Cross-Cultural Management, Global Business Ethics, and Organizational Motivation

Practice vocabulary flashcards covering cross-cultural management frameworks, ethical and philosophical theories in international business, content and process motivation theories, and job design.

Culture (Schein's Definition)

A pattern of basic assumptions—invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration—that has worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.

Culture (Hofstede's Definition)

A collective programming of people’s minds which influences how they react to events, originally analyzed in a $1980$ study of $116{,}000$ IBM employees.

Power Distance

Hofstede's cultural dimension defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.

Uncertainty Avoidance

Hofstede's cultural dimension reflecting the extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these.

Individualism vs. Collectivism

A cultural dimension addressing whether people's self-image is defined in terms of "I" (individuals looking after themselves and their direct family only) or "We" (individuals belonging to in-groups that take care of them in exchange for loyalty).

Masculinity vs. Femininity

A cultural dimension addressing what motivates people: wanting to be the best and valuing competition, achievement, and success (Masculine) versus liking what you do and prioritizing quality of life (Feminine).

Long or Short-Term Orientation

A dimension describing how societies prioritize links to their past while facing the present and future; normative societies score low and preserve traditions with suspicion toward change, while pragmatic societies score high and encourage thrift and education.

Indulgence vs. Restraint

A cultural dimension defined as the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses based on their upbringing; weak control is categorized as Indulgence, while strong control is categorized as Restraint.

Business Ethics

The accepted principles of right and wrong that govern the conduct of businesspeople.

Ethical Strategy

A strategy, or course of action, that does not violate a company’s business ethics.

Tragedy of the Commons

An environmental phenomenon occurring when a resource held in common by all but owned by no one is overused by individuals, resulting in its degradation.

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)

United States legislation that regulates the conduct of international business regarding the taking of bribes and other unethical actions, amended to allow for facilitating payments.

Ethical Dilemmas

Situations in which no alternatives seem ethically acceptable.

Determinants of Ethical Behavior

The six forces identified by Hill that govern ethical conduct: personal ethics, decision-making processes, organizational culture, unrealistic performance goals, leadership, and societal culture.

Friedman Doctrine

A straw man ethical guideline stating that the social responsibility of business is to increase profits so long as the company stays within the rules of law.

Cultural Relativism

A straw man ethical position asserting that ethics are simply a reflection of culture, encapsulated by the belief that when in Rome, one should do as the Romans do.

Righteous Moralist

A straw man stance typically associated with managers from developed nations, arguing that home-country standards of ethics should always be followed in foreign countries.

Naïve Immoralist

A straw man approach asserting that if a manager of a multinational sees that firms from other nations are not following ethical norms in a host nation, that manager should not follow them either.

Utilitarian Approaches to Ethics

Philosophical traditions associated with David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, and John Stuart Mill holding that the moral worth of actions is determined by their consequences, aiming for the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Kantian Ethics

An ethical philosophy based on Immanuel Kant arguing that people possess dignity and must be treated as ends in themselves, never purely as means to the ends of others.

Rights Theories

Ethical perspectives maintaining that human beings have fundamental rights and privileges that transcend national borders and cultures, serving as a moral compass for managers.

Justice Theories

Ethical frameworks focusing on the attainment of a just, fair, and equitable distribution of economic goods and services, notably formulated by John Rawls.

Veil of Ignorance

A thought experiment in John Rawls's justice theory designed to guarantee impartiality by having individuals formulate rules without knowing their own talents, wealth, or societal status.

Moral Imagination

The capacity during stakeholder analysis to stand in the shoes of a stakeholder and evaluate how a proposed business decision might impact them.

Moral Courage

The personal fortitude that enables managers to reject profitable but unethical decisions, refuse unethical instructions from superiors, or blow the whistle on persistent wrongdoing.

Noblesse Oblige

The classical principle that with power comes the social responsibility to give something back to the societies that enable multinationals to grow and prosper.

Motivation

The forces within or beyond a person that arouse and sustain their commitment to a course of action.

Psychological Contract

The concept that each party in an employment relationship holds both written and implicit expectations regarding what employees will give and receive.

Behaviour Modification

A general label for attempts to change behaviour through the use of appropriate and timely reinforcement.

Hierarchy of Needs

A content theory developed by Abraham Maslow stating that human needs are arranged in levels (physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, self-actualization), where lower-order needs dominate until partially satisfied.

ERG Theory

Clayton Alderfer's content theory identifying three core needs that an individual can feel satisfied or frustrated by: Existence needs, Relatedness needs, and Growth needs.

Two Factor Theory

Frederick Herzberg's motivation model relating satisfaction and performance directly to the nature of the work itself, bifurcated into motivator factors and hygiene factors.

Motivator Factors

Aspects of the work itself in Herzberg's theory—specifically achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, and advancement—that influence people toward superior performance and effort.

Hygiene Factors

Aspects surrounding a task in Herzberg's theory—such as company policy, supervision, salary, interpersonal relations, and working conditions—that prevent discontent but do not motivate psychological growth.

Need for Affiliation

David McClelland's human need category defined as the desire to develop and maintain interpersonal relationships.

Need for Power

David McClelland's human need category defined as the desire to have control over one's environment.

Need for Achievement

David McClelland's human need category defined as the desire to set and meet standards of excellence.

Expectancy Theory

Victor Vroom's ($1964$) process theory arguing that motivation depends on the expectation that effort leads to performance, instrumentality that performance leads to an outcome, and the valence attached to that outcome.

Valence

The specific value or attractiveness that an individual attaches to a particular outcome in expectancy theory.

Equity Theory

J. Stacy Adams's ($1963$) process theory positing that a perceived unfairness in the ratio of inputs (effort, skill, knowledge) to rewards causes tension that motivates individuals to resolve that unfairness.

Goal-Setting Theory

Edwin Locke's ($1968$) process theory showing that challenging and specific goals, paired with goal participation and knowledge of past results, lead to higher performance than vague goals.

Extrinsic Rewards

Valued outcomes or benefits provided by other parties, such as promotions, pay increases, or a bigger car.

Intrinsic Rewards

Valued outcomes or psychological benefits that arise directly from within the individual, such as feelings of satisfaction, competence, and achievement.

Job Characteristics Theory

A theory predicting that core job dimensions (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback) influence critical psychological states to generate internal work motivation and high satisfaction.

Insights Discovery Wheel

A behavioural framework categorizing workplace personalities into four distinct color energies: Cool Blue (cautious, precise), Fiery Red (competitive, demanding), Earth Green (caring, relaxed), and Sunshine Yellow (sociable, dynamic).

Five Generation Workplace

A demographic framework describing five distinct generations working together: Traditionals ($1900-1945$), Baby Boomers ($1946-1964$), Generation X ($1965-1980$), Generation Y/Millennials ($1981-1996$), and Generation Z ($1997-2015$).

Employee Experience Lifecycle

The organizational journey tracking an employee through seven key stages: Attract, Hire, Onboard, Develop, Retain, Exit, and Alumni.