France : Different Dimensions Of Culture

Culture is an observable, powerful force in any organization. “Made up of its members’ shared values, beliefs, symbols, and behaviors, culture guides individual decisions and actions at the unconscious level. As a result, it can have a potent effect on a company’s well-being and success” (One Page, n.d.).

It is hypothesized that cultural differences in behaviour will mean differences in HRM practices within different cultures but those within the same cultural cluster will be similar whereas those in different clusters will be dissimilar. Employees and managers from different cultures take decisions in different ways – the processes, behaviours and values are not the same. People have different value orientations as a result of individual psychology, life-stage and generation and assumptions about behaviour determined by cultures are linked to a variety of organisational behaviours.

From doing this first assignment project, I learned how focused the French culture is on art and how involved it is in their everyday lives. Art can come in so many forms in the French culture, a few being paintings, sketches, sculpting, and making music. As well as this, I learned about Impressionism which is a form of art that specifically came from the French culture in the 1870s and the 1880s. This form of art was created by a group of Impressionists whom were all French. Lastly, I learned how the French culture is full of elegance and love, which is also displayed through their artwork as well.

The definition of culture in this context can be deducted from Trompenaars (1998): “The essence of culture is not what is visible on the surface. It is the shared ways groups of people understand and interpret the world.” (p. 3). From this statement we can extract that people with different cultures see and interpret the world in their own way. Thus, to motivate employees with different cultural backgrounds it is necessary to understand the interpretation the employees have of certain norms and values.

Culture is a dynamic aspect of one’s life and our profession. It is multidimensional and complex. Please reflect upon the following questions and write your reflective thoughts.

The French Revolution was a series of revolts against the monarchy during the years 1789-1799. The cultural impact of the revolution is evident in modern day French culture in how they handle political and social disagreements. Jean ValJean’s story could be told in any other historical context that involves a basis of a dissatisfied, poor

America is by far the most hated country in the World. The reason why everyone else hates us, is that we are different and optimistic whereas others are not. The French wrote saying that there was nothing special in America, which really surprises me. The minister of France once said, ‘The purpose of language is not to communicate thought, but to conceal thought’. Now I realize the French really do not like us from this lecture and how he describes in detail in what each class thinks. The French think that we are sloppy, bostrious, optimistic, and incurious. They surprisingly don’t hate us for our faults as in murder, rape, and stealing, but more towards the side of letting women have an abundant amount of rights.

While there are many various global issues that affect the International Human Resource Management to run efficiently, there are two key concepts that play a major role in understanding how to approach them with cohesive and a well coherent strategy; they are the International Human Recourse Management Strategy and Understanding the Cultural Environment. In the International Resource Management strategy, many companies will do their research in finding companies that offer the

Hofstede had analyzed data, which he collected from more than 117,000 IBM employees working in 40 different countries, and had found out that there were four statistically independent dimensions that examined the inter-country variation through his survey questionnaires (Drogendijk, and Slangen, 2006). His value of dimension was accepted by studies and had proven to be of help to understand the difference in cultures (e.g., Silverthorne, 2005) suggesting that Hofstede dimension of culture categorizes is elevated and it has given important steps to improve theoretical basis of understanding culture and also its effect on organization. We could see that people appreciated his work and his understanding of culture helped many in their own flied of work but they were researchers who had criticized his dimension (e.g., Schwartz, 1994; steenkamp, 2001; House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, and Gupta, 2004).

The French are all about preserving their culture and being individualized. They often take great pride in the French products and the French style, and believe in keeping the French culture “pure” so they also limit the amount of foreign goods that are being imported. But during the World Wars the French began to allow foreigners to immigrate into France to take jobs due to an increase in job shortages. The immigration from the World Wars added to the diversity of the French culture. Ever since the 1850’s there has been a steady flow of immigration into France, and now nine percent of the French population is made up of immigrants (Gofen 62). The break down of the cultures in France is eighty-five percent of the French population is Roman

Briscoe D., Schuler R., Tarique I., (2011). Internatonal Human Resource Management : Policies and Practices for Multinational Entreprise.

Cultural differences, can manifest and accentuate personal and professional mannerism. A French manager named Chalon, with 18-years of multicultural management experience, upon moving to the United States encounters difficulties with his management style. In order to observe the relationship between management and cultural differences, we explored: communication; leadership and group management roles in a multicultural environment; alternative solutions such as mapping, bridging and integrating (MBI); ‘freezing, pleasing or teasing’ leadership; effective feedback. The ideas are a subset in evaluating cultural differences in management, but will serve as helpful development for cultural intelligence for Chalon.

Air France was founded in seventh of October of 1933 and first airline carrier in France. Its major hubs are in Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports. They have about 69,553 employees and they travel to about 204 destinations. This company has well-known for its recognition and having a loyal base of passengers. However, the French management mentality is distinct from the Dutch. The French corporate culture is more relaxed but still remains hierarchal. According to the article, Harvard Business Review: The Making of a French Manager, it states that the French has a long tradition of centralization, of hierarchical rigidity, and individual respect for authority. Top executives strongly believe that they have the highest position to their intelligence and craftsmanship. According to the article, Doing Business in France: 8 Cultural Cues That Make (or Break) a Deal, states that France puts a premium on individuality, which allows for both freedom of opinion and very separate social and personal lives. This concept of the French is very accurate when it comes to their culture. With this statement made by this article describes the French being accurately described as a “peach” culture. According to the article, Peach vs. Coconut

Culture can relate to a country (national culture), a part of a community (sub-culture) or an organization (corporate culture). It is widely known that a person is not born with a culture, and that culture is learned throughout a person’s

'Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another.' (Hofstede, 1991)