< Return to Video

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions

  • Not Synced
    >[Dr. Ben Zugay] Hi, everybody.
  • Not Synced
    The purpose of this video
  • Not Synced
    is to expand upon something
    that you've read about
  • Not Synced
    with regards to group composition.
  • Not Synced
    We're gonna talk about cultural diversity
  • Not Synced
    from the lens of Hofstede's
    Cultural Dimensions.
  • Not Synced
    That will all make a lot more sense
    in just a few minutes.
  • Not Synced
    So first of all, you're probably thinking,
    "What is this?"
  • Not Synced
    Well, welcome to our first
    online lecture for our class.
  • Not Synced
    These online lectures are
    designed to take book content
  • Not Synced
    that is either difficult to understand
    and explain in further;
  • Not Synced
    or it is designed to take something
    that the book just briefly mentioned
  • Not Synced
    and I expand upon it (as this video will);
  • Not Synced
    or for me to talk about something
    that is completely brand new,
  • Not Synced
    something that you didn't read about.
  • Not Synced
    So there are very specific purposes
    behind these videos.
  • Not Synced
    I'm not going to lecture word for word
    about things that you've already read.
  • Not Synced
    I expect that if I assigned a reading,
    you've read those things.
  • Not Synced
    So keep that in mind as we go
    through these online lectures.
  • Not Synced
    In addition to that, #2,
  • Not Synced
    please do take notes
    as if we were in class.
  • Not Synced
    These topics are of interest to you
  • Not Synced
    with regards to our tests
    and assessments in this class;
  • Not Synced
    and of course, they are of interest
    to you with regards to your career,
  • Not Synced
    so I encourage you to take notes.
  • Not Synced
    Number 3,
    I will, throughout online lectures,
  • Not Synced
    occasionally ask you to do things.
  • Not Synced
    I may say, "Hey, pause the video.
    Write down something in your notebook,
  • Not Synced
    and then come on back and resume the video
  • Not Synced
    and I'll give you some feedback
    on what you wrote down."
  • Not Synced
    So it's kind of a way for you to do
    an activity through the video.
  • Not Synced
    So if I ask you to do things like that,
  • Not Synced
    please make sure that you stop
    and actually do them.
  • Not Synced
    And one final thing, my goal is
    to keep these as short as possible
  • Not Synced
    but still be comprehensive
    with the content and the information.
  • Not Synced
    But you know, that this
    being a YouTube video,
  • Not Synced
    you can pause, you can rewind,
    you can do what you need to,
  • Not Synced
    to meet your needs.
  • Not Synced
    In addition to that, if you hover
    on the bottom right-hand side,
  • Not Synced
    there's that gear icon.
  • Not Synced
    Well, if you click on that
    and you click on Playback Speed,
  • Not Synced
    you can make me sound like
    Alvin and the Chipmunks
  • Not Synced
    and speak really quickly
  • Not Synced
    or you can make me sound like
    I'm trudging through molasses,
  • Not Synced
    speaking very slowly,
  • Not Synced
    so please adjust to your needs.
  • Not Synced
    So let's go ahead and
    talk about our content.
  • Not Synced
    So you read about group composition,
    the way that groups are made up,
  • Not Synced
    and you know from your reading
  • Not Synced
    that there are essentially two
    different categories of groups.
  • Not Synced
    There are groups that are made up
    of the same type of individuals,
  • Not Synced
    kind of represented by the purple crayons.
  • Not Synced
    Everyone's kind of the same.
  • Not Synced
    And then you know that there are groups
  • Not Synced
    [whose] members are made up of
    whole different types of individuals,
  • Not Synced
    represented by the colored crayons.
  • Not Synced
    And we know that both
    groups and both teams
  • Not Synced
    can be beneficial in certain situations.
  • Not Synced
    But you've read about that,
    so we're not talking about it here.
  • Not Synced
    But something that caught my eye
    as I was reading our textbook
  • Not Synced
    was this quote on bullet point #2.
  • Not Synced
    It says, "Group composition
    becomes especially important
  • Not Synced
    as organizations become
    increasingly more culturally diverse."
  • Not Synced
    Hmmm. Well, that's an interesting thought.
  • Not Synced
    We know that our country
    is becoming more diverse
  • Not Synced
    as the United States.
