Revision de antecedentes sobre la construccion de lombricarios caseros:

Generally, there are relatively few studies within the OM/QM body of knowledge examining societal culture so that many of the cited studies are actually located outside the “traditional” outlets. As noted by Pagell, Katz and Sheu (2005), researchers in OM have only recently begun to acknowledge the importance of societal culture.

culture for practices of CI. In reviewing the literature, I touch upon related fields of theory, namely contingency and institutional theory. While I will not fully explore the theoretical position of these frameworks, it is important to include them in this review for a sound positioning of the present study.

Studies that do examine CI in the light of societal culture mostly do so in reference to Hofstede’s (1980a, 2001) framework of national culture. It has clearly dominated cross-cultural research in the past three decades (Kirkman, Lowe, & Gibson, 2006) will therefore be introduced shortly here.

The first edition of Hofstede’s book “Culture’s Consequences_{” (1980a) was published in}

1980 and presented four universal dimensions of national culture, based on more than 100,000 survey responses obtained from employees of a worldwide operating company in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The fifth dimension was found later in a study using a questionnaire designed by Chinese scholars and added to the initial set of four (Hofstede & Bond, 1988).

• Individualism versus Collectivism (I-C) _{is the dimension that characterises} the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups. The ties between

7 _{The terms ‘societal’, ‘ethnic’ and ‘national’ and ‘country’ culture are treated synonymously for societal-}

level culture in this thesis although I acknowledge that they use a different frames of reference for group-inclusion; “national” uses the nation-state as criterion for inclusion, while “societal” permits a more fine-grained differentiation such as in language groups (as applied in House, et al., 2004) or ethnicities within a nation-state. Throughout this thesis I use the term “societal culture” while maintaining the original terms when referring to other scholars’ works when it adds clarity.

members of individualistic cultures are looser than between members of collectivistic cultures. These bonds within groups or extended families offer belonging and protection but demand loyalty in return.

• Power Distance _{is a measure for the extent to which people accept and expect} power to be distributed unequally in a society.

• Masculinity versus Femininity _{refers to the distribution of roles between the} genders. In feminine countries both women and men share modest and caring values, whereas Masculinity refers to assertiveness and competitiveness for men and - to a lesser degree – for women. As a result, in masculine countries the gap between men's and women's values is greater.

• Uncertainty Avoidance _{reflects the society's tolerance for uncertainty and} ambiguity; it reflects the degree to which members feel comfortable in unstructured situations. Consequently uncertainty avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of uncertain situations by rigid laws and rules.

• Long-Term Orientation versus Short-Term Orientation_{: Long-term} oriented cultures look for guidance in the future rather than the presence. Other values associated with long-term orientation are thrift and persistence; in organisations, long-term oriented cultures emphasise the building of relationships and market position, whereas short-term oriented cultures stress fast results and the immediate “bottom line”.

Hofstede’s framework provides the basic means to frame cultural variation and is applied in both empirical and conceptual research on the role of societal culture for CI. I will first examine conceptual works to proceed to empirical studies in the following section.

2.3.1 Conceptual contributions – The concept of value congruence

One class of conceptual works investigate the value congruence of QM/OM concepts with societal cultures. According to many cultural theorists, societal cultures are

based on values, and thus cultural differences can be understood as value differences (Hofstede, 1980a). Based on the notion that many OM and QM concepts and practices are also inherently value-laden (e.g. Hellsten & Klefsjö, 2000; Jabnoun, 2001), scholars have hypothesised about the cultural compatibility of a given societal culture with CI (e.g. Kumar & Sankaran, 2007; Pun, Chin, & Lau, 2000) or defined an allegedly ideal culture profile for CI concepts (e.g. Jabnoun & Khafaji, 2005) in terms of universally applicable dimensions of culture.

