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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
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    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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    Number 3,
    I will, throughout online lectures,
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    occasionally ask you to do things.
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    I may say, "Hey, pause the video.
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    Write down something in your notebook,
    and then come on back and resume the video
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    and I'll give you some feedback
    on what you wrote down."
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    It's kind of a way for you to do
    an activity through the video.
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    So if I ask you to do things like that,
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    please make sure that you stop
    and actually do them.
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    And one final thing,
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    my goal is to keep these
    as short as possible
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    but still be comprehensive
    with the content and the information.
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    But you know, that this
    being a YouTube video,
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    you can pause, you can rewind,
    you can do what you need to,
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    to meet your needs.
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    In addition to that, if you hover
    on the bottom right-hand side,
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    there's that gear icon.
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    Well, if you click on that
    and you click on Playback Speed,
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    you can make me sound like
    Alvin and the Chipmunks,
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    and speak really quickly;
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    or you can make me sound like
    I'm trudging through molasses,
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    speaking very slowly.
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    So please adjust to your needs.
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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
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    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,
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    you may have a chance to work with
    somebody from a different country
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    within your teams,
    and that's really exciting.
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    I was thinking more and more
    about this, and I was like,
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    "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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    Here's what we know about individuals
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    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
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    because somebody who has
    a different background than you
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    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
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    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. 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 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.
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    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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    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
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    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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    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. 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.
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    When I worked at Walt Disney Company,
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    as I had mentioned, I worked with
    individuals from all across the globe.
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    I worked in Animal Kingdom Theme Park,
    and in Animal Kingdom Theme Park,
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    we had different areas of the theme park
    that represented different continents.
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    We had Asia, we had Africa.
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    Those were some areas that I was
    responsible for overseeing.
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    We would bring in students
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    from different countries
    on those continents
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    to represent their culture,
    to share their culture,
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    to be an ambassador for their country.
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    and I had a wonderful opportunity
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    to work with individuals
    from Botswana, Africa;
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    from South Africa in Africa;
    from Kenya in Africa;
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    from Singapore in Asia;
    from China in Asia;
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    and from Thailand in Asia.
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    So again, Asia and Africa.
    Those were the two areas.
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    And I worked specifically,
    I remember working in particular with Jin,
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    and Jin was from Singapore,
    and I would notice, you know,
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    when I would see Jin come from afar,
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    Jin would always be interacting
    and talking with his fellow employees.
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    And I was Jin's manager,
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    and I noticed, every time that I would
    come up to Jin and walk up to him,
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    I would notice he would quiet down.
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    And Jin's purpose of being there
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    was for him to share his culture
    with the guests of the theme park,
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    so I would turn to Jin and I would say,
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    "Hey, what ideas do you have
    in terms of sharing your culture?"
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    I don't know his culture,
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    so, you know, my job is
    to help him to do that.
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    And he would just quiet down and
    he didn't often bring up new ideas to me,
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    so I would, after a while,
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    have to come up with ideas
    for him to do and share with our guests.
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    And I would notice that he would
    often just do whatever I said to him,
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    and this really threw me for a loop
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    and there was kind of this
    [makes a struggling noise].
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    I don't want to say it was conflict
    by any stretch of the imagination,
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    but there was clearly—
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    We weren't working as efficiently
    as we could together,
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    and I was just thinking in my head,
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    I'm like, "Jin, add some value.
    Just take the lead here."
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    And he didn't right away.
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    So hmmm... I'm sitting here
    thinking, "What is going on?"
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    Well, I didn't have
    a framework like you now do
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    in terms of cultural diversity
    and Hofstede's cultural dimensions,
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    and if I would have, I could have
    better understood Jin,
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    I could have better understood his culture
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    and I could have better understood
    what I could and should have done
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    (and eventually did do) to work with him
    in a more efficient way on a team.
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    So let me show you a super-cool tool.
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    Let me show you
    Hofstede's cultural dimensions
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    and how you can explore
    all sorts of cultural dimensions
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    from all sorts of countries
    across the globe.
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    Here's what I would like you to do.
    I want you to follow along with me,
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    I want you to open up a browser,
    and I want you to google this.
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    I want you to google
    "Hofstede's cultural dimensions."
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    That's what I would like you to google.
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    When you do that (and pause
    the video wherever you need to),
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    click on "compare countries"
    [or "country comparison tool"].
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    It's the first thing:
    hofstede-insights.com, compare countries.
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    So you're gonna do that...
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    Welcome to Gert Hofstede's website.
    I can't recall if he's still alive or not.
