The Impact of Culture on Managerial Tasks

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The International
JOURNAL
ofKNOWLEDGE, CULTURE
& CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Volume 9, Number 3
The Impact of Culture on Managerial Tasks: A
Comparison Among Malaysia, India and Iran
Zeinab Amini Yekta

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE, CULTURE AND CHANGE
MANAGEMENT
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The Impact of Culture on Managerial Tasks: A
Comparison Among Malaysia, India and Iran
Zeinab Amini Yekta, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
Abstract: Today with high degree of globalization, it dominated the impact of culture by high level of
communication among countries, trade, increasing quality of life and elimination of some barriers
and territories. Due to today economic and the importance of competitiveness among global market,
companies need to focus more on investigating in other countries. Growing more and faster not
happened if they do not go abroad. With setting up new branches in other countries the company will
have opportunity to become market leader and add more value to their organization. On the other
hand, setting up new branches abroad has some limitation that may result of cultural background,
economical situation or other limitation due to different rules. Some important factors that must be
considered are: economic factors, young population, cultural background, their policy to attract
tourists and level of development in country. Better result occurs when high technological thrill
hardware combine with a high level of service and friendly human contact. Previous studies show
cultural factors have direct impact on so many aspect of economy, technical and socio-political values
of company. In current conceptual paper Iran, Malaysia and India were chosen to study while they
have some common cultural background. The propositions will also be discussed.
Keywords: Culture, Managerial Task, Globalization, Organizational Performance
Introduction
TODAY WITH HIGH degree of globalization, it dominated the impact of culture
by high level of communication among countries, trade, increase in quality of life
and elimination of some barriers and territories. Due to today economic and the im-
portance of competitiveness among global market, companies need to focus more
on investigation in other countries. Growing more and faster would not happen if they do
not go abroad. With setting up new branches in other countries the companies will have
opportunity to become market leader also so many values (nancial, non-nancial) will add
to their organization.
On the other hand, setting up new branches abroad has some limitation due to cultural
backgrounds, economical situations and different rules base on countries. Some important
factors that must be considered are: economic factors, young population, cultural background,
policies to attract tourists and level of development in country. Better result occurs when
high technological thrill hardware combine with a high level of service and friendly human
contact.
Previous studies show cultural factors have direct impact on so many aspect of economy,
technical and socio-political values of company. Based on the denition culture characterize
by a set of unique values which guide behavior of people who belong to this culture
(Kankanhalli, Tan, Wei and Holmes, 2003).
The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management
Volume 9, Number 3, 2009, http://www.Management-Journal.com, ISSN 1447-9524
© Common Ground, Zeinab Amini Yekta, All Rights Reserved, Permissions:
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Malaysia Cultural Profile
According to United Nations (UN) statistics, Malaysia population was 27 million in 2008.
The census in 2000 shows the total population grew from an estimated 8 million in 1960 to
23.3 million persons in 2000 and 50.9 percent of the population was male follows by 49.1
percent female. In addition 33.3 percent of the population is less than 15 years of age.
In term of races, most of Malaysian population (50.2 percent) is Malay, almost quarter of
population (24.5 percent) is Chinese, 11 percent indigenous, 7.2 percent Indian, and 1.2
percent members of other ethnic groups. 5.9 percent are Non-Malaysian citizens which in-
cludes students and permanent workers.
Based on the Malaysia’s constitution there is freedom of religion. Statistics show 60.4
percent of population is Muslim, after Islam, Buddhism followers are the second large pop-
ulation by 19.2 percent, 9.1 percent was Christian; 6.3 percent Hindu; 2.6 Confucian, Taoist,
and other Chinese faiths; 0.8 percent practitioners of tribal and folk religions; and 0.4 percent
adherents of other faiths (Library of Congress, Country Prole: Malaysia, March 2006).
During recent decades Malaysia faced many improvements in different aspect of life, for
example the literacy rate for persons aged 10 to 64 years of age increased from 88.6 percent
in 1991 to 93.5 percent in 2000. Furthermore, health indicators and infrastructure have im-
proved substantially since independence. Four decades ago Malaysia was transformed from
an economy dependent on raw materials production and with a largely poor population to a
multi-sector economy. This country is a federated constitutional monarchy based on a par-
liamentary system of government and an independent judiciary.
