Cross Cultural Warmup Report

Cross-Cultural Communication
Warm Up Exercise

By: Tudor Popa, Liang Zhiyuan, Dmitrii Zykov, Jens Wiggering, Dorothy
Aarnio

Table of Content
Part 1: Personal Characteristics
Part 2: Cultural Characteristics
Part 3: The process


Part 1: Personal Characteristics

After the group members completed their surveys online, we found out that
there are three different personality types in our group. In detail, these
personality types are one ESTP, one INTJ and two INFPs. In this part of the
report, we are first going to outline the characteristics of each
personality type, before analyzing the most important differences and
identifying potential synergistic effects.

ESTP – The Dynamo (4% of population)

The ESTP is referred to as an action-oriented problem solver. This means
that ESTPs enjoy solving practical problems and want to apply the skills
they acquired. They prefer focusing on immediate problems to long term
planning and assess current situations quickly. ESTPS are also energetic
and tend to be very social.

In terms of team work, the ESTP will build a can-do" atmosphere and help
generating team spirit and motivation. This personality type is also going
to take charge in a crisis and will organize others. On the other hand,
ESTPs can irritate others by acting too quickly, focusing too much on the
current tasks at the expense of long-term issues and by not taking into
account the sensitivities of others.


INTJ – The Strategist (2% of population)

INTJs are analytical and determined persons with a natural leadership
ability, nevertheless they usually prefer to stay in the background until
they see a real need to take over the lead. Their mind is highly logical
and analyzing and therefore they are born strategists, constantly trying to
anticipate every contingency and having alternative plans on ready.

In team work, INTJs will help the group by challenging problems, developing
and maintaining a sense of direction in the team's work and by ensuring
that ideas and visions are translated into action. On the other hand, they
are hard to impress and therefore sometimes do not express enough
appreciation for the work of others. Also, as human nature tends to be
illogical, INTJs are prone to detach themselves from social live and
therefore often develop a lone wolf mentality.


INFP – The Dreamer (4% of population)

INFPs are creative idealists that are driven by their values and beliefs.
They are flexible and considerate, which makes them able to put themselves
into many points of view, which makes them good at settling conflicts.
Their energy is directed towards their inner world, including thoughts and
emotions.

In teamwork, they tend to contribute innovate ideas and generate team
spirit by being sensitive listeners. They are good at further improving
areas of agreement and also at mediating at areas of disagreement. On the
other hand, they are sometimes too idealistic and appear to be out of touch
with reality. They also tend to spend too much time on thinking and too
less on acting.

Differences and possible synergistic effects

There are some fundamental differences between the personality types. To
start, there is a different level of sensitivity. Whereas ESTPs tend to be
focused on doing things now and here, an INTJ prefers planning before
acting and INFPs are sometimes spending too much time on thinking and too
less on acting. Furthermore, INFPs are known for being sensitive and
mediators, whereas ESTPs are sometimes too energetic to respect others
feelings and INTJs often feel uncomfortable in social situations. There are
three fundamental different ways of approaching tasks, the practical one of
the ESTP, the cold and logical one of the INTJ and the creative and value-
driven way of an INFP.

Nevertheless, this differences provide an opportunity for taking advantage
out of them. In order to achieve synergistic effects, the different
characteristics and ways of viewing things of this three personality types
have to be combined in a way in which they supplement each other, therefore
balancing the individual weaknesses of the personality types. For example,
the ESTP could be coordinating the actual execution of tasks, being some
kind of motor for the group as the name the Dynamo" suggests, whereas the
INTJ would keep an eye on where the project is going. In the same way, the
mediating skills and empathy of the INFPs could make up for the INTJ's
lack of this skills, and with his objective and logical attitude the INTJ
could calm down the ESTP when he is getting too energetic. In conclusion,
the individual strengths of the dreamer, the strategist and the dynamo have
to be identified and combined in order to achieve synergy and in order to
overcome differences.

Part 2: Cultural Characteristics

In this part, each of the group members will introduce some of the most
important aspects of the culture of their home country and tell how much
they consider themselves typical representatives of it. Then, there will be
another comparison that will outline the differences and point out
potential synergistic effects.

