 2006 22:30
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes

    Jacob, in our business and culture paper/course I start with understanding ethnocentrism and then culture shock (fortunately in New Zealand I have classes with majorities of foreign students from up to 10 cultures who can personally relate to culture shock), then go to dimensions of culture from GLOBE, Hofstede, Inglehart, Schwartz, and E.T. Hall, all except Hall's reprsented by national mean scores, and then relate these dimensions to oral communication and then to negotiation behaviour. More if it's a 39-contact-hour paper, such as leadership, gender, expatriation issues, etc.
    Romie

    Jacob <Jacob.Eisenberg@UCD.IE> wrote:
    Rusty and colleagues,
    Obviously, we all (or 99% of us) can identify with Einstein’s (or whoever was the one who really said it) statement. I also think that you will find very few people who will endorse “reducing a culture to a number all neat and tidy”; I definitely would not and neither, I believe, would Romie. So, let us depart from erecting feeble straw-men and let’s discuss these matters on a more serious, scholarly-based level.
    My personal dilemma, as a researcher and educator is this: if I have 10-30 contact hours with students, who know little of cross cultural issues, and given that this may be the only course they will take (say, during their undergraduate years) that deals with such matters and given that I wish to have them gain more understanding of the meaning of cross cultural differences at the end of this one-semester course, which approach do I take? Obviously, if we had unlimited resources of time and energy, we could go into depth into dozens of cultures and explore the intricacies of each such rich culture. But what can be done to optimize the cultural learning process given our limited resources? This is posed not as a rhetorical, but rather as an open question.  
    Ciao,
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Jacob Eisenberg, Ph.D.
    <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">UCD</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place> of Business,
    <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype> <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dublin</st1:place></st1:city>,
    Belfield, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dublin</st1:place></st1:city> 4,
    <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region>

    Tel:  +353-1-716 4774
    Fax:  +353-1-716 4762
    Email: Jacob.eisenberg@ucd.ie
    http://www.ucd.ie/busadmin/
    From: <st1:personname w:st="on">Management Education and Development Discussion</st1:personname> [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of rustyrae@comcast.net
    Sent: 16 May 2006 15:24
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes
    All -- I believe that it was Einstein who said and I am paraphrasing here: Sometimes what counts most can't be counted. I am not sure that you can reduce a culture to a number all neat and tidy.
    best regards,
    Rusty
    -------------- Original message --------------
    From: Lmxlotus@AOL.COM

    HI ROMIE
    WHAT ABOUT YOUR DYSFUNCTIONAL STEREOTYPES THAT ARE ABUSED BY THE MASSES? IT IS BETTER TO UNDERSTAND THE REAL CULTURE THAN DEPEND ON SOUNDBITES OF BIGOTS I BELIEVE. OF COURSE, YOU MAY BELIEVE THE OPPOSITE
         GEORGE
    message
    dated 5/15/2006 1:51:38 P.M. Central Daylight Time, littrellaom@yahoo.co.nz writes:
    Hello George, statistical analysis processes provide numbers to which we assign cognitive meaning. Using means to describe cultures is stereotyping them, to me at least. That's why whomever invented medians, modes, standard deviations, skewness, and kurtosis measures and bar charts, radar diagrams, smallest space analysis diagrams, and distribution curves invented them. We're still developing depictions of data and printing journal articles as if we're in the 19th century. (Me too; I promise I'll do better.)
    Regards,
    Romie




    "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
    Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An fánaí fiáin
    Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
    http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
    http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
    PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
    hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/

    Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com



  • 11.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-18-2006 11:19
    In a message dated 5/18/2006 9:26:26 A.M. Central Daylight Time, M.P.Fenton-Ocreevy@OPEN.AC.UK writes:
    All of this turns out to be relevant to the process of translating British management practices into a Malaysian context. Culture gets us started but misses much of the important national context.
    What a great example of deep-level Third Culture Bonding (TCB) analysis.  The GLOBE analysis would miss your deep-level understanding.  TCB analysis (Graen, 2006 AOM Perspective) would include historical and institutional variables.
     
