Understanding Cultural Values

This assignment delves into the fascinating realm of cross-cultural psychology, examining how cultural influences shape individuals' values and priorities. It encourages you to analyze various sources, including scholarly articles and research findings, to understand the diverse factors contributing to differences in value systems across cultures. The emphasis is on critically evaluating different perspectives and gaining a nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between culture and human behavior.

CROSS CULTURE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART A...........................................................................................................................................3
Comparison between cultures of two countries...........................................................................3
PART B............................................................................................................................................7
What is meant by stereotyping, provide an example and discuss how this might act as a
barrier, or an aid, to effective communication.............................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Cross culture can be stated as starting step which is being taken by each and every company for
expanding the business in various areas in the entire world (Nguyen, 2013). This can be stated as
one of the effective processes which in turn helps to have a friendly relation with the company in
respect to trading, businesses and many more and thus it has become one of the essential
elements for having a successful business. Although, the effective funnel of communication will
help cross culture so that various kind of languages can create issues within communication
channel (Berry, 2015). Barclays Bank is a financial organisation in the USA employing about
119,300 employees (Almond, 2015). All these are work with the aim of achieving long term
growth and success in the limited time period. In present assignment, chosen countries are Japan
and USA. The relation between their culture and objectives that has been completed in this
project with the assist of the different useful framework of cultural value. There are number of
factors which are being highlighted within this report like Comparison between cultures of two
countries like USA and Japan along with theories of Hofsetede and many more in order to
differentiates the features of both cultures. Along with this, definition of stereotyping along with
an example and highlighting of it which is acting as a barrier, or an aid, to effective
communication.
PART A
Comparison between cultures of two countries
Culture can be stated as a concept which creates differentiation within the nation and thus
it mainly varies in terms of giving out feelings and respect through art and music, rich
civilisation and many more (Berry, 2015). There is various kind of methods which are being
utilised to create culture differentiation like for example Greet Hofstede model (Briscoe, 2012),
Trompenaars (Bodycott, 2012) seven dimension of culture along with the global culture of the
project. This mainly provides help out in determining the differences and similarities in order to
perform the business operations in better and effective way so that focus on approaches can be
made for the same. There are various kinds of ways evaluated by culture differentiation for
performing the activities in numerous manner (Engelen, 2011). USA and Japan mainly
distinguished themselves in many of the perspectives which are related to lifestyles, a way of

living, culture and many more. Hence there will be a summary which will give an overview of
cultural differences which occurs among two different nations in the context of Barclays Bank.
For enhancing the operations conducted within the business, cross culture is much more
effective and thus provide assistance in gaining knowledge regarding lifestyles which are being
followed for performing work. This kind of term is mainly utilised when a new business is going
to be established or expansion in the area of operations and this can happen when there are two
cultures which come together for attaining a common goal. While accomplishing tasks there are
situations when the problem is being created and thus employee faces many kinds of issues in
adjusting themselves in a certain area and in result level of performance reduces.
Barclays bank mainly deals in the financial sector and thus provides services along with
facilities in the USA and thus want to have set up and operated in Japan as well and
differentiation within a culture are being evaluated in a better manner (Fischer, 2011). There is
various kind of issues which are being faced by employees while attaining tasks and activities
and thus, it is needed to provide training for minimising issues. Hence, handling business in
various nations is difficult and this can have made an impact on the growth of the company in
positive along with negative manner as well. There are numerous issues faced while expanding
business, like inappropriate finance or limited resources. Hence, Barclays have such kind of
issues and thus they are strong enough for establishing companies in various parts of the world.
There is a number of issues which mainly arise for the company while dealing with a
cultural environment where the chances of diverse reactions can be observed. Hence, it is highly
essential for management to acknowledge all those kinds of aspects like conflicts among the
team, lesser accepting users in nations and many more. There are various kinds of models which
are being used by the Barclays Bank in order to deal with associated issues along with problems,
which in turn can enable handling issues in better and effective manner. This kind of models and
theories mainly provide help in managing and dealing with the ever changing environment, for
gaining better and appropriate outcome (French, 2015). Hence, it becomes essential for the
managers to understand feasibility and applicability of every concern within applying ways to
change the internal culture. Various kind of cultures which are being utilised as suggestions for
managers of Barclays Bank, for usage when business start operating in Japan. Hence,
understanding the market situation of Japan is what needed to comprehend by the management
of Barclays bank:

