Analysis and Comparison of Iranian and American Management; the Cultural Dimensions and Values Essay

This report is aimed to represent a brief description of the Persian forethought set today and comp ar the results with a developed coarse homogeneous Unites State. First it will give a description of some of the characteristics of Iran vigilance and market-gardening, then it is tried to categorize these characteristic base on Hofstedes Dimensions (1980) (power place, repressing scruple, masculinity/femininity, personism/ socialism) and Flowers dimensions, Flower 1975, (tribalistic, egocentric, conformist, manipulative, sociocentric, existential).In the following(a) feel will be presenting of relation back information about united State and at the end the comparison among the results. Most move of this report is foc white plagued on Iran management. IRAN The name Iran was used as proterozoic as the third century BC by a prescript who described his empire as Iran-shahr and himself as the King of Kings. The country is extremely diverse from alwaysy point of view, e specially in topography and climate. The population of Iran is estimated at some 70 million, 12 million of which live in the s hearty Tehran and its suburbs.The official language of Iran is Persian (Farsi) which is an Indo-European language derived from Sanskrit. The country has one of the worlds most diverse ethnic groups ever assembled in one country Persian (56 per cent), Turk (Azari) (24 per cent), Gilaki (8 per cent), Kurd (8 per cent), Lur, Baluch, Arab and Turkaman. The religious groups ar Shiite Muslim, Sunni Muslim, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian and Bahaii. At the present, Iran is an Muslim republic, ruled according to a constitution providing for executive, legislative and judicial branches.The political system comprises some(prenominal) elected and un-elected institutions. Irans miserliness is a mixture of central planning, responsibility throwership of oil, large enterprises, settlement agriculture, small-scale private trading and service ventures. All large indu stries and the mass of medium-scale enterprises be run by the public institutions sort outicularly the embedations which were set up during the revolution. These entities own some 20 per cent of the countrys assets, and cave in 10 per cent of GDP (Khajehpour, 2000), however, they atomic number 18 generally mismanaged. Management in IranIranian management today is interesting firstly because the country is slowly opening up to the West later on two decades of ignorance on the part of Westerners as to sides of brio in Iran other than the political and religious aspects. Up till quite recently, the political discourse was dominated by the combatant official language and look-alikes of mobs demonstrating in the streets against the devils in the West. Now after twenty years of austere clerical politics, the reform movement is gradually gaining momentum, especially among young raft who affirm non known life before the Revolution.Secondly Iranian management is interesting be cause most people confound Iranians with Arabs, believing that what they gip about Arab countries is also valid for Iran, and this simply is a misunderstanding. We begin our discussion with bringing some insights into Iranian hostel and its culture. Based on Hofstedes findings (1980) Iran is classified in near eastern cluster including Turkey and Greece. A more recent research found that Iran is part of the South Asian cultural cluster consisting of such countries as India, Thailand and Malaysia (Javidan and Dastmalchian, 2003).For a newcomer these findings whitethorn seem very different from the image of Iran as a pre ascendent Islamic/ optic-Eastern country which is often wiped out(p) with its neighbours. The point is that as a country situated in the Middle East, Iran has many commonalities with its neighbour Muslim countries however, due to its unique historical, linguistic and racial identities it has a different and unique culture. sovietism A very primordial issue in ev ery society is the priority given to interests of individuals versus those of collectivity.Hofstede (1980) views an single society as one in which beliefs and behaviours are inflexible by the individual whereas in a collectivistic society the attitudes are determined by loyalty towards ones group. The manifestations of collectivism and social net cooking are very common in Iranian management. Personal connections and informal conduct seem more practical, whereas formal systems, official institutions and procedures are considered less cost-effective and even bothering. As a direct result, Iranian society tends to perate alternatively on the basis of face-to-face relationships among people, than on the basis of impersonal and motorize institutions.The use of informal channels may imply bending rules and fetching advantages to which one is not formally entitled. The popular Persian term for this consecrate and other forms of nepotism and favouritism is Partibazi, which is a co mmon practice in Iranian arrangings. For instance, it would not be unusual for Iranian managers to hire a relative or acquaintance for a job vacancy, even though they could comfortably employ a more competent that unknown worker.Collectivism has also a significant influence on the communication. An outcome of collectivism is the implicit and postgraduate-context communication in Iranian culture. Iranians from