National culture is the set of shared values and beliefs that affects the perceptions, decisions, and behavior of the in dealing people from a particular country. The first with culture is to recognize that there are meaningful differences Professor Geert Hofstadter spent 20 years studying cultural differences in 53 different countries. H research shows that there are five consistent cultural dimensions across countries: power distance, individualism, masculinity feminity, uncertainty avoidance, and short-term versus long-term orientation.
Distance is the extent to which people in that power is distributed unequally in country accept society and organizations In countries where dis power trance is weak Such as Denmark and Sweden. Employee’s don’t like their organization or their boss to have power over them tell them what to do. They want to have a or say in decisions that affect them
Individualism is the degree to which societies believe that individuals should be self-sufficient. In individualistic societies, employees put loyalty to themselves first and loyalty to their company and work second.
Masculinity and femininity capture the difference between highly assertive and highly nurturing cultures. Masculine cultures emphasize a competition. Material success and achievement, whereas feminine cultures emphasize the importance of relationships modesty caring for the weak, and quality of life.
The cultural difference of uncertainty abidance is the degree to which in a country are uncomfortable with unstructured, ambiguous, unpredicted able situations. In countries with strong uncertainty avoidance, like Greece and Portugal, people tend to be aggressive and emotional and seek security rather than sort-term orientation addresses whether cultures are oriented to the present and seek immediate gratification or to the future and defer gratification. Not pressingly, countries with
short-term orientations are consumer-driven, whereas countries with long-term orientations are savings-driven. cultural differences affect perceptions, understanding, and behavior. Recogniz ing cultural differences is critical to succeeding in global business. Nevertheless, as Hofstede pointed out, descriptions of cultural differences are based on averages- average level of uncertainty avoidance in Portugal, the average level of power ditance ntina, and so forth. Accordingly, says Hofstede, If you are going to spend time with a Japanese colleague, you shouldn't assume that all Similarly, statements about Japanese society automatically apply to this person. cultural beliefs differ significantly from one part of a country to another, may After becoming aware of cultural differences, the second step is deciding how to adapt to those differences.