Differences between national cultures matter

case of Slovenian-Korean working environment

Matej Tušar (Author), Anja Žnidaršič (Author), Gozdana Miglič (Author)

Abstract

Aims: Global business today usually requires organizations to be present locally in countries where their customers are. To do this successfully, good cooperation with local people is needed. Therefore, this paper focuses on the integration of cultures in the business world. The insights from this study are expected to benefit Slovenian expatriates to foreign companies in South Korea, as well as national culture researchers. The main goals of this research include a comparison of Hofstede’s IBM survey results with the researched working environment, and identifying the benefits of merging two national cultures for the working environment. Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to purposive samples within the researched working environments and the collected data analysed used SPSS, where the hypotheses were tested using a chi-square test and t-test for independent samples. Results: The results revealed significant differences between the two national cultures in the working environment, e.g.: fear of expressing disagreement towards superiors, commitment to work, preference of challenges, tendency to avoid conflicts and innovations - all differed according to nationality. Conclusion: Working together with people from different cultures requires a certain amount of adaptation (learning about another culture, expecting situations that are not usual). If this adaptation is successful, then cooperation between the different cultures can also be successful, leading to a potential output that is even better than cooperation between people from the same culture.

Keywords

organizational behaviour;national culture;organizational culture;working environment;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2016
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UM FOV - Faculty of Organizational Sciences
UDC:	005.7
COBISS:	7666707
ISSN:	1318-5454
Parent publication:	Organizacija
Views:	903
Downloads:	92
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	Slovenian
Secondary title:	Razlike med narodnimi kulturami so pomembne
Secondary abstract:	Cilji: Globalni posel danes po navadi od organizacij terja, da so prisotne lokalno v državah, kjer so njihovi kupci. Za uspeh tega je potrebno dobro sodelovanje z domačini, zato se ta članek osredotoča na integracijo različnih narodnih kultur v poslovnem svetu. Doprinos članka je pričakovan za slovenske delavce v tujih podjetjih v Južni Koreji, kot tudi za ostale raziskovalce narodnih kultur. Glavni cilji te raziskave vključujejo primerjavo rezultatov Hofstedejeve IBM raziskave z raziskovanim delovnim okoljem, kot tudi ugotavljanje prednosti za delovno okolje pri združitvah dveh narodnih kultur. Metode: Ciljnim skupinam znotraj raziskovanega delovnega okolja je bil razdeljen vprašalnik, zbrani podatki pa analizirani s pomočjo SPSS, pri čemer so bile hipoteze testirane s hi-kvadrat testi in t-testi za neodvisne vzorce. Rezultati: Rezultati so pokazali značilne razlike med dvema narodnima kulturama znotraj delovnega okolja. Razlike glede na narodnost so tako pristone npr. pri strahu ped izražanjem nestrinjanja z nadrejenim, predanosti delu, obravnavanju izzivov, nagnjenosti k izogibanju konfliktom in inovacijam. Zaključek: Delo z ljudmi iz drugih narodnih kultur zahteva določeno mero prilagodljivosti (učenje o drugi kulturi, pričakovanje neobičajnih situacij). Če je ta prilagoditev uspešna, potem je lahko upsešno tudi sodelovanje med različnimi kulturami, kar lahko pripelje do rezultatov, ki so lahko še boljši kot rezultati kadar delajo skupaj ljudje iz iste narodne kulture.
Secondary keywords:	organizacijsko vedenje;narodna kultura;organizacijska kultura;delovno okolje;
URN:	URN:NBN:SI
Type (COBISS):	Scientific work
Pages:	str. 183-193
Volume:	ǂVol. ǂ49
Issue:	ǂno. ǂ3
Chronology:	aug. 2016
DOI:	10.1515/orga-2016-0017
ID:	9599676