CMP SERIES CERTIFICATION MADE POSSIBLE Phelps Hope
‘Most planners these days are focused on the masses and processes. You have to look at what’s appropri- ate for specific subgroups.’
David Adler
‘Have a special banquet for them. You greet them and you take their photo- graphs and add a bit more formal- ity and elevate the welcome.’
An App of the World Dutch researcher Geert Hofsted is a pioneer in the study of organizations, the person who, according to The Economist magazine,
“put corporate culture on the map — almost literally.” Hofstede studied differences in IBM employees in 40 different countries and created a system that scores cultures based on four components (a fifth was later added). Itim International (
itim.org) has created the apps CultureGPS for iPhone and Culture Com- pass for Android, allowing users to compare countries based on Hofstede’s five categories:
Graham, managing director at the Society for Petroleum Engineers (SPE), which annually co-hosts the Offshore Tech- nology Conference (OTC), one of the largest meetings in the United States in terms of attendance. Of the 105,000 attend- ees, about 22,000 are international, and many come from the Middle East, according to Graham. On the OTC 2013 website, there were separate tabs for international attendees and visa information. SPE also worked with in-country consulate offices, as well as the Hous- ton airport authority, to ease the entry process. “Anything you can do to make their application process easier and get them to the conference,” Graham said, “the more willing they will be to accommodate the little slip-ups you might make along the way.”
BUILD A RELATIONSHIP For many cultures, a mass email declaring, “Registration now open!,” will not suffice, and organizers should plan on a more lengthy and personalized registration process, said Cynthia Nerangis, president of LemonLime Consulting, a global cultural consulting firm. “For relationship-based cultures, such as India, Brazil, and Italy,” she said, “a follow- up phone call after the initial email invitation would be welcome and appreciated.” Morrison agrees. “A relationship is what you need to get people there,” she said. “We’re very short-term orientation, while most of the world is long-term orientation. You need to demonstrate you’re committed to building a relationship. If you have in-country people you work with, that’s who you use to facilitate the process.” For some cultures, the invitation and outreach needs to
be both personal and appropriately hierarchical. If an asso- ciation is trying to attract senior-level attendees from China, for example, the outreach needs to come from a high-level member of the host organization, said Pamela Eyring, presi- dent of The Protocol School of Washington, which provides protocol and etiquette training to expatriates and diplomats.
“Status matters to them. If you’re going to communicate via email, you want to communicate by level,” Eyring said.
50 PCMA CONVENE SEPTEMBER 2013
› Individual versus collective (IDV) Do in- dividuals look after the welfare of themselves and their immediate families (a high score), or are there larger frameworks in which people belong to families, clans, or organizations that look after them? (The United States scores 91 out of 100; the Netherlands scores 38.)
› Power distance index (PDI) Is there an accepted hierarchical order and limited social mobility (high score), or is equality seen as a goal of the culture? (Panama scores 95, com- pared with New Zealand, 22.)
› Uncertainty avoidance index (UAI) How threatening is ambiguity or failure, and how important is it to follow the rules (high score)? Or is more flexibility and acceptance of dissent allowed? (Japan scores 95; the United States, 46.)
› Masculinity and femininity Are the domi- nant values of the culture tied to achievement and success, which in the model is defined as masculine (high score), or more oriented toward the perceived feminine values of coop- eration? (Italy scores 70; Sweden, 5.)
A fifth dimension was later added to the index, based on research in East Asian countries:
› Long-term orientation Is there a short- term view focused on quick results, or a future-oriented view?
Kwintessential (
kwintessential.co.uk), which provides translation as well as cross-cultural business training, also has created an app based on Hofstede’s research. Called Compare Cultures, it allows users to compare more than 70 countries and regions on the first four dimensions. A second app, International Busi- ness Etiquette, provides information about religion, hospitality, greetings, communication styles, and business meetings.
— Barbara Palmer
PCMA.ORG
DAVID ADLER PHOTO BY DAN HALLMAN FOR BIZBASH
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