Hofstede (Chhokar, 2013): This kind of model is being utilised regarding the comprehension of
culture by considering single certain company along with relevance in various kind of nations as
well. There is various kind of vulnerabilities which can be kept away from under social
measurement for considering as fundamental perspective. Barclays Bank which has been
conducting its operations in better
Schein: Edgar Schein's administration hypothesis centres around the way of life inside an
association. As indicated by him, culture is the essential wellspring of protection from change
inside an association, and a precise comprehension of hierarchical flow starts with perceiving
this reality. This hypothesis presents 3 levels of culture, which are important to comprehend for
viable authority: antiquities (surface societies, for example, dress, which are effortlessly
observed however hard to unravel), embraced values (cognizant objectives, procedures and
rationalities), and fundamental suspicions (oblivious convictions and qualities that frame the
centre of culture and influence all that we do).
Trompenaars:
The Seven Dimensions of Culture were identified by management consultants Fons Trompenaars
and Charles Hampden-Turner, and the model was published in their 1997 book, Trompenaars
and Hampden-Turner developed the model after spending 10 years researching the preferences
and values of people in dozens of cultures around the world. As part of this, they sent
questionnaires to more than 46,000 managers in 40 countries. They found that people from
different cultures aren't just randomly different from one another; they differ in very specific,
even predictable, ways (Kreps, 2013). This is because each culture has its own way of thinking,
its own values and beliefs, and different preferences placed on a variety of different factors.
Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner concluded that what distinguishes people from one culture
compared with another is where these preferences fall in one of the following seven dimensions.
There is various kind of issues potential problems which might arise for people from these two
cultures doing business with one another and major issues are being described below:
Communication: This kind of issue is being faced by the company while dealing with people
who have come from various kind of cultures. The issue arises due to the various kind of
languages and understanding power which can create a lot of conflicts and issues in the
workplace. (Engelen, 2011)

Interpretation: Numbers of languages can be used within along with tones. So there are high
chances that sharing of data can be interpreted as the wrong one. This one can be understood
with an example like British accent statement can be interpreted with another meaning in
Japanese English. (Engelen, 2012)
There is various kind of cultural difference along with variation which can be identified
along with various issues faced by the company. In order to handle the work in a proper manner,
issues and certain problems need to be handled so that better outcomes can be accomplished.
Due to the implementation of business in another nation like Japan, these kinds of issues can be
minimised or arise. The population of Japan is mostly masculinity-femininity along with risk
oriented which can facilitate them for having more kind of potential while one who got
transferred from the USA to Japan are less hard working. This can create issues among one of
them along with economical aspects which can also create issues for Barclays Bank in Japan.
Therefore, all kind of issues and problems are described properly by considering Japan as one of
the new region for exploring venture. (Fischer, 2011) This can be reduced in a better frame for
having growth and development:
Economical part can be stated as one of the effective factors for exploring business in the aspect
of the economic condition of the country (French, 2015). It is being needed for determining the
economic condition of the country which mainly includes regarding the rate of employment rate,
recession, depression and many more (Ghazinoory, 2014). There is stability along with
sustainability within the economy of USA and Japan it may fluctuate. But when compared to
Japan, they are emerging and improving the economy. Although this cannot be stated as an issue,
this can promote and support Barclays for business expansion in easy and appropriate manner.
By the help of this, chances of appropriate and effective operations tend to rise for better and
suitable consideration.
Social: There are various kinds of social aspects which need to be determined by each and every
company for start new operations within new economy (Friedman, 2012). There are various
kinds of individuals which are living in the USA who follows the culture of a free sense of
feeling while Japan is famous for hard working. This will mainly reflect the positive attribute
regarding Barclays which in turn can facilitate them for maintaining and managing operations
effectively as all managers of the company will provide services with extent will.

