The examination of the features and of the relationships of national cultures with regard to Trompenaars' model.

Kovacs, Zoltan ; Gaal, Zoltan ; Szabo, Lajos 等

Abstract: The aim of the research is to define the cultural peculiarities of Hungary, as well as to analyse the relationships of cultural attitude and culture. Based on a questionnaire survey among middle and top managers the Hungarian cultural peculiarities have been defined and the Hungarian culture-profile was established on the basis of the Trompenaars' model. The inquiry also charted the impact of demographic parameters on cultural attitude. As regards personal characteristics, the analyses focus primarily on the profit or non-profit orientation of the job. The research studied additionally the link between national culture and competitiveness. Cultural factors affecting competitiveness have been defined and a model featuring cultural peculiarities as independent variables was conceived.

Key words: National cultures, Competitiveness, Globalization, European Union

1. INTRODUCTION

I have, in my thesis, attempted to reveal the peculiarities of the Hungarian national culture as well as the relations of its attitudes on the one hand, and the connection between national culture and competitiveness, on the other. As far as the examination of the relationship between national culture and competitiveness is concerned, this has gained an outstanding importance by now.

The main questions of the research:

* Which are the characteristic features of the Hungarian national culture?

* Is there any connection between demographic qualities and cultural attitude?

* Is there any connection between the national culture and the competitiveness of a country?

2. LITERATURE OVERVIEW

2.1 The examination of cultures

In recent years the number of articles, books and studies dealing with the examination of national cultures has increased like an explosion. In the context of practice, Fons Trompenaars is one of the most acknowledged authors. Trompenaars made a survey by using a set of questions to be answered by upper and medium leaders. The gradually growing database contains, at the moment, the data of 50 000 managers from more than 100 countries. Trompenaars differentiated among the cultures of particular nations on the basis of the answers given as solutions to certain problems or dilemmas. (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 2002)

According to the model, the culture of a nation can be described with the help of seven dimensions: universalism/particularism, individualism/communitarianism, specific/diffuse orientation, neutral/affective orientation, ascripted/achieved status, future/present/past orientation, external/internal orientation. The first five dimensions concern human relations; the sixth is connected with the person's relation to time, while in the seventh his relation to his environment is expressed. (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 2002)

2.2 The connections of national culture and competitiveness

Several scholars have reached the point of realizing and defining the outstanding significance of culture among the causes of differences between economic achievements. It is a generally accepted statement that culture either promotes, or hinders the economic achievement of countries. (Bosch & Proijen, 1992) (Franke & Hofstede & Bond, 1991) (Hofstede & Bond, 1988) However, the operational mechanisms hiding behind this statement are not clearly defined. Neither are those specific cultural features mapped, which exert a positive influence on the creation of favourable economic conditions. (Hampden-Turner & Trompenaars, 1993)

3. THE APPLIED METHODOLOGY

The basis of the research was a survey completed in Hungary with the application of the Trompenaars questionnaire through empirical data survey in 2004 and 2005. In the course of the examination the quantitative method was used and it was a cross-sectional examination. (Gaal & Szabo & Kovacs, 2005)

The total number of elements of the sample connected with the own questionnaire grounded research was 501. The questioned persons were all living in Hungary and were Hungarian medium or upper leaders of enterprises or other organisations without an exception.

In addition to the mass of facts gained in the course of our own research, the analyses rely on two more, independent samples. One of them is the cultural data related to the countries contained in Trompenaars' database. The special features of the national cultures in different countries are defined with the help of a uniform questionnaire identical with the one used in the Hungarian research. (Gaal & Szabo & Kovacs, 2005) For the analysis of competitiveness the data of the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook were used. (Garelli, 2005)

4. THE MODEL OF THE RESEARCH

The primary goal of the examinations carried out on the individual level is to define the determinant elements of the person's cultural characteristics. The personality factors described with the seven dimensions constitute the dependent variables, while the various personal demographic qualities like sex, age, the profit- or non-profit oriented character of the place of occupation, etc. constitute the independent variables. The analyses concentrate on the examination of the correlations.

