Intercultural Sensitivity Nunez Et Al PDF

Intercultural Sensitivity
For
Loekie Mahdi-Hardey,
Izak Mahdi,
Maria Teresa Abondano
and Vicente Nunez
From Denial to Intercultural Competence
Carlos Nunez
Raya Nunez Mahdi
Laura Popma
4th, revised edition
2017
© 2017, Royal Van Gorcum BV, P.O. Box 43, 9400 AA Assen, The Netherlands.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission
of the Publisher.
NUR 812
ISBN folioboek 978 90 232 5555 0

ISBN ebook 978 90 232 5556 7
Cover: Kim Boeren, Viesrood grafisch & interactief ontwerp

Graphic design: Imago Mediabuilders, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
Printing: Royal Van Gorcum, Assen, The Netherlands
Illustrations: Masaaki Oyamada, The Hague, The Netherlands, in cooperation with
Carlos Nunez
Table of Contents
Preface�� 9
Chapter 1 Culture, Communication and Global Citizenship�� 12
1.1 What is Culture? Visible and Invisible Culture�� 14

1.2 Definition of Culture �� 15
1.3 Cultural Programming �� 16
1.4 Culture and Subcultures�� 17
1.5 Intercultural Communication�� 18
1.6 Noise. What Exactly is Communication Noise?�� 19
1.7 TOPOI Model, Intervention for Cultural Noise �� 20
1.8 Global Citizenship �� 25
1.8.1 Definition�� 25
1.8.2 Teaching Global Citizenship�� 26
1.8.3 Global Citizenship Competencies�� 28
1.8.4 What does it mean in practice? �� 29
1.9 Assignments �� 32
Chapter 2 Working with Hall’s Key Concepts of Cultural

Differences�� 36
2.1 Communication: High and Low Context�� 38

2.1.1 Low Context �� 38
2.1.2 High Context�� 39
2.1.3 Misunderstanding caused by too little or too
much Context�� 41
2.1.4 High and Low Context Countries�� 42
2.1.5 High and Low Context Subcultures�� 43
2.1.6 Can we Communicate High as well as Low
Context? Yes�� 43
© Royal Van Gorcum
2.2 Monochronic and Polychronic Time�� 46

2.2.1 Monochronic Cultures�� 47
2.2.2 Polychronic Cultures�� 47
2.2.3 How to Succeed by Being both Monochronic and
Polychronic �� 48
6 2.3 Personal Space�� 48
2.3.1 Dealing with Differences in Personal Space�� 49
2.4 Fast and Slow Messages �� 51
2.5 Fast and Slow Information Flow�� 54
2.5.1 Slow Information Flow�� 54
2.5.2 Fast Information Flow�� 55
2.6 Action Chains�� 56
2.7 Assignments – Cultural Profile according to Hall’s Key
Concepts.�� 58
Chapter 3 Working with Kluckhohn’s Variations in Value

Orientations�� 60
3.1 Dominating, in Harmony with or Subjugated to Nature�� 62

3.2 Past, Present and Future Orientation �� 64
3.3 Doing or Being Cultures: Task or Relation Orientation �� 65
3.4 Individualism and Collectivism�� 66
3.4.1 Individuals, Collateral Groups and Hierarchical
Groups �� 67
3.4.2 Individualism, Collectivism and David Pinto’s
F- and C-Cultures �� 69
3.5 Is Space Private or Public?�� 70
3.6 Human Nature�� 72
3.7 Pinto’s 3 Step Method�� 73
Chapter 4 Working with Hofstede’s 6 Dimensions of Culture �� 78
4.1 Power Distance�� 80

4.2 Individualism �� 82
4.3 Masculinity and Femininity�� 87
4.4 Uncertainty Avoidance �� 88
4.5 Long-Term and Short-Term Orientation�� 92
4.5.1 Long-Term Orientation (LTO)�� 92
4.5.2 Short-Term Orientation�� 93
4.5.3 A Note on the Long-Term Orientation Scores�� 93
4.6 Indulgence and Restraint �� 94
Table of Contents
4.7 Country Scores on Hofstede’s Six Dimensions of Culture �� 95

Chapter 5 Cultural Synergy: Trompenaars’ 7 Dimensions and

Cultural Reconciliation �� 100
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5.1 Universalism – Particularism. Rules or Relationships?�� 102
5.2 Individualism and Communitarianism�� 104
5.3 Emotions: Neutral and Affective �� 104
5.4 Involvement: Specific and Diffuse�� 106
5.4.1 What can go wrong when Specific meets
Diffuse? �� 108
5.5 Status: Achieved and Ascribed�� 111
5.6 Time �� 115
5.7 Attitudes towards the Environment�� 115
5.8 Reconciliation: from Vicious Circle to Virtuous Circle�� 116
5.9 Three steps to Cultural Synergy �� 121
5.9.1 Cultural Avoidance �� 122
5.9.2 Cultural Dominance �� 122
5.9.3 Cultural Accommodation�� 122
5.9.4 Cultural Compromise �� 123
5.9.5 Cultural Synergy �� 123
Chapter 6 The Growth Process in Intercultural Sensitivity�� 128
6.1 Denial �� 131

6.1.1 Strategies for moving on from the denial stage �� 131
6.2 Defence�� 133
6.2.1 Strategies for moving on from the defence stage�� 133
6.3 Minimization�� 135
6.3.1 Strategies for moving on from the minimization
stage�� 135
6.4 Acceptance�� 137
6.4.1 Strategies for moving on from the acceptance
stage�� 137
6.5 Adaptation �� 139
6.5.1 Strategies for developing even further when you
are in adaptation �� 139
6.6 Integration/Intercultural Competence�� 141
6.7 Assignment: Intercultural Sensitivity Role Play �� 142
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Chapter 7 Culture Shock While Studying Abroad�� 144
7.1 Culture Shock. What is it?�� 146

7.2 What are the Stages of Culture Shock?�� 146
7.3 Pre-Departure Stage�� 148
8 7.4 The Vacation Stage �� 149
7.5 The Angry Stage�� 150
7.6 Adjustment Stage and Strategies�� 151
7.7 Re-entry Shock�� 151
7.8 Re-entry Shock and International Careers�� 153
Chapter 8 Multicultural Teams and Global Leadership�� 156
8.1 Managing Diversity in Teams�� 158

8.2 Multicultural Teams’ Strengths, Weaknesses and
Conditions for Excellence �� 160
8.2.1 What are the Strengths of Multicultural Groups?�� 160
8.2.2 Weaknesses in Multicultural Teams�� 162
8.2.3 What are the conditions for multicultural team
effectiveness?�� 162
8.3 Multicultural Teams during the Stages of Group
Formation �� 162
8.4 Global Leadership: the GLOBE Project�� 164
8.5 GLOBE Dimensions or Cultural Competencies�� 165
8.5.1 As it is and how it should be �� 167
8.6 GLOBE Leadership Clusters �� 167
8.7 GLOBE Leadership and Values �� 169
About the Authors �� 176
About the Illustrator �� 178
Bibliography�� 179

Preface
This book is a first approach of what can happen at the university or business
schools where students of all nationalities and cultures come together.
You are going to read an enlightening testimony on what could happen to you
students when working later in companies, without being aware of the content of
this book.
The authors most warmly thank Mr Luis Miguel Rojo Y Pinto for sharing his field
experience with the students.
“With both parents from Spanish origin, I was born in France and considered myself as
being a pure multicultural product, till I had to settle in Latin America a few years ago.
That’s where I got my first real “intercultural slap” while having a meeting with
Columbian engineers. As we were looking into security issues for our vehicles, my purpose
had been to concentrate on the necessity to fit them out with series airbags and ABS. One
of them just replied that security was essentially linked to the engine power, which was
vital to overtake on the overcrowded roads of this magnificent country.
This anecdote cruelly brought me back to the notion of context.
Another example: when a Marketing team in Venezuela presented me with a very

interesting project, I let out a vibrating “Not bad!” which made the Project Manager
immediately turn pale and asked me why I didn’t like that project. This was all a question
of interpretation, “Not bad” in Venezuela is a polite way to say you refuse the project.
Consequently, when working for a Korean brand, I had to change the way I defended and
presented the projects to the Korean executives, presuming that it was impossible for them
to lose face opposite their counterparts with the same power distance, even if I had
previously succeeded in obtaining their agreement. All a question of culture.
I am now working with Nissan, in a Regional Business Unit, bringing together France, the
Netherlands and Belgium. It is a daily concern to me as I am confronted to the difficulty
© Royal Van Gorcum
to adapt communication patterns in order to align multicultural teams and meet shared
goals. Strange as it may seem, a French “yes” is not necessarily interpreted in the same way
as a Dutch “yes”. There is no such thing as a universal way of applying the filters we get
from our upbringing, our social environment or our experience. Even if we are used to
global environments and we have the feeling that we do know “the world” through all kinds
10 of media and tools at our disposal, we are not always aware of the need for decoding the
messages. In that case, we have to use our counterparts’ references and not ours.
This book is based on real examples and exercises and enables the reader to, not only
understand why the exchange of messages that seem clear are not understood, but also to
ponder on questions about his own story. In each chapter you will find basic principles
which throw a light on the differences in interpretation between cultures. Take some time
and hindsight to consider those aspects and you will most probably avoid blunders that
can sometimes cause violent shocks. Those are more often related to the use of an
inadequate form rather than to a disagreement on the content.”
Luis Miguel Rojo Y Pinto, Marketing General Manager, Nissan West Europe
1 Culture, Communication
and Global Citizenship
Introduction and Definitions
1.1 What is Culture? Visible and Invisible

Culture
1.2 Definition of Culture
1.3 Cultural Programming
1.4 Culture and Subcultures
1.5 Intercultural Communication
1.6 Noise. What Exactly is Communication
Noise?
1.7 TOPOI Model, Intervention for Cultural
Noise
1.8 Global Citizenship
1.9 Assignments
In this chapter we will define culture, intercultural communication and
Global Citizenship. Culture is learned. Culture influences the way we
think, feel and behave. It even shapes our perception and influences our
judgment of others. We are not always aware of the impact of culture on
the way we communicate. The aim of this chapter is to become more
aware of our own culture, how it influences our communication, and how
we can become better intercultural communicators in an interconnected
world, as true Global Citizens.
© Royal Van Gorcum

1.1 What is Culture? Visible and Invisible Culture
According to the interculturalist Edgar Schein, culture consists of layers, like an

onion.
14
Illustration 1.1 Cultural onion.
1. Artefacts of Culture
2. Norms and Values
3. Basic Assumptions
1. The outer layer, or material culture, we call artefacts of culture. Artefacts are the
first things you notice when entering a new country. Foreigners arriving in the
Netherlands notice: the bicycle lanes, large windows and open curtains, the tall
people, and how they dress. They notice that a lot of Dutch people eat bread and
drink milk at lunchtime. The first time you enter a new company, you’ll notice the
artefacts: company logo, company house-style, and whether or not the employees
wear ties. Artefacts are easy to perceive, and they’re nice to know, but intercultural
communication is not going to be about artefacts.
2. The second layer we call the norms and values. They are written and unwritten
standards of correct, desired behaviour. Is it the norm to arrive in class a few
minutes early, exactly on time or is it the custom to be a few minutes late? Is 3
minutes late acceptable and 10 minutes not? These are examples of norms. Values
express what we think is good or right. For example, is it good to stand up for an
elderly person on a crowded bus? Is it right to send a card or make a phone call to
a classmate who is ill? Norms and values are not as visible as artefacts. It takes
some time to notice, let alone learn them. But with the necessary effort and
observation, they can be learned.
3. The deepest layer is that of the basic assumptions. They are abstract and invisible,
we learn them very young – before we are 7 – and we are unaware of their influence.
1
chapter Culture, Communication and Global Citizenship
Yet the perception of the world around us, and the judgements we make about
others, are very much shaped or distorted by the basic assumptions of our culture.
Intercultural communication is about bringing basic assumptions of our own
culture to our awareness and to recognise the basic assumptions of other cultures.
This is in order to communicate creatively and more effectively with people from
other cultures, to use cultural diversity at work as a source of inspiration and 15
growth, and to achieve cultural synergy. In chapter 5 of this book we will present a
3-step strategy on how to achieve cultural synergy.
Illustration 1.2 Cultural iceberg and the Titanic as metaphor of cultural clashes on the invisible
level of culture: the basic assumptions.
1.2 Definition of Culture
This book is not going to be about Culture with the capital C such as literature, art,
music, theatre, museums and architecture. It is about culture with the little c. It is
about the familiar way we think, feel and behave. How we learned this and share
the meaning of it with other members of our society. The list of definitions of
culture is endless. The table below gives four definitions. We have chosen this
short definition by interculturalist Geert Hofstede:
“ Culture is the collective programming of the mind, which

distinguishes the members of one group (…) of people from
another.
”
© Royal Van Gorcum
Some Def initions of Culture

1. Edgar Schein defines culture as… “a pattern of shared basic assumptions
that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and
internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and
therefore to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think,
16 and feel in relation to those problems.” (Schein, 2004)
2. Mijnd Huijser defines culture as … “a group’s set of shared norms and

values expressed in the behaviour of the group’s members.” (Huijser, 2006)
3. Fons Trompenaars: “Culture is the way in which a group of people solves

problems.” (Trompenaars & Hampden Turner, 1998)
4. Geert Hofstede: “Culture is the collective programming of the human

mind, which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people
from another.” (Hofstede, 1991)
1.3 Cultural Programming
Culture is learned. Hofstede calls it programming. You could also call it ‘learning’,
like Edgar Schein does. We are programmed through upbringing, socialization,
norms and values, and perception.
A lot of programming comes with our upbringing. Take a simple handshake.

There’s nothing natural about it. No child would dream of shaking hands unless it
was programmed to do so. “Be a good boy, be a good girl now, shake hands.” This
is repeated and drilled so often that you end up thinking that shaking hands is
normal.
A lot of other things we learn through socialization, by interacting with others. To

stay with the handshake, do you give a limp handshake? A firm one? A crunch?
Through socialization you learn just how firm a desirable handshake is, and even
the right smile and amount of eye contact to go with it. In Europe, a firm handshake
is desirable. And you would associate a limp hand with weakness of character. In
many Asian countries, firm handshakes are seen as aggressive, and people find a
modest, gentle handshake more polite. We are also programmed through norms
and values. If we value showing respect for older people, and the norm is to give
your seat to an elderly person on the bus, you will feel good when you stand up for
someone older, and feel uneasy if you don’t. In some countries the norm is to give
up your seat to children, because children are small and vulnerable.
1
Finally, part of the programming happens through perception. Just by looking

around us we make conscious or unconscious choices about how we want to
behave.
Does programming reduce us to cultural robots then? No. Regardless of culture,

each person is a unique individual and makes choices, for example, to follow or to 17
deviate from the cultural group norms.
There are three levels of programming:
Individual
Cultural
Human Nature
If we haven’t eaten for days, human nature makes us look for something to eat and
devour it with our hands! That we decide to put the food on a plate and eat it with
fork and knife is our cultural programming. However, individuals may choose not
to use fork and knife, regardless of their cultural programming or what society
thinks. Similarly, in some cultures, your programming teaches you always to share
food with others and never to eat on your own. There too, individuals may choose
to eat it up all by themselves, regardless of the community’s disapproval or possible
sanctions.
Now let’s move on to the word collective.
1.4 Culture and Subcultures
In “Culture is the collective mental programming of the human mind”, collective

indicates the group or subgroups we belong to. It does not mean that the whole
country is one big group, or shares one set of cultural patterns. On the contrary,
there are a lot of subgroups or subcultures we belong to: a regional culture, middle-
class culture, or company culture, each with their different programming.
Here is a list of possible subcultures:

• A continent (Asian culture, American culture)
• A country (the Chinese culture, the Somalian culture)
• Ethnic (the culture of ethnic minorities in the Netherlands, such as the
Indonesian, Surinam, Moroccan or Turkish culture)
• Regional (for example the Andalusian, the Basque or the Catalan culture in
Spain)
• Urban or rural culture
© Royal Van Gorcum
• Religion (Catholic, Protestant, Islamic, Jewish, Hindu or Buddhist culture)

• Social class (middle-class culture, for example)
• Gender (the culture of men, women, the LGBT culture)
• Age (culture of young people, of the baby-boomers, or the pre-war generation)
• Profession (health-care, engineering, or economics and management culture)
18 • Hobby (the culture of hockey, soccer, stamp collectors, chess-players, salsa
dancers, gamers or gardeners)
• Corporate (differences between cultures of the Utrecht University and Utrecht
University of Applied Sciences.)
The list is fairly complete, but not exhaustive.
It is good to be aware of differences as well as similarities and overlaps in our

subcultures. And to have an open attitude for understanding multiple identities
and a collective identity. Dutch and international students at the Utrecht University
of Applied Sciences, involved in a management simulation game called Intopia,
found that their professional interest was such a uniting factor, that it helped them
transcend their initial national and regional cultural differences. They worked
together outstandingly.
Culturally diverse teams. Are they the worst or the best? Both. If left unmanaged,
and when cultural differences are ignored, culturally diverse teams can have a lot
of problems understanding each other and coming to an agreement. If managed
and trained in intercultural sensitivity, and when cultural differences are
appreciated, they turn out to be the most creative and dynamic teams. We will
expand on this in chapter 8.
1.5 Intercultural Communication
Communication is the exchange of meaning. If you want to give information to

another person, you are the source. Your information is encoded by using the
appropriate language, gestures or nonverbal expressions. It is transmitted through
a channel, which is the medium for communication. In face-to-face verbal
communication it is the air and the space between you, if it is written communication
it is paper, with e-mails the medium is electronic. The receiver decodes your
message and responds or gives feedback, once again encoding the response. You
decode it. The whole process of communication is an on-going, circular process.
All communication takes place within a context, for example, in a business context
or a family context. A crisis situation is another context. And an international
setting has an intercultural context.
1
Intercultural communication is the communication between sources and receivers

from different cultures, and good intercultural communication requires an
interculturally sensitive attitude, cultural knowledge, as well as skills in frame-of-
reference-shifting. In short, it requires intercultural competence. Because culture
has its impact on every point in the communication circles: encoding, decoding,
feedback and choice of medium. A well-intended message, well coded in one 19
culture, can have a totally different meaning, even a very rude one, when decoded in
another culture. Or when transmitted through the wrong channel – for example by
e-mail instead of face-to-face. We are often unaware of this, because it involves
cultural differences in the deepest, invisible layer of culture – the basic assumptions.
Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this book bring these cultural basic assumptions to our
awareness, as key concepts, as values and as dimensions. Chapter 6 contributes to
developing intercultural sensitivity and frame-of-reference-shifting skills, so that we
can communicate in international settings with greater intercultural competence.
Sometimes misunderstanding is caused by what we call ‘noise’ in the

communication.
Illustration 1.3 Intercultural communication is the communication between sources and receivers
from different cultures.
1.6 Noise. What Exactly is Communication Noise?
Noise is anything that distorts or blocks the message, that distracts the receivers or
causes them not to understand the message. We will distinguish external, internal
and cultural noise.
External noise, also known as physical noise, is interference from the environment.
External noise makes it difficult for the receiver to understand you. For example,
people next to you are talking very loud, and you can’t hear what I say. Or the
person sitting in front of you is wearing a large hat, and blocks the screen.
© Royal Van Gorcum
Internal noise, or psychological noise, involves emotions, worries or personal

prejudices that get in the way of paying attention to what is actually being
communicated. If you are in class, feeling angry, sad, or just worried about your
coming presentation, you can’t pay attention to what the lecturer says. Even happy
emotions like being head-over-heels-in-love can get in the way of paying full
20 attention. Finally, the internal noise of personal prejudice and biases can severely
distort communication as well. A biased referee might deal out more yellow cards
to one team while overlooking the other team’s faults. A biased observer watching
an excellent presentation by a student wearing a headscarf might not hear nor
appreciate the quality of her presentation for personal preconceptions about her
headscarf.
Cultural noise occurs when differences in cultural programming distorts the

message. For example, the proper voice volume for speaking professionally in
Indonesia might be lower than for speaking in the Netherlands or in the US. Some
lecturers in international classrooms may think their Indonesian students are
insecure or not putting in enough effort. The appropriate amount of eye contact in
one culture may be too much for another culture. This distortion of the message is
caused by cultural noise.
The Dutch researcher Edwin Hoffman developed a system called the TOPOI model
that works very well in resolving cultural noise. Inspired by the Axioms for
Communication by the Austrian psychologist and communications theorist, Paul
Watzlawick, who in turn was inspired by Gregory Bateson’s Steps to an Ecology of
Mind (1972), Hoffman’s TOPOI model stands out in its practical application.
1.7 TOPOI Model, Intervention for Cultural Noise
The TOPOI Model (Hoffman, 2012) distinguishes five areas of possible

misunderstanding in communication. The letters in the acronym TOPOI each
stand for one of the five areas: Tongue (Language), Order, Person, Organization
and Intention & Influence. Or in Dutch: Taal, Ordening, Personen, Organisatie,
Inzet. By bringing this to our awareness, participants in the communication can
discover the misinterpretations, and actively cooperate in gaining understanding.
How does it work? Use the 5 letters and what they stand for as a checklist to reflect
on the miscommunication. Then ask the three key intervention questions in table
1.1, and any other questions that may arise or may be necessary for feedback and
clarity.
1
Table 1.1 Three Key Intervention Questions to be asked in the TOPOI Model.
3 Key Intervention Questions

1. What is my share in the misunderstanding?
2. What is the other person’s share?
3. What is the influence of the social environment – the norms, values and 21
general beliefs?
The 5 TOPOI Areas
T is for Tongue or Language. It is about meaning – the language aspect of

communication, the verbal and non-verbal.
Verbal language has well-documented meanings, which you can look up in a
dictionary. Yet one word can have different meanings, which can even confuse
native speakers, let alone non-native speakers. Verbal language is a frequent source
of misunderstanding. In Holland and Germany, when people say, “See you at half
three”, it means half past two. Not half past three. If you turn up an hour late, reflect
on the T for verbal language, and ask the 3 key questions.
Non-verbal language is not formally documented in dictionaries, and can differ
greatly in meaning and interpretation – especially across cultures. For example, in
a lot of countries, you can give or receive things with your left hand or right hand.
Not in Indonesia. There, you always give and receive things with your right hand.
Also if you are left-handed. Just like you would always shake hands with your right
hand, also if you were left-handed. In Indonesia, the left hand is the hand you use
in the restroom. Unless your right hand is injured, if you hand anyone anything
with your left hand it is a non-verbal insult. Or a non-verbal embarrassment that
requires an apology, like “I’m sorry, my left.”
What questions could you ask in reflection of this non-verbal misunderstanding?
As intervention, always consider that words and non-verbal language can have
several meanings. Ask for feedback and give feedback.
O. The first O in TOPOI stands for Order. It is about each participant’s view. How
do they view, order and organize reality? Everyone has their own view on reality,
and their own ‘logic’. We see the world around us through different glasses, and
have different frames of reference. ‘Frame-of-Reference-Shifting’ is a competency
you can study in chapter 6. But for now, we’ll look at the O of TOPOI from a
communication point of view. Our behaviour is guided by our own sense of logic.
What makes sense to you may not seem so logical to another person. The
importance of this O, is realizing that there is never one truth or one reality. Take a
look at case 1.7.a, Pieten.
© Royal Van Gorcum
Case 1.7.a Pieten (Saint Nicholas’ helpers, the Piets)
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Illustration 1.4 Saint Nicholas and his assistants, the Piets.
6 December. Saint Nicholas Day is a very popular celebration in the

Netherlands, and the highlight of the gift-giving season. Saint Nicholas
brings presents and goodies to children with the help of his jolly servants,
the Piets.
Lately, in the discussion concerning Piet, we see at least two different

realities, with neither parties listening to each other. One view points out that
the celebration is unnecessarily racist. Why are the Piets painted black? Why
do they look stupid, silly and act in servitude? Why are we encouraging
negative stereotyping of black people? The other view is that it is a tradition.
It’s a children’s feast. Children learn to sing Saint Nicholas songs, make
creative parcels and write verses. It’s fun. What’s the fuss? Leave it alone.
The question is, should some children celebrate at the expense of other
children feeling bullied by racism? Shouldn’t all children be able to enjoy an
all-inclusive feast? Can it still be a creative and enjoyable celebration without
negative stereotyping?
What questions would you ask to reflect on this discussion and bring it to a
respectful mutual understanding, with the O of Order in TOPOI? Can you
name 2 or 3 other traditions that we have changed because they were
discriminating? (Think of wedding traditions, division of traditional household
duties, careers, shopping hours. What about married women’s surnames?)
1
Consider these interventions:
Ask the others to tell their reality, their view, and listen with interest and
empathy, without interrupting.
Tell about your own view, and emphasize what you have in common – for 23
example that you both like feasts and celebrations.
Make the differences in views clear, and just leave the views as they are.
P is for Persons – the relationship part of the conversation. The relationship can
determine or alter the meaning of what is being said. Who are the people involved
in the conversation? How do they relate to each other? What perception do they
have of each other? How do they experience their relationship?
Relationships can be symmetrical or complementary.
Symmetrical relationships are between equals. Like between two friends, brothers or
sisters, partners, classmates, fellow team members, colleagues, teachers with
parents, or professionals with business clients.
Complementary relationships are between people at different levels of authority. Like
between parents and children, team leaders and team members. Their behaviour
reflects the assumed differences in roles.
“Don’t be so stupid.” If you say this in a symmetrical communication, good friends
know that you are joking. “Don’t be so stupid” has a totally different meaning when
said in a complementary relationship.
O. The second O is for Organization – the social and professional organizational

context of the communication.
Organizational structures that are not familiar to us can be the cause of
misunderstanding. For example, if you are an international student, and new in
the Netherlands, you might not be aware of the unique Dutch organization of
health care, with the ‘huisarts’, the GP – General Practitioner – or family doctor, as
the central point between you and any other specialist, therapist or hospital. If you
fall seriously ill, you might head straight for the hospital, and be shocked that they
refuse you. While the hospital personnel will be very upset that you tried to get in
without a GP’s written recommendation. It’s not done! If tempers flare in this
situation, it’s not personal. It’s the O of organization.
Ask the three key questions, and as intervention, clarify the organization.
I stands for Intention and Influence. What is the aim of the conversation? What are
the intentions, needs and motives of the participants in the communication? What
drives each one of them to do their best?
Has their ‘best’ been given recognition? Read the example in case 1.7.b, and see
© Royal Van Gorcum
how you would apply the I of TOPOI.

