Managerial cross-cultural interaction in the Dominican Republic and the United States

Management STYLE IN THE United States

Cultural Values and Business

Theory X vs. Theory Y

Management the High Tech Way

Management STYLE IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

CULTURAL VALUES AND Business

Role of Entrepreneurship

In the United States, management values, beliefs and attitudes have undergone a gradual shift away from the simplistic stance of planning, organizing and directing. Valuable managerial skills, no matter what culture is being considered, have traditionally been masculine skills, highlighting the dominant, assertive, and decisive elements of management behavior and downplaying the team and supportive aspects that are more readily identified with women. This traditional view is now giving way in the United States to an approach where team behaviour is seen as increasingly important to a truly successful management style.

The global leadership skills of the future will evolve from a combination of individual/group and masculine/feminine traits involving strategic thinking and communication skills. The final result of this evolution will make organizations more competitive and more successful. In addition, "appropriate" managerial skills will take into account cultural awareness, which is simply the awareness and tolerance of differences.

Openness and acceptance of cultural differences will lead to synergy, and that in turn will allow change and promote excellence in business and communication on all levels.

In the Dominican Republic, rules of social behavior, including the use of accepted forms of address, courtesy, and respect toward others, are critical social control mechanisms. Politeness is an over-arching theme in all relationships. Dominican group interests are always paramount to individual interests and there is a strong emphasis on values that parallel the interests of family. The emotion of shame becomes an important aspect of social and managerial control.

Managers in the Dominican Republic place a great deal of emphasis on values that serve the interests of the group, rather than on values that serve only individual interests.

An Examination of Managerial Cross-Cultural Interaction in the Dominican Republic and the United States Today

Introduction

Management has never really been a simple task. It was difficult in an era when the only things that were required of a good manager was planning, organizing, and directing. In those nostalgic days there was a "boss" who gave orders, and there were workers who carried out those orders. Slackers and troublemakers were summarily fired, easily replaced with any number of interchangeable workers, who were, at least theoretically, lined up at the gate waiting for an opportunity (Callaway, 1999). Managers were primarily hired on the basis of conformity to the corporate or societal norm, along with their ability to please the boss. To be a "boss" took little training, which was fortunate, because there really was none. Training was not considered a necessity in the organization, because a new manager was only expected to keep the lower classes in line and act as a link in the assembly line of information that flowed from the top down. For the rare managers who wanted to learn new management techniques, to improve their existing style, or just to impress the boss by filling up their office bookshelf, there were plenty of tomes flowing from learned consultants and academics (Callaway, 1999).

According to one U.S. management consulting firm, there are six basic "managerial styles" found in various organizations. These styles are dependent not only upon individual personalities, but on the cultural context within which they are used (McBer, 1980). These styles are described as coercive (do it the way I tell you), authoritative (firm but fair), affiliative (people first, task second), democratic (participative), pace setting (do it myself), and coaching (I want to help you be better) styles (McBer, 1980). Of course, there is no single managerial style that is effective in all situations, in all cultures, and with all people.

Studies of management have shown time and again that effective management is the art of using the appropriate managerial style to deal with specific people in specific situations.

Careful study of varied cultures suggests that certain attitudes, situations, and issues are what differentiate one culture from another (Bakhtari, 1995). American culture contains a number of unique qualities not seen in other cultures, as does the culture of the Dominican Republic. This paper will explore the differences in those cultures and how that impacts managerial values, beliefs and attitudes in the two countries.

Management Style in the United States

Theory X vs. Theory Y

Another way to look at the evolution of management styles in U.S. businesses is through a comparison of Theory X and Theory Y management. Theory X is considered "classical" management, and consisted of several beliefs. First, that people dislike work and will avoid it if at all possible. Second, that most people must be "coerced, controlled, directed, and threatened with punishment to get them" to work (McGregor 1960, 33-34).

