Taiwan's Cultural Framework - Assignment Example

Taiwan’s Cultural framework Name Course Tutor Date This paper will examine the Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck Framework and Hofstedes' dimensions that describe the culture of Taiwan. This will also further examine the government efforts in attracting foreign investments into their country. This paper will then make appropriate recommendations to the Victoria University as to whether it should invest in Taiwan. The Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck Framework This is one of the particularly early cultural comparatively analogies; it has a particularly good ideological basis that is used in cultural variations of cultures around the world. They do believe that a limited number of problem are common in the worlds societies, and also that the limited number of solutions are common in all societies (Larry A. Samovar 2009). The six dimensions that are used to describe the Taiwanese culture include the following; 1. Relationship with nature; in this categorization, it is either that people have dominion over nature, they need for duty, control and master of their nature, people either give in or submit to nature, and they maintain harmony with nature by working tougher with nature. The Taiwanese people maintain harmony with working together with nature. The country has various tradition and religions that from time immemorial has always fostered good relationship with nature. The country’s various religions like Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, encourage people to live harmoniously with nature. The perception with Taiwanese people is that nature is part of life and not something that is waiting to be subdued (Hills 2002). In the Australian culture people have dominion over nature, they do not live in harmony with nature rather the seek to subdue it, the Taiwanese culture live in harmony with nature, this is because of the country’s religious beliefs, Confucianism, they work together with nature, and foster good relationships wit with nature. 2. Beliefs about human nature; in this category people can be good or even evil. The Taiwanese societies are most subscribers of the Taoism cultures; this people believe in the concept of yin and yang. Meaning that, where there is good, evil also exists. Since people exist in the world, they are exposed to these two natural dimensions if the good increases the harmful will decrease and so on. The Buddhist and Confucianism cultures believe that the human nature is good. There are highly optimistic about the human nature. The East Asian societies are largely Buddhists and are governed by strict, authoritarian rules hence the general nature of people of Taiwan is good. In contrast, the in the Australian culture which believes that there is genuine evil in the world, this is a living force that goes against the good and God nature of the world. In the Taiwanese culture, they believe that the human nature is good, and where there is good the evil nature also exists, they believe in the concept of yin and yang. 3. Relationships between people; in this category people can be individualistic, that is, they are concerned about themselves and their immediate families, or, they can possess collectivism, that is they are concerned about a group, here, people belong to a member of a group in exchange for loyalty; and, hierarchical, this is where people belong to a group that are arranged in a structural hierarchical nature. The Taiwanese society is one of the least individualistic countries on earth. The Taiwanese culture is collectivism, and this means that they identify with a group, but they have least association with the group’s hierarchical nature. There is a command system in the group; this structural command system should be followed. The people on this society know their place and the show long term association with the group. A group can be anything from a family to work related group activities, in their culture; the Taiwanese people are responsible for each other. They work together to accomplish the goals of the group as a member of a certain group failure is not tolerated, and it brings shame. The Australian culture has a high individualistic culture; people look after themselves and their immediate families. This is in contrast with the Taiwanese culture that are collective, they work in groups, and they look and identify with a group, and they seek to achieve their group interests. 4. Nature of human activity, this is concerned with whether people are bothered about existing for the moment, striving to achieve their goals and dreams and thinking. The Taiwanese culture is highly uncertain about the future; the people in that society believe that they should work hard to enhance their future. The society is highly a thinking society; that is there more focussed about achieving their immediate and future goals. The society has shown a high preference to thinking activity than any other activity (Maznevski et al. 2002). The Australian culture is not uncertain about the future; they focus n their daily live; their results are measured on short term basis while the Taiwanese Confucianism culture is a highly uncertain culture; they are future oriented society that focus on their future aspirations. 5. Conceptualisation for space; the physical space that people use is private, public or a mixture of both. Collectivism culture is widely accepted among the members of the Taiwanese culture; people of this society consider their group members to be their family members. There, culture is about concerning themselves with the other members of the group; they take responsibility for each other. The group is loyal and close knit; hence, they cultural framework in matters of space is private, and only the group members have an access to them. The Australian culture is a highly individualistic culture; the individuals are just concerned about themselves and their immediate families. The concern for their families means that they talk about their families to with their friends and hence the live of the Australian physical space is public. The Taiwanese culture concerns themselves with the group, the group people, are extremely closely knit together, and they share among themselves, and no one can join in their activities and hence their physical space is private. 