DOCSLIB.ORG

Uncertainty Avoidance Versus Policies and Procedures

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Uncertainty Avoidance Versus Policies and Procedures Uncertainty avoidance versus policies and procedures How does it work in a multinational? Drs. E.F. (Edwin) van der Burg Utrecht, July 2010 Supervisor: Dr. F.J. de Graaf Universiteit van Amsterdam Business School Executive Master of Internal Auditing Universiteit van Amsterdam Business School Preface I write this thesis to finalise my Executive Master of Internal Auditing (EMIA) at the Universiteit of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Business School. This thesis marks the final stage of 2 years of my EMIA education. It was with pleasure that I went to the university every Friday, gaining the theoretical background in Internal Auditing and having interesting discussions with my fellow students. The subject of my thesis was easily chosen, mainly due to my background and my international ambition. In my previous education, I not only had the opportunity to work together with other cultures, but I also had the chance to study and work abroad. This triggered my interest to explore a thesis focussing on policies and procedures and how they are received by the various cultures. Even though it is known that cultures differ from each other, departments of multinationals still issue policies that are globally applicable. Therefore, I decided to take a closer look on the relation between culture and adherence to policies and procedures and the role of the internal auditor. I would like to use this opportunity to thank my girlfriend and my family for their support and understanding over the past two years. Furthermore, I would like to thank my supervisor Frank Jan de Graaf for his support during the process of writing my thesis. His valuable input and challenging questions have resulted in this finished thesis. I would also like to thank the auditors who filled out the questionnaire and made it possible to conclude this effort. Edwin van der Burg Edwin van der Burg 2 Studentnummer 6020288 Universiteit van Amsterdam Business School Table of Contents Preface ....................................................................................................................................................2 Summary .................................................................................................................................................5 Chapter 1. Introduction ..........................................................................................................................6 1.1. Background and motivation.........................................................................................................6 1.2. Research objective and sub questions.........................................................................................7 1.3. Scope and limitations...................................................................................................................7 1.4. Structure ......................................................................................................................................9 Chapter 2. Culture and its influence on risk preference.......................................................................10 2.1. Definition of national culture.....................................................................................................10 2.1.1 Mental programming...........................................................................................................10 2.1.2 Dimensions of national cultures ..........................................................................................12 2.1.3 The relation of dimensions of national culture to policies and procedures........................12 2.2. Risk preference ..........................................................................................................................14 2.2.1 Cushion hypothesis ..............................................................................................................15 2.3. Uncertainty avoidance versus risk avoidance............................................................................15 2.4. Summary ....................................................................................................................................16 Chapter 3. Policies and procedures ......................................................................................................17 3.1. Management control systems ...................................................................................................17 3.2. Policies and procedures .............................................................................................................18 3.2.1 Rationale for using policies and procedures........................................................................19 3.2.2 The internal auditor and policies and procedures...............................................................20 3.3. Summary ....................................................................................................................................21 Chapter 4. Uncertainty avoidance and its relation to policies and procedures ...................................22 4.1. According to the theory .............................................................................................................22 4.2. Hypothesis development ...........................................................................................................24 4.2.1 Connection between hypotheses ........................................................................................26 4.3. Summary ....................................................................................................................................27 Chapter 5. Research and results ...........................................................................................................28 5.1. Research method .......................................................................................................................28 5.1.1 Research setup.....................................................................................................................28 5.1.2 Validation of the questionnaire ...........................................................................................29 5.1.3 Respondents ........................................................................................................................29 Edwin van der Burg 3 Studentnummer 6020288 Universiteit van Amsterdam Business School 5.2. Results........................................................................................................................................29 5.2.1 Hypothesis 1.........................................................................................................................30 5.2.2 Hypothesis 2a/b ...................................................................................................................31 5.2.3 