In the matter of political afliation, Malaysia has been governed by a coalition of political
parties called the National Front (Barisan Nasional-BN), it consisted 14 political parties in
the 2004 elections. The dominant party in the country is United Malays National Organisation
(UMNO).
Overall of National Culture and Sub-Cultures in Malaysia
National Cultural Congress was convened in August 1971 that gave birth to three principles
for the formulation of the national culture in Malaysia. First, the Malaysian national culture
shall be based on the indigenous culture of the region. Second, element from other culture
which is suitable and appropriate may be accepted as element of the national culture; and
third, Islam shall be an important factor in the formation of the culture. Malaysia is a multi-
racial country with a rich cultural heritage. The base of national culture is the Malay culture,
which is native to this region. Islamic values are inserted in Malay Culture. The Malay culture
emphasizes values on courtesy, moderation, tolerance, harmony and cordial relations among
family members, neighbors and community. As Malaysian respect each other’s beliefs and
faiths, cultural and religious festivals such as Hari Raya, Chinese New Year, Deepavali,
Christmas, Gawai Day and other auspicious occasions are given due importance. One of the
unique features of Malaysia is its multi-racial population which practices various religions
such as Islam, Buddhism, Taoism,Hinduism and Christianity. Each ethnic group has its own
beliefs. Under the Federal Constitution, Islam is the ofcial religion of Malaysia but there
is freedom of worship. The Malay Language is the national language of the country. However,
people are free to use their mother tongue and other languages. English as the second language
is widely used in business.
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Islamic Republic of Iran Cultural Profile
Based on the statistic given in 2005 Iranian population was about 68 million. Most of popu-
lation (more than two-third) are living in urban area. It have been estimated Iran’s youth
population will exceed 24 million (34%), Iran with high percentage of young population
(27.1% less than 15 years old) considered as a one of young population which follow by
low percentage of people older than 64 years old (4.9%). The gender distribution is almost
same (51% male). Therefore, this high ratio of the youth to the total population shows high
national potential whereas it became hard for the government to handle this young population.
Due to instability of location Iran hosted 2.1 million refugees, most of them are afghan and
Iraqi refugees (Library of Congress, Country Prole: Iran, March 2006).
Most of the Iranian resident’s are Persian. Other main ethnic groups are Azeri (20 percent),
Kurdish (7 percent), Lur (3 percent), Arab (2 percent), Baloch (2 percent), Turkmen (2 per-
cent), Turkish tribal groups (2 percent), and non-Persian, non-Turkic groups such as Armeni-
ans, Assyrians, and Georgians (2 percent). The ofcial language in Iran is Persian (Library
of Congress, Country Prole: Iran, March 2006).
The ofcial religion of Iran is Shia Islam due to majority of Shia Muslims population
(90%). Rest of religions’ follower are in minority (7% Sunni Muslims, 2% other Islamic
sects such as the Ahl-e Haqq and other religions are Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Juda-
ism). Based on the constitution declares people with different religions must to honor Islamic
codes in different aspects like dress and gender segregation in public. Because of these rules
in recent years large number of Christians emigrated from Iran (Library of Congress,
Country Prole: Iran, March 2006).
Due to allocating public health as a top priority of the government, health care improved
after Iranian revolution. Based on the constitution all Iranians have right to receive basic
health care and also Iranian receive subsidize prescription medicines and vaccination program.
Iran’s Ministry of Social Affairs manages all public programs which control pensions,
disability benets, and income for minor children of deceased workers. In 2003 the govern-
ment began to unify its welfare organizations in an effort to remove inefciency and handle
related challenges. In 2003 Iran spent 22.5 percent of its 2003 national budget on social
welfare programs (Library of Congress, Country Prole: Iran, March 2006).
