how culture influences values at the workplace.

How Culture Affects Values at Work

How culture affects values at work was clarified by a research team under the direction of Geert Hofstede. To gauge a nation’s national culture, they created six parameters. When comparing China and Russia, these distinctions become clear. When less powerful people in a group accept and expect that power will be distributed unfairly, a gap between the superior and inferior is said to exist. This concept is known as power distance. China and Russia both scored 80 and 93, indicating a clear and acceptable power differential. Due to its high degree of centralization, Russia has a high PDI (power distance index). The capital, Moscow, which is a major commercial and cultural hub, attracts foreign investments. Though centralization in China is not as common as in Russia, it has significantly led to a high PDI (Hofstede Insights, 2017).

Individualism and Collectivism

Individualism depicts the relationship between an individual and an immediate community. China and Russia scored 20 and 39 respectively. Both countries focus less on furthering themselves than furthering their neighboring communities meaning that both focus more collectivism and communism. In masculinity, China scored 66 and Russia 36. However, both countries have a low index in feminism. This means that China and Russia take pride in caring for each other and leading a quality life, then trying to stand out individually. They value the success of the whole society more than of an individual (Hofstede Insights, 2017).

Long-Term Orientation and Indulgence

Long-term orientation can describe a manner in which a society tries to maintain a bond with its past while at the same time dealing with current situations. This dimension looks at the balance between the two situations. Both China and Russia have high indices: 87 and 81 respectively. Indulgence focuses on how individuals try to control their desires China has an index of 24 while Russia has 20. Scoring small in indulgence shows that both countries tend to have a distrustful attitude of integrity professed by other people. They do not put much emphasis on leisure time and are restrained by social norms.

Differences in Cultural Dimensions

However, China and Russia have exhibited some differences in the Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions. These differences are discussed below.

Uncertainty Avoidance

In uncertainty avoidance, China has an index of 30 while Russia has 95. Uncertainty avoidance tries to explain how a community feels about the uncertainty nature of the future (whether anxious, threatened or at peace) or something that they do not know about the outcome. Russia feels threatened by ambiguous situations and prefers to have some background information while dealing with strangers and appear to be very formal. On the other hand, the Chinese are comfortable with ambiguity because they are very adaptive to whatever situation that may arise (Samovar, Porter & McDaniel, 2010).

Individualism and Long-Term Orientation

In masculinity, China has a high score on ’masculine’ dimension than Russia. This means that the Chinese society is driven by individual achievement and success than Russia is. For example, in China, most businesses start as small enterprises which are mainly family-based, while in Russia, most companies commence in a much broader sense than just family. In long-term orientation, China seems to focus on a fast approach to development, which can be characterized by their high spending on education, prolonged negotiations to avoid confrontations, and political patience. Russia is a pragmatic country that adapts quickly to changed situations and believes in frugality in achieving results. Individualism is suppressed in Russia. However, individuals under 30 years old prefer to take personal responsibility or work where individuality is appreciated. The Chinese create a supportive society for everyone while sacrificing personal independence.

Recommendations for Communication and Organization Management

To address communication for proper organization management in China and Russia, the following recommendations are vital. It would be useful for the two agencies if they focused on the future and not the past, or at least try to balance between the two. They should also try to focus more on communism rather than individualism because it embodies equality and nobody is left behind. It also discourages business monopolies. The opposite of this would be capitalism where employees would be required to work to survive (Samovar, Porter & McDaniel, 2010; Cai, 2010).

The organizations should discourage high power distance because it may discourage subordinates to gain more skills and increase their commitment to their duties and responsibilities. Allowing subordinates to present their arguments in their line of duty brings confidence and hence commitment.

References

Cai, D. A. (2010). Intercultural communication: Studying intercultural communication. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Hofstede Insights. (2017). Compare countries - Hofstede Insights. Retrieved from https://www.hofstede-insights.com/product/compare-countries/

Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., & McDaniel, E. R. (2010). Communication between cultures. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.