The famous scientist Geert Hofstede developed the theory of the "mental software". Hofstede operates with the differences between various national cultures with the help of five elements: power distance, uncertainly escapes, collectivism against personality, men against women, and so called Confucianism Work Dynamism.

To express the example, the pair of dimensions - the power spacing and the collectivism against personality demonstrate that the United States are situated in the lower quartile. According to the research, the American people are very individualistic and self-centred. Also they have quite low power distance but prefer to be independent and to do to do the most important things themselves. The same values have such countries as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Dutch and New Zealand. To the contrary the less developed countries such as Columbia, Nigeria and Hong Kong are characterized by a low level of individualism and a large power distance and also these countries are described as the nations with collectivism priority. Hofstede has in mind that a try to change basically another culture with the help of weapon, money and propaganda would be unfortunate. The other scientists criticize the Hofstede`s theory: "cultural diversity is not disappearing and two of Hofstede's dimensions (Power Distance and Individualism index) are reliably linked to day-to-day behaviour, difficulties in cross-cultural negotiations, joint venture management and teamwork in multinationals". The criticism of Hofstede`s approach formed because of its orientation just on IBM staff. The use of this "mental software" approach to the foreign business visitors can be demonstrated as follows. The managers leave their native country, where they were born, brought up and where they got accustomed to work and fall into the new environment and culture. These new conditions will obviously influence on the means of business, on the personal habits and private life. Continuing the comparison with computers, the cross-cultural learning can be presented as the "upgrade" of the personal mental software.

About the Author

Ann Sammers is a member of a support team at Editing Services. Having completed a number of Drama courseworks himself, Ann uses her knowledge to provide individualized customer support to students.