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Examing Culture #2 - Is Hofstede's view of Culture relevant?

Hofstede is seen as one of the key writers and proponents of cultural theory, through his research in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s and to which he has continued to add.  His research was based on employees within one organisation – IBM and covered over 116,000 responses, 72 national subsidiaries and 20 language, taking the data at two points in time over a four year period.  When first published, over 20 years ago, it was one of the most extensive pieces of research in the area of culture and lead to some critical thinking of what characteristics are observable in different national cultures.

The central premise to Hofstede’s work is that Culture and cultural identity are learned attributes developed over time and he coined the process ‘mental programming’.  

 

We can see how culture is ever-changing, in the ways that values and priorities change from one generation to another.  For example, we can see if we look back at key decades in UK society, that values changed from:  Being frugal and economical in the 1940’s  (key themes: ‘War’ and ‘Rations’); being hard-working and strong family values in the 1950’s  (key themes:  Post-war Industrial growth); being expressive and freedom of speech in the 1960’s  (key themes: Feminism, Free Love, Student Revolts); being politically aware and experiencing hardships in the 1970’s  (Increased political unrest, widespread strikes and large scale unemployment).  Thus we can say that culture is at the same time traditional yet ever changing.  The shifts in cultural values are harder to view in the day-to-day, but evident when looked at through a longer lens. 

This brings some interesting challenges to modern day multi-nationals, as it means that cultural identity and values needs to be understood and observed to a point, but that people are open to and willing to change their values and priorities if it makes sense for them to do so. 

Culture can feel like an intangible and hard to grasp concept, yet it is both general – i.e. definable at a national or continental level; but also specific – i.e. definable at an organisational, team and even family level.   And for each of these situations a new set of norms might be applied. 

Hofstede originally defined  four dimensions of culture as a way of mapping and explaining differences in national cultures.  If we look at how European countries map out on these dimensions, we see some interesting patterns:

Each dimensions looks at a different aspect of human interactions:

1.            Power Distance:  Defining and prioritizing power in their environments – e.g.. how much are hierarchies respected and maintained

2.            Uncertainty Avoidance: How important is it to know what is coming next and how much effort is invested into avoiding uncertainty

3.            Individualism ‘v’ Collectivisim:  What is more important – to be known and respected as an individual or to be part of and respected as part of a community (or group effort)

4.            Masculine ‘v’ Feminine:     “Masculinity pertains to societies in which social gender roles are clearly distinct and focused on material success; femininity pertains to societies in which social gender roles overlaps (i.e. both men and women are supposed to be modest, tender and concerned with quality of life)” (Hofstede P.82)

To these original dimensions, a fifth was added – Long Term’v’ Short Term Orientation.

 

The dimensions give us a frame of reference in which to consider and view culture, and it does allow us to perhaps explain differences that emerge across different countries, even in one geographic regions such as Europe.  However Hofstede was at pains to point out that the purpose of his cultural landscape was not to allow us to fall in to the trap of stereotyping countries and national cultures.  Far from it, Hofstede believed that by having a frame of reference, we could free ourselves up from our own cultural bias, to look at cultures with a more objective lens. 

There are a number of issues with Hofstede’s study methods and conclusions, which remind us of the need to treat it critically.  The first is that the data is focused around the respondents in one organisation – IBM.  Whilst an organisation of sufficient size  (well over 120,000 employees at the time of the research) to provide a statistically significant sample, but that does not mean it is representative on a national level.    

Blodgett et al (2008) after examining Hofstede’s model conclude that “Hofstede’s cultural instrument lacks sufficient validity when applied at the individual unit of analysis”.  McSweeney B (2002) goes further to systematically deconstruct and debunk his theories stating that “The scale problem of Hofstede’s research is radially compounded by the narrowness of the population surveyed” and that Hofstede oversimplified the importance of organisational culture as a component and a relevant factor when matching samples across countries.  Yet despite this criticism, I think that St Claire-Ostwald (2007) offers wise words when she states  “To reject totally Hofstede’s or similar functionalist models of national culture, before more satisfactory models have been developed, would be to throw away valuable insight.”

