The Hofstede Model of Organizational Culture

Intercultural communication can be described as a communication that is being used by different cultures and social groups. It is used to define a range of communication problems that occur within an organization among the individuals which are related form different ethnic, religious, social and educational backgrounds. This report provides a detailed information that is being used to influence cross-cultural communication in international teamwork. This report is grounded on a communication scenario of a Swedish Company. The company had set up clear buying rules for all its subsidiaries around the world (geerthofstede, n. d.). But one of the managers of Chinese subsidiaries does not follow the rules and work as per his own will which is not acceptable by the Anders, regional manager of South East Asia. This causes in occurring the communication differences between the both. Thus, this report discusses the behavior of participants as defined in the scenario and the main problem in intercultural business communication along with the use of specified frameworks for defining the intercultural business communication. The report mainly uses the understanding of the Hofstede’s framework for the better understanding of the attitudes and behaviours of the participants in the given case study. At the end of the report, a conclusion has been provided, which summarizes the overall understanding of the report to provie=de an overview to the reader. 

Hofstede model of organizational culture is a framework developed by Geert Hofstede which describes the impacts of the social values and cultures of the members of an organization. It also describes that how these values are related to the individual’s behavior with the help of factor analysis (HITCHCOCK, 2017). These five factors are Power Distance, Masculinity and Feminity, Individualism, Uncertainty Avoidance Index and Long-term orientation.

It is a cultural dimension that expresses the extent to which the least powerful members of the organizations and institutions of a country have a common view that the power it has been distributed unequally. The countries whose power distance index high tend to have the power to centralize the decisions

It is a cultural dimension that expresses the behavior of society in terms of gender values and roles. As per the definition of Hofstede for this dimension, a masculine society is based on competition, success, and achievement whereas a feminine society is driven by emphasizing the quality of life and to maintain a balance between family and work in context to business. For example, men are considered more focused and considered on facts while women are considered more emotional in their life (Dzenowagis, 2008).

This dimension expresses the degree to which, the participants are dependent on each other. This dimension shows the existence of ‘I’ and ‘We” factor in the minds of the individuals. Here ‘I’ is considered for the individualistic tendency and ‘We’ is considered for the collectivistic tendencies (Jha). With collective tendencies, the individuals are not allowed and encouraged to follow their opinions and views by excluding themselves form all type of business and social cultures.

Dimensions of organizational culture

It is an index showing that to which extent, the society is able to cope up with the uncertain events and in which manner. In order to avoid any type of uncertainty in business practices, employees are required to follow the rules of the organization while performing their jobs.

This dimension is related with the practices that are being used by society to maintain its past links along with its present and future challenges. A long-term oriented society is open to accepting the changes while a short-term oriented society tends to focus on the completion of work only in present.

The given scenario represents cultural misunderstandings in the business practices. The Swedish regional manager of the area and Chinese manager of the subsidiary of China, both have dissimilar views related to the purchasing guidelines of the company. The company has set guidelines that are based only on Swedish cultural functions and practices. On the other hand, the subsidiary of Vietnam was not working as per their guidelines because the Chinese manager had a different opinion about the practices of business cultures (Canning, 2008). As per the factors are given by Hofstede, the dimensions of individualism, long-term orientation, and power distance index can help in the better understanding of the intercultural differences of both the managers. The Chinese manager was working as per the dimension of individualism which was forcing him to do the business in his own way. On the other hand, the Swedish manager was in the favor of working collectively by following the same business policy. Similarly, the Chinese manager was working with the short-term orientation as he was not dealing well his superior manager and was not trying to maintain good relation with him for the purpose doing successful business in future (HITCHCOCK, 2017).

Along with this model, a framework named as seven dimensions of culture can also be implemented in the given case study. As per this model, the seven dimensions of culture are

• Individualism VS Communitarianism
• Universalism VS Particularism
• Neutral VS Emotional
• Specific VS Diffuse
• Achievement VS Ascription
• Internal direction VS Outer Direction
• Sequential time VS Synchronous Time

As per this model, the Chinese manager was following the dimension of particularism whereas the Swedish manager was following the dimension of Universalism as he was bound to do the same being a regional manager. In universalism, people place a high value on laws, procedures, policies, and obligations (Latt & Thi, 2017). They try to deal and work with totally fair practices. On the other hand, in particularism, people tend to believe that each circumstance is an opportunity to do some innovative other than the policies of the organization.

The Chinese manager was also working as per the concept of individualism, as according to this concept, people tend to concentrate on personal achievement and freedom. The people believe that they are free to take their own decisions as the Chinese manager was doing. On the other hand, in communitarianism, people tend to work in groups and they think that provides them with safety and help by exchanging their ideas and experiences. The Swedish manager was in the favor of this kind of working by following the same policies framed by the management.

