Developing an international perspective: how to become a World Citizen Geert Hofstede Prague, 6th October 2016

Necessary for effectively cooperating with people in and from other countries: (1) speaking or having learned a shared language (2) acting according to shared rules and standards

Everybody speaks with an accent While speaking a common language, you and I each speak it each with our own accent Our accent depends on the place where we learned our first language If a foreigner speaks your language without a foreign accent, (s)he probably lived in your country as a child

Everybody also thinks, feels and acts with an accent Equally true but less evident: we also think, feel and act with local “accents”, acquired when and where we grew up. We call this our national culture.

Why this almost universal shock experience Why this almost universal shock experience? In our own country, we function according to mental programmes we learned as children As children before puberty, our body and mind are “wired” for unconscious learning of all the normal things we need to become adults If we then move to an environment where these things are not normal, we feel like becoming children again – we have to be “rewired”

Three meanings of “culture” Literally: tilling the soil, cultivation Training or refining of the mind: civilization Collective ways of acting, thinking, and feeling: “collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category* of people from another” *) nation, region, occupation, organization, gender

Gaining an international perspective Becoming conscious of our own culture amidst the variety of cultures we may meet in people from elsewhere There is no substitute for personal international experience We can acquire knowledge about differences in national cultures in our present day world We should develop skills for “translating” between cultures When in another culture, in a way we become children again

Knowledge: Basics of national culture differences All countries in the world share the same basic problems, but each national society has over time developed its own answers Six basic problems for each society (outcome of my research): How much (in)equality should there be among us? How afraid are we of unknown people, ideas and objects? How dependent are we on our (extended) family? How should a man feel, how a woman? Do we focus on the future, the present or the past? May we have fun or is life a serious matter? These can be seen as six different and separate dimensions of national cultures

Culture is related to our unconscious values It is in our guts – not in our minds What is like our culture is normal, good, smart What is unlike our culture is evil, bad, stupid The problem is that you will have guts reactions Not intellectual but emotional Culture is about values Cultural differences are loaded with stereotypes Some examples

Dimensions of culture do not apply to individuals A culture presupposes a collective or social system Individuals don’t have cultures but personalities Our personality was influenced by the culture in which we grew up, but only to a limited extent Stereotyping individuals by their supposed culture is a frequent error A society is like a jigsaw puzzle, the individuals are the pieces; each piece is different, but together they make one whole

Dimensions of national cultures do not apply to organizational cultures National cultures are rooted in values learned before age 10 They pass from parents to children For management, they are given facts For academics, they belong to anthropology Organizational cultures are rooted in practices learned on the job With management effort, they can be monitored and changed For academics, they belong to sociology International organizations function through shared practices, rarely shared values

Being a world citizen, and enjoying it Understand your own cultural software Accept your own cultural identity Experience working in another country Explore its geography, history and literature Speak at least one other language Make real friends in other cultures Treat cultural differences as challenges My last point: be proud of your own cultural identity

Why want to be a world citizen? For ourselves, our grandchildren and their grandchildren