    Cheers,
     
    George


  • 12.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-18-2006 14:46
    In a message dated 5/18/2006 10:26:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time, M.P.Fenton-Ocreevy@OPEN.AC.UK writes:

    A cultural perspective can shed some light as we note differences between British, Chinese (in Malasia) and Bumiputra cultures. However it misses a lot as well. For example, the relations between these ethnic groups in the subsidiaries reproduce the social relations of wider Malaysian society, which is ethnically stratified (ethnic Chinese dominate business), there is a legal backdrop (eg restrictions on Chinese ownership in Malaysia and emerging patterns of commercial law and law enforcement. and an economic backdrop (especially the current stage of economic development in Malaysia). Finally, some of the patterns of management in these companies have roots in a period of British colonial rule.


    Fascinating example, Mark.  Thanks for sharing it.

    To further enlighten it, could you provide one or two examples of the practical effect on institutional differences and managerial behavior patterns?

    Erwin (Rausch)


  • 13.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-18-2006 15:51
    Agreed Mark. Prior to becoming a full-time academic I worked 35 years in industry, primarily in IT marketing operations. I don't believe any competent practitioner would use only "national culture" to understand a, market, an organisation, and its ecology. Here's the intro to my lecture on this topic. 
    R.D. Laing, author of "The Politics of Experience", noted 35 years ago that "We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing." And that was 35 years ago. Laing also pointed out that �facts� become fictions when we fail to understand and appreciate the thought and experiences that lead to academic theories. Neither �rational� processes that we so often find in work by academics and others of the chattering class who cannot comprehend the complexity of the experimental method, nor the experimental method itself are adequate tools of analysis of reality. Theories must be sufficiently grounded in reality.
    The tendency of academic researchers attempting to employ the Scientific Method is to isolate a variable to study, carry out some observation of manipulation of that single variable, and then attempt to draw general conclusions. Hopefully with enough isolated investigations of isolated variables someone might see a relationship or two and progress to a theory. This theory, of course, will be based upon an agglomeration of isolated events. This reductive solution leads to higher-order entities as nothing but agglomerations of lower-order entities and the laws governing the higher order entities are expected to be deduced from the laws governing the lower. This general program of inter-theoretic reduction has raised barriers that many philosophers find insurmountable, such as case of attempting to reduce biology to chemistry. Given the experimental and analytical tools available in the past, isolation and experimentation might have been appropriate. However, we still see this reductionist practice carrying on today. One might have hoped to see advances in the 1960s with the use of computers making multivariate statistical analyses more accessible to researchers, but I still see mostly reductionist practices reported in the literature. Even the latest fad of structured equations is an analytical scheme based upon correlation, and correlation, as we had drilled into or heads in our basic statistics class, does not demonstrate causality. Quite a number of the studies I read using structured equations end up with charts where the arrows create ovals, but then, a circular relationship is not surprising when we study a small number of related variables. Validating a causal model through purely statistical means is impossible. We use statistics as a measurement of �error� to see if rejecting our model can be justified; interestingly, prediction is not an end in itself.
    As I've noted before on this list, we spend vast amouts of money on hardward, software, and theoretical development to predict the weather, which is a complex process, but I have one laptop that I use to collect and analyse data and to study marketing, management, and leadership across cultures. Analysis of the latter seem at least as complex as predicting weather.





    "M.P.Fenton-OCreevy" <M.P.Fenton-Ocreevy@OPEN.AC.UK> wrote:
    Perhaps I can suggest another avenue for this discussion.
     
     I know that (especially in the USA) culture is often used as a principle means for capturing cross national differences. I am uncertain that the tool is sufficient to the task. I tend to feel that the notion of institutional differences is often more illuminating.
     
