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- Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
- Sprache: Englisch
Master's Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 7,5 (Dutch grading scale), Maastricht University, language: English, abstract: This master thesis has been written at the faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Maastricht University, the Netherlands. To start with, I would like to say that I am really delighted that I have been given the opportunity to complete my Master of Science in International Business at the University of Maastricht. The study in Maastricht, including the Bachelor of Science and the study abroad, has been an important phase of my life and I would like to express my elation of being a student at this University. "Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster." (Prof. Geert Hofstede, Emeritus Professor, Maastricht University.) This quote plays an important role in this master thesis because it stresses the ambiguity of culture and shows the importance of a well functioning cultural fit since synergy is defined as “the blending of individuals or groups that creates an emerging culture that has greater potential than the individual parts”. In the case that a firm correctly takes two cultures into account it can achieve higher returns and effectively perform in the intercultural context.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010
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Preface
This master thesis has been written at the faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Maastricht University, the Netherlands. To start with, I would like to say that I am really delighted that I have been given the opportunity to complete my Master of Science in International Business at the University of Maastricht. The study in Maastricht, including the Bachelor of Science and the study abroad, has been an important phase of my life and I would like to express my elation of being a student at this University. I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Wim Swaan, Assistant Professor at Maastricht University and expert in the field of intercultural communication, for his enthusiastic guidance and aid during the process of executing this master thesis. He has given me the opportunity to launch the fascinating area of diversity in the business context and complete this challenge at the end.
I am proud of having gained a decent conclusion about the intercultural communication problems and success factors of the interaction between Dutch and Germans in small and medium sized enterprises. I would like to thank all the participating firms, interviewees and supporting individuals, since the results would not have been achieved without the cooperation of these dedicated people.
Next, I would like to thank my parents for giving me the opportunity to grow up in both cultural contexts of the Netherlands and Germany and by this, equip me with a highly advantageous profile for this area. November 2008 Maastricht, the Netherlands Michiel G. J. Aaldering
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A. List of abbreviationsFEM Femininity FRG Federal Republic of Germany GDR German Democratic Republic GER German i.A. im Auftrag/ on behalf of IDV Individualism IM Innovation management INSEAD Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires LTO Long Term Orientation MAS Masculinity NL Dutch OM Operations Management PDI Power Distance Index RBV Resource Based View SME Small and medium-sized enterprise UAI Uncertainty Avoidance Index
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B. List of figuresFigure 1 -World Average for Hofstede’s Dimensions 15 Figure 2 -Hofstede’s Dimensions for Germany 16 Figure 3 -Hofstede’s Dimensions for the Netherlands 18 Figure 4 -The 5D Model of Professor Geert Hofstede 19 Figure 5 -Hofstede’s Cultural Map on UAI and PDI 21 Figure 6 -Historical Timeline of Germany and the Netherlands 30 Figure 7 -German Students in the Netherlands 1995-2006 36 Figure 8 -Main Framework of the Elaboration of Research Questions 48 Figure 9 -Graphical Depiction of Germans and the Dutch on 12 Cultural Elements 98 Figure 10 -Graphical Depiction of Germans and the Dutch on 6 Communication style descriptors 99 Table 1 -Overview Table of the Results 69
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1. Introduction
"Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster."
