Measuring Cultural Value Orientation

Dharmesh Goyal - 301

Manasvi Agrawal - 302
Aakriti Gupta - 303
Sudhit Mahajan - 304
Sanjam Kaur - 305
Ankit Prakash - 307
Nistha Verma - 308
Rashi Agrawal - 309
INTRODUCTION
This paper with the topic “measuring cultural values orientation” will throw light on what
cultural values are, what is their importance and how can they be measured. The series of
principles and values passed on generation after generation by our ancestors are called cultural
values. Based on these values the entire community then decides their way of life.
This research is based on a practical study conducted on the same which will try to measure the
cultural values orientation of second year students and then try to further find out in which
countries they would prefer to make a career, in the future. Beyond this, the report will try to find
out and map the kind of difficulties or facilitators they could find on those destinations.

Culture is the expression of an integrated process of thought, ideas, customs, traditions and
behaviors of a particular social community. Knowledge, attitude, belief, intentions, ethics and
values shared by the community are considered to be entirely cultural. Cultural values are
fragments of values and values passed down from generation to generation through our
ancestors. According to values all cultural communities determine their way of life.

Those ideas dictate how a person of that culture will behave and how he or she will lead his or
her life. The failure of expatriates is mainly related with the cross-cultural challenges, as stated I
the paper “expatriates’ cultural adjustment” (2017) by wondwossen. The paper also said that
alignment of the expatriate cultural orientation with the national culture found to be critical for
expatriate adjustment. The paper named, cultural, entrepreneurial orientation and global
competitiveness (2000) by Susanne and Sang, also states that a society’s propensity to generate
autonomous, risk taking, innovative, competitively aggressive, and proactive entrepreneurs and
firms depend on its cultural foundation. Hence it is the culture which makes strong
entrepreneurs.

Cultural values are considered the backbone of any organization's culture that belongs to them.

The cultural values also affect the business environment of that country and community and
shapes the culture inside organizations as well. Therefore, it is important to understand the
culture for the country where our organization is based. It affects the company’s work culture in
many ways. From punctuality and tone to contract terms and employee benefits. When an
employee is able to relate or adjust to the culture and the values somewhere align, he or she feels
more comfortable, supported, and valued and hence increase the productivity.
By : Dharmesh Goyal, Aakriti Gupta

Literature Review Papers

Lumpkin and Dess's (2000) in their study "Culture, Entrepreneurship, and Global Competition"
present a cultural model of trade. In this study, Cultural Greatness was defined by Hofstede
(1980) and Trompenaars (1994). The major cultural factors that lead to business success or
failure, suggest that these relationships are driven by the cultural ability to bring in a strong EO
within entrepreneurs and firms operating in their established cultures. In addition, economic,
political / legal, and social factors balance the relationship between culture and EO so that if
these conditions allow for a strong EO between entrepreneurs and their proposed firms. Opening
international business opportunities will help open the door to international competition and a
relatively high standard of living. This paper suggests, the department itself is sitting on cultural
change within and around today’s surrounding communities. Whether entrepreneurs know or not
seizing new opportunities in the face of environmental and cultural barriers will determine the
competitive landscape of the nation. The purpose of this paper was to provide a business-based
model that could provide new insights into global competition. Using Hofstede's (1980) and
Trompenaars (1994) cultural diversity, it is suggested that a culture low in power, weak in
avoiding uncertainty, masculine in nature, independent, achieving success, and everywhere will
create a strong EO, characterized by independence, hard work, competitive anger, ingenuity, and
risk taking. Strong EO will ultimately lead to increased business and global competition. Art
research with appropriate EO measures for construction and other natural resources nationally is
needed to uncover more details about global competition. Such a lesson is still in editorial
category of authors. There will be a weak EO if conditions do not go well. Further study of
developed countries such as the United States and Japan and the study of Emerging Economies
such as China and Mexico.[Ankit Prakash]

Wondwossen Kassa Tsegaye & China Qin Su (2017) in their study “Expatriates Cultural
Adjustment: Empirical Analysis on Individual Cultural Orientation” investigated the impact of
Individual cultural orientation, Cultural distance (CD), Age, Host country experience, Similar
cultural experience, Expatriation experience, Pre departure training and Language as independent
variables on Work Cognitive Adjustment and Non-Work-Related Cognitive adjustment of an
expatriate as dependent variables. For this study, survey methodology was used wherein a
sample size of 159 employees from 23 MNCs in Ethiopia (having more than 100 employees)
were taken. To measure some independent and dependent variables, questioners were adopted
from previous research. To measure culture at national level, Hofstede’s (1980) cultural
dimension scores were used. The individual cultural orientation was measured using Yoo et al.
(2010) scale that used Hofstede (1980) dimensions as a framework. The data was analyzed using
Hierarchical regression and MANCOVA. The result of the study showed that individual cultural
orientation explained 46 % of the change on cognitive work-related adjustment and 42 % of the
non-work-related cognitive adjustment. Therefore, it was found that individual cultural
orientation can predict expatriate adjustment better than CD and other demographic variables.
This revealed that even if the expatriates came from the same country, they differ in their
adjustment response basically on their individual cultural orientation. Further, among the
individual cultural orientation dimensions, the expatriate orientation towards collectivist values
was identified to be determinant for work related cognitive adjustment and expatriate orientation
towards uncertainty avoidance was identified to be critical for the non-work-related cognitive
adjustment. [Rashi Agarwal]