After revolution the literacy rate has quick growth (79.4 percent in 2003). Based on the
constitution primary education mandatory, almost 95% of children receive facilities for
primary and secondary education. On the other hand, primary, secondary, and higher education
are free. Entry of university is very competitive and most of universities students are female
(60%). As well as 107 public universities there are so many large private universities like
Azad University with more than 110 branches in Iran (Library of Congress, Country Prole:
Iran, March 2006).
In Iran Education is highly respected, and the educational system until high school is more
difcult and comprehensive in comparison to other countries. Like other developing countries,
the elds of medicine and engineering are particularly popular in Iran (Lewis and Stevens,
1986). The average unemployment rate is 27 percent which indicates 2.3 million of young
populations are unemployed. The High Council of Employment recently emphasis on inform-
ation technology (IT) development to overcome this challenge and it described as a general
state policy.
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ZEINAB AMINI YEKTA

The basic measurement for working time is 44 hours per week which start by Saturday
and continue up to Wednesday by 8 hours per day and Thursday working hour is half of
normal days. Any hours beyond these consider as employee overtime and usually the payment
for overtime calculate based on the related rules (1.4*usual payment). As well as Fridays
there are 22 public holidays which employees are lawful to leave on these days. The employee
who work during these days his or her work time will consider as overtime. In addition,
employees are entitled to one-month holiday per annum.
One of important issue related to legal leave is maternity leave for women employee for
90 days with paying salary during this leave. Iranian labor law is so comprehensive which
cover all labor relations in Iran (hiring of local and foreign staff). This law is very employee-
friendly it indicates this law has more stress on employees benet and welfare rather than
employers which make it difcult for employer to layoff employees (termination of employ-
ees’ contract is legal when employee died, retired, become disable, employment contract
expired or employee resign).
The daily leisure time in Iran is ve hours and 23 minutes against ve hours for average
of leisure time in the worldwide. The leisure programs in Iran more focus on youth demand
and try to fulll these demands current program met about 21 percent of the youth demand
for pertaining to leisure programs. Studies related to this topic indicates that sports, art,
tourism, education and religion are top priorities for lling up young people’s leisure time,
moreover 75 percent of youth are expected to be covered by such programs by the end of
the fourth development plan (2010).
Afliation of Iranian residents with its Shia’s population majority added considerable
layers of complexity. “Ofcial political activity is permitted only to groups that accept the
principle of political rule known as velayat-e faqih, literally, the guardianship of the faqih
(religious jurist). In 1998, 18 parties joined in a broad coalition called the Second of Khordad
Front. These were all reformist parties that supported the political and economic proposals
of President Khatami; in the early 2000s, internal differences over specic economic policies
have hampered the Front’s effectiveness, however. During that period, the conservatives
were more united, despite the existence of three major conservative parties—the Society of
the Militant Clergy, the Allied Islamic Society, and the Society of Qom Seminary Teachers.
In 2002 the government permanently disbanded the opposition Freedom Movement, originally
founded in 1961, and imprisoned some of its leaders. The Builders of Islamic Iran (known
as Abadgaran) emerged as a powerful conservative coalition by winning a majority of Majlis
seats in the 2004 elections.” (Library of Congress, Country Prole: Iran, March 2006)
Republic of India Cultural Profile
Estimation for India’s total population in 2004 is 1,065,070,607. The average growth rate
from 1975 to 2001 is 21.3 percent. In term of Population, India is second after china which
is about 17 percent of world’ population. 72 percent of this population dwells in rural areas.
35.3 percent of India population is under 14 years of age and only 4.8 percent are 65 and
above which expected to have reduction in young population by following years. The sex
ratio shows that for 1000 male there is 933 female (Library of Congress, Country Prole:
India, March 2006).
India has so many linguistic, cultural and genetic diversity. Based on the recent studies,
72 percent of the population is Indo-Aryan, 25 percent Dravidian, and 3 percent Mongoloid
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and other. Each of these groups has so many sub-groups which have different combinations
of language, religion and caste.
The Indian census lists 114 languages and from this number only 22 languages are spoken
by one million or more persons. Many of Indians are able to speak more than one language.