There are various kinds of tools and techniques which can be utilised for collecting vital data by
management. There are two major tools which are being utilised by Barclays for collecting data
regarding definite sector in order to formulate better plans which can simply better results:
Books: It is very basic to accomplice books for recognising various kind of hypothesis which can
worry with social viewpoints (Jackson, 2011). Better comprehension can be completed for
assessing them at the reasonable edge with the goal of ideal working along with administration
for diagram complete and end up conceivable.
Journals: support is being given at the reasonable casing and thus it can be done with another
real assembling for breaking down and Hotspot data. By counselling different records, various
functions of company can be expressive in a valuable way.
PART B
What is meant by stereotyping, provide an example and discuss how this might act as a barrier,
or an aid, to effective communication
According to Matsumoto and Hwang (2013), “Stereotyping is a process which is
oversimplified, dis-logistic, attitude people who mainly hold towards that kind of outside one's
own experience who are different in nature”. Stereotyping mainly happens with the reason of
incomplete or distort data which is being accepted as fact without putting any kind of question.
In simple words, the stereotype is a concept which is widely utilised as the belief of an individual
who is a member of a certain group which are mainly based upon features. This kind of concept
mainly leads to high level of inaccuracy in social perception and this mainly happens with the
reason of processing up of over-generalisation along with social perception as well. There is
various kind of categories in which this kind of concept mainly resides and those are Sex, race,
age, sexual orientation, religion along with physical abilities. According to a study, it was being
found out that the within 30 countries, males were being categorised as adventurous, powerful,
domineering and independent. Besides this, females were considered as sentimental, submissive
and superstitious. Along with racial studies have mainly found out that there is another case like
Jews are being stated as Shrewd and ambitious while African-Americans have the talent of
special music along with athletic abilities and among them, Germans are methodological and
effective which are commonly used to label the ethnic groups.

In modern scenario, society has been improving and thus has been making the slight transition
away from stereotyping. This kind of process is highly difficult one as major population of the
country mainly depend on second hand sources for data for the majority of knowledge and other
data. Many sources by which secondary data can be taken from mass media and this kind of
media plays a crucial role in identifying the content of the culture. Stereotyping can be stated as
the product of culture and thus it has a strong impact on the supporting and reducing
stereotypical features (Zhang, 2013).
Barclays who deals in the financial sector of USA provides card facilities to people (Wang,
2014). There is a number of countries which are acquired by this company and thus has been
providing livelihood to about 120,000 people (Zhang, 2014). This states that the management has
been dealing with various kinds of nations so that potential which they have for utilising leaders
for managing diversity in various aspects. The dynamism of market cannot be merely engaged
by a company which can ignore the best of the managers.
Numerous types of examples of stereotypes which are like racial remarks, sexual remarks and
gender remarks which are biggest stereotypes. There is various kind of common stereotypes like
racial profiling which is one of the common stereotypes as it is grouping the race together for
indicating for everyone for that race which is a good athlete. This kind of stereotyping is
basically done based on race like in Barclays who has been operating in as well and due to the
nationality, this kind of stereotyping can happen (Berry, 2015). Besides this, gender profiling is
another stereotype for men and women and those are like men are too strong so that they can do
all the work as they are the backbone of every kind work. Besides this, example can be taken up
of finance sector where mainly the men handle all kind of operations and women are not much
observed within this. Same as in HR sector, in most company’s women are dealing and men can
be seen very few.
Besides this, another better example can be taken up of culture within Barclays when they try to
combine various kind of cultures at one place like all white Americans who are lazy and dim-
witted while Japanese workers are much more active (Peterson, 2011). Another common
scenario of stereotyping which can be observed within company is that women are being
considered as emotional and chirpy while the men are considered as hard and rigid who can
tackle most kind of situations in effective manner.

Business is going good and in upcoming time they will be expanding their business to other
nation as well. Hence, they have been promoting a cross culture to various extent where there are
high chances of deriving better outcome which can be much more pacific.
Communication issue can be stated as one of the major issues which are mainly faced by the
global company and that is communication and language problem. This can be stated as one of
the major issues which company faces in every kind of situation (Neal, 2016) When an
individual deal with another culture he faces number of issues and thus they try to cope out with
the language. This has mainly impacted the process of communication where data is being
transferred from one individual to another. The verbal form of communication has made a
negative impact where time is being taken to understand. Cultural barriers are being improved
where training for language is being given to one who is being transferred to a new locality.
Even Barclays Bank staff will face this kind of issue if they can be transferred in Japan. This
kind of barrier can be minimised by providing better and proper training to every individual
whom they can make a positive reflection on work and operations (French, 2015).
Decision making: Process of decision making can state as one of the major issues due to such
kind of difference when evaluation of cross culture dimensions is being done (Peterson, 2011).
There is a number of issues which will be faced by Barclays at time of cross culture. There is a
high need for understanding ethics along with values of person where the chances of variation
are much more as compared to culture. There is the high need of applying regarding system by
considering various kinds of individuals along with their aspects. Managers need to be positive
and supportive while making any kind of judgement and determines benefits of international and
dealing up with a multi-cultural team.
Effects on International Business relations: Numerous organizations prepare workers on
correspondence practices in key outside and global markets. On the off chance that in view of
generalizations, however, this preparation can have to harm comes about (Jackson, 2011). The
correspondence counselling organization conveyed utilizes the case of associations leading
business in Japan. In spite of the fact that Japan social take into account significantly looser
planning than American conventions, not all Japanese endure gatherings that begin late or
merchants who don't appear on time. Accordingly, organizations that prepare workers to hold
fast to cliché hones chance culpable customers.

CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that culture is a crucial element of an organisation. It
is highly essential for authority to create groups with many of cultures within it. This is highly
essential for managers to manage situations in better and effective manner so that opportunities
can be opened in the market for growth and profit. There are number of factors which are being
highlighted within this report like Comparison between cultures of two countries like USA and
Japan along with theories of Hofsetede and many more in order to differentiates the features of
both cultures. Along with this, definition of stereotyping along with an example and highlighting
of it which is acting as a barrier, or an aid, to effective communication.

References
Almond, G. a. V. S., 2015. The civic culture: Political attitudes and democracy in five nations..
s.l.:Princeton University Press.
Berry, J. W., 2015. Global psychology: implications for cross-cultural research and management.
Cross Cultural Management. Cross Cultural Management, Volume 22(3), pp. 342-355..
Bodycott, P. a. L. A., 2012. The influence and implications of Chinese culture in the decision to
undertake cross-border higher education. Studies in International education, Volume 16(3), pp.
252-270.
Briscoe, D. T. I. a. S. R., 2012. International human resource management: Policies and
practices for multinational enterprises. s.l.:Routledge.
Chhokar, J. B. F. a. H. R. e., 2013. Culture and leadership across the world: The GLOBE book
of in-depth studies of 25 societies. s.l.:Routledge.
Engelen, A. a. B. M., 2011. Assessing cross-cultural marketing theory and research. Business
Research, Volume 64(5, pp. 516-523..
Engelen, A. B. M. a. W. G., 2012. Cross-functional integration and new product performance—
the impact of national and corporate culture. International Management, Volume 18(1), pp. 52-
65.
Fischer, R. a. S. S. .., 2011. Whence differences in value priorities? Individual, cultural, or
artifactual sources.. Cross-Cultural Psychology, Volume 42(7), pp. 1127-1144.
French, R., 2015. Cross-cultural management in work organisations.. s.l.:Kogan Page
Publishers.
Friedman, R., 2012. . Cross-cultural management and bicultural identity integration: When does
experience abroad lead to appropriate cultural switching?. International Journal of Intercultural
Relations, Volume 36(1), pp. 130-139.
Ghazinoory, S. B. A., 2014. Social capital and national innovation system: a cross-country
analysis. Cross Cultural Management, Volume 21(4), pp. 453-475..
Goldstein, S., 2015. Cross-cultural explorations: Activities in culture and psychology.
s.l.:Routledge.
Heine, S., 2015. Cultural psychology: Third International Student Edition.. s.l.: WW Norton &
Company..

Jackson, T. .., 2011. From cultural values to cross-cultural interfaces: Hofstede goes to Africa..
Organizational Change Management, Volume 24(4), pp. 532-558.
Kreps, C., 2013. Liberating Culture: Cross-cultural perspectives on museums, curation and
heritage preservation. s.l.:Routledge.
Neal, M., 2016. The culture factor: Cross-national management and the foreign venture.
s.l.:Springer.
Nguyen, L. M. B. a. P. L., 2013. Cross-culture management: an examination on task, relationship
and work overload stress orientations of Japanese and Vietnamese. Strategic Change
Management, Volume 5(1), pp. 72-92..
Peterson, K. D. a. D. T. E., 2011. The shaping school culture fieldbook.. s.l.:John Wiley & Sons.
Stahl, G. a. T. R., 2015. Towards a more balanced treatment of culture in international business
studies: The need for positive cross-cultural scholarship. International Business Studies, Volume
46(4), pp. 391-414.
Wang, J. S. D. a. X. B., 2014. Cross-culture integration and global new product development.
s.l.:s.n.
Zhang, X. D. P. P. a. X. Q., 2014. Culture effects on the knowledge sharing in multi-national
virtual classes: A mixed method.. Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 31, pp. 491-498..
Zhang, X. L. X. a. S. H., 2013. Individualism–collectivism, private benefits of control, and
earnings management: A cross-culture comparison. business ethics, Volume 114(4), pp. 655-
664.