In Mansour Javidan, Robert J House, Peter W Dorfman (2006), the research illuminated why
GLOBE used set of cultural principles and practices to extent national cultures and diversity
happening across the world. But Hofstede’s criticized GLOBE’s values as there was no
theoretical or empirical basis and that GLOBE’s measures of values were too abstract for his
contention. Hofstede's grasp of the relationship between national wealth and culture was very
limited. The reanalysis proposed by Hofstede was ineffective and gave nonsensical findings.  His
work was not action research, contrary to his assertion, because action research entailed a series
of phases that included fact gathering, planning, action steps, evaluation, and revised plans.
Hofstede had provided assistance on how to conduct rigorous cross-cultural research. GLOBE
proposed an integrated theory developed from the central proposition that attributed defining a
specified culture which was predictive of leadership styles and organizational practices. Further,
the theory predicted that cultural practices would account for the economic competitiveness of
nations as well as the physical and psychological well-being of members. This critical step
determines how the items should be written as well as the kinds of statistical analysis that need to
be performed to assess the adequacy of the scale.

GLOBE chose to go beyond Hofstede's method and created more comprehensive, cross-
culturally developed, theoretically valid, and empirically verifiable constructs and scales.
GLOBE believed that national culture be generally described as "values, beliefs, norms, and
behavioral patterns," this distinguished between cultural ideals and practices.

Culture, according to Hofstede, was "the collective programming of the mind that separated
members of one group or category of people from members of another group." He used ‘Onion
Diagram' to depict the link between culture, values, and practices.

To comprehend that the results were related to the removal of data from countries with
incomplete observations, factor analysis was performed using pairwise deletion. Surprisingly, the
results of pairwise deletion were very similar to those of prior experiments. There were two
factors that were retrieved. The sole differences between the two sets were that in this new paired
deletion factor analysis, masculinity loaded and dominated on both factors.

In his critique, Hofstede mentioned Miller's work, which claimed that the optimal number of
information components were seven. Miller was interested in short-term instantaneous memory,
which had nothing to do with national culture study. And it was proved that there were more
cultural elements than Hofstede's initial four (and now five).[Manasvi Agrawal]

Erdem Kale (2011) in his study “Measuring Hofstede’s Five Dimensions of Cultural Values at
the Individual Level: Development and Validation of CVSCALE” developed CVSCALE, a 26-
item scale to assess an individual’s cultural orientations as reflected on Hofstede’s five
dimensions of culture i.e., long term orientation, Power Distance, Masculinity and Feminity,
Collectivism-individualism, Uncertainty Avoidance. This tool allows consumer researchers,
business practitioners to assess the cultural orientations of individuals.
The tests that were conducted for the research were- CVSCALE: Confirmatory Factor Analysis
of the CVSCALE: The Pooled Sample (n = 1,530), Validation and Invariance Test of the
CVSCALE: American and Korean Adults, Individual-Centered Global Market Segmentation:
Americans, Koreans, and Poles (Adults), Reliability of CVSCALE Reported in a Few Other
Studies, A 26-Item Five-Dimensional Scale of Individual Cultural Values,
The research surveyed American, Korean American, and South Korean undergraduate students
in an effort to develop a scale with cross cultural generalizability. A total of 1,530 eligible
responses 577 Americans, 320 Korean Americans, and 633 Koreans were noted.
CVSCALE revealed that: collectivism is expected to be positively related to consumer
ethnocentrism. Thus, femininity is expected to be negatively related to consumer ethnocentrism.
Uncertainty avoidance is expected to be positively related towards consumer ethnocentrism.
Power distance is expected to be positively related to Consumer Ethnocentrism. Long-term
oriented consumers, preferring a dynamic market structure to a static one, are likely to welcome
continuous changes caused by imports which increase competition. Collectivism is expected to
be positively related to attitudes toward marketing norms. People with strong uncertainty
avoidance are expected to show positive attitudes toward marketing norms. Masculine people
value assertiveness and success, whereas feminine people value harmony. It implied negative
relationship between masculinity and attitudes toward marketing norms. Power distance is
expected to be positively related to attitudes toward marketing norms. Long term orientation is
expected to respect formal rules and conform to marketing norms. Attitudes toward marketing
norms were measured through Vitell, Rallapalli, and Singhapakdi’s (1993) 24-item scale of
marketing norms, which consisted of five norms: price and distribution, product and promotion
norms, obligation and disclosure norms, information and contract norms, and general honesty
and integrity norms.
CVSCALE is important for global market segmentation. Global product and brand managers
will benefit from the scale because they can find equivalent market segments across countries
based on consumer groupings showing similar cultural orientations.[ Sudhit Mahajan]
 Objective

