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Intercultural Communication summary
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Intercultural communicationsummary
Introduction
Geert Hofstede
Born 1928 in Haarlem (Dutch) – died 12 February in 2020
Engineer, social psychologist, researcher in the fields of organizational studies and more
concretely organizational culture, also cultural economics and management
1965 joined research & IBM (= International Business Machines Corporation, nickname Big Blue,
produced first personal computer)
1967 PhD in Social Psychology
= developed a systematic framework for assessing and differentiating national cultures
and organizational cultures
Well-known pioneer in his research of cross-cultural groups and organizations. His studies
demonstrated that there are national and regional cultural groups that influence the behavior of
societies and organizations
His analysis defined four initial dimensions of national culture that were positioned against
analysis of 40 initial countries. He began his analysis of the survey data he had collected at IBM at
the individual respondent level. At the end of two years, he realized he needed an "ecological"
analysis, in which respondents were contextualized by their countries. By aggregating individuals
as societal units, he could examine national cultures rather than individual personalities
Hofstede's model explaining national cultural differences and their consequences was introduced
in 1980. The analysis of his survey data and his claims led many management practitioners to
embrace the model, especially after the publication of his 1991 book, Cultures and Organizations:
Software of the Mind
In 2001, Hofstede published an entirely re-written second edition of Culture's Consequences. In
2010, a third edition of Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind was published. In this
book, there were two new dimensions that were added, and the number of countries covered
was between 76 and 93. This book also introduced the topic of organizational cultures as a
separate and different phenomenon
Culture is
“the collective programming of the human mind by which one group of people distinguishes
itself from another group.” (G. Hofstede)
Always shared, collective phenomenon
Learned from your environment
Consists of various layers = onion
Culture is one of those words that carry a number of meanings. Culture is learned from your
environment and is always a shared, collective phenomenon
Culture consists of various layers and we often compare it with an onion
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Symbols are items such as eating habits, foods, flags or colors. In the organisational setting,
by symbols you might think about the logo of a company. Symbols have emotions attached
to them. But changing the symbols usually doesn't have a long lasting deep emotional
impact, as for example changing rituals might. They are things, words or actions expressing
what the organization stands for
Heroes are people who have shown behaviour which showcases the national spirit (e.g.
Steve Jobs or important politicians). Or, within organisations, heroes show behaviour that
sets the example. In some cultures, heroes can also be the “anti-hero” - they can be the
example of what not to do. The Netherlands: William of Orange, Flanders: Eddy Merckx,
Black movement in US: Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Barack Obama, Feminist movement:
Virginia Woolf, Emma Watson, Gloria Steinhem
Rituals are recurring events which shape our unconscious minds. They exist both in society
(e.g. celebrating Independence Day, Thanksgiving, tipping in restaurants, etc.) and in
organisations (e.g. meeting practices etc.). Examples: Ramadan, birthday celebrations, King’s
Day in the Netherlands. They are social habits which express something essential, depending
on the context given
Values are at the core of culture. They are broad preferences for a certain state of affairs
(e.g. preferring equality over hierarchy). Values are transmitted by the environment in which
we grow up, like the behaviour of parents or teachers showing us what is acceptable and
what isn't. Values are pretty much shaped by the time we hit 10-12 years of age. They define
what is right or wrong, the way of thinking, the world vision, easily lead to intercultural
misunderstandings
This collective programming, consisting of values as the core, and the three layers surrounding
that core, is what we mean by culture. Issues with culture don't usually pop up when everything
goes well – it is when we feel threatened or uncomfortable that we have a tendency to go “back
to basics”, back to the values instilled within us when we were young
As culture is a group phenomenon, we use it to analyse the behaviour of groups and make
an assessment of the likelihood of groups of people acting in a certain way
From a business point of view this makes culture an important tool of management, with regards
to groups of people. While you cannot change values of people, you can make appropriate
changes in the practices of your organisation to ensure you’re working with those cultural values,
rather than against them
The cultural iceberg
Symbols, heroes, rituals
values
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2 models
The “groups” Professor Hofstede talks about in his definition of culture can refer to a number of
entities. The two most important ones are nations and organisations
National Culture – the 6-D model (see further)
= “the programming of the human mind by which the people of one nation distinguishes
themselves from the people of another nation”
The groups are the nations themselves and National Culture refers to the programming of
the human mind by which the people of one nation distinguish themselves from the people
of another nation
Differences between National Cultures are most apparent in the values
Organisational Culture
= how the members of the organisation relate to each other, to their work and to the outside
world in comparison to other organisations
The groups are the organisations or, for instance, the different functions of an organisation.
We talk about how the members of the organisation relate to each other, to their work and
to the outside world. And we are interested in how all this is different in one organisation, or
one function of that organisation, compared to another
Differences between organisations within the same nation can most clearly be seen in the
practices of the organisations
Easier to measure:
Meet objectives and requirements?
How? Through the practices of the organisations
Culture can be changed by changing these practices (unlike National Culture)
When going deeper into analysing Organisational Culture, it becomes necessary to make
divisions between different types. In our approach, we divide Organisational Culture in four
different themes, based on what it is that is being discussed.
You need to know what the present culture in your company is, to know how to achieve the
planned future. Currently, most Organisational Cultures in the world are only achieved by
happenstance (= coincidence). It seldom involves thorough planning and execution. The
culture of an organisation can be manifested in four different ways. These manifestations of
culture give you these starting and end points
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