    Let me give an example. I have a PhD student who is studying the transfer of working practices from a British parent company to a series of Malaysian subsidiaries. Within the subsidiaries the senior team tend to be ethnic Chinese and the supervisors and frontline workers tend to be Bumiputra (indigenous Malay). A cultural perspective can shed some light as we note differences between British, Chinese (in Malasia) and Bumiputra cultures. However it misses a lot as well. For example, the relations between these ethnic groups in the subsidiaries reproduce the social relations of wider Malaysian society, which is ethnically stratified (ethnic Chinese dominate business), there is a legal backdrop (eg restrictions on Chinese ownership in Malaysia and emerging patterns of commercial law and law enforcement. and an economic backdrop (especially the current stage of economic development in Malaysia). Finally, some of the patterns of management in these companies have roots in a period of of British colonial rule.
     
    All of this turns out to be relevant to the process of translating British management practices into a Malaysian context. Culture gets us started but misses much of the important national context.
     
    best regards
     
    Mark

    From: Management Education and Development Discussion [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Romie Littrell
    Sent: 16 May 2006 22:30
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes

    Jacob, in our business and culture paper/course I start with understanding ethnocentrism and then culture shock (fortunately in New Zealand I have classes with majorities of foreign students from up to 10 cultures who can personally relate to culture shock), then go to dimensions of culture from GLOBE, Hofstede, Inglehart, Schwartz, and E.T. Hall, all except Hall's reprsented by national mean scores, and then relate these dimensions to oral communication and then to negotiation behaviour. More if it's a 39-contact-hour paper, such as leadership, gender, expatriation issues, etc.
    Romie

    Jacob <Jacob.Eisenberg@UCD.IE> wrote:
    Rusty and colleagues,
    Obviously, we all (or 99% of us) can identify with Einstein�s (or whoever was the one who really said it) statement. I also think that you will find very few people who will endorse �reducing a culture to a number all neat and tidy�; I definitely would not and neither, I believe, would Romie. So, let us depart from erecting feeble straw-men and let�s discuss these matters on a more serious, scholarly-based level.
    My personal dilemma, as a researcher and educator is this: if I have 10-30 contact hours with students, who know little of cross cultural issues, and given that this may be the only course they will take (say, during their undergraduate years) that deals with such matters and given that I wish to have them gain more understanding of the meaning of cross cultural differences at the end of this one-semester course, which approach do I take? Obviously, if we had unlimited resources of time and energy, we could go into depth into dozens of cultures and explore the intricacies of each such rich culture. But what can be done to optimize the cultural learning process given our limited resources? This is posed not as a rhetorical, but rather as an open question.  
    Ciao,
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Jacob Eisenberg, Ph.D.
    <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">UCD</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place> of Business,
    <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype> <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dublin</st1:place></st1:city>,
    Belfield, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dublin</st1:place></st1:city> 4,
    <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region>

    Tel:  +353-1-716 4774
    Fax:  +353-1-716 4762
    Email: Jacob.eisenberg@ucd.ie
    http://www.ucd.ie/busadmin/
    From: <st1:personname w:st="on">Management Education and Development Discussion</st1:personname> [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of rustyrae@comcast.net
    Sent: 16 May 2006 15:24
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes
    All -- I believe that it was Einstein who said and I am paraphrasing here: Sometimes what counts most can't be counted. I am not sure that you can reduce a culture to a number all neat and tidy.
    best regards,
    Rusty
    -------------- Original message --------------
    From: Lmxlotus@AOL.COM

    HI ROMIE
    WHAT ABOUT YOUR DYSFUNCTIONAL STEREOTYPES THAT ARE ABUSED BY THE MASSES? IT IS BETTER TO UNDERSTAND THE REAL CULTURE THAN DEPEND ON SOUNDBITES OF BIGOTS I BELIEVE. OF COURSE, YOU MAY BELIEVE THE OPPOSITE
         GEORGE
    message
    dated 5/15/2006 1:51:38 P.M. Central Daylight Time, littrellaom@yahoo.co.nz writes:
    Hello George, statistical analysis processes provide numbers to which we assign cognitive meaning. Using means to describe cultures is stereotyping them, to me at least. That's why whomever invented medians, modes, standard deviations, skewness, and kurtosis measures and bar charts, radar diagrams, smallest space analysis diagrams, and distribution curves invented them. We're still developing depictions of data and printing journal articles as if we're in the 19th century. (Me too; I promise I'll do better.)
    Regards,
    Romie




