The Company is a provider of business consulting, technology integration and other IT services. The company offers payment transactions, consulting and technology services, systems integration, and managed services. It also provides application management and implementing processes, information and data processing systems, and data centers. The company caters its products and services to a wide range of industries, such as transport, chemical, manufacturing, logistics, oil and gas, retail, public sector, consumer products, financial services, and healthcare institutions. The Company has a business presence in Germany, the UK and Ireland, Benelux and the Nordics, France, Central, and Eastern Europe, and North America. The Company is headquartered in Bezons, Ile-de-France, France.

Regarding diversity, The Company has created a program to address the inequities caused by these differences. Their programmes concern: gender, disability, LGBT, culture, generations. They are committed to fighting against all forms of discrimination such as those mentioned above, and for more than 10 years they have been in favor of the professional integration of people with disabilities, a dedicated team implements measures to maintain employment for employees with disabilities or who become disabled during their professional career. A women’s leadership development program has been set up in 2019. Similarly, a mentoring program for female executives by the most senior leaders within the company has been implemented worldwide. Their LGBTQI networks and their Allies provide employees with advice and shared resources to foster an inclusive work environment. it has a range of talent development programmes for its 50 employees that enable them to progress within the organization.

Hofstede Dimensions

All societies share standards, values and symbols that differ in other societies. That’s why we say they have different cultures. Among the studies of cultural differences, it is essential to use Hofstede. Hofstede showed that people share characteristics at the regional and national level. These characteristics affect their behavior and are maintained over time. These are cultural models, cultural dimensions.

These dimensions are distance from power, individualism against collectivism, masculinity against femininity, avoidance of uncertainty, and short-term orientation against long-term orientation and indulgence. All cultural dimensions have two poles. Companies can more or less focus on each of them, so their characteristics will be different, and their behavior will be different.

Regarding The Company, I chose to compare France and the United States, because in France there are the headquarters and nearly a dozen companies and the United States are second only to France. also, these two cultures are very different, and this is what the cultural dimensions of Hofstede show us. First, what is most striking are the spider webs that are completely different, which is also why I found the comparison of the two countries interesting.

Power distance

We can observe that the Americans with 40 points, favor decentralized organizations, when they are given a minimum of autonomy at work. Unlike French people with 68 points, who prefer to be mentored by their superiors.

Individualism

On individualism, the two countries agree despite a 20-point gap, it anticipates collectivism, even if the Americans prefer group work to the French, the French also like this feeling of belonging and working together.

Achievement

As we can see, France is at 43 points while the United States is at 62 points. This shows some differences in the orientation of the two cultures, in France companies are more focused on masculinity, social gender roles are clearly distinct, challenge, earnings, recognition and advancement are important. Competition is also present between employees, performance and results are the key words. A quality life-oriented company is characterized by support between colleagues, employees get along well with each other, they make sure that there is a good atmosphere at work. Cooperation, modesty, service, and compromise are valued.

Certainty

In terms of certainty, the results are opposite, with the United States, with 46 points, having more tolerance regarding future uncertainty in relation to the company. While France, with 86 points, is far from liking uncertainty, companies try to plan everything so that there are no bad surprises.

Time orientation

For tile orientation, the two cultures are still not on the same wavelength, France with 63 points is more focused on the short term, i.e., it is rather conservative, preferring to maintain traditions, and well-established norms, while considering social change with suspicion. with the United States it is a different story, with only 26 points, they favor long-term orientations, which means, they are more future-oriented, they prepare the future by investing in modern education for example.  Persistence, perseverance, thrift, and adaptability are the main qualities of the long-term orientation.

Indulgence

For the latter, only 20 points of difference are seen. This means that France, with 48 points, has more of a culture of indulgence than the Americans. This means that in France one can do as one pleases, spend money or do leisure activities with friends or alone. Whereas in the US, actions are more limited, there are rules and restrictions to be respected. doing activities that make you happy are somewhat frowned upon.

