Hofstede & Trompenaar's Theories: Cultural Impact on Business

This essay discusses the impact of Hofstede and Trompenaar's cultural theories on communication, business decision-making, and negotiation, emphasizing the importance of cultural awareness in globalized business environments. It highlights how national culture, as defined by these theorists, shapes organizational culture and employee attitudes, influencing aspects like hierarchy, collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance. The essay further examines how cultural values affect negotiation processes, communication styles, and decision-making approaches, using examples from various cultures to illustrate the practical implications of these theories. It concludes that understanding and acknowledging cultural differences are crucial for organizations to foster inclusivity, reduce conflict, and achieve competitive advantage in diverse markets, advocating for the employment of local workers who possess valuable insights into customer demands and cultural nuances.

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The aim of this paper is to discuss the impact of Hofstede and Trompenaar's cultural
theory of the communication in business decision making negotiation and when turning proper
attitude after the globalisation different companies are entering various countries and employing
the local people according to their skills and the need of the organisation (Insights, 2020). This is
the reason why the teams are becoming more culturally diverse that ultimately reading the
organisations to attend competitive leverage in the markets. The more the organisation
acknowledges this fact of diversity the more it will be able to reduce chances of conflict and gain
support from the customers in the market and negotiate more inclusively. These differences can
be acknowledged through the cultural theories of Hofstede and Trompenaar. To both of these
theorists, national culture decides the organisational culture of the company as these is a huge
cultural change taking place in the organisation entering this new market.
The attitude of the employees largely depends upon their cultural beliefs. To Hofstede,
the hierarchical cultural allows people to respect and acknowledge seniority and age of the
level making the organisation more hierarchical. On the contrary the employees working in
flatter culture have different attitude towards their higher level managers (Beugelsdijk & Welzel,
2018). The collectivist culture allows people show compassionate attitude making it less
competitive. For example in the cultures of India and Japan, are collectivist that mandates the
companies working here to follow team work facilities rather than working individual
assignments. on the contrary, Sweden has individualist culture. The attitude of the employees
certainly connects the uncertainty avoidance index discussed in the cultural dimensions of
Hofstede (Insights, 2020). This is again related to the theory of Trompenaar where the
universalism and particularism refers to the tendency of abiding by the rules and regulations in
the organization and respecting it effectively. The culture of Sweden is low in uncertainly

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avoidance index that assures the people are of relaxed attitude. In the affective versus neutral
dimension also the attitude of the employees can be revealed where people tend to express or
hide their own emotions.
The negotiation process is dependent upon the cultural values and understanding of
people. for example a company from India entering Japan for business they will face the problem
of negotiation as the culture are different in both the countries and there are some points which
needs to be kept in mind at the time of negotiation (Peixoto et al., 2018). According to the theory
of Trompenaar, specific versus diffuse segment identifies the explanation of the logic behind
certain decision and communication process. Learning with the need of the individuals with that
of the organisation is a technique of individualist cultures which can be seen in the negotiation
process of the management. According to the cultural dimension theory of Hofstede, some of the
cultures believe in long-term orientation and some others depend more on the short-term
orientation. Some of the companies have normative Outlook and some have pragmatic Outlook.
The business organisations of Sweden as well as Japan accept change more easily than the others
can give support from the negotiator and do a successful business in the foreign countries
(Expertprogrammanagement.com 2020). In the negotiation process it is understood whether the
company is ready to make long term relationship for a short term relationship depending upon
their objectives making the situation win for the parties. Uncertainty avoidance is another factor
which affects the negotiation process. Some of the companies has the capability to avoid risk
within time and they accept uncertainty as it is like mentioned previously in the case of Sweden.
In some cases the companies may not have proper resources and abilities to avoid an uncertain
situation. Similarly the hierarchical nature of business allow the negotiator to get the scope for

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preference because of their experience and expertise with age. This can be seen in the case of
Japanese culture.
The communication process is also connected with the cultural dimensions. This is due to
the fact that the use of language and communication both verbal as well as nonverbal are
predominantly identified with the power distance index. In the Japanese culture as well as of
India, the older and Employees with higher level for position get more preference for
communicating first and in the word places the information flows from upper level towards the
lower level rather than the opposite. Similarly in the individualist or collectivist dimension, the
communication is limited to the individual employees the individual list culture and about for the
collectivist culture (Carolina, 2019). The Phrases and words used in in the communication
system effectively reflects whether it is an individual culture or collectivist one. To Trompenaar's
theory the communication reveals whether the culture is effective or neutral. In the effective
culture the people share their emotions and understanding through proper communication system
even in the workplace. (Carolina, 2019) where as in the neutral culture the emotions are not
revealed through communication system which creates a gap of understanding why the
organisation corporates in the effective culture. The communication system becomes to the point
among employees and Management having different cultural background in the specific cultures.
In the communication system these people tend to organise things and stick to the point for
perfect understanding of the people communicated but in the differences cultures building
relationship is necessary than professional Outlook which may not be supportive another culture
like that of India.
In the decision making process also the achievement and aspiration dimension of
Trompenaar it becomes clear whether the culture is more respect full on the commitment and not

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the abilities and others focus more on the achievements (Europpconsulting.blogspot.com 2020).
This is also connected with Hofstede’s masculine and feminine dimension. Here the decision
is mainly reflective of achievement by eliminating all the other factors creating barrier for
effective decision making and achievement. On the other hand in the feminine culture like Indian
culture or ascription culture compassion and teamwork by allowing others to try to get
opportunity is also important.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the employees in the local market have proper
understanding of the demands of the customers and the resources the employing the local
workers is beneficial for the company. In addition to this the management also deals with the
distributors for the supply chain people who are also having local cultural impact in their
behaviour understanding and language. This is the reason why the organisations mast
acknowledge the fact that there will be some difference among the employees regarding their
belief values and communication system.

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References:
Beugelsdijk, S., & Welzel, C. (2018). Dimensions and dynamics of national culture:
Synthesizing Hofstede with Inglehart. Journal of cross-cultural psychology, 49(10), 1469-
1505. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022022118798505
Carolina, Ț. (2019). Dimensions of National Culture–Cross-cultural Theories. Studies in
Business and Economics, 14(3), 220-230. Retrieved from
https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/sbe/14/3/article-p220.xml
Europpconsulting.blogspot.com. (2020). Trompenaars. Retrieved 7 April 2020, from
http://europpconsulting.blogspot.com/p/trompenaars.html
Expertprogrammanagement.com. (2020). Expert Program Management. Retrieved 7 April 2020,
from https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2017/10/trompenaars-cultural-dimensions/
Insights, H. (2020). National Culture. Retrieved 7 April 2020, from https://hi.hofstede-
insights.com/national-culture
Peixoto, P. S., Furlong, E., Meaders, M., Abney, D., Parr, C., Becker, H., ... & Nguyen, N.
(2018). ETHICS & HOFSTEDE IN CHILE AND THE UK. Copyright 2018 by Institute
for Global Business Research, Nashville, TN, USA, 253. Retrieved from
https://www.igbr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/2018-October-Conference-
Proceedings.pdf#page=254