  • Not Synced
    We also know that the organizations,
    in turn, that we work for,
  • Not Synced
    are going to continue
    to become more diverse.
  • Not Synced
    I had a chance to work
    for the Walt Disney Company.
  • Not Synced
    It's an extremely diverse organization.
  • Not Synced
    I loved working with the individuals
  • Not Synced
    that I got a chance to,
    from all over the globe
  • Not Synced
    and I'm talking about work with,
  • Not Synced
    not necessarily had visitors
    come from all over the globe.
  • Not Synced
    I got to work with individuals
    from all over the globe,
  • Not Synced
    and you will as well.
  • Not Synced
    And as a matter of fact, in our class,
  • Not Synced
    you may have a chance to work with
    somebody from a different country
  • Not Synced
    within your teams,
    and that's really exciting.
  • Not Synced
    So I was thinking more and more
    about this, and I was like,
  • Not Synced
    "Wow, there's a lot of value to be added
    by thinking about cultural diversity,"
  • Not Synced
    and our book just talked about it
    in like, a sentence or two.
  • Not Synced
    That's what the purpose of this video is:
    to expand upon that.
  • Not Synced
    So here's what we know about individuals
  • Not Synced
    from different countries
    and different cultures.
  • Not Synced
    We know that even our own,
    and others, especially
  • Not Synced
    we know that cultures differ
    in a number of ways.
  • Not Synced
    Cultures can differ within countries,
    but especially across countries, right?
  • Not Synced
    And these differences impact
    how people view the world.
  • Not Synced
    That, in turn, impacts how people perform
    at work and perform in a team setting.
  • Not Synced
    This absolutely impacts you
  • Not Synced
    because somebody who has
    a different background than you
  • Not Synced
    (which will be everybody),
  • Not Synced
    but especially individuals who come
    from different cultural backgrounds
  • Not Synced
    will bring different selves to work.
  • Not Synced
    They'll be different than you.
  • Not Synced
    So you need to be prepared
  • Not Synced
    to deal with that difference
    in a positive way.
  • Not Synced
    So I started thinking:
    "What are some tools that I'm aware of
  • Not Synced
    that can help us to understand
  • Not Synced
    the differences from person
    to person in a business setting.
  • Not Synced
    Ha! Gert Hofstede's cultural dimensions.
  • Not Synced
    That's a great tool, it's a very
    well-known tool within academic research
  • Not Synced
    and from a practical perspective as well.
  • Not Synced
    You will probably hear about this,
    maybe not by name,
  • Not Synced
    but you'll definitely hear
    about this in the business world.
  • Not Synced
    So here's what we know
    about Hofstede's cultural dimensions.
  • Not Synced
    Basically — I'm not gonna read this
    right word for word, but basically,
  • Not Synced
    this is a way in which
    we can look at cultures
  • Not Synced
    and we can say, "Here is how this
    culture is different than this culture,
  • Not Synced
    is different than this culture,
    is different than this culture"
  • Not Synced
    by looking at these cultural dimensions.
  • Not Synced
    There are actually six of them,
  • Not Synced
    six different ways that Hofstede measures
    differences from culture to culture.
  • Not Synced
    and these differences help
    to explain what people value,
  • Not Synced
    what people think in general, etc.
  • Not Synced
    Hofstede defines culture as
    a collective mental programming,
  • Not Synced
    so a collective, shared mindset by people
  • Not Synced
    that distinguishes them
    from another group of people.
  • Not Synced
    But Hofstede also says
  • Not Synced
    that this does not imply that everybody
    in a society things the exact same way.
  • Not Synced
    We know that there are
    differences with individuals,
  • Not Synced
    but in general, here's what I want you
    to gather from this slide,
  • Not Synced
    is that Hofstede's cultural dimensions
    are six different ways
  • Not Synced
    in which we can explain
    differences from culture to culture.
  • Not Synced
    And in our case, we're gonna look
    [at differences from] country to country.
  • Not Synced
    So what are these six differences?
  • Not Synced
    These six differences can be found here.
  • Not Synced
    We are going to look at the first four.
    We are not going to look at the last two
  • Not Synced
    because they have a little bit
    less to do with business,
  • Not Synced
    but the first four definitely
    have to do with business.
  • Not Synced
    The first way in which a culture can differ
    from one to another is in power distance.
