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Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions

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    >[Dr. Ben Zugay] Hi, everybody.
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    The purpose of this video is to expand upon
    something that you've read about
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    with regards to group composition.
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    We're gonna talk about cultural diversity
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    from the lens of Hofstede's
    Cultural Dimensions.
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    That will all make a lot more sense
    in just a few minutes.
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    So first of all, you're probably thinking,
    "What is this?"
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    Well, welcome to our first
    online lecture for our class.
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    These online lectures are
    designed to take book content
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    that is either difficult to understand
    and explain in further;
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    or it is designed to take something
    that the book just briefly mentioned
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    and I expand upon it (as this video will);
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    or for me to talk about something
    that is completely brand new,
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    something that you didn't read about.
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    So there are very specific purposes
    behind these videos.
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    I'm not going to lecture word for word
    about things that you've already read.
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    I expect that if I assigned a reading,
    you've read those things.
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    So keep that in mind as we go
    through these online lectures.
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    In addition to that, #2,
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    please do take notes
    as if we were in class.
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    These topics are of interest to you
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    with regards to our tests
    and assessments in this class;
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    and of course, they are of interest
    to you with regards to your career,
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    so I encourage you to take notes.
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    I will, throughout online lectures,
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    Write down something in your notebook,
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    being a YouTube video,
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    So let's go ahead and
    talk about our content.
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    So you read about group composition,
    the way that groups are made up,
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    and you know from your reading
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    that there are essentially two
    different categories of groups.
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    There are groups that are made up
    of the same type of individuals,
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    kind of represented by the purple crayons.
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    Everyone's kind of the same.
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    And then you know that there are groups
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    [whose] members are made up of
    whole different types of individuals,
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    represented by the colored crayons.
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    And we know that both
    groups and both teams
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    can be beneficial in certain situations.
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    But you've read about that,
    so we're not talking about it here.
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    But something that caught my eye
    as I was reading our textbook
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    was this quote on bullet point #2.
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    It says, "Group composition
    becomes especially important
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    as organizations become
    increasingly more culturally diverse."
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    Hmmm. Well, that's an interesting thought.
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    We know that our country
    is becoming more diverse
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    as the United States.
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    We also know that the organizations,
    in turn, that we work for,
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    are going to continue
    to become more diverse.
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    I had a chance to work
    for the Walt Disney Company.
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    It's an extremely diverse organization.
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    I loved working with the individuals
    that I got a chance to, from all over the globe
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    and I'm talking about work with,
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    not necessarily had visitors
    come from all over the globe.
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    I got to work with individuals
    from all over the globe,
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    and you will as well.
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    And as a matter of fact,
    in our class, you may have a chance
    to work with somebody from a different country
    within your teams,
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    and that's really exciting.
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    So I was thinking more and more about this,
    and I was like, "Wow, there's a lot of value
    to be added by thinking about cultural diversity,"
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    and our book just talked about it
    in like, a sentence or two.
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    That's what the purpose of this video is:
    to expand upon that.
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    So here's what we know about individuals
    from different countries and different cultures.
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    We know that even our own, and others, especially
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    we know that cultures differ
    in a number of ways.
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    Cultures can differ within countries,
    but especially across countries, right?
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    And these differences impact
    how people view the world.
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    That, in turn, impacts how people perform
    at work and perform in a team setting.
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    This absolutely impacts you because
    somebody who has a different background than you
    (which will be everybody),
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    but especially individuals who come
    from different cultural backgrounds
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    will bring different selves to work.
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    They'll be different than you.
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    So you need to be prepared
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    to deal with that difference
    in a positive way.
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    So I started thinking:
    "What are some tools that I'm aware of
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    that can help us to understand
    the differences from person to person
    in a business setting.
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    Ha! Gert Hofstede's cultural dimensions.
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    That's a great tool, it's a very well-known
    tool within academic research
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    and from a practical perspective as well.
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    You will probably hear about this,
    maybe not by name,
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    but you'll definitely hear
    about this in the business world.
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    So here's what we know
    about Hofstede's cultural dimensions.
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    Basically — I'm not gonna read this
    right word for word, but basically,
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    this is a way in which
    we can look at cultures
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    and we can say, "Here is how this
    culture is different than this culture,
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    is different than this culture,
    is different than this culture"
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    by looking at these cultural dimensions.
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    There are actually six of them,
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    six different ways that Hofstede measures
