The students at the University had to turn in a paper recently discussing a cross-cultural management issue, and while making sure everyone had turned one in, I saw references to Geert Hofstede's cultural comparison system.
If you haven't heard of it, you can get a basic description of his dimensions of national culture here.
Of course, the coolest thing with his website is that you can read a description of practically any country's culture through each dimension, and you can also compare two countries.
Comparing France and the US, you get this:
You see right away the differences between the two cultures. The names for the different dimensions can be a bit deceptive (such as Masculinity), so I would recommend reading the explanations for each dimension.
Something else that came up recently is the idea of the 'locus of control'. While the locus of control can vary among people from the same culture, I think Americans have a more internal locus of control and the French a more external. One of the things that regularly makes me think of this is the French idea that you get sick because of the weather/excess heat/air-conditioning, i.e. things out of your control. Americans are more likely to think about getting sick as a problem with hand-washing, others covering their mouth/nose when then cough/sneeze, lack of rest, or eating healthily, i.e. all things that can be relatively easily influenced by individual actions.
Then there's chronemics: is time precious or incidental? Is it important to move forward, and quickly, or focus on the past/history and take your time? Are friendships made quickly, not necessarily to last, or do they develop more slowly but last longer?
I've been asked by a lot of random people recently if I miss anything from the US, or related questions about how well I speak French and to what extent I've adapted to French culture. While I'm no longer shocked by rude salespeople or strikes or dog poop on the sidewalk, I still get tripped up by chronemics. I've felt insulted by some of my colleagues, and looking at the situations I realize I was coming from a monochronic point of view, and my colleague a polychronic.
This is even a source of conflict for my marriage: I'm all about scheduling and to-do lists and planning for the future, and my husband thinks it's much more important to live in the moment. B often jokes I have "un emploi [du temps] de Ministre" and that I always seem to have a train to catch. For me, he doesn't like to plan or budget time or money, and instead prefers to take things as they come (also part of the external locus of control), which can be ever so frustrating.
Anyone else have a situation to share? Or a cross-cultural issue they struggle with (or found a solution for)? Or just want to complain about how the French can't make a schedule and stick to it?
3 comments:
Those links look really interesting - off to do some more reading now!
Understanding Frenchman also makes the "emploi du temps de minstre" comment about me but I'd always assumed it was more personality than culture.
I used Hofstede in my mémoire for my HR degree last year, I was like, yesss finally it all makes sense! Haha. His data for Luxembourg isn't good though; I found a doctoral thesis that looked more closely at the country's culture, and it's really an interesting mix of French and German, while staying totally unique.
The locus of control makes me think of his uncertainly avoidance dimension, that since the French culture is more structured, they are less used to looking inward for solutions to the unknown. Like in school, the teacher tells them what color pen to use, what line to write on, very structured very early, vs. the more American "whatever works" attitude.
It's interesting that individuals tend to not schedule so much here, but then if you want to have a party or something, you plan it like, two months in advance. Randomly calling someone at 2pm to see if they want to hang out that night doesn't seem to happen here quite as much. Though this could just be my circle of friends here and their weird work schedules, lol.
Very interesting...I'm going to check out those links!
It drives me crazy personally that the French don't schedule so much. I would much rather schedule things, make a plan, etc, though I am not opposed to spontaneity as well. It's just, in some cases, planning and scheduling in advance is absolutely necessary, whereas in others it's not. Sending a text to see if someone is free to meet up for a coffee at the last minute is fine, but my in laws calling me on a Saturday night to say they are coming for lunch the following day and staying until Tuesday is not OK. And when it comes to our house renovations, I've got a million stories of how making and sticking to a schedule would be wonderful but my husband and in laws just can't do it, it is in their blood.
Another cultural difference that always gets to me is decision making and re-activity. When my American self encounters a problem I want to jump right in, research possible solutions, make a decision ASAP and act on it whereas the French like to have some time for reflection (which seems to be anywhere from a day or two to months depending on the situation) before acting on anything.
These differences combined frustrate me so much that sometimes I'm literally shaking from the stress and irritation of it all!
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