Business management
just do what the supervisor asks. China has a power distance score of 80. Israel has a very low power distance score of 13. In this culture supervisors would be expected to be very democratic and take input from subordinates on decisions.
• Uncertainty Avoidance
Uncertainty avoidance is how comfortable a culture feels about the unknown. Cultures with higher uncertainty avoidance express a need for formality, predictability and clear rules so that there is no question about how things are done. They also have more anxiety when faced with situations where the unknown is a factor. Denmark has very low uncertainty avoidance at 23 while Japan’s is very high at 92.
• Individualism versus Collectivism
In individualistic societies there are few ties between the members of that society whereas in collectivist societies people belong to strong, cohesive groups. The United States, as we know, is very individualistic. We are actually the most individualistic society with a score of 91. We could not care less what others think, we will do whatever we please. Many Asian countries tend to see themselves as a part of the whole. Some examples of these are Taiwan and South Korea who have individuality scores of 14 and 18. This is one of many reasons for the rapid economic rise of these countries in the last century. They work as a collective to effectively accomplish a task that a number of individuals could not.
• Masculinity versus Femininity
As you said in class, this has nothing to do with gender; it has to do with the aggressiveness of culture. More aggressive cultures are considered more masculine and more passive cultures are considered more feminine. In a more masculine culture people are assertive, tough, and concerned with material success. In a more feminine society people are more modest, tender, interested in the quality of life and display very little confrontation.
Austria is very masculine at 79 and Denmark is more feminine at 16
All of these concepts are important to keep in mind when dealing with other cultures.
4. (20 points) In the Boston Consulting Group Portfolio Matrix, the preferred action when dealing with a cash cow is to dedicate just enough resources to keep it going but not engage in any meaningful investment in the unit. What is the reasoning behind this strategy?
This is because you have a situation where one of your strategic business units is experiencing low market growth rate and high relative market share. Now that I have learned what a cash cow is in this class I realize that my former employer is a cash cow and is an excellent example for this paper. xxx Fuel is part of a larger organization that includes other fuel companies and barging outfits. I worked for them for 7 years and in that time we took over [next page]