Business Strategies: Comparing Morocco and Belgium's Cultural Impact

This report provides a comparative analysis of the business environments in Morocco and Belgium, focusing on the impact of cultural differences on organizational structures and business strategies. The analysis is based on Hofstede's cultural dimensions, exploring factors such as power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation. The report highlights how these cultural aspects influence the suitability of centralized versus decentralized organizational structures in each country. For Morocco, the report suggests a centralized structure due to its high power distance and collectivist nature, while for Belgium, a decentralized structure is recommended, given its individualistic tendencies and long-term orientation. The report also references the local workforces, investment and cultural preferences of both countries.

Running head: COUNTRY COMPARISON
COUNTRY COMPARISON
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1COUNTRY COMPARISON
The countries of the world have different cultures which make them competent for the
global business effectively. In the case of both Morocco as well as Belgium there are scopes
for any company to entre and spread their business because both the countries have more or
less stable political and economic situation. However, Belgium is situated in the continent of
Europe and Morocco in Africa. Therefore a sharp contrast in the social and cultural aspects of
these two countries can be seen. Based on the Hofstede cultural dimensions, the aspects of
organisational culture supported by the countries can be understood. Different factors or
dimensions can either help or dissuade the companies to follow centralised or decentralised
structure for spreading business in these countries.
In the case of Morocco, the power distance dimension is high which mandates that the
companies operating here must have a proper hierarchy in the workplace and respect the
employees having experience on the basis of tenacity. Morocco has a high collectivist
dimension. Therefore, the importance of group work or team work get s more exposure in the
organizational structure or performance. The local employees do not prefer working
individually but perform better in the teams (Tallaki and Bracci 2015). As the country has a
high preference for the masculinity nature among the employees, they like to compete among
themselves for gaining more exposure in the workplace and achieve what they aim. The
national culture prefers to avoid uncertainties as the employees feel threatened by the
ambiguous situations (Sater 2016). In the long term dimension, Morocco scores very low
which may not attract the foreign companies to put trust on the contracts of the local
subsidiaries. However, the companies entering in this country can properly utilise the local
workforce as indulgence dimension is very low in Morocco.
In contrast to Morocco, Belgium is highly individualistic country where the people try
to perform tasks of their own (Hickson 2015). They have their own personal goals to achieve
for which they lay their own strategies. Despite the fact that the masculinity index does not

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show any preference, the competition level among the employees or people to win is higher.
The power distance index of Belgium is more or less similar to that of Morocco. The country
scores high in the uncertainty avoidance index as well as in long term orientation which make
the country to be attractive for the foreign investment. The people of Belgium prefer to
indulge in enjoyment to bring a proper work life balance.
Therefore, on the basis of the contrast of culture of both Morocco and Belgium it can
be said that the companies through attracted to enter the market and do business, will prefer
decentralised structure for Belgium and centralised structure for Morocco. As the national
culture of Morocco prefers to get proper information and instruction from the higher
authority and indulge in the collective method of performing jobs, they will be able to handle
tasks in strong centralised organizational structure. On the other hand Belgium being very
independent, having long term orientation and capable of working in the individualistic
setting, can manage tasks in decentralised business structure.

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References:
Hickson, D.J. ed., 2015. Management in Western Europe: Society, culture and organization
in twelve nations (Vol. 47). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
Sater, J.N., 2016. Morocco: Challenges to tradition and modernity. Routledge.
Tallaki, M. and Bracci, E., 2015. The Importance of National Culture in the Design of
Management Control Systems: Evidence from Morocco and Italy. IUP Journal of
Management Research, 14(1).