Cross- cultural Communication This page intentionally left blank

Introduction
This chapter discusses approaches to cultural profiling, its value and limi-
tations, and how cultural profiling can be used as a method to compare 
cultures and as an aid in education and training for those working at an 
international level or relocating to another country. It also analyses key 
areas of investigation in cultural profiling, such as country knowledge, 
psychological attunement and personality factors. In addition, it assesses 
the success of cultural profiling instruments in the identification, recruit-
ment and training for international mobility, including computer- generated 
profiling, graphic profiling and animated profiling.
Definition
Cultural profiling is an assessment tool for identifying cultural styles and 
preferences. It is a variation on management profiling, a way of analysing 
Summary
Definition
Resources available
Key cultural indicators
The ECOLE principle of how to build a country profile for comparison 
and analysis
Cultural clusters
Stereotypes and generalizations
Cultural fault lines
Personality testing – examples of profiling
Cross- cultural application of personality testing
Limitations of cultural profiling
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

---

260 Cross-Cultural Communication
what kind of manager an executive is likely to be. Whereas a management 
profile tries to identify strengths and potential challenges in an individual 
manager’s personality and style, a cultural profile tries to match a person’s 
management style against the demands of a particular cultural group he or 
she may be dealing with.
Cultural profiling is often used to identify potential problems in reloca-
tion, but is also of value in identifying possible difficulties between members 
of multicultural teams. It helps an organization and individuals to assess 
their own cultural style and compare it with the culture to which they are 
moving.
A cultural profile is a summary of the key salient cultural issues that diplo-
mats and business people may have to consider when operating in a foreign 
culture. It enables the focus to be concentrated on key issues and provides a 
common basis for comparison. Such areas include:
values and attitudes – motivation, time and space, cultural taboos;
communication styles – direct, indirect, formal, informal;
leadership and decision- making styles – top- down, bottom- up, consultative, 
directional;
social and professional behaviour – respect for age, status, qualifications, 
social etiquette;
factors influencing lifestyle – cost of living, taxation, health and medical 
services, security, bureaucracy;
organizational characteristics – centralized, decentralized;
religious influences – state, secularism, ritual, freedom of expression;
relations with other countries – trade, economics, membership of trade 
groups, defence;
factual data – demographics, politics, language, minorities, climate, 
geography.
Cultural profiling may involve psychometric testing or simple comparison 
checking. Although it is sometimes used (not always appropriately) as a 
recruitment tool, it is much better suited to use as a guide to education and 
training needs. For example, if a member of staff is known to be more cultur-
ally attuned to working in the UK and is being posted to work in a foreign 
culture, it is helpful to identify the key differences in management style and 
what training may be needed to help that member of staff adapt more easily 
to the new environment.
Most executives and employees tend to be selected primarily on their 
ability and qualifications. Experience abroad and cultural awareness tend 
to be taken into account less often. This is why a degree of cross- cultural 
pre- departure training is important (as covered in Chapter 6) and why an 
assessment of cultural skills and aptitudes prior to training is helpful in 
identifying the training focus.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

---

Cultural Profiling and Classification 261