Culture and its Predominance in the UK

Discuss about the Business Culture of the United Kingdom for Hofstede Dimensions.
 

A country’s business culture could be observed by its overall culture that is predominant in the country. Culture refers to the social behavior, the norms and customs of a particular country. The culture visible in the United Kingdom is influenced majorly by its history as a democratic power. Composed of four countries that include England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland – the UK boasts of varied cultures. Christianity is the predominant religion followed in the UK and English are Welsh are the two official languages. In terms of business however, the culture is almost the same in all the four countries. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is followed highly in the UK as it s becoming increasingly important across the globe. The major themes of CSR in the UK are work life balance, employment and human rights, contribution to the community and the environment.

In this essay, the business culture in the UK shall be elaborately discussed with special focus on the CSR themes prevalent in the four countries. Prior to this, the essay will explain the concept of culture and the culture predominant in the UK. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions will be used to highlight the cultural trends in the country. The essay will then explain and clarify the country’s business culture by providing proper arguments and discussions. 

Culture cannot be defined in a definite way as it has different connotations for different people. In general, culture is the way of life in a particular society, which includes religion, education, arts, music and so on. One behaves the way with others, the food choices one makes, the businesses one does and the clothes one wears – all refer to culture. Many theorists and scholars have defined culture in different ways but Geert Hofstede’s definition has probably received the most popularity and it is still relevant. According to Hofstede, culture is “the collective mental programming of the human mind, which distinguishes one group of people from another” (Hofstede 1983, p. 76). He further identified six dimensions of culture with which one could identify the differences in culture. Power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation and indulgence are the six dimensions identified and developed by Hofstede.  

By putting the United Kingdom on the cultural dimensions scale, one could understand the country’s prevalent and dominant culture. As per Hofstede’s cultural dimension index, the United Kingdom has a high score in individualism, which means that the people are highly individualistic and private (Hofstede-insights.com, 2018). The country has seen a remarkable rise in consumerism and the ‘ME’ culture. In the masculinity scale, UK has a score of 66, which means that the society is highly driven and success oriented. As opposed to Scandinavian nations that are mostly feminine, the majority population in the UK are obsesses with work and performance. At 35 in the uncertainty avoidance index, the UK has little rules to follow but those that are there have to be followed severely. The low score in UAI also means that the people in the UK focus more on the result rather than on planning and detailing in terms of work. In the long-term orientation index, the country scores a neutral score of 51, which makes it difficult to understand the dominant preference. The society is not inclined towards either maintaining time-honored traditions or following a pragmatic approach. With a high score of 69 in the indulgence index, the culture in the UK could be identified as possessing a positive attitude and are mostly optimistic.

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Analysis of the UK

With the help of this Hofstede cultural dimension analysis, one can have a clearer mindset on the ways to do business in the UK.  Having a score of 35 in the power distance index, it is evident that the culture in the UK does not believe in inequality and strives towards minimizing it. However, a close look at the country’s history, the low score in the PDI seems contradictory. Research has found that the working class in the UK has a higher score of PD in comparison to the higher class. Nonetheless, when it comes to business, the UK has a balanced approach towards all. As apparent from the analysis, the business culture in the UK is highly influenced by the overall culture. 

This section shall explain the business culture in the UK but first it is important to put some light on business culture in general. After analyzing the overall culture in the UK, it is now important to explain the business culture. It is a well-known fact that doing business in the globalized world requires people to have comprehensive knowledge about various cultures (Urbancova 2013). It is the key element of business in today’s competitive world and organizations have realized its importance. As Floyd et al. (2013, p. 760) mention, business culture is important in terms of ethics because it enables businesses to engage professionally with one another. 

The importance of culture is visible from the fact that it influences the decisions made by the management and one wrong decision costs heavily on the organization. Instances of business failures in terms of product campaign, launch and so on are in abundance. One example could be – Tiz Razor manufacturing company based in Iran failed miserable when it exported its product in Qatar where ‘tiz’ meant ‘buttocks’. The sales plunged drastically and the company had to face severe loss. When the management decides to send its managers to a different country with different culture, it must train the manager regarding that country’s culture.  

Business culture is associated with ethics, behavior, etiquette and so on demonstrated by the businesspersons. It encompasses the values, visions, working style, habits and belief system of an organization and the country in which it operates. Business culture has been categorized into two types – low context cultures and high context culture. In low context cultures, the business partners have the tendency to speak out their heart. In simpler terms, they mean what they say in direct and unambiguous manner. High context cultures are those where attitudes and circumstances are given more importance than the statements made.

Understanding Business Culture in the UK

The business culture in the UK is low-context because the people follow rules and standards strictly and give more importance to words than the surrounding or the context. An example could explain it better – a signed contract between two parties in business is taken as the final product. The people in UK take it as the end of negotiations and not the start of it. Further, as a low context culture, giving or receiving gifts in business is considered unethical in the UK. In order to achieve maximum results, one must have a strong and effective communication process because poor communication might result in failure. It is important to learn the business culture of the concerned country where one aims to do business and hence, an extensive study has to be done.  Low context cultures like the UK make least use of non-verbal communication and rely heavily on written communication as already mentioned. Relationships are short-term in the UK as business executives are depended heavily on specifics and evidences for making decisions rather than on verbal confirmation. To the business class of the UK, relationships are less valuable than schedules. Apart from that, the culture of UK is flexible and it allows people to be open and free while conducting business.

