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EP 35: Stepping into the unknown culture dimension
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Today’s episode is a bit of a back-to-school episode. Until now you have heard truly insightful stories from automotive executives that have navigated different cultures. Today we break out the chalkboard and try to fit a simple, yet complex, framework around those conversations. That framework was developed by Geert Hofstede.
Let’s have a short introduction to Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions. Based on research that he conducted in the 1970’s, Hofstede constructed six cultural dimensions by which different countries or cultures could be compared on a relative basis. These help to create context and understanding for differences that one could see or feel but not really explain.
The six dimensions are the Individualism vs. Collectivism Dimension, the Power Distance Dimension, the Uncertainty Avoidance Dimension, the Masculinity vs. Femininity Dimension, the Long-Term vs. Short-Term Orientation, and the Indulgence vs. Restraint Dimension. The names already hint at what each may be about.
Host John Stech provides a brief tour of Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions. He provides short examples from his automotive career for each dimension, helping to understand each. As a German immigrant to the United States, he had always felt a bit out of sync with peers. The “ah-ha” moment came when he first read Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. The light bulb came on.
This is just a short introduction to Hofstede’s work. Volumes have been written about it and other works are based on it. For more information, it is recommended to visit the website. There you can find the maps visible in the video version of this podcast. You can also find other resources, such as a tool where you can pick several countries and see how they line up on the six dimensions. This can be fascinating if you have a specific culture in mind. You can find these at https://www.geerthofstede.com .
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Transcript
Cultural Behavior: Independence vs. Harmony
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Why do we behave the way we do? Why do some cultures prize independence while others emphasize harmony? And how can we better understand each other across these invisible divides?
Introduction to 'The Auto Ethnographer' Podcast
00:00:14
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Hello and welcome to The Auto Ethnographer. I'm John Steck, your host on this journey. We travel the globe to bring you stories about culture and the global automotive industry.
John's Journey: Germany to the US
00:00:24
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Fasten your seatbelt and let's get started.
00:00:27
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Hello and welcome to The Auto Ethnographer. I'm your host, John Steck. And today we're diving into a topic that's shaped my life in ways I didn't truly understand until much later.
00:00:41
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Cultural dimensions. Okay, it might be a bit theoretical today and it feels perhaps like we're going back to school. But trust me, it adds context and makes what you may experience on a daily basis at at home or in your private life or at work become more concrete.
Understanding Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions
00:01:02
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As you may recall, i came to the United States from Germany at a young age. And while I quickly picked up the language, the customs, and the humor, I always felt different.
00:01:15
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Not in a bad way. but just slightly out of sync. My American friends seemed more comfortable with certain freedoms, with kind ah they were more casual with authority, and more optimistic about the future.
00:01:29
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I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I knew something deeper was at play. That early sense of cultural dissonance, of difference, sparked a lifelong fascination with intercultural relationships.
00:01:45
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Why do we behave the way we do? Why do some cultures you prize independence while others emphasize harmony? And how can we better understand each other across these invisible divides?
00:01:59
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And here is where we get a little bit into the college lecture. One framework, and here's where we start to get into the theoretical a little bit.
00:02:11
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It helped me and it helped millions of others make sense of the differences between people and cultures is Gert Hofstad's model of cultural dimensions.
00:02:23
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When I encountered this model during graduate school at the university, everything, everything suddenly made sense. Developed through extensive research at IBM in the 1970s, yeah, this stuff goes pretty far back, um and developed over decades,
00:02:44
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Hofstad, he identified six different dimensions that shape how societies function. Today, I'll walk you through each one of the six cultural dimensions with some personal examples of mine that bring them to
Individualism vs. Collectivism
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life.
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Maybe this will spark some realizations with you in things that are happening i at the office or in in your personal life.
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In any case, I'll put some links at the bottom of the podcast notes that can direct you to some more resources. The first dimension is individualism versus collectivism.
00:03:26
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This dimension explores whether people see themselves primarily as individuals, being very individualistic, or as part of a group, more collectivistic.
00:03:39
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Germany scores pretty high on individualism, but the United States scores even higher. Americans often emphasize personal freedom, self-expression, and the idea of being your own person.
00:03:57
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While Germans can be individualistic, they tend to have more focus on the group than the American counterparts. Think of workplace culture.