C a s e 1 .7. b J u s t a Te a m W h o s e I n t e n t i o n s We r e G o o d
24
Illustration 1.5.
Julia, a doctor from Ukraine, has been working at a hospital in the Netherlands
for some months, and misses her family a lot. She is a very dedicated
professional, and is much loved by patients and colleagues. On her birthday,
the colleagues at her department surprised her with a sunny bunch of yellow
sunflowers. Julia was grateful, but she could hardly hide her disappointment.
On seeing her troubled looks, her colleagues felt equally disappointed.
In Holland sunflowers are store-bought flowers that radiate cheerfulness.
In Ukraine, sunflowers are common field flowers. They grow everywhere. It is

like giving someone a bunch of dandelions or a bouquet of onions.
What questions would you ask to analyse the misunderstanding?
For intervention, how would you clarify the good intentions, and give
recognition to those who did their best?
Note: Are there other flowers that might be inappropriate for a birthday in
other countries?
More recently, Culture and Intercultural Communication have become important

competencies within the life-long-learning cycle of Global Citizenship Education,
starting from primary school, continuing well past formal education.
1
1.8 Global Citizenship
When the United Nations launched its Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) in
2012, fostering global citizenship became one of its priorities in education, along
with gender equality. For primary schools, secondary schools as well as universities.
25
1.8.1 Definition
Global Citizenship is “a sense of belonging to a broader community and common

humanity. It emphasizes political, economic, social and cultural interdependency
and interconnectedness between the local, the national and the global.” (UNESCO,
2015) “It aims to empower learners to assume active roles to face and resolve global
challenges and to become proactive contributors to a more peaceful, tolerant,
inclusive and secure world.”
Global Citizenship does not mean that you have lived or travelled all around the
globe. And it is much more than just knowing what is going on in other parts of
the world. Like Intercultural Sensitivity, and Intercultural Communication – the
aims of this book – Global Citizenship is a competency. It includes knowledge and
skills, but most of all an attitude and behaviour.
Illustration 1.6 Global Citizenship: a sense of belonging to a broader community and common
humanity.
Source: UNESCO, 2014.
© Royal Van Gorcum
1.8.2 Teaching Global Citizenship
Global Citizenship is quickly making its entry in the curricula of primary and
secondary schools worldwide. Occasionally it is a separate subject. Sometimes it is
interwoven into existing subjects, such as geography, history, art, languages, social
26 sciences, natural sciences and sustainability. Ideally, Global Citizenship is
embraced in a holistic approach, in different areas across the school and community.
In the UK, this ‘whole school’ holistic approach includes Global Citizenship
Education within the curriculum, starting from age 5 on to age 17-19, through extra-
curricular activities, and through community engagement. (Oxfam Education)
As early as 2009, the Dutch National Commission for International Cooperation

and Sustainable Development, and Utrecht University published a very practical
standard for teaching Global Citizenship, called Windows on the World, the official
Dutch Canon for Global Citizenship. (Canon, from Greek, meaning measuring
yard or standard.) It covers eight topics: Diversity, Identity, Human Rights,
Sustainable Development, Globalization, (North-South) Division, Peace and
Conflict and Global Interconnectedness.
Each topic has three examples from around the world, called ‘Windows on the
World’. By looking through them, students discover the interconnectedness with
places, people and events around the world.
At university level, the forerunners in putting Global Citizenship on the agenda

have been the Teacher Training Colleges, Faculties of Education and Geo-
Environment Studies. For students in Teacher-Training programmes or other
educational studies, we highly recommend the resources in table 1.2 for more in-
depth study and teaching ideas.
Meanwhile, Global Citizenship is beginning to enter university curricula in other

fields of education as well, as part of Corporate Social Responsibility, Ethics,
Sustainable Development or in Intercultural Communication/Intercultural
Management. This is why we are very pleased to introduce Global Citizenship in
edition 4 of this book.
1
Table 1.2 Global Citizenship Resources for Teacher-Training students.
Beneker, T., Stalborch, M. van, Vaart, R. van der (2009), Windows on the
World: Canon for Global Citizenship Committee. Faculty of Geo-sciences,
Utrecht University.
E-Twinning Platform for staff working at a school in Europe. https://www. 27
etwinning.net/.
The Globally Competent Teaching Continuum – Learn NC. www.learnnc.org/
lp/editions/global-continuum
Hogeling, L./NCDO (Nationale Commissie voor internationale
samenwerking en Duurzame Ontwikkeling) (2012). Global Citizenship in
Primary and Secondary Education in the Netherlands. Amsterdam: NCDO.
OXFAM (2008). Getting Started with Global Citizenship: a Guide for New
Teachers. OXFAM Education http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/global-
citizenship
UNESCO (2015). Global Citizenship Education, Topics and Learning Objectives.
Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
© Royal Van Gorcum

1.8.3 Global Citizenship Competencies
There are several approaches to Global Citizenship. They roughly share these
competencies:
• An attitude for understanding multiple identities and collective identity.
28 Intercultural sensitivity – to have empathy, solidarity and respect for diversity.
• Knowledge and cognitive skills. On global issues and universal values – to think
critically and creatively about global, regional, national and local issues and see
the interconnectedness. To have a multi-perspective approach.
• Non-cognitive skills and behaviour: social skills, communication skills and
aptitudes for networking.
• To act collaboratively for the collective good at local, national and global levels
for a more peaceful and sustainable world.
Illustration 1.7 Global Citizenship education encourages the development of social skills,
communication skills and aptitudes for networking.
Illustration 1.8 Global Citizenship Behaviour: to act collaboratively, responsibly to find global
solutions for global challenges and to strive for the collective good.
1
1.8.4 What does it mean in practice?
A Global Citizenship attitude includes understanding multiple levels of identity.
It creates room for a ‘collective identity’. This transcends individual, cultural,

religious, ethnic or other differences. Case 1.8.4 is a real life example of this attitude 29
in practice, in Ghana.
On knowledge of global issues, students can take part in dialogues about universal
values such as justice, equality, dignity and respect. They can explore Human
Rights and Children’s Rights. They can study global topics through projects
together with students from other countries through school linking, or in Europe,
through eTwinning, a platform for electronic communication between students at
schools in Europe. (eTwinning, https://www.etwinning.net/). Or through real-life
student exchange. Contact between students in different countries will enhance
their sense of interconnectedness between the local, national and global. Studying
Intercultural Communication and cultural models will contribute to their multi-
perspective approach.
On skills and behaviour, Global Citizenship education encourages the development

of social skills, communication skills and aptitudes for networking. To act
collaboratively for the collective good at local, national and global levels for a more
peaceful and sustainable world.
In practice, these skills can be taught in language classes, enhanced through

twinning projects with schools in other countries, as well as with schools in other
areas in the community. Students can be in dialogue with different cultural groups
in the society. In regions that are at war, communication skills can focus on Peace
Education. On a local school level, Peace Education can teach students how to react
in cases of bullying, how to resist standing by or tagging along with bullies, and it
can empower students to behave in solidarity with the bullied and take action.
Through art projects, music and sports, students practice collaborative behaviour.
A switch from competitive to collaborative behaviour as in illustration 1.8 makes a
world of difference.
© Royal Van Gorcum
Case 1.8.4 Global Citizenship Attitude in Ghana:

multiple levels of identity that transcend individual,
cultural, religious, ethnic or other differences.
A Dutch Trainer at a Workshop for 60 teachers in Tamale, Ghana.
30 Situation:
Frits is a senior programme advisor for Edukans, a Dutch Development
Organization that helps give children and young people in developing
countries the best opportunities in completing their primary education. He
is giving a workshop for 60 Ghanaian teachers in Tamale, Northern Ghana.
Half of the audience is Muslim, the other half Christian, the organization he
is giving the training for is a Catholic foundation, and he himself is Dutch
and a member of the Dutch Protestant Church (PKN).
Problem:
Normally, the trainer is expected to start the day with an opening prayer.
It is past 9:00 a.m.
Frits: “As I look around at the participants, a problem arises in my mind. I
know the official Catholic background of the organization, and I also see
Muslim participants sitting in the training hall, all greeting me with friendly
smiles.
I can’t just stand here and pray my way, can I? What should I do? I decided
to ‘just’ go ahead, welcome everyone and get on with the workshop.
At the end of the training day, I received a very positive evaluation, but there
was just one little tip for improvement:
‘We are used to starting the day with a prayer and to end with a prayer of
thanks’, said one of the participants. ‘Would you consider that tomorrow?’
‘Sure’, I said and wished everyone a safe trip home.
Meanwhile, with my Dutch Protestant Church background, I scratched my
head, and decided to ask the local organiser what to do. ‘How should we
pray tomorrow? To Whom?’
My Ghanaian co-organizer looked at me and laughed.

‘Easy’, he said. ‘We always ask for a volunteer to lead in prayer. When a
Muslim comes forward and prays to Allah for a meaningful workshop in the
morning, then a Christian will pray to God in the afternoon to give thanks for
that meaningful training. Or the other way around.
Is that so complicated?’
Their ‘collective identity’ as teachers and educators, dedicated to giving all

children the best primary school education, transcended their cultural,
regional and religious differences.”
Case by Frits Kruiswijk, Edukans Senior Programme Advisor.

1
In this chapter we have defined culture, intercultural communication, the TOPOI

intervention for cultural noise, and Global Citizenship. We have identified layers of
culture and distinguished artefacts of culture from norms and values and basic
assumptions. We have explored the cultures and subcultures that helped shape our
identity. And we can be comfortable with multiple identities that transcend
individual and cultural differences. 31
In the next chapters, we will define basic assumptions. But first, we would like you
to take the first step in intercultural communication by identifying your cultural
programming and your cultural groups. You can do this with the following
assignments, preferably with a student from another culture, subculture, gender
or age, or you can try to do them on your own. Discover the differences as well as
similarities between students from other cultures.
© Royal Van Gorcum

1.9 Assignments
1 Culture
32 Take a blank sheet of paper. Write “Culture” right in the middle of the paper and
circle it. Think of ‘Culture’. What jumps into your mind? Write down everything
that enters your mind. Don’t worry if it’s wrong or right, don’t judge. Keep writing
till you’ve filled the page. Till nothing else pops up in your mind. Till nothing else
flows out of your pen. (Adapted from the module Intercultural Communication,
KIT, Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam)
2 Layers of culture (I)
Take three different coloured highlight markers, say green, yellow and orange.
Take the result of assignment 1. Highlight everything on that page that is tangible,
or an artefact of culture, in orange. Use the yellow highlighter to mark all things
related to norms and values. Is there anything on your paper that might fall under
basic assumptions? We will discuss basic assumptions in the next three chapters.
3 Layers of culture (II)
a. Give a few examples of artefacts of culture.

b. Give some examples of norms and values.
c. Can you already give an example of a basic assumption?
4 A Mind-map of Collectives and Subcultures: Understanding

Multiple Identities and Collective Identity
Work in groups of 2. In Hofstede’s definition “Culture is the collective programming

of the human mind”, the word ‘collective’ stands for group. To which ‘collectives’ or
groups do you belong? Tell each other who you are and which groups you belong
to. Talk about your family. That’s a group. About your friends, where you come
from, where you lived before, where you live now. Your neighbourhood, the cities
or countries you have lived in. Tell about your previous schools. What sports clubs,
hobby clubs or study clubs you belong to. The friends you made through those
clubs. Do you belong to a religious organization? Notice that these are all
subcultures that you are bringing to your awareness. Talk about the familiar
behaviour of the people in these groups.
1
Then make a colourful mind-map of all the cultures and influences that shaped
your identity and identities. Compare it with that of your assignment partner, and
see what the similarities are.
5 Programming 33
How were you programmed? What did you learn and from whom?
Work in groups of 2. Look at the mind-map of cultures you made in the previous
assignment. If you didn’t do that assignment, quickly make a colourful chart, or
map, of all the subcultures you belong to and compare it with that of your group
mate. What is different? What is the same?
a. Tell each other a few things that you learned at home and at school. And who
taught you.
b. Now give three examples of what was considered good behaviour. (For example,
setting the table, or clearing the table after dinner, coming home on time.)
c. How were you rewarded for that good behaviour? (With a smile, or “thanks”?)
d. What was considered bad behaviour? (For example, not saying “thank you”
when they offered you a cookie. Or not telling the truth.)
e. How was bad behaviour discouraged? Was there any punishment?
f. Name the most important thing that you received through your programming,
something that you will one day pass on to your own children.
6 Communication Noise
Work in teams of 2. Give one own example each of external noise, internal noise
and cultural noise that you have encountered yourself recently. Mention: where it
happened, when, who was involved, what happened and how.
7 TOPOI in a Medical Cultural Case: “Doctor, please don’t use the

C-word”
Carmen, a student from the Caribbean country of St Maarten, has been

accompanying her mother, Mrs Martina, regularly for medical tests at a hospital in
Amsterdam, the Netherlands. After several tests and consultation with other
experts, the specialist was getting ready for a ‘bad-news’ conversation with Mrs
Martina. While Mrs Martina was at the reception, Carmen quietly asked to see the
specialist alone.
“If it is cancer, doctor”, Carmen said, “please don’t tell my mother!”
© Royal Van Gorcum
The specialist was astonished.

“But if it is, I have to. Your mother has the right to know”, she explained. “She
should be the first to know. She can have excellent treatment.”
“Don’t you think she already knows?” Carmen replied. “Please, doctor, just don’t let
my mother hear the C-word. Say it in other words, describe it if you like. I know my
34 mother. She will take all the treatments and medication. She can persevere. But if
she hears the word cancer, she will give up.”
“It is my professional duty to tell your mother the truth.”
“Even if it ruins her motivation for recovery?”
Assignment: Use as many of the five TOPOI areas as a checklist to reflect on the
conversation. Then ask the three key questions, and the fourth question to come to
the best intervention for Mrs Martina’s recovery. Note: Take a quick look at table 2.3
in chapter 2.
a. What is the specialist’s share in the misunderstanding?
b. What is Carmen’s share in the misunderstanding?
c. What is the influence of the social environment – the norms, values and general
beliefs?
d. What is the best intervention for Mrs Martina’s recovery?
8 In which way are you a Global Citizen?
Read the definition of Global Citizenship, the competencies, and the practical
topics.
a. Describe 3 competencies (attitudes, knowledge, or skills and behaviour) you
already have that make you a good global citizen in each of these areas.
• At your college or university:
• Locally, in your town or community:
• Globally:
b. Name 3 new competencies (attitudes, knowledge or skills and behaviour) you
would like to develop, to be a good global citizen in each of these areas.
• At school or in you community:
• Locally, in your town or community:
• Globally:
2 Working with Hall’s
Key Concepts of
Cultural Differences
2.1 Communication: High and Low Context
2.2 Monochronic and Polychronic Time
2.3 Personal Space
2.4 Fast and Slow Messages
2.5 Fast and Slow Information Flow
2.6 Action Chains
2.7 Assignments
In this chapter we will show you how to use the theories by the
American anthropologists Edward Hall and Mildred Reed Hall to make
your day-to-day intercultural communication more effective. The Halls
compare culture to a gigantic, finely tuned computer. The computer
programmes work wonderfully, just as long as you do all the actions
in the right sequence. This is something you do automatically without
thinking. What happens if you skip even one single action? It won’t
work. Communicating in a different cultural setting is like working with
a computer programme that needs different action sequences. People
will say about the computer: “It doesn’t work”, or of the culture: “There
is something wrong with them.”
Of course there’s nothing wrong with the computer or with the culture.
We just need new tools to work with other programmes (and other
cultures). To start with, we need to get acquainted with our own cultural
programming and value the cultural programming of other cultures.
Edward Hall and Mildred Reed Hall use a set of six tools, called key
concepts, for more effective intercultural communication:
1. High and Low Context Communication
2. Monochronic and Polychronic Time
3. Personal Space
4. Fast and Slow Messages
5. Fast and Slow Information Flow
6. Action Chains
By the end of this chapter you will be able to make your personal and
cultural profile according to Hall’s Key Concepts.
On www.interculturalsensitivity.nl you will find links to some

images by Yang Liu Design that nicely illustrate the concepts
© Royal Van Gorcum
discussed in this chapter.

2.1 Communication: High and Low Context
All communication takes place within a certain context. But exactly how much or
how little meaning is communicated through the context itself differs from culture
to culture. We distinguish high context and low context communication. Note that
38 high or low does not mean better or worse. Both communication styles are equally
good, just different.
Illustration 2.1.
2.1.1 Low Context
In low context cultures information is communicated explicitly, with words. Words,

written or spoken, are important in communicating the message. Furthermore, in
low context communication, people prefer to structure their information into
segments, or ‘compartments’. This is called compartmentalising. Personal
relations, work, and everything else you deal with are also compartmentalised.
Information has a clear structure, but it doesn’t flow very fast, because it remains
within the compartments. Consequently, when people meet each other, they need
detailed and specific information.
chapter 2 Working with Hall’s Key Concepts of Cultural Differences
A low context culture has a preference for starting with the main point and ending
with details.
In the Netherlands, where we launched this book, the norm is to communicate low
context and explicitly. That doesn’t mean that everyone in the Netherlands
communicates in low context, but most people do. 39
2.1.2 High Context
In high context cultures most of the message is in the persons themselves and in
the context of the message (what surrounds the message). So not everything is
spelled out explicitly with words, but implicitly and often non-verbally. One word,
gesture or hint at the context is enough to understand the whole picture and
message! Context includes ‘the total picture’ such as history, social background,
relationship, status, atmosphere, time of day, the place, and the person who is
communicating. People in high context cultures live in large communities. They
have access to wide networks. Personal networks and business networks flow over
into naturally intermingling spheres. These liquid networks keep you informed of
what’s going on. So when people meet each other, there is less need for specific
background information.
A high context culture has a preference for starting with context, (which sounds
like details to low context listeners) and get to the main point later. In fact, main
points are not compartmentally separated from details, but they form one holistic
picture.
What happens if high context messages are transmitted to people accustomed to

getting their information compartmentalised and low context? Before reading on,
please do case 2.1.a, Introduction: a house.
Case 2 .1.a Introduction: a house

Take two minutes and work in pairs with a classmate or colleague. Both of
you think of a house – any house, yours or someone else’s. Take turns
describing it to each other and take one minute each.
Feedback:
Could you get a clear impression of the house your classmate described? Did
your classmate get a clear impression of yours? What was clear? What
information was missing for your classmate to get a clear picture of your
house?
© Royal Van Gorcum
Table 2.1 Results with Dutch students.
When we asked 54 Dutch students to describe a house as in 2.1.a, these

were the most frequent descriptions:
• Four walls, a pointed roof, front door, back door and four windows.
40 • A house. Two storeys, four rooms, with a south-facing garden.
• A large semi-detached house with a garage, driveway and huge garden.
The descriptions were sometimes followed by very explicit details of the

interior:
• An open kitchen, with a dining area.
• A bathroom with a bathtub and a shower.
Some continued to describe the atmosphere in great detail as well:

• When you walk in, there’s a table and a mirror.
• On your left, there’s the living room with a cosy fireplace.
These are classical low context descriptions, all starting with the main point
(a house). Details came later. And if the context was mentioned, it came at
the end (driveway, garden).
When asked whether the descriptions were clear, most students said yes.
Table 2.2 Results with international students.
When we asked a group of international students to describe a house as in

exercise 2.1.a., these were some of the answers from students from high
context cultures, respectively Kenya, Spain, Morocco, China and Japan.
• It is located in a big garden in a compound. The roof is iron. The walls
are of bricks. The floors are of cement. From the entrance you go into
the living room, and on the first floor there are some other rooms. The
kitchen is outside.
• It’s an apartment. In Barcelona, in a very nice area, not so far from the
centre. It’s not too busy and very modern.
• It is in a beautiful lane, with rows of large and very old trees. The old
couple who used to live there were famous artists. Their paintings are in
the museum. After they died, their daughter sold the house.
• There are many nice people in the house. Father, mother, grandparents.
People eat together. When I come home, the light is still on.
• In Japan we have a lot of earthquakes.
2.1.3 Misunderstanding caused by too little or too much Context
Looking back at the last five house descriptions, you can imagine that people who
are used to receiving explicit, compartmentalised and low context information can
get irritated by them. Instead of the house and its walls, the roof, and number of
rooms, they talk about Barcelona, grandparents and earthquakes! 41
On the other hand, people from high context cultures need to receive messages
within a context – human context, physical context, or historical context. They too
get irritated when people from low context cultures go straight to the point with
explicit details. When the whole context is missing, it’s hard to follow. You can’t
‘place’ it. Four walls, and a pointed roof is not a clear description. Where is this
house? In a quiet tree-lined lane? At a busy junction? Who lives in it? Is it safe
(from earthquakes)? They might also get irritated when people from low context
cultures give them information that they already know from their extensive
networks.
Too much information sounds belittling. Too little information is unclear, or makes
the recipient feel left out. Intercultural sensitivity means to be able to provide the
right amount of context and explicitness. It’s not about being either high or low
context. It’s the ability to understand and communicate high and low context. It is
the ability to hear “Japan has a lot of earthquakes”, and understand “This house has
strong foundations and walls, and a strong roof, made to withstand frequent
earthquakes”. See 2.1.6 for more strategies.
Table 2.3
“Doctors should tell their patients the complete truth about their illness”.
Agree or disagree?
In a survey among medical staff in Europe, the above question was asked.
This was the percentage of ‘agree’ responses:
The Netherlands: 98%
Belgium: 67%
Italy: 48%
(Source: SIETAR-Netherlands and AMC Amsterdam Medical Centre,

Cultuursensitief werken in de medische sector (Intercultural Sensitivity in the
Medical Branch), Amsterdam, 10 October, 2016.)
© Royal Van Gorcum
Table 2.4 sums up the characteristics of low and high context communication.
Table 2.4 Characteristics of Low and High Context Communication.
In low context communication, the message …

42 • is verbalised explicitly.
• is clearly structured, in separate ‘compartments’.
• is direct.
• is more literal (less metaphorical).
• places more emphasis on the spoken as well as written
words.
• places less emphasis on non-verbal communication.
• starts with the main point, and then moves on to details.
In high context communication, the message …

• is part of the person, thus, it is not always verbalised
explicitly.
• flows freely instead of staying within compartments.
• is indirect, aimed at not being blunt, not hurting feelings
and creating consensus.
• is coded so that you interpret it metaphorically.
• transferred non-verbally is as important as the verbal
message.
• starts with the context, circling towards the main point,
sometimes zigzags between details and main points.
2.1.4 High and Low Context Countries
High and low context are not black-and-white opposites, but relative concepts.
Furthermore, you can be high context with friends and low context at work. There
may be overlap.
Having said that, and making room for differences in subcultures, you could place
low context cultures in the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic linguistic areas. This means
North-Western Europe, North America (USA and English-speaking Canada), as
well as Australia and New Zealand.
Countries in Central and Eastern Europe are in a way ‘medium context’. Compared
to North-Western Europe, they are high context.
We find the high context cultures in Latin Europe (the French, Spanish, Portuguese,
Italian-speaking countries), countries around the Mediterranean, the Middle East,
Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania.
2.1.5 High and Low Context Subcultures 43
Within one country, there is a whole range of differences in the need for context,
depending on the regional, urban, rural, ethnic, social class, professional, gender
and generational subcultures. In the US, low context is the norm, but Latinos in
the US are more high context. In the multicultural Dutch society, people from
Antillean, Indonesian, Moroccan, Surinam or Turkish background are used to
high context at home and low context at school or work. In the end, they are good
at both high and low context communication. People in rural areas can be higher
context than in urban areas. Women often communicate higher context than men.
The older generation prefer higher context than the young. Professional culture
and corporate culture have differences in need for context.
Remember, these are generalisations. They are descriptive and not evaluative
terms. And we need to recognise individual differences from the country-norms.
Your individual experience and personal programming can make you very different
in your need for context compared to other people in your culture, gender or age
group.
2.1.6 Can we Communicate High as well as Low Context? Yes
What if you are basically low context, talking to someone high context, who just
doesn’t seem to understand what you’re explaining? Are you going to repeat it, but
simpler? That won’t help. Simplifying will just deprive him of even more context!
Try a different strategy. Start with a bit of context. Mention a place, historical
background, or your personal involvement. Now watch for the ‘Aha!’ look in his
eyes. Then you may give the explicit main points. Case 2.1.b is a real-life example
of how this works.
What if you are basically high context, and your low context listener has difficulty
following you? The more personal, historical context you add, to ‘clarify’, the more
confused he is getting. Change strategy, quick! That main point that you were
saving for the end, start with that main point right away. Say explicitly what you
mean. Don’t depend on your subtle non-verbal hints. Say it literally with words.
Spell it out. If you absolutely need to say something about the context, keep it brief.
Leave details for the end. See the real-life example in case 2.1.c.
© Royal Van Gorcum
44
Illustration 2.2.
Case 2 .1.b A Dutch student on Internship in Jakar ta

Anne, a Dutch Marketing student from Utrecht University of Applied
Sciences, is on internship at an Indonesian company in Jakarta, Indonesia.
On one of her first days at work, Anne tells her Indonesian colleagues all
about her Marketing Studies in Utrecht. She tells them it’s a 4-year study,
what subjects and projects she has, and what her career prospects are.
Nobody seems to understand what Anne is talking about. And it’s not
because of the language.
So Anne explains all over again. She adds explicit details, such as the number
of credit points she gets for each subject, and what total number of credit
points she needs to complete her main phase studies. No use. The
Indonesians are even more ‘lost’.
They’re not interested, Anne thinks, I give up. And she escapes to the canteen.
Yanti, an Indonesian intern, joins Anne for coffee. Yanti wants to know all
about Anne’s studies, and asks, “How old is Utrecht University? Is the building
old? How many students does it have? Are the lecturers friendly? How big is
Utrecht? Is it an old city? What kinds of sports are popular among students in
Utrecht? Do you like sports? Do you like salsa?” Context, context, context.
After lunch Yanti tells all her colleagues. Now everyone at work knows how 45
nice Anne is, and how interesting Anne’s Marketing studies are! Anne now
plays volleyball in Yanti’s club, and feels completely at home.
Question 2.1.b
a. Describe your studies, using low context, explicit communication.

b. Now describe it again in such a way that it would interest Yanti! So, high
context.
Case 2 .1.c A Russian Exchange Student in the United

