Cultural Dimensions - Assignment Example

Cultural dimensions, according to Hofstede, entail how diversity of cultures in societies affects the communication behavior of people. In addition to communication, the domain influences the values and practices of citizens of a given country. The cultural dimensions theories outlined by Hofstede include power distance, individualism, masculinity and orientation of societies with regard to uncertainty in the future. The essay discusses how cultural dimensions in US and Spain coincide or contrast.

It gives an in-depth view of beliefs and practices of the citizens based on the guidance of the cultural domains prevalence. Cultural dimensions Disparities and similarities exist in the cultural domains between the two countries. The two countries exhibit lower long-term orientation. They score normative in this dimension. Spanish people prefer keeping their lives normal without considering what the future entails. Americans treat changes that arise in the society with great suspicion. They tend to analyze emerging information to confirm its validity.

Americans possess good analytical skills that give them a clear view whether particular information is good or disastrous. The foundation of businesses in America is short-term goals. America and Spain share individualism in the cultural domains. The members Interact freely with people from other parts of the world. Americans find it easy to interact and seek information from non-Americans. They exhibit free spirited interactions amongst themselves simplifying their engagement that relate to business and other activities.

In the power distance domain of culture, the countries perform differently. In contrast to Spanish, Americans do not appreciate the fact that people must be different in the society. They constantly struggle to address the inequality that exists among people. Most employees in America prefer to participate in the decision-making process and tend to question the actions of the authorities in issues that relate to them. In Spain, people accept the diversity prevalent in the society. They make little effort to breach the gap (Page and Wiseman, 1993).

Spanish people refer to the decisions made by the authorities as autocratic and rarely challenge the directives from the leaders.In uncertainty avoidance domain, the two countries exist in opposite sides of the divide. Spain scores highly in this domain while America performance is below average. Americans find it easy to incorporate new ideas than the Spanish people. People are not ready to embrace change and prefer adhering to set rules in every aspect of life. In employment, the Spanish people have bias towards jobs that are more secure.

They have fear for future uncertainty. Contrast in the masculinity domain is evident between the two countries. Due to the low score in this domain, Spanish people generally care for other members of the society. Unlike Spain where there are low levels of aggressiveness, Americans exhibit high level of competition between people. A good demonstration for the high level of competition is the nature of advertisement. Advertisements in Spain occur at fewer frequencies coupled with softer tones (Pérez, 2014).

The nature of advertisements is a complete contrast in America where the approach is more aggressive and carried out frequently.In order to succeed in effective communication, the two organizations must take into account the disparities in cultural domains that are prevalent between the two countries (Baack, 2012). They must address the issue of power distance. The company in Spain should accord the US based organization the opportunity to participate in decision-making process. The organization is the use need to communicate to the Spanish organization on how to compete with the clients through advertising for the benefit of the partnership.

Effective advertisement strategy helps inform and attract more customers to the business.ReferencesBaack, Donald. 2012. Management Communication. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Page, Norman R and Wiseman, Richard L. (1993). Supervisory Behavior and Worker Satisfieiction in the United States, Mexico, and Spain. The Journal of Business Communication 30:2, 161-180Pérez, F. M. I. (2014). Cultural Values and Digital Discourse. Journal of Intercultural Communication, (36).