THE EUROPEAN UNION IN THE LIGHT OF HOFSTEDE’S DIMENSIONS
Table 1 summarizes the Hofstede’s dimension (Hofstede et al., 2010) for all Member States of the European Union and for 3 of the Associate Countries (Candidate States): Albania, Serbia and Turkey.
Though the cultural dimensions of Cyprus are not included in the countries, described by Hofstede’s model (Hofstede et al., 201o), the same indexes as for Greece are used here, as suggested by the work of Stylianou, Kyriakoullis, & Savva (2012). The same assumption was applied in the paper of De Angeli & Kyriakoullis (2006).
Figure 1 illustrates the Power Distance Index from Table 1, after the arrangement of the countries by increment of the PDI. Austria and Denmark are the countries in Europe
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It can be easily seen, however, that the countries with highest investment in production, retailing and brands (European Apparel and Textile Confederation, 2015) like Italy, France, United Kingdom and Germany are demonstrably on the individualistic side of the scale. At the same time countries from Eastern Europe, where big share of the outsourcing from these countries is situated (like Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic), are on the collectivistic side of the …show more content…
6 show the increment of the Indulgence Index for the investigated European countries. It is clear that a substantial part of the cultures of the continent rather put down the gratification of people’s needs and regulate them via creation of exacting social norms. It is interesting that all countries, having high employment in the textile and clothing industries belong to the group of restraint cultures, having Indulgence Index below 50. In fact only 10 of the investigated countries can be assessed as having indulgent cultures (all of them being Member States). The United Kingdom is the only country in Top 10 of employment in textiles and clothing sector, which have high IND (over 50).
Figure 5. Long Term Orientation of European Union Member States (EU-28) plus Albania, Serbia and Turkey.
Figure 6. Indulgence vs. Restraints of European Union Member States (EU-28) plus Albania, Serbia and
At the end of World War II, Western European powers sought political stability after a period of turmoil and devastation. Germany was divided into two spheres of influence: East Germany, controlled by the Soviet Union, and West Germany, controlled by the Allies. Western Europe attempted to unify in the post-war economy, and various views arose regarding this potential unity. The unification of Western Europe was met with opinions that were largely motivated by a nation’s own economic and political interests.
Merton focuses on “discovering how some social structures exert a definite pressure upon certain people in the society to engage in ‘nonconformist conduct’” (Merton, 1938: 672). Merton states that there are two important elements of social and cultural structure: culture goals and institutional norms. He states that culturally defined goals, purposes, and interests are the reason why people make poor decisions in situations. The goals of the people are strictly based off of the strive for respect and their emotions in situations.
Abstract The global garment industry, worth more than $400 billion dollars today, is a very lucrative industry. Garment factories in developing countries working for retailers in developed ones shows how efficiency is increased and every party can benefit through outsourcing of labour from developed countries; retailers and consumers get clothes at cheaper prices while employment is provided to areas plagued with poverty. However, it is evident that many of these garment factories are sweatshops, which are factories and businesses that violates local or international labour laws, such as providing workers with atrocious working conditions, providing minimal compensation or even employing child labour. Like it or not, many of our clothes does not come ethically and they have probably encouraged labour exploitation in one way or another.
Individuals breathe life into a society, they shape it with their ideas and beliefs. However, when these beliefs become corrupted, do individuals have the power to change it?. In the short stories “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, and the theories of enlightenment philosophers, individuals can not change society. Tessie Hutchinson from “The Lottery” tried to persuade her village that the long-standing tradition was wrong, but faced death soon afterwards. On the other hand, Harrison from “Harrison Bergeron,” tried to overthrow society's ideas, through atrocious actions.
Traditionally the Balkans had been dominated by the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, whom were each other’s rivals, and was inhabited by different ethnic groups known as Slavs. During the 19th century the influence of the Ottoman was in decline and the neighboring three Powers were all
The film “The True Cost” directed by Andrew Morgan, goes into great detail on the global world of fast fashion, and how it affects the global apparel industry. The countries in which the clothes are produced, there are significant issues with labour regulations, all to accommodate North America’s demand for fast fashion consumerism. The global North consumers demand for fast fashion have effects globally, leaving workers underpaid and exploited. Through management methods and outsourcing, firms search for the lowest costs for the consumer, without concern about the consequences for workers. Relocating the garment industry to the global South can arguably be the downfall of workers as they are sacrificing their lives for their job.
