Use Cultural Differences to Your Advantage

[TheWharfConsultant1]

London is one of the most international places in the world – one of the reasons why it is such an interesting place to live in. While diverse bars, restaurants and exhibitions are interesting (and enriching), things are getting a bit different when you want to do business with companies in other countries – stakes are getting a bit higher. You might have to solve conflicts or want to come to a business agreement. After all, you will deal with people from different cultures. In this context, there are no right or wrongs, just different rights.

A good first stop is Hofstede’s insights https://www.hofstede-insights.com/fi/product/compare-countries/ based on research going on since the sixties – back then, only IBM had enough computing power available to run large-scale surveys. A lot of the literature (and internet posts) on intercultural communication you will find will be based on this research. Hofstede’s insights try to quantify qualitative differences of countries’ cultural differences along several dimensions:

• Power distance index (PDI): “The extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally". The higher the score, the less members of a group in a country will question authority.
• Individualism vs. collectivism (IDV): "The degree to which people in a society are integrated into groups". Individualistic societies have loose ties that often only relate an individual to his/her immediate family whereas collective countries see group members as loyal to their group, sometimes even seeing this loyalty as more important than the law.

• Uncertainty avoidance (UAI): "A society's tolerance for ambiguity", in which people embrace or avert an event of something unexpected, unknown, or away from the status quo. A low number equates to more acceptance of differing thoughts or ideas.
• Masculinity vs. femininity (MAS): Masculinity is defined as "a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness, and material rewards for success." Whereas femininity shows "a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak, and quality of life." In feminine societies, women share modest and caring views equally with men. In more masculine societies, women recognize a gap between male and female values which is often viewed as taboo in highly masculine societies.
• Long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation (LTO): Somewhat self-explanatory, this dimension associates the connection of the past with the current and future actions/challenges. A lower number (short-term) indicates that traditions are upheld and, while steadfastness is valued. Societies with a long-term view adaptation and circumstantial, pragmatic problem-solving as a necessity.
• Indulgence vs. restraint (IND): This refers to the degree of freedom that a society gives to citizens in fulfilling their human desires. Indulgence is defined as "a society that allows relatively free gratification of basic and natural human desires related to enjoying life and having fun". Its counterpart is defined as "a society that controls gratification of needs and regulates it by means of strict social norms".

The link above will give you the opportunity to compare countries to each other. After that, what do you do with these findings? First of all, remember that Hofstede values try to quantify qualitative features, so you should look at trends and differences rather than absolute numbers (or even use them for modelling). These scores help you to get an understanding of how countries compare to each other. You can then deduct if a country feels familiar, e.g. because you have lived in countries with similar scores of if you might need to prepare for differences, e.g. in communication, decision-making or negotiations. However, be aware that these scores are generalisations while you will deal with individuals. For example, the UK scores quite high on individualism (89) compared to Portugal (27), but you might meet Portuguese counterparts who will be less loyal to their group/company etc. than the average person in Britain. While Hofstede is useful to compare countries, there can also be substantial differences within a country, e.g. in the French and German-speaking parts of Switzerland.
But do these cultural differences really matter apart from some interesting stories about long business lunches in France and straight-talking Dutch in meetings? Definitely yes – just have a look at Walmart and its disastrous foray into Germany in the early 2000s – by not adapting to German shopping habits (e.g. German shoppers found the trademark Walmart greeter intrusive when browsing the isles for bargains which Walmart placed away from premium products, contrary to what shoppers were used to), the company sunk billions and had to withdraw from the market to cut its losses. Culture does indeed eat strategy for breakfast (and sometimes for lunch and dinner, too).