Third, that the average human prefers to be told what to do, wants to avoid responsibility, has little ambition, and craves security.

These assumptions have lead managers to deny employees control over their own work environment and to use direct and harsh methods of influence. Managers following Theory X emphasize the chain of command, reward vs. punishment motivational techniques, close supervision of employees and rigidly followed rules. Classical management practice has hindered rather than helped organizations in solving problems, meeting goals, and delivering a product in a reliable manner (McGregor, 1960; 1961).

Theory X manager assumes that all people are interested more in safety and physiological needs, rather than higher needs, but McGregor believed that workers in the 1950s had moved beyond lower needs and were seeking to meet their social or esteem needs (McGregor, 1960). Based on this conclusion, he proposed a whole new set of managerial assumptions, which he called Theory Y management.

1. The expenditure of physical and mental effort in work is as natural as play or rest.

2. External control and the threat of punishment are not the only means for bringing about effort toward organizational objectives.

3. Man will exercise self-direction and self-control in the service of objectives to which he is committed.

4. Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement.

5. The average human being learns, under proper conditions, not only to accept responsibility but also to seek it.

6. The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity, and creativity in the solution of organizational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population.

7. Under the conditions of modern industrial life, the intellectual potentialities of the average human being are only partially utilized (McGregor, 1960, p. 47-48).

Theory Y managers assume that their employees are just as committed to work and as able to find solutions to work-related problems as they are themselves (McGregor, 1960). They also assume that people have an inherent preference for working rather than not working. These managers tend to push responsibility for work down the chain of command, giving employees autonomy within their areas of responsibility. They structure the workload so that employees have good opportunities to identify problems and find creative solutions to them. Theory Y managers try to set up the work environment so that employee goals coincide with organizational goals, believing that this results in greater creativity and productivity (McGregor 1967).

Managers, according to McGregor, choose between the assumptions of Theory X and Theory Y management in defining their management style. Once that choice is made, their management behaviors fall in line with the decision. A manager who chooses a Theory Y orientation will also elect to use strategies that are more collegial and more likely to transfer power to subordinates. At the very least, they will create reciprocal relationships between their employees and themselves.

This is a core component of McGregor's approach to management. Managers truly desire for employees to perform well, and, given the right environment and incentives, employees will also want to perform well. McGregor's model of motivation and management revolutionized the field of management theory. Grounded in psychological theory, a clear definition of creativity, and many years of observations, McGregor's model is persuasive, appealing, and simple (Bobic & Davis, 2003).

Since the publication of McGregor's work there have been dramatic changes in the work environment. There are four fundamental aspects of work in America that have changed, including career paths, the sense of job security, job satisfaction, and the degree to which employees prefer security to creativity. Employees today engage in an ongoing search for new jobs, even if they are satisfied with their current positions. This is clearly in contrast with McGregor's assumption that entire careers would exist within the same company.

Workers have far less security in their prospects for continued employment at any given company than they did in the 1960s and 1970s. The impact of lowered job security and less loyalty has completely changed what employees seek from jobs. When employees believe that corporations will not be loyal to them and they see no particular reason to be loyal to companies, then managers have a much more difficult time in linking individual needs to those of the companies.

Americans became more dissatisfied with their jobs throughout the 1990s. According to a Conference Board survey of five thousand households, conducted by NFO Research Incorporated, there was an 8% decline in overall job satisfaction among U.S. workers in the last half of the decade (58.6% were satisfied or very satisfied in 1995, and only 50.7% were satisfied or very satisfied by 2000 (TCB, 2000). Each of these areas of concern is important to take into consideration, but they do not truly constitute any reason to reject McGregor's Theory Y management theories.

Technological industries and the rise of Internet companies have led to a resurgence of interest in McGregor's ideas (Bennis, Heil & Stephens, 2000). These types of companies present managers with the very kinds of challenges McGregor foresaw, with employees working at home and requiring greater flexibility and more understanding from managers in order to produce the quality products that are necessary to compete in today's world. Internet companies and software companies all stress creative solutions to various business, academic, and information control issues.