Case study of a Swedish Company

The behavior of participants in the given case study was largely influenced by their cultures and values. It was also influenced by their positional powers in the company. The above-mentioned frameworks of intercultural business communication provide an overview to the professionals to act and to behave while dealing with the day to day business operations. The understanding of the participants about the communication culture can be seen clearly from their communication styles and behaviors (Griffin, 2017). As in the given case, Anders was just doing his duty by communicating with the Chinese manager about his neglected behavior towards the policies of the organization. In revert, the behavior of the Chinese manager was not appropriate as per the ethics and communicational frameworks. His behavior was not acceptable as he was taking with his superior manager and was supposed to give respect to him. Although it is a considerable fact that the practices followed by him was appropriate to some extent to avoid future uncertainties and losses but he was required to follow such practices after considering with the upper-level management of the company. Thus, his behavior was totally unacceptable in such a situation. On the other hand, Anders was right from his side as he had the responsibility to take care that the policies specified by the management are being followed or not in his business area (Varner, 2000). But when he communicates with the Chinese manager, he was also facing a dilemma because on the one hand, he was required to instruct his junior managers to follow the policies and on the other hand, the Chinese manager was also working for the purpose of increasing profitability of the business. Thus, he was in a confusion that how he could prove that his point of view is right in front of the argument of the Chinese manager. Both of the participants were right at their place but were facing the issue in managing business practices due to the differences in their cultures and business understandings (Wolfgang Amann, 2017).

The main reason behind this problem was the guidelines that were designed as per the Swedish business and management culture. The Chinese manager was not known about the collective working style of Sweden and thus, he was working as per his own understandings. However, he was expected to have an understanding that while working in an organization, it is required to follow all the guidelines and procedures guided by the management (Canning, 2008).

Successful organizations accept cultural diversity as a moral and legal obligation. This enables the employees to gain trust and respect for one another. By knowing the fact that the people from different cultures have different capabilities and understandings about the same problem. This makes easy for the managers and employees to find out the best solution to the emerging problem (Dzenowagis, 2008). On the basis of the above found misunderstands among the participants and study of Hofstede framework, the main strategies that can be used to promote business communication among different cultures can be described as follows:

Applying Hofstede’s Framework in the case study

The managers should work towards the building of a productive team by motivating and encouraging employees and minimizing the reason for differences between them. The various social and economic situations should be given to the group of diversified members (Larry A. Samovar. 2014). This would help in increasing the understanding among them and in developing their thinking about the cultural differences, the employees who accept the cultural differences and adopt the behaviour of other employees in a positive manner are expected to get better results in their professional carrier as they become able to compete in all type of cultural differences (Merkin, 2017).

The organizations having a diversified culture should frame its policies and procedures after considering the cultural aspects and understandings of the workforce about the workings and practices of the organization. For such purpose, organizations need to establish an open communication system so that employees feel free to advise their new and productive ideas to the management (Padhi, 2016). It may also help in building strong employer-employee relations. Similarly, the outcomes related to the obligations, symbolism etc differ from culture to culture. The management needs to access, observe and research the local customs of the different countries that impact the ability of thinking of the individuals. These customs are also the main reason about how they respond to the management, how they manage their personal space and how they negotiate and how they express their emotions at the time of fulfilling the organizational duties Vincent Edwards, 2013).

Conclusion

On the basis of the above study, it can be concluded that the difference between the attitudes and behaviors are resulted by the different cultures of the employees working in a multicultural organization. The given case study shows that both the managers were influenced by the management styles of their own regions and yet they were not convinced by the opinions of each other. The report also has tried to provide an explanation of the misunderstanding by the explanation of Hofstede framework and its five factors. This report is trying to develop an understanding of the concept of intercultural business communication by analyzing the case study deeply. 

References

Canning, P. C. (2008). Bridging the Culture Gap: A Practical Guide to International Business Communication. Kogan Page Publishers.

Chi, D. L. (2016). INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Dzenowagis, A., 2008. Intercultural communication in global business. Retrieved from PMI: https://www.pmi.org/learning./library/intercultural-communication-global-business-7044

Geerthofstede. (n.d.). The 6-D model of national culture. Retrieved from geerthofstede: https:// geerthofstede.com/culture-geert-hofsted-gert-jan-hofstede/6d-model-of-national-culture/

Griffin, B. (2017). Intercultural Communication: Strategies, Challenges, and Research. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated.

HITCHCOCK, A. (2017). What are Six Cultural Dimensions? Retrieved from unitedlanguagegroup: https://daily.unitedlanguagegroup.com/stories/editorials/six-cultural-dimensions

Jha. M. (n.d.). Business Communication. Gyan Publishing House.

Larry A. Samovar. R. E. (2014). Intercultural Communication: A Reader. Cengage Learning.

Latt, K. Z., & Thi, T. T. (2017). Cross-Cultural Communication challenges between Swedish Managers and Burmese and Vietnamese Employees.

Merkin. R. S. (2017). Saving Face in Business: Managing Cross-Cultural Interactions. Springer.

Padhi, D. P. (2016). The Rising Importance of Cross-Cultural Communication in Global Business Scenario. Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science.

Varner, I. I. (2000). The Theoretical Foundation for Intercultural Business Communication: A Conceptual Model. International Journal of Business Communication.

Vincent Edwards. A. P. (2013). Managers and Management in Vietnam: 25 Years of Economic Renovation (Doi moi). Routledge.

Wolfgang Amann, J. G. (2017). Phronesis in Business Schools: Reflections on Teaching and Learning. IAP.