FOCUS GROUP

CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER CONTENT
What is Focus Group?
How do you recognize Focus Group?
Group Focus in Action
Group Focus Believe and Behaviors
A Case
Jeri Hawthrone, an American Human Resources
Professional, came to Copenhagen to hold a meeting
with local staffs.
She expected to give an impressive training program to
the staffs.
She was frustrated because the local staffs considered
her as a minor value as compared to the whole group.
They raised their own opinions and discussed together
while ignoring her voice.
What is Focus Group?
Importance of the group in relation to the individual
Whether people want to be distinguished from the
group (individual) or consider part of a particular
group.
Group harmony is necessary to achieve business goals
Importance of living and working together in harmony.
What is Focus Group?
Group Focus describes whether people identify
themselves as part of a group or a series of individual
contribution.
Country Ranking: Group Focus
Individual Focus Group Focus
Canada Brunei
New Zealand Indonesia
The United States Japan
Australia Malaysia
Belgium Qatar
Finland Korea
Netherlands Vietnam
Norway
How do we recognize Group Focus?
Individual Focus culture Group Focus culture
 Recognize and reward unique  People define
individual contribution themselves by their
 Focus on individual
affiliation with a group.
achievement
 Encourage people to express
 People look for
their distinctiveness and consensus in decisions
uniqueness  Maintain harmonious
 Laws protecting the rights of
work environment is
individuals
important
 Prefer to work and spend
time alone
How do we recognize Group Focus?
Individual Focus society Group Focus society
 Children are taught to  At the early stage of life,
stand in front of the parents socialize their kids
class to show and tell to be part of a group.
something about  People demonstrate their
themselves. concern for the common
 Children should be good: clean up after
themselves on picnic
comfortable calling grounds.
attention to themselves.  One can succeed best
 “I-think-I-can”
through communal effort.
Where does this come from?
Individual Focus Group Focus
Heroes, folktales, Heroes, folklore,
children stories. children stories
In the United States: In Vietnam
Superman Tam Cam
Spiderman Luc Van Tien
Peter Pan Thach Sanh
Ironman
Batman
Group Focus in Actions: Hiring
Individual Focus society Group Focus society
Candidates talk about Candidates do not tell
their individual what they have done
achievements , both in individually.
academic and in Should encourage the
previous work-related candidates to talk about
situations. achievements done by
their previous teams or
how the work was done.
Recognizing Talent
Individual Focus
 Employee of the month
 Recognize individual
achievement with preferred
parking spaces,
 Provide individual incentive
compensation, celebrate
individual performance.
 Talents like to work on their
own and work out problems
by themselves.
Group Focus
 Individual success is dependent
on cooperative efforts.
 People are motivated by
assurance of greater security and
opportunity for affiliation.
 People like their companies to
take care of them, develop their
talent, fairly compensate them
 Loyalty and seniority are
important
 Achievement is originates from
effort of the group.
Decision Making
Individual Focus Group Focus
Value individualistic Not allow a singe
decision makers person to make
decisions.
No responsible
businessperson would
make decision without
involving others and
gaining agreement from
the parties involved.
Collaboration, Harmony, Team Behavior
Individual Focus Group Focus
Prefer to work alone Harmony is part of
Want to do individual group-focused
best to help the team environment.
success. People like to come
together for meetings
Sense of affiliation that
come from being
together.
 Beliefs and Behaviors
Individual Focus society Group Focus society
 People are encouraged to be  Everyone must be
self-sufficient, to make it on
their own, to think for
heard. Decision making
themselves. take much longer time.
 Individual freedom is very  People may not value
important the need to express
 Individual taste and style are
themselves.
expressed in home, decoration,
offices, dress, and choice of  The emphasis is on the
cars extended family and the
 The focus is on the nuclear
community.
family with fewer children
 Individualism Versus Collectivism (IDV)

 This refers to the strength of the ties that people have to others
within their community.
 A high IDV score indicates weak interpersonal connection among
those who are not part of a core "family." Here, people take less
responsibility for others' actions and outcomes.
 In a collectivist society, however, people are supposed to be loyal to
the group to which they belong, and, in exchange, the group will
defend their interests. The group itself is normally larger, and people
take responsibility for one another's wellbeing.
 Application: Central American countries Panama and Guatemala
have very low IDV scores. In these countries, as an example, a
marketing campaign that emphasizes benefits to the community
would likely be understood and well received, as long as the people
addressed feel part of the same group.
Group Discussion
How could a foreign individual-focus manager work
effectively with his/her local group-focus staffs? Give
examples for illustration. What are possible problems
that may happen when they work together? And how
to solve these problems?
How could a foreign group-focus manager work
effectively with his/her local individual-focus staffs?
Give examples for illustration. What are possible
problems that may happen when they work together?
And how to solve these problems?
Group Project – Next Step
Explore your selected country in terms of group focus/
individual focus.
Provide an advice on how a Vietnamese manager
could work effectively with the local staffs of your
selected country.