Assignment Sample on International Business in Practice

Introduction

Knowing the culture of a particular country is very important as it helps foster proper communication. With good communication, the development and growth of a company become easy. In this paper, we will discuss the Hofstede Theory to understand the culture theory implication on any country. We will further investigate the culture of Colombia and the UK and learn the differences between them and the potential problems that they have and will also try to present some solution to eliminate the issues.

Section A) The Hofstede Theory

The Hofstede cultural dimension is developed by Geer Hofstede. This framework is developed to understand the cultural differences across various countries to discern the way the business is done in different cultures. It distinguishes between different “cultures”, “dimension of culture” and “assesses the impact” on the organisational business. The aim of the study of Hofstede was to determine various dimensions of cultures of different countries. After the study, there were six critical categories in which the culture was developed.

Section B) Comparison of Colombia and the UK

Colombia cultural analysis

Power distance

The scores of the country were high, with a score of 67 on the scale of the PDI. This is a society that believes that there are inequalities in society and normal life. This inequality is present in all layers of society, and that is normal, and everybody accepts it in all the layers. Therefore the union leader of the country will have a lot of power when compared to the union-management team, and these teams will have more power over other union members (Jackson, 2020).

The company that is going to start a business in the country should be aware of the power differences of society (Hofstede insights into Columbia, 2021). The managers have to give high importance to the hierarchy of the system. People who hold high positions in society should be treated well with respect. The communication that they are having has to be dealt with high importance. Once the high people know that they are respected, and importance is given to them, then they easily open up for the business.

Individualism

The country has a score of 13 and is one of the lowest in the individualist category. The Colombians are very highly collectivistic people, and they belong to a group, and the opinion of the group has to be aligned with all the members of the country. With the combination with high scores in the PDI, the group has strong identification, which is tied to a particular “class distinction”. Loyalty is very important for the group members. Through these cooperative groups, the people often obtain the privilege and help which is generally not found in the group of the other country’s culture.

Here the relationships are more significant than any task at hand, and when a person in the group feels and makes an opinion of a particular issue, all the members of the country will be joined by all the members of the group who feel part of the group (Zainuddin et al. 2018). The people go out of their way to help anybody if they feel that there is sufficient attention given to the development of the relationship. If they perceive an in-group connection, they are making their full attention to it even if the relationship is thin in nature. Those who seemed to be an outsider of the group or its cause then they are considered as outsider or enemies. Those who become enemies will not be provided with any kind of facility and support. The enemies do not get any opportunity from the group to do any kind of work. The communication is very context-rich, and the public speeches and the written document are very elaborate and extensive.

The managers of the company who are willing to do business in this country have to keep in mind that the people are very particular about their opinion in a group. The company has to deal with different groups to fulfil the needs, so they should be extra careful in dealing with the group. One group may not like the way the other group works. The managers have maintained the balance between all the groups.

Masculinity

Society has a score of around 64 in this category which indicates that society is driven by achievement, success and competition. Success means that the person is the best and is considered a winner in the field. This value system of being a winner starts from the very beginning at the school level and continues throughout college life and organisational level. The Colombians are very much status orientated and competitive and come in a group of collectivistic and not an individualist. The competition is directed towards the members of the other group or social class and not towards any person who is a part of the group. This is the reason the people become members of the group to get rewards and status linked to the performance. For this, they have to sacrifice the leisure of the work, and they are fine with this cause they are getting support from the group members.

The managers who are going to the country to develop the business should know that the people are generally competitive in nature (Beugelsdijk and Welzel, 2018). The people like the competition and want to be the winner all the time. The managers should use this to their advantage and challenge them to succeed, which will enable the company to also excel.

Uncertainty avoidance

The Colombian has a score of 80, which is quite high. The country is trying to find a way to avoid ambiguity in society. People express their emotions and very easily. Religion also becomes a part of the group, which is followed by many people and is very conservative in nature (Minkov et al. 2019). They have high UAI, and the score of the previous dimension shows that it is difficult to bring the change of the status quo until or unless the figure of the authority manages the mass opinion of all the members of the group.

The managers should know that the country places a high value on a particular group and religion. The company should respect the group and their values. The managers should also develop a group culture in the business, which will enable the employee to be a part of the group, which will lead the company to work very efficiently.

Long term orientation

The country has a low score of 13 as the Colombian culture is categorised as normative. All the people in society are concerned with the establishment of the absolute truth very strongly. These people have great respect for the religion, and their tradition and people do not save much for the future, and they focus on achieving the results very quickly.

The managers should come up with various ways in which the people can achieve great things very quickly, which will motivate the employee to work better.

Indulgence

The country has a very high score of around 83 in this dimension. The country has shown that it is an “indulgent nation”. the people in the society are willing to realise their desire to enjoy the life they are having. They have a positive attitude and are very much optimistic about life. The people also feel that life should have the leisure time to spend their money to enjoy life.

The managers can come with various incentive systems which will provide the employee leisure trip. The people will be more engaged in the company, and the productivity of the company will increase.