6. Orientation with time; this concerns themselves with whether decision making in people is subject to the county’s historical traditions or past events, event that are present of the future events. This country is a long term oriented culture; it concerns itself with future events (Camden House 2012). The policies and regulations that the country adopts are geared towards checking the level of uncertainty; the measures adopted are to safeguard certainty among the members of the society. The Australian culture is a short term oriented; it does not concern itself with the future events rather with the current events, the policies that are implemented concern themselves with the current state of affairs. While the Taiwanese culture concerns itself with the long term, the future events matter to them and the policies they implement are to check the high level of uncertainty. Hofstedes 5 dimensions These dimensions describe the impact that culture has on society. The impact is assessed on the effect it has made on the society values and how the effected values relate to behaviour. The Hofstedes five dimensions of culture that describes Taiwan include the following; 1. Power distance index, this index describes the level of equality in Taiwanese national culture; the level of inequality in this index pertains to the level of power in Taiwanese’s cultures workplace. The power index describes the extent to which the Taiwanese people admit that the level of power in organisations is unequal. If the index is high then there is a high level of inequality in Taiwanese culture if the index is low, then there is a low level of inequality in Taiwanese culture. Taiwan score high in power distance index this suggests that the Taiwanese people admit that there is a hierarchical command in their society; people have a place in their society. It shows how the inequalities of power and wealth are promoted in the Taiwanese culture; they follow a caste system of order which does not promote the upward movement of its citizens (Piepenburg 2011). In the Australian culture the power index is low, the organisation structure is just established for convenience, the level of inequality in the organisation is very low, managers are easily accessible, and they rely on the expertise of the individual people and teams for success. The level of inequality in the Taiwanese organisations is high; the mangers are not easily accessible, but when making decisions is best to make them when the mangers are available. The mangers look into the performance of the group for the success of the organisation 2. Individualism; this indicates whether the Taiwanese culture re-enforces the individual or collective achievement in their businesses and interpersonal relationships. It will show the relationship that prevails in the Taiwanese society and the collectivism that exists in Taiwanese culture. The individualistic societies tend to look for individuals own interest, and their immediate families, the dimensions of the individualistic culture are described in terms of “I”. The collectivism culture people associate themselves to groups; they take care of their groups in exchange for loyalty, and the dimension that exists in collectivism culture describes them in terms of “we”. Taiwan is a collective society, the people of this country exhibit close long term relationships as a member of a group, the groups can be family, the extended family, and other relationships (Carlos Nunez 2007). To the Taiwanese culture loyalty overrides most of the other rules and regulations that exist in their culture. The Taiwanese societal relationships foster strong relationships bonds with any group, and any failure leads to loss of the face and same. In term of the employer to employee relationships, the collectivism culture is viewed in moral terms. The Australian culture is highly individualistic; the people in this society look at their own goals and aspirations, and that of their families, while that Taiwanese culture is highly collective; the people focus on their goal of their groups, and not individuals. In the business world, the Taiwanese people they work within a group and the goals of people are to achieve the goals of the group. In the Australian culture, people are self-reliant, and they seek to achieve their own individualistic goals. 3. Masculinity; this is a dimension that describes the extent to which reinforces the traditional work model of men achievement, rule and power. Masculinity is defined as the “a preference for accomplishment, heroism, fierceness and material success”. Countries with a very high index of masculinity have a particularly high femininity differentiation. Taiwan has a particularly high index on masculinity; this shows that this country is a famine society; the focus of societies with high index is that they believe in order for someone to live they should work. Top manager in this index value consensus, disagreements in this situation are resolved through negotiations and compromise. People in this case, value fairness, unity and quality in their work (Pervez N. Ghauri 2003). Unlike the Taiwanese culture, the Australian culture is a masculine culture, the people in the society strive to be all they can be, and the winner, in any situation, takes all. In the Taiwanese, it is a low score or famine culture; they do not focus on the aspirations of a person but that of a group. The high masculinity of the Australian culture indicates that the society is driven by high competition, and achieving success while the feminist culture of the Taiwanese people is driven by shared values in the society that involves caring about others. 4. Uncertainty avoidance index; this index describes the level of tolerance for uncertainty in a society. This index measures the extent to which people in the society feel uncomfortable about the uncertainty and the ambiguity that exists within the society, leading them to support measures of certainty. A high score in the index suggests that the country has a low tolerance for uncertainty and vagueness. The consequence of this is an authoritarian society that implements the amount of rules to reduce the level of uncertainty. In dealing with matters that the future might be unknown, Taiwan has a high score in this area (Paul 2011). Taiwan has a high preference for avoiding any incidences of uncertainty; this country has implemented rules that are meant to favour measures that reduce the level of uncertainty. The society is busy working hard, to them the virtues such as precision, and time keeping are the norm. The uncertainty avoidance index of Australia is a low score indicating that the population feel comfortable about their future aspiration; this is in contrast with the Taiwanese culture, which is highly uncertain about their future. The difference between the uncertainty levels between these two cultures is high, and this is shown by the two countries policies that they are adopting. The Australian culture has low uncertainty levels; it is shown by the governments policies that the country is adopting. The country is not adopting policies that are meant to reduce the levels of uncertainty, but it is adopting policies that foster their developments needs and aspirations. The Taiwanese government because of their high uncertainty levels is adopting policies that reduce their level of uncertainty. 