Kumar and Sankaran (2007), for instance, conceptually compare facets of Indian culture and the values that supposedly underlie TQM, using Hofstede’s (1980a) dimension of national culture as conceptual framework. Interestingly, they argue

Against the conventional wisdom in TQM literature that hierarchy is not conducive for TQM implementation and shown how in the Indian context, hierarchy, operationalised through the guru-shishya relationship based on the nurturance of subordinates can aid the learning orientation of organisational members and facilitate TQM implementation. (p. 186)

Similarly, Pun, Chin and Lau (2000) argued for a “culture-specific management system” (p. 336) in China. They investigated the differences between Anglo-American and Chinese culture and how they would affect the implementation of TQM in Chinese enterprises. In particular, they looked at the role of the individual within the group, in terms of Hofstede’s dimensions of I-C and Power Distance. Interestingly, they also pointed toward the role of organisational cultures in resolving the seemingly inherent value conflict between TQM and national values.

In a similar vein, Psychogios and colleagues (2008) conceptually contrasted the Anglo- Saxon with different non-Anglo-Saxon socio-cultural contexts in terms of their adaption of TQM in order to examine the applicability of TQM in Greece. They identified two cultural forces in Greek society, namely “traditionalism” and “reformism” to be likely to affect the implementation of TQM in Greece. Supported by data from several interviews, they offered three different scenarios for the acceptance of TQM in the Greek industry he investigated: Rejection, acceptation and a

contingency perspective. They suggested that the contingency scenario, i.e. not “adopting the whole package but the selective use of certain elements for maximum impact” (p. 168) was most likely to occur.

Lagrosen (2002) used the dimension of Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance of Hofstede’s (1980a) framework of national culture to explore findings from interviews in a multinational organisation in four different European countries. He comes to the conclusion that while the differences in practice between the observed countries are not huge, “there are some vital distinctions” (p. 282).

Another class of conceptual works defined an allegedly ideal culture profile for CI concepts in terms of universally applicable dimensions of societal culture. For instance, Jabnoun and Khafaji (2005) held that TQM is more suitable for cultures of low Masculinity, low Power Distance, and low Uncertainty Avoidance, in terms of Hofstede’s (2001) framework.

In contrast, Kumar and colleagues (2011) argued that high Collectivism, low Power Distance and low Uncertainty Avoidance were more conducive to TQM.

Anwar and Jabnoun (2006) hypothesised about the relationship between dimensions of societal culture and different aspects related to QM. Their “contingency model” suggests that different dimensions of societal cultures are conducive to quality assurance, quality control, CI and customer satisfaction, respectively. For instance, with regard to CI they suggested that a low level of Uncertainty Avoidance and a low level of Power Distance yield the best results. The parallels of this class of study with similar conceptual studies that hypothesise the ideal organisational _{cultural profile}

are obvious.

Summing up, most of the above conceptual studies are based on the notion of value congruence between CI practices and alleged values of societal culture. Hofstede’s framework of societal culture plays a salient role.

2.3.2 Empirical contributions

TQM’s high failure rates increasingly raised doubts about its universal applicability and what followed were studies that looked at different aspects such as firm size, uncertainty, corporate support for quality, and also societal culture in which the organisation is located.

This section is organised in accordance with conceptual views that are common in international management research: culture-specific and culture-free. While culture- specific practices are applicable only in certain cultural contexts, the assumption of culture-universalism has no such limitation. More common in the OM/QM field is the similar theoretical perspective of contingency theory. It relates to the "understanding of the contextual conditions under which [practices] are effective” (R. Sousa & Voss, 2008, p. 697).

Contingency theory stresses the need of organisations to adapt to environmental circumstances and that “the appropriate form depends on the kind of task or environment with which one is dealing” (Morgan, 2006, p. 42). In this perspective of “fit”, there is no “one best way of organising”, but the organisation with its various subsystems needs to continuously adapt to its environment. In their foundational study, Lawrence and Lorsch’s (1967) found that the primary environmental variables were uncertainty of information, rate of change and time span until definitive feedback.

Although the suggestion to include national culture in the contingency model of organisations was already made by Child and Kieser (1979), a contingency perspective did traditionally not include culture as a contingency variable. Until a recent review of the OM literature, in which Sousa and Voss (2008) list “national culture” as one of several contingency factors.