States
When American professors ask a question in class, they expect students to
give short, to the point, explicit answers. In other words, low context. If you
give high context answers, the professors think you don’t know and are
rambling around in circles, trying to guess.
An American professor asks a Russian student, Sergey, “What are the

characteristics of low context communication?” “Thank you”, Sergey opens,
“for this very interesting question. Low and high context”, he adds, “is
terminology developed by the American anthropologists Edward and Mildred
Hall …”
“Go on”, the professor prompts.
“They wrote about it”, Sergey continues, “in their book Understanding
Cultural Differences. They describe six key concepts …”
By now, the lecturer has lost interest in the answer and has moved on.
Another student completes the answer. Sergey gets an insufficient
participation grade.
Question 2.1.c
You are Sergey’s coach. Sergey does not understand why he got an insufficient
mark for his eloquent answer, which was bluntly cut short.
a. Give Sergey a few golden tips on how to formulate his answers low
context, in order to communicate better with his American professor and
fellow students.
b. Imagine that Sergey gets a second chance to answer the question in the
© Royal Van Gorcum
case. He follows your advice. Write down how Sergey’s answer should be …”
2.2 Monochronic and Polychronic Time
Taking our personal or cultural assumptions about time for granted is one of the
greatest obstacles in intercultural contacts.
46 There are many different time systems. An important basic assumption of time is
what Edward and Mildred Reed Hall call monochronic and/or polychronic time.
(From mono, one; poly, many; chronos, time; meaning one thing at a time or many
things at a time. Not to be confused with single or multi-coloured monochrome or
polychrome with which most computer spelling-checks tend to replace
monochronic and polychronic.)
Table 2.5 Characteristics of Monochronic and Polychronic Cultures.
In Monochronic Cultures:
• You prefer doing one thing at a time.
• You concentrate on your tasks and try not to disturb
others.
• Time is linear; you take deadlines and time schedules
seriously.
• Your communication is low context.
• You need explicit information.
• You are task-oriented.
• You do your work swiftly and promptly.
• You make plans and keep to them.
In Polychronic Cultures:
• You prefer doing many things at the same time.
• Interruptions aren’t really interruptions; you can still
carry on with what you’re doing now or later.
• Time is spatial; deadlines and time schedules can be
kept to, if possible.
• Your communication is high context.
• You don’t usually need explicit information, because
that’s what your network is for, to keep you informed up
to the minute.
• You are relationship-oriented.
• How swiftly and promptly you work depends completely
on how good the relationship is.
• You make plans and change them with the greatest ease
and flexibility.
Adapted from Understanding Cultural Difference by E. Hall and M. Reed Hall, 1990.
2.2.1 Monochronic Cultures
In monochronic cultures, time is experienced linearly, as a long road leading from

the past through the present to the future. Monochronic time can easily be
segmented into blocks of time, which is what we do when we plan our time in our
business diaries. Hall and Hall call this ‘compartmentalisation’. That makes it 47
possible to concentrate on one thing at a time, and to plan time. For monochronics,
time is sacred. Things that happen according to plan are good. Time is tangible.
Monochronics talk about time as if it were money. It costs time. You can gain it,
save it, and waste it. You can even lose it. And since monochronics like to
concentrate on one thing at a time, they don’t like to be interrupted. It’s not polite
and not efficient for the gears and clockwork of monochronic progress.
Monochronics are champions in keeping deadlines.
In which countries is it the norm to keep to monochronic time? Similar to the low
context countries: the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic linguistic areas: North-Western
Europe, North America (USA and English-speaking Canada), as well as Australia
and New Zealand.
In monochronic cultures, relationships are also compartmentalised.
2.2.2 Polychronic Cultures
People in polychronic cultures live in a sea of time. Time moves spatially, in all
directions, rather than linearly. Polychronics prefer doing a lot of things at the
same time, and are more concerned with people than with planning.
It is more important to let a conversation take its natural course than to interrupt
it because you will otherwise be late for an appointment. Time is elastic. Time
adjusts itself to your needs. For polychronics time is not a tangible commodity, and
it is not the clock, says Hall, that dominates the life of polychronics.
Polychronics are perfectly capable of combining a lot of activities at once, follow

several conversations simultaneously, and do not find interruptions a problem.
Where are the polychronic countries? Similar to the high context countries: Latin
Europe, Latin America, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and
Oceania.
Central and Eastern Europe combine monochronic with polychronic time. So do

the industrialised Northern Asian countries.
© Royal Van Gorcum
2.2.3 How to Succeed by Being both Monochronic and Polychronic
Monochronic or polychronic: again one is not better or worse than the other. They
are both perfectly functioning systems. But let’s face it, they’re not compatible. But
they can be complementary. Being aware of how your cultural programming made
48 you prefer monochronic or polychronic time, and by not assuming that your
preferred time is universal, you have made a big step in intercultural sensitivity.
If you are accustomed to monochronic time, polychronics may appear to be

impolite, chaotic, and even untrustworthy. This is far from true. Before judging,
let’s discover the boundless opportunities of polychronic time. Discover the
polychronic in yourself. Take a break at work, and drop by your polychronic
colleagues or fellow students for a chat. Genuinely try to get to know them better,
let them know you better. It’s fun. And it increases your personal network and
mutual trust. And that is the very basis of polychronic efficiency. For a friend,
polychronics will do everything: even keep deadlines.
If you are accustomed to polychronic time, monochronics may seem inflexible,

inefficient, and cold. This is also far from true. Discover the efficiency of
monochronic time. And how this efficiency will result in your having even more
time to spend with your friends. Keep a business diary, use it and keep it up-to-
date. Write down all your appointments in it. Not just the person you are meeting.
Also the time and place you are supposed to meet each other. And be there, exactly
at those times. Your monochronic fellow students, colleagues and lecturers will
feel appreciated if you keep to your appointments. And it increases your mutual
trust. Monochronics feel better and more relaxed when work is finished on time,
according to schedule.
2.3 Personal Space
Besides having skin as a visible physical barrier between our bodies and the outside
world, human beings also have an invisible barrier that we consider our personal
space.
We feel uneasy when other people get too close and trespass into our personal
space. They are not keeping the correct distance. How large this personal space is
differs, depending on the situation and relationship – strangers keep a larger
distance than colleagues and acquaintances, these in turn keep a slightly greater
distance than friends and family – but it also depends on culture. In low context
countries in the north, personal space and correct distance can be quite large. This
can differ from half an arm-length in the Netherlands, more than half an arm-
length in Germany and Scandinavia, to almost a whole arm length in the USA.
Take a look around you, at people waiting at the bus stop, at the supermarket. How
far do they stand from each other? Is it half an arm length? More? Do they touch?
Probably not.
In high context countries, more to the south, personal space is smaller. People 49
stand closer in Spain, even closer in Morocco, and almost touching in Indonesia.
2.3.1 Dealing with Differences in Personal Space
How do we react when other people stand too close or too far from us? Most of us
aren’t aware that we even have a personal space, let alone how large it is. It’s one of
the basic assumptions we learned at such a young age that we take it for granted.
So our reaction to people taking the wrong distance is unconscious and automatic.
If they are too close we feel threatened or insulted, and assume the intruder is
aggressive. We automatically take a step back, which clears the air, because we have
just corrected the personal distance. If they stand too far from us, we also feel
uneasy, rejected and left out. They seem cold.
With people from our own familiar culture, profession, social class, and so on, we
know exactly what the right distance is and don’t have to think about it. When
crossing cultures the distance is new, it’s an adventure.
To be interculturally sensitive when it comes to space, it is important to be aware

that personal space is part of our cultural programming. It is not universal and we
should be aware of what our own correct space preference is. So if a person from
another culture seems aggressive or cold, it could just mean that their familiar
personal space is smaller or larger than ours.
Cases 2.3.a, 2.3.b and 2.3.c are examples.

© Royal Van Gorcum
Case 2.3.a “They stand so far away”

In his Act Normal! 99 Tips for Dealing with the Dutch, Hans Kaldenbach
advises ethnic minorities on how to interpret the correct personal distance.
Hans Kaldenbach explicitly said that his book is written in the masculine
communication style. It is aimed at ethnic minority men:
50
“Dutch people talking to you, stand further away from you than you are used
to. They think it is intrusive to stand at the normal Turkish, Moroccan or
Surinam distance. If you notice that a Dutch person you are talking to takes
a step back, then he doesn’t feel comfortable. You are too close. If a Dutch
woman thinks you are standing too close to her, she might think you have
sexual intentions.
Dutch people don’t touch each other while talking. If you do, you’ll notice
that they don’t like it. They think you are homosexual. Or they assume you
don’t know how to behave.”
From Doe maar gewoon: 99 tips voor het omgaan met Nederlanders by Hans
Kaldenbach, 2004, p. 7.
Case 2.3.b “Excuse me”

In his bestseller Dealing with the Dutch, Jacob Vossestein advises expatriate
managers how to interpret Dutch behaviour. He also wrote a Dutch version
of it, Zo werkt dat in Nederland (That’s how it works in the Netherlands),
aimed at making Dutch managers aware of how expatriate managers
interpret them.
Jacob Vossestein’s tips for Dutch managers include:

• Try to be more gallant, even to men
• Say “excuse me” (to Americans) if you accidentally almost make physical
contact.
From Zo werkt dat in Nederland by Jacob Vossestein, 1998, p. 117.
Questions for discussion
1. Why do Americans say “excuse me” if they haven’t even touched you?
(only almost touched you)
2. As they have to be explicitly advised to say “excuse me”, we assume it
isn’t the custom in the Netherlands to say this. Why is it not the custom
for Dutch people to say “excuse me” if they only accidentally almost
touch you?
Case 2.3.c Intimidation in class

This is a real case from a Dutch university in Rotterdam. Names have been
changed. Rob, a Dutch lecturer in statistics, gave students back their
corrected and graded assignments during his class. One of his Dutch
students of Moroccan background approached Rob with a question about
his grade. Rob felt very intimidated, and filed a complaint. When the student 51
in question was called to explain his behaviour to the confidential counsellor,
he was too astonished for words. Intimidation? He had no idea his behaviour
had caused Rob distress. “I only asked if he could explain my grade.”
1. Using the intercultural communication tools or key concepts from this

chapter, explain what was going on. Why did Rob feel intimidated? Why
didn’t the student realise he was intimidating?
2. Imagine that you are the interculturally sensitive confidential counsellor.
You have invited the lecturer and the student to listen to each other’s
story. They are sitting in front of you, and have each politely listened to
the other’s story. How are you going to solve this?
3. How are you going to avoid this happening again?
2.4 Fast and Slow Messages
Remember the communication model in chapter 1 about coding and decoding

messages? Fast messages are those that we can decode very quickly. Slow messages
take a longer time for the receiver to decode. The very essence of a slow message is
that it is decoded and experienced slowly. Almost everything can be placed
somewhere along the spectrum of the slow-to-high-message-speed. Fast messages
are, for example, headlines, TV commercials, emails, memos and text messages.
They are supposed to be decoded fast. Easy informality is also a fast message. Slow
messages are things like poetry, art, philosophy, TV documentaries, books and
letters. A painting by Van Gogh of a hundred years ago, is still being decoded, and
interpreted today. If someone writes you a poem or a letter, you are supposed to
absorb it slowly. Formality is also a slow message.
© Royal Van Gorcum
52

Illustration 2.3 A Slow Message, for example a Illustration 2.4 A Fast Message, for example a
book, is meant to be decoded slowly. text message, is meant to be decoded quickly.
Most of us are not even aware that we can send messages at different speeds. And
we are not aware that messages that can be fast in one culture need to be slow in
another (including the subculture of age and gender). If you send a fast message to
someone who expects a slow message, or the other way around, your message will
not be received correctly.
A stranger is slow message, because it takes time to know a person well. How slow
or fast you get to know someone differs from culture to culture. What we actually
mean is, how slowly or quickly do you release personal information?
Jaap and Patrick, two Dutch students on vacation in America, remarked, “Americans
are incredibly friendly.” In America, people are geared to faster messages and the
easy familiarity is not difficult for Americans. While on the move during their
vacation, Jaap and Patrick appreciated this form of fast message. Although the
Dutch young generation is also geared to relatively fast messages, compared to
Americans, the Dutch messages are slow. When Patrick returned to America to do
a three-month internship, he complained, “The Americans are so superficial.” He
expected deeper friendships with his American colleagues, who, friendly as they
were, regarded him as a nice acquaintance. There is nothing superficial about that.
It is just a difference in speed of messages.
When CNN started to broadcast in Europe, many Europeans said CNN news was
superficial. The news was broadcasted at the normal American speed. Nowadays,
they broadcast at a slower speed. Everything but the sports programmes. For a taste
of real fast messages try watching sport on CNN!
Message speed and easy familiarity also poses a problem when sending and
receiving e-mails (see case 2.4). The art is to watch for non-verbal as well as verbal
feedback, to check whether the message you sent is reaching its target. And to
adjust your speed, use of language and formality to the receiver’s speed.
Case 2.4 Kristian Darmanto 53

Kristian Darmanto, from Indonesia, is a student at the International Business
and Management Studies at a Business School in the Netherlands. He wants
to make an appointment with one of his lecturers, Otto van Jasperen, to talk
to him about promoting the school in Indonesia. He sends the following
e-mail.
Dear Mr Otto
It is an honour for me to address you with the following question. I would

greatly appreciate it if you would kindly make your valued time available to
me for a matter that is of great importance for the future of the school in
general, and for the internationally renowned department, IBMS, in particular.
As you know, our school is highly regarded in Indonesia for its standard of
education. And many parents would gladly advise their sons and daughters
for a future career in International Management. Thanking you in advance
for your generosity in making your time available,
With kind regards,
Kristian Darmanto
(1st year student)
Questions for discussion about context and speed of messages
1. How would Mr. Van Jasperen interpret this e-mail?

2. Why would the message completely miss the receiver?
3. The message is deeply hidden in the context. But there are clear clues in
the direction of the implicitly hinted at message (real, unwritten message:
May I make an appointment to talk to you about promoting our Business
School in Indonesia?). Could you name the context information that
clearly points in the direction of the message?
4. You are Kristian Darmanto’s classmate, and friend. Explain to him why
Mr. Van Jasperen is not going to understand this e-mail.
5. Help Kristian rewrite the e-mail so that Mr. Van Jasperen will be
enthusiastic and invite Kristian for an appointment right away.
© Royal Van Gorcum
2.5 Fast and Slow Information Flow
Besides the speed in which messages are decoded, messages can also reach their
target faster because they are unrestricted, or slower because they are trapped in
cultural barriers known as compartmentalisation.
54
Illustration 2.5 Compartmentalization.
2.5.1 Slow Information Flow
In low context countries such as the Netherlands, information is compartmentalised;

information stays within departments and doesn’t flow freely. We call this slow
information flow. People actually prefer information to remain within departments.
When they want information to be shared by other departments they organise
interdepartmental study days and other networking events. So to be informed,

people are briefed. In the USA, another low context country, information flow is
also slow because directors sit in private offices guarded by a secretary who protects
the director’s territory from information overload and prevents more information
from being shared, whether inward or outward.
55
2.5.2 Fast Information Flow
In high context countries such as China, France, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, Indonesia,
Somalia, Surinam and the Antilles, information moves about as if “it has a life of
its own”. And people live in a “sea of information” (Hall & Hall, 1990, p. 23). There
is a minimum of schedules and screening by secretaries and private offices, and a
maximum of trying to keep up-to-date on information. People move in huge
networks and share information naturally with friends within those networks. All
it takes is one visit to the coffee machine, water cooler or restroom for an employee
from one department to be up-to-date on what is happening in another department.
The lunch break is enough for news to travel between friends working at different
companies. The rest is transmitted over dinner, or at cafés.
In a way, information flows freely in the Netherlands too and people in the
Netherlands also have networks. But it is the norm to keep information
compartmentalised, controlled and planned. More cross-departmental information
sharing would be seen as unprofessional gossip.
Case 2 .5 Friends Forever!

Three Chinese students had been friends since their first year of studies in
electronic engineering. They lived together in one student-house, had meals
together and studied together. If one was ill, the other two shared their
lecture notes with him. If one had problems, the other two helped. But when
it was exam time, they competed for the highest marks. After graduation,
one was appointed to work at Philips in China, the second at Sony – China
and the third at Samsung – China.
Question for discussion
What could you expect to happen here, from the point of view of information
flow?
© Royal Van Gorcum
2.6 Action Chains
An action chain is the sequence of events in which people work together to achieve
a goal. If one step of the sequence is omitted, rushed, delayed, or performed by the
wrong person, you will not achieve the goal. Everything we do has its established
56 action chains. Enrolling for a study, opening a bank account, reserving audio-visual
equipment at school, returning a malfunctioning cell phone, making an
appointment with your supervisor, or asking friends over for dinner.
The steps in the action chain can be technical, such as enrolling for your studies.
But they can also be so generally accepted, such as how to make an appointment or
invite someone for dinner, that we are unaware of the action chain. Until we
unconsciously apply the same action chain in a multicultural setting, which
requires more (or fewer) steps, and different players. If we don’t achieve our goal,
we are tempted to blame the other culture. It is more effective to question the
sequence of our action chains, and renew them.
Case 2.6 Exam Action Chains. The Exam Board and

Exam Post-Registration
Context:
At most universities all over the world, students have to register for the
classes they wish to attend. Once registered, they are entitled to do the
exams as well. At many universities in the Netherlands, however, there is an
interesting tradition. Students need to register for the classes, and several
weeks later, they also need to register for the exams related to these classes.
There is a reason. Administration needs to know how many exams to print.
If you don’t register, you may not do the exam. Under special circumstances,
the school’s Exam Board may grant a student permission to do an exam
anyway. The Exam Board then ‘post-registers’ a student – which means exam
registration after the closing date.
Case:
At an international department of a University of Applied Sciences in the
Netherlands, members of the Exam Board were complaining about the huge
number of international students who forgot to register for their exams. After
the closing date for exam registration, the Exam Board was swamped with
letters from international students requesting the Exam Board to post-
register them for the exams. The Exam Board spent hours rejecting the
requests, pointing out that it was the students’ responsibility to register on
time, by themselves. The students were horrified. They called it a useless
tradition. They were enraged by the lack of understanding for the loss of time
this was causing them. Not to speak of the costs of delaying their exams till
the next term.
It doesn’t take a genius to solve this problem. Especially when knowing

about action chains.
1. Describe the action chain for doing an exam at a University of Applied
Sciences in the Netherlands (every step needed).
2. Ask a student from outside the Netherlands to describe all the necessary
steps, or action chains needed for someone to do an exam in his or her 57
country.
3. Use the difference in action chains to explain why the Exam Board has
this problem, all year, every year.
4. Suggest a solution (don’t forget to include knowing how many exams to
print).
We have discussed six key concepts by Edward Hall and Mildred Reed Hall, and
illustrated them with examples from students’ and lecturers’ real-life experiences.
Your next step is to do the assignments in 2.7: making your cultural profile
according to the basic assumptions or key concepts by E. and M. Hall.
© Royal Van Gorcum

2.7 Assignments – Cultural Profile according to Hall’s Key

Concepts.
1 Do you communicate high or low context?

58
Look at your description of a house, at the beginning of this chapter. Would you
classify yourself as high, medium or low context? Place an I in the space for
yourself. Place a C in the space for most people in your culture. You may differ
from your cultural norm.
Low Context Medium context High Context
2 Are you Monochronic or Polychronic?
Place an I for yourself and a C for most of the people from your culture below:
Monochronic Medium mono- and Polychronic

polychronic
3 How large is your personal space?
Stand next to a fellow student and talk about the meals at the school canteen. How
much space is there between you? Repeat this with 2 or 3 other students or
colleagues. Mark I for yourself. Watch how close people from your culture stand.
Mark a C for them.
1 arm ¾ arm ½ arm a bit less ¼ arm less than touching

length length length than length ¼ arm
½ arm length
length
4 Are you accustomed to fast or slow messages?
Place an I for yourself and a C for most of the people from your culture below:
Fast Medium Slow

59
Always Almost Usually Medium Medium Usually Almost Always
fast always fast fast slow slow always slow
fast slow
5 Action Chain Awareness
a. Choose one goal from the list below, and describe the action chain in detail.
b. Ask someone from a different country, or who has lived in another country, to
describe the action chain sequence for that goal in that other country.
c. Imagine you were living in that country. Cross out in red the sequences that are
too many. And write in red the sequences that are missing in your action chain.
d. Write a conclusion to this action chain awareness.
Goals:
1. Enrolling for a study
2. Opening a bank account (current or savings account, whatever you choose)
3. Reserving audio-visual equipment at your school
4. Returning a malfunctioning cell phone
5. Making an appointment with your supervisor
6. Asking a friend over for dinner
© Royal Van Gorcum

3 Working with
Kluckhohn’s Variations
in Value Orientations
3.1 Dominating, in Harmony with or
Subjugated to Nature
3.2 Past, Present and Future Orientation
3.3 Doing or Being Cultures: Task or Relation
Orientation
3.4 Individualism and Collectivism
3.4.1 Individuals, Collateral Groups and
Hierarchical Groups
3.4.2 Individualism, Collectivism and
David Pinto’s F- and C-Cultures
3.5 Is Space Private or Public?
3.6 Human Nature
3.7 The Three-Step Method by Pinto
3.8 Assignments
This chapter will present the studies done by cultural anthropologist
Florence Kluckhohn. We will give you practical examples of how to
illustrate the way cultures differ on six basic assumptions, or six
Variations in Value Orientations. And we will give you tools to bridge the
differences, using a Three-Step Method developed by David Pinto.
Edward Hall and Mildred Reed Hall, of chapter 2, placed emphasis on

cultural differences in communication. Kluckhohn’s starting point is
that all people, all over the world, and throughout the ages, have had to
deal with a number of problems in order to survive. People all over the
world have to eat, dress and find shelter. They have to communicate with
each other. How do they stay healthy? How do they educate their young?
How do they organise their government? They have a limited number of
choices to deal with these problems. In every culture there are several
alternatives, but people prefer certain alternatives over others.
© Royal Van Gorcum
3.1 Dominating, in Harmony with or Subjugated to Nature
How do you manage your day-to-day problems? Dominating, in harmony with or

subjugated to nature?
62 In nature-dominating societies, people survive by changing the environment to

meet their needs. They solve their problems systematically.
In societies that are in harmony with nature, people survive without drastically
changing their environment. Some problems they change and solve, some they
don’t. And so they survive by accepting some of their problems and develop
strategies to adapt to their environment.
In societies that are subjugated to nature, people completely accept their situation,
and this is their preferred survival strategy.
Illustration 3.1 A nature-dominating solution to living on land that is below sea level. Windmills to
pump the water out; dykes to keep the water out once and for all.
On www.interculturalsensitivity.nl you will find a link to an image by Yang

Liu Design that also nicely illustrates this concept.
Let’s take agriculture as an example. A nature-dominating way to grow crops would

be in greenhouses (where you are master of the climate and the seasons), to use
chapter 3 Working with Kluckhohn’s Variations in Value Orientations
chemical or biological manure (and thus are master of the fertility of the earth),
fight aphids and greenflies with chemical or organic pesticides.
An in-harmony-with-nature way to is to grow the right crops on the most suitable
type of soil, in the right season. To apply crop rotation, green manure, natural pest
control, and other ways of cooperating with nature.
Subjugated-to-nature agriculture lets nature be the master, by planting what grows 63
best on the available soil. This too can be very successful.
Here is another common problem: a leaking tap. In nature-dominating cultures,

leaking taps will quickly irritate, so you call the plumber or try and fix the tap
yourself. Leaking taps are not likely a source of irritation if you are from an in
harmony-with-nature culture. You might just place a bowl under the tap, and forget
about it. Or you might decide to fix it.
There’s not only the natural environment we have to deal with, but also our
business, social, political and other environments. A conflict with a colleague at
work? Talking it over with your colleague, and solving the conflict would be the
obvious thing to do in nature-dominating cultures. In in-harmony-with-nature
societies, you would tend to ignore the conflict. It’ll blow over.
Dominating, in harmony with or subjugated to nature, one isn’t better than the
other. They are all effective ways of surviving. But they are very important
assumptions to be aware of, especially in the Netherlands, where we wrote this
book.
Illustration 3.2 An in-harmony-with-nature solution to living on land below sea level. Houses
in Thailand/Malaysia/Indonesia built on poles right in the water. The problem is not removed;
people adjust their lives to the problem.
© Royal Van Gorcum
The Netherlands is nature-dominating (see illustration 3.1), and we see this as

something positive. A lot of foreigners in the Netherlands complain that the Dutch
are always so busy solving problems that they’re constantly looking for problems
that aren’t even there. But that’s because the Dutch are so good in problem solving,
that they anticipate problems, solve them before they arise and by doing so avoid
64 them. The major horror for Dutch people working abroad is to see houses with
their paint peeling off the walls, light bulbs missing from lamp fixtures, rusted
cars, and other problems that they could so easily fix. “Why doesn’t someone do
something!”
3.2 Past, Present and Future Orientation
A society can be mainly past-oriented, present-oriented or future-oriented. It can

also be a combination of all three. This can have a great impact on what you
consider to be reasonable time-planning, while others find it much too soon or too
far in the future.
In past-oriented cultures, people evaluate plans according to how well they fit with
their traditions. People are inspired by historical events. Relating to the past is an
indication of the importance of a matter. In present-oriented cultures, plans are
made for the short-term. Traditions and events from the past may also be important,
but you don’t dwell on them for too long. Living for the moment is central in
present-oriented cultures. Future-oriented cultures are goal-oriented. That goal
may lie in the near, far or distant future. Time-orientation can vary between cultures
(see country-time-orientations in illustration 3.3). One of the reasons why Western
companies fail when forming joint ventures in Russia, is their disinterest in the
Russian history and Russian past. A missed opportunity.
But there are also differences within the same culture, between people of different
professions, regions and age groups. Economists in the Netherlands are more
future-oriented than people in other professions. They use future-orientation in
making cost-benefit analyses to predict what impact government policies will have
in the next five or ten years.
65
Illustration 3.3 Time-orientation.

Illustration from Riding the Waves of Culture by F. Trompenaars and C. Hamden Turner, 2008
p. 127.
3.3 Doing or Being Cultures: Task or Relation Orientation
Are you efficient because you are task-oriented or people-oriented?
In doing cultures, people are task-oriented and ‘live to work’. The USA is a doing
culture. So is Germany. The Netherlands is too, but slightly less extreme. Australia
and China are also examples of doing cultures.
In being cultures, people are more relationship-oriented, and ‘work to live’.

Indonesia, the Caribbean, Surinam, Turkey, Morocco, Spain and Mexico are a few
examples of being cultures.
This basic assumption has an enormous impact on how people experience their
work. In doing cultures, people set goals and take action. They set parameters to
measure and evaluate the outcomes of their action. They feel highly motivated by
a job well done. Managers motivate their staff by offering promotion, personal
growth opportunities, a raise in salary, more responsibilities, extra vacations or
other forms of recognition. It is no surprise that a doing culture as the US produced
motivation theorists such as Maslov and Hertzberg (see Herzberg’s Theory in
table 3.1).
© Royal Van Gorcum
In being cultures, people, events and ideas flow spontaneously (Adler, 2002, p. 29).
Being people are highly motivated by the enjoyment of being with friendly
colleagues. A raise in salary is welcome, but does not necessarily lead to increased
effort. Employees may even decide to work less, because after getting a raise, you
can earn the same as before in fewer hours. Managers can encourage their being-
66 oriented staff to make greater effort by being caring and considerate. If employees
don’t enjoy their work or colleagues, they quit.
Table 3.1 Theory of Herzberg.
Illustration 3.4.
According to Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory (1991) employees

are motivated by internal factors such as the work itself, responsibilities,
promotion and personal growth.
External factors such as friendly colleagues, salary, and nice supervision are
okay to keep you going, but fail to energise, satisfy or motivate you.
Well, that may be true in doing cultures, such as the USA, but only in a few
segments in being cultures, if at all.
3.4 Individualism and Collectivism
How do we relate to our fellow humans? What is the best form of social organization?
Kluckhohn distinguishes individual and group societies, with some groups being
hierarchical and others collateral or more egalitarian. We have chosen to use the
more widely used terms individualism and collectivism.
3.4.1 Individuals, Collateral Groups and Hierarchical Groups

67
Individualism
The Netherlands, Germany and the USA are examples of individual-oriented
countries. Individual independence and equal rights are highly priced values. In
individual cultures you define yourself with personal achievements – your own
name, what you study, or what your job is – and you are concerned with your own
welfare and that of your direct family members, rather than with the larger group.
In individual-oriented cultures, parents teach their children at a very young age to

be I-oriented and independent. Tie up your shoelaces yourself, help clear up the
table, and earn your own money. You are respected for your individuality. At school
and university, teachers encourage students to study by themselves, solve problems
themselves, and write papers in their own words, express their opinions. Depending
on others for help is a sign of immaturity
Collectivism
Collective societies value inter-dependence, a sense of belonging to and
responsibility towards the group.
In a collective society, you define yourself as member of a community, referring to
your father, mother or grandparents’ names as well as yours. You refer to their
professions as well as yours. Your welfare is one with the group’s welfare. By saying
“family” you mean the extended family. Your reference group includes classmates
and neighbours.
In collective societies children learn to be we-oriented. Interdependence on each

other is so highly valued that the word ‘individual’ is a synonym for egoist. Someone
who does things on his own is pitiful, or a misfit. People enjoy asking each other
for help (see table 3.2).
Kluckhohn distinguished hierarchical and collateral groups. In hierarchical

groups, people feel that there is a natural order with some born to lead and make
decisions; and others to follow. In collateral groups everyone in the group shares
making the decisions. What is important is not making decisions alone, a group
decision is better.
Needless to say, individualism and collectivism are both just as good. They each have
their strengths as well as weaknesses. Successful organisations use individual and
© Royal Van Gorcum
collective values in defining their vision and mission. They reward employees for
collective behaviour (team work, coaching new employees, supporting colleagues) as
well as for individual behaviour (taking initiative, creating new concepts).
Table 3.2 An example of a clash between individualism and collectivism in one family.
68
Illustration 3.5.
After studying in the Netherlands for six years, Manuel from Bolivia returns
to Cochabamba. As family members from all over town gather at Manuel’s
Welcome Home Dinner, Manuel proudly tells all about his experiences:
learning Dutch, working nights to pay his tuition, studying on his own,
fixing leaking taps by himself and even cooking his own meals!
His aunt’s comment wiped the smile right off his face.
“What?” she gasped. “Cooked your own meals? Studied on your own?
Didn’t you have any friends? What is wrong with you? Why didn’t anyone
want to study with you?”
“Why work evenings?” his uncle asked in disappointment. “Why didn’t you
tell us you needed money? You have family. We could have helped you!”
“Son”, his mother asked after the guests had left, “did you have to
embarrass your father and myself on your first evening home? As if we
couldn’t help pay for your studies!”
3.4.2 Individualism, Collectivism and David Pinto’s F- and C-Cultures
David Pinto’s F- and C-cultures are strongly related to the value orientation
Individuals and Groups/Collectivism. We present a short introduction to Pinto’s
work in table 3.3, and apply his Three-Step method in an assignment in table 3.5.
69
Table 3.3 David Pinto’s F- and C-Cultures, Double Perspective and New Perspective.
F- and C-Cultures: Fine-Mesh and Coarse-Mesh Structures

David Pinto’s categorisation is based on “the underlying structure of
rules of interaction and communication codes” rather than on cultural
dimensions. (Pinto, 2000, p. 37) He distinguishes a continuum of
structures with at one end fine-mesh structures: societies with a tight
structure of detailed rules and codes to obey, and at the other end coarse-
mesh structures: societies with a loose structure of general rules and
codes. M-structures (mixed structures) lie in between.
In F-structure cultures, people see themselves as members of a group.

