Gert Jan Hofstede, Paul B. Pedersen, Geert Hofstede

Exploring

Exercises, Stories and Synthetic Cultures

I N T E R C U L T U R A L P R E S S

A Nicholas Brealey Publishing Company

BOSTON • LONDON

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xv

Part I: Stories and Exercises 1

Chapter 1: Worlds Apart in One Village 3 Awareness, Knowledge, Skills 5 What Do You See? 7 How Would You Feel? 12 What Would You Do? 14 Observation and Interpretation 17 Cross-Cultural Communication Barriers 17 Culture Shock 20 Exercises 24 Conclusion 27

Chapter 2: Culture: The Rules of the Social Game 29 The Best Country, a Fairy Tale 30 Five Basic Problems of Society 34 Major Aspects of Culture 40 Awareness of Culture Differences 46 How Would You Feel? (Revisited) 73 What Would You Do? (Revisited) 78 Attribution Exercises 83 Conclusion 87

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Part II: Synthetic Cultures 89

Chapter 3: The Ten Synthetic Culture Profiles 91 How to Interpret the Profiles 92 Profiles: Identity Dimension 94 Profiles: Hierarchy Dimension 98 Profiles: Gender Dimension 101 Profiles: Truth Dimension 105 Profiles: Virtue Dimension 109 Conclusion 113

Chapter 4: Getting to Know the Synthetic Cultures 115 Cross-Cultural Encounters 116 Guess the Synthetic Culture 118 Workthink 120 Synthetic Cultures versus Real Cultures 126 Conclusion 134

Chapter 5: Dialogues in Synthetic Culture Role 135 Dialogues: Identity Dimension 136 Dialogues: Hierarchy Dimension 141 Dialogues: Gender Dimension 146 Dialogues: Truth Dimension 151 Dialogues: Virtue Dimension 156 Conclusion 160

Chapter 6: Summing Up 161

Part III: Group Work and Simulations 167

Chapter 7: Group Work for Cross-Cultural Learning 169 Framework for Group Work 169 Synthetic Culture Acculturation Exercises 172 The Synthetic Culture Laboratory 176

Chapter 8: Using Synthetic Cultures in Simulations 185 Simulations on the Market 185 The Synthetic Culture Approach to Simulations 192 Selecting and Preparing for a Simulation 198 Introducing the Simulation 201 Facilitating the Simulation 204 Debriefing the Simulation 206

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Chapter 9: The Trade Mission 211

Chapter 10: Follow-the-Sun Global Technology Team 217

References 229

About the Author 233

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