Reconciling neutral and affective cultures

Overly neutral or affective (expressive) cultures have problems in doing business with each other. The neutral person is easily accused of being ice-cold with no heart; the affective person is seen as out of control and incon­sistent. When such cultures meet the first essential is to recognise the dif­ferences, and to refrain from making any judgments based on emotions, or the lack of them.

So, to sum it up, people in affective or emotional cultures are not hesitant to reveal their innermost feelings whereas people in neutral cultures tend to control their emotions carefully and maintain their composure.

People in neutral cultures may consider the behaviors of people from affective cultures immature; people from affective cultures may view the stoic behaviors of people from neutral cultures as insincere and deceiving. This perception may cause problems during cross-cultural negotiations between managers from affective and neutral cultures. 

Countries that exhibits neutral cultures: Ethiopia, Japan, Hong Kong, China, India, Britain and Singapore.

Countries that exhibits affective cultures: Kuwait, Egypt, Spain, Russia, Argentina, Mexico, the Netherlands, Switzerland. The US is average. 

MASCULINITY-FEMININITY

Masculinity (clearly differentiate d social gender roles) – Femininity (over­lapping social gender roles).

Characteristics of masculine culture:

a)      A masculine culture is basically a performance-driven society where rewards and recognition for performance are the primary motivational factors for achievement.

b)      In masculine cultures some major innovations are simply the outcome of financial rewards, prestige and a sense of accomplishment.

c)       In societies that are dominated by masculine culture, people are supposed to be competitive, ambitious, and assertive and risk taking, in order to achieve their goals. This type of culture tends to give the utmost respect and admiration to the successful achiever who fulfills his or her ambition and demonstrates assertiveness and willingness to take risks in order to achieve goals. 

Characteristics of feminine culture:

a)      In feminine cultures, people tend to emphasize the quality of the “whole” life rather than money, success and social status, which are easier to quantify.

b)      Organizations with a feminine culture are not as competitive as those with a masculine culture, because the former places higher priority on concern for others and little distinction is made between men and women in the same position. 

Cultures differ in the extent to which gender roles are distinct or overlap. In a highly “masculine” culture men are viewed as assertive, oriented to material success, and strong; women, on the other hand, are viewed as modest, focused on the quality of life, and tender. In a highly “feminine” culture, both men and women are supposed to be modest, oriented to maintaining the quality of life, and tender. On the basis of Hofstede’s research (Hofstede, 1997), the 10 countries with highest masculinity score (from the highest) are: Japan, Austria, Venezuela, Italy, Switzerland, Mexico, Ireland, Jamaica, Great Britain, and Germany. The 10 countries with highest femininity score (from the highest) are: Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark, Costa Rica, Yugoslavia, Finland, Chile, Portugal, and Thailand. Out of 53 countries, ranked, the United States ranked 15th most masculine.

Gender has a great deal of impact on human interaction. If you understand why feminine and masculine cultures differ and how each communicates, it's like­ly you won't have a great deal of trouble getting along with people of both genders.