Individuals share responsibilities with other members of the group. (Pinto,
2000, p. 41)
In C-structure cultures, people see themselves as individuals, value
personal freedom and personal responsibility.
What causes countries or societies to be closer to the F- or the C-end? Pinto

points out four determinants: economic, religious, social and individual
factors. In economically less advantaged environments, membership of a
group increases your survival, so you will submit to stricter group rules and
codes of behaviour as in fine-mesh cultures. For people living in a religious
environment, compliance with rules is an important factor of identity and
survival. Social factors, such as wanting to belong to a peer group, also
involves obeying strict social rules such as wearing the right clothes, brands
and styles – regardless of economic factors. Finally, the individual factor,
your personality, can be the reason why you prefer living according to strict
rules, or just the opposite, to live by few and flexible rules.
© Royal Van Gorcum
Double Perspective and New Perspective

Double Perspective is the ability to look at a situation from two different
points of view: yours as well as the others. This is a great advantage
in intercultural settings, and can be developed through the Three-Step
Method. (Pinto, 2000, p. 172)
70
After developing the Double Perspective, an even greater gain is developing
the New Perspective, which means deviating from the usual form of
behaviour, to do justice to diversity, without any of the individuals involved
having to give up their own norms and values. (Pinto, 2000, p. 174)
The Three-Step method is explained in table 3.5.
3.5 Is Space Private or Public?
Cultures differ in their use of physical space. At one end of the spectrum, there are
cultures where a lot of space is private. Your own room, desk, car. At the other end
there are cultures where a lot of space is public, and very little is private. In between
the two extremes you’ll find cultures with some private and some public space.
As a student, can you just walk in your lecturers’ offices? Do you have to wait
outside till they say “Come in”? Is entrance restricted to walk-in hours?
In Northern Europe and North America, people value private space, and private
offices. Even if you share an office, you like to have physical or visual partitions
between the desks. There is nothing good or bad about this. It’s a preference.
Private space also communicates a message of respect. People who are seen as
important have very much private space, or even a private office.
In Asia, space is more public. In many Asian countries, offices are open and shared
by many employees, open-plan offices. Directors may have separate offices. But in
Japan, superiors often sit in the same large office as the employees. But they do of
course have the place of honour, such as the seat facing the door and farthest from
the door, or with other symbols of rank.
What people consider private domain and public domain can differ greatly per
country, but also according to other subcultural differences such as gender. Men
may see opening someone’s handbag as, well, just opening a handbag. But to
many women this is a tremendous breach of privacy.
Table 3.4 Private space exercise.
Try doing the following private territory test with someone from another
culture or gender!
• Mark an X for the areas and objects in the first column that are out-of
bounds (without your special permission) for the people in the first row 71
below.
• Compare your answers.
• Discuss the differences.
These places and objects marked X are out of bounds for...
My My My best My An A
Girlfriend mother friend colleague acquaint- stranger
Boyfriend or fellow ance
or Partner student
Kitchen
Toilet
Handbag
Car
Desk drawer
Fridge
Cell phone
© Royal Van Gorcum
Adapted from Culturele Waarden en Communicatie in Internationaal

Perspectief by Claes and Gerritsen, 2002, p. 79.
3.6 Human Nature
Are humans basically good, basically evil or a mix of both?
Societies that believe that people are basically evil have a tendency to distrust people.
72 People live in houses with locked doors. This value is reflected in theory X management,
where managers believe that subordinates basically dislike work, so they must be
controlled, supervised and punished in order to perform (McGregor, 2006).
Societies that see people as basically good are high-trust-societies. People don’t lock
the doors of their houses. Managers prefer theory Y management, assuming that
employees are basically responsible for their work and are innovative (McGregor,
2006). So the most effective way to work is by sharing responsibilities and decision-
making with the employees, rather than controlling them.
Societies that see people as a mix of good and evil believe in the possibility for
people to improve through training.
Although this value doesn’t necessarily apply to one specific country, it can help
explain differences in behaviour within societies. Kluckhohn herself did not
identify countries. Canadian interculturalist Nancy Adler mentioned the Puritans
as an example of those who see people as basically evil. She sees Americans as
viewing people as a mix of good and evil. She calls the Inuit in Canada (still referred
to by many as Eskimos) examples of people who see humans as being basically
good (Adler, pp. 23-24).
Example: The Inuit in Canada Set Doors Ablaze

Perhaps because people fear the unknown, they frequently tend to assume
that evil intentions motivate foreigners’ behaviour. Canadian government
officials, for example, thought that Inuit, a native people, were evil when they
burned down the doors in Canadian-built public housing projects. The
officials misinterpreted the Inuits’ behaviour as vandalism, and therefore
judged it to be evil. Whereas the Inuit had actually altered the houses to fit
their normal – doorless – lifestyle.
The Canadian government condemns the destruction of property.
The Inuit condemn closed doors that separate people from family members
and neighbours.
How would you solve the case above? Try Pinto’s Three-Step Method,
presented in table 3.5 below.
From International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior by Adler, 2002.

3.7 Pinto’s 3 Step Method
In table 3.5 we present Pinto’s -Three-Step Method as a way of solving intercultural

communication obstacles, and for gaining cultural advantage.
Read the Three-Step Method below.
73
Table 3.5 Pinto’s Three-Step Method
What are the obstacles for good intercultural communication? (Pinto, 2000,
p. 172)
1. We are not aware of our own norms, values and rules that we learned
during our own socialization, so we interpret what we see around us
from our limited perspective.
2. We tend to attribute our own norms, values and perception to other
people. (Projection, so to speak.)
3. We are not able to make our own wishes and limitations clear to each
other, as we are not familiar with the other people’s communication
codes, norms and values.
To overcome those 3 obstacles, the Three-Step Method involves, in Pinto’s

words:
“Step 1. Getting to know one’s own norms and values and behaviour codes.
Which rules and codes influence one’s own ways of thinking, acting and
communicating?
Step 2. Getting to know the norms, values and behaviour codes of the other
party.
(…) the opinions about the behaviour of the other party should be separated
from the facts. What is the meaning of the ‘unusual’ behaviour of the other
party?
Step 3. Determining how to deal with the observed differences in norms,

values and behavioural codes in the given situation. Each party should
establish the extent to which he is willing to adjust and accept the
behaviour of the other party. These limits should be made clear to the other
party (…) in a way that is consistent with the communication codes of that
party.”
(Pinto, 2000, p. 173)
© Royal Van Gorcum
The 3 Step method applied to the example in 3.6, The Inuit in Canada Set
Doors Ablaze
Step 1
74 Step 2
Step 3
In this chapter, we have discussed the basic assumptions, or Variations in Value

Orientations, according to Kluckhohn. And we have linked them to Pinto’s F- and
C-Cultures. These value orientations are by no means static. They can vary within
a country, depending on context (private or business), gender, profession, or even
on personal preference.
Now it is time for the third step on your path to intercultural sensitivity: discover
your personal basic assumptions based on Kluckhohn’s value orientations, by
doing the assignments in 3.8.
3.8 Assignments
1 Your cultural profile according to Kluckhohn
Are you more doing or being? How do you solve your day-to-day problems? By 75
dominating nature or acting in harmony with it? These are not absolutes, but can
vary in intensity. Mark an I for yourself, and a C for the norm in your country.
Dominant or In Harmony with Nature

Dominant In Harmony Subjugated
Doing or Being
Doing Being
Individual or Collective
Individual Collective
Past, Present and Future Orientation

Past Present Future
Private and Public Space

Mostly private Mostly public
Are humans basically good or evil

Basically good Basically evil
2 Solving a Cultural Misunderstanding
Think of a situation you have been in, where a misunderstanding happened

between you and someone of a different culture. Could you now explain what went
wrong, using Kluckhohn’s Variations in Value Orientations?
3 ‘A Day in the Life of...’
Describe a typical day in the life of a student at your school.

© Royal Van Gorcum
4 Look at what you wrote for assignment 3
a. Underline all the activities that are doing, individual and dominating over
nature.
b. In what way would the day be more effective, enjoyable or less stressful, if the
76 activities were more being, collective and in harmony with nature?
5 Cultural Creativity in ‘A Day in the Life of...’
Now re-write ‘A Day in the Life of’ above, with both doing and being, individual
and collective, dominating-nature and in-harmony-with-nature aspects.
4 Working with
Hofstede’s
6 Dimensions of
Culture
4.1 Power Distance
4.2 Individualism
4.3 Masculinity and Femininity
4.4 Uncertainty Avoidance
4.5 Long-term Orientation
4.6 Indulgence and Restraint
4.7 Country scores on Hofstede’s Six
Dimensions of Culture
4.8 Assignments
In this chapter we will introduce more basic assumptions using the
Dimensions of Culture by the Dutch researcher Geert Hofstede. We will
relate these to the basic assumptions from the previous chapters as well.
In the second half of the 20th century, Geert Hofstede (1991) carried
out research about values, among managers at the multinational IBM,
in more than 50 countries. Despite the respondents’ difference in
nationalities, they shared a similar professional culture and a similar
corporate culture – IBM culture. So you would expect them to answer the
questions similarly. However, there appeared to be huge differences. The
source of these differences had to be the impact of their national cultures.
Hofstede identified four areas, and later six areas in which cultures differ.
He called them the Six Dimensions of Culture. A dimension is an angle
from which you can compare a culture to other cultures.
1. Power Distance Index
2. Masculinity versus Femininity
3. Individualism and Collectivism
4. Uncertainty Avoidance
5. Long-Term Orientation
6. Indulgence and Restraint
Countries could score from 1 to 100 on each dimension. Some even
score above 100 because of statistical procedures. Later Hofstede had
the scores calculated for countries that were not included in his original
IBM study. You will find all these countries and their scores in a table in
4.7 on pages 95-97.
We will now introduce each dimension.

© Royal Van Gorcum
4.1 Power Distance
Power distance explains why we assume that it is normal that power is distributed
equally in our families, at school or at work. Or just the opposite, why we assume
that it shouldn’t be equal. In Hofstede’s words, power distance “is the degree in
80 which the less powerful members of organization and institutions (like the family),
accept that power is distributed unequally.” (geerthofstede.com/culture-geert-
hofstede-gert-jan-hofstede/6d-model-of-national-culture/, 2015)
Which countries are low in power distance? The Netherlands, to start with, that’s
where this book was first written. Parents treat their children as equals in the
Netherlands. Children are allowed to have an opinion; they may disagree with their
parents. In class, you don’t have to say, “Excuse me, may I ask a question please?”
You may just raise your hand and ask (often without even raising your hand). Your
opinion is valued in class. At work you don’t have to wait for your supervisor to give
you orders. You can just go ahead and take initiative.
Other low power distance countries are the Scandinavian countries, Germany and
the German-speaking countries, Great Britain and English-speaking countries
such as the USA, Australia, and New Zealand. Israel is also low power distance.
Which countries are high in power distance? Just across the Dutch border, in
Belgium, power distance is already a lot higher than in the Netherlands. Belgian
students studying at Dutch universities are shocked at the ease with which Dutch
students talk back at their lecturers in class, argue about their course assignments
or negotiate for later assignment deadline dates. One Belgian student said, “I was
speechless for the first six months of my studies! I was so embarrassed by my
classmates’ rudeness. But the lecturer didn’t seem to have a problem with it. Her
only problem was me – why didn’t I participate in class discussions?”
In high power distance countries, people accept it that their superiors – meaning
parents, teachers, bosses, or people older than you – have more power. Period. You
don’t argue with your parents. And you don’t answer back in class for the sake of
airing your opinion. However, it doesn’t mean you can’t give your opinion. You
can, but in a very respectful, and sometimes indirect way.
Countries in Asia, West Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe are very high in
power distance. Latin European countries such as France, Central European
countries like Poland and Czech Republic, and East African countries are between
medium and high in power distance, thus relatively higher than the Netherlands.
There are a few exceptions. Slovakia, which is in Central Europe, is very high, and
Costa Rica, which is in Latin America, is low in power distance.
chapter 4 Working with Hofstede’s 6 Dimensions of Culture
For the multi-cultural Netherlands, students with an Antillean, Indonesian,

Moroccan, Surinam or Turkish background, depending on how long they’ve been
in the Netherlands, are used to high power distance at home and low power
distance at school. Sometimes it can be hard to find the right balance of being
frank with your superiors without being rude.
81
Case 4 .1 Ekaterina lacks initiative...
Illustration 4.1.
Ekaterina is a Ukrainian student at a university of applied sciences in the

Netherlands. She is a top student, with very high marks for all her subjects
and projects. Ekaterina is now on an internship at an electrical engineering
company in Delft, Netherlands. Her lecturer and internship supervisor,
Gerard, pays the company a visit, and talks to Ekaterina’s company supervisor
and with Ekaterina.
The company supervisor, Mark, complains that Ekaterina lacks initiative.

“She doesn’t do anything!” Mark points out: “She’s lazy, insecure. I have to
tell her everything.” Gerard listens in disbelief. Ekaterina? His top student,
lazy? Ekaterina is in tears. “Yes, I wait for instructions. But everything I am
instructed to do, I have done much faster and better that the other interns. I
can’t by-pass Mark, and start doing other things without consultation.” (And
she thinks, I’m calling in sick tomorrow.)
© Royal Van Gorcum
• What are the cultural factors causing this internship conflict?

• What are the scores for Ukraine and for the Netherlands on power
distance?
82 • How would you advise Ekaterina to go about the remaining period of her
internship?
• How would you advice Mark, the company supervisor, on intercultural
sensitivity?
Example
In Indonesia, instead of different words for brother and sister, there is a
separate word for all older siblings, kakak, and all younger siblings, adik,
distinguishing their rank in the family line of command. You look up to your
kakak, follow their advice and treat them with respect. You protect your adik,
coach and care for them almost like another parent.
In some parts of Indonesia there are even two hierarchically different words
for aunt, one for your father or mother’s older sister, and another for an aunt
who is their younger sister. The same counts for uncles.
4.2 Individualism
In an individualistic society, the ties between individuals are loose. You are mainly
responsible for yourself, and for your direct, nuclear family.
In collective societies, people are part of close groups since birth. You are
responsible for your group. The groups provide protection in return for
unconditional loyalty.
What does this mean in terms of the collective programming of the human mind
discussed in chapter 1?
In individualistic cultures, children grow up in small nuclear families, with one or

both parents and one or two brothers or sisters. Grandparents, aunts, uncles and
cousins live at a distance, and contact with them is not on a regular basis. So you
are on your own. You learn to be ‘I’-oriented. And the aim of individualistic
upbringing is to make you independent. In fact, independence is one of the highest
individualistic virtues. Parents are proud of their children’s independence, from
being able to tie your shoelaces when you were 3, to earning your own money
doing newspaper rounds at age 13. It is not unusual for young people to leave their
parents’ house when they are 18 or 20.
Speaking your mind. That’s another great individualistic virtue. It means you are
honest and open. Even if you have to confront others, and if they too are good
individualists, they have learned to take criticism as nothing personal, and do 83
something constructive with it. People in individualist cultures obviously prefer a
direct, low context communication.
In collective cultures children grow up in large families, sometimes in extended

families, including grandparents or other family members. You are rarely alone.
Children automatically learn to be ‘we’-oriented, and your identity is in the group
identity. The aim of collective upbringing is to help you become a responsible
member of your group. To be ‘interdependent’ and to care for other group
members are great virtues. Group, meaning all your social networks – family,
friends, neighbourhood, hometown, classmates, fellow students at university, and
colleagues.
Keeping harmony with the people you live, work and study with is another virtue
in collective cultures. After all, if you’re never alone, you can’t risk getting into
confrontations. Speaking your mind is not such a virtue, while criticizing and
confronting is seen as downright rude. Even saying ‘no’ is such a confrontation,
that people try to soften it with a kind of ‘yes’. Others in a collective society will
right away understand this as a gentle but clear ‘no’. (See case 4.2.c.)
Does that mean people never say no, or never criticize in collective cultures? They
do, but in a subtle way, without hurting feelings. Without stepping on egos. Without
making anyone lose face. In intercultural communication we call this blurring,
and we will illustrate this in case 4.2.a. Characteristic for collective cultures is that
they prefer high context communication.
Which countries are individualistic and which ones collective? Most individual
cultures are in North America (Canada and USA), Australia and in North and
Western Europe, followed closely by Central Europe. The Netherlands – you
guessed it right – is an individualist culture. Collective cultures are most of the
countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
© Royal Van Gorcum
Case 4.2.a Blurring
84
Illustration 4.2.
In many collective cultures, you have to maintain harmony in the group. It is

not considered professional to criticize directly, and cause others to lose face.
It is professional to do this indirectly by blurring. Here are three examples of
blurring: blurring the message, blurring the sender or blurring the receiver.
Adriana, a lecturer from Argentina, a collective culture, teaches at a university

of applied sciences in Breda. Adriana is not happy about two students who
are talking, eating and drinking coffee during her lectures. Adriana would
have liked to say, “Stop talking, stop eating, or get out of my class.” But she
finds that too unprofessional and confrontational.
1. She blurs the message, by saying, “Did you miss having breakfast? Would
you like to take a break?” Students from collective cultures would take the
hint and stop talking immediately. Not only that. They would admire
Adriana’s tact.
2. She could also blur the sender by not criticizing the students directly, but
by asking the students’ coaches, to talk to them about their behaviour in
class.
3. She could blur the receiver by not picking on the two students directly,
but by addressing the class as a whole about the disturbance of talking
and eating in class in general. “Shall we all agree not to disturb the
lectures with talking, eating and drinking?”
If you were a student in Adriana’s class, how would you interpret her blurred
messages 1, 2 and 3?
Class discussion 4.2.b For-and-Against Discussion on

Plagiarism
In individual societies, great value is placed on individual performance,
privacy and originality. So at school and university, fraud and plagiarism are
severely punished. Put yourself in the shoes of people from collectivist
cultures. (For the sake of clarity, fraud and plagiarism are also forbidden 85
there.) Collectivist societies value interdependence, supporting group
members and sharing. An idea doesn’t belong to one person but is shared
by the group who nurtured the creator of that idea. In this light, using or
borrowing each other’s intellectual property has a different meaning than
pure plagiarism.
1. Split your class into two groups for a 10-minute discussion (5-minute
preparation, 5-minute discussion). One group will prepare an
individualist, hard policy against plagiarism. The second group is also
against plagiarism, but will hold a more lenient stand towards it, from a
collective, sharing point of view.
2. For and against discussions is a popular didactical form in individualist
cultures. They are too confrontational for collectivist societies to be
comfortable with. Now repeat your discussion on plagiarism, but rather
than being confrontational, exercise tact, indirectness and blurring. You
need to get your message across without hurting feelings or making
anyone lose face! (5-minute preparation, 5-minute discussion)
3. 5-minute buzz group feedback. Talk to the person next to you and evaluate
both discussions.
– What did you think, feel and do during the confrontational discussion?
– What did you think, feel and do during the indirect, blurred one?
© Royal Van Gorcum

C a s e 4 . 2 . c A T i p b y H . K a l d e n b a c h : “ Ye s ” m e a n s “ Ye s ”
86
Illustration 4.3.
‘If you ask a Dutch person something and he says “yes”, then you have an
agreement.
You might say, “yes” just to be polite, or to mean, “yes, I heard you”. Or just
to avoid an argument or conflict.
For a Dutch person “yes” means you’ve made an agreement. Dutch people
think it is terrible when foreigners say “yes” when they don’t agree. Dutch
people will usually keep their appointments, even if it’s in their disadvantage.
“Ali, can you come at 9 o’clock tomorrow?” “Yes.” “Okay, agreed.”
Questions
Is this a clear appointment for Ali? For the Dutchman?’
From Doe maar gewoon: 99 tips voor het omgaan met Nederlanders by Hans
Kaldenbach, 2004.
4.3 Masculinity and Femininity
Masculine and feminine are words from terminology that relates to social and
cultural behaviour that is associated with men or with women. That is in contrast
to the words male and female which relate to biological differences.
87
A masculine society is one where assertiveness, achievement and success are
important values. According to Hofstede, in masculine societies the emotional
gender-roles are strictly divided. Men are expected to be assertive, tough and aim at
material success, while women are expected to be modest, tender and oriented
towards quality-of-life. We, however, notice in our own studies and research that in
many masculine societies, men as well as women are assertive and competitive. In
different fields, perhaps, but competitive none the less.
Children in masculine societies learn that it is good to be the best. At school the
students with the highest marks are admired, and are highly popular. People try
hard to be ‘top of the class’. Report cards don’t only list the subjects and your marks,
but often also your class rank. Number 1 in a class of 30 or number 20 in a class of
25. Students learn to like this. Teachers aim their lessons at the best students.
When applying for jobs, you would write impressive CV’s, exaggerating, and
upgrading reality as much as you can. Whether at work, in your study or in private
life, in masculine societies, men and women are concerned with everything in
superlative form: who drives the flashiest car, who has the most expensive laptop,
who wears the latest fashion.
In feminine societies, the emotional gender roles often overlap. Men as well as
women are expected to be modest, tender and oriented towards quality-of-life. ‘Just
act normal’, as they say in the Netherlands, is a typical reflection of femininity in
Dutch society.
In feminine societies children learn to be caring. At school, of course you learn to

do your best, but that does not mean just competing for the best marks, but also
being well-balanced as a person, sociable and caring for other classmates. Students
with the best marks are not necessarily the most popular. Teachers aim their
lessons at the average students. And students aim for average marks, so they have
enough time for a well-balanced social life. Does that mean nobody has expensive
cars or flashy clothes in feminine cultures? They do. But they will often play it
down, by saying, “The car was a bit expensive, but it’s for the children’s safety.”
About nice-looking clothes: “Oh, I got them on sale.” When applying for jobs,
people write short, modest CV’s. At work, you find quite a lot of men working in
professions that used to be in women’s domains like nurse, kindergarten teacher
and stay-at-home dad.
© Royal Van Gorcum
In fact, Geert Hofstede himself is a perfect example of feminine-culture modesty.

