Key Success Factors (KSFs) for Webster Graduate Students

Dr. Steve F. Foster, Adjunct Professor, Management and Psychology

Key Success Factors

• Time management skills

• Stress management skills = closely-related above

• Communication skills = reading, writing, speaking

• ‘Team-work skills’ - Incl. managing diversity*

• Ethical awareness/actions - Incl. respecting others e.g. avoiding plagiarism, etc.

* culture, gender, age, etc.

‘Onion model’ of Culture: It all really starts with one’s perceptions

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Spencer & Oatey, 2000

The World of my Chicago schooldays

© Dr. G.W.J. Heling5

The world in Chinese Schools

The World – north polar projection

How old is she?

INTR 4.1

How old is she?

INTR 4.1

How old is she?

INTR 4.1

Societal cultures differ in terms of:

• Individuality vs. collectivism

• Quality of life (Fem) vs. Quantity of Life (Mas)

• Acceptance of Power Distance

• Uncertainty Avoidance

• Long- vs. short-term Orientation

(G. Hofstede: ‘Cultures and organizations’)

Selected (Hofstede) culture scores• PDI = Power Distance Index; IND = Individualism; MAS = “Masculinity”; UAI = Uncertainty

Avoidance; LTO – Long term Orientation: Low, Med, High

• Note: scores are averages. Every society has a wide range of individual scores.

•

• ARAB COUNTRIES: PDI = High; IND = Low; MAS = Average; UAI = MedHigh

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• Belgium: PDI = Med; IND = High; MAS = Med; UAI = High; LTO = Medium

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• China: PDI = M-H ; IND – Low; MAS = Medium; UAI = M-H; LTO = Very High

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• EAST AFRICA: PDI=M-H; IND = Med-Low; MAS = Med; UAI = Med LTO = Low

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• Netherlands: PDI = Low; IND = H; MAS = Low; UAI = Med; LTO = Med

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• WEST AFRICA: PDI = High; IND = Low; MAS = M-L; UAI = Med; LTO = V-L

• US PDI = Low; IND = High; MAS = Med; UAI = Low; LTO = Low

•

• Q: How relevant is Cross Cultural expertise

for: Business success today?for: success in studying at Webster?

• WHY?

© Dr. G.W.J. Heling14

Just think of …• Working with others on study teams• Globalisation of business:

Negotiations, Cooperation, etc. • International education & career paths• Corporate cultures:

Integration of ‘foreign’ employees, etc.• M&A:

– mergers take many years to be successful– 70 – 80 % of all mergers fail:

(main attribution: cultural differences) – poorly perceived, poorly managed

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The meaning of ‘bankruptcy’• USA: positive image of gaining

business experience

• The Netherlands: business failure, loss of trust by

shareholders, banks, suppliers etc.

• Japan: moral failure, dishonouring of all related people (family,

employees, suppliers, customers, etc.)

(after Dr. St. Foster)

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Q: What would you do?A boss asks a subordinate to help him paint his house. The subordinate who does not feel like doing it, discusses the situation with a colleague.

A.The colleague argues: “You don’t have to paint if you don’t feel like it. He is your boss at work. Outside he has little authority.”

B. The subordinate argues: “Despite the fact that I don’t feel like it, I will paint it. He is my boss and you can’t ignore that outside work either.”

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Percentage of respondents who would refuse to help the boss

• The Netherlands 93 %

• Spain 71 %

• Kuwait 50 %

• China 28 %

(Trompenaars, 1993)

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How value-preferences can differ

Netherlands France Germany Britain

1 Reality Imagination Leadership Helicopter

2 Analysis Analysis Analysis Imagination

3 Helicopter Leadership Reality Reality

4 Leadership Helicopter Imagination Analysis

5 Imagination Reality Helicopter Leadership

Table: Shell's HAIRL system of individual appraisal as prioritised

by managers from 4 European countries (Trompenaars, 1993).

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International competition to write an article about elephants

• English: Hunting elephants in British East Africa

• French: The love life of elephants in French Equatorial Africa

• German: Classifying elephant development in the years 1200-1950, 1900 pages in 6 Vols.

• American: How to breed bigger and better elephants

• Russian: How we will send an elephant to the moon

• Chinese: Aphrodisiac and healing powers of elephant parts in the Ming Dynasty

• Indian: Elephants as transportation means before railways

• Spaniard: Techniques of elephant fighting

• Dutch: Costs of using multicultural elephants in social integration and development programmes

• African: Selling elephant viewing safaris to wealthy tourists

Noteworthy

Don’t confuse the styles of individuals with styles typical of their society (the ‘ecological fallacy’)

“A culture is a set of likely reactions of citizens with a common mental programming,

but not the ‘average citizen’ nor a ‘modal personality.’

> Organzations that managed their cultures well today, see it reflected in their balance sheets for years to come.”

(Hofstede, 1991)

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KSF - Ethical awareness and actions:Be aware:

• Generally, treating others fairly and with justice is considered to be ethical behavior

• Citation without proper credit is unfair and unjust (both to author and to reader)

• Obtaining university marks/credit under false pretenses is academic fraud

• Taking/using property that isn’t one’s own is theft

• There are standards for proper conduct and there are sanctions for improper conduct.

KSF – Ethical actions> Kohlberg’s theory of Moral development:

Three Levels of Personal Moral Development: PreConventional/Conventional/PostConventional

Immanual Kant’s Theory of the Moral Imperative:

‘One must do what is right because it is to be done’

One bad apple can spoil the barrel (Arthur Andersen & Company)

It’s the responsibility of good apples to resist the temptations to be spoiled (by responsible actions)

‘Everybody does it’ is an excuse not a valid reason.

Concluding …• Cross Cultural and Ethical Expertise are KSFs for persons

(and organisations) with global outlooks (Webster folks)

• Try to understand others but know yourself first

• Avoid the over-simplicities of prejudice

• Know differences and capitalize on similarities

• Prepare for the new and unexpected

• Train your skills, but remain authentically you

• Never lose respect for others & their cultures

• And … try hard to keep looking at things from different perspectives

© Dr. G.W.J. Heling24