Hofstede’s Four Cultural Dimensions and Cultural Differences between the US and France
1. A better understanding of the dissimilarities between the culture of the United States and France can be formed by using Hofstede’s four cultural dimensions. A social psychologist, Geert Hofstede hailed from Netherlands and formulated the cultural dimensions theory during the late years of the 20th century (Glover, Friedman and van Driel 2016). He devised six dimensions that define the basic differences between cultures of different countries. These included, power distance index, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation versus short-term orientation, masculinity versus femininity and indulgence versus restraint.
In order to answer the question, four dimensions shall be explained to determine France and America’s cultural differences.
Power Distance Index: It is defined as the level of expectation and acceptance of unequal power distribution by the less powerful individuals, institutions or organizations. France scores quite high on this index as it demonstrates traits of accepting leadership without questioning. This acceptance signifies that the French society finds no issues in accepting unequal distribution of power. Within the economic spheres, this unequal distribution of power and its unquestionable acceptance is clearly visible. The case of Euro Disneyland presents a good example (Luthans and Doh 2009). When Euro Disneyland was opened at France, most of the higher posts in the management were held by Americans and the French officials just worked as their subordinates but they never protested. The US, on the other hand, displays a significant opposition to inequality. The American culture upholds the notion that every individual has equal rights of liberty and justice. Power, when sensed being distributed unequally is duly protested and disallowed to form. Managers holding high ranks are accessible and accountable to employees working in lower positions (Zander, McDougall-Covin and Rose 2015).
Individualism versus collectivism: Countries with high scores of individualism stress on the importance of self-dependence and individual freedom. In this regard, the French culture scores slightly low compared to the US culture. However, there is not much of a glaring difference between the two countries in this index as both cultures uphold collectivism. Children in France are brought up in a way that makes them independent emotionally. They are taught to care only for themselves and their immediate family members (Fitzsimmons and Stamper 2014). Thus, when the US officials of Euro Disney prepared the dress code for its French employees, many treated as a violation of their individual rights. In America, this index is higher than the French that shows the importance individualism is given by the people.
Uncertainty avoidance: This dimension explains the acceptance of ambiguity by societies. The French society scores very high on this index. People in France detest surprises and ambiguous ideas, they believe more in structuring and planning. Hence, when the American concept of Disneyland was established in France, people there were reluctant to receive and enjoy it. The below average turnout on the opening day stands testimony to it. America, on the contrary, is open to new ideas and surprises (Warkentin, Charles-Pauvers and Chau 2015). The American culture is welcoming as far as trying something new and innovative is concerned. This leads to a low score in the UAI index for the American culture.
Power Distance Index
Masculinity versus femininity: This indicates the factor that drives societies to be competitive, craving for success and achievement and being the best in every field. Scoring high on masculinity means that the society is more concerned about competition, achievements and success whereas scoring high on femininity indicates that the culture gives more prominence to the basic values of life. France scores low on masculinity and high on femininity. America, on the other hand, has high scores on masculinity that justify its move to open a Disneyland in the French nation.
2. After Hofstede, another Dutch social scientist, Fons Trompenaar articulated certain factors that helped define cultural differences between countries. His research can give a deeper insight into the cultural differences that are visible in France and the United States. His theory mentioned seven parameters that determine how cultures in different countries differ out of which, three can be applied in this case. These factors include:
Universalism versus Particularism: Trompenaar’s research demonstrated that the US culture is highly universalistic, as it tends to follow certain codes and rules uniform to all people. According to average US citizens, codes rules and policies formed in organizations must only be adhered to if these are applied uniformly. When the appearance code was created for the employees of Euro Disneyland, it showed this universalistic tendency of the Americans. They wanted everyone to follow one single code of appearance. On the other hand, the French culture is more inclined towards particularism. It means that people in France are particular about human values and relationships. They can go to the extent of bending the rules to satisfy individual needs. Protests by French employees and other unions signify this tendency (Bauer, Matzler and Wolf 2016).
Individualism versus Communitarianism: Similar to Hofstede’s cultural dimension, this parameter defines which culture accepts individualism and which accepts communitarianism. According to the research, the US culture is more inclined towards individualism as it encourages individual independence. However, it is interesting to observe that the French also believe in individualism (Vitell et al. 2014). They also lay stress on the rights of an individual. It is but also true that they demonstrate signs of communitarianism wherein they tend to rely on in-groups for making important decisions. Communitarianism refers to the trend that shows over dependence of individuals on in-groups or collectives. The French society values group, communities, and people easily accept dominance of their superiors without much protest. One good example can be seen from the Euro Disney case where the higher management posts were occupied majorly by Americans and the French had no objection to that.