Hofstede’s model still has influence on our current thinking of Culture and its interpretation.  One can see his influence in other important models, such as those of Trompenaars and GLOBE, which will be covered in the next section of this series. 

Culture is ever-present and all-pervasive and however much we want to imagine that business as usual can continue without it, it cannot.  However by becoming more aware of it, is the first step in managing its consequences.

Please share your thoughts or experiences on cross cultural management here, or email us if you would like to find out more about our work in this area at feedback@agents2change.com

 

Further Reading:

Blodgett J, Bakir A &  Rose G (2008)  A Test of the Validity of Hofstede’s Cultural Framework, Advances in Consumer Research (Volume 35)

Hofstede G (1994) Cultures and Organizations: Intercultural cooperation and its importance for survival; Software of the Mind, London: HarperCollins

McSweeney, B. (2000). Hofstede's model of national cultural differences and their consequences: A triumph of faith – a failure of analysis. Human Relations, 55(1), 89-118.

St Claire-Ostwald B (2007) Carrying Cultural Baggage: the contribution of socio-cultural anthropology to cross-cultural coaching, International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring 5(2), 45-52

 

Multi-Cultural Management and Its Challenges – Introduction

In this mini-series, we will look at the challenges of managing across a diverse range of geographic and cultural boundaries.

We will revisit the writings of the key writers on Culture – Hofstede, Trompenaars and Hall and we will also look at some up to the minute examples of multi-cultural management challenges faced by some of the world’s biggest companies.

But first, let’s set the scene.  A Spanish technology group has recently acquired a British IT company operating in a similar area.  They both operate in the same market and offer similar technology, yet every attempt to merge, integrate or transform their processes to a common approach is failing.  It is not that they don’t see the benefits of the changes, or even of working together more closely; yet any percieved attempt by one side to impose a process on the other is contentious.  Sound familiar?  Well this type of situation occurs in over 80% of post-merger organisations.

Often what is interpreted as resistance to change is based in a mis-understanding of culture and cultural needs of the legacy teams and organisation.  Even in this example, if we look at some of the cultural markers defined by Hall's definiton of High and Low Context cultures, we find that Spain would fall more into high context cultures, meaning that more is interpreted from the wider reference points of non-verbal, historical and social expectations, creating a much smaller dependence on and trust in written communication.  Britain, by contrast, falls into the low context cultures, which means that explicit forms of communication are preferred and expected and less value is placed on non-verbal or subliminal messages.  Whereas one country would put much more store in face-to-face meetings to reach agreement, the other would not want to act without clear written agreements.

Over the next few weeks we will take you on a cultural journey, exploring what continues to be the issues faced by modern management in multi-national organisations and what we can learn from the extensive body of knowledge that is already out there to help us navigate this tricky landscape.

Do you have any experience of multi-cultural management you would like to share?  Or would you like to have a more detailed discussion on how we support multi-cultural management?  Please feel free to leave your comments here.  Or contact us at feedback@agents2change.com.

"7 Graces of Marketing" virtual blog tour

Today I have the great pleasure of being the host on Day 9 of the Virtual Blog Tour of author Lynn Serafinn whose book The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell launches on Amazon on Tuesday December 13, 2011.

 

Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC is a certified, award-winning coach and teacher, marketer, social media expert, radio host, speaker and bestselling author. Her eclectic approach to marketing incorporates her vast professional experience in the music industry and the educational sector along with more than two decades of study and practice of the spirituality of India. In her work as a promotional manager she has produced a long list of bestselling mind-body-spirit authors. Passionate about re-establishing our connection with the Earth, she supports the work of the Transition Town network in her hometown of Bedford, England.

 

Yesterday, Lynn visited Charly Leetham at http://askcharlyleetham.com/book-launches/what-are-the-7-graces-of-marketing/login  , where they talked about marketing strategies and messages in this approach for small business owners.