UK cultural analysis

Power distance

The country has a lower ranking in the PDI with a score of only 35. This means that society believes that there should be no inequalities amongst the people, and it should be minimised. The PDI score is very less in the higher class of the country than other classes. The score exposes the tension in the British culture as it has both the belief system and the system (Venkateswaran and Ojha, 2019). The high class think that it is important to be in the high class to maintain the culture, whereas the low class thinks that whether anyone is born in any rank, they have equal opportunity in society to excel.

Individualism

The country has the highest score of around 89 in this dimension. The British people are very highly private and individualist. From the very childhood, all the children are taught to think about themselves and become independent on their own so that they can find a unique purpose in life and excel (Baltykov, 2020). The whole country generally tries to contribute to society and believes that personal fulfilment is the key to happiness.

Masculinity

British have a score of around 66, which means that they are a masculine society. They believe in success and work around it (United Kingdom – Hofstede Insights, 2021). People in the country give their best in work and perform out of the way as they have a clear ambition to excel in life.

Uncertainty avoidance

The UK has a low score of 35 in this dimension. This means that the country is happy to wake up without any particular plan and continue to work and plan things according to the change. People are aware of the end goal, and they work, but they lack detailed planning of the work. Society believes in trending items and follows all the latest trends of innovation and development. They have high consumerism for the new and creative industry, which leads the companies which are working in the advertising and marketing sectors to grow.

Long term orientation

The country has an intermediate score of 51 for this dimension. The scores show ambiguity due to which this cultural dimension cannot be determined properly.

Indulgence

The country has a high score of 69 in this dimension. The British culture is an “indulgent” culture (United Kingdom – Hofstede Insights, 2021). The People in society show filling fullness to realise their desires and impulses with regard to enjoyment in life. There is a positive and optimistic approach to life (Dihl et al. 2017). They also have a high level of importance for leisure time and like to spend their money on the items they will have.

Section c) Differences and Potential Problems

The Columbian country has a higher power distance than the UK, which means that the Columbian people believe in inequalities in society if normal. The UK people believe that there should not be any equality in society (Beugelsdijk et al. 2017). When the people from the UK go to the Columbian country, they find it very difficult to do business with the country as they see the inequalities in the society which is not present in their country. The managers should follow the hierarchy system of Colombia to manage the business. The people of Columbia believe in working in groups, whereas the people of the UK want to work on their own. The score of the UK is quite high than Colombia. Managers should think of ways how they can take the support of the local group to promote the business.

Both the countries have high and almost the same masculinity, which helps the managers to work very smoothly. The UK has a low uncertainty level, and the combined country has a very uncertain level which means that the people of the UK lack proper planning of the work.

The manager should do proper planning in order to work smoothly with the Colombian country. The Colombian country has a very low score in this field, and the UK has an intermediate score which means the Colombian people believe in religion and groups, and the people of the UK are ambiguous in nature. The managers should be respectful to the religion and groups of the Colombian people. Both the countries have high indulgence that helps the organisation to do the business very easily.

Conclusion

The cultures of a country play an important part in the growth and development of a business. The people make business deals with the products and products for the people. The Hofstede theory knowledge helps any organisation know about the country before they initiate business in that particular country. The application of the theory gives the company an added advantage over other companies to excel in the market.

References

Baltykov, B.O., 2020. Measurements Of Cultural Aspects: Theory Of Cross-Cultural Differences Of Herert Hofstede. Annals of marketing-mba, 2.

Beugelsdijk, S. and Welzel, C., 2018. Dimensions and dynamics of national culture: Synthesizing Hofstede with Inglehart. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 49(10), pp.1469-1505.

Beugelsdijk, S., Kostova, T. and Roth, K., 2017. An overview of Hofstede-inspired country-level culture research in international business since 2006. Journal of International Business Studies, 48(1), pp.30-47.

Dihl, L., Testa, E.S., Knob, P., da Silva, G.L., Favaretto, R.M., de Alcântara, M.F. and Musse, S.R., 2017, March. Generating cultural characters based on hofstede dimensions. In 2017 IEEE Virtual Humans and Crowds for Immersive Environments (VHCIE) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.

Hofstede Insights. 2021. United Kingdom – Hofstede Insights. [online] Available at: <https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country/the-uk/> [Accessed 20 April 2021].

Insights.com. 2021. Hofstede insights into Columbia. [online] Available at: <https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country/colombia/#:~:text=Colombians%20are%20competitive%20and%20status,of%20your%20own%20in%2Dgroup.> [Accessed 20 April 2021].

Jackson, T., 2020. The legacy of Geert Hofstede.

Minkov, M., Dutt, P., Schachner, M., Jandosova, J., Khassenbekov, Y., Morales, O. and Blagoev, V., 2019. What would people do with their money if they were rich? A search for Hofstede dimensions across 52 countries. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management.

Venkateswaran, R.T. and Ojha, A.K., 2019. Abandon Hofstede-based research? Not yet! A perspective from the philosophy of the social sciences. Asia Pacific Business Review, 25(3), pp.413-434.

Zainuddin, M., Yasin, I.M., Arif, I. and Abdul Hamid, A.B., 2018, December. Alternative Cross-Cultural Theories: Why Still Hofstede?. In Proceedings of International Conference on Economics, Management and Social Study (pp. 4-6).

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