  • Not Synced
    Power distance explains how much
  • Not Synced
    less powerful individuals, institutions,
    and organizations within a country
  • Not Synced
    expect and accept
    that power is distributed unequally.
  • Not Synced
    Okay, what does that mean?
  • Not Synced
    So in countries that score
    high in power distance,
  • Not Synced
    you accept the power
    that exists within society.
  • Not Synced
    For example, let's say
    that the organization
  • Not Synced
    has a lot of power (as most do)
    at the top of the organization.
  • Not Synced
    The CEO, she's very powerful,
  • Not Synced
    so we, in a high power distance society
    would never question the CEO,
  • Not Synced
    would never question
    the senior member on the team,
  • Not Synced
    whatever it may be.
  • Not Synced
    But if we're in a lower power
    distance country or culture,
  • Not Synced
    we are okay questioning authority
    a little bit more.
  • Not Synced
    We're not okay with that
    unequally distributed power.
  • Not Synced
    We're not okay with the power
    at the top of the organization.
  • Not Synced
    So that's power distance.
  • Not Synced
    Individualism explains how much
    interdependence there is
  • Not Synced
    within a society among its members.
  • Not Synced
    In individualistic societies —
  • Not Synced
    these are societies that score
    high on individualism —
  • Not Synced
    these are cultures that really
    value the individual, the self.
  • Not Synced
    They are the "I/Me" cultures.
    It's about Me. It's about Myself.
  • Not Synced
    But in cultures that score
    low in individualism,
  • Not Synced
    those cultures are known as
    collective cultures,
  • Not Synced
    and these are cultures that would say
    and value things like "Us/We/The Group."
  • Not Synced
    That's a [collectivistic] culture
    and they would score low in individualism.
  • Not Synced
    Next up is masculinity.
  • Not Synced
    Masculinity has nothing
    to do with gender
  • Not Synced
    but it has to do with
    what motivates people.
  • Not Synced
    In societies where masculinity is high,
  • Not Synced
    that's where motivation
    comes from being the best.
  • Not Synced
    Or if you are in a feminine culture,
    where masculinity is low,
  • Not Synced
    well, you're motivated by doing
    something that you like
  • Not Synced
    and that's what motivates you.
  • Not Synced
    The last that we are going to look at
    is uncertainty avoidance.
  • Not Synced
    Uncertainty avoidance is:
  • Not Synced
    How comfortable are people
    with uncertainty?
  • Not Synced
    How comfortable are they
    with ambiguous situations?
  • Not Synced
    In cultures that have
    high uncertainty avoidance,
  • Not Synced
    they like to avoid uncertainty.
  • Not Synced
    so they have Plans A, B, C,
    all the way through Z.
  • Not Synced
    (That's an extreme example
    but you get the point.)
  • Not Synced
    In countries or cultures
    that have low uncertainty avoidance,
  • Not Synced
    they're okay with uncertainty.
  • Not Synced
    They say, "Eh, we'll come up
    with Plan A as we're doing it."
  • Not Synced
    (Okay, again, an extreme example,
    but you see the difference.)
  • Not Synced
    So these are the different ways in which
    [cultures] can differ from each other.
  • Not Synced
    Interesting.
  • Not Synced
    So hopefully,
  • Not Synced
    you're looking at this and saying,
    "Why should I care about this?
  • Not Synced
    How does this impact me?
    How is this practical?"
  • Not Synced
    I hope you're asking that.
  • Not Synced
    So here's what we know.
  • Not Synced
    When you work with others,
    there will be differences
  • Not Synced
    in behaviors and values and beliefs
    that are different from yours.
  • Not Synced
    TIME 10:00 @ 3:35 on Tues 7/8
  • Not Synced
    You should do your absolute best
  • Not Synced
    to understand the others
    that you are working with
  • Not Synced
    in terms of their values,
    their beliefs, their behaviors, etc.
  • Not Synced
    When you do this, this helps reduce
    unnecessary stereotyping
  • Not Synced
    that absolutely happens
  • Not Synced
    when you work with individuals
    from other cultures or other groups
  • Not Synced
    that you don't necessarily
    belong to or identify with.
  • Not Synced
    We do stereotype, but the more that you
    focus on understanding the other person,
  • Not Synced
    the quicker you can get over that,
  • Not Synced
    the quicker we can work
    through the rough spots,
  • Not Synced
    and the quicker we can work together
    as a team on what we need to work on.
