Europe

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Europe

• Strengths and Pitfalls
• of Cultural Diversity
• Athens, 17th October, 2002
• Geert Hofstede

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CULTURE in the anthropological sense

• Collective programming of the mind
  distinguishing the members of one group or
  category of people from another
• group/category can be nation, organization,
  department, occupation, gender, generation

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Manifestations of culture
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The learning of culture
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National versus organizational cultures

• National culture differences are rooted in
  values learned before age 10
• They pass from generation to generation
• For organizations, they are given facts
• Organizational cultures are rooted in practices
  learned on the job
• Given enough management attention, they can be
  changed

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National and organizational cultures are
different things

• National cultures belong to anthropology. They
  distinguish ways of thinking, feeling, and acting
  of similar people across nations
• Organizational cultures belong to sociology. They
  distinguish ways of acting of people across
  organizations within one nation

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5 dimensions of national cultures

• Inequality more or less? Power Distance large
  vs. small
• The unfamiliar fight or tolerate? Uncertainty
  Avoidance strong vs. weak
• Relation with in-group loose or tight?
  Individualism vs. Collectivism
• Emotional gender roles different or same?
  Masculinity vs. Femininity
• Need gratification later or now? Long vs.
  Short term orientation

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Six dimensions of organizational cultures

• Process Oriented or Results Oriented?
• Employee Oriented or Job Oriented?
• Parochial or Professional?
• Open System or Closed System?
• Loose Control or Tight Control?
• Normative or Pragmatic?

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National culture scores for gt 50 countries based
on comparing IBM subsidiaries around 1970

• So far 6 major replications on other
  populations (elites, other corporations, airline
  pilots, consumers, civil servants)
• Results very stable even if cultures shift,
  countries shift together so relative scores
  remain valid
• Over 400 significant correlations with other
  national measures

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Neglected important dimension for Human Resources
Management Masculinity vs. Femininity

• Masculinity A society in which gender values are
  distinct Men are supposed to be assertive, tough
  and focused on material success, women on the
  quality of life
• Femininity A society in which gender values
  overlap Both men and women are supposed to be
  modest, tender, and focused on the quality of life

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• Masculinity
• Money and things
• Live in order to work
• Humans are resources
• Manager as hero
• Manège model
• Oversell yourself
• Job prevails over family life
• Conflicts resolved by fighting

• Femininity
• People and quality
• Work in order to live
• Work makes people
• Manager as worker
• Ménage model
• Undersell yourself
• Job takes family life into account
• Conflicts resolved by compromise

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MAS index scores for European countries

• Masculine
• Slovakia
• Hungary
• Austria
• Italy
• Switzerland
• Ireland
• Great Britain
• Germany
• Poland
• (U.S.A.)
• Greece
• Czechia
• Belgium
• Luxembourg

• Turkey
• France
• Spain
• Romania
• Bulgaria
• Russia
• Portugal
• Estonia
• Finland
• Slovenia
• Denmark
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Sweden
• Feminine

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MAS index scores by gender
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Values are in our guts, not in our minds

• Cultural differences are no fun if they
  dont make you angry you havent understood them
  yet .... Like why do they hate us so much?
• Simplistic classifications attribute all
  differences to Ind/Col ..... and as individualist
  cultures are wealthier, arent they better?
• Culture is not another trick towards profits
  its about being human.
• The other dimensions are just as crucial

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Culture Change

• Being rooted in values learned before age 10,
  national culture differences are quite stable and
  pass from generation to generation
• Neither politicians nor priests can change them,
  let alone CEOs
• What leaders can try to change is organizational
  practices and identities
• The EU and multinationals are not kept together
  by shared values but by practices

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• Available in 17 languages
• Bulgarian, Chinese,
• Czech, Danish,
• Dutch, English,
• Finnish, French,
• German, Japanese,
• Korean, Norwegian,
• Polish, Portuguese,
• Romanian, Spanish,
• Swedish
• Older book in Italian
• Details on website www.geerthofstede.nl

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