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    (It does not matter.)
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    The point of this website is for you
    to be able to compare countries
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    on their different cultural dimensions.
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    I am going to compare the United States
    (the culture that I represent)
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    and Singapore
    (the culture that Jin represents).
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    So all you do, very simply here is,
    you type in the country,
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    and United States pops up first
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    (it probably recognizes that I'm using
    a computer in the United States),
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    and it instantly gives me cultural
    dimension numbers on all six areas.
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    Remember, we talked about these four.
    We talked about these four.
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    So we see these numbers.
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    They range from 0 to 100:
    0 obviously low, 100 high.
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    And you can see where
    the United States falls.
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    So Individualism appears
    to be our highest,
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    The United States is a very
    individualistic society:
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    "I" and "Me,"
    where it's "all about Me."
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    That's our culture.
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    Power distance is relatively low.
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    We're okay questioning authority
    within the United States.
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    We're okay speaking up.
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    Okay, interesting.
    So we're seeing this.
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    Now let's type—
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    He's from Singapore,
    so we're gonna click on that,
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    and the United States
    has now switched to purple
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    and Singapore is now blue.
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    So we see immediately some differences
    between Singapore and the United States,
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    and you can see, obviously,
    the larger the gap,
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    the greater the difference.
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    Singapore's power distance
    is higher, much higher at 74
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    in comparison to the United States.
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    Individualism, the United States,
    very individualistic;
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    Singapore, very collectivist.
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    Hmmm... very interesting.
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    Well, I want to read more about that,
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    so very cleverly, they have
    this "read more" button,
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    so I'm gonna click on that
    and I encourage you to do the same.
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    And again, you can type in
    any countries that you want.
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    You can compare more than two as well.
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    If you just go on here,
    Argentina or whatever,
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    but notice that the colors change,
    so keep that in mind.
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    Okay, but we're looking at Singapore
    and we're looking at the United States.
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    If we wanted to read more
    about Singapore in blue,
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    we would click on Singapore here
    and we would read much more about it,
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    and it'll break down
    every single cultural dimension
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    (power distance, individualism,
    masculinity) and it's a custom score,
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    it's a custom result based on their score.
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    Singapore is high on this dimension
    of power distance of 74.
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    "Power is centralized, and managers
    rely on their bosses and on rules."
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    Huh. "Employees expect
    to be told what to do."
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    Well, that's very interesting.
    So if I go back...
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    again, we're looking at power distance,
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    if I go back to the "issues"
    (and I put those in quotes)
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    that I thought I was
    experiencing with Jin,
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    saying, "C'mon, man, get it together.
    Add some value here. Speak up."
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    That's not his culture.
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    That's not what he has learned to do
    from his culture, so we look at this.
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    I would always come up to them
    and Jin's group of fellow students
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    and I would come up to them,
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    and Jin, in particular,
    would always quiet down.
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    Well, now I see why.
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    Power distance is
    much greater in Singapore.
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    "Jin, can you do this?"
    He would do whatever I asked of him.
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    Jin would rarely bring up new ideas to me.
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    Hmmm... That is interesting.
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    And now I have a tool that helps me
    to understand why that is.
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    Power distance is very different
    in Singapore than the United States.
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    Very different. Very interesting.
    Let's look at another one really quickly.
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    Individualism and collectivism.
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    So United States, in purple,
    very "I" and "me."
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    Collectivist, Singapore [in blue],
    very much about the group,
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    the "we," the "us."
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    Let's read about it.
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    "Individualism... Singapore
    with a score of 20
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    is a collectivist society."
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    That means that the "We"
    is very important.
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    "People like to belong to in-groups,
    like families, clans, or organizations
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    who often look after each other
    in exchange for their loyalty."
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    Interesting
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    So you can click around
    and I encourage you to do so.
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    You can read about the United States,
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    you can read about any
    other country that you want,
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    and I encourage you to do this.
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    You will see this information again,
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    and I don't have an explicit assignment
    necessarily set for you for this right now,
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    but it's just interesting information
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    that you should see,
    that you should be aware of,
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    and you now have a tool
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    which can help you to better understand
    some of these cultural dimensions.
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    So let's go back here.
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    So here is what I know,
    and this is continuing the story with Jin.
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    Had I known about these cultural
    dimensions (and I eventually did),
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    we would have been much more able
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    to quickly and more smoothly
    help each other.
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    It's that simple.
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    When I take the time to understand
    Jin and his culture, and in turn,
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    if and when he takes the time
    to help and understand me,
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    but you know what?
