EDUCATION

Why is it an important key role in the

society?
Formal Education • Is the medium through
which individuals learn
many of the language,
conceptual, and
mathematical skills
that are indispensable
in a modern society.
• It also supplements the
family’s role in
socializing the young
into the values and
norms of a society.
International
One important
Perspective aspect of education is
its role as a
determinant of
national
The competitive
availability of a pool of
skilled and educated workers
seemsadvantage .
to be a major determinant
of the likely economic success of
a country.
Michael Eugene Porter
Professor at Harvard Business School
With a long respect for
education that borders
on reverence, Japan
possessed a large of
literate, educated,
and increasingly skilled
human resources.
Japan has benefited
from a large pool of
trained engineers.
Japanese universities
graduate many more
engineers per capita
than in the United
States.
Japan’s excellent
education system is an
important factor
explaining the country’s
postwar economic
success.
Not only is a good
education system a
determinant of national
competitive advantage,
but it is also an
important factor
guiding the location
choices of
4
international
businesses.
 In Japanese schools, the
students don’t get any
exams until they reach
grade four (the age of
10)
Why?
Because the goal for the
first 3 years of school is
NOT to judge the child’s
knowledge or learning,
but to establish good
manners and to develop
their character! Manners
before knowledge.
Most Japanese schools don’t have
janitors. Instead, the children do the
Manners before
cleaning daily to associate cleaning with knowledge.
Japanese schools require
students to wear separate
indoor shoes within the
school building to
maintain its cleanliness
and prevent dirt from
being brought inside

Manners before
knowledge.
In some countries such as the
United States and the
Philippines, students who do
not perform well at school are
held back a grade to further
improve their skills.
Luckily for the Japanese, they
always advance to the next
grade regardless of their test
scores and performances. A
student may fail every test and
skip classes, but is still able to
join the graduation ceremony
at the end of the year. Their
test scores only matter when
they take entrance

Sana All.
examinations to get to high
school and university.
 CULTURE AND THE WORKPLACE
How does a society’s culture affects the values found in the workplace?

8
Geert Hofstede
Psychologist at IBM

He collected data on Fi
Four Dimensions of
employee attitudes ve
Different Cultures
and values for more
than 100,000 1. Power Distance
individuals from 2. Uncertainty Avoidance
1967 – 1973. These
3. Uncertainty Avoidance
data enabled him to
compare dimensions 4. Masculinity vs Feminity
of culture across 40 5. Confucian Dynamism
countries.

9
FIVE DIMENSIONS OF DIFFERENT CULTURES
Power Extent to which a society allows inequalities of
Distance physical and intellectual capabilities between people
to grow into inequalities of power and wealth.
Confucian Extent to which a society adheres to
Dynamism Confucian values about time, persistence,
protection of face, respect for tradition, and
reciprocation of gifts.
Uncertainty Extent to which a society teaches individuals either to
Avoidance prize personal achievement or to conversely look
after the interests of their collective first and
foremost.
Masculinity vs Extent to which a society differentiates and
Feminity emphasizes traditional gender and work roles, a
masculine characterization means there is more
differentiation, whereas a feminine level means
Individualism vs there is less.
Extent to which cultures socialize members to
collectivism accept ambiguous situations and to tolerate
uncertainty.
10
 Power Uncertainty Individuali Masculin
Country
Table 3.1 Summarizes Distance Avoidance sm ity
these data for 20 Argentina 49 86 46 56
selected countries. Australia 36 51 90 61
The index score for Brazil 69 76 38 49
each of these four Canada 39 48 80 52
dimensions ranges form Denmark 18 23 74 16
0-100 France 68 86 71 43
Germany(F. 35 65 67 66
R.)
Great 35 35 89 66
Britain
Indonesia 78 48 14 46
India 77 40 48 56
Israel 13 81 54 47
Japan 54 92 46 95
Mexico 81 82 30 69
Netherland 38 53 80 14
s
Panama 95 86 11 44
Spain 57 86 51 42
Sweden 31 29 71 5
11
Thailand 64 64 20 34
Cultural Change
Culture is not constant; it evolves over time.