 

Today, I'd like to share with you a recent interview I had with Lynn when I got to ask her questions about the new horizon on marketing.    I hope you enjoy it.

 

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Mary McGuire: There is so much written about marketing – what can we learn that is new from you book?

Lynn Serafinn: First of all, let me clarify that The 7 Graces of Marketing isn't a "how to" book at all. A lot of people who know my work might be expecting a handbook for how to do marketing using social media, as that is what I help people with professionally, but I didn't want to write a book like that. Instead, this book is intended to be an eye-opener for both business owners and consumers, showing just how powerfully marketing impacts our lives and much of it in a negative way.

 

I unveil a lot of rather "unsavoury" aspects to marketing, much of which people might not be aware. I call these "The 3 Furies of Marketing" and "The 7 Deadly Sins" of marketing. I have researched for two years to find clear evidence, statistics and examples, so people could understand how modern marketing has contributed to massive imbalances in our health, our economy and our natural environment. And, of course, I didn't just want to spread the "bad news", so I also offer a new paradigm, which I call "The 7 Graces of Marketing".

 

I've delivered many talks on this subject, usually to groups of small business owners. In my experience, many small business owners don't like to do marketing, but they cannot understand why they have such a mental block towards it. This often has a negative impact upon their businesses, and as a result, they feel like they are failing as business owners. Some of the most typical people in this category are holistic professionals and creative artists. But when I unveil to them the many unspoken methods of modern marketing, these people begin to understand why they have had such a block against it. It's really just a case of it clashing with their value system. When they see they can now consciously adopt a new paradigm (the 7 Graces) to counter the aspects that are unpalatable to them (The 7 Deadly Sins), they can not only begin to do marketing in a new way that is congruent with their own values, but they can also create marketing that will give value to the world instead of harm it.

 

For the consumer, the book is equally valuable because it teaches us how to recognise the ways marketing influences our beliefs and spending habits, how it triggers our fears, and how it toys with our sense of identity. When it comes right down to it, we are all consumers, and the more informed we are, the more empowered we become. And the greater number of empowered consumers we have in the world, the more likely marketing will change for the better.

 

Mary McGuire: You extend your reach in this book well beyond marketing – why is it important to consider yourself and wider society, surely marketing is just about selling stuff? 

 

Lynn Serafinn: The more I've looked at marketing, Mary, the more I've seen it's not about selling "stuff" at all, but about "selling ideas".

 

In the book I give many detailed and varied examples of how this happens. For example, the cigarette industry has a long history of "selling" the idea that cigarettes are linked with our sexual identity. In the 1920s, when early feminist movements were rising in the US, cigarettes were marketed to women as something that symbolises their equality with men. Prior to that campaign, women, for the most part, didn't smoke cigarettes at all. In the post-war 1950s, when women were playing the role of housewife, cigarettes were marketed as a weight-loss aid to make them sexier. In the 1970s, when the next wave of feminism arose, cigarettes were again marketed as something that indicated women were "liberated". If you look at the statistics, the rise in cigarette use among women in these eras (and subsequent rise in lung cancer amongst women) paralleled these marketing campaigns precisely. Women weren't buying cigarettes—they were buying the idea of what the marketers were telling them these cigarettes represented. And this is just one of dozens of examples I give in the book, from fast food to children's toys to automobiles and beyond.

 

Marketing is in the business of created what I call "collapsed beliefs", which is when two totally disparate ideas become fused together as one. In the case of cigarettes, it's the fusion of "cigarettes equal liberation" or "cigarettes equal sexiness". And this is what consumers (and marketers!) need to understand. We are not buying "stuff" at all; we are buying the "idea" of the stuff. And because of this, marketing is extremely powerful, as it is really the practice of creating and selling ideas and beliefs.

 

Marketers already know this, even if they don't admit it or consciously understand it. My book is, among other things, a call to action to marketers to stop the reckless manipulation of public ideology, and simply get back to communicating clearly, directly and honestly. And it's also a call to action for business owners to look at the wider impact of not just their marketing, but also of their businesses on a whole.