an early age learn to be careful about what they say and are advised to use an validatory language for expressing their intentions (Javidan and Dastmalchian, 2003). Persian language and literature are abounding of nuances and metaphors which should be interpreted in their context and cannot be taken at face value.A particular and very common form of indirect language in Iranian culture is Taarof which can be translated literally as politeness, but has a much more thoughtful significance. In fact, Taarof implies a wide range of complicated and naughtyly polite expression s/behaviours, which should not be interpreted literally. This kind of context-bound communication is very common in Iranian organizations in both written and oral forms. Power distance This orientation course concerns the extent to which the less powerful members of a society conduct and accept that power is distributed unequally.This orientation concerns the extent to which the less powerful members of a society expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. Results from Yeganeh and Zhan(2007) about hierarchy take a hop the high degree of gradable distance among Iranian managers. Hofstede (1980) considers these characteristic as power distance in his research. The antecedents of this high hierarchical distance are deeply rooted in many aspects of Iranian mythology, history, politics, religion and family structure. Manifestations of high degree of hierarchical distance are various and numerous in Iranian management.A very clear example is the over-centralization of the c apital Tehran. disdain the diversity and largeness of country, all administrative bodies and decision-makings are concentrated in the capital and other provinces should obey the resolutions. Other examples include top-down management, tyrannous decision-making (Javidan and Dastmalchian, 2003) and hierarchical structure of reward systems. For instance, there is considerable gap between compensation packages intended for people working at the top of organization and those working at entry levels.Managers consider it normal that people at higher levels have more privileges than those at lower levels. An outcome of hierarchical distance, combined with effects of collectivism and family-orientation is the dominance of paternalism in Iranian organizations, which is advance also by Islamic virtues. Schramm-Nielsen and Faradonbeh (2002) reported that Iranian employees expected superiors to service of process them in a variety of issues such as financial problems, matrimony expenses, pu rchasing of new homes, illness in the family, education of children and even marital disputes.Past-orientation Results from Yeganeh and Zhan (2007) indicate Iranian managers tend to be quondam(prenominal)- rather than future-oriented. The orientation toward past may be crystallized in honouring indigenous managerial styles and their vestigial foundations. After the revolution of 1979, there was much emphasis on transposition of modern/western management by traditional/Islamic work-related principles. Therefore, Iranian executives were urged to realign their managerial styles and practices to religious, social and political value of revolutionary political orientation.not surprisingly, most of these managerial styles were not based on rationality and progress, but on old-fashioned and obsolete views which were not efficient and practical. The past orientation can be manifested also in terms of neglecting plans or put short-time horizon and also relative high un legitimatety avo idance. gritty uncertainty avoidance means that members of the society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and equivocalness and thus support beliefs that promise certainty and residency. Activity orientation (being versus doing) jibe to Yeganeh and Zhan(2007) , Activity Orientation corresponds to masculinity dimension as described by Hofstede (1980). It is argued that in a Doing culture, people tend to view work activities as core to their existence, and they attach much importance to achievement and hard work. In contrast, in universe cultures peace of mind is cherished and emphasis is set(p) on immediate and unplanned actions. In reality, it is possible to witness demonstration of both Being and Doing orientations in Iranian society.For instance, a good rent of Persian literature is devoted to peace of mind, pleasure and frugality. Moreover, affected by Islamic culture, Iranians tend to view the world as an ephemeral step which does not worth hard work and which should be co nsidered as a transitional phase toward eternal life and salvation. While these manifestations correspond to Being orientation, Iranians are known also for Masculine qualities such as individual achiever (Javidan and Dastmalchian, 2003), militant, hard-working and efficient. BargainingWhereas doing business always means trying to hash out the best deal in terms of price and related conditions anyplace in the world, this does not normally in the Western world conk out to everyday little purchases. The bargaining represents a tradition that goes back thousands of years. gibe to this tradition the choice of dealer or business relation is an weighty one. The tradition is also that you bargain with your usual suppliers. The Western custom of obtain around for the best price and the best conditions is not well accepted.The explicit reason is that it breaks with the golden rule of trust. It takes time