That is further categorized into 216 dialects or “mother tongues” spoken by 10,000 or more
speakers. The estimation shows 850 languages are used daily; on the other hand, the Indian
Government claims there are more than 1,600 dialects. The ofcial language in India is
Hindi (40.2 percent of the population) and also English commonly used in business and
politics. In most of state teaching of Hindi and English is mandatory. Other available ofcial
languages in India contain: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri,
Konkani, Maithali, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali,
Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu (Library of Congress, Country Prole: India, March 2006).
Most of India’s population are Hindu and followed by 13.4 percent Muslim, 2.3 percent
Christian, 1.9 percent Sikh, 0.8 percent Buddhist and 0.4 percent Jain; another 0.6 percent
belongs to other faiths. The Indian constitution provides religious freedom for individuals
and prohibits religious discrimination among different religions (Library of Congress,
Country Prole: India, March 2006).
National health indicators for India are lower than other developing countries but studies
shows improvement dramatically. Average of Word’s Human Development Index (HDI is
a measure of income, education, and health developed by the United Nations) was 0.729 in
2002, whereas India’s HDI was 0.595 in 2002 which ranked India 127th in the world. These
facts cause due to substantial poverty and relatively low government health expenditures.
Totally local governments play important role in improving and developing welfare policies
in India. In 2000 union government expenditures on social services was 11.1 percent of total
government expenditures and 1.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) (Library of
Congress, Country Prole: India, March 2006).
Adult literacy rate (percent aged 15 and above) in 2000 was 58.5 percent that shows about
30 percent more for male population rather than female. Total government expenditures on
education in 2001 were Rs841.8 billion (US$17.3 billion), which was 13.2 percent of all
government expenditures and 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Against developed
countries and most of developing countries, large number of states and union territories in
India had no compulsory level of education. The majority of states provide free educational
facilities up to the seventh-grade level, and also the most of primary schools are government
funded and managed (Library of Congress, Country Prole: India, March 2006).
The total number of employment in India is unavailable but according to ofcial gures
during recent decade it grew about 50 percent (The actual number of persons in the labor
force is likely to be much higher). The rate of unemployment reduced from 8.3 percent to 6
percent but it is expected to increase in following years (Library of Congress, Country Prole:
India, March 2006). In 1985 India’s government decided the ve day working system, in
1998 it has been decided to reduce number of day of casual leave for employees from 12
days to 8 days in a year. Based on the given rules the total working hours would not exceed
7-1/2 hours excluding lunch break. There are so many regional holidays in India, many of
these observed only by particular religion or in specic area. But there are three nationwide
holidays which are Republic Day, Independence Day, and Mahatma Gandhi’s Birthday.
The paper which related to the discrimination of leisure among genders, especially with
relation to women in Asia, examined some of the inuences on women’s access to and use
103
ZEINAB AMINI YEKTA

of leisure and the role of leisure in increasing empowerment. It shows that Religion is very
important in the specic context’s leisure in South Asia (especially India). In the rural areas
there are very different time use patterns in comparison to urban residents. The main source
for these differences is differentness in the opportunities for leisure in the two settings, many
more kinds of leisure activities offer just in cities (Basu, 2006). Based on the previous study
by Bhattacharya “in India, there had been a tradition of textualizing the ways of enjoying
and making good use of leisure” (Bhattacharya, 2003).
Previous study by Gupta (2006) shows that group afliation in India is not work based,
it is based on the ethnical differences among different groups. But he believed it is possible
to modify the group afliation of Indians from ethnic to work based groups (Gupta, 2006).
Due to disharmony which causes by religious and ethnic differences, the constitution of
India considered the importance of balancing individual and community rights with worldwide
standards on human rights.”From independence (1947) until 1989, the left-of-center Indian
National Congress and its factions dominated national politics. In the 1990s, the center-right
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the centrist Janata Dal emerged as inuential political
parties, although Congress returned to power in May 2004 with Manmohan Singh as prime
minister. There are numerous national and state parties. Among the best known and most
prominent are: Akali Dal, All-India Anna DMK (AIADMK), Asom Gana Parishad, Bahujan
Samaj Party (BSP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Commun-
ist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Indian National
Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Samajwadi Party, Samata Party, Shiv Sena, and
Telugu Desam.