This quote plays an important role in this master thesis because it stresses the ambiguity of culture and shows the importance of a well functioning cultural fit since synergy is defined as “the blending of individuals or groups that creates an emerging culture that has greater potential than the individual parts” (Armstrong, Barber & Najafbagy, 1986; Preston & Armstrong, 1991, p. 66). In the case that a firm correctly takes two cultures into account it can achieve higher returns and effectively perform in the intercultural context. Moreover, Doctoroff (1977) states that the most important elements of synergy are trust, creativity, rapid feedback, creative conflict and effective communication (Preston & Armstrong, 1991, p. 66). In addition, this master thesis refers to the term intercultural because the main aspect of investigation will be the examination of two distinct cultures meeting each other (Ulijn et al, 2004). This actual tangency could have positive or negative effects on the cooperation and its success highly depends on the cultures itself. Countries within the European Union are growing closer together. They share laws and regulations and even have the same currency. The Netherlands and Germany are direct neighbours within the European Union, have closely related languages and a long lasting common history. Nevertheless, national cultures of these two countries differ importantly (Ulijn, Nagel & Tan, 2001). Cultures even seem to differ to the extent that recent Alliance failures of Dutch-German cooperation, are, like 70% of all Alliance failures (e.g. the Fokker-DASA venture), due to cultural differences (Ulijn et al, 2001).
According to Hofstede (1981), “culture is the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one group from those of another. Culture in this sense, is a system of collectively held values” (Hofstede, 1981, p. 24). This shows the importance of culture and gives an idea of how big the impact of national culture can be on human behaviour. Ulijn, Lincke and Wynstra (2004) point out that most studies about national culture mainly deal with its influence on communication issues and therefore the main focus
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of the master thesis will lie on the topic of intercultural communication between the Dutch and Germans.
An even more detailed focus lies on the context of SME companies. One reason for choosing this focus is the basic assumption that in such a context national culture plays an even more important role than, for example, in a multinational corporation where corporate cultures are used all over the world.
It has been said before that the two countries at hand are closely related on multiple layers but still have many issues of potential conflict. The tremendous impact of the Second World War on the Netherlands and the many other historical interactions of the two neighbouring countries have fostered rivalry and conflict between the citizens. Even in the field of sports, or more especially, in football competition, the two countries are archenemies. Additionally, rivalry is also shown in the existence of many nicknames for one another (Linthout, 2006). These aspects show why the impact of culture on intercultural communication in the Netherlands and in Germany will play a major role for this master thesis. Understanding the major communication style characteristics of each country will help to enhance intercultural communication between Dutch and German people in the business context. The problem statement of this master thesis, therefore, is:
An examination of intercultural communication between Germans and the Dutch.The four main sub-questions derived from this problem statement are: 1. How different are the communication styles of German and Dutch people? 2. Is there friction resulting from the different ways of communication and if yes, how does it look like and how to deal with it?
3. Which communication differences originate in values and which in practices? 4. What are possible success factors in this intercultural communication context? To answer this problem statement and the related sub-questions, a qualitative research will be examined. Qualitative research can be performed in a number of ways and the method which will be approached here is that experiences of individuals from their professional practices will be analysed (Flick, 2007).
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Several interviews with multiple individuals at small and medium sized organizations will be carried out. Moreover, the interviews will be examined with employees and employers who are experienced in the field of Dutch-German communication matters. Since in qualitative research in international business the context is very important, this master thesis will make use of a stratified sample (Marschan-Piekkari & Welch, 2004). The respondents are situated in the frontier region of Gelderland (NL) and the Niederrhein (GER). Furthermore, historic differences between the two countries will be scrutinized in order to explain those cultural differences that most likely shape organisational behaviour. For instance, German engineers are more technology oriented whereas Dutch tradesman are more market oriented and therefore ground the proposition that education and history could play a major role in explaining different organisational behaviours between the two countries (Ulijn et al, 2001). History has shown that Dutch international success has been heavily related to tradesman behaviour whereas German entrepreneurs were more focused on inventing new technologies, like e.g. Carl Benz, or basing successful firm establishment on other technological advancements.
Another important influencing factor for Dutch and German employees and employers is their educational background. Bosma, Jaarsma and Snijders (2003) stated that education plays a crucial role in affecting people’s mind-set with regard to exploiting entrepreneurial skills. The context of education itself is, of course, highly embedded in cultural values and reciprocally influences people’s behaviour. Because of this, the cultural dimensions of Hostede (2007) of the Netherlands and Germany will be used in this master thesis. It will be highly interesting to see what the differences between German and Dutch people in the business context are and, most importantly, how to impede problems.
