Question

It all started on September 2, 1998 when smoke suddenly filled the cabin of the Swissair flight 111 as it was on route from New York to Geneva. The pilot swung the troubled aircraft to sea to dump excess of fuel before landing. Unfortunately, the plane plunged into the sea before it could reach safety and crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, killing all 229 on board. Investigations asked whether the pilot’s decision to circle and dump the fuel before landing was correct or not. Swissair officials defended their pilot, noting that the pilot followed the Swissair’s emergency procedures published by the carrier’s operating manual. The U.S pilots reported that “Rules are made to be broken” meaning that in such emergency cases, the pilots should exercise their independent judgment, regardless of what is contained in the company manual. However, the Swissair officials countered that the procedures detailed in the manual reflected the state-of-the-art understanding of what to do in an emergency, and thus its pilots did the right thing in adhering to the manual The “rules are there to be obeyed” reflects the viewpoint of Swissair’s officials.

1. Which one of Hofstede’s five dimensions is discussed in this case study? Define the dimension and explain its two extremes.

2. To which extreme is the Swissair pilot oriented? How is this dimension interrelated with the other four dimensions of Hofstede?

3. How does this dimension affect the aspects of managing international business in terms of hierarchies and risk-taking? Do you support the Swissair pilots’ decision? Why?

4. Social orientation plays an important role in determining the job mobility within a certain society. Do you think that there is an interrelation between this element and Hofstede’s dimension (Uncertainty Orientation)?

Answer 1

1. The Hofstede's cultural dimension of Uncertainty Avoidance is being discussed in the case study. Uncertainty avoidance is the dimension that shows the response of a country's society and persons towards uncertain conditions or circumstances and their tendency to avoid uncertain situations by following the existing rules and protocols. If a country ranks lower on uncertainty avoidance index than the country's people are flexible and less orthodox in times of uncertainty than people of the region with high scores of uncertainty avoidance who strictly follow rules, punctuality and orthodox behaviour.

2. The Swiss Air Pilot is oriented towards high Uncertainty Avoidance index that is shown in the pilot's behaviour of strictly following the rules and regulations. He had the tendency to avoid uncertainty by following the procedures, took decisions after lot of analysis of the guidelines.

This dimension is related to other four dimensions of Hofstede's cultural index as people that follow rules and structure also have preferences towards higher power distance and hierarchy. Such cultures score higher on masculinity with their tendency towards dominance and ambitiousness. The society scores high on individualism also as people prefer to be self dependent and oriented towards themselves and needs of their family as it gives them security from uncertainty. The culture with characteristics of self dependence and masculinity are also high on indulgence with people giving more importance to self beliefs and needs thus taking decision by themselves.

3. This dimension affects the aspects of managing international business in terms of hierarchies and risk-taking by emphasizing the need for understanding the cultural preferences for hierarchy and rules and regulations. In International business, the individual with lesser power distance need to identify and understand the other cultures with more preferences to power distance and hierarchy so that the communication and behaviour is accordingly articulated for favorable mutual relations and business. Societies like China ranks lower on uncertainty avoidance and thus are flexible to risk taking, adapting themselves to the situation and open for changes. But in countries with high score for uncertainty avoidance like Japan, the individuals prefer to have clear guidelines and policies for doing business to avoid any uncertainty and confusion, also giving importance to discipline and punctuality.

I don't support the Swiss Air pilot's decision as he should have consulted extensively in such situation with his crew and ground team members to ask for any similar incidents occurred previously and suggested course of action. By taking more precautions and avoiding over confidence in his own decisions, he could have saved many lives as well as attempted to inform the ground crew to provide support in emergency condition.