Clark and Mueller (1996), for instance, explained, “the core assumption of the orthodox contingency-organization theory of design is that the ideal blue-print for a specific firm as derived from the theory can be implemented in practice, independent of the societal context _{into which the organization is embedded” (p. 132, emphasis}

added). The fact that Sousa and Voss (2008) included national culture can thus be understood as a sign of the increasing acknowledgement of the contingency perspective in OM theory in general, and the significance of societal culture in particular. As pointed out by Sousa and Voss (2008), the initial interest in culture on the field of OM/QM stems probably from the fact that many of the OM management concepts such as CI originated in Japan.

Another term which is sometimes confused with the culture-specific/universal dichotomy is the distinction between cultural convergence and divergence. Followers of the convergence hypothesis argue that cultural differences between societies and management systems will gradually disappear with advancing economical development, while the divergence viewpoint implies that societies maintain or even increase their cultural distinctiveness during the development process. This perspective created significant interest in the debate around the “Japanese management model” (Dunphy, 1987), one aspect of which being the CI approach. Japanese management practices did not only seem to differ in significant ways from what was known as “sound management” in the United States, but it also outperformed Western approaches. No wonder that “some Japanese management practices disturbed Western researchers” (Dunphy, 1987, p. 446).

Although conceptually distinct from culture-free/culture-specific argument – the convergence/divergence distinction refers to the process of cultural change while universalist/specific dichotomy describes properties of management practices – the underlying assumptions are similar. Ashkanasy and Jackson (2002) explained that

The convergence perspective downplays the ‘culture-bound’ or conservative effect of societal culture in favor of what might be termed a more or less ‘culture-free’ view. This view generally has it that, rather than societal culture, the limitations of technology and economic efficiency circumscribe the industrial forms that a society can adopt. (p. 410)

In both the culture-free and the convergence view, a certain set of practices is viewed as superior in an absolute sense: If cultures and management systems converge

toward a more developed state, these practices should, eventually, be universally applicable.

2.3.2.1 Culture as contingency variable – the notion of cultural fit

This first stream of research examines the role of societal culture as an external constraint or a contingency variable to practices of CI.

The much-cited study of Newman and Nollen (1996) examined the fit between management practices and national culture in a multinational organisation using Hofstede’s (1980a) framework of national culture. They found that business units whose management practice were congruent with the national culture showed higher financial performance.

This has similarity to what Noronha called "culture-specific TQM". Based on survey data from different Chinese regions he developed a model that showed how Chinese values are reflected in quality related processes, methods, and results. Using confirmatory factor analysis he thus developed a “culture-specific TQM model” reflecting Confucian values in China. He explained that:

Total quality management itself as a transcendent culture has abundant room to work within the unique climate of organization. Whether TQM will sustain or fail relies largely on how it fuses with the quality climate, which is in turn influenced by the national culture setting. In other words, there is no pre-packaged TQM applicable to all organizations worldwide. The implementation of TQM has to be culture specific. Although some cultural values may appear more in line with TQM principles while others may not, it does not mean that an organization can simply use TQM to transform its culture. Rather, TQM and the respective organizational climate must fuse together, absorbing each other mutually. (2002b, p. 142)

Many organisations worldwide regard the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality award as a guideline, since its framework of constructs and weights “specifies cause and effect, implying which practices lead to various desired outcomes” (Flynn & Saladin, 2001, p. 618). Flynn and Saladin (2006) examined the relevance of the Baldrige criteria across different societal cultures on a sample consisting of quality-leading

manufacturing organisations from the US, Germany, Italy, England and Japan by relating them to Hofstede’s (1980a) dimensions of national culture. They found that “national culture plays a strong role in the effectiveness of the Baldrige construct” (p. 583) and concluded that “there is not a universal model for performance excellence and that practices and approaches should be adapted to the local culture” (p. 599). Based on the same data set as Flynn and Saladin’s study (the second data collection round or the World Class Manufacturing project) Rungtusanathan and colleagues (2005) examined whether the Deming-based theory and definitions of TQM are different in different cultures. While they could not find convergence in the use of TQM elements across all of the four examined countries of Japan, Germany, Italy and the US, they also found great similarities between countries so that neither the culture-specific nor the culture-free (universalist) hypothesis is fully supported.