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    Here's what I know from my career.
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    I don't ever want to depend
    on somebody else
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    doing the same thing
    that I'm going to do for them.
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    I want to do all that I can
    to accommodate the other person.
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    This is my personal experience
    that I'm speaking from this.
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    I would like to think
    that Jin would learn
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    about the culture that he's dealing
    with in terms of dealing with me,
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    but I'm not necessarily
    going to expect that,
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    and it's not out of respect
    or disrespect at all.
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    It's just that I can only control
    what I can control,
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    so I want to focus on me,
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    doing the best that I can
    to understand him.
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    And hopefully, in turn, he'll see that
    and he'll want to understand me
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    and the more tools that we put
    in our toolbox, like cultural dimensions,
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    Hofstede's cultural dimensions,
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    we have more places to go back to
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    and we have more tools to use
    when we're put in situations
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    where we're working with
    individuals from different cultures.
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    So had we known this, had I known this
    (and eventually, I did use this),
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    we were able to more smoothly
    and more quickly understand each other,
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    which was great.
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    So how do you actually use this?
    How can this be a practical tool for you?
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    Because it's important that we understand,
    of course, our book content,
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    but then how does this
    apply to us in real life?
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    Well, hopefully, my experiences,
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    my examples that I was able
    to share here helped you out,
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    but I want you to consider this.
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    And again, it ties into what I just said.
    Here's how you can actually use this.
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    You should be doing your homework
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    on other individuals that you
    are going to be working with
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    in terms of the background that they have;
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    and then you should make your adjustments,
    you should make your adjustments,
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    and you can make adjustments mentally,
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    just knowing that something is going
    to be different with this interaction
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    than you are used to
    from a cultural perspective.
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    And you can also do this behaviorally
    or verbally as well, so for example,
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    that's I did when I worked with Jin.
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    I made the adjustment.
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    So I knew that he was from
    more of a collectivist culture,
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    where the focus isn't on me
    (or him, in this case),
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    but it was more on the group.
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    He's more concerned
    with helping the group out.
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    So it was asking the same thing,
    but just wording it a bit differently.
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    It's the same thing, so instead of saying,
    "Jin, what do you want to do here?"
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    Well, that's very individualistic.
    Ooh! Spotlight is on the individual.
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    Mmm, that's not part of his culture.
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    Instead, something that I said
    or something similar is,
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    "Okay, so what are some outcomes
    that would be best for the group here
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    as we look to educate
    our guests on your culture?"
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    That's a very different question
    on the surface,
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    but it's really asking the same thing:
    "What should we do here?"
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    So do your homework,
    understand who you're working with
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    in terms of their cultural background,
    their cultural dimensions,
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    using a tool like Hofstede's
    cultural dimensions.
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    You make those adjustments,
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    and then as you're working
    with others, be patient
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    because it is going to be
    an uncomfortable process,
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    especially if you're not used to working
    with individuals from different backgrounds,
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    and that's okay, because
    it takes time to get good at things,
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    and when you are put
    n uncomfortable situations,
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    just be patient,
    just be patient.
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    Do your homework,
    make adjustments,
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    be patient as you work through
    the uncomfortable components
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    of these relationships
    within a team, and remember,
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    the sooner that you can get over
    these cultural differences —
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    and I don't mean "brush-them-aside" over.
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    When I say "[get] over
    these cultural differences,"
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    I mean when you can better
    understand each other
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    and make these adjustments
    and work with each other,
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    and you learn how to work
    through these differences
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    and emphasize these differences
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    and help each other in these
    differences that you have
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    by using a tool like Hofstede's
    cultural dimensions.
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    When you do that, the sooner
    you can work through these,
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    the quicker you can move
    to being a high-performing team,
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    however you define that.
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    I hope you found this video informative,
    grounded in some practical application,
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    and you now have a tool in your toolbox
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    that truly is interesting in terms of
    Hofstede's cultural dimensions.
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    When we think about team composition,
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    we know that there are
    benefits and downfalls
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    to having our teams look all the same
    and to having our teams look different,
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    but we know that we are going
    to be working in teams for sure
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    throughout our careers
    that look different than us.
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    We're gonna be working
    with other people, and that's awesome.
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    And when you come across a situation
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    where you're working with somebody
    from a different culture,
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    you now have a tool in your toolbox
    to help you to better understand them,
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    which, in turn, will help you
    to better work with them,
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    which helps, in turn,
    for the team to perform at a higher level.
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    If you have any specific questions
    with regards to this content,
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    feel free to contact me.
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    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

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