 

Lastly, I want to mention that because marketing is the "selling of ideas", really I am not limiting the discussion simply to advertising. Within the idea of marketing, I equally include things like journalism, the nightly news and politics.

 

Mary McGuire: What do you see as the new marketing horizon in the next 5 – 10 years?

 

Lynn Serafinn: Well I would hope the 7 Graces (whether or not referred to directly) become the new paradigm, as I believe it covers a lot of ground. Of course, the answers cannot come from a single book, and I make it very clear in the book that it is a book of questions, not a manual of answers, and the only way answers will come is if we as one humanity will come together and start the dialogue for change.

 

I do think we will start to see signs of this shift within the next 5-10 years, but there is an awful lot of infrastructure needed to bring it fully to fruition, so I think we're realistically looking at another 20-30 years to see the full transition to the new paradigm. But the dialogue HAS to start now, because our current rate of consumption is, frankly, destroying:

 

• our societies - by making us dependent upon big business instead of local enterprise
• our economy - by making us dependent upon credit/debt
• our health - by consuming harmful products, unhealthy food and by living highly stressful lives
• our planet – by extracting AND disposing of resources at a rate far faster than our planet can replenish or recycle them

 

The paradigm of The 7 Graces of Marketing is an invitation to start a dialogue about taking a more holistic approach to marketing and business in general, where we not only practice social responsibility, but we also come back into step with the eco-system that is our planet. It is important to remember that we humans are not outside that system, and that every aspect of our culture—including our economy—is also a part of the eco-system of Planet Earth.

 

I do believe more and more people are starting to wake up to this fact, and that the shift back towards our own humanity has begun. My grandson is now 5 years old; my dream is that by the time he has children the world will be a very different, and much healthier and holistically balanced, place to live.

 

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I hope you enjoyed this interview with Lynn Serafinn and that you’ll check out her book The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell at http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/book-launch/pages/pre-launch.html

 

Here's why:

 

 

 

The 7 Graces of Marketing Telesummit

A FREE 7-Part Online Happening!

December 6th-9th, 2011

Register at http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/free-telesummit

 

When you visit the page at the link above and request a "launch reminder", you will automatically receive a FREE pass to Lynn's 7-Part online happening “The 7 Graces of Marketing Telesummit” with an illustrious panel of 24 bestselling authors and world-renowned speakers and media experts on society, business and marketing coming together to discuss how we can bring ethics and values back our business and marketing practices, and restore balance to our health, our economy and our natural environment.

 

Here's the spectacular list of guests speakers for the event:

Dr. Joe Vitale * Greg S. Reid * Dr. Eric Pearl * Dan Hollings * Pamela Slim * Liz Goodgold * Allison Maslan * Suzanne Falter*Barnes * Tad Hargrave * Misa Hopkins * Richard S. Gallagher * Ward Vandorpe * Barbara Altemus * Andrea Conway * Renee Baribeau * Renee Duran * Michael Drew * Chris Arnold * Jeffrey Van Dyk * Tanya Paluso * Kate Osborne * Shelagh Jones * Paula Tarrant * Lynn Serafinn

 

You can listen to the telesummit online in the comfort of your own home, and even ask questions during the broadcast.

 

If you are reading this after Dec 9th, 2011 you can still access the playback for a limited time when you register at http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/free-telesummit

 

To claim your FREE pass to the 7 Graces of Marketing Telesummit

and read about the free gifts, go to:

http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/book-launch/pages/pre-launch.html

 

Thanks for reading! As usual, please feel free to share your comments and thoughts below.

 

AND… be sure to follow Lynn tomorrow when the next stop on the Virtual Blog Tour is Gregory "Coach" Fernander, who will be interviewing Lynn on the subject of responsibility in marketing & in life. To visit that "stop" on the tour, go to http://coachatgregory.blogspot.com