Welcome to the second episode of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) series within the Goddess of Technology podcast – your podcast on how to develop and grow your career within the technology industry. The previous, first episode of the DEI series provides you with best practices on how to maximize cross-cultural collaboration in the technology industry.
But how can you implement this advice with cultures that are entirely unfamiliar to you? How can you gain further insights on specific cultures in efficient ways – without needing to travel to these countries? For exactly this purpose, I'd like to introduce you, in this episode, to the Cultural Dimensions Theory by IBM Psychologist Geert Hofsteede.
The Cultural Dimensions Theory is a framework enabling you to comprehend how cultural differences and similarities can impact attitudes and behavior in cross-cultural interactions, in both your technology career and your personal life. This theory compares six culture-related factors, which Hofsteede refers to as 'cultural dimensions', across diverse cultures world-wide.
To apply the Cultural Dimensions framework to any country of your choice, and to compare the cultural dimensions of different countries with each other, I highly recommend visiting the official website of Hofstede Insights: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/fi/product/compare-countries/ Hofstede Insights offers services in the fields of consulting, coaching, certification and training. It manages a selective network of consultants with more than 35 years of experience improving effectiveness for multinational companies such as SIEMENS.
For further details on the Cultural Dimensions Theory, feel free to check out Hofsteede's book entitled 'Culture′s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values (Cross Cultural Research and Methodology)': https://books.google.nl/books/about/Culture_s_Consequences.html?id=Cayp_Um4O9gC&redir_esc=y