Outcome

Despite the efforts made by the company in recent years, several problems were reported to me by the interviewee. Firstly, the problem of gender equality in engineering, it is that in France, gender equality at work is far from being a battle won in advance, despite the efforts of the company, we note that the total workforce of the company is mainly made up of men.

There is also a problem of understanding about different religions, especially about food, which is not going to be suitable for everyone. For example, for people of Muslim faiths who have a different meat diet to non-believers. Also, staying about food, Pakistanis don’t eat meat on Fridays and the company cafeteria has not taken this into account. During Ramadan, there was no awareness, nothing was put in place.

A recurring problem in all companies, the language barrier, obviously, everyone speaks English, however, some things can only be expressed in the mother tongue and do not have the same meaning in different languages. Therefore, there can be misunderstandings between people, which can create problems within the company.

The possibility of climbing the ladder is one of the problems noted to date, there is a sort of barrier/filter to climb the hierarchy, cultural differences can be an obstacle to the ascent of certain people. it is always the same cultures that manage to have important positions, with greater responsibilities. there are therefore inequalities linked to the origin of the employees as well as to gender, a woman will have less chance of accessing such a position Last but not least, the company organizes weekly afterwork sessions to strengthen cohesion between employees. However, the afterwork is done in bars, and some employees, due to their religion or beliefs, are not allowed to drink alcohol. As a result, they are somewhat segregated from the others because of their personal beliefs.

Possible solutions

In order to overcome all these adaptation problems, the company can put in place various solutions, so that the working environment is pleasant for everyone, and all employees are considered. To address gender, cultural and other differences. The Company can promote diversity in hiring: focus recruitment on skills, characteristics and personality traits as opposed to other factors such as gender, origin, age, or disability. Requiring the recruiter to remain neutral when recruiting, and possibly doing blind recruiting. About wages, given that there are several gender inequalities, such as accessibility to certain positions or in the sector itself, the company should promote pay equity: by reducing pay gaps between similar positions if the reasons for these gaps are not justified. This also applies to cultural differences. As regards religious people, who must be a certain number in this type of company, a consideration on the part of the leaders would not be too much. For example, for Ramadan, no message was transmitted in the company, so the people practicing it were somewhat excluded during this month of fasting. to remedy this, the company could send a message by e-mail or make a small campaign to warn everyone and so that this kind of situation does not happen again. Similarly, for people who have a special diet, surveys should be distributed among employees to know the demand, and the prohibitions of each. The language barrier, an omnipresent problem in a multicultural company, to remedy communication/understanding problems, HR could organize a short training course to facilitate exchanges between cultures, and to better understand the people they work with. The last solution I could omit is about after works, which is at first a good initiative of superiors to promote cohesion, however some cannot get there because it happens in a bar. instead, they could organize after works during the day, and organize group activities, such as football matches, workshops of all kinds, seminars, shows, etc. The more varied the choice of activities, the fewer people will be excluded.

Authors

Laporte Emma (linkedin)
Student: international management , Kozminski university
Block 4, Semester 2, 2022

A Dutch purchaser who is working for an international technology company located in The Netherlands with headquarters in Japan. The company consist of 150 individual companies who are all     operated by the main company. Dutch and English are the main languages whereas Japanese is spoken within the headquarters. The company has found their own way to adapt their communication to be understanding to all parties, keeping in mind the large power distance-oriented way of communication from the Japanese. (Hofstede, 2022). This may also be observed and understood from the instances given in the interview on the straightforward behavior of the Japanese coworkers. Furthermore, looking at the Individualistic behavior of the Netherlands in comparison to Japan. A good example is that the Japanese include everyone in a send email, but the Dutch include only the person to whom the email is sent. At first this was extremely inhibitive for the interviewed employee, later she understood this was the way the Japanese work. When preparing for any meeting that are scheduled, they have a team meeting beforehand whereas they assign one spokesperson who does the speaking, and the director prepares and explains the points which will be spoken about. This is a bit prohibitive since there is a real division of roles. Furthermore, they make sure to dress appropriately which supports the non-verbal communication between the offices. (Hofstede, 2022)

Lastly, the verbal communication on the phone is one of the most inhibitive examples of the cultural differences. They have the habit of speaking loudly, the employee even mentions it as ‘screaming’ whereas most of the Dutch employees do not do that. They even thought they were quite upset even when there was no reason to. Eventually, it was mentioned that this is the way they talk to each other and has nothing to do with any emotions. . (Hofstede, 2022) Another difference between Dutch and Japanese culture is Japanese accomplishment and uncertainty avoidance. Unawareness of these cultural differences may result in many misunderstandings and could even result in conflict. Therefore, it is critical to understand cultural differences before working overseas in a nation other than your own.