World-famous, and in the list of top ten most frequently quoted writers in the world!
Yet he remains very modest. We had the privilege of meeting Geert Hofstede at a
congress for Intercultural Education, Training and Research. While other keynote
speakers stayed together in special areas designated for the VIPs, Geert Hofstede sat
88 with the regular congress participants, spoke softly, and made time to listen to others.
Where are the masculine cultures? Slovakia, Japan, Hungary, Austria and
Venezuela are the five most masculine countries. USA and Australia are masculine.
Other masculine countries in Europe are Britain, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland,
Poland, Italy and Belgium (Wallonia).
Where are the feminine cultures? To start with, the Netherlands and the
Scandinavian countries: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland. Belgium
(Flanders) is medium feminine.
Case 4.3
Illustration 4.4.
In several Scandinavian countries, the changing room for babies in public

toilets may well be in the men’s room rather than automatically in the ladies’
room.
In what way does this reflect masculinity or femininity?
4.4 Uncertainty Avoidance
Uncertainty avoidance is the extent to which members of a culture learned to feel

comfortable (or uncomfortable) in unstructured, unknown situations. Uncertainty
avoidance is expressed in stress about the unknown, the need for predictability and
the respect for strict formal and informal rules. This minimizes uncertain
situations. For all clarity: uncertainty avoidance does not mean risk avoidance.
What are uncertain and unpredictable situations you may encounter as a student?
Moving away from home, new regulations about exam registration, new internship 89
requirements, going on internship for the first time, going on an exchange
programme, a new lecturer, again a new project group, a vague assignment, the
new curriculum. Uncertain situations at work? A new boss, a change in policy,
mergers, acquisitions, new retirement policy, or dismissal.
In high uncertainty avoidance countries, children grow up surrounded by strict

rules about what is and what is not allowed. What is clean and what is not. They
learn at a very young age that uncertainty is a threat. At school and university in
high uncertainty avoidance cultures, students like structured lessons, and clear
assignments. Students get all stressed if they get assignments that they can
interpret any way they want. Students want to know the correct answers, and their
lecturers are supposed to give those right answers. At work in high uncertainty
avoidance cultures, employees enjoy working for the same company for a long
time. Safety and security are strong motivators. And there is a strong need for
formal work regulations. Rules are not only the written rules. They also include
unwritten, informal rules of behaviour, such as wearing the correct clothes, correct
interaction – these are also rules.
Here are some of the countries that are high in uncertainty avoidance: a lot of
countries in Latin America, for example, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay; in Europe
it’s Latin Europe, for example, France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain; the German-
speaking countries: Germany, Austria and Switzerland; countries around the
Mediterranean: Greece, Malta, Morocco and Turkey; Central Europe, for example,
Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary; Eastern Europe; in Asia it’s Japan, Korea
and Taiwan.
As students, if you’re working in a project group with students from high uncertainty
avoidance countries, say from Germany or Argentina, do your best not to bend the
rules. Work within clear structures; don’t drive them up the walls with vague
responses such as, “Oh, we’ll do that sometime later.” Be clear, “We’ll do that on
Monday.” You will be rewarded with a highly motivated and effective project team.
In low uncertainty avoidance cultures (also called uncertainty accepting cultures),

children grow up with flexible rules about what is and what is not allowed, what is
good, clean and what is not. They also learn that uncertainty is normal, and that
living life as it comes is also possible. At school and university, students in low
© Royal Van Gorcum
uncertainty avoidance cultures enjoy lessons that are less structured, discussions,
and assignments that you are free to interpret creatively in your own way. Lecturers
don’t have to explain everything; they can say, “I don’t know.”
In low uncertainty avoidance countries, there are also people who have worked for
90 the same company all their lives, but changing employers is quite normal.
Achievement, appreciation, room for personal growth and social needs – these are
motivating factors in low uncertainty avoidance countries. Of course there will also
be rules at work, but not more than basic ones.
Which countries are low in uncertainty avoidance? With the exception of Japan,
South Korea, Taiwan and Pakistan, all of Asia; Africa; the Anglo-Saxon countries.
Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands score medium-low. These are
countries where people can manage unpredictable situations well.
Case 4.4 Student-lecturer expectations

A Dutch lecturer wrote the following assignment for an international class
consisting of Dutch and German students: Write a Cultural Profile for
yourself according to Hofstede’s Six Dimensions.
Most of the Dutch students went on and did the assignment. Half of the
Dutch students did it right and passed. The other half did it all wrong, the
lecturer told them to do it again. Some tried to negotiate and bargain for a
passing mark, but finally they just did it again and then passed. Most of the
German students found the assignment unclear. They asked, “How many
pages should it be? Do you want us to explain the theory? Should it be
practical too? When should we hand it in? What are the sanctions if we hand
it in late? How do you want it?” In short, they wanted to make sure they knew
how to do it, before they started, so they would make no mistakes. The
lecturer got all irritated by the German students’ questions. The German
students lost respect for the lecturer’s lack of responsibility for sending
students off to do an assignment that had no structure, no explanation and
no formal guidelines.
Discussion:
a. How does the above case reflect the difference in uncertainty avoidance?
b. Help the teacher and students in the case above. Rewrite the assignment
description above in such a way that it leaves no room for
misunderstanding, no unknown situations.
c. How will your rewritten assignment description benefit the German
students?
d. How will it benefit the Dutch students? Would the rate of failure drop?
e. How would it benefit the lecturer?
91
Illustration 4.5.
© Royal Van Gorcum
4.5 Long-Term and Short-Term Orientation
4.5.1 Long-Term Orientation (LTO)
92 Countries high on long-term orientation value thrift and perseverance. They are
oriented to future rewards and they value saving. Furthermore, when circumstances
change, they adapt well. Long-term orientation culture programmes you to value
overcoming huge obstacles with time, strength and perseverance. (Hofstede &
Hofstede, 2005, p. 211).
In long-term oriented countries, parents teach children that perseverance leads to

results. They learn to be frugal with money. At school, students work hard, because
that will result in great future success. If you fail, it is because you haven’t worked
hard enough. And failure leads to loss of face. At work, self-discipline and
responsibility are highly valued, and free time seems to get a lower priority. When
it comes to investment, people think of returns in several years.
Illustration 4.6.
Where are the long-term oriented countries? As shown in the end-of-chapter list,
countries in East Asia: China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. But
also in Europe. Germany, Russia and several Central and Eastern European
countries are quite high on Long Term Orientation. The Netherlands, Belgium and
France are medium to high on this dimension as well.
93
4.5.2 Short-Term Orientation
Short-term oriented societies value virtues that are related to the past and the
present – for example preserving traditions, national pride, and fulfilling social
obligations. (www.geerthofstede.com, 2015)
In short-term oriented countries, children learn to achieve fast results with short
efforts. Of course they also learn to save money. But the social pressure to spend
the money is great. At school students also work hard, but success and failure are
often seen as results of luck and chance. At work people also value freedom, rights,
success and self-expression. Free time is very important. When it comes to
investment, you think of short-term returns, like in a year.
Where are the medium-short-term and short-term oriented countries? As shown

in the table, the Anglo-Saxon countries: Canada, Great Britain, the United States,
New Zealand and Australia. Many African countries, like Ghana, Nigeria and
South Africa, and countries in the Middle East, such as Iran, Iraq and Israel, are
short-term oriented. So are most countries in South and South East Asia like India,
Pakistan, and Thailand. Many Latin American countries such as Argentina,
Colombia and Mexico are short-term oriented as well.
4.5.3 A Note on the Long-Term Orientation Scores
In this 4th edition, the LTO scores differ from the ones in earlier editions of this
book. Previously, we quoted Hofstede’s long-term orientation data for the 23
countries he had scores for. He developed this fifth dimension in close cooperation
with Michael Bond at the University of Hong Kong, based on the Chinese Values
Survey (CVS) questionnaire developed by Chinese scholars. In 2010, in close
cooperation with Michael Minkov from Bulgaria, Hofstede started using new data
on long-term orientation, based on scores in the World Values Survey (WVS).
These correlated well with Hofstede’s long-term orientation scores, and provided
data for 93 countries. A great advantage. These are the scores we quote in this 4th
edition.
© Royal Van Gorcum
4.6 Indulgence and Restraint
This dimension was created in close cooperation with the Bulgarian interculturalist
Michael Minkov, who invested ten years in researching the World Values Survey
(WVS). WVS is an academic project including the social, cultural, religious, and
94 political values of 93 countries. Minkov distinguished three dimensions, one of
which was Indulgence versus Restraint.
In 2010, Michael Minkov, Geert Hofstede and Gert-Jan Hofstede published their
sixth dimension.
According to Hofstede, Indulgence stands for “a society that allows relatively free
gratification of basic and natural human drives related to enjoying life and having
fun”. While Restraint stands for “a society that suppresses gratification of needs
and regulates it by means of strict social norms”. (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov,
2010)
In indulgent societies, it is fairly easy to give in to pleasure, such as enjoying leisure

time, being with friends, spending money, and romantic relations. High scores on
Indulgence can predict high levels of feeling happy, family size and high
participation in sports. (Hofstede, SIETAR-Netherlands Workshop, 2010)
In restraint cultures, the norm is just the opposite. We see societies where pleasure
is controlled. A culture where people find it more difficult to enjoy life. Restraint
correlates with pessimism in society, with health problems, saving money, low
need for freedom of speech and with relatively high presence of police in society.
(Hofstede, SIETAR-Netherlands Workshop, 2010)
4.7 Country Scores on Hofstede’s Six Dimensions of Culture
Ctr Country Power Indi Masculinity Uncertainty Long Term Indulgence

Distance vidual Avoidance Orientation (v. Restraint)
Index ism (World Values S.)
AFE Africa East 64 27 41 52 32 40
95
AFW Africa West 77 20 46 54 9 78
ALB Albania 61 15
ALG Algeria 26 32
AND Andorra 65
ARA Arab countries 80 38 53 68 23 34
ARG Argentina 49 46 56 86 20 62
ARM Armenia 61
AUL Australia 38 90 61 51 21 71
AUT Austria 11 55 79 70 60 63
AZE Azerbaijan 61 22
BAN Bangladesh 80 20 55 60 47 20
BLR Belarus 81 15
BEL Belgium 65 75 54 94 82 57
BEF Belgium French 67 72 60 93
BEN Belgium Netherl 61 78 43 97
BOS Bosnia 70 44
BRA Brazil 69 38 49 76 44 59
BUL Bulgaria 70 30 40 85 69 16
BUF Burkina Faso 27 18
CAN Canada 39 80 52 48 36 68
CAF Canada French 54 73 45 60
CHL Chile 63 23 28 86 31 68
CHI China 80 20 66 30 87 24
COL Colombia 67 13 64 80 13 83
COS Costa Rica 35 15 21 86
CRO Croatia 73 33 40 80 58 33
CYP Cyprus 70
CZE Czech Rep 57 58 57 74 70 29
DEN Denmark 18 74 16 23 35 70
DOM Dominican Rep 13 54
ECA Ecuador 78 8 63 67
EGY Egypt 7 4
ETH Ethiopia 46
SAL El Salvador 66 19 40 94 20 89
EST Estonia 40 60 30 60 82 16
FIN Finland 33 63 26 59 38 57
FRA France 68 71 43 86 63 48
GEO Georgia 38 32
GER Germany 35 67 66 65 83 40
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GEE Germany East 78 34
GHA Ghana 4 72
GBR Great Britain 35 89 66 35 51 69
96 GRE Greece 60 35 57 112 45 50
GUA Guatemala 95 6 37 101
HOK Hong Kong 68 25 57 29 61 17
HUN Hungary 46 80 88 82 58 31
ICE Iceland 28 67
IND India 77 48 56 40 51 26
IDO Indonesia 78 14 46 48 62 38
IRA Iran 58 41 43 59 14 40
IRQ Iraq 25 17
IRE Ireland 28 70 68 35 24 65
ISR Israel 13 54 47 81 38
ITA Italy 50 76 70 75 61 30
JAM Jamaica 45 39 68 13
JPN Japan 54 46 95 92 88 42
JOR Jordan 16 43
KOR Korea South 60 18 39 85 100 29
KYR Kyrgyz Rep 66 39
LAT Latvia 44 70 9 63 69 13
LIT Lithuania 42 60 19 65 82 16
LUX Luxembourg 40 60 50 70 64 56
MAC Macedonia Rep 62 35
MAL Malaysia 104 26 50 36 41 57
MLI Mali 20 43
MLT Malta 56 59 47 96 47 66
MEX Mexico 81 30 69 82 24 97
MOL Moldova 71 19
MNG Montenegro 75 20
MOR Morocco 70 46 53 68 14 25
NET Netherlands 38 80 14 53 67 68
NZL New Zealand 22 79 58 49 33 75
NIG Nigeria 13 84
NOR Norway 31 69 8 50 35 55
PAK Pakistan 55 14 50 70 50 0
PAN Panama 95 11 44 86
PER Peru 64 16 42 87 25 46
PHI Philippines 94 32 64 44 27 42
POL Poland 68 60 64 93 38 29
POR Portugal 63 27 31 104 28 33
PUE Puerto Rico 0 90

ROM Romania 90 30 42 90 52 20
RUS Russia 93 39 36 95 81 20
RWA Rwanda 18 37
SAU Saudi Arabia 36 52 97
SER Serbia 86 25 43 92 52 28
SIN Singapore 74 20 48 8 72 46
SLK Slovak Rep 104 52 110 51 77 28
SLV Slovenia 71 27 19 88 49 48
SAF South Africa 34 63
SAW South Africa 49 65 63 49
white
SPA Spain 57 51 42 86 48 44
SUR Suriname 85 47 37 92
SWE Sweden 31 71 5 29 53 78
SWI Switzerland 34 68 70 58 74 66
SWF Switzerland 70 64 58 70
French
SWG Switzerland 26 69 72 56
German
TAI Taiwan 58 17 45 69 93 49
TAN Tanzania 34 38
THA Thailand 64 20 34 64 32 45
TRI Trinidad and 47 16 58 55 13 80
Tobago
TUR Turkey 66 37 45 85 46 49
USA U.S.A. 40 91 62 46 26 68
UGA Uganda 24 52
UKR Ukraine 86 14
URU Uruguay 61 36 38 100 26 53
VEN Venezuela 81 12 73 76 16 100
VIE Vietnam 70 20 40 30 57 35
ZAM Zambia 30 42
ZIM Zimbabwe 15 28
Source: http://geerthofstede.com/research-and-vsm/dimension-data-matrix/, 2015.
© Royal Van Gorcum
4.8 Assignments
1 Your Cultural Profile According to Hofstede’s Six Dimensions of

Culture
98
What are your basic assumptions according to Hofstede’s model? Are you low or
high in power distance, masculine or feminine? Mark an I for yourself, and a C for
the norm in your country.
High or low in power distance

Low High
Individual or collective
Individual Collective
Masculine or feminine
Masculine Feminine
High or low in uncertainty avoidance

High Low
High or low in long-term orientation

High Low
High or low on Indulgence

Indulgent Restraint
2 The Curriculum Vitae
Work in pairs. You are a student applying for several internship opportunities
abroad. There are two interesting internship opportunities: one at a company in
Sweden, the other at a company in the United States.
a. Each of you writes a short CV to send to the Swedish company. Write it modestly 99
so that it will be regarded well in a feminine country.
b. Read your partner’s CV.
c. Now prepare to rewrite it for the American company. Advise each other on what
you should change to make it more suitable for a masculine, assertive,
achievement-oriented culture as the USA. (Don’t make things up, but practise
saying the same things in more superlative terminology, using more powerful
words. Be proud of yourself, and be proud to tell about your successes.)
d. Write your new CV to send to the American company.
© Royal Van Gorcum

5 Cultural Synergy:
Trompenaars’
7 Dimensions
and Cultural
Reconciliation
5.1 Universalism and Particularism. Rules or
Relationships?
5.2 Individualism and Communitarianism
5.3 Emotions: Neutral and Affective
5.4 Involvement: Specific and Diffuse
5.5 Status: Achieved and Ascribed
5.6 Time
5.7 Attitudes towards the Environment
5.8 Reconciliation: from Vicious Circle to
Virtuous Circle
5.9 Three Steps to Cultural Synergy
5.10 Assignments
In the previous three chapters, we worked with three classic intercultural
studies: Hall’s 6 Key Concepts, Kluckhohn’s 6 Variations in Value
Orientations and Hofstede’s 6 Dimensions. In this chapter, these and
an impressive range of other academic studies are brought together in
a very modern and dynamic approach by Trompenaars: the 7 Cultural
Dimensions. The first five of these cultural dimensions are concerned
with how we relate to our fellow humans, and are called: 1. Universalism
– Particularism, 2. Individualism – Communitarianism, 3. Neutral –
Affective, 4. Specific – Diffuse, and 5. Achievement – Ascription. The
last two cultural dimensions relate to time and nature: 6. The Concept of
Time and 7. Internal Control – External Control.
This chapter then continues with Fons Trompenaars and Charles

Hampden Turner’s amazing Cultural Reconciliation. Their vision raises
people out of the vicious circle of cultural clashes up into the virtuous
circle of Cultural Reconciliation, to discover the boundless opportunities
of cultural advantage and cultural synergy.
This chapter ends with a practical 3-step approach in achieving the

advantage of cultural synergy.
© Royal Van Gorcum
5.1 Universalism – Particularism. Rules or Relationships?
What guides us? Commitments to rules or commitments to relationships? How do

we judge people’s behaviour? According to Trompenaars:
102 Universalists judge people as admirable if they keep to standards and rules agreed
on in their culture. This is a rule-based society. Rules are there for everyone and
under all circumstances. No exceptions. His examples of universalist countries are
the USA, Australia, and Northern European countries, for example the UK,
Germany and the Netherlands.
Particularists judge people according to the relationships they have. Are they your
friends? Is she your sister? Is he important to you? Then you have an obligation to
keep, and protect the person. Even if rules and regulations say you should not.
(Trompenaars & Hampden Turner, 2008) After all, who says the rule makers are
perfect? We find examples of particularist countries in Southern and Eastern
Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.
5
chapter Cultural Synergy: Trompenaars’ 7 Dimensions and Cultural Reconciliation
Case 5 .1 The Driver and the Pedestrian
103
Illustration 5.1.
Created by Stouffer and Toby in the 1950s, Trompenaars’ work raised it to

become the most talked-about case in Intercultural history! Test yourself.
Your close friend is driving a car at 70 kilometres an hour in a 30-kilometres-

per-hour zone. He hits a pedestrian. You are in the passenger seat, and the
only witness. Nobody else saw anything. Your friend’s lawyer says that if you
testify under oath that your friend was driving 30 km per hour, it will save him
from serious consequences.
Question
Does your friend have the right to ask you this?

a. Yes. My friend has all the right to expect me to testify for the lower speed.
b. Yes. My friend has some right to expect me to testify for the lower speed.
c. No. My friend has no right to expect me to testify for the lower speed.
Stouffer & Toby in Trompenaars & Hampden Turner, 2008.

© Royal Van Gorcum
Among the participants of Trompenaars’ research, more than 90% of the

respondents from the USA, Northern Europe and Australia refused to testify for a
lower speed to protect a friend.
While 79% of the Brazilians, less than 75% of the French and Japanese, and even
104 less than 60% from Russia, China and India refused to protect a friend. (They
would probably give their friend a serious talking to in private!)
On doing business in BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – Fons
Trompenaars and Peter Woolliams explain Universalist or rule-oriented countries
“probably better satisfy the desire for distributive justice, but they may become
obsessed with rules and regulations – which explains why the United States has so
many more lawyers than Japan does.” Particularist or relationship-oriented
countries “tend to resolve failure privately, through relationships. The Swiss, North
Americans, and Australians are the most rule-oriented, with 70% to 80% of
respondents believing that exceptions to rules should not be made to help friends.
In the BRIC countries, by contrast, only 25% to 40% would put the rule above the
person.” (Trompenaars & Woolliams, 2011)
How to reconcile these differences in order to gain cultural advantage? It is

possible. Take a look at case 5.8.a further on in this chapter.
5.2 Individualism and Communitarianism
Trompenaars describes his second cultural dimension as “the conflict between

what each one of us wants as an individual and the interests of the group we belong
to. With individualism being a prime orientation to the self. And communitarianism
as a prime orientation to common goals and objectives.” (Trompenaars & Hampden
Turner, 2008). We refer you to Hofstede’s dimension Individualism – Collectivism
in chapter 4.
5.3 Emotions: Neutral and Affective
How much emotion can you express? Let’s first ask ourselves: What are emotions?
And how important are they at the workplace, in your study environment or in
international business? Stephen Robbins describes emotions as “intense feelings
that are directed at someone or something”. Not to be confused with moods, which
do not need an object or direction. He identifies six universal emotions in the
following spectrum: happiness – surprise – fear – sadness – anger – disgust.
Evolutionary psychologists argue that people must experience emotions. There is a
5
purpose for them, it helps us solve problems and it is critical in rational decision-
making. (Judge & Robbins, 2010)
And yet, emotions used to be ignored in management studies. It was banned from
the workplace with the myth that it was irrational and that it interfered with
productivity. Nothing is less true. All this showing of desired work-related emotion 105
while suppressing the actually felt emotion leads to what Robbins calls emotional
dissonance. This emotional labour results in high stress and a waste of energy and
resources. Recognizing the honesty and value of emotions is an asset for succeeding
at work or in study environments worldwide!
So it is good that Trompenaars put emotions on the agenda with the cultural
dimension: Neutral – Affective.
In neutral cultures, (or affectively neutral cultures), you do not communicate your
emotions, but control them. In fact, if you do show your emotions by accident, you
would feel compelled to apologize or dash out of the room.
Are people from neutral cultures cold and insensitive? Are people from affective
cultures irrational and over-acting? Not at all. Every group has its unwritten norms
about how much feeling you can show in professional surroundings, and how
much should be controlled. The members of these groups have been conditioned
at a young age to learn the proper way of expressing emotions, as well as the proper
place. There is nothing good or bad about expressing emotions or suppressing
them.
In affective cultures it is normal to communicate your emotions and to receive an

emotionally sensitive response in return. There is nothing unreasonable about
that.
Case 5.3
During his workshops, Trompenaars asked participants how they would act
if they felt upset about something at work. “Would you express your feelings
openly?”
The highest percentage of No’s – thus most neutral – were given by

respondents from Poland, Japan and Ethiopia. While the least No’s – so
most affective – were given by his respondents from Cuba, Spain, Oman,
Egypt and Kuwait.
© Royal Van Gorcum
Can we make an affective-neutral map of the world, continent by continent? Or by

linguistic area? Not quite. But we think this dimension is important enough to
discuss its variations within each continent.
Respondents from Europe were scattered between neutral and affective; with
106 respondents from Poland, Bulgaria and Austria being most neutral; the UK,
Hungary, Nordic countries, Netherlands, Belgium, Greece and Germany being
medium affective-neutral; while Italy, France, Ireland, Russia and Spain were most
affective.
Asian respondents from Japan were most neutral in not showing emotions at
work, followed closely by Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, India and Singapore.
Thailand and Malaysia were medium affective-neutral, while the Philippines and
Middle East were most affective.
African respondents ranged from very neutral Ethiopia, neutral Burkina Faso and
Nigeria, to the very affective Egypt.
From the American continent, Canadian respondents were most neutral; the USA,
Mexico and Brazil medium affective-neutral; while Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba
were most affective.
Australia and New Zealand were neutral in their responses.
We often think of sadness as an emotion. But happiness is an emotion too. And so

is anger. Note that in one culture showing sadness, let alone crying is absolutely
not done. But in the same culture, people can be perfectly comfortable showing
anger and expressing angry looks on their face. While in other cultures shedding a
tear is normal, but they would never ever show anger in public.
5.4 Involvement: Specific and Diffuse
How far do we get involved?
In specific-oriented cultures you deal with other people in specific areas of life and
single levels of personality. You separate the task-relation you have with someone,
and isolate it from other dealings with him or her.
In diffuse cultures you deal with other people diffusely: in multiple areas of your life
and at several levels at the same time. (Trompenaars & Hampden Turner, 2008)
This may remind you of Hall’s low and high context cultures, but it is not the same.
5
Case 5.4.a
Alejandro is an assistant to the marketing manager of a large department
store. He reports directly to his manager, Susana. At work, Susana is a
person of authority. Should they meet outside work, say at the golf course or
at a New Year’s party, would Susana still have any authority over Alejandro?
107
In specific-oriented cultures she would not. Her authority is specifically
related and isolated to the work area. And at one personality level: as his
manager.
In diffuse cultures she would. Her authority at work extends diffusely on to

multiple areas, including the golf course and at private parties.

Illustration 5.2 Specific. Illustration 5.3 Diffuse.
Case 5 . 4 .b Lewin’s American and German Space

Trompenaars refers to the work by the German-American psychologist Kurt
Lewin, who illustrates the personality as a series of circles with life spaces
and personality levels. Lewin contrasts American life spaces with German
life spaces.
Americans have more public space, separated into specific sections: work,
golf course, student association and so on. Colleagues who share those
spaces are not necessarily good friends. They are not free to call you if the
subject is not golf or student affairs. They have a small private space. The
USA is an example of Trompenaars’ specific culture.
The German circle has a small public space and large private space. Here life
spaces have a thick line, where it takes more time to be able to enter, and
which requires the other person’s permission. But once you are admitted to
the private space, you are a friend, and admitted to all the other private
spaces as well. This is an example of diffuse culture.
© Royal Van Gorcum
5.4.1 What can go wrong when Specific meets Diffuse?
See case 5.4.b and the two types of life circles. Americans living in Germany often
think of Germans as distant and difficult to make friends with, because they won’t
let you in their private lives. While Germans may think that Americans are friendly
108 but superficial, because they will only let you into a small section of their public life.
Both ideas are stereotypes. They distort reality, and do great injustice to both the
German and American culture. Understanding specific and diffuse spaces is one
of the best ways of getting rid of these two stereotypes.
Do you remember the personal space exercise in chapter 3? Did you allow an
acquaintance into your kitchen, refrigerator or car? A refrigerator can be semipublic
in one culture, while it is private in others. See case 5.4.c below.
Finally, specific and diffuse are relative terms. Compared to the USA, Germany
and the Netherlands are diffuse. Compared to Indonesia, Germany and the
Netherlands are more specific.
Illustration 5.4 No relationship.
Illustration 5.5 Specific-specific relationship.

5
109
Illustration 5.6 Diffuse-diffuse relationship.
Illustration 5.7 Specific-diffuse encounter.
© Royal Van Gorcum

Case 5.4.c Close Encounters of the Diffuse Kind
110
Illustration 5.8.
Interculturalist Jacob Vossestein from the Netherlands had invited an

American colleague over for lunch at his mother’s home in Utrecht. He was
just about to ask what she wanted to drink, when he saw to his surprise that
she had already helped herself to a drink and a piece of cheese from his
mother’s fridge.
How cheeky! his mother thought. For Jacob’s mother, the fridge was very
private space. But for Jacob’s colleague the fridge was semipublic, and she
felt she had been invited to use it.
Test yourself:
If you invite fellow students or colleagues over for drinks, is it okay with you,
if they grab a drink from your fridge?
Could you elaborate on your answer using the terms Specific and Diffuse?
5
For more specific and diffuse practice, please turn to the assignments in 5.10: how
can Dutch universities recruit more international students by applying specific as
well as diffuse PR strategies?
5.5 Status: Achieved and Ascribed 111
How do you give status to people?
Achieved status is the high status you gain from what you have accomplished.
What (not where) did you study? Do you have a job? What is your job experience?
What is your position? What have you achieved at work? In projects? What are you
in charge of? Do you have a business? A lot of employees? Good income?
Ascribed status is the high status you gain because of whom or what you are
associated with. Age, gender, social class, education, who you are related to and
who you know. Who are your parents? Are you married? Is your spouse (or spouse’s
family) successful? Do you have children? How many? Do you have grandchildren?
Land? Titles?
© Royal Van Gorcum

Case 5.5.a Samuel Thanks Jolene Through Wilhelmina
112
Illustration 5.9.
Samuel is a student from Ghana, at a Dutch university in Amsterdam. He

was very touched by the efforts of a member of the International Office,
Jolene, who had helped him succeed in his difficult search for student
accommodation.
As soon as he signed the lease, he made an appointment with the Director

of Studies at the university, Mrs. Wilhelmina Lind.
“Mrs. Lind,” said Samuel, “may I ask you something? Could you please
thank Jolene of the International Office for all her effort and dedication, in
helping me find accommodation?”
“But you can also thank her yourself”, said Wilhelmina, “I’m sure she will
like that more.”
“I thanked her”, said Samuel, “but I am only a student. You are the director,
and if you thank her, it will have more value.”
Surprised, but delighted with this gift of cultural insight, Wilhelmina wrote
Jolene a letter of appreciation.
Jolene was delighted too.

