Our study aims at enriching the existing literature about the prospective managers view of an ideal societal value system and the existing cultural practices in their society. The findings about the students' perception on cultural practices and their expectations about societal culture are helpful in imagining the societal culture in its dynamics. The research sample consists of 727 students in business and engineering on undergraduate and graduate levels from Romania and Slovenia. The reason we have chosen to compare Romanian sample with the cultural profile of the "average" future manager from Slovenia is the scientific curiosity of finding out if there are signs of cultural convergence of Romania with a previous communist country, and an older member of European Union. In doing so, our study will hopefully broaden the body of knowledge about the cultural convergence (or divergence?) between the former socialist countries joining European Union. The theoretical and methodological foundation is rooted in GLOBE international research project. Our findings revealed that at practices level,Romanians perceive significant higher Power Distance and significant lower mean value for Uncertainty Avoidance. At the expectations level, the Romanians and Slovenians are very similar in the desire concerning their societies orientation toward In group/Family Collectivism, Assertiveness and Performance Orientation, and record significant differenced in all the other societal values. The fact that for all the cultural expectations the future managers assign different mean values than for the correspondent practices make us expect that they will act to change their cultural environments. Still, the cultural orientation of Romanian future middle managers will differ in many regards from the Slovenian sample averages.societal culture, cultural practice, cultural value, Romania, Slovenia

CATANA DOINA

CATANA GHEORGHE ALEXANDRU

English

Research Papers in Economics

347 
HOW FUTURE MANAGERS VIEW SOCIETAL CULTURE: A CROSS-
COUNTRY COMPARISON 
Catana Gheorghe Alexandru 
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca 
Catana Doina 
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca 
 
Abstract: Our study aims at enriching the existing literature about the prospective managers  view 
of an ideal societal value system and the existing cultural practices in their society. The findings 
about the students’ perception on cultural practices and their expectations about societal culture 
are helpful in imagining the societal culture in its dynamics. The research sample consists of 727 
students in business and engineering on undergraduate and graduate levels from Romania and 
Slovenia. The reason we have chosen to compare Romanian sample with the cultural profile of the 
“average” future manager from Slovenia is the scientific curiosity of finding out if there are signs 
of cultural convergence of Romania with a previous communist country, and an older member of 
European Union. In doing so, our study will hopefully broaden the body of knowledge about the 
cultural  convergence  (or  divergence?)  between  the  former  socialist  countries  joining  European 
Union. The theoretical and methodological foundation is rooted in GLOBE international research 
project. Our findings revealed that at practices level,Romanians perceive significant higher Power 
Distance and significant lower mean value for Uncertainty Avoidance. At the expectations level, the 
Romanians and Slovenians are very similar in the desire concerning their societies orientation 
toward  In  group/Family  Collectivism,  Assertiveness  and  Performance  Orientation,  and  record 
significant differenced in all the other societal values. The fact that for all the cultural expectations 
the future managers assign different mean values than for the correspondent practices make us 
expect that they will act to change their cultural environments. Still, the cultural orientation of 
Romanian future middle managers will differ in many regards from the Slovenian sample averages. 
 
Keywords: societal culture, cultural practice, cultural value, Romania, Slovenia 
 
JEL clasification: M14, M19 
 
1. Introduction 
Starting from GLOBE international research 
project  dealing  with  top  and  middle 
managers,  GLOBE  STUDENT  project  was 
initiated (2008)
34, aiming at targeting future 
managers, to be recruited mostly from today’s 
students in business and engineering. One of 
its  objectives  is  to  determine  the  profile  of 
future  managers  from  their  perceptions  on 
and  expectations  about  societal  culture 
dimensions point of view. The main research 
question  concerns  the  similarities  and 
                                                        
34  The  project  is  co-ordinated  by  R.  Lang  from 
Chemnitz  University  of  Technology.  The  data  for 
Slovenia  has  been  collected  by    D.  Pucko  and  T. 
Cater (University of Ljubljana) 
differences between the Romanians with the 
average  future  manager  in  Slovenia.  The 
reason we have chosen to compare Romanian 
sample  with  the  cultural  profile  of  the 
“average”  future  manager  from  Slovenia  is 
the scientific curiosity of finding out if there 
are signs of cultural convergence of Romania 
with a previous communist country, and an 
older member of European Union. In doing 
so, our study will hopefully broaden the body 
of knowledge about the cultural convergence 
(or divergence?) between the former socialist 
countries  joining  European  Union. 
Specifically,  we  will  try  to  answer  the 
following research questions: 
1.Which  are  (if  any)  the  significant 
differences  between  Romanian 348 
students  perceptions  of  current 
societal  practices  and  those  of 
students from Slovenia? 
2.How  do  Romanian  students’ 
societal  values  (expectations)  differ 
(if)  from  those  of  students  from 
Slovenia? 
 