Popular characterizations of those who work at such companies emphasize the free-spirited and unorthodox approach to work.

Moreover, information technology (IT) workers indicate that they are satisfied (and dissatisfied) with the very sane same things as other workers. Interestingly, they believe they are underpaid and that they lack adequate vacation time. But most IT workers seem to like their bosses and would simply appreciate somewhat clearer direction in their job assignments (Bobic & Davis, 2003).

Management the High Tech Way

No look at management values, beliefs and attitudes in the U.S. would be complete without a side-trip into what has been dubbed as the "Silicon Valley Management" (SVM) style. Ushered in by the Internet era and spawned by technology and knowledge-based businesses, it has its own set of priorities. The management style of the IT companies primarily found in the Silicon Valley in California is distinctly different from that found in most "old economy" companies (Towers, 2004).

It was actually born in companies such as Varian Associates back in the 1940's.

To attract top-flight researchers for the development of its medical linear accelerators for the treatment of cancer, Varian by forming a co-operative owned by its employees with stock option agreements. Coupling this ownership structure with an environment where employees could generate ideas without any traditional restrictions led to numerous important breakthroughs and hundreds of innovation awards.

Although Varian was initially unprofitable, it was sustained by enthusiastic employees, who eventually catapulted it into a position of world leadership. The ideas born at Varian spread quickly into the high-tech community to become a way of life that eventually characterized Silicon Valley. The stylistic difference was personified by Hewlett Packard (HP), which spelled out a new style of management in 1957 focused on team work, ownership innovation and the ability to manage rapid change and called it the HP Way.

Approaches with creative and catchy names, such as Management by Wandering Around, differed completely from traditional top-down structured management approaches, like Theory X Leadership and innovation were actively encouraged. The people working in this environment spread the new philosophy to create the global center of innovation that today powers the computer industry. The HP Way stands for respect for the individual, contribution to the customer and the community, integrity, teamwork, and innovation.

Today it is accepted wisdom that treating employees well, making sure that they are satisfied in their work and treating them with dignity are positive things. This model of doing business, fostering a risk-taking culture where penalties are attached to not trying something new, rather than for failure, has created a whole new breed of entrepreneurs who learn lessons quickly and create successful businesses.

SVM does not necessarily have all the answers. It is wise to think through the challenges and opportunities and reframe them in the appropriate context of specific personal and organizational needs.

The lessons learned from SVM are simple. The first is to trust your people. The second is to match the right people to the right jobs. The third lesson is to hire the best people, diverse and highly self-motivated. The fourth is to continually learn, especially through listening to customers. The fifth is to motivate by vision, rather than by fear. The sixth lesson is to manage through processes that can grow and evolve in response to changing customers and market forces.

The companies in the Silicon Valley, and their many offshoots in other parts of the country, provide an alternate organizational model to counterbalance the traditional, hierarchical and bureaucratic model of business.

It may not be perfect, but it offers lessons for the future (Towers, 2004).

Management Style in the Dominican Republic

History and Overview

To understand the values, beliefs and attitudes of managers in the Dominican Republic, it is helpful to have a sense of the country's history, people and culture. Dominican history departs from that of any other single country in Latin America in that it is the only country in the region to receive its independence from a neighboring country, Haiti, rather than from Spain. How Haiti came to rule the whole island is a fascinating story, as is the history of the Ta'no Indians, who were the occupants of the island at the time of Columbus' arrival.

These elements have shaped the culture of the country, and hence, the cultural framework within which managerial values, beliefs and attitudes exist. The history of the Dominican Republic is also sadly unique due to the brutality of the long dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. Trujillo's rule is considered among the most savage of the many tyrannical Latin American dictatorships.

Today, in the opening years of the twenty-first century, the Dominican Republic finally has a democratically elected president (Brown 1999).

