Overview
A Dutch global concept development team member working for an International HR service provider headquartered in the Netherlands, and operating in over 30 countries was our interview subject. The concept development team travels the world on- and offline in order to meet with their global colleagues. With the insights of those meetings with all different operating companies, this team initiates new business concepts or develops existing business concepts. Consequently, the business concept team member has had the opportunity to work with and adjust to many different cultures on a daily basis. Therefore, he has experienced many different cultures and has adjusted to those cultures. Adjusting to someone else’s culture instead of expecting people to change to you feels like an inhibitive behavior for the concept development team member.
He explains that he finds it most difficult to adjust to cultural differences that he has never experienced before. We can assume that the biggest visible differences, which often are the outward expressions (tip of the Iceberg) are most difficult to adjust to, however the concept development team member finds it more difficult to realize cultural differences that are a bit deeper, which you only realize within the moment. The visible cultural aspects from tip of the iceberg model are seen as obvious cultural differences, however the team member of the concept development team explained that the deeper level of culture, which he’s not always aware of up front, is the most difficult to deal with for him. The iceberg model also demonstrates that the cultural difference in behavior at the top of the iceberg is more visible and consequently you’re more aware of it and adjust to it more easily than invisible aspects of culture such as people’s thoughts and values (Weaver, 2002, p.10).
At this HR company many prohibitive and inhibitive behaviors are involved which differ tremendously per country or better to say culture. In the Netherlands direct communication is a social norm, while other colleagues across cultures at the company prefer a less direct approach. It is inhibitive for them to be as direct as the Dutch. The Dutch communication style thus differs to those of other countries such as e.g. Canada. The interviewed business concept team member stated that the way of communication accordingly led to misunderstandings with these colleagues in the past. In order to further prevent any unnecessary miscommunication as a result, this company creates awareness around the topic of diversity and cultural differences. These differences, which are rooted in cultural diversity, will be elucidated more detailed in the following text taking the 6D-Hofstede model into consideration.
Outcome
Power distance index (PDI) / Hierarchy Acceptance
Since the company is really large, there are always managers to whom employees report. Therefore there always is some sort of power distance. However the business concept team member explains that he doesn’t really feel the power distance. If he wants to express an idea or a concern with someone who’s high within the hierarchy, he would feel like he could simply send an email and arrange a meeting just like that. He explains that it is part of the company culture to be your own entrepreneur and that the younger employees are also empowered to think on an executive board level together with the executive board during challenge panels. The Dutch culture is also part of this approach, in the Netherlands the power distance is relatively low (38) and people are often quite direct and honest, this makes the perfect combination to really express any concerns and ideas towards anyone, even the executive board (Hofstede, 2002).
Individualism vs. Collectivism (IDV) / Identity
Our interviewee recalled an interaction with an American colleague in which he was asked how he was, and responded honestly as he would to people in his home country. His American colleague was shocked, and reacted as if to cancel the meeting for our interviewee in order to relieve some of his stress, where our interviewee realized he had made a faux pas, as the meeting was important and necessary to him, but he had inadvertently made his colleague feel like his time was being wasted. In the interaction between the business concept team member and their American counterpart, high individualism may have been a factor at play for both parties’ reactions. Both American and Dutch cultures rank highly on the individuality scale, which indicates a strong value for one’s own time, personal work production, and freedom. By being frank with their American coworker, the business concept team member may have unwittingly made their coworker feel that their time was less valuable than the other tasks the business concept team member had to perform. As both people come from highly individualist cultures, finding an equilibrium where each person was valuing both their own, and the others’ time may have been difficult, but as Hofstede et al (2002) note, it is important to remember than people have their own personalities, and are acting according to the rules of socializing they are used to in their cultures. Weaver’s iceberg analogy (2001) is also pertinent, as the business concept team member noted he was able to reflect on his intercultural skills and reactions as a result of the interaction which revealed greater cultural differences than he had realized or expected. As the company deals with employees across a number of countries and with varying nationalities, maintaining an open perspective of colleagues will be an important part of the company culture.
Uncertainty avoidance index (UAI)
Dutch culture has a middling uncertainty avoidance factor according to the diagrams provided above. Hofstede et al (2002) hypothesize that uncertainty avoidance stems from a fear of the unknown, so an international company with many employees from different intercultural backgrounds may create much anxiety as each person is different from the others in their background and beliefs. As our interviewed company is a multinational one, it is likely that there are procedures in place for employees to follow regardless of location or background in order to reduce uncertainty. These procedures may not necessarily be sensible to some employees, and may have required some adjustments to be made to understand, but having a universal rule set to follow will have made all the difference. Uncertainty may be avoided in personal communications between coworkers if all employees are more familiar with each others’ cultural backgrounds.