Achievement versus Ascription: This parameter defines the tendency of different cultures that focus on achievement as an indicator of high status in contrast to personality as a status indicator. America exhibits achievement culture because it designates individuals with high status based on their achievements in life. These achievements mostly belong to working area and least on grounds of relationships or morality. France, on the other hand, follows the ascription culture. It mainly believes in designating individuals a high status if he or she displays high personality skills. In addition, the French society considers someone of a high stature if he or she has good connections (Hutzschenreuter, Kleindienst and Lange 2014). In the Euro Disney case, this difference of cultures is highly visible. The French government agreed to provide land to Disney with a view to enhance its connections and rise in the ascription value.
Individualism versus Collectivism
Trompenaar’s research revealed four more dimensions that are, specific versus diffuse, neutral versus emotional, internal direction versus outer direction and sequential time versus synchronous time. Although these dimensions would not be able to define the cultural distinctiveness between the US and France precisely but these would definitely help in a better understanding of different cultures.
3. Disney was highly successful in its previous three endeavors of opening Disneyland in California, Florida and Japan and attempted to repeat the success in Europe as well. With a view to write another success story, the team turned its eyes towards France. Two options they had- France and Spain, and they went with France after looking at its population that was higher than Spain. Everything went as planned and in 1992, the first ever Disneyland in Europe was opened (Grayson, Sheikholeslami and Rubenstein 2017). After that, things went disarrayed for the team as they found unexpected loss on the opening day itself. Three major mistakes can be comprehended after going through the case
First and the major mistake the company made was it failed to comprehend the culture of France. When a company plans to expand internationally, it has to note down every minute detail about the country chosen for expansion. The Disney Company invested the least time on the cultural aspect and faced the resulting disaster. Numerous errors were committed by the team that incited the sentiments of the French people. The ban on alcohol was the first error committed by the team as they failed to realize that alcohol is an important part of the French culture. They had to face widespread protests and ultimately uplift the ban. Then, the strict appearance code imposed on French workers was seen as a threat to individual freedom by the workers. Many organizations in France raised their voice against this as they viewed it as a disrespect of their culture. Language was another issue for which the company had to face lot of embarrassment.
The second mistake committed by the company was to overestimate the success of their venture. The company had huge success in its previous three attempts in the US and Japan and that made them optimistic about France as well. They however forgot that opening Disneyland in their own country was bound to succeed because it was their homeland. Success in Tokyo came from Japan’s affinity to technological innovations, discipline and cleanliness that Disney has always maintained. Thus, although the Tokyo Disneyland was American in all sense, it did receive immense success (Toyoda 2014). Taking cue from this success, the company felt over enthusiastic of unmatched success in France as well. The team lacked long-term goals and strategic ideas.
Third, the company focused more on publicity and costly PR campaigns whereas it should have focused on the people and their interests. They lacked proper management. Most of the decisions regarding the site, the layout, recruitment, themes, and appearance code and so on were made by the American executives (Karadjova-Stoev and Mujtaba 2016). The French employees and officials had very little to no say at any of the matters. Robert Fitzpatrick was appointed the chairperson who was an American and who had good hold on the French language and culture. Apart from that, other top posts were also occupied by American executives who had limited knowledge of the French culture. Mismanagement also involved weak relationships with local business partners.
4. A giant company like Disney is not expected to commit mistakes of this level especially when it had prior experience of international expansion (Stahl and Tung 2015). Many lessons can be learnt from the European experience by the Disney Company. To be precise, three most important lessons must be learnt by the Disney management team.
First, understanding the European culture in depth- The Disney management made rash decisions and followed a similar pattern as it did in its previous operations. The management wrongly apprehended the French culture and had to pay the price. The American company remained glued to the American way of life without trying to understand the different culture (Mishra, Boynton and Mishra 2014). Ban on alcohol, clean appearance with prohibitions on tattoos, jewelry and such deeply offended the French people. Hence, the company should learn the lesson from this experience that while going global, they have to give attention to local as well.
Uncertainty Avoidance
Second, allowing locals to head the branch operations- After the disastrous opening and the subsequent failure of Euro Disneyland, its American chairperson Robert Fitzpatrick resigned from the post. He was replaced by a French executive, Philippe Bourguignon. Bourguignon had served as the vice president for the real estate of Disneyland (Brown 2016). After he attained the post, the new chairperson was piled with heaps of issues ranging from financial debts to management issues and many. The top management of Euro Disney must have learnt from the Tokyo administration that appointing a local head ensures better understanding and affinity to the local market.
Last, realistic and concrete planning- The Disney Company had no prior experience in the European market and despite that, they decided to go ahead with the plan. Further, after completion of the first phase of work at the French location, the management was confronted with several problems. They lacked proper planning and lacked a backup plan if the pre-decided plans failed. It needs to be mentioned that the failure of the first phase of Euro Disneyland in France gave abundant lessons for the management to learn from (Campton et al. 2014).
Although, several lessons are to be learnt from this experience, but the three mentioned above are the most important. Giving value to other’s language is also an important lesson that the company should learn (Caprar et al. 2015). The incident involving one of its workers mispronouncing ‘Howdy’ for ‘Audi’ should be noted for future so that such mistakes are not repeated.
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