So far, research on intercultural communication has been fragmented and did not focus on Germany and the Netherlands and therefore a strong theoretical background is lacking. The thesis will aim at finding the most common and severe problems related to Dutch and German cross-cultural interaction and will then try to find a sound list of appealing success factors for intercultural communication for German-Dutch business relations. It will be interesting to examine what kind of communication problems people experience and what those people actually think about each other.
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The outline of the master thesis to accomplish the maximum results of the before mentioned goals, is first, to establish a sound literature review part and based on this, develop a methodological framework. The literature review part will cover the most important aspects for the issue at hand:
1. A broader and more appropriate definition of the term culture will be given.
2. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions for the Netherlands and Germany will be mentioned and explained.
3. An idea of how culture can influence the organisation and its strategy will be provided.
4. A short historical overview of both countries will be given, whereby the most relevant aspects will be stressed.
5. It will be investigated how at the moment the two countries are related to each other in the sense of mutual perceptions and with respect to facts of current interactions.
6. The lingual aspect of the countries will be covered and the impact of this on cultural behaviour will be derived.
7. It will be highlighted what the current academic literature writes about the effect of Dutch and German culture on their work style and atmosphere.
8. The importance of different communication styles and a descriptor list will be presented.
9. Last, some important related previous researches (going beyond cultural value analysis) will be summarised and will lead to the elaboration of research questions. After the elaboration of research questions, the fourth chapter will cover the following issues:
The methodology of the qualitative research in the form of semi-structured interviews will be explained.The data sample will be described.
The research questions will be linked to the methodology and by this show which items are taken into account when analysing the results.
The following two sections will be dedicated to show what the interviews have resulted in and how the outcomes can be analysed and discussed. Conclusively, the master thesis will answer
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the problem statement and provide the reader with some important and useful managerial implications. Finally, the merits and limitations of this master thesis will be stated and possible sources of future research will be mentioned.
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2. Literature Review
The literature review part of this master thesis will provide the reader with a sound background of the current situation of academic literature concerning cultural characteristics of Germany and the Netherlands. Furthermore, this part will summarize information about the impact of culture on business and elaborates on the communication focus of this master thesis. In summary, the literature will consistently lead to the research questions of this master thesis and form the basis for the applied qualitative research.
2.1. Culture as meaning
In the introduction of this master thesis one common definition of the term culture has been applied from one of the leading experts in the academic field of cultural differences, Geert Hofstede. Nevertheless, there have been varying opinions with respect to possible extensions on Hofstede’s view on culture. This is important to note because this master thesis will go beyond Hofstede’s findings by extending it to cultural communication styles. As has been mentioned before, Hofstede highlights the shared and acquired values and practices by a group of people as the description of culture (Verluyten, 2000, p. 23). In contrast, Ting-Toomey (1999, p.10) defines culture as follows: “A complex frame of reference that consists of patterns of traditions, beliefs, values, norms, symbols and meanings that are shared to varying degrees by interacting members of a community.” This definition importantly adds several items to the original definition of Hofstede. The important fact that cultural values are only the underlying factors influencing the individual norms, behaviours and the practices in social interactions, is acknowledged by Ting-Toomey (1999) and will be taken into account in this master thesis. Most importantly, in this master thesis, culture will be regarded as a system of meaning, because within a culture, there are still big differences in behaviours and attitudes but the meaning of it is relatively understood by all members of a culture. Meaning is reflected within the interaction of people and the way people communicate with each other and by this, is reproduced between the people. This shows that the system of meaning is not obliged by definition but is given sense by the people themselves. This also explains why culture is said to be constantly moving and changing (Douglas, 2004, p.88). According to Douglas (2004), it is a dynamic process influenced by demographical changes of society like, e.g. migration,