The stakes are not always that high, but being aware that your counterpart will perceive things differently is a good first step. It also helps to mention your background in an introduction, so that the other side is aware that you might see things differently. Being fluent in English can mask things a bit because even though you share a common language (which eases communication), the cultural differences are still there and with them different views and interpretations. Again, this not a bad thing and one side is not right while the other is wrong, but both are right in their own, different way. Cultural difference can be a huge opportunity as well - after all, diverse teams are known to outperform homogenous teams https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter

Apart from being aware of cultural differences, do some research about the country of your counterpart. A quick look at a country’s history helps to understand attitudes towards other countries, authority, power-sharing and so on. Maybe have a look at recent sports results for a bit of small talk or try to find some topics that would be of interest to yourself to keep the conversation going, e.g. asking for skiing resorts, nice beaches, good restaurants and so on, showing interest in the country of your counterpart. Be also aware when to have small talk and when not – while the first meeting in Britian is often used to get to know each other (and not talking business at all), small talk in Netherlands or German-speaking countries ends when you enter the meeting room. Chatting away about the weather or recent sport events will be seen as wasting everyone’s time. True to the cliché, a business lunch is often the start of a business relationship in France or Italy whereas in the Nordics and in Germany such a lunch is rather a celebration of a milestone after several successful meetings. A French person might be put back by not being invited to lunch early on in a business relationship. I had to deal with an interesting case in my career where we found out that sales managers in our French subsidiary went on more lunches with prospective clients, but spent less per lunch than managers in other countries. You can see the potential conflicts there although everyone is behaving perfectly normal in their respective environments.

Cultural differences are nothing to be concerned about, just to be aware of. You can use them to your advantage very easily. The worst thing that can happen is that you can learn something about other cultures.

Should you want to look further into the topic: an interesting (albeit slightly older) read is “Fish don't see water” by Kai Hammerich and Richard D. Lewis on how companies and their managers don’t see the powerful, but invisible impact of national cultures, featuring a number of case studies to give you some interesting stories to talk about.

 

[JustAnotherHuman1]

Very insightful indeed. Thanks for sharing.

 

[magellan1]

I agree that London is one of the world's most international cities. For many weeks, I have had close to 0 interactions with British people while living in London given that all my housemates and colleagues were from countries like Australia, Spain, Italy, Brazil or China. I wouldn't rely too much on Hofstede. My personal experience of living in many countries and interacting with people from dozens of nationalities does not match precisely with his data. I will share a few big cultural differences (vs the West) that I have noticed in other countries.
1) Indian people almost always say "Yes" and promise the moon but very often they fail to deliver on their promises.
2) Brazilians never say "No". For example, they will never reject you if you make a business proposal that they don't like. They will usually say something like "Very interesting proposal, give us a few days to decide" and will never get back to you.
3) Italians often act like your "best friends" but the moment you ask them for something (a favor), they just disappear.
4) French people try to avoid speaking English whenever possible. I have worked several times in international groups with a few french people in the group. The French people usually switch to French and ignore the rest of the group.
5) South Koreans are very loyal and reliable partners/friends.

Please, be aware that these are just my observations and you shouldn't take them as certain facts.

 

[JustAnotherHuman1]

I agree that London is one of the world's most international cities. For many weeks, I have had close to 0 interactions with British people while living in London given that all my housemates and colleagues were from countries like Australia, Spain, Italy, Brazil or China. I wouldn't rely too much on Hofstede. My personal experience of living in many countries and interacting with people from dozens of nationalities does not match precisely with his data. I will share a few big cultural differences (vs the West) that I have noticed in other countries.
1) Indian people almost always say "Yes" and promise the moon but very often they fail to deliver on their promises.
2) Brazilians never say "No". For example, they will never reject you if you make a business proposal that they don't like. They will usually say something like "Very interesting proposal, give us a few days to decide" and will never get back to you.
3) Italians often act like your "best friends" but the moment you ask them for something (a favor), they just disappear.
4) French people try to avoid speaking English whenever possible. I have worked several times in international groups with a few french people in the group. The French people usually switch to French and ignore the rest of the group.
5) South Koreans are very loyal and reliable partners/friends.

Please, be aware that these are just my observations and you shouldn't take them as certain facts.