Hypothesis 3a/b ...................................................................................................................32 5.3. Summary and conclusions .........................................................................................................34 Chapter 6. Summary, concluding remarks and further research .........................................................35 6.1. Summary ....................................................................................................................................35 6.2. Implications for the internal auditor..........................................................................................36 6.3. Limitations and further research ...............................................................................................37 6.3.1 Further research ..................................................................................................................37 Bibliography ..........................................................................................................................................39 Appendix A: Questionnaire...................................................................................................................41 Appendix B: Respondents .....................................................................................................................43 Appendix C: Uncertainty Avoidance Index Values................................................................................44 Edwin van der Burg 4 Studentnummer 6020288 Universiteit van Amsterdam Business School Summary With policies and procedures being rolled out globally the national culture plays an important role in how these policies and procedures are experienced. The most important cultural dimension when it comes to policies and procedures is the cultural score on uncertainty avoidance. High uncertainty avoidance cultures have a preference for clear, unambiguous and formalised policies and procedures. Low uncertainty avoidance cultures on the other side have a preference for a limited number of policies and procedures, being informal and do not have a problem with non‐adherence. Policies and procedures play an important role in the management control system and for the internal auditor since they are a source of information on the processes and the controls that are performed by the business. Next to the action controls described in the policies and procedures three other types of controls are identified, namely result controls, personnel controls and culture controls. With the help of a questionnaire (see Appendix A) I have conducted a research to find out to what extend the internal auditor is
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Revisiting Hofstede's Uncertainty-Avoidance Dimension
    Journal of Intercultural Communication, 21(1): 46-61 Revisiting Hofstede’s Uncertainty-Avoidance Dimension: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Organizational Employees in Four Countries Jung-Soo Yi1 Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, USA Abstract: The present study was designed to explore the validity and applicability of the uncertainty-avoidance dimension in the contemporary world. Because social, cultural, and commercial interrelationships among countries have significantly increased since the introduction of this dimension, it would be advisable to revisit and investigate the substantiality of this dimension before making beneficial suggestions to people who engage in cultural encounters. A questionnaire was constructed, tested, edited, and distributed to 2,000 organizational members in Japan, France, Great Britain, and Singapore. Among the 1,258 questionnaires returned, 1,215 were included in the analysis. Not surprisingly, cultural differences among countries still exist. The findings of the present study suggest that cultural characteristics have become more complicated since the uncertainty-avoidance dimension was introduced four decades ago. To yield more detailed guidelines on cultural variabilities, future studies should examine factors such as education, generation gaps, occupations, religions, and degrees of intercultural contacts, along with how these factors influence variability among cultures. Keywords: uncertainty avoidance, cultural comparison. 1. Introduction Geert Hofstede (1980) introduced several systematic dimensions of cultural values. His original four dimensions include individualism/collectivism, power distance, masculinity/femininity, and uncertainty avoidance. After the application of these dimensions to various cultural and social issues, scholars have broadly agreed that Hofstede’s comparative cross-cultural approach has shaped the basic themes and structure of the field (e.g., Peterson 2003, Lustig & Koester 2006).
    [Show full text]
  • Emotional Intelligence Across Cultures: the Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Cultural Distance
    大韓經營情報學會 「經營情報硏究」第29券Emotional Intelligence across第2號 Cultures:2010年 The6月 Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Cultural Distance 119 Emotional Intelligence across Cultures: The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Cultural Distance Moon, Tae-Won** <Abstract> This study focuses on the workplaces of two distinct nations, the United States and Korea, to ascertain the impact of culture on emotional intelligence (EI). This paper examines if EI is dependant on culture by finding significant variances of emotional responses under a given situation. The results suggest that EI is significantly impacted by national culture. In addition, this study investigates the relationship between cultural distance and EI by using the secondary data of 19,402 participants across 13 nations. The results demonstrate that only power distance among Hofstede’s dimensions has significant effect on EI. Key Words : emotional intelligence; culture; cultural distance Ⅰ. Introduction As businesses and industries progress toward rapid globalization through foreign direct investment, international joint ventures, strategic alliances and other forms of collaboration, cross-cultural studies are becoming more demanding in order to solve several problems caused by cultural differences in complex international working environments. Understanding and 논문접수일: 2010년 5월 12일 수정일: 2010년 6월 15일 게재확정일: 2010년 6월 21일 * Assistant Professor, Dept. of Business Administration, Hongik University, [email protected] 120 經營情報硏究 第29券 第2號 coordinating a culturally diverse workforce is an essential factor necessary in dealing with the challenges of managing a diverse workforce (Earley & Ang, 2003; Earley, Ang & Tan, 2006). Hence, the degree of attention given by the managers of an organization towards the culturally patterned emotional expressions and behaviors of each member within their workforce, has a direct correlation with the effective administration of people from varying cross cultural backgrounds (Earley & Ang, 2003; Earley, Ang & Tan, 2006; Gabel, Dolan & Cerdin, 2005).