A study of cultural values orientation of 2nd year PGDM students:

 To compare the cultural value orientations of individuals and countries where they wish

to make their careers and understand about challenges and facilitators they can find in

those destination. [Rashi Agarwal, Sanjam Kaur]

Research Methodology

Research Design and Sampling technique

A mixed research design was used to study student agreement or disagreement with

statements related to G. Hofstede’s dimensions of culture and compare those with various

cultural characteristics of the respondents. A questionnaire consisting of 20 items

measured on a scale of 1-5, with 1=” Strongly Agreed”, 2=” Agreed”, 3=” Neutral”, 4=”

Disagree’, 5=” Strongly Disagreed” was floated among 31 students of 2nd year pursuing

their PGDM degree.

Also, A telephonic interview was conducted from 2 selected second year students to

undertake the qualitative research based on judgement sampling method in which the

samples were selected based on the high or low scores in responses.

The responses from respondents were coded and analyzed for easier information

interpretation. Quantitative analysis of the collected data was done using frequencies,

mean, percentages etc. [ Rashi Agarwal, Sanjam Kaur, Dharmesh Goyal]

Findings

Demographics

Code Frequenc
Particulars %
assigned y (N=31)
Age      
20-22 1 13 41.94
23-25 2 16 51.61
26-28 3 2 6.45
29-31 4 0 0.00
Gender      
Female 1 11 35.48
Male 2 20 64.52
Highest Educational
Qualification      
B.tech 1 10 32.26
Bsc 2 5 16.13
BCOM (hons.) 3 12 38.71
BBA 4 4 12.90

Age
groups Gender
Respondents
code groups Highest Educational
wise code wise Qualification
Shubham Sarawgi 1 2 3
Vishvadeep Indeevar 2 2 1
Khushboo Mehta 1 1 4
Lalit 3 2 2
Sayan 2 2 1
Bhavay Jain 1 2 3
 Ridhima 1 1 3
Vidit Attrey 2 2 3
Harsh 2 2 3
Rashika Agarwal 1 1 3
Utkarsh 1 2 3
Saloni Sharma 1 1 1
Akshita 2 1 2
Avijit Dutta 2 2 3
Srishti 1 1 3
Sagar Kataria 1 2 3
Harshvardhan Meena 1 2 4
Aanchal 2 1 2
Anshul Thukral 2 2 3
Arshbir Kaur 1 1 2
Prateek Gupta 3 2 1
Divy Gupta 2 2 4
Krishna 2 2 1
Geethika Majji 1 1 1
Vanshika Madan 2 1 1
Rhishab Mukherjee 2 2 1
Anjali 2 1 1
Harshit Jain 2 2 4
Onkar Pandey 2 2 2
Ankit Kumar 2 2 1
Pankush 1 2 3

Descriptive

SU 1- Strongly 5- Strongly
Particular M Mea Agree 2- Agree 3- Neutral 4- Disagree Disagree
s Tota n Frequency(% Frequency(% Frequency(% Frequency(%
l Frequency(%) ) ) ) )
Q-1 90 2.90 12.90 19.35 41.94 16.13 9.68
Q-2 93 3.00 9.68 29.03 29.03 16.13 16.13
Q-3 86 2.77 25.81 19.35 22.58 16.13 16.13
Q-4 88 2.84 32.26 19.35 6.45 16.13 25.81
Q-5 93 3.00 6.45 25.81 29.03 38.71 0.00
Q-6 88 2.84 19.35 22.58 22.58 25.81 9.68
Q-7 99 3.19 9.68 22.58 25.81 22.58 19.35
Q-8 89 2.87 16.13 25.81 22.58 25.81 9.68
Q-9 93 3.00 6.45 25.81 35.48 25.81 6.45
Q-10 95 3.06 6.45 25.81 32.26 25.81 9.68
Q-11 98 3.16 6.45 32.26 12.90 35.48 12.90
Q-12 100 3.23 9.68 25.81 19.35 22.58 22.58
Q-13 84 2.71 22.58 29.03 19.35 12.90 16.13
Q-14 97 3.13 22.58 16.13 12.90 22.58 25.81
Q-15 96 3.10 16.13 12.90 32.26 22.58 16.13
Q-16 96 3.10 19.35 16.13 19.35 25.81 19.35
Q-17 96 3.10 12.90 19.35 25.81 29.03 12.90
Q-18 104 3.35 6.45 22.58 19.35 32.26 19.35
Q-19 92 2.97 6.45 38.71 25.81 9.68 19.35
Q-20 92 2.97 22.58 16.13 22.58 19.35 19.35

