For eight months now, my colleague and great friend, Jill has been working in Costa Rica. Her primary responsibility is to create training material and conduct training for new hires. The new employees are native Costa Ricans, but they are trained in English and they speak English fluently. The new employees are being trained to work in a call center environment who speaks directly to customers in need of medical supplies. Jill has been experiencing resistance from the Costa Rican new hires and Manager. Jill has been operating under the assumption that the cause for the friction is her gender and position of authority.
Hofstede is a Dutch psychologist who extensively studied National culture. “Hofstede’s research has found six cultural dimensions (in culture): power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, long-term/short-term orientation, and indulgence/restraint. These dimensions come from studies conducted in 93 countries around the world” (Pennsylvania State University, 2016). Upon learning about Hofstede’s D-6 model, I decided to dig into the model’s data on Costa Rica. I had been hearing from Jill for months about her struggles with her Costa Rican new hires, and I hoped to learn some insights to share with her.
The dimension that caught my attention immidiately was Individualism. The U.S has a score of 91 and Costa Rica has a low score of 15.What this means is that Costa Rica is nearly the polar opposite of the U.S. when it comes to “the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members”, Costa Ricans place very high importance gaining loyalty and the people’s self-imagine is expressed as “We” (Hofstede, n.d). In the U.S. the people self-image is defined in terms of “I”, society is loosely-knit and the focus is more on self (Hofstede, n.d). Learning this allowed me to make more sense of Jill’s experience, it seems to me that the issue is not her gender, but the lack of knowledge that Costa Rican’s are a collective society. Jill’s is not dedicating time to building relationships and rapport, she’s from the U.S. and is focused on herself and her task to complete training by the deadline. Personal relationships are essential in collectivists’ countries like Costa Rica and she has not built any (Hofstede, n.d). In fact, a Manager resigned because Jill insisted he fire an employee who was not keeping up with the lessons.
My advice to, Jill based on what I learned from Hofstede’s 6-D Model, would be to take some time to get to know the new hires. Loyalty goes a long way in collective societies (Hofstede, n.d). I would also suggest that she adds more casual conversation when addressing individuals speaking too directly is perceived as impolite (Hofstede, n.d).
References:
Hofstede, G. (n.d.) Costa Rica. Retrieve from https://geert-hofstede.com/costa-rica.html
Pennsylvania State University. (2016). Lesson 2: Introduction to Culture. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1802572/modules/items/21179055
Darrin Layne Meenach says
Diana,
Great perspective on the gap in the individualism dimension. If your friend is not building the relationships needed in a more collectivist culture she will fail for sure. I have found through years of experience that regardless of the level of individualism it is necessary to build relationships and trust with your team. Have you received any feedback from Jill on her “building a winning team” approach?
Hannah Baker Hitzhusen says
Hi Diana,
Good analysis. Two additional thoughts:
When I reviewed Costa Rica’s scores, their score on the masculinity/femininity scale was also interesting and likely comes in play with your colleague’s experience. On the Hofstede site, it explains, “Not only does Costa Rica stand out on Power Distance, with a score of 21 on Masculinity it is considered the most Feminine society in Latin America and few countries in the world score more Feminine. Ticos are very afraid of any kind of personal criticism (together with their collectivistic values). There is a very high acceptance for women in business. Suffrage for women was introduced in 1948 and half of the country’s university students are female.” All this to underscore your guess that her gender is not what’s getting in the way.
Another general thought that relates to some research I did about women expatriating (a particular interest of mine as I am a female expatriate): in most countries, women are well-accepted as managers. They frequently experience discrimination in terms of not being asked to take on other expat roles in the organization, but, once there, they succeed amply, as Caligiuri and Tung point out (1999).
Instead, “it may be the case that women are sensitive to their ability to ‘fit in’ in cultures that are reluctant to accept them.’ Here, it is important to discern whether your colleague is not fitting in to the corporate culture (your guess, and mine, too) or the national culture (far less likely, based on Hofstede’s assessment of national Costa Rican culture).
References
Caligiuri, P. M., & Tung, R. L. (1999). Comparing the success of male and female expatriates from a US-based multinational company. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 10(5), 763-782. Retrieved from http://www.culturalagility.com/sites/default/files/Comparing%20the%20Success%20of%20Male%20and%20Female%20Expatriates%20from%20a%20US-Based%20Multinational%20Company.pdf
Hofstede country data on Costa Rica, Retrieved from https://geert-hofstede.com/costa-rica.html
aek5366 says
Hi, Diana
I enjoyed your choice of the graphics for this post. I can almost picture Individualistic Jill trying to “pull rope” when dealing with collectivistic Costa Rican culture. Ideally, this would be a picture where Jill is having a conversation with locals. Using Hofstede 6D model the following can be good considerations. It is important in this culture to talk to people as equals regardless of their status and to focus on establishing relationship of trust, as you mentioned, which would enable her to achieve her goals more efficiently and with more ease. A good way can be to relate to her new trainees by explaing to them how their work helps others wellbeing and is meaningful that way. That should be relatively easy taking an account the nature of business. It is good to consult with local experts on what are the standard procedures and ways in the area as natives of Costa Rica do not like rapid changes. It is exciting how the possessing of cultural knowledge can lead to better understanding between the cultures. This way the cultures are more open towards cultural synergy.