00:04:09
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In the US, employees might be praised for standing out on their own merits and on their own performance. That's different from Asia.
00:04:19
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For example, in Japan, which is a highly collectivist society, where success is often measured by how well one fits in and how the group contributes as a whole in its performance.
00:04:33
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The second dimension is the power distance dimension. This measures how comfortable people are with unequal distributions of power.
Power Distance Across Cultures
00:04:43
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So for example, in Germany, power distance is relatively low.
00:04:47
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Titles exist and and have always been very important, but they don't create rigid barriers. While you might call your professor at the university Herr Professor Dr. Müller,
00:05:01
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you're still encouraged to ask questions and to challenge. In contrast, countries like Vietnam or Mexico have much higher power distance.
00:05:13
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Authority figures are rarely challenged and the hierarchy is much more deeply respected. I personally experienced various levels of power distance during my career.
00:05:27
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while at Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, and even Chrysler, before it became Fiat Chrysler or the current Stellantis, I could argue my point with my superiors.
00:05:38
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However, my time at VinFast Automotive in Vietnam was dramatically different. Decisions on nearly everything flowed from the very top and were to be implemented without questioning.
Ambiguity Tolerance in Different Cultures
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The third dimension is the uncertainty avoidance dimension. This dimension looks at how cultures deal with ambiguity and risk.
00:06:09
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Germans are famously high in uncertainty avoidance. They love rules, procedures, and planning. While I was at Mercedes-Benz, we had three-year operating plans and a 10-year strategic plan updated annually.
00:06:28
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There's comfort in knowing what to expect. And there's also disappointment when the world actually provides different results than was in the plan.
00:06:42
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Americans, by contrast, are more tolerant of ambiguity. The entrepreneurial spirit, it thrives on risk and experimentation and a more freestyle way of working.
00:06:55
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In the third episode of the Autoethnographer, Helmut Grussa alluded to this while he was working at Chrysler in Detroit on loan from Mercedes-Benz. He found that deadlines were left until the very last moment when he started to sweat, but the American colleagues seemed to be just fine.
00:07:16
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The starkest example of this dimension that I personally experienced was planning process between Chrysler when I was there during the Daimler Chrysler years and Fiat Chrysler under Italian management.
00:07:34
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While we had, as mentioned, three and 10 year plans at Chrysler under Mercedes and tried to get the world actually to adapt our plan, not the other way around.
00:07:47
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At Fiat, the plan seemed to change every week as adjustments were made.
Masculine vs. Feminine Cultures
00:07:55
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The ink wouldn't even dry on the one printed copy before we had to recycle the deck and develop a new strategy and a new plan.
00:08:07
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The fourth dimension is the masculinity versus femininity dimension. It's not about gender. It's really more about values so where masculine cultures, they tend to emphasize achievement, competition, and success.
00:08:25
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Feminine cultures, they are more focused on prioritizing care, quality of life, and cooperation. The U.S. tends to lean masculine with a strong focus on winning and being the best.
00:08:42
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You see this pervasive in sports and business and in daily life. Meanwhile, over in Sweden, and again, I have worked for Volvo. hu On the other hand, it's highly feminine.
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there's more emphasis on consensus, on modesty, and on overall social welfare in the society. In my career, I perceived this most clearly when comparing Chrysler to Volvo.
00:09:11
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On the one hand, we were focused on increasing sales of large V8-powered SUVs and trucks. But at Volvo, the focus was shifted to safety.
00:09:25
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not only the occupants inside of the vehicle, but also the occupants in the other vehicle, even pedestrians. There was also a lot of focus on the environment, on being green and the betterment of the planet for humankind through electrification and other green methods.
Cultural Perspectives on Time and Tradition
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The fifth i dimension, long-term versus short-term orientation. This dimension reflects how cultures view time and and how they view tradition.
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Germany tends to lean more towards a long-term orientation. There's respect for tradition, but also a focus on future planning and perseverance.
00:10:14
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As I mentioned, creating a 10-year plan each year at Mercedes-Benz was the norm. but I have to give it to the Japanese because Toyota has a 100-year plan, which speaks also to Asian societies, not all of them, but many of them, which have a much more long-term orientation.
00:10:37
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Just as an example, and this is where, let's say, modern business comes into play. I worked at Volvo Cars before and after the company went public on the stock market.