Neher wk 2, Ruth (1 day late – vacation) In this section, I am choosing China to do my research of the cultural dimensions. Individualism and Collectivism in China are not even considered. Individualism is about ones self and doing what needs to be done for yourself not others, based on independence. Collectivism is based on group goals rather than individual goals.
QUESTION1 MULTILATERAL APPROACH TO INTERNATIONAL TRADE AS ADVOCATED BY THE WTO INTRODUCTION A multilateral approach is a treaty that refers to trade between numerous countries. It was the main activity associated with the 1947 GATT which took place during international conferences, whereby legislators came together to reject out and reach agreement on numerous trade issues. In total, there were 8 conferences under the former GATT. The first 6 of these conferences, ending with the Kennedy Round in 1967, concentrated mainly on tariff allowances.
For example, consumers are becoming more similar in terms of lifestyles, income, aspirations and education. In order to clarify my statement, I would like to apply Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture. Masculinity and femininity is one of the Hofstede’s dimensions. The dominant values of masculine culture are achievement and success while dominant values in feminine cultures are caring for quality of life and others. The country that possesses the most masculine culture is Japan, which scores 95 (Geert and Mariake de, 2002).
One advantage of this globalization is the possibility of creating international fashion chains accompanying consumers wherever they are. Inditex took advantage very well that factor. • MICRO: It is formed by forces close to the company that affect its ability to satisfy customers, the business, consumer markets, marketing channels used, competitors and public. Zara 's main competitors are: Sfera, H & M, GAP, Mango, Pull & Bear and Stradivarius. In the graph we see as Zara drink market both national and European business.
1) What are the cultural dimensions Hofstede proposes? Please include a definition of each and how is each one rated? The Cultural dimensions Hofstede proposes are four dimensions that represent elements of common structure in the cultural systems of the countries. They are based on four very fundamental issues in human societies to which every society should find its answers.
Diversity and Inclusion in a Nigerian Company I. INTRODUCTION The issue of diversity has world wide relevance. As Chairman Mao Tse-Tung said: “Let a thousand flowers bloom”. However I believe, like most issues, diversity adopts different meaning and flavor, depending on the locality you situate it. I am deliberately situating my discussion on diversity and inclusion in the context of Nigeria.
Uniqlo is a company from Japan; it could easily take advantage of this political factor. Vietnam – Japan Economic Partnership Agreement signed in 2008 has brought opportunities for two countries’ businesses and consumers to “access capital sources, modern technology, materials and goods” effectively (Viet Trade Promotion Agency, n.d) 2. Economic Economic bodies which constitute the external environment have certain influences on economic environment faced by organizations (Capon, 2009). • It is expected that, in 2016, among the six major countries in ASEAN group, Vietnam would grow fastest (The Economist, 2015). • Vietnam has been a member of WTO and a TTP trade agreement: these practices promote more competition and provide more mode of entry alternatives for new firms into Vietnam markets (KPMG, 2015).
There are many standards defining and measuring a culture, some of these are obvious from one culture to another and others need some analysis before recognizing them. Two of these traits are collectivism and individualism, which differ greatly from country to country and culture to culture. In addition to defining those, the possibility of coexistence of the two traits will be examined. First, collectivism simply defined is the idea of everyone being a part of a larger group and all behavior stemming from this. More specifically, collectivism includes looking at the needs of those in your group before looking at your own, readiness to cooperate with your group, shared beliefs, and happiness based on the welfare of those around you.
The post-world war era created an atmosphere of caution regarding individual states in an international system dominated by realist rationale. Thus, based on functionalist principles it was believed that a United Europe was a more acceptable and viable alternative. It was believed that the international system would be more functional with organizations directed at collectively addressing functional needs rather than the realist orientation of each State for itself. This, however, did not materialize until the formation of the European Union (EU) in 1958 and arose out of the functionalist school of thought.