Exploring Ethnocentrism in Business Courses and Businesses

Abstract

Business students and practitioners are often unfamiliar with the underlying rationale for ethnocentrism and the resulting consequences of ethnocentric behavior in the workplace. The author presents a compelling exercise that makes the topic of ethnocentrism personally relevant to both students and practitioners alike. Through experiential activities, brief lectures, and presentations, participants learn about the psychological factors creating ethnocentric tendencies, identify examples of ethnocentric issues, and learn how ethnocentric tendencies affect employee behaviors in the classroom and at work. The Exercise helps participants recognize the potential for ethnocentrism in themselves and others, enhances inter-cultural sensitivity, and elevates global awareness. Step-by-step detailed teaching instructions and support tools are provided for easy Exercise implementation within ground, distance learning, and hybrid courses or business settings. If someone were to put a proposition before men bidding them choose, after examination, the best customs in the world, each nation would certainly select its own. " --Herodotus, Greek Historian 1. Introduction Ethnocentrism has been defined as " an evaluative bias in favor of one's own group (in-group) and the perception of out-groups (all other groups) as being inferior " (Templer, 2010). Sumner (1906), the originator of the term, described ethnocentrism as the view of things in which one's own group is the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it…Each group nourishes its own pride and vanity, boasts itself superior, exalts its own divinities and looks with contempt on outsiders (p. 13). The purpose of this paper is to describe an approach to successfully explore ethnocentrism with the business classroom or work setting. A theoretical introduction is first provided as a backdrop for developing this pedagogy including: the rationale for examining ethnocentrism in business courses and workplaces, psychological theories purported to explain the origins of ethnocentrism, and the teaching framework utilized. Steps to deliver each activity are described, together with support tools for application (in ground and online learning environments), and participant feedback on topical issues. 2. Background As Sumner (1906) relates, people judge other groups in relationship to the values and standards of their own group. Put another way, people see the world through the lens of their own culture. This ethnocentric focus limits and distorts peoples' views of the world, often leading them to make false assumptions about cultural differences and other groups. As a result, ethnocentric thinking can disrupt or obstruct business activities. For example, ethnocentrism can hinder rational strategic planning because it distorts key aspects of strategic thinking (Booth, 1979). Imagine a United States CEO who will not entertain a merger with a foreign organization because this company is headquartered in a country that the CEO believes is intelligently inferior to Americans. Ethnocentric tendencies may also create relationship conflicts when managers promote their own country's value-based management systems within other countries and ignore the different local country customs and norms