Hofstede/Hall

Tom is the CEO of an international company. His secretary Gina is late again! She never comes in on time.....

What's the problem?

• Gina might come from a monochronous culture

• Gina is just lazy

• They have different time concepts due to different cultures

• Gina might come from a polychronous culture

Peter is a famous professor, however his students do not approach him.

• His office door is always closed.

• His office door is always open.

• He never invites students to see him.

• He mingles with the students in a bar.

Chris is a new employee and has a lot of questions. He walks right into his boss' office and is surprised that his boss is rather rude to him. What's the issue?

• Chris is from a culture which has no problem with disruptions

• Chris forgot to knock on the door.

• The boss is from a culture which needs little space.

• The boss is from a culture which values private space.

Mary works for an MNC in Asia. Currently, she is having a few problems with her employees. They seem not to understand what they should do. One day, out of frustration, she shouts at one of the employees in front of the staff. The employee quits the next day. What's the problem?

• Mary is from a high context culture

• Employee comes from a low context culture

• Employee is from a collectivist culture

• Employee lost his face

People from a low context culture....

• communicate in a direct way

• give hints by using body image

• expect clear communication from others

• can easily read between the lines of high context cultures

Toni is working on a project in India and his team members often just smile and then don't come up with solutions to the tasks. The problem could be...

• that his team members use low context communication

• that they expect him to give clear orders

• that he didn't understand their body language

• that he did not talk to the right person in the group

Henrik has an important position in a MNC. He just became father and wants to reduce his working hours. His boss John really depends on Henrik's expertise and offers him a huge bonus, extra paid leave, but tells him he can't reduce working hours. Henrik quit his job. Reasons?

• Henrik is from a country with a high MAS

• John is from a country with a high MAS

• Henrik thinks work-life balance is more important than money

• John didn't offer enough

Valentina, single, works for an international company. She is offered a position in South America for three years but is unsure if she should take the chance.

• Valentina's culture has a high UAI

• Valentina is from a feministic culture

• Valentina needs a lot of privacy

• Valentina is in love

Which country has a low MAS?

• Germany

• USA

• Russia

• Iceland

Ben is a little frustrated. His new employee works ages to complete a survey on different topics. When the survey is finished it is meticulously put together, containing a lot of details Ben didn't even think about.

• The employee is from a culture with slow flow of information

• Ben is from a monochronous culture

• The employee has a high UAI

• Ben is from a culture with a low UAI