»germany«

[p.19]
Germany as Hofstede sees it, is much influenced by its mediaevel guild system which in modern times lead to the system of apprenticeship. In a number of fields on the shop floor as well as on the office level the apprentice gains an occupational certification. Along with the qualification comes an occupational pride. Consequently, managers are not needed for motivation. They are to assign tasks and to resolve technical problems.
Compared to British or French organization, Hofstede declares Germany to have "the highest rate of personnel in productive roles and the lowest number both in leadership and staff roles". He estimates two thirds of the population to have successfully undergone apprenticeship. At the same time there are no traditional business schools.
Hofstede understands the raise of the German economy as an example that "a strong concept of management might have been a liability rather than an asset."


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While I can mostly understand what foreigners stumble about in German culture, I could never put it in words for myself. Thus I'm very happy to have a professor who came from Canada to Germany ten years ago.

He was telling how much he was still astonished by the German rivalry among colleagues. While in other countries at least the staff might stick together under claim "everybody hates the dean", Germans like to fight at their work place. What a silly competition when there are enough enemies out there.

(Maybe that's why I have such a hard time believing in the calls for team work.)

Marie was asking if I thought the difference between Poland and Germany to be big enough to make a cross-cultural training necessary. (It needs to be added that she defined this as a provocative question and did not at all aim at generally doubting my plans.)

Yes!

It reminded me of the fact that Eastern Germany was actually the hardest place for me to adapt to. I remember to have always had to explain everything I said and thought. I just seemed to trip into one misunderstanding after the other. They just pop up and it was impossible to really see the differences coming. While I will still cite this later, I need to include a quote from Bhawuk, Podsiadlowski, Graf, and Triandis:
"[P]eople from cultures with smaller cultural distance may also be confronted with major communication problems, as they do not expect each other to have different basic assumptions and they may be even less aware of their own and the others' cultural backgrounds."

My interview partner's company does not especially prepare their expatriates for their mission. Since they preferably hire people coming from a multi-ethnic background or having lived in another culture, they accept them to cope well in any cross-cultural setting. Prior to their employee's departure they conduct a so-called exit-interview. In this they simulate the employee's financial situation before and after his expatriate-mission, they talk about social insurance, the company car, .... and hard facts like that. My interview partner was actually disappointed that I did not show any interest in these facts, while they make up 90% of the future expatriate's concerns. Only by the time that they are on their second or third mission, they will start asking about the soft facts concerning the foreign culture and foreign attitudes.
In the host country a start up team which is assigned by the division manager is renting housing and helps organizing the required documents. If no facilities are available and the projects are planned to take longer, the company puts up its own camp.
The expatriates themselves are expected to learn the apparent cultural gestures of their host country and as said before they are expected to cultivate networks. The company understands itself as guest in the foreign country and it wants to keep that status/reputation. ("Wir sind Gäste in dem Land. Wir wollen auch in fünf Jahren noch willkommen geheißen werden.")

Additionally, it has to be mentioned that working for a big constructing company expatriates are not going to a "Polish" construction site - big construction sites are international by matter of investors and experts joining in. On 80% of their sites English is spoken as common language.
It also has to be remembered that expatriates are not coming to an unknown setting - they have worked on that project already for at least four years and know the relevant people on the other side, plus the colleagues they met in common workshops or trainings before. In addition construction sites offer a huge pool of diverse people thus it should be possible for everyone to find somebody he gets along with well. And, too, my interview partner says that it is still business and not about finding buddies.

They have hardly any problems with the acceptance of expatriates in the host country: On the one hand the expatriates are committed to excellence in their job, they want to show their best talents and thus are dedicated to absolute professionalism. ("Ich hab hier eine Aufgabe und ich zeige euch, dass ich das auch kann.") On the other hand their higher payments are usually accepted by host country nationals if they prove to be experts. ("Nach dem Motto 'ah-ha, der kann was', dann wird das auch akzeptiert.")

Nevertheless, expatriates especially in Eastern Europe hardly ever have problems with socializing. This is due to what my interview partner called "double binding". While it is simply their mentality to be more cordial than Germans, they are also aware that these are high-ranked people who are sent to them and they meet them as welcomed guests. Apparently, the biggest problem for expatriates is how to return this affection. Most of them can easily go along but then experience frustration and disappointment as part of a reversed culture-shock coming back to Germany. Others though perceive the call for socializing as an obligation and have a hard time to escape from it without appearing solitary.

In all cases it is up to the expatriate's personality if he succeeds in diminishing power structures or not. My interview partner argues that they never had any problems. "We are not putting anyone in a role, he couldn't play."
Every now and then they might have to send somebody who does not necessarily suit the expatriate profile but is an expert in a certain technique. In these cases it might happen that expatriate and host country nationals do not find a way to work together at all. But since the company cannot abandon the expert, they send a second expatriate to pour oil on troubled water by involving people in personal conversations, outlining the problem and showing empathy for the difficult situation. ("Ein Mensch kann nicht alle Fähigkeiten haben - in bestimmten Fällen muss man Abstriche machen. Da schickt man dann notfalls einen Gutelaune-Clown hinterher.")

My head is so full of things that still need to grow into ideas that I have a hard time to put anything down into words.