Since the late 1960s, minority parties in Parliament have often been majority parties in
state legislatures. Since 1989, single political parties have generally failed to win a parlia-
mentary majority. As a result, parliament is often run by coalitions of political parties. It is
believed that the emergence of multiparty governments is caused by voters’ frustration with
political corruption and the fragmentation of electorate support among the growing number
of political parties that represent specic parochial or local interests. Thus, those parties
have strong support only in particular states. Furthermore, lower castes and other social
groups have become more involved in politics as both voters and politicians. It remains to
be seen if these trends are indicative of increasing social fragmentation as parties attempt to
advance parochial interests or simply the result of a socially diverse population’s increasing
participation in politics. (Library of Congress, Country Prole: India, March 2006)
Malaysia in Comparison with Iran and India
Religion
In Malaysia Islam is the ofcial religion but as mentioned earlier Malaysia respect each
other’s beliefs and faiths. Based on the Malaysia’s constitution there is freedom of religion.
From government statistics 60.4 percent of population is Muslim which shows the majority
of Muslims. After Islam, Buddhism followers are the second large population by 19.2 percent,
9.1 percent was Christian; 6.3 percent Hindu; 2.6 Confucian, Taoist, and other Chinese faiths;
0.8 percent practitioners of tribal and folk religions; and 0.4 percent adherents of other faiths
(Library of Congress, Country Prole: Malaysia, March 2006).
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As mentioned earlier, the ofcial religion of Iran is Shia Islam due to majority of Shia
Muslims population (90%). But same as Malaysia constitution, Iran’s constitution declares
people with different religions must to honor Islamic codes in different aspects but more
restricted in some aspects like dress and gender segregation in public.
In both Malaysia and Iran ofcial religion is Islam and most of the rules and regulation
are based on the Islamic rules. Whereas, Most of India’s population are Hindu and followed
by 13.4 percent Muslim, which indicates Muslims in India against Hindus are in minority.
Like Malaysia, the Indian constitution provides religious freedom for individuals and prohibits
religious discrimination among different religions.
Unlike other religions, Islam governs every aspect of life such political, economics and
business activities. Actually, we can say there are no differences between worldly and religious
aspects of life in most of Muslim countries. In most of countries religion has signicant
impact on the individual’s cultural characteristics (Tayeb, 1997). For example in Islamic
Republic of Iran such as the educational establishments, the media, art, political structure
and army, private and public sectors must conform to Islamicvalues and guidelines.Previous
studies shows All people in Islamic countries like Malaysia and Iran, in all aspect of life return
to Islamic traditions and their faith and they use these means to ght and also evaluate the
social and political injustice which they experienced in their society (Feillard, 1997).
In Islamic countries as well as so many similarities in most aspect of life there are so many
differences among them in term of economic, business activities and so on.
In Malaysia as well as other Islamic country Islamization policy has been implemented.
But some of these rules partially implemented, for example in the state of Kelantan at sunset
all the markets must be empty and the food is covered also the people expelled by guards,
the markets will close until pray nish. Moreover, in supermarket there are separate checkout
queues for men and women, unisex hairdressers are banned and women should not wear
excessive lipstick. In Iran women should follow strict Islamic dress code at work as well as
other places, also segregation of sexes in most of places like public transport, queues at shop
and also wedding ceremonies must be implemented, but these rules don’t limit women in
their public life. As mentioned earlier most of universities’ students are females and they
can go into most jobs and professions, even, they can stand for parliament (Tayeb, 1997).
Political Affiliation
Malaysia government in 2004 consists of 14 political parties which called the National Front
(Barisan National-BN). The dominant party in BN and country is United Malay National
Organization (UMNO-109 seats), the majority of UMNO in BN create barrier for other
parties to compete. But two other parties (Malaysia Chinese Association-MCA-31 seats and
Malaysian Indian Congress-MIC) have inuence in BN. The political parties usually pick
up based on their distinct ethic or religious communities and their success in selection depend
on their individual leader’s inuence.