    "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
    Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An f�na� fi�in
    Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
    http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
    http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
    PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
    hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/
    Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com



    "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
    Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An f�na� fi�in
    Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
    http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
    http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
    PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
    hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/

    Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com



  • 14.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-18-2006 16:11
    An interesting article related to this discussion:
    �The cultural transferability of business and organizational re-engineering: examples from <st1:place>South-east Asia</st1:place>�, by Steve McKenna, 1995, The TQM Magazine, Vol 07 Issue 3 (Emerald Library).


    Erwin Rausch <DidacticRa@AOL.COM> wrote:
    In a message dated 5/18/2006 10:26:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time, M.P.Fenton-Ocreevy@OPEN.AC.UK writes:

    A cultural perspective can shed some light as we note differences between British, Chinese (in Malasia) and Bumiputra cultures. However it misses a lot as well. For example, the relations between these ethnic groups in the subsidiaries reproduce the social relations of wider Malaysian society, which is ethnically stratified (ethnic Chinese dominate business), there is a legal backdrop (eg restrictions on Chinese ownership in Malaysia and emerging patterns of commercial law and law enforcement. and an economic backdrop (especially the current stage of economic development in Malaysia). Finally, some of the patterns of management in these companies have roots in a period of British colonial rule.


    Fascinating example, Mark.  Thanks for sharing it.

    To further enlighten it, could you provide one or two examples of the practical effect on institutional differences and managerial behavior patterns?

    Erwin (Rausch)



    "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
    Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An f�na� fi�in
    Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
    http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
    http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
    PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
    hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/

    Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com



  • 15.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-20-2006 09:48
    Hmmm - interesting article you refer to Romie, but I can't help feeling that with statements like "Thais cannot possibly relate to a western dimension of “job-enrichment”. They have no concept of job satisfaction. All they need are instructions to be happy. ", the author may have a somewhat superficial understanding of local culture and institutional context.
     
    Mark
     

    Prof. Mark Fenton-O'Creevy

    Director, Practice Besed Professional Learning CETL

    & Professor of Organisational Behaviour
    Open University Business School

    From: Management Education and Development Discussion [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Romie Littrell
    Sent: 18 May 2006 21:11
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes

    An interesting article related to this discussion:
    “The cultural transferability of business and organizational re-engineering: examples from <st1:place>South-east Asia</st1:place>”, by Steve McKenna, 1995, The TQM Magazine, Vol 07 Issue 3 (Emerald Library).


    Erwin Rausch <DidacticRa@AOL.COM> wrote:
    In a message dated 5/18/2006 10:26:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time, M.P.Fenton-Ocreevy@OPEN.AC.UK writes:
    A cultural perspective can shed some light as we note differences between British, Chinese (in Malasia) and Bumiputra cultures. However it misses a lot as well. For example, the relations between these ethnic groups in the subsidiaries reproduce the social relations of wider Malaysian society, which is ethnically stratified (ethnic Chinese dominate business), there is a legal backdrop (eg restrictions on Chinese ownership in Malaysia and emerging patterns of commercial law and law enforcement. and an economic backdrop (especially the current stage of economic development in Malaysia). Finally, some of the patterns of management in these companies have roots in a period of British colonial rule.


    Fascinating example, Mark.  Thanks for sharing it.

    To further enlighten it, could you provide one or two examples of the practical effect on institutional differences and managerial behavior patterns?

    Erwin (Rausch)



    "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
    Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An fánaí fiáin
    Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
    http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
    http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
    PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
    hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/

    Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com



  • 16.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-21-2006 02:32
    If you read the article carefully you will find that that statement was made by a Chinese Singaporean department head. McKenna uses the Singapore case study to point out attitudes of Singaporean managers toward Thai workers, that is: 'The manager in the Singapore case stated:...Thais cannot possibly relate to a western dimension of "job-enrichment". They have no concept of job satisfaction. All they need are instructions to be happy.'