Hofstede Dimensions

Outcome

Power distance index (PDI)

Japan scores higher on the power distance index compared to the Netherlands. With a score of 54 Japan is a borderline hierarchical society as the Japanese are always conscious about their hierarchical position within society and act according to this position. The Netherlands on the other hand, with a score of 38, has a less hierarchical society and only use hierarchy when convenient. While the Japanese depend more on their superiors, in the Netherlands power is decentralized (Hofstede, n.d) The Dutch are very direct and it is expected to know what to do within a company, however the Japanese first must talk to their superiors to prove any decisions made. The Dutch also value direct communication and honesty while in Japan is more common to hold back. In order for communication to work within the company the Dutch must exercise patience when communicating with the Japanese. In order to avoid any problems with communication the purchaser said that there is one spokesperson.

Individualism vs collectivism (IDV)

There is a stark contrast between the Netherlands and Japan when it comes to individualism. With a score of 80 and 46 respectively the Netherlands has a very individualistic society. Whereas Japan is considered more of a collectivistic society. However, Japan is not as collectivist compared to its neighbors. Japan is considered as a collectivistic society by western standards but considered an individualistic society by Asian standards. (Hofstede, n.d) The practice is that the goal is achieved together but it is expected for the individuals to do the work. But when working with the Japanese collectivism is appreciated to move forward.

Uncertainty avoidance index (UAI)

With a score of 92 Japan is the second highest uncertainty avoiding country in the world. In business the Japanese take the time and effort in feasibility studies and analyze all the risk factors before any decision is made and changes are very difficult to realize due to their high uncertainty avoidance. The Netherlands also has a slight preference for avoiding uncertainty, with a score of 53 it indicates that the Netherlands does have an emotional need for rules and prefer precision and punctuality However compared to Japan the Netherlands feels less threatened by unknown factors. (Hofstede, n.d) To avoid any uncertainty and trouble which may have or will occur the purchaser mentioned that there is a spokesperson who will interact and tell what the problem is and give all the information necessary.

Masculinity vs femininity (MAS)

Japan is the world’s most masculine society, with a high score of 95. However this combined with their mild collectivism resulted in severe competition between groups instead of individuals, which is often associated with in a masculine society. The Netherlands on the other hand  feminine society where instead of being competitive value inclusion where conflicts are resolved through long discussions until an agreement has been achieved (Hofstede, n.d)

The purchaser mentioned that when the Japanese are talking on the phone they can come across as very angry and being very upset while this is not the case at all, this is their culture-based behaviour on how the communicate over the phone. For The Netherlands being a feminine country, value inclusion. it is also expected to behave in a way as to not make a person feel excluded, but the Japanese are very goal oriented and value achievement can sound angry when heard from a more feminine society.

Long-term orientation vs short term orientation (LTO)

Japan and the Netherlands both have a relatively high score of long-term orientation with a score of 88 and 67 respectively. But Japan having one of the most long-term oriented societies has more of a futuristic goal compared to the Netherlands. Japan always looks forward on how to serve society for future generations whereas the Netherlands is long term oriented by having the ability to adapt and preserve to prepare for the future. (Hofstede, n.d) The goal of the Japanese manufacturing company to improve the quality of life and to improve society through development of technology and products. This shows that the company is very long-term oriented. Their futuristic goal can also be seen internally as the purchaser mentioned that the Dutch employees attend courses to prepare to meet the Japanese. The combination of the Dutch and Japanese culture will also be beneficial for this goal. With the Japanese being very futuristic along with the Dutch having good adaptability skills will prove helpful to achieve this goal.