As mentioned earlier group afliation in India is not work based, it is based on the ethnical
differences among different groups. But he believed it is possible to modify the group afl-
iation of Indians from ethnic to work based groups (Gupta, 2006). In Iran afliation to one
group inuenced by linguistic, culture and religion, while other groups are either assumed
have some unknown afliation. Some of these groups are predominantly descended from
non-Iranian peoples, their inclusion related to their linguistic afliation. Based on the given
105
ZEINAB AMINI YEKTA

background in these three regions the main source of afliation is ethnic, linguistic and reli-
gion.
Leisure
Cultural differences have direct impact on leisure activities. Capitalist societies are more
active in leisure activities due to need to purchase of equipment and services to fulll leisure
times. Moreover, people with different cultural background has different tendency to spend
their time in leisure activities rather than continuous work. According to Marcus Verhaegh,
if everyone becomes satised with smaller piece of the pie, as a result everyone can meet
their basic needs and if everyone basic needs met then they have some free time to spend in
their hobbies and leisure activities.
As mentioned earlier Religion is very important factor in the specic context’s leisure.
On the other hand, in the rural areas there are very different time use patterns in comparison
to urban residents.
During recent decade, Malaysia faced rapid urbanization as well as their economical
changes. The impact of urbanization appear when large number of rural people migrate to
urban centers, because of this event local and states governments have to provide land for
development and housing for growing urban population. On the other hand they need to offer
many leisure activities and cultural entertainment which ensure them to have relaxing stay.
Malaysia government provides multi-culture programs to raise individual’s awareness of
other cultures.
Instead of Malaysian pressure on urban leisure facilities and India un-discrimination pro-
grams, the leisure programs in Iran more focus on youth demand and try to fulll these de-
mands. Studies related to this topic indicate that sports, art, tourism, education and religion
are top priorities for lling up young people’s leisure time.
Prevailing Attitude Toward Time
Attitude toward time differ from one culture to other one, then differences in attitudes toward
time may demonstrate and provide meaningful way to segment markets (Brodowsky and
Anderson, 2005,Locke, 2001).
According to research by Dick Locke (2001) there are two kinds of culture which have
dealing with attitude toward time; polychromic (Latin and South Asian culture) and mono-
chromic (North Asian and North European). Person with monochromic culture, want to do
one thing at a time and work base on the schedule whereas for polychromic person no matter
to do several things simultaneously (Locke, 2001).
Iranian shows different attitude toward time, most of these differences resulted due to
different culture, but some other reason like laziness of Persians increase these differences.
Their attitude in this term is kind of ex-time when going places and don’t try to be anywhere
at a precise hours. Sometimes this attitude create problem in work place especially in the
situation that people are expected to arrive exactly on time (Lewis and Stevens, 1986).
Indians base on their culture believe that “things will happen when they have to happen”.
Attitude toward time in India is elastic and more exible (Banerjee, 2006, Alter, 2006), in
other word, Indians’ are not sensitive to time, for Indians deadlines not such a big deal.
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In Malaysia due to differences in ethnical and cultural group different attitudes toward
time happen. The Malaysian Chinese are more punctual whereas ethnic Malays have relaxed
attitude toward time.
Prevailing Attitude toward Change
“Attitude toward Change is traditionally dened as the willingness to accept or reject imple-
mentation of something new.” (Zakaria, 2001: 5). As well as cultural factors the response
of individual to change depends on individual’s personalities, the groups they interact, and
how changes are presented to them (Zakaria, 2001). Some other factors which must consider
are age, gender and education.
The study developed by Zabid, Sambasivan and Azmawani (2004), indicates there is an
association between culture and affective and cognitive attitude toward change in Malaysian
context. Moreover these study shows different types of culture have different level of accept-
ance of attitude toward change.
In Iran as well as cultural difculty for change acceptance, attitude toward change strongly
tie to individual personality, person in Iran who is innovative has positive attitude toward
change (safavi, 2007).