2. Theoretical background 
As  known,  there  is  no  single  generally 
accepted  definition  of  societal  culture 
(Chhokar et al, 2007:3). Our study shares the 
definition  used  by  GLOBE  international 
research  project:  “shared  motives,  values, 
beliefs, identities and events that result from 
common  experiences  of  members  of 
collectives  and  are  transmitted  across  age 
generations”  (House  et  al.,  2002:  5).  The 
GLOBE  project  distingwishes  between 
practices (“as it is”) and values (“as it should 
be”). Values distinguishing a culture from the 
others are predictors for cultural practices, as 
well as for leadership features and behaviours 
in  that  culture  (House  et  al.  2002).  In  all 
societies,  the  shared  values  become  good 
predictors of future practices. 
GLOBE  project  operationalised    culture  in 
nine  dimensions:  1)  Uncertainty  Avoidance; 
2) Future Orientation; 3) Power Distance; 4) 
Collectivism  I  (societal  collectivism);  5) 
Humane  Orientation;  6.  Performance 
Orientation;  7)    Collectivism  II  (in-group 
collectivism);  8)  Gender  Egalitarianism;  9) 
Assertiveness  (House  et  al.,  2002:  5-6).  As 
the GLOBE researchers acknowledge (House 
et al., 2002: 6), the first six dimensions are 
rooted  in  cultural  dimensions  defined 
originally  by  Hofstede  (1980),  Future 
Orientation  and  Humane  Orientation  from 
Kluckholn  &  Strodtbeck  (1961),  Putnam 
(1993)  and  McClelland  (1985),  while 
Performance  Orientation  from  McClelland 
(1985).  Short  definitions  of  these  cultural 
dimensions are given in GLOBE related book 
(House et all, 2004:3). 
Our  research  compares  the  cultural 
foundations  of  prospective  managers  and 
leaders  in  Romania  and  Slovenia.  The 
findings  about  the  students’  expectations 
about societal culture are helpful in imagining 
the societal culture in its dynamics. Accepting 
that values “high in centrality, pervasive, and 
supported  by  powerful  sanctions  and  high 
consensus and supporters of these values hold 
positions  of  high  prestige  and  authority” 
(Williams 1979: 34) are resistant to change, 
we also are aware that they change especially 
when  one  generation  succeeds  another 
(Keating et al., 2002: 637).  
 
3. Methodology 
GLOBE student project uses the section 1 (as 
it is) and, respectively, section 3 (as should 
be)  GLOBE  research  Beta  questionnaires 
(House et al., 2004) with some modifications 
required  by  the  subjects’  nature  (students). 
Scales in section 1 ask the students to value 
“the  way  our  society  is”  (practices),  while 
scales in section 3 ask the students opinion 
about  “the  way  our  society  should  be” 
(values)  using  a  seven  points  Likert  scale. 
The surveys were carried out in either 2008 
or the first half of 2009. The respondents are 
enroled at the Technical University of Cluj-
Napoca,  Babes-Bolyai  University  (Cluj–
Napoca)  and  Petru  Maior  University  in 
Targu-Mures (Romania) and at University of 
Ljubljana (Slovenia). Table 1 shows the joint 
sample  structure  of  our  respondents,  which 
gave us usable data. 
 
Table 1: Sample structure 
 
Country of origin 
What subject area/ study path do you study? 
Total  Business/ Economics  Engineering 
Romania  166  261  427 
Slovenia  150  150  300 
TOTAL (valid answers)  316  411  727 349 
Collected empirical data has been processed 
with SPSS 17. Descriptive statistical analysis 
was carried out separately for Romanian and 
Slovenian  sample.  In  comparing  Romanian 
sample  with  the  Slovenian  one,  the 
independent  samples  t-test  was  used,  with 
0.05 significance threshold.  
 
4. Findings 
The research findings concern: 1) differences 
between  Romanian  and  Slovenian  students’ 
perceptions  of  current  cultural  practices;  2) 
differences between Romanian and Slovenian 
students’  expectations  concerning  societal 
values.  
 