Possible solutions/ Best practice

We highlight that the Dutch and Japanese culture are very different. Sometimes communication can be complicated, and some issues arise. To avoid and solve those issues, they try to look professional, being well dressed. They both are aware of the difference between their cultures, they both try to better understand it and respect some of the values and moves of it. Also, before a meeting, they discuss all the problems, and they choose a spoke person. This person will be in charge of interacting and pointing out the problem. And to be sure that problems will be solved, the spoke person tell the problem to Japanese before the meeting so they can think about it and take some time to have a solution.

To avoid some cultural and communication issues, the company goes through multiple types of courses, so every employee is well informed on the culture differences. The interviewed mentioned that besides these major ones, everything goes smoothly and there is not much that was not discussed within the interviews. There is no translator thanks to these courses as both Dutch and Japanese speak English, the communication is very simplified. Also, thanks to these courses, they are very well prepared for touchy meetings, situations, discussion. One of the difficult aspects pointed out was the understanding of the way of expressing. Japanese people have to express themselves when they have something to say. They seem very upset and angry. The interviewed said that it was difficult to truly understand and adapt to this way of speaking.

To sum up, being a part of a multinational company highlights the differences between cultures. In this way, the adaptation to the culture, the people have to be done in order to better understand them, and work together the best they can. To avoid some issues, the company sets up courses, and employees, in this way, have the right keys to conduct a meeting.

Authors

Noëlle Doorson (LinkedIn)
Student: International business  Amsterdam University of applied sciences
Block 4, Semester 2, year 2, 2022

Cristina Hurtado Rivero (Linkedin)
Student: International business  Amsterdam University of applied sciences
Block 4 Semester 2, year 2, 2022

Alix Laurencin (Linkedin)
Student: International Management Kozminski University
Block 4 Semester 2, year 2, 2022

This case will be about a French consultancy company, which operates internationally. Some of the countries are amongst others: China. India, United States of America, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Japan, and other countries in Europe. Since the company in question operates in so many different countries, there will be many different situations regarding cultures. In this report, there will be a case between the company, and the cultural events, which happened with Indians.

Identify any cultural limitations

To start with, in this case a comparison between a French woman working for a French company and an Indian man working for an Indian company will be made. The countries, to begin with, are both located in two totally different world parts, France in Europe being a western country and India in Asia being a third world country. Considering language, in France the mother language is French and is therefore also spoken by most of the people. A stereotype that comes forward is that French people dislike speaking other languages other than French. However, since we are talking about an international company, speaking different languages, like English, is not a barrier. Now moving on to the Indian company. Since India was colonized by the British, English is one of the two official languages in the country. This makes language again not a barrier. Furthermore, cultural roles. In France man and woman are equal in everything this, however, cannot be said about India. In India there is hieratical distance between a man and a woman, where a man has more power than a woman. Here we encountered our first cultural limitation. The woman we interviewed from the French company had quite some difficulties while she was trying to do business with the man from the Indian company. Here the man felt that the French company was not taking them seriously because they send a woman to do business with them, while the woman felt that the Indian company was not taking them seriously as the negations took two months longer than expected because the man “took his time”. In India, it is common for man to have higher position jobs than woman. This comes from their high masculinity culture. Furthermore, there is also a high-power distance in India, this makes man really look over woman. Therefore, the man working for the Indian company might have felt offended when the French company send a woman to do business with them, while this is of course something normal in western countries. In France, masculinity is lower than in India, which makes it more common for woman to work in high position jobs. Moreover, there is a high-power distance in France, which probably made the French company send the woman to India because she has the position to negotiate with the Indian company.

What could be perceived as either prohibitive or inhibitive issues that the organization addresses?

Even in business, cultures could play an enormous part. It could even cause a result, which could be different than desired. Therefore, it is of great importance to acknowledge what could be seen as either prohibitive or inhibitive. This will include sexuality, social violence, and male/female roles.

