Both practical and theoretical, this is the only book that I know of that really describes and explains cultural differences on various levels (family, school, work. D., is professor emeritus of Organizational Anthropology and International Management at Maastricht University, The Netherlands.

Projects funded by international agencies such as the World Bank in theory do not have this constraint, but they have to satisfy the agency’s objectives, which often also conflict with the receivers’ objectives.

And personality refers to those personal sets of mental programs that are partially acquired and partially learned. At the same time, it describes a revolutionary theory of cultural relativism and its applications in a range of professions.

To understand what it means to be human I think it is good to look at how our cultures provide for our basic needs, and how varied these cultures are. Diplomats lack both the skills and the organizational culture to act as successful entrepreneurs for development consulting activities. In Part Four, he discusses how intercultural encounters are affected by these dimensions and how awareness and acceptance of these differences can yield more effective results. I am currently working on my doctorate in global leadership, and I was hoping that this text would be a great resource for my program.His work started many years ago when he did cultural surveys in IBM and started to look at different cultural dimensions. Managers' behavior is an extension of the managers' school and family experiences, as well as a mirror image of the behavior of the managed. There a myriad of cultures in the world and the higher is their cultural asymmetry, made up of common features, the best they bond accordingly. It’s because they serve to delineate the in-group from the out-group, such that conversations about them can easily be high-jacked by violent emotional outbursts. Although the authors claim to espouse a "values neutral" position (which I have always argued is an impossible and illogical position), their Dutch/Swedish preferences ring out loudly and clearly (humanistic, environmnetalist, etc.

It shows how not being culturally aware is a recipe for disaster in business and other domains, how values shape us and the companies we work for, and how intercultural communication is very, very hard to pull off. It is also useful to break down one's own nation (for example, some Americans lean toward the British way of thinking while others are more German-like). UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE: The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations. Starting from the most superficial, SYMBOLS are words, gestures, pictures or objects that carry a particular meaning that is recognise as such only by those who share the culture. Politicians are out to enrich themselves and their families without being controlled by traditional norms.Hofstede has developed a model that tries to explain the cultural differences between countries and organizations; this model has been refined and improved over decades. But they seem incapable of concluding that good intentions (and even money) is not the most effective way to solve these problems. In parts the book might be a bit dated, but imho Hofstede's cultural dimensions are still essential in understanding cultural diversity.