Individualism, Power Distance
Power distance, tolerance for ambiguity, honesty, pursuance of group or individual goals,
work ethic, and entrepreneurial spirit, are part of the cultural identity of a nation (Hofstede,
1980; Tayeb, 1988; Wiener, 1981). Power distance dened as “the extent to which the less
powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that
power is distributed unequally.” (Hofstede, 1980)
Table I: Hofstede’s Scaling of National Cultures
MasculinityUncertainlyPower DistanceIndividualismCountry
Avoidance
RankIndexRankIndexRankIndexRankIndex
28-295324-256844-45802538Arabcountries
224612-134843-44786-714Indonesia
17-184320-215924-25582741Iran
26-2750836501041726Malaysia
26-275026-277022556-714Pakistan
20-214534-358534-35662437Turkey
Source: Hofstede (1997) pp. 26, 53, 84, 112
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ZEINAB AMINI YEKTA

Table II: National cultures
Gray Hypothesis
Result
Uncertainly
Avoidance
Power
Distance
CollectivismCountry
Statutory controlStrongLargeHighArab countries
Statutory controlWeakLargeHighIndonesia
Statutory controlStrongLargeHighIran
Statutory controlWeakLargeHighMalaysia
Statutory controlStrongLargeHighPakistan
Statutory controlStrongLargeHighTurkey
Statutory controlStrongLargeHighAverage tendencies
Source: Lolla and Davis (1991)
In the study developed by Askari he examined cultural perspective of developing countries
and the impact of these factors on accounting professionalism. In this study he referred to
Hofstede’s cultural study (1980), based on Hofstede’s study in term of individualism Iran
ranked 41 against Malaysia ranked 26, but both countries consider as a high collectivism.
In term of power distance Iran ranked 58 and Malaysia ranked 104 in this aspect still both
consider as a large power distance (table I, table II).
In the study by Gupta (2006) mentioned, major cultural values of Indian consist of high
power distance, collectivism (Chhokar, 2000; Sinha, 1997).
Indians, Iranians and Malaysian are much less group embedded than developed countries.
Both Iranian and Indian context have strong uncertainly avoidance whereas Malaysia has
weak uncertainly avoidance (Hofstede, 1980). But recent study shows Indians to be moderate
on uncertainly avoidance (Chhokar, 2000).
Impact of Cultural Differences on Management Task
As mentioned earlier, today with high degree of globalization, it dominated the impact of
culture by high level of communication among countries, trade, increase in quality of life
and elimination of some barriers and territories.
Previous studies show cultural factors have direct impact on so many aspect of economy,
technical and socio-political values of company. Based on the denition culture characterize
by a set of unique values which guide behavior of people who belong to this culture
(Kankanhalli, Tan, Wei and Holmes, 2003).
Based on the given background Iran, India and Malaysia considered as high collectivism
and strong power distance. In the study provided by Kankanhalli et.al indicates Individualism-
Collectivism has direct impact on economic, technical and socio-political values. Also they
mentioned different cultural tendency result different values, which provide potential for
much conict (Kankanhalli, Tan, Wei and Holmes, 2003).
In term of innovation also culture is one of important variable which has direct impact on
success or failure. The main differences across culture that must consider are; ethnicity,
108
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE, CULTURE AND CHANGE
MANAGEMENT

language, religious afliation, gender, contextual knowledge, educational background
(Urbaczewski, Wells, Sarker, Koivisto, 2002).
Alavi and McCronick argue that country such Iran with high level of power distance and
in-group collectivism may faced problem in implementing some in-group and managerial
development. They pressured on the importance of individualism and collectivism as most
inuential dimensions due to capacity of these dimensions to explain other cultural dimensions
(Alavi and McCronick, 2003).
In term of negotiation style, culture consider as one of important factor. Baron (2003) in
his study applied Hosted study and indicate countries with strong power distance, negotiation
tend to be more comfortable in term of hierarchical structures, clear authority gures, and
the right to use power with discretion (Baron, 2003). These differences sometimes cause
conicts which is solvable by correct understanding of cultural differences. On the other
hand, study by Jordan shows the country which has nearest dimensions for global means is
Iran, it indicates is the country which four conicts (supervisor and subordinate, male and
female, individual and group, risk taking and risk averse) are in balance.