to build up a relationship based on trust, and so you need to have a long-term stra tegy and a lot of patience. Uncertainty avoidance High uncertainty avoidance means that members of a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity and thus support beliefs that promise certainty and conformity (Daft 2003). According to Ali and Amirshahi (2002) results, the primary values of Iranian Managers are conformist.Flowers dimensions Based on a research by Alishahi (2002) which was conducted through istributing twenty-two hundred questionnaires to a random sample of Iranian managers, the primary values of Iranian managers are conformist, sociocentric. Indeed, the outer-directed values (conformist, sociocentric, and tribalistic) are relatively dominant. This result may have its roots in the political and cultural reality. Since the Islamic revolution, Islamic values have been propagated. The emphasis has been on achievement and human lordliness and on societal causes, rather than on personal material gains, in alleviating internal problems.Both dimensions reinforc e conformity and sociocentric attitudes without discounting the existential outlook and personal growth. The Islamic regime constantly reminds the public about the outside bane and the need to sacrifice personal gains for the sake of society. In addition, the core philosophical system of the regime is that the poor and unfortunate segments of the society must have price of admission to political and economic opportunities. It should be mentioned too that the current Islamic regime condones both conformity and sociocentric outlooks.In an era of transition, managers may seek to avoid uncertainty by going along with the public pronouncements of the regime. Nevertheless, certain values differ across some variables, such as size of organization, ownership, managerial position, and fathers occupation. For example, manipulative managers were found in larger organizations and in the private sector. A typical manipulative manager relies on grammatical construction a network of friends an d supporters, and on careful political manoeuvres. Large corporations in Iran were public or had been nationalized after the revolution.Both have experienced profound restructuring in terms of power distribution and economic partnership. Perhaps this station created opportunities for a new allegiance to seize power and gain influence. Sociocentric value is found among lower-level managers and those with peasant, working class, and clergy origins. Those with working and lower class origins, therefore, may have developed an awareness of the enormous social differences, and may nurture the skin senses of belonging to social classes that have little or nothing in common with upper social classes.Perhaps this in turn creates a commitment to humanistic and community causes and strengthens the desire for a just society. join State management American culture is characterized by high individuality with loosely knit social frameworks. In individualistic societies, people are supposed to take care of themselves and their immediate families. Since individualism is high in the United States, work and accomplishments are viewed as person-centred. Thus, issues of individual meritocracy and perceptions of fairness are likely to be more pronounced among American employees.Materialism, according to Abdu K. (2004), conveys the thought that being affluent, prosperous and rich should be encouraged and suggests that a certain product or service will make the user well off. However, the simplistic approach, like in the USA, conveys the just enough idea, which emphasizes ego necessarily and self-actualization, rather than just material comfort. Pluralism refers to the degree to which national culture fosters concurrent coexistence of different ethnic groups with strong identities.In a low pluralism culture, nonage groups are completely absorbed by the dominant culture. The minority groups either completely replace their identities with those of the dominant culture, or retai n weaker cultural linkages with the dominant cultural group. High pluralism on the other hand characterizes simultaneous coexistence of diverse ethnic groups with strong identities. Both Iranian and American culture is non-pluralistic or ethnocentric. Ethnocentrism means that people have a tendency to regard their own culture as superior and to downgrade other cultures.In both countries cultural differences are unified into a coherent, universal work culture. several(a) groups are absorbed into the mainstream work culture to create uniform work norms, beliefs and values. In such a non-pluralistic culture, minority communities have weak identities and legitimacy. Thus, the in-groupout-group ideology may not be as prominent in non-pluralistic cultures as in pluralistic culture. Rather than compete with minority cultures, the dominant culture aims at absorbing the minority cultures.Ethnocentrism within a country makes it vexed for foreign firms to operate. Based on a research by Alis hahi (2002), customary dominant values in the U. S. are, (egocentric, manipulative, and existential 60% inner-directed). United state is characterized by low power distance a relatively high tolerance for uncertainty and emphasizes shared power and authority, with team members working on a variety of problems without formal guidelines, rules, and structure. Many workers in Iran expect organizations to be hierarchy.