00:10:52
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There was a noticeable difference between the strategic decisions taken beforehand, not worrying about immediate results, but investing in the future and achieving long-term success,
00:11:07
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and then the quarterly decision-making that began after the IPO, where you certainly had to question some of the decisions with regards to their long-term benefit.
00:11:20
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And right now, if you pay attention to any of the news, there's a current example. With China having achieved near monopoly on certain rare earth materials, battery components, and solar power panels, they played the long game.
00:11:38
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They took over those segments through a very long decades approach.
Societal Gratification and Cultural Differences
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The sixth dimension is the indulgence versus restraint dimension.
00:11:52
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This final dimension looks at how freely societies allow gratification of their desires. The U.S. s is highly indulgent.
00:12:03
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Just think of consumer culture, entertainment, and the treat yourself mentality. Germany is more restrained. There's a cultural emphasis on self-control, modesty, and delayed gratification.
00:12:21
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I have two somewhat humorous examples here. One time, this is quite a long time ago, I was on a car dealership lot looking at a new vehicle.
00:12:32
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Suddenly there was a big commotion. An engine roared, squealing tires, followed by heavy braking. A young woman in her car had crossed over several lanes of traffic to drive into the lot where I was standing.
00:12:48
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She jumped out of her car She walked over briskly to this beautiful red sports car that was parked facing towards the street, peeked at the window sticker, and then rushed over to the salesman that had been talking to me.
00:13:06
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In the one hour that I was on that lot looking at several vehicles, this young woman made the decision to buy that car on the spot based exclusively on what she saw as she was driving by.
00:13:21
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In a second example, a German friend of mine who had been temporarily living in the United States commented about his Sunday newspaper that he and his family received.
00:13:35
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He couldn't comprehend the amount of advertisement and and extra inserts in the newspaper, which seemingly made up half of the newspaper.
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And this was really only for the Sunday paper. He says he's never seen so many sales and and and offers in such a concentrated place.
00:13:58
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He admitted it was difficult for him not to rush out and to take advantage of all of these fantastic opportunities, sales and offers. But he said it helped him gain insight and he understood why American consumerism is what it is and and how impulse purchases are actually triggered.
Why Understanding Cultural Dimensions Matters
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Let me try and and sum it all up a little bit.
00:14:28
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I do want to caution that understanding Hofstede's dimensions um doesn't mean to stereotype. It just means to appreciate nuance between different cultures.
00:14:42
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Everybody is still individual. and And you cannot just bin somebody because they're Italian into this kind of Italian dimension. Everybody is an individual and behaves on their own accord.
00:14:57
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This was obvious in my career with Mercedes-Benz, with Fiat, Chrysler and Volvo, that there are many principles in culture, but individuals are individuals and they they just don't abide by stereotypes.
00:15:12
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As somebody who's lived between worlds, I've come to see the differences not as as barriers, but frankly, as bridges. Each dimension offers a lens and it's a ah way to decode the behavior and to foster empathy.
00:15:29
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If you can crack the code, This is extremely important for being able to have success, especially as you either work from home with with an international company or if you actually go on the big adventure and move overseas with yourself and with your family.
00:15:47
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So whether you're navigating a global team or traveling abroad or simply trying to understand your neighbor, remember Culture is, it's like the software of the mind.
Episode Wrap-Up and Further Exploration
00:16:00
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And the more fluently you speak it, the the better we can connect and the more successful we can be in life and in business and in everyday relationships.
00:16:11
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Thank you for joining me on this journey today. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it with someone who has ever felt different or who is struggling working for a foreign company or or working abroad.
00:16:27
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Because sometimes that feeling is just the beginning, the beginning of a journey of learning and learning how to cross those bridges, those cultural bridges.
00:16:40
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Thank you for joining me this week on the Autoethnographer. I understand today was maybe a little bit theoretical compared to normal, but I hope that opened eyes a little bit and maybe caused a light bulb to come on here and there.
00:16:54
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Please push the like button, leave her comment or review, and be sure to subscribe. Until next time, keep on driving. Thank you for joining us on today's journey.
00:17:06
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Please remember to like and subscribe to The Auto Ethnographer and leave us a rating or comment. For more information, visit our website at auto-ethnographer.com. You can also follow on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.