The Hofstede Method and Cross-Cultural Teamwork

Jean -Pierre Coene is Belgian. Born in 1952. At the age of 18, he left school begins a series of small jobs, all of which were related to sales and communication. At the age of 22, he started his own business in the distribution of paper, which he sold eight years later. At the age of 30, he joined the French company –Clairefontaine – and was appointed as responsible for sales in Belgium. At the age of 33, he was also put in charge of sales for the UK. At the age of 40, he is responsible for many European, American and Japanese “key accounts”. In 1996, during training he learns about studies on interculturality and quickly apply the Hofstede method. In 2011, he joins Itim Internation-al, overseen by the Professor Geert Hofstede. Since 2014, he dedicated himself to his clients to improve their performance on an International level, by training, coaching, and joining them in their important cross-border negotiation. ENCATC Interview with Jean-Pierre Coene What is the need for a method when talking about cultural differences? Well, everybody knows that working with different nationalities is not easy. Some people have built a lot of experience, which often means that they have committed a lot of mistakes to find out the best practices. Thanks to the work of a sociologist, we can now save time, and have a sort of framework to prepare ourselves to be more appropriate towards the international environments in which we find ourselves. The sociologist HOFSTEDE has made an extended survey, and arrived at 4 fundamental findings about cultural differences. Those 4 fundamental elements are either very much in some cultures, or very little. This gives a clear and simplified view on the priorities and help to gain time and efficiency. These will be revealed to the participants attending the ENCATC Breakfast. What recurring problems do you see your clients experiencing in the work place or in project implementation? Because cultural background is unconscious, it is very difficult to identify it as the main cause for communication problems. One tends to blame the peoples’ characters, the organisation, the boss, but rarely are cultural differences spontaneously taken into consideration. Cultural background influences all human relationships and it can become particularly frustrating in the working place. For example, every culture has its own implicit aspects? Think only about the concept of responsibility. Depending on the culture you were born in, it can vary from “I have been asked to do a certain job” to “I identify myself to the success of this mission” with a dozen of variations in between. Another possible misunderstanding is the concept of authority. Depending on the culture you were born in, it can vary from “the boss is God” to “one needs a captain on the boat”. But I could talk about, the different ways to establish a deal, the best way to announce a bad new to the boss, or to the customer… The ENCATC Breakfast will be very interesting because at date we already have participants who are American, Belgian, Czech, Dutch, French, Italian, and Spanish. The mix of these different cultural identities will enrich our understanding of how we are perceived by others and how our cultural backgrounds influence our relationships. As more participants register, I look forward to the variety of experiences that we will gather for our discussions. How can these problems be overcome using the Hofstede Method? The Hofstede method is a “door opener” to consciousness. Once people have been trained, they are aware, and hopefully – by building experiences - they become competent. It helps people to realize that “my vision may be very different from the people I am working with.”