Sexuality

According to the Times of India (2020), sexual activities or sex in general, is a conversational topic which is still considered as taboo. In India, people believe while growing up, that sexuality is only meant for a married couple. This would mean that speaking about sexual activities to anybody apart from your partner, would be considered prohibitive.

According to a Wikipedia page (2022), the rights of the LGBTQ community has been evolving and is becoming more accepted in India. Despite the growing acceptance, it could be still difficult in India to talk about sexuality, due to social influences. Therefore, it is inhibitive to talk about homosexuality in India.

According to an article on France24 (2018), Mossuz-Lavau states that the French’s behavior could be considered as liberated. It has been normalized in a large fashion. A writer of this case with French origins (J. Genot) confirms that the French are indeed open about it. Genot states that the French speak about it with friends and other acquaintances. He also mentioned that homosexuality is generally accepted in France.

Social violence

In India, social violence is a rather larger topic, especially when talking about the more domestic side. According to a Wikipedia page (2022), there is quite some violence against women in India. This goes from domestic violence to even death. A case of death is called honor killing. This means that the woman will be murdered, due to examples as divorce or refusing to enter an arranged marriage as an example. This is because refusing to enter an arranged marriage or divorcing is considered prohibitive in India.

In France, there seemed to be a similar situation regarding social violence. According to an article from The Guardian, France had 146 femicides in 2019. This makes France the country with the highest femicide rate in Europe. Femicide is a term used to describe murder on women. Yet in France, it would be considered murder on women by their (ex) partner.

Male/female roles

In India, the gender roles could be considered as more traditional within a family. According to the Pew Research Center (2022), there was a survey done with the statement that a wife must always obey her husband. According to the survey, around 90% agrees with the statement. Another statement was that if there are a few jobs, men should have more rights on a job than women. On that question, 79% agreed with the statement. This means that it would be considered prohibitive if a woman does not obey a man.

According to the Cultural Atlas (n.d.), nearly all French women are engaged in labor, and it also starts to become more of a norm. Yet men are still considered bread winners in a French family, while women have more stereotypical roles which include cooking and taking care of the children.

Hofstede Dimensions

France and India are two obviously very different countries: We will show this by starting with Power distance.

It is quite widely accepted that, in both cultures the power is not distributed unequally. Although this trend is more pronounced in India, probably due to the still-important caste system, whilst it is less important in France, due to the French revolution and the French’ almost natural instinct to rebel against any authority figure.

Now, to individualism. France is a much more individualistic society than India. The importance each one gives to themselves in France is around 47% higher than the one found in India. This is because, in India, there is a much greater emphasis placed on belonging to a group than in France, where each individual is supposed to stand on his/her own.

France and India are closer when it comes to the masculinity score. Although a greater emphasis is placed in France on a better quality of life (35hrs work week, five weeks of vacation, Sécu etc…)  whilst it is more important to be the best in India. This is quite visible when it comes to displaying power and wealth.

The uncertainty avoidance is where France and India differ the most: France’s is almost double India’s. This is an enormous difference; it means that the French hate surprises and prefer stability. It is quite in line with the country’s history: the three last big “surprises” were the Franco-Prussian war, WW1 and WW2. Furthermore, it is quite normal for one of the oldest nations on earth (2^nd, 3^rd or 4^th depending on who you ask) to be weary of uncertainty, as it is stability that has kept it going for centuries. India on the other hand has a much higher tolerance for uncertainty, it means that not everything has to go to plan in order for the people involved to be fine with it. The long-term orientation is a weird one for India: with a score of 51 there is no real preference in society, this can be explained by the karma system that is still very much alive and vibrant in the country whilst being balanced by the pragmatism that the people show in many situations. . France on the other hand, has quite a higher score with 63 which means the country is more flexible. It still keeps strong ties with its past but it is more accepting of the change of times.

