Essay --

Culture can be defined as â€Å"The collective programming of the mind which distinguishes members of one human group from another† (Hofstede, 1991) Culture brings significant differences in the way of working, communicating, addressing relationships and so, it can positively or negatively affect the work environment. The following theories are used to identify and describe the cultural profile of a country: 1. Low and high context cultures (Hall, 1977) According to the anthropologist Edward T.Hall (1977), there are two types of national culture: â€Å"low context† culture and â€Å"high context† culture. Each of them has a specific communication that will have an impact on the way people interact within an organization. Low-context culture: France Low-context culture refers to a direct style of communication based on explicit messages. As words carry most of the information, content and verbal explanations are really important. Indeed, the interpretation relies on what is said or written, regardless of the context. For example, in the French work environment, agreements are written and usually well detailed, work is expected before friendship and credibility is earned due to performance/ efficient management of time. The impact that this may have on an organization is the reinforcement of individualism, the increase of competition and pressure, the development of a feeling of loneliness which can sometimes lead to suicides. High-context culture: Colombia High-context culture refers to a more indirect style of communication. The message’s interpretation is characterized by contextual clues such as nature of relationship, time, and situation. The verbal part of a message contained less information than the written part but what is left uns... ...curity and minimise risks whereas a low uncertainty avoidance society hasn’t. Both France (86) and Colombia (80) have high uncertainty avoidance, in other words it means that they try to find mechanisms and rules to avoid ambiguity. In consequences, lack of expertise / planning or change in policies would lead to stressful situations. â€Æ' Short vs. long term orientation (LTO): The extent of which a culture focus on time. In a long term oriented society, firms and people give importance on planning on years and decades to achieve long term success and delayed gratification of their material, social and emotional needs whereas in a short term society they don’t. With a score of 39, France seems to have a short term orientation: quick results by quarter and hard work on a short term period have great importance. Colombian orientation is still undefined for the moment.