Your manager informs you that you have been promoted to a new position at one of the U.S. firm’s foreign branches. She cautions you that based on some bad experiences she has had when she worked overseas, a heightened awareness and sensitivity to different cultural norms is required to be successful when you move to and work in one of these countries. She suggested that you gain some valuable insights by studying the cultural dimensions theory, which is an excellent model to explain how different cultural norms could affect the workplace.

After researching the cultural dimensions theory, complete the following tasks:

• Go to http://www.geert-hofstede.com and identify how values in the United States compare to the world average in the following 3 categories (To do this, click on country from the menu on the left side of the screen, and observe the charts in the middle of the screen):
  • Individuality
  • Power distance
  • Long-term orientation
• Explain exactly how your actions as a manager might reflect these index scores versus the world average index scores.