Question

You have recently been hired by a company that wants to “go global” and you have been selected to help research this possibility. The CEO has selected you to research your chosen country and report back. You must prepare a report on your country’s four cultural values and provide examples of how they relate to business transactions.

For your chosen country of France write a three-page paper on the following:

Individual and collective dimension of the country
Equality and hierarchy dimension of the country
Change orientation dimension of the country
Time orientation dimension of the country
Give examples of these dimensions and how they relate to global business transactions

Answer 1

To globalise the business in France different dimensions of the country have to be analysed from the business point of view. They can be categorised as follows:

Individual and collective dimension of the country- The society in France is an individualism society rather than collective one. They individuals here live with an approach of growing themselves, thinking about their living and progress and taking care of themselves and their families. They do not live or work in groups or in collective patterns. In the business environment this can relate as the individuals will work for their own growth and success rather than prefering to work collectively in groups. The individuals get involved in business not for making good relations but get more calculative towards growing individually.

- equality and hierarchy dimension of the country- The culture in France accepts inequality in the society which means that the people with higher power and positions dominate and dictate the ones with lower positions. It follows centralized power system. The government controls the laws and regulations and lengthy processes are followed to take any legal action. The process of information flow is hierarchical and formal management atmosphere is maintained. The individuals at the higher level of hierarchy rule over the lower level individuals and the lower level individuals accept this trend. The hierarchy levels in firms are lesser and have more power on the higher positions.

Change dimension orientation of the country- The business society in France has changed significantly since mid 1970. The new french model has emerged and replaced the old model. This model has elements of the old system too and main roles are played by the state and big firms going against the background of corporate governance with an integration in the global capital market. The forces and processes tend to bring these changes that are traditional and external. In both the cases the stakeholders strategies and policies have been influenced by cultural context.

Time orientation dimension of the country- France scores high on this dimension and follows the rule that situation, time and context decides the truth. They change the traditions based on the conditions that change easily. They do not need an explaination for the change that comes with time and follow and adapt it without understanding the truth much. Such is a long term or pragmatic orientation. Such flexibility helps in business setups and functioning as the adaption of changes that occue with time make the society easy to adjust with for new forces that occur in the environment.