    "M.P.Fenton-OCreevy" <M.P.Fenton-Ocreevy@OPEN.AC.UK> wrote:
    Hmmm - interesting article you refer to Romie, but I can't help feeling that with statements like "Thais cannot possibly relate to a western dimension of �job-enrichment�. They have no concept of job satisfaction. All they need are instructions to be happy. ", the author may have a somewhat superficial understanding of local culture and institutional context.
     
    Mark
     
    Prof. Mark Fenton-O'Creevy
    Director, Practice Besed Professional Learning CETL
    & Professor of Organisational Behaviour
    Open University Business School
    From: Management Education and Development Discussion [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Romie Littrell
    Sent: 18 May 2006 21:11
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes

    An interesting article related to this discussion:
    �The cultural transferability of business and organizational re-engineering: examples from <st1:place>South-east Asia</st1:place>�, by Steve McKenna, 1995, The TQM Magazine, Vol 07 Issue 3 (Emerald Library).


    Erwin Rausch <DidacticRa@AOL.COM> wrote:
    In a message dated 5/18/2006 10:26:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time, M.P.Fenton-Ocreevy@OPEN.AC.UK writes:
    A cultural perspective can shed some light as we note differences between British, Chinese (in Malasia) and Bumiputra cultures. However it misses a lot as well. For example, the relations between these ethnic groups in the subsidiaries reproduce the social relations of wider Malaysian society, which is ethnically stratified (ethnic Chinese dominate business), there is a legal backdrop (eg restrictions on Chinese ownership in Malaysia and emerging patterns of commercial law and law enforcement. and an economic backdrop (especially the current stage of economic development in Malaysia). Finally, some of the patterns of management in these companies have roots in a period of British colonial rule.


    Fascinating example, Mark.  Thanks for sharing it.

    To further enlighten it, could you provide one or two examples of the practical effect on institutional differences and managerial behavior patterns?

    Erwin (Rausch)



    "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
    Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An f�na� fi�in
    Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
    http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
    http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
    PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
    hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/
    Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com



    "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
    Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An f�na� fi�in
    Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
    http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
    http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
    PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
    hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/

    Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com



  • 17.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-21-2006 16:00
    That'll teach me not to shoot from the hip after a quick skim read :)

    Mark

    ________________________________

    From: Management Education and Development Discussion on behalf of Romie Littrell
    Sent: Sun 21/05/2006 07:32
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes


    If you read the article carefully you will find that that statement was made by a Chinese Singaporean department head. McKenna uses the Singapore case study to point out attitudes of Singaporean managers toward Thai workers, that is: 'The manager in the Singapore case stated:...Thais cannot possibly relate to a western dimension of "job-enrichment". They have no concept of job satisfaction. All they need are instructions to be happy.'

    "M.P.Fenton-OCreevy" <M.P.Fenton-Ocreevy@OPEN.AC.UK> wrote:

    Hmmm - interesting article you refer to Romie, but I can't help feeling that with statements like "Thais cannot possibly relate to a western dimension of "job-enrichment". They have no concept of job satisfaction. All they need are instructions to be happy. ", the author may have a somewhat superficial understanding of local culture and institutional context.

    Mark


    Prof. Mark Fenton-O'Creevy
    Director, Practice Besed Professional Learning CETL
    & Professor of Organisational Behaviour
    Open University Business School

    ________________________________

    From: Management Education and Development Discussion [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Romie Littrell
    Sent: 18 May 2006 21:11
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes


    An interesting article related to this discussion:

    "The cultural transferability of business and organizational re-engineering: examples from South-east Asia", by Steve McKenna, 1995, The TQM Magazine, Vol 07 Issue 3 (Emerald Library).


