[Year] I| P a g e Individual Assignment 1 Program / IntakeBSc20 HRM FT PathwayHRM Module TitleCross Cultural Management Lecturer/TutorJacob Eisenberg & Richard Tan Student NameZhang YueqiStudent Number13206951Number of WordsPart 1& 2—1361 Part3— 2014
Individual Assignment 1 II| P a g e
TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Part 11 Brief Summary.....................................................................1 Responds to the article............................................................1 Part 24 First Impression of Singapore....................................................4 Experience in Singapore...........................................................4 Reflective Thinking.................................................................4 Part 38 Step one: self-awareness..........................................................8 Enculturation..................................................................8 Step two: cross-cultural understanding.......................................8 Acculturation..................................................................8 American culture score from others......................................9 Comparison....................................................................12 Step three: adapt professional skills............................................14 List of References ..................................................................17 Appendix ............................................................................22 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1Hofstede’s cultural dimension of Singapore ......................2 Figure 2The competing values framework..................................5 Figure 3Current to preferred future culture profiles change ..............6 Figure 4Own cultural profile ..................................................8 Figure 5Hofstede’s cultural dimension scored on the United States .....10 Figure 6Own profile vs. U.S profile ..........................................12 III| P a g e
LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1My cultural profile score and other score of the United States..9 Table 2High/Low context by culture........................................11 IV| P a g e
Part 1 Brief Summary The analysis of news, From emotions to shared values (Appendix1), talks about the dominance of negative public emotions associated with the release of the Population White Paper, the riot at Little India and moral issues with non-profit organizations. The author also highlights the opportunities for policymakers when the strong negative emotions were experienced and expressed and leaded to policy discussions and public debates. Being concerned about the development of country and progress of society, author suggests three shared values – ‘integrity, fairness and social harmony’, to address public emotion in different contexts; he also provides three guiding principles – ‘rule of law, accountability and people- centricity’, to evaluate public action and policy. Responds to the article After read this article, first of all, the author’s perspective about emotion is attractive and persuasive. Base on one of Trompenaars’ seven dimensions of culture — neutral versus affective relationships (Browaeys and Price, 2011); Singapore is ranked one of the emotionless countries where people act stoically and maintain composure. Under this high neutral culture, the strong negative emotion had observably expressed by public, which means that the issues were really critical. In addition, the expression of negative emotion has revealed Singapore’s cultural dimension in emotion context has changed from the least emotional turns to less emotional (Teng and Lim, 2013), although the change is slow and in small amplitude. Secondly, fairness is a good expectation but it is probably idealistic to achieve consensus on what is essential to be actualized and how to do so. Based on Hofstede’s culture dimension, Singapore scores 74 for power distance as shown in Figure 1 (The Hofstede Centre, 2014). As a consequence, individuals and groups can readily accept role and interpersonal inequality and its institutionalization as high in power distance (Chow et al. 2001). Wang and Nayir’s (2001) research also demonstrates that high power distance value would weaken the positive link between procedural justice and decision-making behaviors. 1| P a g e
Figure 1: Hofstede’s cultural dimension of Singapore. Source: The Hofstede Centre, 2014. Furthermore, Chinese is the majority at 74% of the resident population in Singapore as shown in Appendix 2, thus the Confucian background is rooted in Singapore’s culture (Khan, 2001). Stability of society is one of the key principles of Confucian teaching and it is built on the basis of unequal relationships between peoplesuch as ruler – subject, father – son, and older brother – younger brother; those relationships are based on mutual and complementary obligations. Hence, Singapore culture promotes loyalty, respect for authority and place great value on reciprocity, and interdependence in honoring relationships due to high in Confucian values (Chan, 2008). Thirdly, the proposal of social harmony as shared value is essential and appropriate, it can help to alleviate the negative public emotions and enhance social cohesion and integration. As a multicultural society, Singapore has achieved relatively high level of social harmony (Ong, 2010), this can be supported by Hofstede’s cultural dimension of Masculinity value which scores 48 as shown in Figure 1 (The Hofstede Centre, 2014). Singapore is at 2| P a g e
middle level of scale but towards to the feminism side, it means the softer aspects of culture such as caring for others, consensus, sympathy for the underdog are valued and encouraged; but competition, achievement and success are also important. This feminism is also reflected in the government’s defined in one of the shared values – ‘community support and respect for the individual’. Culture is multidimensional, some complex factors such as acculturation factor may shape the Confucian influence, but according to Lu and Shih’s research (1997), certain Confucian values are slow to change, interpersonal relationships (family harmony) for instance; so family and society harmony are still the central concepts of Confucianism that deeply rooted in Singapore (Tan, 2004). Lastly, the ‘positive outcome’ derives from ‘negative emotions’ are really positive? If government responded such citizen emotion or populist pressure, it might provide the basis for “reluctant collectivism” (Lindert, 1996); as consumers, citizens seek higher government expenditure such as social security and welfare, but as taxpayers, they might be unwilling to finance the provision of those public services. But perhaps, the remarkable degree of social conformism in Singapore could help government overcome such populist pressures. 3| P a g e
Part 2 First Impression of Singapore There is no other unique place in the world that blends East and West, conciliates tradition and modernity, quite like Singapore. Those fashioned skyscrapers in CBD area mark Singapore as an international financial center; and those old colonial buildings depict the history of Singapore. English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil are official languages. ‘Singlish’, a colourful and unique Singaporean English that lives by the rules of Chinese grammar and hybrid words from Malay, Hokkien, Cantonese and India dialects. The rich cultural diversity is also reflected in many aspects like food, festivals and faith. Those multicultural artifacts constitute the first level of Singapore culture, and its society’s personality. Experience in Singapore I worked as HR Administrator at a construction company in Singapore (Appendix 3). The company provides individual offices to middle and top management, especially the largest room with upscale furnishings was for the boss. Thus, position level can be easily identified from the office size. The subordinates were assigned to work and told what to do, and the centralized decision-making resulted subordinates would not participate in any decision- making process; and the power is concentrated in the hands of a few high-ranking managers. Information flow was in top-down direction. These evidences reveal that the company is bureaucratic and highly hierarchical as high power distance culture value. During my service period, I have noticed the high turnover rate in the company especially for foreign employees. This gives me a hint that the company does not value productivity and competitive advantages as they failed to acquire and foster talented human resources and paid less attention to organizational environment. The evidences are such as no salary increment after probation period and no annual salary increment system to fulfill employee's expectancy. Reflective Thinking 4| P a g e
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