    [Show full text]
  • Social Media Usage and Cultural Dimensions: an Empirical Investigation
    Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences | 2017 Social Media Usage and Cultural Dimensions: An Empirical Investigation Majid Dadgar Joseph Vithayathil John Kalu Osiri University of San Francisco Washington State University University of Nebraska-Lincoln [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Abstract information technology and organizational studies can benefit each other by exchanging and analyzing the Cultural attributes of employees affect organizations in socio-material properties of their subject matter. The several different ways through their impact on organizational social media literature has focused organizational goals and decision-making processes. mainly on disciplinary or domain-based research. Such Social media create ample opportunities for focus may have hindered possibilities of investigating organizations to improve competitiveness and efficiency such important interdisciplinary questions [27]. of marketing and communications. We empirically Social media create a variety of new opportunities investigate the impact of employee cultural dimensions for organizations which are not managed well to on social media usage at work and at home. Such a study improve [21]. Organizations can use social media to stay has not been undertaken before to the best of our competitive and improve the efficiency of marketing knowledge and this would be the first study to connect and communications [1,2,3,10,17,18,25,29]. Employees cultural dimension characteristics of individuals with use different types of social media platforms in their social media usage. Specifically, we investigate the professional and personal lives, and their use of social effect of Power Distance (PD), Uncertainty Avoidance media can have an impact on various organizational (UA), and Individualism-Collectivism (IC) on the use of goals and strategies [20].
    [Show full text]
  • Outsourced: Using a Comedy Film to Teach Intercultural Communication
    OUTSOURCED: USING A COMEDY FILM TO TEACH INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION Carol Briam Zayed University Given that feature films can enhance the teaching of intercultural communication, this article describes in detail how the 2006 comedy film, Outsourced, can be integrated into a course. The article relates the film to four different functions of film and shows how Outsourced can help create an intercultural experience for students, serve as the basis for a case analysis of cross-cultural adjustment, give meaning to cultural concepts, and create powerful metaphorical images to expand classroom discussions to broader issues. Also explored are ways the film can be used in teaching advanced intercultural communication concepts. Keywords: feature films; intercultural communication; business administration train- ing; Middle East; higher education FROM THE BIG SCREEN of the movie theatre to the smaller screen of the university classroom, feature films have an important role to play in teaching intercultural communication. Although the importance of film is generally acknowledged, a more difficult feat is finding descriptions of “specific films or specific approaches to use in teaching about culture” (Cardon, 2010, p. 152). This article describes how the 2006 film, Outsourced, can be used in teaching intercultural commu- nication. First, I describe my considerations in selecting a feature film for the culture component of an undergraduate business communication course offered at an American-style university in the Middle East. Interwoven into this description is some discussion of my particular classroom setting. Next, I describe how the selected film, Outsourced, can be used to teach intercultural communication in four ways—as experience, as case, as meaning, and as metaphor—using the functions of film in teaching outlined by Champoux (1999).
    [Show full text]
  • The Influence of High/Low Context Culture on Choice of Communication Media : Students’ Media Choice to Communicate with Professors in China and the United States
    University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 5-2016 The influence of high/low context culture on choice of communication media : students’ media choice to communicate with professors in China and the United States. Xiaoxu Yang University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Part of the International and Intercultural Communication Commons, and the Interpersonal and Small Group Communication Commons Recommended Citation Yang, Xiaoxu, "The influence of high/low context culture on choice of communication media : students’ media choice to communicate with professors in China and the United States." (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2375. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2375 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The nivU ersity of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The nivU ersity of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE INFLUENCE OF HIGH/LOW CONTEXT CULTURE ON CHOICE OF COMMUNICATION MEDIA: STUDENTS’ MEDIA CHOICE TO COMMUNICATE WITH PROFESSORS IN CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES By Xiaoxu Yang B.A., Humboldt State University, 2013 M.A., University of Louisville, 2016 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty
    [Show full text]
  • Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions National Culture Has Been Shown To
    Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions 1 National culture has been shown to impact on major business activities, from capital structure to group performance (Leung et al, 2005). Cultural awareness can lead to greater success of international business ventures and lack of it can just as well lead to their failure (Dowling et al, 2008: 57). Geert Hofstede is a renowned author who developed a model to describe various cultural ‘dimensions’, and has researched issues relating to cultural differences (for example in the GLOBE Project). 2 Geert Hofstede’s model was based on a study of IBM employees in over fifty countries. He identified five dimensions or ‘problem areas’ which represent differences among national cultures (Hofstede, 1997): power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity and long-term orientation. 3 Power distance defines how social inequality is perceived and accepted in different cultures. Hofstede (1997) explains how in high power distance cultures children are raised with a great emphasis on respecting elders, which is carried through to adulthood. Therefore organisations are more centralised, employees prefer a more autocratic leadership style where subordinates are expected to be told what to do and there are wide wage gaps in the hierarchical structure. On the other hand, in low power distance cultures inequality is not desired, employees prefer to be consulted with regards to decision making and thus prefer a more resourceful and democratic leader. 4 Individualism (versus collectivism) is the preference of people to belong to a loosely knit society where importance is placed on the self and autonomy. In opposition, collectivist structures place importance on interdependent social units such as the family, rather than on the self.
