Can CultureGPS really bring the world together?

As Ralf mentioned in his blog earlier today, there’s now an iPhone app for Geert Hofstede’s set of five cultural dimensions to use when communicating or doing business across borders. The dimensions are Power-Distance, Masculinity, Individualism, Uncertainty Avoidance and Long-Term Orientation. Hofstede’s distillation of his and others’ work in cross cultural management, drawing on business experience, social science and anthropology studies, is impressive, and a great instant guide to cultural background and perceptions. But just how useful is it?

The first thing to note is that the 5 dimensions are generalized — different regions and even different companies also have their own cultures, and so doing it country by country means a level of generalization. The terms themselves also mask detail. For example, Switzerland rates slightly higher on masculinity than the UK, and it is certainly a more patriarchal society. But at the same time the Swiss (at least in the North) are noticeably less “macho” than in much of the UK. A further issue is that reflexivity is also important - so, while a US businessman may be aware of how the Japanese prefer to do business, the Japanese will also be aware of how US businessmen do business. The final point is that all views of culture also reflect a cultural viewpoint and a particular agenda. To be fair, the disclaimer on the download site hints at these limitations. In a sense, then, this app is a bit like a travel phrase book, something that addresses the basics that you need to avoid misunderstandings and causing offence.

If you’re interested in taking the idea further, a great place to start is Edward T. Hall’s classic book from 1976, Beyond Culture. Hofstede’s 3rd scale, individualism, is similar to one of the key ideas in that book, namely high- and low-context societies. High-context societies typically discuss everything that seems to be of any importance at all within the “in-group” — close colleagues, friends and relatives. So, for example, business meetings are often simply formal ratification of decisions that have been reached already, and companies are likely to hire and to do business with people they are already connected to by family or social ties. Examples of high-context cultures are most Asian countries, France and Italy. The US is very much a low-context culture and, according to some, so are the UK and Germany, so information is discussed on a need-to-know basis, with less distinction between in- and out-groups. One application of this is that when low-context people bring fresh information and issues for discussion and decision at meetings, this strikes people from high-context cultures as abrupt or unnecessary, as the idea of a meeting is so different.

The slight caution I would offer offer over the app is that Hofstede over-emphasizes cultural differences. In my view, it is important to see the other side — differences stand out because we look for commonality, and the search for commonality is important. It is actually at the heart of developing cultural competence, so to focus solely on differences should not be the main thing. To find commonality, it’s important to learn as much about the way a society works — history, governance, entertainment, customs, culture — as possible.

So these indices are really a helpful first step to developing cultural competence, a quick guide for instant use and to clearing up or avoiding major misunderstandings. The next steps you could characterize as “learn, imagine, enrich”. Firstly, learn more about the culture. Secondly, imagine yourself as you might be perceived from a different cultural mindset - not just your behaviour style, but your way of thinking. The final step is to see that another frame of cultural reference offers things that are not included in yours, so offering opportunities to enrich communication, and move beyond do’s and don’ts.