5
In Trompenaars’ survey, respondents who scored high on achieved status came

from the USA, Canada, Australia, UK, Germany and Scandinavian Countries.
For respondents from most other parts of the world, ascribed status was important.
Achieved or ascribed status – one does not always exclude the other. Cultures can 113
be mainly achieved-status-oriented, with underlying ascribed status. The other way
around as well.
Ascription and achievement status have their impact on everything we do. From
how we introduce ourselves or write our CVs and resumes to how we express our
opinions.
Some more examples on introductions which you may recognize yourself from
encounters during holidays or staying abroad. Ask someone in the Netherlands or
the USA who they are, and they will tell you what they do. Their name and their
job.
Ask people from Brazil or India, and they will tell you who they are. Not just their
names and professions, but also their family, relations and interests.
And if you are in Indonesia, see what happens if you only introduce yourself with
your name and profession. You are bound to get the questions “Are you married?
Do you have children? How many?” Obviously, if you are too young to be asked
those questions, they will ask about your parents, brothers and sisters. It is not
because Indonesians can’t mind their own business. Indonesians are genuinely
interested in you as a person.
In CVs aimed at employers in achieved-status cultures, you will probably highlight

your own achievements – education, work experience, skills and hobbies – without
mentioning the efforts of the people who helped you get there.
No matter what they teach you at Business Schools about CV and resume writing,
CVs for ascribed-status employers may include more than that. If not in the CV
itself, at least in the cover letter. Under work experience, you would name the
important people under whose leadership you grew to the next promotion. During
your studies, if you had a highly respected lecturer or a well-known professor, you
can mention her or his name. If your mother was the one who inspired you in your
professional development, don’t hide it. If you are not comfortable putting it in
your formal CV, do bring it up in the job interview.
© Royal Van Gorcum
Bear in mind though that managers from achieved-status cultures will be irritated
by such CVs.
According to interculturalist Marta Carabba from Argentina, the best way to land a
job interview in an ascribed-status country like Argentina, is through
114 recommendations from friends and relations. The ones who recommended you
have already updated your future employer on your qualifications. “So don’t worry.
Probably they won’t even look at your CV during the interview. They know you are
competent. But how are you as a person? How will you fit in the company, and the
company culture?” (M. Carabba, Workshop Doing Business in Argentina, Royal
Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, 2002)
Achievement or ascription even influences the way we answer questions, whether

we have to have the right answer on hand, or can admit that we don’t know.
Case 5.5.b The André Laurent Question

Frequently quoted French interculturalist and professor at INSEAD, André
Laurent, asked a famous question in a survey among international
professionals.
Do you agree with this statement?
“ Managers must have the right answers to most questions

asked by their subordinates.
”
These are the percentages of the respondents who agreed:
Japan 78
China 74
Indonesia 73
Italy 66
France 53
Germany 46
United Kingdom 27
United States 18
Netherlands 17
Sweden 10
Source: André Laurent, SIETAR Poitiers, 1997; and as reported in Adler, 2002.
5
5.6 Time
Here again, we will refer you to chapters 2 and 3 of this book, Hall’s Key Concepts
and Kluckhohn’s Values.
Trompenaars’ sixth dimension is time. Sequential and synchronic time as well as 115
past-present-future orientation.
Sequential time refers to cultures where it is the norm to do one thing at a time, in
a linear way, similar to Hall’s monochronic time.
In synchronic time people engage in several activities at the same time, as in Hall’s
polychronic time.
Trompenaars also refers to the Kluckhohn-Strodtbeck studies which identify three

time orientations: past, present and future.
5.7 Attitudes towards the Environment
How do we relate to nature? Do we succeed in our business and daily lives by

controlling nature and our daily problems? Or by going along with it?
Referring to the studies by Rotter on internal locus of control and external locus of
control, Trompenaars distinguishes two cultural types: Internal Control and
External Control.
In historical perspective, internal control starts with humans surviving by acting

against the natural elements such as floods, droughts and predators. If you control
and eliminate the source of the natural problems, controlling becomes second
nature. It goes on to professionals succeeding by taking control and imposing their
will on the challenges they face in their career and organization.
External control starts with humans surviving natural disasters by acting with the
environment to make it less threatening, and more sustainable. Flexibility,
creativity, and skills in riding nature’s waves become second nature to you. It
moves on to professionals who succeed by going along with the natural flow and
direction in the organization.
No matter what preference people have for solving business and daily challenges,
internal or external control, in global business you need both skills. So you can
succeed with internal control by planning and shaping your whole life and career
© Royal Van Gorcum
according to your will. And you can succeed with external control by listening and
watching what is going on around you, and by re-directing yourself according to
external forces. But by using both ways so as to complement each other, you can
gain even more advantage.
116
5.8 Reconciliation: from Vicious Circle to Virtuous Circle
Awareness of cultural differences, awareness of our own cultural programming,

and awareness that our cultural norms are not universal, are all starting points for
reconciling cultural differences. Furthermore, like yin and yang, in every person
the two extremes of each cultural dimension exist. You may be low context at work
but high context when you start a conversation with someone you are in love with.
Or empathize, as Trompenaars suggests, in the example of the car accident in case
5.1. As a universalist you can get close to a particularist if you imagine it was your
father or daughter who was driving instead of your friend.
Trompenaars suggests ten practical steps in achieving cultural reconciliation.

1. Practise complementarity, by realizing that cultural dimensions are not rigid,
separate black-and-white blocks, but waves on a continuum, and that they are
complementary.
2. Use humour.
3. Map out a cultural space along two axes as in case 5.8.a.
4. Change cultural nouns to ‘ing-verbs’ (present participle). So speak of universalizing
– particularizing; individualizing – collectivizing or communing; specifying –
diffusing; or using Hall’s terms, monochronizing – polychronizing and so on.
All at once, the rigid material nouns turn into fluid, dynamic processes. We
think that is a fantastic idea.
5. Language achieves reconciliation by making it possible to handle two opposites
in your mind and make them work. This is done using object-language (the
real language we use to talk about things and objects, also about culture) and
meta-language (artificial language that linguists use to analyze sentences and
the object-language itself). See case 5.8.b.
6. Frames and contexts. Regarding the previous point on language, use meta-level
frames as context around the object level, to reconcile opposites. See case 5.8.b.
7. Sequencing. Instead of trying to juggle opposite extremes of a cultural dimension
all at the same time, try sequencing them. You can go the opposite way and
then correct yourself in order to reach your objective.
8. Waving and cycling. Rather than letting different values clash like billiard balls,
Trompenaars suggests viewing them as waves and cycles, like the cycle of
sleeping and waking.
9. The better I sleep, the more awake I am.
5
10. The better I stand up for my individual needs, the better I can care for my
group, which in turn makes me a more content individual, and so on.
11. Synergising and virtuous circling. Instead of letting cultural opposites twist in
vicious circles, Trompenaars proposes the virtuous circle – the synergistic
upward leading circle. The Greek word ‘synergos’ means ‘working together’.
Synergy includes both extremes of the cultural values, and leads to harmony, 117
mutual benefit, and to even better results than the sum of each individual
contribution. 1 + 1 = 3, so to speak.
12. The double helix (double spiral), like the DNA model, is a metaphor for the ten
steps for reconciliation. The DNA double helix is a twisted ladder with four
rungs running in opposite directions. The cultural double helix has seven
rungs – the seven cultural dimensions, that can run in opposite directions. Yet
the opposites are complementary, create humorous situations when they come
together, the rungs on the ladder serve as cultural mapping space, and growth
process. Each twist of the spiral expresses the language of growth in frames,
sequenced in waves and cycles producing synergy.
© Royal Van Gorcum

Case 5.8.a Reconciling Universalism and Particularism
118
Illustration 5.10.
At a memorable SIETAR congress (Society for Intercultural Education,

Training and Research) in Poitiers, France, Fons Trompenaars told us about
the intercultural training he had given to the senior managers and CEO of a
large Korean multinational organization. Both Trompenaars and the Korean
managers were pleased with their excellent personal as well as professional
relationship.
Several months later, Trompenaars received a letter of appreciation from the

CEO of the Korean multinational.
“We are very pleased to let you know that your book Riding the Waves of
Culture has been successfully translated into Korean and it gives us big help
for developing our organization’s Globalization.”
The CEO thanked him for letting them use his masterpiece within their
organization.
“What?!” was the (UK) publishers’ reaction when they heard about it.
“They’ve translated it? They are using it? What about copyright?”
Any regular universalist would say, “Sue them!”
Then both parties lose. And it is the end of a good relationship.
A particularist might say, “Thank you for the trouble of translating the book.”
But besides rescuing the dented relationship, what would you gain?
5
Go for a compromise? That would be ridiculous: split the difference, or, “For
you, my friend, I’ll sue for half price!” Both ways a compromise ruins the
relationship too.
While most managers would land in the vicious circle of blaming,

Trompenaars showed us how he turned it into a virtuous circle and synergy. 119
He made his publishers aware of how much it would have cost them to
translate the book into Korean themselves. Now it had been done for free,
and the book was ready to be published in Korea.
He thanked the Korean CEO for having the book translated.
He asked if the CEO could recommend a good Korean publisher, who would
publish Riding the Waves of Culture for the Korean market.
The CEO was delighted too. Not only that, he wrote a very positive foreword
for the book, and since then Riding the Waves of Culture has been available in
Korean!
A true masterpiece of cultural reconciliation and synergy.
Source: Trompenaars, Workshop notes, SIETAR, Poitiers, France, 1997.
© Royal Van Gorcum
Illustration 5.11 Universalism-Particularism along two axes.

Case 5 . 8 .b Language and Framing: Sustainable

Development
To make this abstract concept clear, we will use the dilemma of sustainable
development.
1. The world’s resources are limited. The (past and) present generation is
120 using them up.
2. The future generations have to have their share.
For years, people argued that you could not have both ideas in your mind,
and be serious. The concept of sustainable development proves you can.
If you place the idea ‘The world’s resources are limited’ in the centre of a
square, and frame it with the idea ‘We want future generations to have their
share’, you are using meta-language and framing to reconcile two opposing
ideas, and making them work.
The definition of sustainable development is:
“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising

the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Our Common
Future/The Brundtland Report, 1987)
We want future generations
The world’s
resources
are limited
to have their share
Illustration 5.12.
Raya Nunez, Cultural Perspectives in Sustainable Development, Working

Paper, 5 Jaar na Rio, Locale Agenda 21, Utrecht, 1997.
5
5.9 Three steps to Cultural Synergy
Besides the ten steps to cultural reconciliation in 5.8, we highly recommend a

practical 3-step method to achieve cultural synergy (Adler, 2002). Readers of the
previous editions of our book found it easy to use, because it is based on the five
principles of conflict resolution. First we will briefly illustrate four other approaches 121
to working with other cultures: cultural avoidance, cultural dominance, cultural
accommodation, and cultural compromise. Finally, we will introduce the more
innovative culturally synergistic approach in three steps.
In the assignments in section 5.10, you will practise achieving cultural synergy by
using a real-life case from Dutch health care and a case from your own experience.
This table shows the five approaches to working with other cultures:
Table 5.1
High on My Way High on My Way and Their Way

Cultural Cultural
Dominance Synergy
Cultural
Compromise
Cultural Cultural Ac-

Avoidance commodation
Low on My Way High on Their Way

Low on Their Way
Case 5.9
A team of entrepreneurs from China, Egypt, Germany, India, Italy, the UK and
USA are working on an innovative, and sustainable product, which will be
launched world-wide, in November of the following year. Every month they
meet in Rome, Italy. The meetings start on the first Monday morning of the
month, at 10:00 a.m. Everyone is present on time, but the Egyptian, Indian
and Italian team members are engaged in conversation, enquiring about the
well-being of each other’s family. The others are eager to start the meeting. As
usual, the meetings are only officially opened at 10:10 a.m. Ten minutes late.
© Royal Van Gorcum
Adapted from Tricky and Ewington, A World of Difference, DVD.

5.9.1 Cultural Avoidance
In cultural avoidance, you avoid confrontation, and you don’t impose your own
cultural way of doing things in order to be professional. We know from chapters 2
and 4 that, what a monochronic assumes to be professional, differs from a
122 polychronic’s definition of professional.
The people who were seated on time are quite upset about the other team members’
lateness. But they like their colleagues very much, and rather than getting everyone
upset by complaining, they decide to ignore the waste of the first 10 minutes.
The other team members don’t think they are late. They were present at 10:00 a.m.
The exchange of news expressed their need to care about each other. They decide
to ignore the fact that they were being rushed without having time to greet everyone.
After all, they like their colleagues, and don’t want to disappoint anyone by keeping
them waiting, even for 10 minutes.
Nobody addresses the minor irritations of starting late or being rushed. This is
cultural avoidance. It doesn’t solve problems, just ignores them.
5.9.2 Cultural Dominance
In cultural dominance, you do what comes naturally from your own cultural
background, and assume the others should adapt to you. In this approach, the
chairman of the meeting, from the UK, would insist. No personal conversations
during the meetings, and we start at 10:00 a.m. sharp. This would result in
dissatisfaction among half of the team members, and in loss of the exchange of
information that the whole team could benefit from.
5.9.3 Cultural Accommodation
This is the opposite of the above. Instead of doing what comes naturally in your
own culture, you make a huge effort to do what the others do. This is what would
happen if the Indian, Italian and Egyptian manager agreed not to have personal
conversations with each other. It would make them very unhappy and take away
the charm of the otherwise so serious business meetings. While it is exactly the
diverse cultural background of the team that contributes to the international
atmosphere and innovative results.
5
5.9.4 Cultural Compromise
If you culturally compromise, you do half of what comes naturally from your
cultural background, and give up half. The others also keep half and give up half.
A lot of people think that compromise is good. But compromise is still a loss of
potential, since all parties are giving up half of what they could fully invest. In 123
practice, cultural compromise would be to say “You can have 5 minutes of social
conversation. And we’ll start the meetings 5 minutes late.” For the monochronics
on the team, that is still late. For polychronics, why bother!
5.9.5 Cultural Synergy
In the cultural synergistic approach, you develop new ways of working. Forget
about who has to adapt to whom. Forget who are the majority and minority. You
value all cultures for making their unique contributions to making life and work
more creative and dynamic. You consider all cultural styles of communication and
behaviour as equally professional. You recognize cultural differences as sources of
innovation and growth.
Table 5.2 below shows you how to gain cultural synergy in 3 steps. Step 1 is to
describe the situation from not one point of view, but all points of view. Step 2, you
name the underlying basic assumptions of each culture involved. Step 3, you
consider several alternative solutions that are not restricted to one culture, but
transcend cultures. Look beyond cultural borders, grow beyond ordinary solutions,
and reach the extraordinary.
© Royal Van Gorcum

Table 5.2 Creating Cultural Synergy.
Step 1 Describe the situation from all points of view
1.a Tell the story from your point of view.

124 1.b Tell it again speaking from the other person’s point of view.
Step 2 Interpreting the cultures
2.a What are the basic assumptions that explain your perspective and
behaviour?
(For example your culture is Low Context, Slow Message, Dominant
over Nature, Doing, Low-Power Distance, Long-Term Oriented, and
Universal)
2.b What are the basic assumptions that explain their perspective and
behaviour?
(For example their culture is Low Context, Fast Message, In
Harmony with Nature, Being, High-Power Distance, Short-Term
Oriented, and Particular)
Step 3 Increasing Cultural Creativity
Create new alternatives by leveraging the other cultures involved. Go

beyond cultural borders.
Alternative A, Alternative B, Alternative C, et cetera.

• Select alternatives, always checking to see whether the solution fits the
basic assumptions of all cultures involved.
• Implement the solution, but be sensitive to the feedback you get. Does
it work? Correct it if it doesn’t.
Do both parties gain cultural advantage?

Yes? Then the result is cultural synergy.
Adapted from International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior by

Nancy Adler, 2002, p. 119.
5
5.10 Assignments
1 Your cultural profile
What is your cultural profile according to Trompenaars’ 7 Cultural Dimensions? 125
2 The question in case 5.1
Work in pairs. Read case 5.1 of the driver and the pedestrian.
What is your answer? A, B or C?
What is your counterpart’s answer? A, B or C?
Take 1 minute each to explain you answers to each other.
3 Specific and Diffuse
Specific Diffuse
Illustration 5.13.
A university is trying to recruit more international students.

• Write three recruitment strategies that would appeal to students from specific
cultures in the left circle. For example: Show the list of subjects taught in each
year of the study. Add two more.
• Write three strategies that would appeal to students and their parents from
diffuse cultures in the right circle. For example: Show pictures of the professors
who teach at the university. Add two more.
• Write three strategies that appeal to both cultures.
© Royal Van Gorcum
Specific
1. Show a list of subjects taught in each year
2.
3.
126 Diffuse
1. Show pictures of the professors who teach at the university
2.
3.
Appealing to both
1.
2.
3.
4 Cultural Synergy Assignment for Health Care
Case 5 .10 Cultural clash at the family doctor’s of f ice

18-year-old Umar, from Turkey, has just moved with her parents from
Rotterdam to The Hague. Consequently, they need to find a family doctor in
The Hague. Their new neighbours in The Hague recommended their own
general practitioner, dr. Valstar, an elderly gentleman, and highly experienced
doctor. His practice was just two blocks away. And he still had room for more
patients. Umar’s father didn’t like the idea. He thought it wasn’t appropriate
for his wife and two daughters to be examined by a male doctor. It was okay
for him. But he wanted a female doctor for the rest of his family.
Umar and her father are now at dr. Bos’s office, their former family doctor in
Rotterdam, to inform her of their move to The Hague. “To which doctor’s
office shall I send on your medical records?” asks dr. Bos. There is a silence.
“Do you already have a new family doctor in the Hague?” Umar and her
father both reply at once, “Yes.” “No.” “Well, yes,” Umar explains, “doctor
Valstar, but only for my father. Could you please recommend a doctor for my
mother, my sister and myself? A woman.”
“A man, a woman? What’s the difference? A doctor is a doctor,” insists dr.

Bos, who is getting irritated, “it’s their professionalism that counts!” Unable
to send on the medical records properly, dr. Bos feels she has failed in
transferring her patients to a colleague in The Hague professionally. Umar’s
father feels he has failed as well. He is convinced that according to his
religion, male patients should be attended to by male doctors, and female
5
patients by female doctors. He just wants the best for his wife and daughters.
And he wants to explain this to dr. Bos, but in both cases he has failed.
Translated from Intercultureel Management Onderzoek by Safa Bouaazi, 2005.
Solve this case using the 3-step method in Table 5.2. Come to a culturally synergistic 127
solution.
5 From your own experience
Work in pairs with another classmate. Describe an encounter you had with
someone from another culture, an encounter that ended in a cultural
misunderstanding. It could be an encounter with a fellow student, a lecturer, your
landlord, or someone at work.
Then take the three steps to achieve cultural synergy.
Step 1. Tell your story. Then put yourself in the other person’s shoes and tell it again
from their point of view. Your classmate should help you see the other person’s
point.
Step 2. What are the basic assumptions of your culture? What are the basic
assumptions of the other person’s culture? Give new meaning to what happened.
Step 3. Select new alternatives, be very culturally creative and dare to go beyond
cultural borders.
© Royal Van Gorcum

6 The Growth Process
in Intercultural
Sensitivity
6.1 Denial
6.2 Defence
6.3 Minimization
6.4 Acceptance
6.5 Adaptation
6.6 Integration/Intercultural Competence
6.7 Assignment
In chapter 1 we defined culture, and saw how culture determined the way
we think, feel and act. And how we evaluate other people’s behaviour
according to our own cultural frame of reference. In chapters 2, 3 and 4
we became more aware of our own basic assumptions and our cultural
‘programming’, as well as the basic assumptions of people with a
different cultural frame of reference.
You are interculturally sensitive if you are able to look at different

cultures from their cultural frame of reference, rather than from yours.
You have cultural empathy. Not only in your thoughts, but you are really
able to adjust your behaviour, because you want to. Although you know
your limits, you are able to move between multiple frames of reference,
without losing your identity, with great cultural flexibility and respect.
In this chapter we will be working with the intercultural sensitivity model

of the American interculturalists Janet and Milton Bennett (2002). The
development of intercultural sensitivity is not static, but a dynamic
process in six stages, starting from denial (‘There are no cultural
differences. Just treat everyone as an individual’), defence (‘Why should
we learn their ways’), and minimization, on to acceptance, adaptation
and integration or intercultural competence.
The first three stages take an ethnocentric approach to culture. That

means we see our own culture as the point of reference. Evaluating other
cultures through our own cultural glasses. The latter three are ethno-
relative approaches to culture. You are able to place your own culture
within the context of other cultures.
© Royal Van Gorcum
130
Illustration 6.1 The sun rises and sets in our world. We are barely aware of other cultures, or
cultural differences.
chapter 6 The Growth Process in Intercultural Sensitivity
6.1 Denial
When we are in denial we think that cultures are all the same. Or we are not really
aware of cultural differences. We lack the terminology for describing cultural
differences.
131
People in denial say things like:
“Oh, we’re all the same.”
“There’s a McDonalds everywhere.”
“We all drink Coke.”
They mean well, but they are in denial of cultural difference.
Metaphorically, illustration 6.1 is how we are when we are in denial.
6.1.1 Strategies for moving on from the denial stage
Do you have friends or neighbours who are in denial? The best way to help them
move on is by making them aware of cultural differences in an entertaining way.
Don’t start right away with lectures about basic assumptions. That is too abstract.
Start with visible artefacts of culture, the outer layer of Edgar Schein’s cultural
onion from chapter 1. You can organise exotic meals together, or potluck dinners.
Invite people to wear their national dress and talk about their culture. Check the
local museums for exhibitions on art, jewellery, or ceramics from other cultures.
Celebrating feasts from other countries and cooking a meal together is a wonderful
way of getting to know each other and new cultures.
© Royal Van Gorcum

132
Illustration 6.2 Metaphorically, the sun stills rises and sets in our world and the rest of the world, if
we notice them, are threats.
6.2 Defence
When we are in the defence stage, we are aware of cultural differences, but in a
dualistic them-us way. As if there were only two cultures in the world. Ours and all
those others. In the defence stage, other cultures are seen as threatening and inferior.
133
People in defence will say things as:
“They don’t even speak our language.”
“They refuse to shake hands.”
“They’re taking away our jobs.”
“Democracy? They still have a long way to go …”
“They should start by learning our language!”
If you ask someone in the defence stage to take intercultural sensitivity classes,
they’ll tell you: “Not me. They’re the ones who need classes! Whose country is this
anyway?”
Variation: Reversed Defence:

Janet and Milton Bennett’s studies also show that there is such a thing as defence
reversal. (Bennett & Bennett, 2002) That is to view other cultures as superior and
your own as inferior. It is the same kind of them-us thinking, but reversed.
People in this phase will say things as:

“I am so ashamed of our people.”
“I wish I could be one of them.”
“Intercultural sensitivity classes? No, not for me. But my compatriots, they could
sure use some lessons!”
When we are in defence, our world looks a bit like illustration 6.2.
6.2.1 Strategies for moving on from the defence stage
To come out of the tight them-us polarisation, it is important for people in the defence
phase to recognise and accept that besides cultural differences there are similarities
as well. Research by Professor Shadid of Tilburg University in the Netherlands shows
that in intercultural contacts, too much emphasis is placed on the differences
between cultures, while overlooking the similarities. Miscommunications between
different cultures are not so much caused by their real differences, but by the negative
image they have of each other. (Shadid, 1994) Learning about other cultures, reading
novels by writers from different cultures and watching foreign movies will open a
whole new world for people in the defence phase. This is also an appropriate phase
© Royal Van Gorcum
to start reading intercultural communication theories.

134
Illustration 6.3 The sun still rises and sets in our little world. We know where they are, those other
cultures. And if we can help them to become a little more like us, then it will be all right.
6.3 Minimization
When we are in minimization of cultural difference, we are aware of cultural

differences, but mainly of superficial ones. We still see our own norms and values
as universal, rather than as cultural programming. And we still interpret other
cultures through our own cultural glasses. Because of that, we will judge other 135
people’s behaviour according to what is right or wrong, good or bad according to
our norms. We will want to change them. Or help them to change, so they’ll be
more like us. Then they’ll be all right.
People in minimization often say:

“They eat with chopsticks, and we use fork and knife, but besides that, we’re
basically the same.”
“Shall we teach them how to hold their fork and knife?”
“Shall we give them lessons on emancipation?”
“Shall we give them language lessons?”
“Going on internship to Finland? Oh, just be yourself and everything will be fine.”
If you suggest ‘intercultural sensitivity classes’ to someone in the minimization

stage, they’ll probably say, “All I need is a list of do’s and don’ts.”
Illustration 6.3 is what our world looks like when we are in minimization.
6.3.1 Strategies for moving on from the minimization stage
Awareness of our own culture, of our own cultural programming, is the most
important lever for moving on from the minimization phase, and making the huge
shift out of the restricted ethnocentric vision into the dynamic world of culture-
relativity. Now it is important to have the theoretical framework of culture, in order
to place our own norms, values, and basic assumptions within a larger context and
to realise that our own norms and values are not universal.
© Royal Van Gorcum
136
Illustration 6.4 In our perception, the sun no longer shines over our little world, but on the whole
world. We want to learn as much as possible about other cultures and also about our own culture.
6.4 Acceptance
When we are in the acceptance stage we are able to recognise and accept cultural
differences in values and behaviour. In this phase we see cultural difference as a
source of new ideas and solutions to problems. Even though we don’t really know
how to put this insight into practice. It is the beginning of cultural relativism. 137
What do you hear people say at this stage?

“The more cultures, the more ideas!”
“We’re equal, but not the same.”
“Intercultural sensitivity classes? Sure! Lots of them.”
When we are in acceptance, our world looks like illustration 6.4.
6.4.1 Strategies for moving on from the acceptance stage
When we are in this stage the most important thing to learn is cultural empathy.
To put ourselves in the shoes of the person from another culture. To learn to look
at another culture from that other culture’s cultural programming. It’s called
‘Cultural-Frame-of-Reference Shifting’. Role-play and simulation games are
effective training methods. Simply living, studying or working in another country
are excellent ways of acquiring this cultural empathy. Lecturer mobility,
international student exchange programmes and internships abroad are creating
wonderful opportunities for cultural-frame-of-reference shifting. Especially if we
don’t take the easy way out, by only meeting the international students’ crowd, or
staying confined to the expatriates’ world. To gain this cultural empathy, we really
need to mingle with the local culture and the local population, while we are abroad.
© Royal Van Gorcum

138
Illustration 6.5 Frame-of-Reference Shifting. In adaptation, we are able to place ourselves in the
norms-and-values system of the other culture, and adjust our behaviour.
6.5 Adaptation
When we are in adaptation, we are able to evaluate another culture from the frame
of reference of the other culture. And we are able to adjust our behaviour
appropriately. We are able to place ourselves in the norms-and-values system of the
other culture. We are able to behave according to the other culture’s norms-and- 139
values system. What is the difference between adaptation and acceptance? Aren’t
they both culture-relative? Acceptance is on the knowledge level. You know.
Adaptation is on the knowledge and behaviour level. You know, you feel and you
can behave in a culturally professional manner.
What do people in adaptation of difference say?