The first good news is that I'll have several interview partners. I got hooked up with two companies who have their headquarters in Germany in subsidiaries in Poland.

The first is a constructing company started cooperating with a Polish company right away in 1990. They then started to buy shares and in 2000 eventually merged the two companies into one. The Polish part of the company works independently but already looking on the names listed as members of the board, you can see some German names.

The other company is a doing logistics in Poland at four places. It used to be completeyl run by German expatriates. Nowadays they have more than 700 employees in Poland.

And as you see, I still need to gather muchmuchmore information :)

Nowadays, German is still spoken in the higher management level at Volkswagen as well as at Panopa. In the second level both companies mostly employ Polish people who also speak German.

In general Panopa is sending fewer expatriates to Poland every year. In the beginning jobs in the strategic division were filled project-specific with German expatriates. Nowadays the job is done by two fixed employees and help is only sent in emergencies. Instead Panopa makes sure to grant their employees qualification trainings to build up competencies on site.
This redundantizes the business with expatriates which is comparably expensive and takes a lot of energy from the company as well as from the employees concerned: motivating employees to leave Germany and to stay abroad for weeks and months at a time for single projects, permanent shuttling, ... Dr. Hucht resumes that it is simply easier and less expensive to establish methods of qualification at the respective location. ("Wenn ich in Deutschland jemanden motiviere da rüber zu gehen, dann redet der erstmal über mehr Geld." Dr.Hucht, 13.45 min.)

Janet hinted me towards "Karambolage". It's a programme running on arte, the French-German tv station. They pick out differences, sometimes just minor details between the two countries and explain where they come from.

They put their last four editions online, so I get to see them even without tv:

• in German
• and in French

I really like their concept of collages and presenting culture in little bits and pieces. Additionally they seem to have different designers each time: some styles I really like, others are too trashy for me but for sure always interesting...

from the emission on Oct, 29:


from the emission of Nov, 19:

France from a German perspective: difficult. I have a loose notion about France but nothing tangible. Taking numbers, concepts, systems, structure, ... Germany and France seem to be so much alike but still ... they are different.

Janet tried to establish a deeper understanding asking around in her French community.

Cadre labels a social group of very different professions (but office jobs in general). In order to become a member of cadre you should have attended one of the Grands Ecoles. At the same time Julien with his Bac +5 (having graduated and then studied for 5 years) and now working on his PhD is also considered cadre. Even though he did not study at one of the Grands Ecoles.
To attend one of these Grands Ecoles you have to follow a two year preparatory program which is said to have the highest suicidal rate among students.

(the article Kay quoted allows a glance on the importance of the Grands Ecole)

The bac is differentiated into different fields: science, language, art, social science,... With 15, 16 students decide into which direction they will move and hardly ever change afterwards.

Non-cadre are normally technicians and workers but there are also middle-class-cadres. Thus the sections cannot be separated so clearly anymore.

The non-cadres are tightly organized in unions which like to push their claims with strikes. Which supports Hofstede's statement that each group carries its own pride even though it does not explain the come-abouts.

All in all groups seem to stick to their group members: designers among themselves, programmers among themselves, sociologists among themselves (and Janet among all those groups). I actually think that that is due to the fact that you know most people from your studies. In Germany it often shows to be much the same. (Maybe a Western-European style?) Nevertheless, I found it quite striking that people actually apply terms like bac +5, or cadre and non-cadre. This very much supports Hofstede who said that the individuals are aware of their position in the hierarchy. In Germany I do not necessarily find that to be true. We have terms like the Bildungsbürgertum (I'll write on that later...) but I do not see such fixed groups. But obviously I need to investigate into that.

Turkey is everywhere. Having grown up in Western Germany I have grown up next to the kids of Turkish immigrants. I like to put an emphasis on having grown up beside each other because I really do not know any myself.

Finally, in Belgium I got close friends with two Erasmus students from Turkey which actually allowed Turkey to become a country in my head. Turkey was not in the houses of immigrants anymore who belong to neither culture but became a vivid, buzzing country on its own.

The debate about Turkey's entry into the European Union further drew my attention.

It might be quite interesting to work out the interdependencies: Turkey's drive towards Europe, the relation between German and Turkish economies, and the interactions possible between Turkish immigrants and their country of origin.

I liked the idea. But I've never been there and Turkey is quite far away.

Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła - Poland is not lost yet.

Actually, I don't even know where to start with the pros.

Starting with business: Poland is a Eastern European country (yes, sorry, Linda&Miro, I know, just like Slowenia not geographically but still). Thus can be considered an emerging market. (Guess, I still need numbers for that.)

Then I've been to Poland already a couple of times and it is kind of around the corner (3 hours drive) which would solve the problem of getting visual material.

Poland is strongly interlinked with Germany - despite the recent problems. Hopefully, this interdependance shows in numbers of businesses going there. (Need numbers for that as well.)

I know Polish people. Connections - yesyes! I know Polish immigrants, I know a Polish mayor (ok, actually my mum knows him, but that counts), and I know people living in Poland. But: I don't know any business people having gone to Poland; neither of German origin nor maybe immigrants having gone back to Poland. So, that is the big drawback.

Ok, still have some books lying here and then will start researching....