    [Show full text]
  • More to the World: an Analysis of Study Abroad Programs
    MORE TO THE WORLD: AN ANALYSIS OF STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS HONORS THESIS Presented to the Honors College of Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation in the Honors College by Kindra Idunoba San Marcos, Texas May 2018 MORE TO THE WORLD: AN ANALYSIS OF STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS by Kindra Idunoba Thesis Supervisor: ________________________________ Robert Konopaske, Ph.D. Department of Management Approved: ____________________________________ Heather C. Galloway, Ph.D. Dean, Honors College TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments………………………………………………….……...4 Abstract…………………………………………………………….……...5 Introduction……………………………………………………….…….....6 Literature review & conceptual framework……………………………….8 6D Model of National Culture………………………………….…8 Edward T. Hall & Mildred Reed Hall: Understanding Cultural Differences………………………………………………………..16 Leon Festinger: A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance……………………………………………..…………18 Cultural Distance………………………………………………….20 Method……………………………………………………….……….….. 21 Survey Questions………………………………………………….…...….21 Results……………………………………………………………..…...….22 Analysis………………………………………………………………....…25 Discussion…………………………………………………………………27 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………29 References……………………………………………………………….…31 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis wouldn’t exist without Dr. K for guiding me! You took a general crazy idea I had and helped me mold it to what it is. Thank you for everyone who took time out of their day to participate in my survey which included friends and strangers! Thank you to my friends and family who supported, encouraged, helped, and reminded me to work on my thesis. I hope I don’t disappoint. Thanks to Professor Tajalli and Professor Moriuchi (先生) for giving me the opportunity to experience the world! Lastly thanks to my friends from foreign cultures who taught me so much about my own culture and myself. 4 ABSTRACT It is widely agreed on that studying abroad greatly benefits students in their academics, personal life, and future careers; I argue that which country you visit also plays an important role.
    [Show full text]
  • Uncertainty Avoidance and Job Performance: a Study Between Portugal and Germany
    Uncertainty Avoidance and Job Performance: A study between Portugal and Germany Luís Pedro Pereira da Trindade Master in Management Supervisor Professor Maria Teresa Vieira Campos Proença Porto, 29th of September of 2015 Biographic Note Luís Pedro Pereira da Trindade was born in 1988 in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal. He holds a BSc in Management from Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto since 2012 and is currently attending a Double-Master Program in Management at Faculdade de Economia do Porto and at Kedge Business School of Marseille, France. i Acknowledgments The accomplishment of this project was only possible thanks to the effort, help, patience and time of those around me. I would like to thank my supervisor for her time and for directing me to the right place with her wisdom and knowledge. I also have to thank my family members for helping and supporting me in this project and especially my parents and sister for the patience, love and trust everyday life. To all the participants in this project that are the important part of this thesis. To my friends that had the patience to understand my lack of time. Especially to Filipa Teixeira, Nuno Costa, Elif and Marie who made this project conceivable. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my girlfriend, Hannah, for all her love, support, patience, confidence, trust and also for the help during all the processes of this project. ii Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my grandmother, Adelina, who cared and loved me since I was born and moved to Heaven during this project.
    [Show full text]
  • Values and Ethics for the 21St Century
    2011 B08 ETICA INGLES 014 30/12/11 11:08 Página 385 NATIONAL CULTURES, ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES, AND THE ROLE OF MANAGEMENT Geert Hofstede THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE The word ‘culture’ has three meanings: Literally it means tilling the soil: cultivation. Metaphorically the word is used for the training or refining of the mind: civilization. However, in the past decades a broader metaphorical meaning has become popular, derived from anthropology: collective ways of acting, thinking, and feeling. ‘Culture’ in this sense is “the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others” (Hofstede, Hofstede and Minkov 2010, 6). In the case of national culture, the category is the nation. In the case of organizational cultures, the category is the organization as opposed to other organizations—other things, like nationality, being equal. Next to national and organizational cultures one can distinguish regional cultures, occupational cultures, gender cultures and so on. However, the use of the word ‘culture’ for all these categories does not mean that they are identical phenomena. For different kinds of social systems, their ‘cultures’ are usually of a different nature. This is particularly the case for organizational cultures versus national cultures, if only because membership of an organization tends to be partial and more or less voluntary, while the ‘membership’ of a nation is permanent and usually established at birth. 385 2011 B08 ETICA INGLES 014 30/12/11 11:08 Página 386 ‘Culture’ as thus defined is a construct, that is, a product of our imagination. We have defined it into existence: “A construct is not directly accessible to observation but inferable from verbal statements and other behaviors and useful in predicting still other observable and measurable verbal and nonverbal behaviors” (Levitin 1973).