“To solve this problem professionally, I am going to try a different strategy.”
“I always shake hands when I meet people, but she prefers not to. So I won’t
impose my handshake.”
“I don’t usually shake hands, but it would hurt her feelings if I didn’t. So I will
shake hands.”
“I usually give feedback directly and in public at meetings. It doesn’t always work.
I give feedback in private over coffee in less confronting words now. It works.”
“They are doing their best to learn my language. It’s high time I try and learn their
language too!”
And yes, people in adaptation enjoy intercultural sensitivity training.
Our world looks like illustration 6.5 when we are in adaptation to cultural difference.
6.5.1 Strategies for developing even further when you are in

adaptation
Keep practising frame-of-reference shifting. Practise mentally putting yourself in

the norms-and-values system of other cultures. Practise solving case studies with
culturally relative trainers. See the adjustment of your behaviour as professionalism;
you’re doing it because you want to. Don’t worry if the other parties adjust
themselves less than you do. This is not a let’s-see-who-adapts-more competition.
It’s about personal, cultural and professional growth. Travel. Learn new languages.
Every language you learn opens up a whole new world, a world of opportunities.
© Royal Van Gorcum
140
Illustration 6.6 In the Integration/Intercultural Competence stage, we are able to practise multiple
frames of reference.
6.6 Integration/Intercultural Competence
In this stage we are able to practise multiple frames of reference, or bi-cultural

frames of reference. Our cultural empathy makes us good intercultural mediators.
You have a bicultural or intercultural identity, you know your limits and it doesn’t
confuse you. 141
People in integration often say:

“My management skills have improved since I use multiple frames of reference.”
“I feel at home in many places.”
“Our organization has become more inclusive and more welcoming.”
“People from diverse backgrounds feel appreciated and respected in our
organisation.”
In the integration/intercultural competence stage, our world looks like illustration

6.6.
Third Culture Kids (TCKs), children of mixed cultural marriages, or who grow up
bilingual or trilingual, or grow up in different cultures, are able to acquire multiple
frames of reference easily. As long as they are not forced by their social surroundings
to choose one culture they have to belong to. They can enjoy multiple cultural
identities without having to make an identity statement. If your mother is
Australian and your father is from Somalia, then you probably grew up bilingual
and with different sets of norms and values, which both make sense to you. You’ve
been practising frame-of-reference shifting ever since you were born. If your
parents are Moroccan and you grew up in the Netherlands, same thing. You have
multiple frames of reference. Or bicultural frames of reference. If you have TCKs
and ATCKs (Adult Third Culture Kids) at your school and in your organization,
they are good resource persons, with their ease in frame-of reference-shifting.
On a final note, the growth in intercultural sensitivity is not a rigid, linear process.
It is dynamic. It can evolve circularly, or in all directions. It might develop step by
step, but it doesn’t have to. All the stages may just as well develop simultaneously.
© Royal Van Gorcum
6.7 Assignment: Intercultural Sensitivity Role Play
Time: 50 to 60 minutes.
Step 1. Time: 1 minute. Group Formation. Form three groups: Group 1 is in denial.
142 Group 2 is in defence. Group 3 is in minimization.
Step 2. Time: 5 minutes. Role Play Preparation. Each group reads their role play
instructions below, and prepares their role play.
Group 1 “The Staff Meeting”

Group 1 are lecturers and managers at a university staff meeting. Agenda point 1 is
to hire more international lecturers to work at the school, because they are supposed
to bring in new ideas. How do people in denial act and speak in a meeting? You
may overdo it. You have 5 minutes to prepare a 3-minute role play called The Staff
Meeting. Group 2 will observe and recommend strategies for raising cultural
sensitivity.
Group 2 “The Lunch Break”

Group 2 are employees in the canteen, having their lunch break. They are talking
about the new immigrants working in the construction sector of their city (nobody
else seems to be available for those jobs). Depending on your interests, you may
replace construction sector with health care, agricultural or IT sector. How do
people in defence think, act and feel? You may overdo it. You have 5 minutes to
prepare a 3-minute role play called The Lunch Break. Group 3 will observe and
recommend strategies for raising cultural sensitivity.
Group 3 “The Seaside Management Day”

Group 3 are university managers on a management day at a seaside congress hall.
They are worried about the slow progress and high dropout rate of foreign students.
They want to look into this problem and do something about it. How do people in
minimization of difference think, act and feel? You may overdo it. You have 5
minutes to prepare a 3-minute role play, The Seaside Management Day. Group 1 will
observe and recommend strategies for raising cultural sensitivity.
Step 3. Time: 10 minutes (3 x 3 minutes + 1 extra). Role Play First Round. Each
group acts out their role play in no more than 3 minutes. Other groups watch.
Step 4. Time: 5 minutes. Intercultural Consultants Group Meetings. You are

intercultural consultants. Recommend strategies for raising cultural sensitivity to
groups 1, 2 and 3.
Group 2. Hold a group meeting. What advice can you give group 1 to raise them out
of the denial stage?
Group 3. Hold a group meeting. What advice can you give group 2 to raise them 143
out of the defence stage?
Group 1. Hold a group meeting. What advice can you give group 3 to raise them out
of the minimization stage?
Step 5. Time: 9 minutes (3 x 3 minutes). 3-minute Intercultural Consultants’

Advice.
Group 2. Give your 3-minute advice to group 1.
Step 6. Time: 5 minutes. Role Play Preparation for the Second Round. You followed
the intercultural consultants’ recommended strategies. Now group 1 is in
acceptance. Group 2 is in adaptation. Group 3 is in integration/intercultural
competence. Prepare to repeat the role play from step 2, but now in your new roles:
acceptance, adaptation and integration/intercultural competence.
Step 7. Time: 10 minutes (3 x 3 minutes + 1 extra). Role Play Second Round. Each
group acts out their new role play in no more than 3 minutes.
Step 8. Time: 5 minutes. Conclusion. What did you learn from this exercise? What
are the benefits of intercultural competence? Write down your conclusion.
© Royal Van Gorcum

7 Culture Shock While
Studying Abroad
7.1 Culture Shock. What is it?

7.2 What are the Stages of Culture Shock?
7.3 Pre-Departure Stage
7.4 The Vacation Stage
7.5 The Angry Stage
7.6 Adjustment Stage and Strategies
7.7 Re-entry Shock
7.8 Re-entry Shock and International Careers
7.9 Assignments
Anyone who moves to another country to live, work or study may expect
to experience culture shock. Whether the move is permanent, as for
immigrants, or temporary, as for expatriates and exchange students,
knowing what to expect and recognising the symptoms, will help you
manage culture shock.
In this chapter we will mainly look at culture shock from a student’s

experience. We will give examples of how students feel, so that you’ll
know what to expect. The last part of this chapter, 7.8, will give you
strategies on how to deal with culture shock and re-entry shock as
professionals in your future international careers.
© Royal Van Gorcum

7.1 Culture Shock. What is it?
Culture shock is a process of adjusting from living in a familiar, predictable

environment to living in a country where everything is new. The landscape, climate,
people, language, food, religion, holidays, and culture – everything is totally
146 different, unpredictable and uncertain.
7.2 What are the Stages of Culture Shock?
This process of culture shock already starts before you leave, with a feeling of
stressful uncertainty. Right after arrival, a lot of people experience an exciting
‘vacation feeling’. It is followed by a time of great emotional and physical distress.
This is not a sign of weakness or failure. Just the reverse, it’s a sign that the
individual is struggling hard to learn the new culture. For some people the distress
is so great that they decide to return home. But most people gradually learn new
skills and adjust to the new culture, although the adjustment strategies and how
much time they need may differ greatly from person to person. Among the students
we interviewed, Michiel’s vacation stage lasted two or three months, Carolyne’s
was over in two weeks, while several other students reported falling into deep
emotional stress, disorientation and intense homesickness after a few days.
Illustration 7.1 Culture Shock Curve.

chapter 7 Culture Shock While Studying Abroad
Case 7. 2 .a
This is how Carolyne Kiplagat, from Kenya, experienced culture shock while
studying in the Netherlands.
“Everything in the beginning was like Wow! Everything in Holland is

systematic. Everything is efficient. Especially the buses. It is very nice. 147
After some time, maybe two weeks, I noticed the people were not so friendly.
You cannot talk to anyone. Everyone is busy. You cannot communicate. I felt
like ‘they don’t care.’ Even students. They mind their own business. I felt so
homesick. I missed people you can just talk to. I missed my family. I missed
my friends. Friends you have fun with. Friends who said ‘Let’s do this! Let’s
do that!’ I missed that. I also missed the green nature, and the gardens. In
Holland, I just saw cities, buildings, cars, bikes. And a lot of people in the
cities. People who don’t talk. I could not read the signs in the shops and on
the streets, because I did not understand Dutch. And I felt completely lost.
I tried to figure out the meaning of the Dutch signs from German. Because I
studied German at school, and Dutch has a lot of similarities with German.
Now everything is okay. I have learned Dutch. I understand. It is a different
society. People can be friendly even if they don’t talk.”
Illustration 7.2.
© Royal Van Gorcum
7.3 Pre-Departure Stage
Actually, culture shock already sets in before you even leave your country. As one
Dutch student, Milou, said, “It was the most uncertain time of my life.” (See case
7.3.a.) Another Dutch student, Michiel, recalls this time as “chaotic and stressful”. Pre-
148 departure is a time full of uncertainty. Will you meet the requirements to leave? Will
you be going to the country you want to go to? Will they send you somewhere else? It’s
a time of hard work and preparation. Living in uncertainty, depending on others to
help you, is a very stressful experience, especially if you are from an individual,
dominating-over-nature culture, and are used to getting things done yourself.
Case 7.3 .a Milou’s pre - depar ture stage

During her second year of study, Milou applied for an exchange programme to
spend her third year of study abroad at a partner university in Florida, the US.
There were only three places for exchange students, and thirty students wanted
to go there. So imagine the competition and stress for Milou. “You had to pass
all second year exams,” said Milou, “gather all that year’s credit points, and
write a very good letter of application with excellent recommendations. So I
spent all my weekdays going to class and running from teacher to teacher,
asking for letters of recommendation. All weekends I studied for the exams. My
boyfriend was upset that I had so little time. When I heard the announcement
that I was one of the three selected for the US, I was thrilled, but not for long.
Booking the cheapest flight was the least of my worries. What was I going to do
with my room? Cancel the rental contract, or sublet it? Was that allowed? Where
would I leave all my stuff? In my mother’s garage? No. She had finally gotten
the building permit to turn the garage into the kitchen of her dreams. One box
was all I could leave with her. The rest I left at my boyfriend’s parents.” With her
ticket in hand, and one day before her flight, Milou’s boyfriend actually begged,
“Please don’t go.”
Illustration 7.3 “Please don’t go...”.

Case 7.3 .b Michiel’s pre - depar ture stage

I spent my third year of study as an exchange student in Barcelona.
Preparing for my year abroad was big chaos. I was still on internship till just
a week before my departure. There was still a lot to arrange.
149
From the minute my school told me that there was a place for me at the UB,
Universidad de Barcelona, everything went on automatic pilot. I realised that
I was about to spend a whole year studying at one of Europe’s most popular
holiday destinations.
The most important things to arrange were finding an apartment, and filling
out piles of forms. Insurance forms, Erasmus scholarship forms, Dutch study
grant (IB-group) forms. Not to mention all the things I still needed to arrange
for school – such as passing certain subjects and getting the right number of
credits in order to fulfil the qualifications needed to go on a third year abroad
programme. But all this stress, you forget it the minute the plane lands.
7.4 The Vacation Stage
You are abroad at last! The first few weeks or even months after arrival, most people
are excited, positive and full of energy! You look around and can’t believe your eyes
or ears! New places, new people, shop windows full of stuff you’ve never seen. Food
tastes exciting. The foreign language sounds exotic. Your language blunders are
amusing. You move into your new room. Okay, the heater doesn’t work, but wow,
you’re abroad, and this feels like a vacation.
Whether this vacation stage lasts a few months, a few weeks, or only one or two
days, depends on a lot of circumstances. Did you yourself want to go abroad? Or
were you dragged along? Young people, who had to leave their friends behind and
move abroad because of their parents’ careers, seldom experience a vacation stage.
In fact they feel miserable right from day one. But for students, this isn’t the case.
They do experience a few weeks or months of euphoria, and enjoy their new world
as if it were a long vacation.
Case 7. 4 Michiel’s vacation stage

The first few days and weeks were like a vacation. Everything, really everything,
was easier and better than in Holland. I tried to do as much as possible,
because one year isn’t that long. I embraced everything that had to do with
Catalan and Spanish culture. I only ate and drank typical Catalan or Spanish
food and drinks. The Spanish girls were beautiful. I learned the language,
© Royal Van Gorcum
went out a lot, made a lot of friends, and I was never at home.
7.5 The Angry Stage
After the first phase of euphoria comes disillusion. It’s very, very tiring to think and
speak in a foreign language all day, day after day. You try, but you can’t say what you
mean. You don’t always understand what they say. And when they laugh about your
150 accent, you feel a pain inside. It isn’t funny anymore. The little in-crowd jokes that
your new friends make in an attempt to make you feel included, you don’t get them
and you feel excluded. Again the pain creeps up your chest. You feel like an outsider.
You long for the easy familiarity back home. How you yearn for your family. And
you have to clench your jaws very tightly to hold back your emotions. The food is
no longer exciting. You crave for food from home.
It’s not just the language, or the food. All the new sounds, sights, smells and
uninterpretable cues around you, they’re confusing, they’re frustrating, they drive
you to fury.
This is the stage often referred to as culture shock. It can last several months or
even years! For students on a year abroad, it’s around three to six months. People
in culture shock often feel they have failed in some way. They feel angry and
insecure. They easily cry, easily lose their tempers. They idealise the situation back
home. (“Traffic jams? We never had them in Holland.”) They start hating the local
culture, blame the local people for the frustrations, and go on and on complaining
about minor little incidents. They wish they just could pack their bags and leave.
Some people do. Most people, however, little by little crawl out of this deep valley
of frustrations, and start learning new skills for living in the new country.
Case 7.5 Michiel’s angr y stage: Nothing works, blame

the locals...
After a while, the excitement wears off. Everything I liked so much about
Barcelona? It all became a source of irritation, and I started hating it. It was
winter. The sun was no longer as warm. Now I started discovering the bad
habits of my flatmates. I had done my best to learn the language, but I still
couldn’t speak it well enough to follow a meaningful conversation. Suddenly
I didn’t like the food anymore. I didn’t like the supermarkets. I didn’t like the
Spanish girls anymore. I didn’t like them as much as the girls in Holland.
Then came the first round of exams. I had to take it easy. And I needed to rely
on my newly made friends for support. Suddenly my new friends seemed so
superficial compared to my friends in Holland. I secretly started missing
Holland and missing Dutch things. This was in the third or fourth month in
Barcelona. I didn’t want to go out. I didn’t want to do anything.
The worst part was when Christmas came. I had made up my mind not to go
home for Christmas. I said I wouldn’t need this. And my new friends, the
international students – they had gone home for Christmas. I was completely
alone.
7.6 Adjustment Stage and Strategies
In this stage you have started to learn more about the new culture. From all the
sounds, sights and smells around you, you can select what is meaningful, and
learn to ignore what is not important. You no longer interpret what you see
according to the basic assumptions of YOUR culture but of the new culture. You 151
have developed a new circle of friends and support system.
Case 7.6 Michiel: Barcelona, Adjustment Stage

After about five or six months I began to feel better, more settled. I felt at
ease. Now was the time that I wanted to go out again. I wanted to do as
much as possible again. I knew it would soon be time to leave. From then on,
everything was special and very nice to experience.
7.7 Re-entry Shock
Re-entry shock is the process of fitting back in your old familiar environment, after
living, working or studying abroad: a reversed culture shock. You would think it
was easier. But it’s actually extremely difficult, because you don’t expect it. Re-entry
shock follows a similar pattern as culture shock. It’s often shorter, but more
intense.
We have extended the graph of the culture shock cycle at the beginning of this
chapter with a re-entry shock curve.
While people in our surroundings may sympathise with someone in culture shock,
if we have re-entry shock, they say, “What? Culture shock in your own country?
What a snob!”
At first you’ll be overwhelmed with joy. Being back, seeing all the people you’ve
missed, and eating the food you craved for while you were away. But not for long.
Your stories about your experience abroad? No one seems to be interested. No one
has time. They can’t follow you. You’ve changed a lot and so have they. With all the
new things you learned abroad, you feel cramped in your own town, at your old
school, and fall into a deep disillusion of re-entry shock. A lot of students will start
blaming the school. “This school is terrible. Everything was better at the school
abroad.” And if it were up to you, you’d hop on the first plane back to the country
you just left.
© Royal Van Gorcum
Case 7.7 Michiel’s re - entr y shock

Okay, I had culture shock in Barcelona. But that was nothing. Coming back,
that was the toughest part of my study-abroad-year. After all the cool experiences
in Barcelona, it was so boring to just come home and do the same old things
I used to do, and go on with my life like nothing had changed. The first day
152 back at school was fun. The first time back to my old discotheque too. Just for
a while, it is all new again. A very short while. Then I felt completely out of
place. With my old friends I had this “Okay,-if -you-knew-what-I-have-
experienced” attitude.
I was glad to see my old friends again. But after a few days, I just wanted one
thing: to head straight back to Barcelona. Once again, everything was better
and faster in Barcelona. Here at home, everything was so normal. My room
was the same. My school was the same. The friends around me were the
same. In Barcelona I had gotten used to living with different people, making
friends quickly, and living a fast-paced life in a completely different culture.
The first few months were so difficult. This time I wasn’t struggling to learn
a new culture. I was struggling to get used to my own culture.
I’ve been back for a year now. Looking back, my year studying abroad was a
fantastic experience. I recommend it to everyone.
Illustration 7.4 “Everything is better in Barcelona…”.

7.8 Re-entry Shock and International Careers
What do employees learn while they are on international assignments? According

to research by Nancy Adler, international managers learn ‘People Skills’ while
abroad. They perform and make decisions in ambiguous situations. They learn to
manage while not speaking the local language. And they become intercultural 153
experts. (N. Adler, 2004, p. 211)
What happens when they return home to headquarters? Besides the personal re-
entry shock, they experience Professional Re-entry Shock, getting used to the work
environment that they left and have now returned to. Company policies and
structures may change while they are away. Often, their colleagues do not appreciate
their new skills. What is expected of them is that they slip back nicely into their old
roles as if they had never been away. In her research, Adler distinguishes three
types of returnees according to their re-entry strategies:
1. The Alienated Returnee
2. The Re-socialized Returnee, and
3. The Proactive Returnee.
1. Alienated returnees are unable to put their newly developed skills to use at
headquarters. Their satisfaction drops. This, on top of their personal re-entry
shock, drives them to look for another job, one that will take them straight back
abroad, preferably to the country they just left. This high job turnover among
returnees with international experience is a huge loss for the organization.
2. Séverine returned from working for three years as an environment manager in
Kenya. “My colleagues asked, ‘What was it like to work in there?’ But they only
want to hear ‘Fine’. When I tell them about our projects there, about the people
I met, and the places we went to, they don’t want to hear about it. So I don’t talk
about it. Let alone implement new ways of working that I learned in Kenya.”
Séverine has found a new position at another organization, and will soon be
leaving for an international assignment in neighbouring Tanzania.
3. The re-socialized returnees do just the opposite. Their re-entry strategy is to slip
back into their old roles as expected, and perform like they had never been
away. The loss to the organization is that their skills are underutilised, and their
international experience is wasted.
4. The proactive returnees are able to put their new skills and international
experience to use at headquarters for the organization’s benefit, and they are
able to perform with sensitivity to the culture at headquarters. They can’t do
this alone. This strategy is possible when management give the returnees
validation for the skills learned abroad. When the other staff members are
trained in intercultural sensitivity and have an open attitude towards new
international experiences, policies and practices. And when the returnees have
© Royal Van Gorcum
been kept up-to-date on new company policy and developments while they
were away. Then proactive returnees can use their international skills for the
benefit of the organization.
Twenty percent of all international managers returning from abroad quit their jobs
154 and fly straight back to where they came from. What a loss for the organisation.
The figures for students are not known, but a large number of students want to
quit their studies at this stage. We hope you won’t.
When you return from your exchange year abroad, or internship abroad, your
experience is a huge asset. Not only for yourself, but also for your fellow students
and for your school. Write about it in the school newsletter. Volunteer to speak at
the Study-Abroad-Information-Days that your school is organising for students
next year. They’ll listen to your stories! Be a host to international exchange students
studying at your university. After all, you are an intercultural expert!
7.9 Assignments
1 What You Leave Behind
Imagine you are about to leave your familiar hometown and country, to work or 155
study in a far away country. Name at least 10 things/places/people/activities you
will leave behind.
2 Your Comfort Zone
Some of the above, you will miss very much. Mark them: +.
Others you will be glad to leave behind. Mark them: –.
Some of these familiar people and places we take for granted. But in times of distress,
which of the above people/things/places would you turn to? Mark them: *.
They are your social-emotional networks.
3 Creating New Strategies
What are your strategies for building up a new network in the new country?
4 Your Fellow Students in Culture Shock
Denying culture shock doesn’t help. Recognising and managing it is more realistic.
Parents, lecturers and fellow students can be a great help in this process. In what
way could you help a culture-shocked foreign student in your class?
© Royal Van Gorcum
8 Multicultural
Teams and Global
Leadership
8.1 Managing Diversity in Teams
8.2 Multicultural Teams’ Strengths,
Weaknesses and Conditions for Excellence
8.3 During the Stages of Group Formation:
Challenges and Opportunities for
Culturally Diverse Teams
8.4 Global Leadership: the GLOBE Project
8.5 GLOBE Dimensions
8.6 GLOBE Leadership Clusters
8.7 GLOBE Values
8.8 Assignments
In chapter 1, we defined global citizenship, culture and intercultural
communication. The chapters that followed gave us insight in our own
cultural programming, as well as in other cultures; and how our own
culture is not universal, but part of the rich mosaic of global cultures.
Beyond cultural self-awareness and diversity awareness, the next
chapters gave us practical tools in how to create cultural synergistic
solutions, develop intercultural sensitivity and competence, as well as
how to succeed making cultural transitions when moving abroad for
study or career and when returning home.
Whether working and studying with international or with domestic

multicultural teams, for any multicultural team to be successful, we
need new leadership skills, culturally competent leadership. The aim of
this chapter is managing multicultural teams, and understanding global
leadership. It is based on work by N. Adler, C. Kovach and the GLOBE
Project lead by Robert J. House.
© Royal Van Gorcum
8.1 Managing Diversity in Teams
158
Illustration 8.1 Multicultural Team Effectiveness.

Adapted from: C. Kovach’s research at UCLA, in N. Adler, 2004, p. 148.
Multicultural teams seldom perform ‘just average’. Research by Carol Kovach at

the Graduate School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
shows that they either perform poorly – and unfortunately they get more media
coverage – or their performance is outstanding! It is not the diversity itself that
causes the lack of performance, but it is how the teams are managed. When
diversity is ignored, the team performance is low. When diversity is managed with
intercultural competence, the diversity in the team becomes an asset and a
productive resource (Adler, 2002). That makes leadership of multicultural teams
the major focus of this chapter.
Depending on how diverse the teams are, it has its corresponding needs in order
to be an outstanding team. And a different leadership schedule than when
managing a single-cultural team. Our main attention is on cultural diversity. But
team diversity of course includes all the differences mentioned in chapter 1, from
abilities, age, gender, sexual orientation, education, profession, religion to
language, region and culture. Adler (2002) distinguishes four types of diversity in
teams: homogeneous (no diversity), as well as token, bicultural and multicultural
teams.
In homogeneous teams, all have a similar background. A team of five Dutch doctors,
all women, working on a blended-learning project about diabetes, are a
chapter 8 Multicultural Teams and Global Leadership
homogeneous team in culture, gender, as well as profession. Homogeneous teams

tend to see the world in a more similar way, and come to similar solutions.
In token teams, all are from the same culture, except one. Five German male human
resource managers and one Ghanaian male human resource manager, researching
global leadership, are homogeneous in gender and profession, but are a token 159
team in culture. In this token team, the Ghanaian could perceive things in a
different way from his German team members. Ignoring the Ghanaian HR
manager’s contribution, even in an unintentional majority-rules-routine, would be
a waste of resources. Team leaders of token teams will increase the team’s overall
vision and performance by paying attention to the token member’s alternative
vision.
Bicultural teams obviously consist of two cultures. Equally or unequally distributed.

A project team of three French women and two Cape Verdean men studying
International Business Negotiations at the Sorbonne University in Paris, are
homogeneous in profession, and bicultural in culture and gender. In unequal
bicultural teams, there is a tendency for the group with the larger number of
members to dominate. A culturally competent team manager’s role is to ensure
equal attention in the team, as bicultural teams perform best if they share their
different perspectives and use it to the team’s advantage.
Multicultural teams represent several cultures. More than two. Students from
Australia, Bulgaria, China, Ethiopia, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, and
Surinam, studying at an international study programme, are an example. Members
of International Organizations such as ASEAN (Association of South East Asian
Nations) or the EU are other examples of multicultural teams. Members and
leaders of multicultural teams have an important role in recognizing the advantages
as well challenges multicultural teams face in the different stages of group
formation, to create the ideal conditions for team excellence.
Performance is worst, when cultural differences are ignored. “We are all the same”,
as frequently heard by people in Denial (see chapter 6), actually implies “I expect
you to behave like me”. People are not the same. They are equal. But not the same.
And forcing people to behave in the same way leads to the worst multicultural
teams.
Performance and satisfaction are best when cultural differences are recognized
and managed. When we recognize the advantages of diversity. And when time is
invested in trust building at the entry or forming stage; as well as in the final stage,
when teams need to conclude and come to an agreement. This is most difficult for
multicultural groups.
© Royal Van Gorcum
8.2 Multicultural Teams’ Strengths, Weaknesses and

Conditions for Excellence
8.2.1 What are the Strengths of Multicultural Groups?

160
First of all, diversity increases creativity. With people from more cultures in your
team, there simply is a wider vision, a broader perspective. As in the story of the Six
Blind Men and the Elephant in case 8.2. Multicultural teams have more and better
ideas. Furthermore, they have less ‘Groupthink’ or group pressure to do what the
group wants. Mono-cultural teams are more prone to groupthink, and this limits a
group in trying new innovative ways of working.
Illustration 8.2 Groupthink.
The increased creativity allows multicultural teams to have better problem

definitions. They see more alternatives. So they can choose better solutions and
make better decisions. So you should conclude that multicultural teams would
perform better. Then why don’t they in so many cases? Because there are also
weaknesses to take into consideration.
C a s e 8 . 2 M u l t i c u l t u r a l Te a m s H a v e B r o a d e r V i s i o n s
Analogy: The Six Blind Men and the Elephant.
161
Illustration 8.3.
Six blind men wanted to know what an elephant looked like. Each touched a
different part of the elephant.
The first man felt the elephant’s tail, and exclaimed, “A rope. An elephant is
like a rope!” The second felt the elephant’s side. “Whoa. Not a rope. An
elephant is like a wall!” The third one groped at the elephant’s leg, and knew
right away, “It’s like a tree! It’s like a tree!” The fourth man grabbed the
elephant by the trunk, and exclaimed, “What are you talking about? Tree? An
elephant is like a snake!” A fifth man touched one of the elephant’s tusks.
“Oh no, not a snake,” he exclaimed, “An elephant is like a sword.” When it
was the sixth man’s turn, he felt the elephant’s ear. “I’ll tell you what an
elephant is like,” he concluded, “it’s like a fan. And you are all wrong!”
In fact, everyone was right. But they only perceived part of the elephant. And
part of the truth. As a multicultural team, you can see the whole picture. As
long as you don’t claim that your own vision is the only truth.
© Royal Van Gorcum
8.2.2 Weaknesses in Multicultural Teams
Diversity causes lack of cohesion. In a lot of multicultural teams, people find

themselves forming in-groups with people of their own culture or linguistic
background. They speak their own language; have their in-culture jokes; and others
162 feel completely excluded. Some non-verbal communication aspects can cause
mistrust in multicultural groups. The appropriate personal distance in one culture
could be seen as being cold and disinterested in another culture (if standing too
far) or pushy and harassing (if too close). Less intense eye contact or looking down
as sign of respect when facing an older person or supervisor could be misinterpreted
as not telling the truth in another culture. And a too intense gaze might be seen as
flirting. Even if we know about the difference, we can’t help it. This creates mistrust,
and is very stressful.
Stereotyping in multicultural teams is another source of stress. Experts from less

economically developed countries still feel ignored when opinions are asked.
People just assume they should refer the difficult questions to experts from the
more economically developed countries. (Adler, 2004, p. 143) The lack of cohesion,
mistrust, and stereotyping can really cause a multicultural team to come to a
paralysis.
8.2.3 What are the Conditions for Multicultural Team Effectiveness?
When looking at the assignments, they should be creative and innovative. Not
routine. Multicultural teams are much better in creative assignments.
8.3 Multicultural Teams during the Stages of Group Formation
Adler’s research distinguishes a team’s progress through the stages of entry, work
and action. Each stage requires a different kind of support from their managers.
We have superimposed this onto the stages of group formation by Tuckman,
Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning, in table 8.3. (Robbins
& Judge, 2015, p. 241)
Table 8.1 Stages of Group Formation and Multicultural Teams’ Needs.
Forming
Adler’s entry stage and this first Forming stage are
characterised by uncertainty. Multicultural teams benefit
by getting to know each other first and by gaining trust.
Don’t start by taking out the assignment right away. A cup 163
of coffee together, getting to know each other, and building
trust is more important.
Storming
This stage is full of internal group conflict, leadership
clashes, and perceived restrictions by the group on the
individual. For Low Context cultures, clashes in opinion
are not such a problem, but they are seen as rude and
unprofessional in High Context cultures and in Collective
cultures.
Norming
Group cohesiveness grows, and relationships are built in
this stage. What is the correct behaviour in this group?
What can you expect? For monocultural groups, norming
is easier. Multicultural teams, with their diversity, may have
to invest more time and be more specific in the norming
stage.
Performing
The group is now working at its full potential.
For multicultural groups, in what Adler calls the work stage,
this is the easiest time. The diversity in multicultural teams
helps in innovative and creative problem solving.
Adjourning
This final stage is when you wrap up activities and come to
a conclusion. This is not so easy for multicultural teams.
In Adler’s final Action Stage, the multicultural teams need
help. With so much diversity and divergence, it is hard to
converge into a conclusion.
© Royal Van Gorcum
8.4 Global Leadership: the GLOBE Project
GLOBE, the acronym for Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Effectiveness, is a study on culture, leadership and organizations. Conceived by
Robert J. House, of Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, USA, it was
164 conducted by 170 country co-researchers and 14 experts.
Their aim was to investigate how cultural values are related to organizational
practices, leadership, economic competitiveness of societies, and the human
condition of its members. Are leadership values universal? And if so, how
universal? To discover this, they set off on a gigantic 10-year research endeavour.
No less than 17,370 middle managers from 951 organizations in 62 societies

participated in the GLOBE survey. Roughly 75% of the respondents were men, so
there is a certain degree of gender bias. But they chose a good diversity of
professional fields: banking, food processing, and telecommunications. And the
study was very country-representative, with its average of 251 respondents per
country (lowest 27 and highest 1,790 respondents). They specifically included
indigenous companies, not multinationals, because they wanted country-related
responses.
GLOBE refers to societies rather than countries. Modern country borders often cut
straight across societies with a shared cultural heritage, leaving similar societies in
different countries. On the other hand, cultures within the same country can differ
strongly due to ethnic, linguistic and political history. For example, the GLOBE
project’s research includes separate data for former GDR (East Germany) as well as
former FRG (West Germany). As authors and interculturalists, we admire this
attention paid to cultural similarity across country borders and diversity within
borders. We would welcome seeing this attention paid to more countries and
societies, such as in India, Indonesia or Nigeria.
Using the data they collected, they were able to group the 62 societies into 10
clusters, based on their 9 dimensions which they refer to as Cultural Competencies,
and 6 Leadership Behaviours.
Table 8.2 shows the 62 countries or societies, table 8.3 the 9 dimensions or
competencies which are described below, and table 8.4 the 10 clusters.
Table 8.2 The 62 Societies in the GLOBE Project.
1. Albania 17. Finland 33. Kazakhstan 49. South Africa (Black)

