Culture Who cares

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Culture? Who cares?

• You should

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Culture and values matter

• If
• the whole world had the productivity of the
  Swiss,
• the consumption habits of the Chinese,
• the egalitarian instincts of the Swedes
• and the social discipline of the Japanese,
• the planet could support many times its current
  population.

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Culture and values matter

• On the other hand, if the world had the
  productivity of Chad,
• the consumption habits of the USA,
• the egalitarian instincts of India,
• and the social discipline of Argentina,
• the planet could not support anywhere near its
  current numbers.
• Lester Thurow

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What is culture?

• The water we swim in?
• The software of the mind?

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You live with your parents and thats all you
know. You grow up thinking whatever they do is
normal
When youre a kid, you dont have much variety
of experience
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TWO MEANINGS OF CULTURE
The arts, science, education. The
collective programming of the human mind
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Programming of the Human Mind
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Half of the group look at this

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Half of the group look at this
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Now tell me what is this?
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This is what you saw
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CULTURE
Symbols
Heroes
Rituals
Values
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Why do the French complain about the quick,
simple lunches the Dutch offer their guests?
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Why are the curtains in many Dutch houses left
open during the evenings?
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Dutch employees dont like strict appraisal
systems. Why?
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Paradoxes in Dutch culture

• egalitarian yet individualistic
• direct critical yet conformist
• pragmatic yet money-minded
• moralistic yet permissive
• tolerant yet indifferent?
• local yet international

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How deep-rooted is culture will differences
eventually disappear?
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THE 5-D MODEL

• Value differences between countries
• can be explained by five dimensions
• of national culture
• Power Distance (PDI)
• Individualism (IDV)
• Masculinity (MAS)
• Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI)
• Confucian Dynamism (CDI)

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POWER DISTANCE
The extent to which the less powerful members of
institutions and organizations accept that power
is distributed unequally
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Which countrys culture scores highest on POWER
DISTANCE ?
FRANCE GERMANY POLAND PORTUGAL SPAIN
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Which countrys culture scores highest on POWER
DISTANCE ?
FRANCE GERMANY POLAND PORTUGAL SPAIN
68 35 50 63 40
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Which countrys culture scores lowest on POWER
DISTANCE ?
NETHERLANDS NORTH SWEDEN UK USA ITALY
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Which countrys culture scores lowest on POWER
DISTANCE ?
NETHERLANDS NORTH SWEDEN UK USA ITALY
38 50 31 35 40
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If a boss in a country with high power distance
doesnt check regularly on subordinates, what
will they think?
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INDIVIDUALISM VERSUS COLLECTIVISM

• Individualism
• People look after themselves
• and their immediate family only
• Collectivism
• People belong to groups,
• which look after them
• in exchange for loyalty

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Which countrys culture scores highest
on INDIVIDUALISM ?
FRANCE GERMANY NETHERLANDS UK USA
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Which countrys culture scores highest
on INDIVIDUALISM ?
FRANCE GERMANY NETHERLANDS UK USA
71 67 80 89 91
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Which countrys culture scores lowest
on INDIVIDUALISM, i.e. is most COLLECTIVIST
JAPAN POLAND CHINA RUSSIA SWEDEN
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Which countrys culture scores lowest
on INDIVIDUALISM, i.e. is most COLLECTIVIST
JAPAN POLAND CHINA RUSSIA SWEDEN
46 60 15 47 71
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Foreigners working under Dutch management are
often surprised about the degree of freedom they
are given
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MASCULINITY VERSUS FEMININITY

• Masculinity
• The dominant values in society are
• achievement and success
• Femininity
• The dominant values in society are
• caring for others and quality of life

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Which countrys culture scores highest
on MASCULINITY ?
GERMANY ITALY SPAIN UK USA
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Which countrys culture scores highest
on MASCULINITY ?
GERMANY ITALY SPAIN UK USA
66 70 42 66 62
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Which countrys culture scores lowest
on MASCULINITY, i.e. is most FEMININE
FRANCE NETHERLANDS POLAND PORTUGAL SWEDEN
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Which countrys culture scores lowest
on MASCULINITY, i.e. is most FEMININE
FRANCE NETHERLANDS POLAND PORTUGAL SWEDEN
43 14 70 31 5
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UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE
The extent to which people feel threatened by
ambiguous situations and create rules and
institutions in an attempt to avoid them
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Which countrys culture scores lowest
on UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE ?
NETHERLANDS HONG KONG UK SPORE USA
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Which countrys culture scores lowest
on UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE ?
NETHERLANDS HONG KONG UK SPORE
USA
53 29 35 8 46
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Which countrys culture scores highest
on UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE ?
FRANCE GERMANY POLAND RUSSIA FINLAND
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Which countrys culture scores highest
on UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE ?
FRANCE GERMANY POLAND RUSSIA FINLAND
86 65 60 75 59
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CONFUCIAN DYNAMISM ( CDI )
The extent to which people take a more pragmatic,
future-orientated perspective as opposed to a
normative, historical or short-term point of view
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The Japanese don't ask the question why? Why is
that?
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The Chinese find Westerners naive because we
believe what people say
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An Scotsman flying with Singapore Airlines asks a
stewardess whether they have all brands of
liquor. When she says yes, he asks for a type
of whisky hes sure they wont have in stock. The
stewardess fails to reappear in the cabin. Why?

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The relative position of a number of countries in
the 5-D model
PDI IDV
MAS UAI
CDI Russia USA
Japan Greece China
UK
Austria
France
Portugal
Denmark
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Golden Rules