  • Not Synced
    And Hofstede's cultural dimensions
    give us some tools to really—
  • Not Synced
    It's a lens to help understand:
  • Not Synced
    How and why do people
    behave the way that they do?
  • Not Synced
    So let me give you
    an example from my career.
  • Not Synced
    When I worked at Walt Disney Company,
  • Not Synced
    as I had mentioned, I worked with
    individuals from all across the globe.
  • Not Synced
    I worked in Animal Kingdom Theme Park,
    and in Animal Kingdom Theme Park,
  • Not Synced
    TIME 11:00 @ 9:40 Wed 7/9
  • Not Synced
    we had different areas of the theme park
    that represented different continents.
  • Not Synced
    We had Asia, we had Africa.
  • Not Synced
    Those were some areas that I was
    responsible for overseeing.
  • Not Synced
    We would bring in students
  • Not Synced
    from different countries
    on those continents
  • Not Synced
    to represent their culture,
    to share their culture,
  • Not Synced
    to be an ambassador for their country.
  • Not Synced
    and I had a wonderful opportunity
  • Not Synced
    to work with individuals
    from Botswana, Africa;
  • Not Synced
    from South Africa in Africa;
    from Kenya in Africa;
  • Not Synced
    from Singapore in Asia;
    from China in Asia;
  • Not Synced
    and from Thailand in Asia.
  • Not Synced
    So again, Asia and Africa.
    Those were the two areas.
  • Not Synced
    And I worked specifically,
    I remember working in particular
  • Not Synced
    with Jin, and Jin was from Singapore,
    and I would notice, you know,
  • Not Synced
    when I would see Jin come from afar,
  • Not Synced
    Jin would always be interacting
    and talking with his fellow employees.
  • Not Synced
    And I was Jin's manager,
  • Not Synced
    and I noticed every time that I would
    come up to jin and walk up to him,
  • Not Synced
    I would notice he would quiet down.
  • Not Synced
    And Jin's purpose for being there
  • Not Synced
    was for him to share his culture
    with the guests of the theme park,
  • Not Synced
    so I would turn to Jin and I would say,
  • Not Synced
    "Hey, what ideas do you have
    in terms of sharing your culture?"
  • Not Synced
    I don't know his culture,
  • Not Synced
    so, you know, my job is
    to help him to do that.
  • Not Synced
    And he would just quiet down and
    he didn't often bring up new ideas to me,
  • Not Synced
    so I would, after a while,
  • Not Synced
    have to come up with ideas for him
    to do and share with our guests.
  • Not Synced
    And I would notice that he would
    often just do whatever I said to him,
  • Not Synced
    and this really threw me for a loop
  • Not Synced
    and there was kind of this
    [makes a struggling noise].
  • Not Synced
    I don't want to say it was conflict
    by any stretch of the imagination,
  • Not Synced
    but there was clearly—
  • Not Synced
    We weren't working as efficiently
    as we could together,
  • Not Synced
    and I was just thinking in my head,
  • Not Synced
    I'm like, "Jin, add some value.
    Just take the lead here."
  • Not Synced
    And he didn't right away.
  • Not Synced
    So hmmm, I'm sitting here thinking<
    "What is going on?"
  • Not Synced
    Well, I didn't have
    a framework like you now do
  • Not Synced
    in terms of cultural diversity
    and Hofstede's cultural dimensions,
  • Not Synced
    and if I would have, I could have
    better understood Jin,
  • Not Synced
    I could have better understood his culture
  • Not Synced
    and I could have better understood
    what I could and should have done
  • Not Synced
    (and eventually did do) to work with him
    in a more efficient way on a team.
  • Not Synced
    So let me show you a super-cool tool.
  • Not Synced
    Let me show you
    Hofstede's cultural dimensions
  • Not Synced
    and how you can explore
    all sorts of cultural dimensions
  • Not Synced
    from all sorts of countries
    across the globe.
  • Not Synced
    Here's what I would like you to do.
    I want you to follow along with me,
  • Not Synced
    I want you to open up a browser,
    and I want you to google this.
  • Not Synced
    I want you to google
    "Hofstede's cultural dimensions."
  • Not Synced
    That's what I would like you to google.