As a people, Dominicans are frequently described as gregarious, kind, and generous. These admirable qualities appear to extend across racial lines and class distinctions, from rural to urban environments, and across both males and females. The past couple of decades have seen major changes in the structure of Latin American economies in general, and the Dominican Republic specifically. Privatization, trade liberalization and market deregulation have occurred cross the region. In many countries, attempts at economic and market reforms have been limited or halfhearted. In some cases they have not yet trickled down to the microeconomic level (Global Competitiveness Report, 2000).

By the end of 1989 the average per capita GDP of Latin America and the Caribbean was 8% smaller than it had been in 1980, roughly equivalent to the 1977 figures (Bonilla, 1990). According to PREALC (Programa Regional del Empleo para America Latinay y el Caribe), almost 33% of this population lived below the absolute poverty line in 1980, but by 1985, that figure had risen to 39% of the region's households. Although economic restructuring took place across all of Latin America during the 1990s, real growth in GDP per capita from 1990 to 1999 varied widely.

Cultural Values and Business

From a casual greeting to the celebration of a major religious holiday, people adhere to very specific practices in the Dominican Republic, with these customs being passed down from one generation to the next. These customs and practices clearly affect management style in the country. Generally, many Dominican customs are very like those in other Latin American countries, as well as in Spain and Portugal. What generally distinguishes Dominican customs from those of other Latin American societies are the traditions that stem directly from its unique history and the complexity of the Catholicism combined with voodoo that makes up the religion of the Dominican Republic (Brown, 1999).

Dominican customs originate from the Cibao area, which was settled by ranchers and farmers, vs. In the capital, which is a port city and more influenced by outside influences. Dominicans have traditions and a world-view that date back to Spanish colonial times. Many Dominicans, at least subconsciously, evidence a mentality that is dictated by persistent racism, conservatism, misogyny, homophobia, Euro-centrism, and upper-class bias, which reflects the pronouncements of Catholic Church leaders, mainstream politicians, and state-funded intellectuals (Torres-Saillant & Hernandez, 1998).

Dominicans typically start the workday at 8:00 AM and continue through to 5:00 PM. This schedule, reflecting the effects of international globalization, allows managers to maintain continuous communication with businesses worldwide. As recently as ten years ago, the workday began at 8:00 AM and ended at 1:00 PM, followed by a long lunch and a nap, with businesses reopening at about 4:00 PM and staying open through 8:00 PM. Although Dominicans are famous for a lack of punctuality at social affairs, they are scrupulously punctual for business activities.

Meetings quite often begin with a small delay, for which an appropriate excuse is provided, even though all attendees fully expected the delay from the beginning.

Another important element of managerial style in the Dominican Republic stems from various traits of communication that Dominicans share with their Hispanic Caribbean neighbors, the Cubans and the Puerto Ricans. Dominicans tend to gesticulate and make varied facial expressions while speaking. The use of profanity is also a well-rooted custom in the Dominican Republic. Lying is socially acceptable, as long as an oath has not been taken to uphold the lie. Dominican customs and language tend to be colorful and distinctive, lending a unique flavor to managerial style. While the widespread use of modern technology, such as the Internet, has a negative effect on the ability to preserve certain customs, those based on human relationships in the Dominican Republic appear to survive any threats of universal homogenization (Brown, 1999).

When measured against Hofstede's four dimensions of culture, Latin American cultures exhibit clear tendencies toward high power distance, collectivism, and a masculine orientation (Hofstede, 1980). (In comparison, the U.S. has lower power distance and is individualistic.) Power distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations within a country accept that power is distributed unequally. In countries with a high power distance, such as the Dominican Republic, the rules of social behavior, including the use of accepted forms of address, courtesy, and respect toward others, are critical social control mechanisms.

As a result, the values that reflect these rules are highly respected.