4.1.  Differences  in  perceptions:  Romanian 
vs. Slovenian students 
Table  2  displays  the  significant  differences 
between  Romanian  and  Slovenian  sample 
with respect of perceptions of societal culture 
practices, while the differences between the 
mean  values  of  perceptions  on  cultural 
practices  in  Romania  and  Slovenia  are 
displayed in Figure 1 
 
Table 2. Significant differences in cultural practices: Romania vs. Slovenia 
Cultural practice 
(“society as it is”) 
Romania  Slovenia  Absolut 
differences 
t-test 
(sig 2-tailed) 
Uncertainty Avoidance  3.49  4.19  - 0.70  - 11.617 (0.000) 
Future Orientation  3.44  3.79  - 0.35  - 4.659** (0.000) 
Power Distance  5.81  5.03  0.78  12.306** (0.000) 
Collectivism I 
(Institutional) 
3.78  4.04  - 0.26  - 3.920 (0.000) 
Humane Orientation  3.83  3.97  - 0.14  - 2.204 (0.028) 
Performance Orientation  3.66  4.05  - 0.39  - 5.089 (0.000) 
Collectivism II (in 
group) 
5.13  5.22    (0.175) 
Gender Egalitarianism  3.99  4.13  - 0.14  - 2.427** (0.016) 
Assertiveness  3.51  4.24  - 0.73  - 
10.587**(0.000) 
95% confidence; *two independent samples; ** equal variances not assumed 
 
 
Figure 1. Differences in perception of cultural practices: Romania vs. Slovenia (mean 
scores) 
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Uncertainty Avoidance
Future Orientation
Power Distance
Collectivism I 
Humane Orientation Performance Orientation
Collectivism II 
Gender Egalitarianism
Assertiveness
Romania Slovenia350 
T-test of differences between the mean scores 
(two  independent  samples)  shows  that  the 
Romanians perceive significant higher Power 
Distance (t = 12.306; sig = 0.000) than the 
Slovenians  (equal  variaces  not  assumed). 
Significant  lower  mean  values  are  recorded 
by  Romanians  for  (decreasing  order): 
Uncertainty  Avoidance  (t  =  -  11.617;  sig = 
0.000),  Assertiveness  (t  =  -  10.587;  sig.  = 
0.000), Performance Orientation (t = - 5.089; 
sig = 0.000), Future Orientation (t = - 4.659; 
sig = 0.000), Institutional Collectivism (t = - 
3.920; sig = 0.000), Gender Egalitarianism (t 
=  -  2.427;  sig  =  0.016)  and  Humane 
Orientation (t = -2.204; sig = 0.028). The lack 
of significant differences for Collectivism II 
(In group/Family)  might be interpreted as a 
convergence in practicing tight relationships 
within membership group in both countries.   
 
4.2. Differences in expectations: Romanian 
vs. Slovenian students 
The  data  in  Table  3  summarized  the 
significant  differences  between  the  most 
appreciated  cultural  values  by  the  future 
managers  and  leaders  in  the  Romanian  and 
Slovenia and the “spider” in Figure 2 reveals 
the differences between the average score of 
cultural expectations (values) in Romania and 
Slovenia.  
 
 
Table 3. Significant differences in societal values: Romania vs. Slovenia (mean scores)* 
Cultural value 
(“society as it should be”) 
Romania  Slovenia  Absolut differences  t-test 
(sig 2-tailed) 
Uncertainty Avoidance  5.10  4.55  0.55  9.427 (0.000) 
Future Orientation  5.23  4.74  0.49  6.781 (0.000) 
Power Distance  2.65  2.94  -0.29  - 3.737 (0.000)** 
Collectivism I (Institutional)  4.94  4.46  0.48  7.069 (0.000)** 
Humane Orientation  5.41  5.08  0.33  4.887 (0.000)** 
Performance Orientation  5.89  5.78  0.11  (0.068) 
Collectivism II (in group)  5.70  5.69  0.01  (0.824) 
Gender Egalitarianism  4.42  4.55  -0.13  - 2.384 (0.011)** 
Assertiveness  4.01  4.09  -0.08  (0.186) 
*two independent samples; ** equal variances not assumed 
 