To determine the fit of CI practices with the respective societal culture Robert et al. (2000) examined job satisfaction of employees in branches of a single international firm in India, Poland, Mexico the US using structural equation modelling. They found CI to be significantly associated with job satisfaction irrespective of the societal culture, but the strength of the relationship differed considerably. Like other researchers before them, they highlight the importance of the cultural dimensions of I-C and Power Distance.

In a recent study, Vecchi and Brennan (2009) examined whether QM practices are culture-specific or universal in a cross-cultural study involving data from 23 countries (International Manufacturing Strategy Survey, 4th _{data collection round). In their}

study they find strong evidence for the culture-specific view on QM.

As opposed to Vecchi and Brennan (2009), whose results “clearly indicated the significant relationship between cultural dimensions and quality management” (p. 158), Dahlgaard et al., (1998) did not pursue societal culture as an explanatory variable in their analysis. Although they did find significant differences in their sample of organisations in several Eastern and Western countries, they held that “the development of a [organisational] culture of continuous improvements and co-

operation can close much of the gap between the East and the West” (p. 826). This statement is interesting insofar as it exemplifies the implicit convergence or culture- free assumption inherent in much of the OM literature. In its milder form, it is assumed that organisational cultures can be used to compensate for country differences.

Sousa-Poza and colleagues’ (2001) above-mentioned study should not go unnoticed here, as they were the first to include societal culture as a variable in a study investigating organisational culture for TQM effectiveness. Despite the ostensible similarity to Dahlgaard and colleagues’ argument, it should be noted that their stance is not congruent with a culture-free position. On the contrary, their results indicated that in distinct socio-cultural contexts, the characteristics of a conducive organisational culture may be different while leading to the same quality performance. In other words, their study abandoned the universalist assumption on both organisational and societal level – and instead pointed toward the importance of the interplay _{between organisational and societal culture. Given that management}

research is only recently starting to focus on the concurrent importance of organisational and society level factors, their study was undoubtedly ahead of its time. Summing up, in studies that investigate societal culture for practices of CI, culture is conceptualised as an external constraint whose knowledge should be used to manage organisations more effectively in different cultural contexts. These mostly survey- based studies map statistical co-relationships between the use or perceived effectiveness of CI practices in different cultures and the scores in cultural frameworks (most notably, Hofstede, 1980a; House, et al., 2004) to predict contingent relationships. Clearly, the literature lacks integrative views that look at the simultaneous role of societal and organisational cultures, with the exception of Sousa- Poza’s (1999) study. Unfortunately this attempt has gone largely unheeded.

In the above mentioned literature review, Sousa and Voss (2008) came to the conclusion that – with one exception – “all studies support the existence of contingency effects" (p. 703) in relation to societal culture. Although the present

review has covered a different set of studies than Sousa and Voss’ review, a similar picture emerges: The weight of evidence suggests that there are differences in characteristics and performance of CI practice between countries that can be explained by cultural theory, whether studies choose the convergence/divergence, culture-specific/culture-free or a contingency perspective as theoretical lens.

To conclude, a compelling argument is brought forward by Rungtusanathan and colleagues (2005) who suggest that:

Instead of debating whether or not TQM, in its entirety, is applicable across various settings, we should, perhaps, be asking more specifically about which TQM constructs and TQM relationships are applicable/not applicable across which countries, as well as how and why such would be the case. (p. 58, emphasis added) Accordingly, the following section deals with studies that take a closer look at culture using a case study approach.

2.3.2.2 Single case studies

This class of studies look at the role of societal culture beyond the simplicity of pre- defined cultural frameworks through case research.

Gómez (2004) investigated factors that affected the implementation of CI and learning practices in the case of a Mexican subsidiary of a US multinational corporation. With regard to HR management she found universal, culture-specific and a third class of practices she labelled “translations” of practices into the Mexican cultural context. Also using a case study approach of a Polish manufacturing firm, Roney (1997)