Hi guys, Mark here with Wolter's World, and we're in Beijing,
China in the Black Bamboo Park, a really great place to kind of
chill out and get to see some Chinese culture, people doing
Tai Chi, you know, meeting people fun stuff like that,
getting to know about a new culture for me.
And one of the things our companies need to know is how do we kind of gauge
different cultures we go to, different countries to go to,
and what happened was, they came up with- Geert Hofstede came up
with a kind of a model of different criteria of cultures.
So you can see, well, what do we need to do?
How can I introduce new products there?
Or, you know, how do I manage my people when I'm there?
And so he went out around to a bunch of IBM places all around
the world, and did a bunch of surveys, he came up with all
these ideas and all these things, and he broke it down
into four main parts.
Now, it's been expanded to five, maybe even six, but I want to
talk about the main four, and then one extra one.
So let's get started.
The first dimension of culture that he talks about is power distance.
Basically, if you have a high power distance, or low power
distance, and this is how people kind of deal with inequality in
terms of is the boss a god, or is the boss your friend?
So example, in the US, we're friends with our boss.
We go have dinner with our boss, hang out with them, we can joke
with him, things like that.
Other countries like Venezuela, where it's a very high power
distance, your boss is more- your boss says do what you say,
yes, sir, and there's not much discussion with it, so you
expect to be told what to do.
Now, if you're going to a high power distance country to do
work, you need to realize that you can't be buddy, buddy.
You can try, but people don't accept it as much, so you want
to make sure you do have kind of that kind of level between
people, okay?
If you're going to a low power distance country realize that
it's going to be a lot more friend stuff, and you can't
dictate to people as much as you do in a high power distance one, okay?
Now, number two on our- the second kind of dimension of
culture they talk about is uncertainty avoidance, and this
is how cultures look at risk, how much risk are they willing
to accept.
So low uncertainty avoidance means hey, I'm cool with risk.
So if we're going to come out with a new product, they're more
likely to accept it, because hey, try the new product, you're
spending money and that's risky, okay?
So low power distance, more accepting to new products.
If you look at a high power distance one, they don't like risk.
It's going to have a different thing, so hey, I don't want
anything unknown, so the legal system will have lots of rules
put in there to make sure every single situation is taken care of, okay?
It's gonna be- if you're going to be selling a new product, you
know, you got to be really explaining what the benefits
are, why they should buy it, how they use it, and things like
that, so people don't feel like I'm not sure if I'm gonna take
this risk of a new product.
The third on- the third dimension of culture is
individualism versus collectivism.
This is kind of like how people see themselves in relation to the group.
So in an individualistic society or individualism people like me,
me, me, me first, I think about me, and that's it.
In more collectivist societies, you have more of a group
mentality, think about the group more we, we, we.
So for example, in the US it's very much me first society, so
what do you do with the commercials?
It shows how you will have more fun, how you will be the cool
guy, how you, you, you, okay?
You're the most important thing, that individual consumer
whereas, if you go to more collectivist society then
advertise a change more to the family.
We deal- we want to make everybody happy in our group and
these kind of things, and if you're dealing with people, it's
gonna be different.
Some places you got a pat on the back other countries, you go to
say, hey, the group did a good job, even if one person did a
good job, the whole group did a good job, okay?
Now, the fourth dimension of culture is masculinity versus
femininity, and this is basically- well, one of the ways
you can look at is your gender roles in society, but also kind
of, I mean, it's sounds very sexist how they describe it,
basically, you're looking at feminine equality in traditional
feminine values versus traditional masculine values,
like power, first is masculine, and getting the long is-is
feminin, but that's the way they- they decide it, and one of
the ways that you also look at it in terms of equality among
people in the sexes, so like Sweden.
I mean, men, women, their Prime Minister or their, you know,
we're working together, everyone's the same level.
Everyone has the same kind of place, so it's a feminine
society, so there's more equality in the workplace, more
of let's get along, stuff like this, whereas you have a more
like, kill, kill, kill, you know, mentality, it's more of a
masculine society, so a male dominated society, and it's
going to be-it's going to be an issue, because you're going to
countries that, you know, different sexes are viewed in
different ways, it will be hard to do things and I'm not saying
it's right, I'm just saying you have to know it as a company,
how to deal with these things.
Now, so those are the four main ones, the traditional ones.
So you have, you know, power distance, uncertainty avoidance,
individualism versus collectivism, and masculine
versus feminine societies.
Now, those are the four main, so there's a fifth one that's been
come up.
It's called time orientation.
How is the culture look?
Is it short term stuff?
Like, let's do it now, instant gratification, or is it more
long term?
I realize I have to build things up, and you can see that in a
country, like in the US is very short term thing, so everyone's
looking for now, now, I want my payoff now, okay?
I want to get paid now, I need that pat on the back today, okay?
Whereas more long term societies, they may look at it
and say, hey, you know, I'm using this as a building block.
Yeah, $50,000 a year to go to school.
Yeah, it's expensive now, but I know long term, it's gonna pay
off for me, okay?
So that's the fifth one and like an extra one for the Hofstede model.
Now I hope this helps you understand a little bit better
how you can kind of gauge different cultures and stuff
like that.
Now, it doesn't always hold true with everyone.
I'll tell you that right now from all my travels, ot every
country fits in every person fits in to this model, how it's
supposed to.
They're kind of like overall stereotypes, which are bad, but
it gives you a rough idea for business, what you need to know.
Okay, so I hope this helps.
If you wanna learn more about visiting China or business
stuff, check us at our website and woltersworld.com, and also
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subscriptions, so bye from Beijing, China.