Outcome

The outcomes of those differences are always the same: miscommunication, delays and everybody getting annoyed. Which results in even less communication and a less productive solution. This can ultimately cause an entire deal to collapse.
This will not only create a great financial burden for booth companies but also implies a lot of time wasted and does not entice anyone to do business with another party from the same country anytime soon. A great example of miscommunication is the now infamous submarine deal between France and Australia that was partly canceled because of a lack of comprehension between the parties involved (that was, at least, one of the reasons stated to terminate the contract). This has caused a great deal of harm to Franco-Australian diplomatic relations. Furthermore, it caused a 10-year delay for the RAN (Royal Australian Navy) to get their submarines. Cost-wise the contract was worth 50B$. Now the price tag has jumped to 100B$ on top of the Australian government having to pay 555.000.000€ to Naval Group (the french shipbuilder). Miscommunication at its finest and most expensive.

Possible solutions

To compare deeds and words we can take a simple example: we need to understand that in India, everything they ask for is urgent and must be done within the hour whilst anything you ask can wait 4 weeks. (In reality almost nothing is as urgent as described. They just use the same language that they would use with other Indians. Urgent means 2-3 weeks of time)

One of the implicit rules of business in India, Africa and the middle east is that being there in person is much more important than it is in Europe. Indian culture, in this regard, is halfway between European cultures and African cultures.

It is also important to remember that India is a very diverse country. Therefore, it depends a lot on which person you are dressing. However the Indians are quite tolerant when a westerner makes a cultural mistake, as it is common and it is almost expected to make a mishap, it is often used as an ice-breaker.

In India, like in Africa, and middle eastern culture is a high-context culture, where there are tons of implicit communication. Europe and North America are more low-context cultures, with the USA being the champion of such things. It is often said that, to say 100 things, a Frenchman will use 110, whilst an American will use 150 and a Japanese will say 50. An Indian would probably say 70. That is a difficulty, but it is easily breached by using written communication where the implicit cannot really exist.

Last but not least, Indians speak English but with a strong accent for most of them but that is not really a problem. As stated previously, India is a very diverse country, so it depends a lot on who the interlocutor is.

Authors
Student:

Jules Genot, (linkedin)

Kozminski University – Kedge Business school
Year 2 Semester 2 06/06/2022

Student: Giv Tabrizi, (Linkedin)

Amsterdam School of International Business
Block 4., Semester 2 06/06/2022

Student: Gacik Ackam,  (linkedin)

Amsterdam School of International Business
Block.4, Semester 2., 06/06/2022

For this interview, the vice president of a multimedia company was interviewed. In this interview, the cultural differences and situations of the interviewee were shared. The interviewee explained and gave insights on several situations where the cultural aspect is listed in. Furthermore, examples of inhibitive and prohibitive situations on the work floor are mentioned (Hofstede et al., 2002). The company consists of a very diverse company culture, where all the cultures and behaviours are respected. This is seen by the diverse ethnicities in the workplace with co-workers with an Indian, Polish, Russian and Japanese background.

Looking at the company and the interview the situations mentioned are mostly from the countries in the diagram. There could be many differences when looking at the several dimensions such as a very high power distance in Russia in comparison to the Netherlands. This can also be understood and seen out of the examples mentioned in the interview regarding the direct behaviour of the Russian Co-workers. Furthermore, looking at the Individualistic behaviour of the Netherlands in comparison to India it can be understood why the Indian co-workers are more likely to say “yes” instead of directly saying “no”. Another example that is evident in the differences of the dimensions between Dutch and Japanese culture is Japanese achievement and uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede et al., 2002).

Outcome

In our interview with our interviewee, we have obtained a good overview of the way culture influences the working environment of the company. As this is a large company, our hypothesis is that a large variety of cultural backgrounds exist within the employment of the company, from top to bottom. We also suppose that this variety will heavily influence the company from within. This hypothesis is clearly confirmed by the interviewee. First of all, people from different cultural backgrounds will result in a situation where people have different mother tongues. To cope with this, the company incorporated English as their ‘’company language’’. This means the social norm is to speak English with your colleagues. It is strictly prohibited to speak another language when a fellow employee has not mastered that language. Nevertheless, the interviewee indicated that he speaks Dutch with his colleagues when all his fellow employees have a C1 (European Framework of Languages) language level in Dutch (Hofstede et al., 2002).

