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Mar 05

Cross Cultural Preferences: Individual or Group?

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources, Culture training for the Public sector No Comments »

Have you ever considered why in some cultures it’s best to praise a team for their efforts rather than an individual? Or why connections and networks are more important when doing business than individual achievement? Or in education, have you noticed that in some cultures children are encouraged to participate and show individual creativity while in others the expectation is for children to recite lessons as a group? There are many differences like these that can often be explained by a predominant tendency in a culture to place more importance on individuals or groups.

This distinction is often referred to as individualism and collectivism, the degree to which a society reinforces individual or group achievement and interpersonal relationships. This concept, one of Geert Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions, helps explain many cross-cultural attitudes, behaviours and communication styles.

Societies which emphasise collectivism are those where people’s main concern is their in-group or community rather than their individuality. Extended families and networks where everyone takes responsibility for fellow members of their group are typical of collective cultures such as China, Mexico and Greece.

Individualism refers to describe societies that are characterised by the importance of individuality and individual rights. In individualistic cultures such as the US or Germany, the self and immediate family come first while social bonds tend to be loosely tied.

Below is a table which summarises the key differences between the cross-cultural preference for individual or group.

Collectivism	Individualism
‘We’ conscious	‘I’ conscious
Group comes first	Self and immediate family come first
Focus on tradition and precedent	Focus on growth and progress
Collaborative	Competitive
Success and position are ascribed	Individual achievement earned and rewarded

Understanding whether a culture places more emphasis on the individual or the group will help you maximise doing business in that country. These concepts are covered on cross-cultural training programmes such as Communicating Effectively across Cultures as well as cross cultural training for business and management programmes such as Doing Business in India.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2010

Tagged with: Add new tag • Collectivism • Courses - Cultural Training • Cross Cultural Training • cross-cultural theory • cultural training for business and management • Culture • Developing intercultural Competence • Doing Business in China • doing business in India • Doing business in the U.S. • Geert Hofstede • Individualism

Feb 12

Cross-Cultural Communication Styles: High and Low Context

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources, Culture training for the Public sector No Comments »

The concepts of high context and low context refer to how people communicate in different cultures. Differences can be derived from the extent to which meaning is transmitted through actual words used or implied by the context.

High context implies that a lot of unspoken information is implicitly transferred during communication. People in a high context culture such as Saudi Arabia tend to place a larger importance on long-term relationships and loyalty and have fewer rules and structure implemented.

Low context implies that a lot of information is exchanged explicitly through the message itself and rarely is anything implicit or hidden. People in low context cultures such as the UK tend to have short-term relationships, follow rules and standards closely and are generally very task-oriented.

Understanding whether your international colleagues are high context or low context will help you to adapt your communication style and build stronger relationships with them. These concepts are covered during cross-cultural training programmes such as Communicating across Cultures and Managing International Teams. Cultural awareness training which focuses on one or more specific cultures like Doing Business in India or Living and Working in China will also address these concepts.

When doing business in a high context culture such as Mexico, Japan or the Middle East, you might encounter the following:

Misunderstanding when exchanging information
Impression of a lack of information
Large amount of information is provided in a non-verbal manner, e.g. gestures, pauses, facial expressions
Emphasis on long term relationships and loyalty
‘Unwritten’ rules that are taken for granted but can easily be missed by strangers
Shorter contracts since less information is required

When doing business in a low context culture such as Germany, Switzerland or the US, on the other hand, you might find the following:

All meaning is explicitly provided in the message itself
Extensive background information and explanations are provided verbally to avoid misunderstandings
People tend to have short-term relationships
People follow rules and standards closely
Contracts tend to be longer and very detailed

High and low context cultures usually correspond with polychronic and monochronic cultures respectively. The table below shows some general preferences of people from high context and low context cultures.

High Context	Low Context
Indirect and implicit messages	Direct, simple and clear messages
Polycrhonic	Monochronic
High use of non-verbal communication	Low use of non-verbal communication
Low reliance on written communication	High reliance on written communication
Use intuition and feelings to make decisions	Rely on facts and evidence for decisions
Long-term relationships	Short-term relationships
Relationships are more important than schedules	Schedules are more important than relationships
Strong distinction between in-group and out-group	Flexible and open

Participating in a cross-cultural training programme such as Doing Business with India and Doing Business in the UK, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of the high or low context preferences in the country or countries where you are working and the impact these preferences have on doing business with them.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2010

Tagged with: Add new tag • Cross Cultural Training • cross-cultural theory • Doing Business in China • doing business in India • Geert Hofstede • high context • low context • managing International teams • Working Succesfully Across Cultures

Dec 14

Cultural Profile: Geert H.Hofstede

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources, Culture training for the Public sector No Comments »

Name: Geert Hofstede

Nationality: Dutch

Born: October 2, 1928 in Haarlem, Netherlands

Known for:

Five dimensions of culture
Small vs. large power distance
Individualism vs. collectivism
Masculinity vs. femininity
Uncertainty avoidance
Long vs. short term orientation

Key publications:

Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. Revised and expanded 2nd Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill USA, 2005.

