Cross- cultural Communication This page intentionally left blank

Cultural clusters
The use of cultural clusters is another way to classify and understand other 
cultures. Ronen and Shenkar (1985) carried out research by grouping coun-
tries into a number of clusters, each containing cultures which were deemed 
to be similar in a number of ways, with the proviso that there were some 
differences. One area where similarity prevailed was that of language. This 
was evident, for example, in the Latin American cluster, which contained 
Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, where Spanish 
influence was extensive, both in language and in many aspects of culture. 
Other cultural clusters included the Anglo, Nordic, Germanic, Latin 
European, Arab, Near Eastern and Far Eastern clusters. In addition, the 
research concluded that there were similarities within each of the clusters 
regarding work practices, work relations and job satisfaction.
Stereotypes and generalizations
As we have seen in Chapter 1, it is very easy to lapse into stereotypes and is 
equally important to try to avoid them. A stereotype is a statement which is 
considered to describe a whole country or culture and its people. It is fixed, 
does not allow for much variation and may have positive or negative con-
notations. It is often created out of historical prejudice and may have no 
relevance, if it ever did, to people today. Nevertheless, stereotypes such as 
the ‘formal British’, the ‘inscrutable Chinese’ and the ‘brash American’ still 
influence attitudes today.
In dealing with different cultures, the term ‘generalization’ may be prefer-
able. A generalization is a statement about cultural behaviour which is 
recognized as being generally true of a large group of people in a country. 
Generalizations are a platform for further investigation, and although they 
state general trends, they do allow for some degree of deviation. As such, 
any generalization will be stated in the following terms: ‘Most people’ or 
‘a large number of people’. However, it is obvious that even generaliza-
tions about a national culture need to be treated with care. A number of 

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264 Cross-Cultural Communication
factors will sub- differentiate national cultures and will need to be taken into 
account. These are as follows:
Regional differences: the regions of a country may have many different 
styles and behaviours, and may contain people from different cultural 
backgrounds.
Professional differences: professional experience will cause people’s cultural 
behaviour to differ. One of the greatest differentiators is the difference 
between multinationals and locally based small and medium enterprises 
(SMEs). Multinationals often adopt the culture of the original head office 
or, more commonly, the international corporate culture based on US 
management approaches and methods. SMEs, which may in fact in some 
countries have a fairly large number of employees, are more likely to con-
form more closely to national business norms and conventions. There are 
also the social differences induced by family expectations and by issues of 
class, caste, attitudes to age and to multinationals in the workplace. Finally, 
and most importantly, is the personal experience of the people with whom 
you are dealing, their standard of education and whether they have trav-
elled abroad, in which case also raising the issue of whether they are accus-
tomed to fully understanding working methods that may be different from 
their own. When dealing with a new country, the key is to show inte rest 
and find out about it, especially its dominant organizational and leader-
ship style. However, although it is natural to look at national styles first, it 
is important to use this as a platform for drilling down into the different 
levels of regional, professional, social and personal experience.