  • Not Synced
    When you do that (and pause
    the video wherever you need to),
  • Not Synced
    click on "compare countries"
    [or "country comparison tool"].
  • Not Synced
    It's the first thing:
    hofstede-insights.com, compare countries.
  • Not Synced
    So you're gonna do that.
  • Not Synced
    So welcome to Gert Hofstede's website.
    I can't recall if he's still alive or not.
  • Not Synced
    (It does not matter.)
  • Not Synced
    The point of this website is for you
    to be able to compare countries
  • Not Synced
    on their different cultural dimensions.
  • Not Synced
    I am going to compare the United States
    (the culture that I represent)
  • Not Synced
    and Singapore
    (the culture that Jin represents).
  • Not Synced
    So all you do, very simply here is,
    you type in the country,
  • Not Synced
    and United States pops up first
  • Not Synced
    (it probably recognizes that I'm using
    a computer in the United States),
  • Not Synced
    and it instantly gives me cultural
    dimension numbers on all six areas.
  • Not Synced
    Remember, we talked about these four.
    We talked about these four.
  • Not Synced
    So we see these numbers.
  • Not Synced
    They range from 0 to 100:
    0 obviously low, 100 high.
  • Not Synced
    And you can see where
    the United States falls.
  • Not Synced
    So Individualism appears to be
    our highest,
  • Not Synced
    The United States is a very
    individualistic society:
  • Not Synced
    "I" and "me,"
    where it's "all about me."
  • Not Synced
    That's our culture.
  • Not Synced
    Power distance is relatively low.
  • Not Synced
    We're okay questioning authority
    within the United States.
  • Not Synced
    We're okay speaking up.
    Okay, interesting. So we're seeing this.
  • Not Synced
    Now let's type—
  • Not Synced
    He's from Singapore,
    so we're gonna click on that,
  • Not Synced
    and the United States
    has now switched to purple
  • Not Synced
    and Singapore is now blue.
  • Not Synced
    So we see immediately some differences
    between Singapore and the United States,
  • Not Synced
    and you can see, obviously,
    the larger the gap,
  • Not Synced
    the greater the difference.
  • Not Synced
    So Singapore's power distance
    is higher, much higher at 74
  • Not Synced
    in comparison to the United States.
  • Not Synced
    Individualism, the United States,
    very individualistic;
  • Not Synced
    Singapore, very [collectivistic].
  • Not Synced
    Hmm, very interesting.
  • Not Synced
    Well, I want to read more about that,
  • Not Synced
    so very cleverly, they have
    this "read more" button,
  • Not Synced
    so I'm gonna click on that
    and I encourage you to do the same.
  • Not Synced
    And again, you can type in
    any countries that you want.
  • Not Synced
    You can compare more than two as well.
  • Not Synced
    If you just go on here,
    Argentina or whatever,
  • Not Synced
    but notice that the colors change,
    so keep that in mind.
  • Not Synced
    Okay, but we're looking at Singapore
    and we're looking at the United States.
  • Not Synced
    If we wanted to read more
    about Singapore in blue,
  • Not Synced
    we would click on Singapore here
    and we would read much more about it,
  • Not Synced
    and it'll break down
    every single cultural dimension
  • Not Synced
    (power distance, individualism,
    masculinity) and it's a custom score,
  • Not Synced
    it's a custom result based on their score.
  • Not Synced
    Singapore is high on this dimension
    of power distance of 74.
  • Not Synced
    "Power is centralized, and managers
    rely on their bosses and on rules."
  • Not Synced
    Huh. "Employees expect
    to be told what to do."
  • Not Synced
    Well, that's very interesting.
    So if I go back...
  • Not Synced
    again, we're looking at power distance,
  • Not Synced
    if I go back to the "issues"
    (and I put those in quotes)
  • Not Synced
    that I thought I was
    experiencing with Jin,
  • Not Synced
    saying, "C'mon, man, get it together.
    Add some value here. Speak up."
  • Not Synced
    That's not his culture.
  • Not Synced
    That's not what he has learned to do
    from his culture, so we look at this.
  • Not Synced
    I would always come up to them
    and Jin's group of fellow students
  • Not Synced
    and I would come up to them,
  • Not Synced
    and Jin, in particular,
    would always quiet down.
  • Not Synced
    Well, now I see why.