12
Culture of societies may also change as they become richer because economic
progress affects a number of other factor, which in turn influence culture.

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13
 Cross-
Cultural
Literacy

14
Cross-cultural Literacy
• One of the biggest Example:
dangers confronting a
company that goes A golf ball manufacturing
abroad for the first time company packaged golf balls in
is the danger of being packs of four for convenient
ill-informed. purchase in Japan.
International Unfortunately, this was a fatal
businesses that are ill- mistake, as the word “four” in
informed about the Japanese sounds like the word
practices of another “death” and is, therefore,
culture are likely to fail considered unlucky. As you can
imagine, the product was not
• To combat the danger successful.
of being ill-informed,
international Be careful of all symbols of
businesses should death when doing business in
consider employing Japan. If you fancy wearing a
local citizens to help kimono, make sure you wrap
them do business in a the left side over the right one.
particular culture. Otherwise, you will hint that you 15
want to be buried.
 • Offensive
Advertisement of
Osprey
Yellow Pages lands in
the soup

This Yellow Pages

campaign ran in Toronto
subways 2015 and also
made it onto a CBC radio
talkshow. But for all the
wrong reasons. Bi Bim Bap
is a rice dish. Yet the OOH
poster shows noodles.
Tesco tries to bring
home the bacon ... on
Ramadan

The Tesco store on Liverpool

Street in London during
Ramadan in 2015. Just
imagine: An aisle display
featuring Smokey Bacon
Flavour chips with the
message ‘’Ramadan
Mubarak”.
 Hitler Ice Cream
Cones

Neeraj Kumar, owner of Meerut-

based MVF Products, which
manufactured the cones, said
they were named after an uncle
who was nicknamed "Hitler"
because of his quick temper.
That may be, but it still
demonstrates not only a lack of
education in terms of European
history but also a lack of
sensitivity. Vastly
inappropriate. 
Nike commits cultural
faux pas

In 2013, Nike released a set of

women's sports gear inspired by
traditional tatau—tattoos from the
southwest Pacific. But the international
sports brand made a cultural faux pas
and ended up pulling the product: the
women's leggings created the
appearance that the wearer had a
traditional Samoan tattoo, the pe'a,
which is reserved for men.
A blogger on the One Samoana
Facebook page called Nike's use
of the tatau an "ugly exploitation
of culture". Another noted: "To
the outside world it's just a
design. But to my Polynesian
people, it's sacred."
“Share a coke”
Campaign
It turned out that the brilliant social
campaign was criticized in Israel. In
launching the campaign Coca Cola
identified and printed the top 150 most
popular first names. The goal is to
attract new customers. However in
Israel it was just the opposite.
It becomes very tricky to conceptualize
the concept of individualizing the coke
bottles especially in a country where
cultural identity is bound by religion
and ethnicity. The problem surfaced
when one Arab-Israeli citizen accused
coke for not printing any Arabic name
among the popular Israeli names.
According to the citizens creating a
campaign by adding the first names is
like challenging the already existing
socio-cultural dilemma.
Coca Cola reacted to this by
Mattel’s foray began in 2009, when it
opened the world’s largest “House of
Barbie” in a prime Shanghai location. The
toymaker spent $30 million making the
six-story shop a temple to all things
Barbie. It included a restaurant, a hair
and nail salon, a cocktail bar, and a spa.
Mattel even launched a localized doll,
Ling, to appeal to Chinese consumers.
Partly, it was a failure of planning. The
store was too big, too expensive, and too
confusing in its mixture of adult pleasures
(Barbie martinis, bust-firming treatments)
and children’s toys. Instead of focusing
on children’s dolls, assumed that Chinese
consumers would want a whole range of
pricey Barbie-themed clothing, foods,
and goods. The irony of Barbie’s
failure in China is that Barbie, the
doll, was actually fairly popular.
As author and business consultant Helen
Wang points out, “Since Barbie is not
a cultural icon in China as she is in
America, Chinese consumers
couldn’t care less about Barbie-
Dunkin' Donuts had to
apologize after it
showcased an
advertisement in Thailand
which featured a woman in
"blackface" make-up. The
advertisement, was used to
promote the Dunkin donut
"charcoal donut". It was
called "racist & bizarre" by
a top human rights group.
When Parker Pen marketed a
ballpoint pen in Mexico, the
company thought that the word
“embarazar” (to impregnate)
meant to embarrass, so the ad
actually reads:

“It won’t leak in your

pocket and make you
pregnant”.
When Pepsi expanded their
market to China they
launched with the slogan:
“Pepsi brings you back
to life”.
What they didn’t realise is
that the phrase translated
to:
“Pepsi brings your
ancestors back from the
grave.”
A very messy mistake to
make, especially for a brand
trying to build itself on a
global level.
H&M
In January, the fast-fashion
giant released an image on
its website of a young
African-American child
modeling a green
sweatshirt that included the
slogan:
"Coolest Monkey in
the Jungle.“
Customers were outraged,
and Twitter users called the
company out for its lack of
cultural sensitivity. 
Heineken

The beer company's tone-

deaf commercial landed it
in hot water in March. The
30-second ad showed a
bartender sliding a beer
past three people, all of
whom are black, to a
lighter-skinned woman.
The tag line read
"Sometimes, lighter is
better.“
Lou Gerstner
CEO, IBM, 1993 - 2002

“If you’re really going to

transform an enterprise,
you’ve got to understand
culture…It took me to age
55 to figure that out.
Culture is everything. ”

28
Culture and Competitive Advantage
The value system and norms of a country
influence the costs of doing business in that
country. The costs of doing business in a
country influence the ability of firms to
establish a competitive advantage in the
global marketplace 29
The Relationship of Culture and National Competitive Advantage

The value system and norms of a country influence the costs

of doing business in that country.
The costs of doing business in a country influence the ability
of firms to establish a competitive advantage in the global
marketplace.
The connection suggests which countries are likely to
produce the moist viable competitors.
The connection has important implications for the choice of
countries in which to locate production facilities and do
business.
Japan presents us with an example of how culture can
influence competitive advantage. The country’s emphasis
on group affiliation, loyalty, reciprocal obligations,
honesty, & education – all boost the competitiveness of
Japanese companies. 30
Company
cultures
-are about setting a clear vision and
expectation for the type of people, work,
attitude, and output you expect from your team
and holding everyone accountable to that
standard.

Truly effective company cultures don’t manifest

themselves in one person, benefit, or tactic, but
rather emulate the values and beliefs that make
your company truly unique.

When your company culture goes beyond

jargon and marketing terminology and becomes
1. If a Japanese worker says he can 8. Kaizen – Continuous
complete the job, he will work his best Improvement
and deliver exceptional results.         
9. Stay focused
2. From a Japanese perspective,
customer is God. 10. Quantify everything
3. The Japanese don’t see the company
11. Know the whole person
conference room as a place for
discussion but somewhere to report
12. Get people to buy into
progress.
the decision
4. A delay on decision making isn’t a
reflection of a Japanese person’s 13. Structured working styles
inefficiency.
14. Inemuri, The Japanese
5. Alcohol let many Japanese reveal Art of Sleeping at Work
their true thoughts though, drinking
with business colleagues is also Japanese Company
deemed as work.
Culture
 A Hypothetical Case for locating a
production facility.
King’s
Landing
In King’s Landing, the
education system is
undeveloped, the society
is characterized by a
marked stratification
between the upper and
lower classes, and there
are six major linguistic
groups.
Winterf
ell
In Winterfell, the
education system is
well developed, social
stratification is lacking,
group identification is
valued by the culture,
and there is only one
linguistic group.
33