2. Argentina 18. France 34. Kuwait 50. South Africa (white)
3. Australia 19. Georgia 35. Malaysia 51. South Korea
4. Austria 20. Germany (East) 35. Mexico 52. Spain
165
5. Bolivia 21. Germany (West) 37. Morocco 53. Sweden
6. Brazil 22. Greece 38. Namibia 54. Switzerland (German-
speaking)
7. Canada (English- 23. Guatemala 39 Netherlands 55. Switzerland (French/
speaking) Italian-speaking)
8. China 24. Hong Kong 40. New Zealand 56. Taiwan
9. Colombia 25. Hungary 41. Nigeria 57. Thailand
10. Costa Rica 26. India 42. Philippines 58. Turkey
11. Czech Republic 27. Indonesia 43. Poland 59. U.S.A
12. Denmark 28. Iran 44. Portugal 60. Venezuela
13. Ecuador 29. Ireland 45. Qatar 61. Zambia
14. Egypt 30. Israel 46. Russia 62. Zimbabwe
15. El Salvador 31. Italy 47. Singapore
16. England 32. Japan 48. Slovenia
Adapted from R.J. House, et al., 2004, p. 12.
8.5 GLOBE Dimensions or Cultural Competencies
Based on Geert Hofstede’s Dimensions and Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s Value

Orientations, but also researching beyond that, the GLOBE project team established
nine dimensions or cultural competencies. With this they could measure similarities
and differences in norms, values, beliefs and practices in different societies. The
dimensions are listed in table 8.3 and defined in the paragraph below it.
The first six dimensions originate from four of Hofstede’s dimensions (see chapter
4 of this book for reference). However, GLOBE distinguishes Institutional
Collectivism from In-Group Collectivism. The first encourages collective
distribution of resources and collective action. The second expresses loyalty and
cohesiveness in organizations or families. GLOBE chose the terms Gender
Egalitarianism and Assertiveness rather than the two poles of masculinity, which
are so frequently misinterpreted.
Two dimensions, Future Orientation and Humane Orientation, originate from

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s dimensions Past-Present-Future Orientation and the
assumption that Human Nature is basically good or evil (see chapter 3). One
dimension, Performance Orientation, is based on the Need-to-Achieve studies by
© Royal Van Gorcum
McClelland.
Table 8.3 GLOBE’s 9 Dimensions or 9 Cultural Competencies.
1. Uncertainty Avoidance 4. In-Group Collectivism 7. Future Orientation

2. Power Distance 5. Gender Egalitarianism 8. Performance Orientation
3. Institutional Collectivism 6. Assertiveness 9. Humane Orientation
166
This is how GLOBE defines the nine Cultural Competencies:
1. Uncertainty Avoidance is “the extent to which members of an organization
or society strive to avoid uncertainty by relying on social norms, rituals, and
bureaucratic practices to decrease the unpredictability of future events that
could affect the operations in a negative way”.
Examples are Singapore and Switzerland. Processes are elaborate, and
strategies are formal.
2. Power Distance is “the degree to which members of an organization or society
expect and agree that power should be stratified, and concentrated at the
higher levels of an organization or government”.
Examples of high Power Distance are Brazil and Thailand. The preferred
decision-making is hierarchical.
3. Collectivism I: Institutional Collectivism is “the degree to which organizational
and societal institutions encourage and reward collective distribution of
resources and collective action”.
Examples are Japan and Sweden. Organizations care for their employees’
welfare. And wealth is redistributed through taxes.
4. Collectivism II: In-group Collectivism is “the degree to which individuals
express pride, loyalty and cohesiveness in their organizations or families”.
Examples are India and China. Trusting in friends, family and social contacts
when recruiting for jobs is an expression of loyalty and responsibility.
5. Gender Egalitarianism is “the extent to which an organization or a society
minimizes gender role differences and gender discrimination”.
Examples are Denmark, Hungary, Poland and Sweden. Education levels of
men and women are equal. There is a higher percentage of women in the
workforce and in leadership positions.
6. Assertiveness is “the degree to which individuals in organizations or societies
are assertive, confrontational, and aggressive in social relationships”.
Examples are Hong Kong and USA. In business, competition is highly valued.
7. Future Orientation is “the extent to which organizations and societies engage
in future-oriented behaviour such as planning, investing in the future, and
delaying individual or collective gratification”.
Examples are the Netherlands, Singapore and Switzerland. Saving for the
future is valued. Decision-making time frames can be long.
8. Performance Orientation is “the extent to which an organization or society
encourages and rewards group members performance improvement and
excellence”.
Examples are USA and Hong Kong. There is a high regard for training and
development and appreciation for taking initiative.
9. Humane Orientation is “the degree to which individuals in organizations or
societies encourage and reward individuals for being fair, altruistic, friendly,
generous, caring, and kind to others”.
Examples are Ireland, Malaysia and the Philippines. A paternalistic
management style with sympathy for others.
Robert J. House, 2004, pp. 11-12.
8.5.1 As it is and How it Should be
GLOBE measured each dimension in two ways: as practice or ‘as is’ and as value or
‘should be’. This is very unique. For example, on the item Assertiveness,
respondents could mark a 6 for in practice, but a 3 as how they would prefer it,
showing a difference in what they practise and what they value. 167
8.6 GLOBE Leadership Clusters
Based on the huge database of responses to their questionnaires, taking cultural

similarities, and even geographic location and climate into account, the GLOBE
researchers grouped the 62 societies into 10 clusters, similar to circles of country-
clusters in previous studies (by Ronen & Shenkar; Inglehart; and Schwartz – these
studies have not been mentioned before in this book). The ten GLOBE clusters are
Middle East, Confucian Asia, Southern Asia, Latin America, Nordic Europe, Anglo,
Germanic Europe, Latin Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Eastern Europe. We now
specify the societies or countries in each cluster, as far as they were part of the 62
societies studied:
Middle East: Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Turkey.

Confucian Asia: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan.
Southern Asia: India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand.
Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela.
Nordic Europe: Denmark, Finland, Sweden.
Anglo: Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa (white
sample), United States of America.
Germanic Europe: Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland (German-
speaking).
Latin Europe: France, Italy, Israel, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland (French/Italian-
speaking).
Sub-Saharan Africa: Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa (Black sample), Zambia,
Zimbabwe.
Eastern Europe: Albania, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Poland, Russia,
Slovenia.
Are the GLOBE clusters useful for you? Yes. If you are the chairperson of a project
group, or president of a student organisation, coach of a hockey team, or if you are
starting your internship abroad and are going to work in a new team, take a look at
the GLOBE circle of clusters in illustration 8.4.
© Royal Van Gorcum
Societies in one cluster are most similar. The further apart the clusters are, the
greater the difference. Take the Netherlands, for example. It is in the cluster
Germanic Europe. So if you are Dutch, this cluster is where you’ll find societies
most similar to yours. You share several cultural traits. For example, you are
accustomed to Low Power Distance. So it is okay to disagree with your boss. Even
168 geographic and climatic conditions are similar – so in terms of an internship abroad,
you won’t even be shocked by the weather. The difference is greatest with societies
furthest from it, at the opposite side of the circle. That is the cluster Confucian Asia.
Here is where your Intercultural Sensitivity will be tested most. You will have a
harder time, but hopefully a rewarding time, learning new cultural values, trying
new leadership behaviour, and practising ‘Frame of Reference Shifting’, as described
in chapter 6. If you know in which cluster your society is, and if you know the
societies your team is in, you have a head start as culturally competent leader.
Illustration 8.4 The 10 GLOBE Clusters.

From: Javidan, Dorfman, Sully de Luque, & House (2006). In the Eye of the Beholder: Cross
Cultural Leadership from Project GLOBE. Academy of Management Perspectives, 20(1), 67-90.
8.7 GLOBE Leadership and Values
How do different cultures describe outstanding leaders? According to GLOBE,

leadership effectiveness is set in the norms, values, and beliefs of the members
being led. They are imprinted in our early experiences with leader figures.
Leadership assumptions are like basic assumptions, we learn them at a young age 169
through our ‘programming’. And these leadership assumptions turn into
leadership expectations.
The GLOBE researchers define leadership as “... the ability of an individual to

influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and
success of the organizations of which they are members” (House, et al., 2004,
p. 15)
With this definition in mind, GLOBE first examined 112 leader characteristics, such
as ‘decisive’ or ‘trustworthy’, and tested them on their respondents to see how
universally desired these qualities were for leaders.
Their study first generated 21 leadership dimensions. Using a 7-point scale in their
questionnaires, they were able to rank the 21 leadership dimensions from the ‘most
universally desirable’ to the ‘least universally desirable’.
This again resulted in six dimensions of Culturally Endorsed Implicit Leadership:

1. Charismatic/Value-Based Leadership
2. Team-Oriented Leadership
3. Participative Leadership
4. Humane-Oriented Leadership
5. Autonomous Leadership
6. Self-Protective Leadership
1. The Charismatic/Value-Based Leadership underlines high standards,

decisiveness and innovation. It inspires people around a vision. It generates a
passion among members to perform, by holding on to core values.
It is most popular in Latin America, Latin Europe, Nordic Europe and the
Anglo cluster.
US president John F. Kennedy was an example of a charismatic/Value-Based
leader from the Anglo cluster.
2. The Team-Oriented Leadership style gives pride, loyalty, and promotes
collaboration among its members. It values team cohesiveness and a common
goal. It is the second favourite style in Latin Europe, Latin America and
Confucian Asia.
© Royal Van Gorcum
3. Participative Leadership underlines equality and delegation of tasks. It invites

input from the other members. It is the second favourite style in Nordic Europe
and the Anglo Cluster.
4. Humane-Oriented Leadership style radiates compassion, generosity and
supportiveness. It is concerned with others’ well-being. It is most liked in the
170 clusters Sub-Saharan Africa, in South Asia and second most popular in the
Middle East. Pakistani activist for education for all Malala Youfsafzai and
political leader Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar are examples of South Asian
leaders with Humane-Oriented Leadership styles.
5. Autonomous Leadership style is independent, individualistic, and self-centric
leadership. This is most popular in Eastern Europe and Germanic Europe.
German Chancellor (Prime Minister) Angela Merkel is an example of
Autonomous Leadership from the cluster Germanic Europe.
6. Self-Protective Leadership style is strongly procedural, status-conscious and
associated with face-saving behaviour. The individual’s safety and security are
priorities. It ranks highest as preferred style in Confucian Asia, Southern Asia
and in the Middle East.
Adapted from Hoppe (2007). Culture and Leader Effectiveness: The GLOBE Study.
Having gone a full circle, from Global Citizenship to Global Leadership, we end
this last chapter with the question ‘Is it useful for students to know about global
leadership styles?’
Yes! If leadership is the ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to

contribute toward the success of the organizations, then you need leadership skills
everyday. Everyone needs them. If members in your project group are not
performing to their full potential, it is time for you to step in with the right
leadership style that will transform them, and create a passion for performance in
your team. And generate pride in being part of such an effective multicultural
team.
8.8 Assignments
1 Multicultural teams
You are the chairperson of a project team of students from Australia, Bulgaria, 171
China, Ethiopia, Germany, Mexico and the Netherlands, studying at an international
study-programme. Would you rather manage them in a routine assignment or in a
creative assignment? Why? (Adapted from Adler, 2002)
2 My GLOBE Society and Cluster
Work in pairs. Preferably with someone from a different country or society. If that
isn’t possible, try with someone whose parents or grandparents are from a different
country. If that also isn’t possible, with someone of the same country. Take a look
at the GLOBE clusters in table 8.4.
a. From which society or country are you?
b. From which cluster are you?
If your country is not one of the 62 societies studied, find the cluster that your
country would probably be in if it had been one of the 62. Consider its cultural,
linguistic, social, historical, and even geographic background. So if you are from
Romania, and linguistically Latin, you may place yourself in the Latin Europe
cluster, or if you are from the Hungarian-speaking society of Romania, you might
choose to be in the Eastern Europe cluster.
c. Talk to your partner, and see what similarities and differences you come up
with, whether your countries and clusters are the same or different. The
similarities and differences can be anything from cultural dimensions to eating
habits and how you celebrate birthdays.
© Royal Van Gorcum
3 The French Manager in India
Case by D r. E liane Karsaklian, Sorb onne Unive rsit y,

Paris, France
“A French manager was looking for partners in India. He hired a specialist in
172 international business to help him. The international expert made several
trips to India to identify the appropriate potential partners and to open the
doors for the French manager. Each time the international expert was back in
France reporting to him, the manager was unhappy, because he believed
nothing tangible was coming from so many trips to India. He would say, ‘We
are spending a lot of money on your trips to India, and you always come back
empty-handed.’
Once the international expert had everything sorted out for the French
manager’s first visit, the manager decided to go to India alone.
He told the specialist, ‘You’ve been there several times, and came back with
nothing. I don’t need you there with me. I can handle it.’
(…) The Indians (…) were at the airport waiting for their French guest when
he landed. However, the French manager had already booked a limousine to
take him to his hotel, which he had insisted upon using, rejecting the one
suggested by his potential Indian counterparts. After the Indian hosts had
waited long enough at the airport to understand that their guest had gone to
the hotel by himself, they called him at his hotel to say they would pick him
up for dinner.
He replied, ‘If you want to have dinner with me it should be at my hotel’s

restaurant.’
Needless to say, the Indians never arrived.”
Source: Karsaklian, (2014) The Intelligent International Negotiator, pp. 40-41.
In less than a few hours, a culturally unaware manager destroyed a relationship of

trust and face-saving that had been carefully built over months by the international
expert. In the end, the manager (…) “believed that the international expert was
incompetent and had wasted a lot of money travelling to India, and that the Indians
were rude because they did not come to see him at his hotel when he had travelled
to their country just to meet them.” (Karsaklian, 2014, p. 41)
Case Part 2. You are the assistant to the International Business Expert.
Some months have passed, and the French manager is beginning to realise that he
has a lot to gain from cultural awareness. He approaches the international expert
and requests her assistance in some personal intercultural coaching.
173
Unfortunately, she is attending an important seminar in Japan this week, so she
has asked you to prepare things for the French manager, to use for his intercultural
coaching upon her return. She asks you to please gather the following data and
have it ready on her desk:
a. To which GLOBE cluster does the French manager belong?
b. What are the CLTs (Culturally Endorsed Implicit Leadership) corresponding
with this cluster?
c. To which GLOBE cluster do the Indian counterparts belong?
d. What are the CLTs (Culturally Endorsed Implicit Leadership) corresponding
with this cluster?
e. How similar or different are the two clusters that France and India belong to?
Explain.
f. Prepare an intercultural coaching workshop for the French manager:
• Make a programme with starting times and ending times.
• Include aims, topics to be addressed, competencies to be learned, and
desired outcomes. For this part, please refer to GLOBE, as well as to any
dimensions or competencies from previous chapters in this book.
g. Together with the international expert, prepare a meeting with the Indian
counterparts, to repair the relationship.
• What are the topics to be addressed? How will this be addressed?
• How can you come to a synergistic solution?
h. The ideal trip to India. The French manager has completed his Intercultural
Coaching, and is going on a second visit to India to meet his counterparts.
Describe this trip, in ideal terms. It will be pure Cultural Synergy. From
departure from France (accompanied or not?), through arrivals, meetings,
dinner (where), until return. Describe the ideal outcomes, and spin-off.
4 Culture and Leadership in Country X
An integrated Culture, Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Assignment.

This assignment was created by Ute Massholder for students who also study
Management, Leadership and Organizational Behaviour. If you do not study the
subjects above, please do the assignment, but skip the parts in italics. (Source: Ute
Massholder, Organizational Behaviour and Culture 2016-17, Utrecht University of
Applied Sciences)
© Royal Van Gorcum
Form teams of 4 or 5 students. Preferably multicultural teams. If there is no

cultural diversity in your class, work in groups that are diverse in regional
background, gender, age or other difference.
Choose a country, to be approved by lecturer.

174 All groups have different countries.
Your learning objective is: To integrate theories of Organizational Behaviour and

Cultural Dimensions and apply them to a concrete management situation.
Literature:
• Nunez, Nunez and Popma, Intercultural Sensitivity: Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8.
• Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behavior: Chapters 6, 9, 12, 13.
• Javidan et al., In the Eye of the Beholder: Cross Cultural Lessons in Leadership from
Project GLOBE, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mary_Sully_De_Luque/
publication/274638154_In_the_Eye_of_the_Beholder_Cross_Cultural_
Lessons_in_Leadership_from_Project_GLOBE/links/
55243ef30cf2caf11bfcc462.pdf?origin=publication_list.
Or another source, to be approved by your lecturer.

Please clearly indicate your sources!
The Assignment: Culture and Leadership in …

You are a manager preparing for an assignment in … (please choose a country and
ask your lecturer to approve it).
• Introduction: Introduce your country of choice (general introduction and
related to cultural dimensions).
• What generally motivates employees in that country? Use two motivation theories
from Robbins (chapter 6) for your argumentation, and relate them to the cultural
dimensions.
• Talk about leadership in your country: Which leadership style would you use? Use
two leadership theories from Robbins (chapter 12) with which you can illustrate how
leadership ‘works’ in your country. Use the outcomes of the Project GLOBE research
to point out the culture-specific leadership aspects from a global perspective.
• Choose and present a leader from your country of choice and show how the
cultural dimensions are reflected in his/her behaviour (political leader, business
leader, activist).
• Conclusion: What advice can you give to managers preparing for an assignment
in your country of choice? (At least 5 items of advice.) Please note: Your advice
should be a logical outcome of your research for this assignment (cultural
dimensions, motivation, leadership). Any advice that is just copied from
literature or websites without being justified by own research won’t be counted
as valid.
This assignment is worth 100 points.

• 15 points for presentation, attendance obligatory; 3 points for each sub question.
• Presentation: clear, logical argumentation, visually attractive, good connection
with audience.
• Duration presentation: 20 minutes.
• 25 points for written assignment, 5 points for each sub question (see above). 175
• 10 points for quality of own research.
• Assignment counts for 50% of portfolio grade.
• Minimum 4 pages, maximum 6 pages.
• Font 12, single-spaced.
© Royal Van Gorcum

About the Authors
176
From highly diverse cultural and professional backgrounds, the authors worked
together at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, to write an Intercultural
Management book aimed at first and second year university students at international
programmes. A book that is accessible, packed with real-life student examples and
full of hands-on assignments.
Carlos Nunez is Colombian. He studied Design in Berlin; Architecture at Los

Andes University in Bogotá, Colombia; and Urban Planning at Delft University of
Technology, in the Netherlands, where he specialized in Decision Making and
Computer Modelling. After working in architecture, management and decision-
making in Colombia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Ukraine, Carlos developed
management simulation games, using cultural diversity as leverage for improved
decision making. As interim manager, he created an internationalization plan for
the School of Technology, at INHOLLAND University in Alkmaar, the Netherlands.
With his passion for restoring old-timer cars, Carlos created ‘The Car Race’, a
hands-on simulation game for excellent international teamwork. He has worked at
the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, training Dutch managers and engineers
on international assignments. Carlos lectured at international bachelor’s and
master’s programmes at Rotterdam Business School, Utrecht University of Applied
Sciences, Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences and at the Sorbonne
University in Paris.
Raya Nunez Mahdi is Indonesian, and grew up in Thailand, China, Indonesia,

Russia, the Netherlands and Germany. She studied Cultural Anthropology at the
Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, where she met her husband, Carlos. She
completed an English Teachers’ Training course in Bogotá, Colombia, and studied
Social and Medical Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. After working as
an Intercultural Communication trainer at the Royal Tropical Institute in
Amsterdam, Raya lectured Intercultural Management, Organizational Behaviour
and Global Citizenship at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, Bremerhaven
University of Applied Sciences; and Intercultural Communication at the Sorbonne
Multicultural Teams and Global Leadership
University in Paris. She trains lecturers in managing multicultural classrooms

more effectively.
Carlos and Raya Nunez run an Intercultural Management Training Consultancy in
The Hague, the Netherlands.
Laura Popma is Dutch and grew up in the Netherlands. She studied Modern 177
English Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam. She then worked as a teacher
of English at secondary schools. After various IT courses and a postdoctoral course
in corporate education she worked as an information analyst in the software
industry and developed training courses for IT specialists. Laura also trained IT
specialists in project management and communication courses. She developed
courses in didactics and train-the-trainer courses and trained lecturers in these
courses. She now lectures Business Communication Skills, Intercultural
Communication and Globalization and Culture at Utrecht University of Applied
Sciences.
© Royal Van Gorcum

About the Illustrator
178
Masaaki Oyamada was born in Yamanashi, Japan and grew up the countryside
surrounded by lakes and mountains. He moved to Tokyo in 1999 to study
management and self-trained in graphic design.
After establishing himself as a graphic designer in 2003, Masaaki moved to the
Netherlands in 2005, where he worked for a branding agency in Amsterdam and a
Packaging Design Company in The Hague.
Masaaki is married and has two sons. After the birth of his first son in 2012, he
became independent and worked for small and large clients in Europe and Japan.
He started creating stamps as daily excises using his hands and all the senses of the
body. The stamps illustrate objects from everyday life and the stories of people he
met, made graphic in the form of stamps. He applies these stamps to create
artwork and stationery, workshops and performances.
For the 4th edition of Intercultural Sensitivity, Masaaki especially created
illustrations for Royal van Gorcum Publishers, in close cooperation with Carlos
Nunez.
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Intercultural Sensitivity

4th, revised edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

ISBN folioboek 978 90 232 5555 0

Cover: Kim Boeren, Viesrood grafisch & interactief ontwerp

Chapter 1 Culture, Communication and Global Citizenship������������� 12

1.1 What is Culture? Visible and Invisible Culture������������������������������������� 14

Chapter 2 Working with Hall’s Key Concepts of Cultural

2.1 Communication: High and Low Context����������������������������������������������������� 38

2.2 Monochronic and Polychronic Time����������������������������������������������������������������� 46

Chapter 3 Working with Kluckhohn’s Variations in Value

3.1 Dominating, in Harmony with or Subjugated to Nature������� 62

Chapter 4 Working with Hofstede’s 6 Dimensions of Culture ����� 78

4.7 Country Scores on Hofstede’s Six Dimensions of Culture ��� 95

Chapter 5 Cultural Synergy: Trompenaars’ 7 Dimensions and

Chapter 6 The Growth Process in Intercultural Sensitivity�������������� 128

Chapter 7 Culture Shock While Studying Abroad������������������������������������������� 144

Chapter 8 Multicultural Teams and Global Leadership�������������������������� 156

8.1 Managing Diversity in Teams���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 158

This anecdote cruelly brought me back to the notion of context.

Another example: when a Marketing team in Venezuela presented me with a very

1.1 What is Culture? Visible and Invisible

© Royal Van Gorcum

1.1 What is Culture? Visible and Invisible Culture

According to the interculturalist Edgar Schein, culture consists of layers, like an

Illustration 1.1 Cultural onion.

1.2 Definition of Culture

“ Culture is the collective programming of the mind, which

Some Def initions of Culture

2. Mijnd Huijser defines culture as … “a group’s set of shared norms and

3. Fons Trompenaars: “Culture is the way in which a group of people solves

4. Geert Hofstede: “Culture is the collective programming of the human

1.3 Cultural Programming

A lot of programming comes with our upbringing. Take a simple handshake.

A lot of other things we learn through socialization, by interacting with others. To

Finally, part of the programming happens through perception. Just by looking

Does programming reduce us to cultural robots then? No. Regardless of culture,

Now let’s move on to the word collective.

1.4 Culture and Subcultures

In “Culture is the collective mental programming of the human mind”, collective

Here is a list of possible subcultures:

• Religion (Catholic, Protestant, Islamic, Jewish, Hindu or Buddhist culture)

The list is fairly complete, but not exhaustive.

It is good to be aware of differences as well as similarities and overlaps in our

1.5 Intercultural Communication

Communication is the exchange of meaning. If you want to give information to

Intercultural communication is the communication between sources and receivers

Sometimes misunderstanding is caused by what we call ‘noise’ in the

1.6 Noise. What Exactly is Communication Noise?

Internal noise, or psychological noise, involves emotions, worries or personal

Cultural noise occurs when differences in cultural programming distorts the

1.7 TOPOI Model, Intervention for Cultural Noise

The TOPOI Model (Hoffman, 2012) distinguishes five areas of possible

3 Key Intervention Questions

The 5 TOPOI Areas

T is for Tongue or Language. It is about meaning – the language aspect of

Case 1.7.a Pieten (Saint Nicholas’ helpers, the Piets)

Illustration 1.4 Saint Nicholas and his assistants, the Piets.

6 December. Saint Nicholas Day is a very popular celebration in the

Lately, in the discussion concerning Piet, we see at least two different

Consider these interventions:

O. The second O is for Organization – the social and professional organizational

how you would apply the I of TOPOI.

Chapter 1 Culture, Communication and Global Citizenship�� 12

1.1 What is Culture? Visible and Invisible Culture�� 14

2.1 Communication: High and Low Context�� 38

2.2 Monochronic and Polychronic Time�� 46

3.1 Dominating, in Harmony with or Subjugated to Nature�� 62

Chapter 4 Working with Hofstede’s 6 Dimensions of Culture �� 78

4.7 Country Scores on Hofstede’s Six Dimensions of Culture �� 95

Chapter 5 Cultural Synergy: Trompenaars’ 7 Dimensions and

Chapter 6 The Growth Process in Intercultural Sensitivity�� 128

Chapter 7 Culture Shock While Studying Abroad�� 144

Chapter 8 Multicultural Teams and Global Leadership�� 156

8.1 Managing Diversity in Teams�� 158