In Dominican society, politeness is an over-arching theme in all relationships. Although there may be a high power distance involved, even those who are fairly low on the social scale expect to be treated with respect and dignity (Hofstede, 1980).

On Hofstede's individualism/collectivism scale, Latin cultures tend to have the lowest individualism scores. In application, this means that within collectivist societies, group interests are always paramount to individual interests. In the Dominican Republic, the family is the primary group that influences individual and managerial behavior, with no institution taking precedent over the family. Therefore, there is a strong emphasis on values that parallel the interests of family (Johnson & Lenartowicz, 2003).

Looking further at collectivist societies, an individual's behavior is very much governed by social norms and obligations. The emotion of shame becomes an important aspect of social and managerial control.

Other values that are closely associated with group interests, such as maintaining good social relationships, observing the norms of behavior of society in general, and safeguarding one's family security, also ranked high in importance in the Dominican Republic. Thus, it is clear to see that managers in the Dominican Republic place a great deal of emphasis on values that serve the group interests, rather than on values that serve only individual interests (Johnson & Lenartowicz, 2003).

The strong focus of managerial style in Latin cultures on the norms of social behavior, for example, stands in stark contrast to the U.S. This attention to social norms extends far beyond the managerial elite, including employees, customers and suppliers. A hallmark of Latin American managerial style is the belief that others should be treated with dignity and respect. Managers also expect to be treated in the same way. An emphasis on the human being clearly highlights a proclivity to cultivate an extensive social network within the context of conducting business (Johnson & Lenartowicz, 2003).

It is a well-known fact that a variation in values is likely to affect workplace issues, including the delegation of authority and responsibility, motivation of employees, and compensation and reward systems. Differences in values also have an impact on marketing, such as the relationship between a firm and its vendors and distributors. The fine-tuning of these relationships is reliant on human interaction and human values. Typically, in Latin and Caribbean countries, there are very few large-scale distributors, meaning that managers must develop a large number of small, independent outlets for their products or services (Arnold and Quelch, 1998).

Using consumer retailing as an example, the limited store space available in a small market such as the Dominican Republic necessarily means that effective marketing of products through traditional methods, such as point-of-sale displays and in-store promotions, is extremely dependent upon cultivating a good relationship with retailers. This emphasis on human relationships requires an extensive investment of both time and effort. In addition, consumers' propensity to try new products, or a new brand, may rely more on general word-of-mouth and recommendations from trusted friends or family members than on the mass-market advertising techniques commonly used in the U.S.

Since Dominicans, and Latin American consumers overall, put a much greater emphasis on group-oriented values, the amount of time that a vendor's representatives must invest on a sales visit, especially on the personal aspects, certainly differs from the norm in the U.S., where these values are not as high on the scale of importance. Obviously, this will affect not only how sales representatives are trained, but also how they are managed and how exactly their performance is evaluated and rewarded (Johnson & Lenartowicz, 2003).

In many firms in the Dominican Republic, there is a clear gender division, with supervisory and professional jobs being reserved almost exclusively for men. This is partially due to the limited education of Dominican women in technical fields.

Agro-industry managers report a much higher resistance to hiring women as plant supervisors and administrators, than to be employed as technical staff (FundApec, 1992). Managers commonly echo the view that men make better bosses because they push the workers harder. This suggests that the gender hierarchy may be much more strongly rooted in managers' interest in using manipulating these cultural notions of patriarchal domination in order to maximize the labor extracted from workers (Raynolds, 1998).

Even among production workers, there is a clear division of labor by gender. In tomato processing, for instance, an approximately equal number of males and females work in production, yet women predominate in the fastest assembly line operations, where dexterity and speed are required. Women are responsible for washing and selecting the tomatoes for ripeness and color, as well as for preparing, filling, labeling, and putting the lids on the cans. On the other hand, men supervise the processing machinery and prepare and store cardboard cartons.

The only job in which men and women work together is in the washing, cooling, and boxing of the cans.