Rees-Caldwell and Pinnington (2013, p. 220) identify certain other tendencies of low-context cultures like the UK that could assist in explaining the business culture further. Territoriality is one of the tendencies, which explains that people in the UK do not compromise with their privacy. Hence, they stand far apart from people. In addition, they associate extreme value to time and believe that time is a product and it must be spent or saved as per demand.

Business culture also refers to the unique dimension of culture that involves starting on the right note, holding meetings, formalities, negotiations, using social media and many more. As has been mentioned in the previous sections, business culture includes ethics and etiquette. The CSR is one important aspect of business that takes care of ethics. In the UK, CSR is given increased importance, which is evident from the work life balance enjoyed by the employees of different organizations. Community works and environment protection also hold important places in the CSR policy of the UK. In the field of environment protection, the UK businesses along with the government are considerably reducing the amount of waste – both industrial and commercial – dumped off in landfill sites.

CSR and Business Culture in the UK

When it comes to work life balance, the UK usually maintains a good balance. Although there are organizations where employees work for extra hours, most organizations realize the importance of work-life balance. The business organizations have introduced and implemented policies that give a better work-life balance to its employees. According to these organizations, a better work-life balance would result in better production and help all the parties involved. The employees in the UK have to work for more than 48 hours especially since Britain made its exit from the European Union. UK employees have long working hours and the intensity of work as the two main concerns. In order to tackle these concerns, the business culture in the UK witnessed certain changes. With the introduction of supple working, sustainable commutation and improvements in technology, employees now have the benefit to plan their working hours accordingly. The working culture has also seen a shift from previous days with an increased integration of cultures in the UK from different parts of the world. Technological advancements have allowed businesses to provide comfortable working environments to the employees in the UK. They now have the facility to work from home as per their convenience. 

After explaining the business culture of the UK with the help of various terms and concepts, it is now important to provide clarification for the business culture followed in the country. Before indulging on clarification of the business culture, it would be better to rewind its two types especially the high context culture. As opposed to low-context culture, high context cultures give importance to implicit messages and indirect gestures. The use of non-verbal communication is very high as compared to low-context culture and intuition and feelings are trusted more than facts and evidences while making decisions. Further, the countries that have high context cultures like the Asian, African, central European, Arab and Latin American cultures are polychromic. It means that these cultures do not put much value to punctuality and accept interruptions.

In order to understand the reason behind UK being a low-context culture, it is important to look into its history as a nation. The UK has had a history of dominating over other countries and its primary aim was to expand its empire as far as possible. Such a huge vision required acute planning and scheduling. In addition, it required punctuality and fewer adherences to emotions and feelings while taking important decisions. Furthermore, in the earlier days during the occupation of countries in the Southeast Asian in particular, the British used trade and business as the gateway to enter the foreign soil. Therefore, they knew the worth of time, directness while dealing with countries and giving little importance to emotions.

Importance of Comprehensive Cultural Knowledge in Doing Business Globally

The six cultural dimensions of Hofstede also provide a good platform from where one could clarify the business culture of the UK. The individualism, masculinity, the UAI and long-term orientation indexes in particular provide a clear picture of the work culture in the UK. Apart from Hofstede’s dimensions, other factors like the low-context cultural factors also provide good reasons behind the business culture evident in UK.

Conclusion

A detailed analysis of the business culture in UK hence brings forth the fact that it has seen a shift with the advancement of technology and globalization. The analysis also revealed that national culture has a great influence on business culture of UK. The historical significance has also been elaborated in order to understand the reasons behind the business culture followed. Further, it has also been found that the CSR policy followed in the UK reflects the business culture. The essay has followed a systematic pattern to explain and clarify the business culture of the UK. At first, it defined culture and presented Hofstede’s definition of culture and the six cultural dimensions that he developed. The culture of UK was examined through these dimensions, which helped in understanding the business culture clearly. It was found that the UK has low scores in power distance and uncertainty avoidance and high scores in individualism, masculinity and indulgence.  In the long-term orientation index however, the score was intermediary thus showing that UK is neither inclined much towards maintaining links with past events nor towards following a pragmatic approach. Further, the description of low-context and high context cultures has also been provided in order to explain the business culture better. It was found that UK is a low context culture and hence, its business environment is signified by punctuality, timely completion of works, scheduling and planning and minimum focus on relationships. 

References:

Floyd, L.A., Xu, F., Atkins, R. and Caldwell, C., 2013. Ethical outcomes and business ethics: Toward improving business ethics education. Journal of business ethics, 117(4), pp.753-776.

Hofstede, G., 1983. The cultural relativity of organizational practices and theories. Journal of international business studies, 14(2), pp.75-89.

Hofstede-insights.com 2018. Country Comparison – Hofstede Insights. [online] Hofstede Insights. Available at: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/the-uk/ [Accessed 27 Jul. 2018].

Rees-Caldwell, K. and Pinnington, A.H., 2013. National culture differences in project management: Comparing British and Arab project managers’ perceptions of different planning areas. International Journal of Project Management, 31(2), pp.212-227.

Urbancova, H., 2013. Competitive advantage achievement through innovation and knowledge. Journal of Competitiveness, 5(1).