    differences from culture to culture.
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    and these differences help
    to explain what people value,
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    what people think in general, etc.
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    Hofstede defines culture as
    a collective mental programming,
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    so a collective, shared mindset by people
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    that distinguishes them
    from another group of people.
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    But Hofstede also says
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    that this does not imply that everybody
    in a society things the exact same way.
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    We know that there are differences with individuals,
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    but in general, here's what I want you
    to gather from this slide,
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    is that Hofstede's cultural dimensions
    are six different ways
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    in which we can explain
    differences from culture to culture.
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    And in our case, we're gonna look
    [at differences from] country to country.
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    So what are these six differences?
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    These six differences can be found here.
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    We are going to look at the first four.
    We are not going to look at the last two
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    because they have a little bit
    less to do with business,
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    but the first four definitely
    have to do with business.
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    So the first way in which a culture can differ
    from one to another is in power distance.
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    Power distance explains how much
    less powerful individuals, institutions,
    and organizations within a country
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    expect and accept
    that power is distributed unequally.
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    Okay, what does that mean?
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    So in countries that score
    high in power distance,
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    you accept the power
    that exists within society.
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    For example, let's say
    that the organization
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    has a lot of power (as most do)
    at the top of the organization.
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    The CEO, she's very powerful,
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    so we, in a high power distance society
    would never question the CEO,
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    would never question
    the senior member on the team,
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    whatever it may be.
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    But if we're in a lower power
    distance country or culture,
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    we are okay questioning authority
    a little bit more.
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    We're not okay with that
    unequally distributed power.
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    We're not okay with the power
    at the top of the organization.
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    So that's power distance.
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    Individualism explains how much
    interdependence there is
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    within a society among its members.
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    In individualistic societies —
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    these are societies that score
    high on individualism —
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    these are cultures that really
    value the individual, the self.
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    They are the "I/Me" cultures.
    It's about Me. It's about Myself.
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    But in cultures that score
    low in individualism,
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    those cultures are known as
    collective cultures,
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    and these are cultures that would say
    and value things like "Us/We/The Group."
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    That's a collectivist culture
    and they would score low in individualism.
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    Next up is masculinity.
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    Masculinity has nothing
    to do with gender
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    but it has to do with
    what motivates people.
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    In societies where masculinity is high,
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    that's where motivation
    comes from being the best.
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    Or if you are in a feminine culture,
    where masculinity is low,
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    well, you're motivated by doing
    something that you like
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    and that's what motivates you.
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    The last that we are going to look at
    is uncertainty avoidance.
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    Uncertainty avoidance is:
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    How comfortable are people
    with uncertainty?
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    How comfortable are they
    with ambiguous situations?
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    In cultures that have
    high uncertainty avoidance,
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    they like to avoid uncertainty.
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    so they have Plans A, B, C,
    all the way through Z.
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    (That's an extreme example
    but you get the point.)
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    In countries or cultures
    that have low uncertainty avoidance,
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    they're okay with uncertainty.
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    They say, "Eh, we'll come up
    with Plan A as we're doing it."
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    (Okay, again, an extreme example,
    but you see the difference.)
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    So these are the different ways in which
    [cultures] can differ from each other.
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    Interesting.
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    So hopefully,
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    you're looking at this and saying,
    "Why should I care about this?
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    How does this impact me?
    How is this practical?"
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    I hope you're asking that.
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    So here's what we know.
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    When you work with others,
    there will be differences
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    in behaviors and values and beliefs
    that are different from yours.
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    TIME 10:00 @ 3:35 on Tues 7/8
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    You should do your absolute best
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    to understand the others
    that you are working with
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    in terms of their values,
    their beliefs, their behaviors, etc.
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    When you do this, this helps reduce
    unnecessary stereotyping
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    that absolutely happens
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    when you work with individuals
    from other cultures or other groups
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    that you don't necessarily
    belong to or identify with.
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    We do stereotype, but the more that you
    focus on understanding the other person,
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    the quicker you can get over that,
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    the quicker we can work
    through the rough spots,
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    and the quicker we can work together
    as a team on what we need to work on.
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    And Hofstede's cultural dimensions
    give us some tools to really—
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    It's a lens to help understand:
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    How and why do people
    behave the way that they do?
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    So let me give you
    an example from my career.
Title:
Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions
Video Language:
English
Duration:
24:58

English subtitles

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