As opposed to examinations on the individual level, the goal of the examinations performed on the national level was not the exploration of those elements which determine cultural peculiarities, but it was the determining role of culture itself. The main goal in this case was to reveal to what extent (if any), culture was able to influence or what is more, determine the state of development of the economy. The initiation of competitiveness as a dependant variable is supported by the fact that there is a number of comparative data at our disposal concerning almost every developed country of the world. The independent variables of the model are, on the national level, made for the definition of culture or for the corresponding cultural characteristics.

The main goal of the analyses is the specification of the cultural peculiarities, which are connected with the competitiveness of countries. Following the definition of the dimensions, the next step is to decide which of the two opposite orientations belonging to the given dimension exerts a positive influence on the competitiveness of the country. With full knowledge of the relations, one has to try to model the countries' competitiveness with the help of the cultural dimensions, using them as explanatory variables.

5. THE RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH

5.1 Theoretical conclusions

The examinations have proved that national culture has a determinant role for competitiveness. The model, which defines competitiveness with the help of cultural dimensions, besides the ascripted/achieved status and the neutral/affective orientation, contains the dimension of time-orientation and past orientation within that. The achieved status and the neutral orientation, based on the obtained results, appear with a positive co-efficient, while past orientation appears with a negative co-efficient in the model. A higher level of an achieved status orientation, as well as a higher level of a neutral orientation, presumes a higher level of competitiveness. According to the received results, the less past-oriented a country, the more competitive it is. (Gaal & Kovacs, 2006)

5.2 Practical conclusions

Practically, the research concentrates on three main fields. Firstly, it reveals the peculiar features of the Hungarian national culture with the help of the dimensions of Trompenaars' model. Secondly, it examines the relationship between individual cultural attitudes (personality factors) and personal characteristics (demographic data). Thirdly, it performs comparative examinations with regard to cultural peculiarities effecting competitiveness between countries and regions. As a result of the survey, the characteristic features of the Hungarian national culture have come to be defined.

In the course of the research it has become justified that the profit- or non-profit oriented character of person's place of occupation are connected with the person's cultural attitude. The profit- and the non-profit oriented spheres differed from each other with respect to a universalist/particularist, time and neutral/affective orientation. The profit-oriented sphere was more future-oriented, while the non-profit oriented sector was considerably more universalist, past and slightly more neutral-oriented.

The last section of the examination of the practical character contains the comparison of regions (North America, European Union and Japan and South-eastern Asia) along cultural dimensions determinant from the point of view of competitiveness.

6. CONCLUSION

With reference to the relationship between demographic qualities and cultural attitude and on the basis of the comparison of the cultural peculiarities of people working in the profit-oriented or non-profit oriented sphere, it can be stated that the employees of the two spheres possess different cultural features.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The unbroken line illustrates the significant relations on level 0.01, the broken line illustrates the significant relations on level 0.05. The other model set up as a result of the examination illustrates the relationship between national culture and competitiveness. The analyses have clearly brought out the relationship between culture and competitiveness on the level of countries.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

7. REFERENCES

Bosch van den, F. A. J. & Proijen van A. A. (1992) The competitive advantage of European nations: The impact of national culture--a missing element in Porter's analysis? European Management Journal 10.

Franke, R. H. & Hofstede, G. H. & Bond, M. H. (1991) Cultural roots of economic performance: A research note, Strategic Management Journal 12,

Gaal Z. & Kovacs Z. (2006) Jottunk! Latunk. Gyozunk? (Coming! Seeing. Winning?) Harvard Businessmanager, 6.

Gaal Z. & Szabo L. & Kovacs Z. (2005) Nemzetkozi vallalati strategiak es a nemzeti-vallalati kulturak osszefuggesei. (Relationships of international corporate strategies and national-corporate cultures) Vezetestudomany, 7-8.

Garelli, S. (2005) Competitiveness of Nations: The Fundamentals, World Competitiveness Yearbook, IMD International Lausanne,

Hofstede, G. & Bond, M. H. (1988) "The Confucius connection: from cultural roots to economic growth", Organizational Dynamics, 16, 4

Trompenaars, F. & Hampden-Turner, C. (2002) Riding the Waves of Culture, Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, London,

Hampden-Turner, C. & Trompenaars, F. (1993) The Seven Cultures of Capitalism, Piatkus London.