The characteristics of Russian culture (Dmitrii):

Russia is supposed to a country with a very high power distance. As an
example, I should mention that the main part of the money and different
kinds of investments is concentrated in big cities like Moscow or Saint
Petersburg. If you compare the level of living in Moscow and any city on
the East of Russia, you will notice the huge difference.

According to Geert Hofstede, Russian society is supposed to be pretty much
communitarian. As an example, he notes that when Russians are going
somewhere out with friends, they usually say "We with friends" instead of
"I and my friends". In my opinion Russians are more individualists, usually
we only care about ourselves and our close relatives and family, although
we are communitarian in comparison with the Finnish society.

As I mentioned before, the power distance in Russia is high, hence I can
say that Russian society is more feminine. A lot of great scientists and
teachers or doctors are very modest of talking about themselves and they do
not expect to have more than a the modest level of living. The competition
between people is almost absent.

Uncertainty avoidance: going back to Hofstede's dimension results, Russian
people feel threatened about the future and different kinds of ambiguous
situations. Also Hofstede mentions that detailed planning and briefing is
very common and as long as Russians interact with people considered to be
strangers, they appear very formal and distant. At the same time, formality
is used as a sign of respect.

As a conclusion I would like to greatly emphasize that the mentality of
people in Russia varies and depends on the place where people live. For
example, in big cities people are more competition oriented and more
individualistic, less helpful to the others and more selfish.

The main thing about me and what is typical for Russians is high valuation
of the family. Family is supposed to be the main and the most important
part of our lives, the main institution, but at the same time I am not an
individualist. The reason for this is more about the way my parents brought
me up and I do not consider it a cultural feature.

Furthermore I can say, that overall I fit the description of typical
Russian, but as I come from a big city, I am more self oriented and more
masculine compared to Russians from smaller cities (East of Russia). I am
more competition oriented and I really admire any kinds of competition and
always try to get in.

The characteristics of German culture (Jens):

According to Hofstede and many others, there is a certain ideal of
communication in the German culture. It is among the most direct in the
world and the motto is be honest, even if it hurts". I strongly support
this ideal, nevertheless I know that others might consider it rude and that
they need to get used to it.

The German culture greatly valuates punctuality, on the other hand constant
lateness makes you appear unreliable. As meetings are supposed to start
exactly at the time they are scheduled for, it even is considered being
late" if it's just a delay of two to five minutes.

German culture is focused on details. Before making a plan, each aspect is
normally examined in detail. However, this also leads to a rather quick
realization of the plan.

I think that I am a rather typical German as I notice all those principles
in my own behavior. However, I consider myself rather flexible and try to
balance directness and detail-orientation in meetings in order to keep a
good atmosphere and to reach consent.


The characteristics of Chinese culture (Liang):

The family is very important in China. Respect for the elders of the family
is ingrained in Chinese children and continues throughout life. Rather than
placing older family members in nursing homes or care facilities, Chinese
families take care of them throughout their lives. Conformity is another
important value in the family, and the good of the family is placed above
the interests of the individual. However, the most important for Chinese is
our country. The country comes first, then the family. Obviously Chinese
like unity .

When Chinese people socialize with others they like to care about other
people's feelings and situations. Although our history teaches us that we
should struggle for our country, we also focus on our own value achieved.
So, there is a big matter amongst Chinese. You might always consider a
single Chinese perfect, but when you make several Chinese people work
together you could find out that they are not as perfect as you thought.

How I fit typical Chinese
In my country there is a saying: "you should know how to behave like
people, then you can start to acquire knowledge". I do really like to read
philosophy books and to look for what is my own value to the world . We
believe every existence has different meanings to the world . You should
know why you are living or what you are living for, otherwise no matter how
busy you are every day, you are just a walking dead.


The characteristics of Romanian culture (Tudor):

Romania has a high power distance index, which means that people accept a
hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no
further justification. Hierarchy in an organization is seen as reflecting
inherent inequalities, centralization is popular, subordinates expect to be
told what to do and the ideal boss is a benevolent autocrat.