Here again, managers draw on socially enforced gender traits to explain this unequal division of labor. The clear suggestion is that tasks that can are assigned to both sexes require no particular talents. Managers go on to explain that many jobs are the exclusive domain of men because of their "greater strength and facility with machinery." Women are given certain jobs because "they are more careful and conscientious" and "are better able to coordinate rapid eye/hand movements" (Raynolds, 1998, p. 150).

These attributes are, of course, assumed and job assignments made with no regard for accurate measurement of workers' individual capabilities. Male equipment overseers are paid higher wages. Other workers are defined as "unskilled" and paid base wages, regardless of dexterity, conscientiousness, or strength.

Managers in the Dominican Republic both ideologically and economically undervalue the work done by their female employees when they describe, as a "natural" female ability, multifaceted observational capacities and stamina that are required to successfully pack variably sized produce into boxes of equal weight quickly and consistently for 12 hours at a time.

They often contradict their own assessment of the "unskilled" nature of most women's jobs when they discuss the issue of how some women are better than others at these tasks, and how women may improve their performance with dedication and practice (Raynolds, 1998). This example of a managerial belief system indicates a vast difference between what is acceptable in management in the Dominican Republic vs. what is acceptable, and legal, in the U.S.

Role of Entrepreneurship

Various studies suggest that cultural factors play a critical a role in fostering economic growth (Franke, Hofstede & Bond, 1991; Johnson and Lenartowicz, 1998), but the exact relationship between economic conditions and cultural values is far from clear. The question seems to be whether liberal economic policies lead to the development of the appropriate values for encouraging and supporting economic growth, or whether the necessary values must be in place in order for economic success to occur.

Societal and cultural values change very slowly over long periods of time (Hofstede, 1980), so the latter idea is more convincing, and it coincides with the perspective that appropriate cultural values are a requirement for above-average economic growth:

given the economic conditions for the emergence of a system of rational capital accumulation, whether or not such growth occurred in a systematic fashion would be determined by the values present. Structural conditions make development possible; cultural factors determine whether the possibility becomes an actuality (Lipset, 1967, p. 3).

If this view is correct, it is unlikely that externally induced economic reforms alone are enough. For real economic development to happen, the values that are associated with entrepreneurship are required to spur entrepreneurial behavior to occur and flourish. In countries entrepreneurs are encouraged, the values that are associated with entrepreneurship rank highly in importance among managers.

There is a fairly clear correlation between societal values and entrepreneurship. The level of entrepreneurship is positively correlated with economic growth. Where there is a higher level of entrepreneurial behavior, cultural values have much to do with fostering a positive climate for entrepreneurs. Where no real history of entrepreneurship exists and governments must remove regulatory impediments to entrepreneurs and provide incentives to encourage them to engage in entrepreneurial activities, the perceived social legitimacy of entrepreneurship will only change slowly over time. People will have to learn to be more willing to take the financial risks of starting their own businesses, and people in general gain respect for someone who becomes successful through their own efforts (Reynolds, Hay, Bygrave & Camp, 2000).

Values guide an individual's behavior, and they are very much related to a wide range of business phenomena, including entrepreneurship. Several researchers have noted that the various concepts associated with entrepreneurial behavior include ambition, achievement, aggressiveness, capability, competence, creativity, hard work, honesty, imagination, optimism, reliability, responsibility, risk-taking, and social recognition (Kotey & Meredith, 1997; DeCarlo & Lyon, 1980).

Micro-entrepreneurs, or informal entrepreneurs, have come to be identified as a major agent of capitalist development. The growth of informality is viewed as a healthy sign of competition, as large segments of society struggled to make ends meet in the midst of economic problems brought on by unfair monopolies and excessive government regulations. In the Dominican Republic, credit agencies like ADEMI now play an important role in promoting the idea that owners of small businesses are reliable and potentially successful if only they are provided with adequate credit to expand their businesses (Espinal & Grasmuck, 1997).

