30-9-2016

In the morning I did a few online webinars on cultural differences. These webinars divided the work culture of several countries on a scale from low culture to high cultures. High cultures are present in countries such as China or India. In these countries is a strong hierarchy, and people tend to have a lot of ‘’small talk’’. People are not only interested in doing business, but also want to know how your family is doing. These conservations might seem pointless and lengthy, but they are very important if you want to build up a good business relation. Countries as the Netherlands for example are completely the opposite, because there is no very strong hierarchy present, and if someone thinks that the manager does not take the right choice, he or she has room to say so. We also tend to be more direct, and get straight to the business topic.
In the afternoon we had a video call with the Indian teams, and I prepared some questions for the Indians. The teams consisted out of 5 people per team, so it was remarkable that only the manager of the team was talking. The other team members were only listen, and this showed the hierarchy very obvious. I asked them questions about the positive and negative sides of working with Dutch people. The managers were more than willing to tell positive sides about the cooperation, but as soon as I mentioned negative aspects, you could feel a certain tension. During that question the managers were again talking about positive aspects, and it was clear that they did not want to answer that question, because they were afraid that they would insult their Dutch bosses.