    Erwin Rausch <DidacticRa@AOL.COM> wrote:

    In a message dated 5/18/2006 10:26:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time, M.P.Fenton-Ocreevy@OPEN.AC.UK writes:



    A cultural perspective can shed some light as we note differences between British, Chinese (in Malasia) and Bumiputra cultures. However it misses a lot as well. For example, the relations between these ethnic groups in the subsidiaries reproduce the social relations of wider Malaysian society, which is ethnically stratified (ethnic Chinese dominate business), there is a legal backdrop (eg restrictions on Chinese ownership in Malaysia and emerging patterns of commercial law and law enforcement. and an economic backdrop (especially the current stage of economic development in Malaysia). Finally, some of the patterns of management in these companies have roots in a period of British colonial rule.



    Fascinating example, Mark. Thanks for sharing it.

    To further enlighten it, could you provide one or two examples of the practical effect on institutional differences and managerial behavior patterns?

    Erwin (Rausch)





    "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
    Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An fánaí fiáin
    Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
    http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
    http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
    PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
    hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/
    Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com




    "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
    Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An fánaí fiáin
    Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
    http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
    http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
    PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
    hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/

    Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com


  • 18.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-21-2006 17:27
    Hello Mark:
     
    Nothing wrong with shooting from the hip some time unless you are President George Bush.
     
    Peace,GM
     
     

    From: Management Education and Development Discussion on behalf of M.P.Fenton-OCreevy
    Sent: Sun 5/21/2006 3:00 PM
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes

    That'll teach me not to shoot from the hip after a quick skim read :)

    Mark

    ________________________________

    From: Management Education and Development Discussion on behalf of Romie Littrell
    Sent: Sun 21/05/2006 07:32
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes


    If you read the article carefully you will find that that statement was made by a Chinese Singaporean department head. McKenna uses the Singapore case study to point out attitudes of Singaporean managers toward Thai workers, that is: 'The manager in the Singapore case stated:...Thais cannot possibly relate to a western dimension of "job-enrichment". They have no concept of job satisfaction. All they need are instructions to be happy.'

    "M.P.Fenton-OCreevy" <M.P.Fenton-Ocreevy@OPEN.AC.UK> wrote:

            Hmmm - interesting article you refer to Romie, but I can't help feeling that with statements like "Thais cannot possibly relate to a western dimension of "job-enrichment". They have no concept of job satisfaction. All they need are instructions to be happy. ", the author may have a somewhat superficial understanding of local culture and institutional context.
            
            Mark
            
           
            Prof. Mark Fenton-O'Creevy
            Director, Practice Besed Professional Learning CETL
            & Professor of Organisational Behaviour
            Open University Business School
           
    ________________________________

            From: Management Education and Development Discussion [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Romie Littrell
            Sent: 18 May 2006 21:11
            To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
            Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes
           
           
            An interesting article related to this discussion:
           
            "The cultural transferability of business and organizational re-engineering: examples from South-east Asia", by Steve McKenna, 1995, The TQM Magazine, Vol 07 Issue 3 (Emerald Library).


            Erwin Rausch <DidacticRa@AOL.COM> wrote:

                    In a message dated 5/18/2006 10:26:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time, M.P.Fenton-Ocreevy@OPEN.AC.UK writes:
                   
                   

                            A cultural perspective can shed some light as we note differences between British, Chinese (in Malasia) and Bumiputra cultures. However it misses a lot as well. For example, the relations between these ethnic groups in the subsidiaries reproduce the social relations of wider Malaysian society, which is ethnically stratified (ethnic Chinese dominate business), there is a legal backdrop (eg restrictions on Chinese ownership in Malaysia and emerging patterns of commercial law and law enforcement. and an economic backdrop (especially the current stage of economic development in Malaysia). Finally, some of the patterns of management in these companies have roots in a period of British colonial rule.

                   
                   
                    Fascinating example, Mark.  Thanks for sharing it.
                   
                    To further enlighten it, could you provide one or two examples of the practical effect on institutional differences and managerial behavior patterns?
                   