5. Long term Orientation; this index describes the way the society accepts long term commitment to their traditional values. A high ranking indicates that the society subscribes to the beliefs of long term devotion and respect for their country’s tradition. This supports the notion for long term work ethics and a high regard for their traditions. Taiwan is a long term oriented culture; this country has indicated that it has the ability and capability to adapt it traditions to the modern era; it has a strong resolve to work hard, invest, persistence and thriftiness in accomplishing their goals and any overriding concern of respecting society demands (Maznevski et al. 2002). The Australian culture is a short term oriented culture; this is in sharp contrast from the Taiwanese culture which is a long term oriented culture. The result of the short term orientation is that the society focuses on fulfilling its traditions and social obligations. They measure their performance on a short term basis; the individuals in a workplace environment strive to achieve their result on a short term basis. The Taiwanese culture is associated with Confucianism that has a pragmatic future oriented approach towards life. What has Taiwan’s Government done to encourage the investment climate? In 2012, Taiwan ranked third in foreign direct investment climate, in the world, the country ranked second in political risk; this indicates the stable political environment that exists in the country. In operating risk, the country ranked second, this underscores the country’s commitment to enhance its strong operating conditions and continuously invest in its infrastructure. The investment made in Taiwan’s infrastructural development and in improving the country’s economic development; is estimated that it will improve as the country is adopting stimulus measures that are meant to improve the country’s infrastructures. Taiwan takes the first place in the world in terms of labour cost and, 2nd place in manufacturing continuity, 3rd place in GDP growth, and the long term loan and the fund for venture capitalists (Genzberger 1994). In terms of short loan financing and credit, balance of payments, level of privatization, inflation and its stand toward foreign investment the country took fourth place worldwide. This index indicates how the country has taken measures to ensure that the country’s future and immediate investment are enhanced. The country has improved its investment climate continuously over the last 2 decades (Ibpus.com 2012). Attracting foreign direct investment into Taiwan has been one of the country’s long term policies; the country has adopted several measures to ensure that foreigners are encouraged to set up shop in Taiwan. The major measures that country has adopted to encourage foreign investment includes, setting up one stop service in the country’s export processing zones and their area where business registration has been brought to the investors. These one stop service centres are meant to handle all matters pertaining to the investors need from the registration of companies to issues regarding work permits. All these measures are meant to encourage foreign investment into the country. The challenges facing the registration of the company in Taiwan have been greatly reduced and enhanced to serve the customers needs much better. This measure has significantly improved the application process and reduced the time it takes to register in Taiwan (Ibpus.com 2012). The other measure that the country has adopted is to provide lease incentives for any foreign investment into the Taiwan for the first six years of setting up a business into the country. These incentives cover the lands in industrial areas or park if the tenant of the land decides to purchase land before the expiry of the six year period; the lease payment paid may cover part or all the purchase price of the land in question. In terms of the foreign n residency regulations, is the investor has invested amount in NT $15 million and above and has given work to five Taiwanese nationals or a period of 3 years the investor may apply for an Alien Permanent Residency Certificate (Plum Card). The investors who have contributes NT $50 million and above are considered to have made a significant contribution to the Taiwanese economy, the foreign managers employed by the foreign company will enjoy preferential treatment in custom clearance whenever they arrive in Taiwan (Scientific 2007). The country is implementing a stimulus package that is meant to improve the country’s level of infrastructure. The public construction measures that are being undertaken are meant to meet the needs for investing into the country. To further boost investments into the country, the government, has adopted various tax incentives, these incentives were lowered in 2010. The lowered corporate tax rate and availability of R & D credit for upgrading its industries are some of the measure taken to improve its investment climate. The country has a well educated quality personnel; this means that they are always quality pool of labour available to any investments that come into the country. The country has also adopted relative policies that protect the rights of its workers. The country research and design strength and capability are one of the best in the world; the R&D strength improves from one year to the next (Lepper 1990). Conclusion The Taiwanese culture is highly hard working; the measures adopted by the government to encourage foreign direct investments are good. The measures and policies have taken the country to the third best investment climate in the world, only second to Singapore in Asia (Ibpus.com 2012). The culture is collective; they do believe in working together as a group and a team. This fosters good working relationship with the other members of their group. The country has a well educated workforce; this people with their hard working culture are extremely dedicated they believe that they should work in order to live, their culture does not entertain failure and so this ensures that they meet their goals. The country has a particularly good investment climate, a culture that fosters a great working environment, and people that respect authority. This is much more reason why the Victoria University should set up a learning culture in Taiwan, with learning and high achieving nature of the Taiwan society this will give the university access to a large pool of market. 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