For effectively cooperating with people from other nations, two basic conditions have to be fulfilled. The first is speaking or having learned a shared language. Acting according to shared rules and standards. One of the things which you certainly have noticed is that everybody speaks and acts with an accent. When we speak a language, you and I do it each with our own local accent, acquired when and where we grew up.
Equally true, but less evident, is when we think, feel and act, we also have our local accent, acquired when and where we grew up. I call this our national... For gaining an international perspective, we have to become conscious of our own culture amidst the variety of cultures we may meet in people from elsewhere. There is no substitute for personal international experience.
In addition, we can acquire knowledge about differences in national cultures in our present day world, as revealed by research. And we should develop skills for translating between cultures. When in another culture, in a way we become children again. All countries in the world share the same basic problems, but each national society has over time developed its own answers.
My research has revealed six basic problems that all countries of the world share. And the first is, how much inequality should there be among us? The second, how afraid are we of unknown people, ideas and objects? The third is, how dependent are we on our family? This may be a narrow family, extended family or even a wider group of people.
The fourth is, how should a man feel, how a woman? The fifth is, do we focus on the future, the past or the present? And the sixth is, may we have fun or is life a serious matter? And these can be seen as six different and separate dimensions of national cultures.
And the labels I have chosen for them is for the first power distance, the second uncertainty avoidance, the third individualism versus collectivism, the fourth masculinity versus femininity, the fifth long-term orientation versus short-term orientation, and the sixth indulgence versus restraint.