Romania, is considered a collectivist society. This manifests in a close
long-term commitment to the member 'group', be that a family, extended
family, or extended relationships. Loyalty in a collectivist culture is
paramount, and over-rides most other societal rules and regulations. The
society fosters strong relationships where everyone takes responsibility
for fellow members of their group. In collectivist societies offense leads
to shame and loss of face, employer/employee relationships are perceived in
moral terms (like a family link), hiring and promotion decisions take
account of the employee's in-group, management is the management of groups.

Romania is considered a relatively feminine society. In feminine countries
the focus is on "working in order to live", managers strive for consensus,
people value equality, solidarity and quality in their working lives.
Conflicts are resolved by compromise and negotiation. Incentives such as
free time and flexibility are favored. Focus is on well-being, status is
not shown.

According to Hofstede, Romania has a very high preference for avoiding
uncertainty. Countries exhibiting high uncertainty avoidance maintain rigid
codes of belief and behavior and are intolerant of unorthodox behavior and
ideas. In these cultures there is an emotional need for rules (even if the
rules never seem to work) time is money, people have an inner urge to be
busy and work hard, precision and punctuality are the norm, innovation may
be resisted, security is an important element in individual motivation.
This dimension is a bit different in my opinion, as I can say that in
Romania things work different as described here. Maybe it is because of
actual political problems or something like this.

I can say that in some cases I found myself in Romanian culture, but some
other times I am totally different. I think the differences came with the
young generation which is not that standardized to the cultures. I am very
family orientated and usually family is the only thing important for me,
after me.


Comparison

Russia and Romania have many things in common about their cultures. All
dimensions have similar levels. Both countries have similar values. In both
societies the focus is on working and people value solidarity and equality,
though there are clear hierarchical levels. Collectivism is very important
in Russia, as well as in Romania. These similarities could be a result of
the communism which was present in both countries for a long period.

China and Romania/Russia are slightly different. In China there is present
the long-time orientation, which is very clear defined. The power distance
is quite similar in China compared with Russia or Romania, so this means
that people from each of these countries are used and accept a hierarchical
order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further
justification. Although China is considered a bit more collective society.
The major difference is that China, different form Russia and Romania, is a
masculine society. The need to ensure success can be exemplified by the
fact that many Chinese will sacrifice family and leisure priorities to
work. Another big difference is in uncertainty avoidance, where China
scores lower than Russia and Romania. The Chinese are comfortable with
ambiguity; the Chinese language is full of ambiguous meanings that can be
difficult for Western people to follow.

German and Russia/Romania are different types of societies. Highly
decentralized and supported by a strong middle class, Germany is not
surprisingly among the low power distance countries. So these two types of
countries are in different extremes. German society is truly
individualistic one, which means very different than both collective
societies, Romania and Russia. German is also a masculine society, which
means that it is driven by competition, which is very different than
feminine societies Russia and Romania. Germany is more organized, based on
punctuality and reliability country than the two others.

German and China are more similar than any of them with the two others.
They have the masculine society in common, both being masculine societies.
Although, China is very high power distant country, which makes it very
different to Germany. Germany is a very individualistic country, while
China is very collective society, which makes their culture very different,
they do things differently, and their values are different.


Part 3: The process

After our project group was shuffled once more, we briefly met after the
Cross Cultural Communication Class on the 8th of October. There we decided
to have a longer meeting on Friday, the 12th of October. We furthermore
decided to finish the individual assignments until then, in order to
collect and discuss the outcome of these in the meeting. Dmitrii submitted
his results in advance online as he was going to Germany with some other
students. On Friday, we collected the results and outlined the most
important differences. Liang and Tudor then prepared the two parts of the
report on Saturday, which was revised by Jens on Sunday. Furthermore, the
presentation was created on Sunday as well. Finding our own personality
type, describing the culture of our home country and saying how much we fit
to it was rather easy, as the former just required filling out a test and
reading the outcome, whereas the latter was noting down information that
was already known to us. Nevertheless, comparing the different personality
types and finding the differences proved to be difficult and time-
consuming, as there is lots of elaborate literature to consider.