Our interview also revealed that the company likes to experiment with new ventures, but in order to mitigate negative consequences from taking risks, these are usually small. Should the initial venture prove successful or profitable, the company then implements a broader scale rollout of the idea across various offices. This central approach is likely a way to appeal to employees of all cultures as there is no explicit danger that would disturb those with high uncertainty avoidance, and continuous small risks provide stimulation and interesting scenarios for those who have low uncertainty avoidance.
Masculinity vs. femininity (MAS) / Achievement
Regarding masculinity and femininity we realize a vehement difference between the American and Dutch culture (Hofstede, 2002), which also becomes obvious when analyzing the 6-D model of Hofstede. Whereas Dutch culture appears to be highly feminine showing a low score of 14, the American culture reaches a Hofstede score of 62 and thus differs strongly concerning subjects such as achievements within society (Hofstede, 2002). Following the business concept team member, this also has a great impact on how employees react to failures and whether they tend to sugarcoat mistakes by focusing on the learned outcome.
The American culture, which is highly masculine, struggles to admit to failure as visible achievement is highly desirable and favored in a masculine culture. Failure is considered inhibitive to an individual’s and a company’s success, and expressing this outwardly is frowned upon by society. On the other hand, other cultures such as Germany tend to talk about failures more directly. The business concept team member also mentioned, that although the Dutch culture is highly feminine, an open culture of failure is often not practically lived by employees because of the high power distance. It is also stated, that due to the fact that achievements matter highly both in the US and Dutch culture, a pressure of innovation is often an outcome of the aim to create these visible achievements.
Long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation (LTO):
The business concept team member states that within their company people tend to be highly short-term oriented. However, a high Hofstede score of 67 regarding long-term orientation opposes this statement (Hofstede, 2002). This might be due to constraints by the operational oriented department tasks. In contrast to that, the business concept team member states that a more long-term oriented view is taken by his colleagues working in other departments and that this perspective might be desirable for his work and thus is a future goal of his work. Accordingly, the member of the business concept team is rationally more long-term oriented through the strategic approach of his work, which comes naturally with the development of business concepts that are often conceptualized several years in advance. On the other hand, other departments, such as those which deal with HR clients, who ask for quick support in recruiting and personnel activities, have a short-term orientation. This is due to the fact that these clients seek fast solutions and often urgently look for required staff. Overall this business is related to lots of these types of operational and unpredictable works and thus appears to be rather short-term oriented in general.
Possible solutions
Several of the inter-cultural issues can be addressed by having regular group interactions with the HR team so they are able to work together as a group to meet and better get to know each other. This would please the collectivists among the group to be able to know their team better, and also encourage the individualists to interact with their international team members with different cultures at the forefront of the exchange.
It is also important to understand the other cultures’ ways of communication, so that feedback regarding failures is not misinterpreted, and even though colleagues tend to sugarcoat negative decisions, concrete improvement should be drawn from these actions. As stated before, a more long-term oriented perspective might improve processes and shift daily work from operational tasks to a more strategic one. Employees cannot rely on solely the things directly communicated, as many different cultures use indirect communication and thus workshops and open discussions about communicative differences and challenges can improve productivity of multicultural working teams. Adressing issues openly and discussing different styles of communication is thus one of many strategies at our interviewed company to tackle this inter-cutural challenge.
Another aspect to be kept in mind is that often company culture differs from national culture and thus possible solutions should always be aligned to the working culture rather than relying only on national data. This becomes even clearer when considering that national culture and working culture are intertwined and constantly influence each other. Thus, one can state that through daily multicultural work it is difficult to sometimes attribute certain ways of working to the company being Dutch. Overall it does help to sensibilize employees for cultural differences. Being aware of these differences and also being able to adjust to them is a great advantage for overcoming cultural hurdles and is actively lived in the interviewed company.
Authors
Lara Geerlings (LinkedIn)
Student: International Business Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Block 4 Semester 1, 2021
Loana Markowski (LinkedIn)
Student: International Business binational DHBW Mannheim/Kozminski University Warsaw
Semester 1, 2021
Rachel Roberts
Aukland University of Technology (no longer a student, voluntary joining honours)