 
Figure 2. Differences between average scores of cultural expectations: Romania vs. Slovenia 
1
3
5
7
Uncertainty Avoidance
Future Orientation
Power Distance
Collectivism I 
Humane Orientation Performance Orientation
Collectivism II 
Gender Egalitarianism
Assertiveness
Romania Slovenia351 
As seen, there is no (or very low) difference 
between  the  mean  scores  (p<0.05)  of  the 
compared  samples  expectations  concerning 
Collectivism  II,  Assertiveness  and 
Performance  Orientation.  Romanians  expect 
significant higher Uncertainty Avoidance (t = 
9.427; sig = 0.000), Collectivism I (t = 7.069; 
sig = 0.000),  Future Orientation (t = 6.781; 
sig  =  0.000),  and  Humane  Orientation  (t  =  
4.887; sig = 0.000) than the Slovenians. The 
highest  statistically  significant  difference  is 
related to Uncertainty Avoidance. Significant 
lower  expectations  are  recorded  by 
Romanians  for Power Distance  (t  =  -3.737; 
sig = 0.000) and Gender Egalitarianism (t = -
2.384;  sig  =  0.011).  Given  the  mentioned 
findings can be argued that some Romanian 
cultural values (expectations) are convergent 
with  the  Slovenian  ones  (desire  for  higher 
performance  concern  of  society,  tighter 
relationships with the membership groups and 
stronger  Assertiveness  in  defending/arguing 
own  position).  Even  though  the  identified 
changes in cultural dimensions will occur in 
the future, we cannot speak about a complete 
harmonization of culture in the two countries 
under study. 
 
5. Discussions and conclusions 
The  Romanias  perceive  actual  cultural 
practices  in  their  environment  differently 
from Slovenians, with the highest difference 
for  Uncertainty  Avoidance  (Romanians 
perceiving  their  society  not  being  enough 
concerned  with  creating  a  stable  legal, 
political and economic environment or with 
long  term  planning).  Hofstede  found  in  his 
research  (Hofstede,  2002:  100)  a  very  high 
level of Uncertainty Avoidance (mean score 
6.16) in the Slovenian environment, while for 
Romania  he  estimated  an  index  of  90 
(http://www.geert-hofstede.com/ 
hofstede_dimensions.php), suggesting that in 
the past socialist environment, the managers 
worked  in  a  culture  with  a  very  high 
Uncertainty  Avoidance.  The  GLOBE  study 
identified  a  mean  score  of  3.78  for 
Uncertainty  Avoidance  for  Slovenian 
practice, and a GLOBE type study performed 
on 216 Romanian middle managers, got to an 
average  score  of  3.92  for  this  cultural 
dimension  (Catana  &Catana,  2011).  This 
shows that the processes of transition to the 
market  economy    brought  “turbulences”  in 
the  “traditional”  way  of  heaving  someone 
taking  care  of  things  (through  central 
planning in the case of Romania). The lowest 
difference  is  recorded  for  Humane 
Orientation (Romanian mean value, higher). 
Based  upon  these  findings,  cannot  speak 
about  a  convergence  in  cultural  practices 
perception.  
Both samples display higher mean values for 
all nine cultural dimensions at expected level, 
except Power Distance in both samples and 
Assertiveness  in  Slovenian  sample.  Our 
findings show the Romanians and Slovenians 
are  very  similar  in  their  desires  concerning 
their  societies  orientation  towards  In 
group/Family  Collectivism  Collectivism  II), 
Assertiveness  and  Performance  Orientation. 
These  findings  might  reveal  a  certain 
harmonisation  of  cultures  within  the 
compared  countries.  The  highest  significant 
(positive) difference between the samples is 
recorded for Uncertainty Avoidance, showing 
the Romanians desire to increase in a higher 
degree than Slovenians, the level of certainty 
in  their  society,  including  the  long  term 
planning.  The  lowest  significant  (positive) 
difference  concerns  Humane  Orientation, 
revealing  that  the  two  samples  record  the 
same trend, towards paying more attention to 
encouraging and rewarding fairness, altruism, 
friendship,  generosity,  kindness  and 
promoting  altruistic  ideals.  Significant 
(negative)  differences  are  recorded  in 
expectations concerning Power Distance  and 
Gender  Egalitarianism.  These  two 
expectations reveal other “avenues” towards 
increasing the convergence in cultural values 
and future cultural practices (if the subjects 
holding such values/expectations will become 
managers  and  transform  them  in  societal 
practices). Although according to institutional 
theory,  changes  in  the  more  culturally 

HOW FUTURE MANAGERS VIEW SOCIETAL CULTURE: A CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISON

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