Exploring Culture: Exercises, Stories and Synthetic Cultures. Yarmouth, Maine:
Intercultural Press, 2002 (co-authored with Gert Jan Hofstede and Paul B. Pedersen).

Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nation. 2nd Edition Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications, 2001.

Masculinity and Femininity: The Taboo Dimension of National Cultures. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications, 1998.

Hofstede earned a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1953 and completed his PhD in Social Psychology at the Groningen University in1967. Hofstede started his career at IBM, where he founded and managed the Personnel Research Department.

Hofstede’s experience as a regular company worker combined with an interest in understanding organisational structures and management styles gave him a unique perspective. Between 1967 and 1973 he interviewed approximately 100,000 IBM employees in 53 counties. Based on the data he compiled, Hofstede developed his model of five cultural dimensions which are often used in cross-cultural training to help people categorise cultures in order to understand the differences which exist between them. Hofstede’s work focused on national cultures as well organisational cultures, both of which have an enormous impact on international business.

Following his work and research with IBM, Hofstede lectured at different institutions in Switzerland, Belgium and France before relocating to the Netherlands in 1980. In the same year, he published his first book Culture’s Consequences which paved the way for further activities and teaching in the intercultural field until he formally retired in 1993. Hofstede is still active in the intercultural field and often speaks at business events or at cross-cultural conferences such as SIETAR (Society for Intercultural Training and Research).

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2009

Tagged with: Cross Cultural Training • cross-cultural theory • Dimensions of Culture • Geert Hofstede • Individualism • Long vs short term orientation • Masculinity • Power Distance • Uncertainty avoidance

Dec 14

Cultural Profile: Fons Trompenaars

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources, Culture training for the Public sector 1 Comment »

Name: Fons Trompenaars
Nationality: Dutch
Born: 1952 in the Netherlands

Known for:

Seven Dimensions of Culture
Universalism vs. Particularism
Individualism vs. Communitarianism
Specific vs. Diffuse
Affective vs. Neutral
Achievement vs. Ascription
Sequential vs. Synchronic
Internal vs. External Control

Key publications:

Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business (1993). New York: McGraw-Hill

The Seven Cultures of Capitalism (1993). London: Piatkus Books

Building Cross-Cultural Competence: How to Create Wealth from Conflicting Values (2000). London: Yale University Press

Managing People across Cultures (2004). Oxford: Capstone

Fons Trompenaars studied Economics at the Free University of Amsterdam and completed his Ph.D. at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He grew up in a multicultural family of French and Dutch and later worked for Shell in nine different countries.

Trompenaars was a student of Geert Hofstede who had a strong influence on his research in the intercultural field. After working closely with Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions, Trompenaars decided to expand them into seven slightly different dimensions of opposing concepts adding some elements of cultural difference which were not in the original model.

Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner, also heavily involved in the field of international business research and intercultural theory, have joined together to conduct further research in the field.

Trompenaars’ Seven Dimensions of Culture is a model often referred to indirectly in online cultural tools and cross-cultural training programmes such as Communicating Effectively across Cultures to help increase understanding of cultural relativity and cultural difference.

Tagged with: cross-cultural theory • cultural profile • Dimensions of Culture • Fons Trompenaars • Hampden-Turner

Nov 30

Cultural Profile: Edward T. Hall

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources, Culture training for the Public sector 1 Comment »

Name: Edward T. Hall

Nationality: US American

Born: May 16, 1914 in Webster Groves, Missouri, USA

Known For: One of the founding fathers of Intercultural Communication

Key Cultural Concepts: space (proxemics), time (chronemics), high context, low context

Key Publications:

The Silent Language (1959). New York: Doubleday & Co.
The Hidden Dimension (1969). New York: Doubleday & Co
Beyond Culture (1976). Anchor Books
The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time (1983). New York: Doubleday & Co.
Understanding Cultural Differences – Germans, French and Americans (1990). Maine: Intercultural Press

Edward T. Hall, a respected anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher with a PhD from Columbia University, is often recognised as one of the founding fathers of intercultural communication. Hall developed a number of cross-cultural concepts which have become integral to any cross-cultural training discussion about cultural differences. His concepts include proxemics, monochronic and polychronic, and high context and low context.

Hall worked extensively with the military and the U.S. Foreign Service Institute in the 1950s training government personnel to become more effective communicators in cross-cultural interactions. This experience and research helped validate a number of important cultural concepts, all of which anyone doing business with another culture needs to be familiar with.

Many of Hall’s theories are widely used in cross-cultural training programmes such as Doing Business in the Middle East and Living and Working in France to improve understanding of communication styles and how people build relationships in that culture. Cross-cultural training applies each theory to a practical context to help you be more effective in cross-cultural interactions.