Cultural Dimensions. Is speaking the same language enough?
If you visit Finland, you will notice that almost everybody speaks English. So well do Finns speak English that you can actually manage to live in this country without learning the local language for a really long time. Finns are also very eager to speak English. But why is that?
Finland is a small country of five million people and in business terms that means a small marketplace. Most Finnish companies are not only open to internationalisation opportunities, they are bound to get to the international marketplace for them to grow. One of the first steps for this is to learn English – the language of international business.
Take a look at the video clip below. All people in the video speak the same language. However, their body language and the way how they express themselves shows they come from different cultural backgrounds.
Language is a very important part of culture. In additional, understanding the cultural differences between you and your customer is another step towards successful international business. Geert Hofstede has done an excellent work in understanding cultural differences and how it can be used in helping organizsations involved in international business. His research gives us insights into other cultures so that we can be more effective when interacting with people in other countries. He has grouped the main cultural differences into five main dimensions. This is how he explains them:
- Power Distance Index that is the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. Power and inequality, of course, are extremely fundamental facts of any society and anybody with some international experience will be aware that ‘all societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others’.
- Individualism on the one side versus its opposite, collectivism, that is the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups. On the individualist side we find societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after him/herself and his/her immediate family. On the collectivist side, we find societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.
- Masculinity versus its opposite, femininity, refers to the distribution of roles between the genders. The women in feminine countries have the same modest, caring values as the men; in the masculine countries they are somewhat assertive and competitive, but not as much as the men, so that these countries show a gap between men’s values and women’s values.
- Uncertainty Avoidance Index indicates to what extent a culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations. Unstructured situations are novel, unknown, surprising, different from usual. Uncertainty avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of such situations by strict laws and rules, safety and security measures. The opposite type, uncertainty accepting cultures, are more tolerant of opinions different from what they are used to; they try to have as few rules as possible.
- Long-Term Orientation versus short-term orientation: values associated with Long Term Orientation are thrift and perseverance; values associated with Short Term Orientation are respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations, and protecting one’s ‘face’. Both the positively and the negatively rated values of this dimension are found in the teachings of Confucius, the most influential Chinese philosopher who lived around 500 B.C.; however, the dimension also applies to countries without a Confucian heritage.
Having read the above, which cultural dimension do you think is demonstrated in the video clip above?
Finally, a practical tip. Next time you visit a customer in a new or unfamiliar country, this tool might be helpful to check before boarding that plane: Compare your home culture with your host culture