In addition, religion is one of important factor that can inuence management task in
different regions. A study related to Iranian context indicates Iranian managers follow Islamic
rules and values at work. In the work place supervisor and subordinates view each other as
brother or sister and their relationship is family-like (Tayeb, 1997). In this study they also
provide related aspect in managerial practice in Malaysian context. Malaysia government
implements Islamization process which attempt to infuse Islamic values throughout the so-
ciety. “Most organizations held frequent religious sermons and used corporate culture to
inculcate Islamic awareness among employees.”
Propositions
The main objective of the proposed study is to explain the impact of selected cultural aspects
and differences on managerial tasks. The problem is how different cultural factors can change
managerial tasks.
Proposition 1: Appropriate managerial task differ in country with different religion.
Proposition 2: Countries with higher power distance are more comfortable with hier-
archical structures.
Proposition 3: Countries with higher power distance are more comfortable with clear
authority gures.
Proposition 4: Different cultural tendency tend to provide potential for more conict.
Proposition 5: There is negative relationship between in-group collectivism and mana-
gerial development.
Proposition 6: Similarity in language, religious afliation between employees and
management has negative relationship with work conict.
Proposition 7: Applying Islamic values have stronger impact on organizational improve-
ment in Iran and Malaysia rather than India.
Proposition 8: Synchronization of manager and employees language has negative rela-
tionship with work conict.
109
ZEINAB AMINI YEKTA

Figure 1: Theoretical Framework
Proposed framework for this study is illustrated in Figure 1. Current research proposes to
study on three different samples from three different populations (Iran, India and Malaysia).
The size of each sample is going to be 100 dyads subjects who are in managerial positions
and their immediate subordinates.
Conclusion
Based on the given background and different cultural practice the manager should nd the
way to express their follower by consideration on important cultural values.
In the country with high dependency on family relationship they must provide facility to
enable them spent more time with their family. Importance of culture in term of religion and
their obligation to these values is very important factor for manager who has leading role in
foreign country. Manager must be aware about language differences and misunderstanding
which resulted in their job instructions. For manager it is better to learn foreign language as
a one of powerful weapon to inuence employees.
Manager must become sensitive to individual differences and respect to their cultural oc-
casions. This strategy will result more productivity as well as high employees’ job satisfaction.
Cultural awareness eliminates barriers in term of entrance to foreign market and marketing
in foreign country. Therefore, knowing and using culture and its related dimensions is key
factor in managing in foreign country.
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About the Author
Zeinab Amini Yekta
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
111
ZEINAB AMINI YEKTA

EDITORS
Mary Kalantzis, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA.
Bill Cope, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA.
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Verna Allee, Verna Allee Associates, Martinez, USA.
Zainal Ariffin, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
Robert Brooks, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Bruce Cronin, University of Greenwich, London, UK.
Rod Dilnutt, William Bethway and Associates, Melbourne, Australia.
Judith Ellis, Enterprise Knowledge, Melbourne, Australia.
Andrea Fried, Technology University Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Germany.
David Gurteen, Gurteen Knowledge, Fleet, UK.
David Hakken, University of Indiana, Bloomington, USA.
Sabine Hoffmann, American University of the Middle East, Kuwait.
Stavros Ioannides, Pantion University, Athens, Athens, Greece.
Margaret Jackson, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
Paul James, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
Leslie Johnson, University of Greenwich, London, UK.
Eleni Karantzola, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece.
Gerasimos Kouzelis, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Krishan Kumar, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA.
Martyn Laycock, University of Greenwich; managingtransitions.net, London, UK.
David Lyon, Queens University, Ontario, Canada.
Bill Martin, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
Pumela Msweli-Mbanga, University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa.
Alexandra Roth, Northeastern University, Boston, USA.
Claudia Schmitz, Cenandu Learning Agency, Cologne, Germany.
Kirpal Singh, Singapore Management University, Singapore.
Dave Snowden, Cynefin Centre for Organisational Complexity, UK.
Voicu Sucal, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Napoca, Romania.
Chryssi Vitsilakis-Soroniatis, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece.
JoAnn Wiggins, Walla Walla University, Walla Walla, USA.
Alan Zaremba, Northeastern University, Boston, USA.
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