                    Erwin (Rausch)
                   

           
           
           
            "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
            Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An fánaí fiáin
            Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
            http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
            http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
            PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
            hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/
            Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com




    "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
    Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An fánaí fiáin
    Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
    http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
    http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
    PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
    hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/

    Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com



  • 19.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-23-2006 05:28
    Nothing wrong with shooting from the hip unless you are Dick Cheney
    David

    From: Management Education and Development Discussion [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of George M Munchus III
    Sent: Monday, 22 May 2006 9:27 a.m.
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes

    Hello Mark:
     
    Nothing wrong with shooting from the hip some time unless you are President George Bush.
     
    Peace,GM
     
     

    From: Management Education and Development Discussion on behalf of M.P.Fenton-OCreevy
    Sent: Sun 5/21/2006 3:00 PM
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes

    That'll teach me not to shoot from the hip after a quick skim read :)

    Mark

    ________________________________

    From: Management Education and Development Discussion on behalf of Romie Littrell
    Sent: Sun 21/05/2006 07:32
    To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes


    If you read the article carefully you will find that that statement was made by a Chinese Singaporean department head. McKenna uses the Singapore case study to point out attitudes of Singaporean managers toward Thai workers, that is: 'The manager in the Singapore case stated:...Thais cannot possibly relate to a western dimension of "job-enrichment". They have no concept of job satisfaction. All they need are instructions to be happy.'

    "M.P.Fenton-OCreevy" <M.P.Fenton-Ocreevy@OPEN.AC.UK> wrote:

            Hmmm - interesting article you refer to Romie, but I can't help feeling that with statements like "Thais cannot possibly relate to a western dimension of "job-enrichment". They have no concept of job satisfaction. All they need are instructions to be happy. ", the author may have a somewhat superficial understanding of local culture and institutional context.
            
            Mark
            
           
            Prof. Mark Fenton-O'Creevy
            Director, Practice Besed Professional Learning CETL
            & Professor of Organisational Behaviour
            Open University Business School
           
    ________________________________

            From: Management Education and Development Discussion [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Romie Littrell
            Sent: 18 May 2006 21:11
            To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
            Subject: Re: The value of stereotypes
           
           
            An interesting article related to this discussion:
           
            "The cultural transferability of business and organizational re-engineering: examples from South-east Asia", by Steve McKenna, 1995, The TQM Magazine, Vol 07 Issue 3 (Emerald Library).


            Erwin Rausch <DidacticRa@AOL.COM> wrote:

                    In a message dated 5/18/2006 10:26:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time, M.P.Fenton-Ocreevy@OPEN.AC.UK writes:
                   
                   

                            A cultural perspective can shed some light as we note differences between British, Chinese (in Malasia) and Bumiputra cultures. However it misses a lot as well. For example, the relations between these ethnic groups in the subsidiaries reproduce the social relations of wider Malaysian society, which is ethnically stratified (ethnic Chinese dominate business), there is a legal backdrop (eg restrictions on Chinese ownership in Malaysia and emerging patterns of commercial law and law enforcement. and an economic backdrop (especially the current stage of economic development in Malaysia). Finally, some of the patterns of management in these companies have roots in a period of British colonial rule.

                   
                   
                    Fascinating example, Mark.  Thanks for sharing it.
                   
                    To further enlighten it, could you provide one or two examples of the practical effect on institutional differences and managerial behavior patterns?
                   
                    Erwin (Rausch)
                   

           
           
           
            "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
            Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An fánaí fiáin
            Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
            http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
            http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
            PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
            hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/
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    "Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
    Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An fánaí fiáin
    Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
    http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
    http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
    PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
    hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/

    Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com



  • 20.  The value of stereotypes

    Posted 05-23-2006 06:24
    In a message dated 5/23/2006 2:49:08 AM Central Daylight Time, munchus@UAB.EDU writes:
    Hello Mark:
     
    Nothing wrong with shooting from the hip some time unless you are President George Bush.
     
    Peace,GM
     
     
    THINK DEEPLY TWICE BEFORE SHOOTING ONCE,  MY MENTOR SAID.
     
    GEORGE