  • Not Synced
    Power distance is
    much greater in Singapore.
  • Not Synced
    "Jin, can you do this?"
    He would do whatever I asked of him.
  • Not Synced
    Jin would rarely bring up new ideas to me.
  • Not Synced
    Hmm. That is interesting.
  • Not Synced
    And now I have a tool that helps me
    to understand why that is.
  • Not Synced
    Power distance is very different
    in Singapore than the United States.
  • Not Synced
    Very different. Very interesting.
    Let's look at another one really quickly.
  • Not Synced
    Individualism and collectivism.
  • Not Synced
    So United States, in purple,
    very "I" and "me."
  • Not Synced
    [Collectivistic], Singapore [in blue],
    very much about the group,
  • Not Synced
    the "we," the "us."
  • Not Synced
    Let's read about it.
  • Not Synced
    "Individualism... Singapore
    with a score of 20
  • Not Synced
    is a [collectivistic] society."
  • Not Synced
    That means that the "We"
    is very important.
  • Not Synced
    "People like to belong to in-groups,
    like families, clans, or organizations
  • Not Synced
    who often look after each other
    in exchange for their loyalty."
  • Not Synced
    Interesting
  • Not Synced
    So you can click around
    and I encourage you to do so.
  • Not Synced
    You can read about the United States,
  • Not Synced
    you can read about any
    other country that you want,
  • Not Synced
    and I encourage you to do this.
  • Not Synced
    You will see this information again,
  • Not Synced
    and I don't have an explicit assignment
    necessarily set for you for this right now,
  • Not Synced
    but it's just interesting information
  • Not Synced
    that you should see,
    that you should be aware of,
  • Not Synced
    and you now have a tool
  • Not Synced
    which can help you to better understand
    some of these cultural dimensions.
  • Not Synced
    So let's go back here.
  • Not Synced
    So here is what I know,
    and this is continuing the story with Jin.
  • Not Synced
    Had I known about these cultural
    dimensions (and I eventually did),
  • Not Synced
    we would have been much more able
  • Not Synced
    to quickly and more smoothly
    help each other.
  • Not Synced
    It's that simple.
  • Not Synced
    When I take the time to understand
    Jin and his culture, and in turn,
  • Not Synced
    if and when he takes the time
    to help and understand me,
  • Not Synced
    but you know what?
  • Not Synced
    Here's what I know from my career.
  • Not Synced
    I don't ever want to depend
    on somebody else
  • Not Synced
    doing the same thing
    that I'm going to do for them.
  • Not Synced
    I want to do all that I can
    to accommodate the other person.
  • Not Synced
    This is my personal experience
    that I'm speaking from this.
  • Not Synced
    I would like to think
    that Jin would learn
  • Not Synced
    about the culture that he's dealing
    with in terms of dealing with me,
  • Not Synced
    but I'm not necessarily
    going to expect that,
  • Not Synced
    and it's not out of respect
    or disrespect at all.
  • Not Synced
    It's just that I can only control
    what I can control,
  • Not Synced
    so I want to focus on me,
  • Not Synced
    doing the best that I can
    to understand him.
  • Not Synced
    And hopefully, in turn, he'll see that
    and he'll want to understand me
  • Not Synced
    and the more tools that we put
    in our toolbox, like cultural dimensions,
  • Not Synced
    Hofstede's cultural dimensions,
  • Not Synced
    we have more places to go back to
  • Not Synced
    and we have more tools to use
    when we're put in situations
  • Not Synced
    where we're working with
    individuals from different cultures.
  • Not Synced
    So had we known this, had I known this
    (and eventually, I did use this),
  • Not Synced
    we were able to more smoothly
    and more quickly understand each other,
  • Not Synced
    which was great.
  • Not Synced
    So how do you actually use this?
    How can this be a practical tool for you?
  • Not Synced
    Because it's important that we understand,
    of course, our book content,
  • Not Synced
    but then how does this
    apply to us in real life?
  • Not Synced
    Well, hopefully, my experiences,
  • Not Synced
    my examples that I was able
    to share here helped you out,
  • Not Synced
    but I want you to consider this.
  • Not Synced
    And again, it ties into what I just said.
    Here's how you can actually use this.