Coding Sheet- Rashi Agarwal, Sanjam Kaur, Manasvi Agrawal, Ankit Prakash, Dharmesh
Goyal, Sudhit Mahajan

Questionnaire designing: Rashi Agarwal, Nistha Verma, Aakriti Gupta, Ankit Prakash, Sanjam
Kaur, Sudhit Mahajan, Manasvi Agrawal

Interview Responses

Respondent- Utkarsh
Q) When I work on group projects, it is important for me to be the leader. (Strongly
disagreed)

 I don't think people will follow me and I can't take the lead. I can't take the responsibility
or the answerability for any project. I can do my part. I think I am a better implementor
than leader

Q) I prefer saving for future rather than spending today. (Strongly Disagree)

 We never know what's going to happen tomorrow, so I believe that we should always live
the moment. You should always make every moment in your life count, so I believe that
you should spend today rather than saving for future.

Q) A manager must be an expert in the field in which he or she manages (Disagree)

 I believe that the duty of manager is to channelize the efforts of their subordinates. They
should provide them an environment where they can think freely. It is not necessary that
a person is expert in every field.
 Q) It is important that bosses closely supervise their employees. (Disagree)

 I believe that in a closely supervised work culture, the manager cannot take full benefit of
their employee capabilities. There is more rigidity. I believe that the supervisor should
give their employees an environment where they can think freely and contribute to the
success of the organization. Higher flexibility means higher innovation.

Respondent-Sagar Kataria-D-2020-22
Q) Do you have any prior wok experience? If yes, can you summarize in few words how it was?
 I have a work experience of about 6 months in EY-GDS. I really had a very wonderful
experience. However, my journey was short but still I learned many things, got to learn
about work culture of organisations, how to conduct yourself in corporate life etc.
Q) When asked that it is important that employees should not talk to their bosses about personal
matters, you agreed to the statement. Was there any incidence or thought that led to this as your
choice?
 I believe if you have a relationship like employee and supervisor, then you should
definitely not talk about personal matters as because in offices certain decorum and rules
and regulations are to be followed and to inhibit professionalism in our career, definitely
these guidelines have to be kept in mind. We can definitely share the problems we are
facing but personal and professional life should be kept apart.
Q) Another statement said that a manager must be an expert in the field in which he or she
manages, to which you strongly agreed. Was there a time when you felt that your senior should
have known about certain things but he/she didn't?

 There was a time during my professional journey when exactly this incident occurred.
Manager was unable to present the case with appropriate solutions due to which
questions were raised on the entire team. I believe that manager should excel in his job
as he the person junior employee looks forward to learn from. If he is not capable of
leading, then whole team will lose their motivation and eventually it will harm the
reputation of organisation in the long run.

Respondent- Harshvardhan Meena

Q) I prefer long term success over short term success (strongly disagree).
 I Believe that short term success is equally important as long term success because if you
can become successful in short period of time then why should we wait for long term.
One should try to achieve goals in short period of time whether you achieve or not.
Moreover I am risk taker, so I believe in achieving success in short term over long term.
Q) Employee should participate in company decision making (strongly disagree).
 The owner and the most important stakeholders are the ones who are concerned more
about the organization. An employee will work what he/she is asked to do. Moreover an
organization has large number of employees. If each employee is given chance in
decision making then there are high chances that the organization will not be able to
survive in the long run.
Conclusion

This study let us to the following understandings.

People who were high on individualism and want to settle in a country which has a collectivist
culture will face a challenge in accommodating to the environment. So to deal with this situation
a person can focus on building relationships to establish trust. They should refrain from
criticizing their manager. In collectivist society, promotion will be based on loyalty and
seniority. They must also refrain from expressing your personal opinions.
If a person is low on power distance and wants to settle in a country that is high in power
distance, it is important for them to understand that superiors will be less accessible; the work
will be inspected very closely by the managers. Also, they should refrain from taking initiative.
Respect must be given to any person senior in rank or age.
If a person is high on feminity and wants to work in a country that is more masculine, then they
will face challenges but he must keep the following things in mind to adapt to the situation. They
need to adapt to longer work hours and shorter holidays. Face a highly competitive environment.
Highlighting their performance in public may be well received. Refrain asking personal
questions in business situations from your colleagues.
When a person is high on uncertainty avoidance and wants to work in a country that is less in
uncertainty avoidance in order to adapt, they must keep the following things in mind – you must
be able to cope up with problems as they arise. The project will be assigned to you with less
rigidity, being flexible and open in your approach to new ideas may be appreciated.
[Rashi Agarwal, Aakriti Gupta]