Secondly, hierarchy is observable in the company, as it is in most of the large companies around the globe. However, this hierarchy is different than in French or German companies. Hierarchy is, as it is in most Anglo-Saxon companies,  more seen as a tool instead of being a measurement of power. Our interviewee indicated that, as Vicepresident, he uses the well known 80/20 rule. He believes 80% has to be discussed by the whole team involved, and 20% of the decision making process has to come directly by orders of the manager. He feels inhibited to give orders to his peers on all subjects. His vision is to always have an open discussion with the whole team and to include them in almost all decision-making processes. Consequently, employees are more enthusiastic and thinking outside of the box and this enhances the final result. To quote the interviewee, he calls this ‘’creating a playing field’’.

Furthermore, our interviewee has explained that you have to keep in mind that people from different backgrounds respond in different ways in particular situations. To give an example, during a business dinner, Americans generally love to speak about sport, where Japanese people prefer to keep the conversation more to the point. So for our interviewee, this of course means it is inhibitive to speak about sport with Japanese colleagues/partners. For people from all cultural backgrounds, it is strictly prohibited to speak about religion and politics in business dinners (Hofstede et al., 2002). You don’t know how someone will respond to such topics and to use the Weaver Iceberg model they might agree with you on the surface but in reality, could be offended and this would not be known because it is below the surface.

We also discussed how to interculturally interact with peers. Indian people for example will never say no in your face. This is inhibitive for them. On the other hand, Dutch people are very straightforward (Hofstede et al., 2002). Our interviewee’s vision is that you have to understand yourself first (i.e. you have to know what it means to be Dutch, what the Dutch culture means etc.), and from there you will find a way to deal with different cultural backgrounds. His solution to navigating communication with Indian peers is to ask them more questions to establish a clearer view of their position in a particular case. In the case of Americans, his experience is that they will never tell you exactly the context, but will ‘’describe’’ it. To deal with them, he found out you will have read between the lines. When making a deal with the Japanese people, an agreement is an agreement and they stick to it. Whereas an agreement is only accepted when the Russians have paid and the money is in your bank account. Lastly, the Polish can be perceived as quite stubborn and can get nervous if one could be too pragmatic which is part of Hofstede’s uncertainty avoidance. So when interacting with Polish peers, sameness and assimilation create a more levelled working environment.

This company does not avoid political issues. On the contrary, it embraces and works with the changing general opinion of society over time on some subjects, for example, ethical and humanitarian issues. It is strictly prohibited in this company to discriminate against people based on their background and this will not be tolerated (Hofstede et al., 2002). This applies to racial jokes and age discrimination as well. Employees receive training for this each year which is evaluated by means of a mock test. A lawyer participates in a discussion and gives an example of what could be perceived as discrimination. For example, there is a special LGBT acceptance training in the company. Since this program was implemented, the acceptance of LGBT people among employees has increased a lot, from the very top to the very bottom of employees in the company. A practical example from our interviewee is to hire someone who is not similar to him. His experience is that many different cultures will bring up many different skills, and if you join forces, there will be opportunities for development. He feels inhibited to work in a team with only people who are similar to his cultural background. He sees this as a moral obligation. In doing this he uses the rule of ‘’Treat people like you want to be treated yourself’’. This must be your moral compass.

Possible Solutions/ Best Practice

It is a very open-minded company, welcoming people from all cultural and social backgrounds around the globe. They avoid cultural barriers by training their employees in dealing with different cultures, letting teams exist of more than one ethnicity and provide tips when you make a small mistake in a particular situation. Our interviewee still feels very happy in doing his job and hopes to work for this company for many more years to come.

Student Authors

Louis Galeyrand (LinkedIn)
Kozminski University, Warsaw, Poland
Block 4, semester 2. 2021

Wies Duivenvoorden (LinkedIn)
Faculty Business and Economics, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Block 4, semester 2. 2021

Preshaya Kewalbansing (LinkedIn)
Amsterdam School of International Business, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences,  Amsterdam, Netherlands
Block 4, semester 2. 2021