  • Not Synced
    You should be doing your homework
  • Not Synced
    on other individuals that you
    are going to be working with
  • Not Synced
    in terms of the background that they have;
  • Not Synced
    and then you should make your adjustments,
    you should make your adjustments,
  • Not Synced
    and you can make adjustments mentally,
  • Not Synced
    just knowing that something is going
    to be different with this interaction
  • Not Synced
    than you are used to
    from a cultural perspective.
  • Not Synced
    And you can also do this behaviorally
    or verbally as well, so for example,
  • Not Synced
    that's I did when I worked with Jin.
  • Not Synced
    I made the adjustment.
  • Not Synced
    So I knew that he was from
    more of a [collectivistic] culture,
  • Not Synced
    where the focus isn't on me
    (or him, in this case),
  • Not Synced
    but it was more on the group.
  • Not Synced
    He's more concerned
    with helping the group out.
  • Not Synced
    So it was asking the same thing,
    but just wording it a bit differently.
  • Not Synced
    It's the same thing, so instead of saying,
    "Jin, what do you want to do here?"
  • Not Synced
    Well, that's very individualistic.
    Ooh! Spotlight is on the individual.
  • Not Synced
    Mmm, that's not part of his culture.
  • Not Synced
    Instead, something that I said
    or something similar is,
  • Not Synced
    "Okay, so what are some outcomes
    that would be best for the group here
  • Not Synced
    as we look to educate
    our guests on your culture?"
  • Not Synced
    That's a very different question
    on the surface,
  • Not Synced
    but it's really asking the same thing:
    "What should we do here?"
  • Not Synced
    So do your homework,
    understand who you're working with
  • Not Synced
    in terms of their cultural background,
    their cultural dimensions,
  • Not Synced
    using a tool like Hofstede's
    cultural dimensions.
  • Not Synced
    You make those adjustments,
  • Not Synced
    and then as you're working
    with others, be patient
  • Not Synced
    because it is going to be
    an uncomfortable process,
  • Not Synced
    especially if you're not used to working
    with individuals from different backgrounds,
  • Not Synced
    and that's okay, because
    it takes time to get good at things,
  • Not Synced
    and when you are put
    n uncomfortable situations,
  • Not Synced
    just be patient,
    just be patient.
  • Not Synced
    Do your homework,
    make adjustments,
  • Not Synced
    be patient as you work through
    the uncomfortable components
  • Not Synced
    of these relationships
    within a team, and remember,
  • Not Synced
    the sooner that you can get over
    these cultural differences —
  • Not Synced
    and I don't mean "brush-them-aside" over.
  • Not Synced
    When I say "[get] over
    these cultural differences,"
  • Not Synced
    I mean when you can better
    understand each other
  • Not Synced
    and make these adjustments
    and work with each other,
  • Not Synced
    and you learn how to work through these
    differences and emphasize these differences
  • Not Synced
    and help each other in these
    differences that you have
  • Not Synced
    by using a tool like Hofstede's
    cultural dimensions.
  • Not Synced
    When you do that, the sooner
    you can work through these,
  • Not Synced
    the quicker you can move
    to being a high-performing team,
  • Not Synced
    however you define that.
  • Not Synced
    I hope you found this video informative,
    grounded in some practical application,
  • Not Synced
    and you now have a tool in your toolbox
  • Not Synced
    that truly is interesting in terms of
    Hofstede's cultural dimensions.
  • Not Synced
    When we think about team composition,
  • Not Synced
    we know that there are
    benefits and downfalls
  • Not Synced
    to having our teams look all the same
    and to having our teams look different,
  • Not Synced
    but we know that we are going
    to be working in teams for sure
  • Not Synced
    throughout our careers
    that look different than us.
  • Not Synced
    We're gonna be working
    with other people, and that's awesome.
  • Not Synced
    And when you come across a situation
    where you're working with somebody
    from a different culture,
  • Not Synced
    you now have a tool in your toolbox
    to help you to better understand them,
  • Not Synced
    which, in turn, will help you
    to better work with them,
  • Not Synced
    which helps, in turn,
    for the team to perform at a higher level.
  • Not Synced
    If you have any specific questions
    with regards to this content,
  • Not Synced
    feel free to contact me.
  • Not Synced
    Have a wonderful rest of your day,
    and thank you so much.
Title:
Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions
Video Language:
English
Duration:
24:58

English subtitles

Revisions Compare revisions