Some of these are relatively well-known cultural patterns and real, I’m not sure though how much of these were only your personal experiences vs how much you can generalise. There are definitely noticeable differences across countries in Europe, whether one is blind to it or not. North America is very different in this respect, where you basically have two huge countries on the same continent sharing pretty much the same culture, and the same language. This is a competitive advantage, whereas in Europe, it’s like 30+ different nationalities, histories and nations sharing the continent. Often times, having had been at war with each other going back thousands of years. I believe the establishment of the European Union has largely removed these differences, and works rather well.

I could verify 1 (strongly) and 4 (to some extent), but not so sure on the others. 1) they lie like crazy. Generally dishonest and cannot be trusted. There are exceptions, but they prove the rule.

It’s difficult to judge when one notices a pattern that’s actually real vs simply personal differences. #1 applies to pretty much any third world country, in a slightly different way shape or form (incompetence, low quality outputs, be it a deliverable or ease and speed of communication). The workforce there tend to be a lot less educated than in the western world, and also cultures very far away, making collaboration ever more difficult. A 5-6 hours difference might also be overlooked, but over time it really becomes annoying, compounded by the constant errors and communication difficulties made on their side. That will need to be fixed. By you. Companies seem to like this setup though.. as they will save a lot of the cost.

 

[TheWharfConsultant1]

Some of these are relatively well-known cultural patterns and real, I’m not sure though how much of these were only your personal experiences vs how much you can generalise. There are definitely noticeable differences across countries in Europe, whether one is blind to it or not. North America is very different in this respect, where you basically have two huge countries on the same continent sharing pretty much the same culture, and the same language. This is a competitive advantage, whereas in Europe, it’s like 30+ different nationalities, histories and nations sharing the continent. Often times, having had been at war with each other going back thousands of years. I believe the establishment of the European Union has largely removed these differences, and works rather well.

I could verify 1 (strongly) and 4 (to some extent), but not so sure on the others. 1) they lie like crazy. Generally dishonest and cannot be trusted. There are exceptions, but they prove the rule.

It’s difficult to judge when one notices a pattern that’s actually real vs simply personal differences. #1 applies to pretty much any third world country, in a slightly different way shape or form (incompetence, low quality outputs, be it a deliverable or ease and speed of communication). The workforce there tend to be a lot less educated than in the western world, and also cultures very far away, making collaboration ever more difficult. A 5-6 hours difference might also be overlooked, but over time it really becomes annoying, compounded by the constant errors and communication difficulties made on their side. That will need to be fixed. By you. Companies seem to like this setup though.. as they will save a lot of the cost.

In intercultural coomunication, national stereotypes help to a certain extent to explain behaviours, but group-specific behaviours might be superseeding national patterns - think about an Italian accountant compared to a Scandinavian adventurer.

On points 1-4, a lot can be explained with patterns, e.g. linear active vs. multi active in the Lewis model https://www.crossculture.com/the-lewis-model-dimensions-of-behaviour/ - some patterns come from a preference for face saving (not admitting to be wrong/not knowing how to answer a question, preferring cordial relationships over task-oriented communication).

Again, there is no right or wrong in this and knowing about these patterns helps to navigate them, e.g. frequently checking in on someone from a relationship-focussed country will be appreciated, but seen as patronising/intrusive/less trusting by someone from a task-oriented country.

 

[AugustusSeptimius1]

Yes, agreed. I feel the cultural nuances different countries and their companies have is absolutely a point worth noting––while it is true that as companies expand and broaden their international footprint, the original cultural nuances they may have started with tend to homogenize with those of other large multinational companies; however, I feel the cultural context is essential nonetheless. I remember reading a study from How it Works that found that in most South American countries, individuals stand up to half the distance away from a stranger as someone from an Eastern-European or middle-eastern country will (0.76 meters in Argentina compared to 1.4 meters in Romania, for example). So, it seems to me that it's important to bare these aspects of comfortability in mind when interacting with newly-acquainted professionals from differing backgrounds, especially because first impressions last.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/l...ch-countries-have-smallest-personal-space.htm