    [Show full text]
  • Measuring Hofstede's Uncertainty Avoidance Using Foreign And
    Measuring Hofstede’s Uncertainty Avoidance Using Foreign and Domestic Students Alan Wright and Doris Wright Troy University 253 Bibb Graves Hall Management and Marketing Department Troy, AL 36082 334-808-6350 (office) 334-670-3599 (fax) [email protected] 115 Measuring Hofstede’s Uncertainty Avoidance Using Foreign and Domestic Students Alan Wright and Doris Wright, Troy University Introduction The number of international students at U.S. colleges and universities rose 4.7% to 723,277 during the 2010- 11 academic year, says an annual report by the Institute of International Education. Enrollments have been on the upswing since 2006-07 and grew 32% over the past decade (Marklein, 2011). Multinational corporations will soon be faced with a wealth of talented, educated, multicultural applicants for positions in their firms. This article argues that there may be another excellent reason to hire a US-educated foreign student; they may have a greater tolerance for risk and uncertainty than the average citizen from their home country. The study uses a readily available survey from a licensed Geert Hofstede web site (itapintl.com) and both domestic and foreign student volunteers to test for the work-value homogeneity of students versus their country norm. Culture is defined as the “collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another”, where it includes the systems of values and these values are among the building blocks of culture (Hofstede, 1980:21). Our research tries to answer the question, “Does study abroad deprogram the foreign student?” In a limited sample, we found that foreign students are lower on uncertainty avoidance than their country norms.
    [Show full text]
  • Culture and Communication
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by MURAL - Maynooth University Research Archive Library Administration & Society 41(7) 850 –877 Culture and © 2009 SAGE Publications DOI: 10.1177/0095399709344054 Communication: http://aas.sagepub.com Cultural Variations and Media Effectiveness Karen Moustafa Leonard,1 James R. Van Scotter,2 and Fatma Pakdil3 Abstract Advances in communication technologies have made great progress in bridg- ing time and distance, but social and cultural differences are still formidable obstacles to effective communication. Communication processes occur in specific cultural contexts, with unique normative beliefs, assumptions, and shared symbols. Culture influences what people communicate, to whom they communicate, and how they communicate. There has been little systematic cross-cultural research to explicate the effects of communication media on communication effectiveness. This article proposes cultural effects on per- ceptions of media effectiveness. The authors advance conceptual knowledge by presenting new perspectives on the cultural effects on individuals’ per- ception of media and their effectiveness. Keywords communication, culture, individualism, media, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, media richness theory 1Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne 2Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge 3Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey Corresponding Author: Karen Moustafa Leonard, Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, IN 46805 Email: [email protected] Leonard et al. 851 Introduction Foreign investments continue to increase dramatically (Flynn, 1997), fueled by a search for new markets, reductions in labor costs, outsourcing of operations, increasing quality, and other competitive advantages. One of the most critical problems organizations face when they expand their operations into new countries is learning how to communicate with the local workforce effectively.
    [Show full text]
  • Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior: a Review of Research Findings
    Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 23:181–192, 2011 Copyright c 2011 Marieke de Mooij and Geert Hofstede BV ISSN: 0896-1530 print / 1528-7068 online DOI: 10.1080/08961530.2011.578057 Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior: A Review of Research Findings MariekedeMooij Geert Hofstede ABSTRACT. Most aspects of consumer behavior are culture-bound. This article reviews the cultural relationships with the self, personality, and attitude, which are the basis of consumer behavior models and branding and advertising strategies. The Hofstede model is used to explain variance. Other consumer behavior aspects reviewed are motivation and emotions, cognitive processes such as abstract versus concrete thinking, categorization and information processing, as well as consumer behavior domains such as product ownership, decision making, and adoption and diffusion of innovations. Implications for global branding and advertising are included. KEYWORDS. Culture, dimensions, personality, self, emotion, global branding, communication INTRODUCTION the person refer to what people are (the who) and the processes refer to what moves people Recent years have seen increased interest in (the how). The central question is “Who am I?” the influence of culture on consumer behavior and in what terms people describe themselves as well as increased research. In this article we and others—their personality traits and identity. review studies of the influence of culture that are Related to the who are attitudes and lifestyle relevant to international marketing. We discuss because they are a central part of the person. the various areas of research following the com- How people think, perceive, and what motivates ponents of human behavior as structured in our them—how the aspects of “me” process into Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior Framework behavior—are viewed as processes.
    [Show full text]