Globalization has given people huge opportunities to work in diverse communities. People from all over the world can work or study as a part of a global team. Whether you are a part of a study process that involves your participation in a project with international peers or you are working in a global company that has employees with different cultural background, it is crucial to find a common ground with people that are culturally different. Especially in such uncertain times as the Pandemic Corona Virus, people from all over the world should get along with people that are so far away from us, but at the same time are a few clicks away. Besides, being in different time zones, there are plenty of different customs and behavioral habits that are essential to learn in order to succeed to work in a global classroom environment.
Hofstede's cultural dimensions framework is focused on cross-cultural communication. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions explains how different values affect people’s behavior. The framework focuses on 6 dimensions that help to analyse different cultural behaviors: individualism-collectivism; uncertainty avoidance; power distance (strength of social hierarchy), masculinity-femininity (task-orientation versus person-orientation) and indulgence versus self-restrain.
We are not going deep into theory by analysing each dimension of well-known Hofstede’s framework, but we simply point out the main differences and similarities we found between the USA and Finnish cultures during our project collaboration.
Main features of American and Finnish cultures
Greetings
The whole project has two teachers – one from USA and the other one is from Finland. While working on the project, the way students greet the teachers differ in American and Finnish cultures. In USA people tend to greet teachers by “Professor” / “Teacher” /”Dr Name” / “Mr Name”, while in Finland students simply call teachers by first name or “Teacher”.
Communication style
The USA communication is direct, clear and a “straight to business” relationship. American communication style is about being open, not being shy, asking direct questions and talking personal stuff. While Finnish people tend to be closed. Finns value a lot of privacy. In Finnish society it is common to be humble about own achievements.
In Finland there is no specific pronoun for “she” and “he”. In the Finnish language both men and woman are addressed as “hän”. It proves that Finnish people are very gender - neutral and value equality with no specific separation between men and women.
Lifestyle
In Finland, the main life purpose is on well-being. Finns do not tend to show off their status. In USA people try to be the best. Americans freely talk about the success and accomplishments, while Finns are very humble in that matter.