Summary and Conclusions

Today's concept of effective management has come a long way, in the United States and across the globe. Many factors, including the globalization of competition, the evolution of communications methods, technology in general and the sheer rapidity of change have all affected what works and what doesn't in the management arena. However, the exact personification of management style still has much to do with the culture within which it functions. Understanding what those cultural elements are enables us to effectively together.

The culture of the U.S. marks it clearly as an individualistic society, with a strong belief that the individual controls his or her own destiny through hard and smart work. This contrasts sharply with the Dominican Republic's collectivistic leanings, where the group and what it thinks is always more important than what the individual may want. Another element of Hofstede's scale is masculine/feminine. The traditionally valued managerial skills, regardless of culture, are masculine skills, highlighting the dominant, assertive, and decisive elements of management behavior and downplaying the team and supportive aspects that are more readily identified with women. This traditional view is now giving way in the United States to a more subtle and all-encompassing approach to management, where team behaviour (and a greater concern for the group) is seen as increasingly important to a truly successful management style.

This is inspiring a new management approach to communications, leadership, negotiation, organization and control. This rebalancing of values is more and more seen as key to business success.

In American organizations, hierarchies have given way to less formal structures as the economy has become more diverse, innovation and fast information exchange have become the focus, and greater value is placed on breadth of vision, as well as on the ability of managers and employees to think creatively.

One unique influence on American management style has been technology and knowledge-based businesses, whose focus on teamwork, ownership innovation and the ability to manage rapid change has had an impact around the world. Paramount in this management style is respect for the individual, contribution to the customer and the community, integrity, teamwork, and innovation. It has fostered a risk-taking culture where penalties are attached to not trying something new, rather than for failing, and has spawned a whole new breed of entrepreneurs who learn lessons quickly and create successful businesses.

The last several decades have seen major changes in the structure of the Dominican economy, with privatization, trade liberalization and market deregulation sweeping cross the entire Latin American region. In the Dominican Republic, punctuality is not a strong suit socially, but in business, it is strictly observed. Dominicans tend to gesticulate and make faces while speaking, and the use of profanity is also a well-rooted custom. Lying is socially acceptable, as long as an oath has not been taken to uphold the lie. All of this lends a unique flavor to managerial style.

The Dominican culture exhibits clear tendencies toward high power distance and collectivism. The rules of social behavior, including the use of accepted forms of address, courtesy, and respect toward others, are critical social control mechanisms.

In Dominican society, politeness is an over-arching theme in all relationships. Group interests are paramount to individual interests and there is a strong emphasis on values that parallel the interests of family. The emotion of shame is an important aspect of social and managerial control.

Managers place an emphasis on human relationships, leading to the cultivation of an extensive social network within the context of conducting business. In the Dominican Republic, there is a clear gender division, with supervisory and professional jobs being reserved almost exclusively for men. Managers often claim that men make better bosses because they push the workers harder and both ideologically and economically undervalue the work done by their female employees.

Entrepreneurship is slowly taking hold in the Dominican Republic. Micro-entrepreneurs, or informal entrepreneurs, are a healthy sign of competition, as large segments of society struggled to make ends meet in the midst of economic problems. Where no real history of entrepreneurship exists, such as in the Dominican, the perceived social legitimacy of entrepreneurship will only change slowly over time. People must learn to be more willing to take the financial risks of starting their own businesses, and society in general must gain respect for someone who becomes successful through their own efforts.

The global leadership skills of the future will evolve from a combination of individual/group and masculine/feminine traits involving strategic thinking and communication skills. The final result of this evolution will make organizations more competitive and more successful. In addition, "appropriate" managerial skills will take into account cultural awareness, which is simply the awareness and tolerance of differences.

Openness and acceptance of cultural differences will lead to synergy, allowing change and promoting excellence in business and communication on all levels.