The country profile and the Country Culture Profile of Belgium
Teacher: Nu Driz
Name: Alban Zymberi
Student number: s1080173
Subject: English
Module: HRHt11-16d
Date: August 31, 2017
Index
1. Introduction 3
2. Short country profile of Belgium 3
3. Country culture profile of Belgium (Hofstede) 4
4. Culture profile analysis (Trompenaars) 5
5. Ideas on possible successful ventures based on theory 6
6. Cultural comparison with the Netherlands 6
7. Conclusion 7
8. Bibliography 8
1. Introduction
The world of business is changing and we conduct business worldwide. That is why we have to know the culture of people we are doing business with. This make easer to do business with other countries. This paper is about the culture and country profile of Belgium. We will analyse the country profile by using the DESTEP-method. Furthermore, we will analyse the country profile of Belgium using the theory of Hofstede and Trompenaars.
2. Short country profile of Belgium
The short country profile is based on the DESTEP-analysis of Belgium. The short country profile of Belgium will show the demographic, economics, socio/culture, technological, ecological and political factor of the country. The most important topics are described in this paper.
Belgium is a federal parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarch. The king of Belgium is King Philippe, succeeded to the throne in July 2013. Belgium borders the Netherlands, Germany, France and Luxemburg.
The total number of inhabitants in Belgium is 11.267.910 million. From the total inhabitants are 2.1 million people low educated. 2.4 million of the inhabitants are high educated. The most of the high educated people are the female in Belgium (Statistic Belgium, 2017).
About 55% of the Belgian population lives in Flanders, while 35% is in Wallonia. The remaining 10% are in the capital of Brussels. The people in Belgium speak Dutch, French and German. There are also three regions in Belgium. The Flemings, Walloons and the Germans in the eastern part of Belgium.
Brussels is the headquarters of the European Union (EU) and also the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Belgium is a central player in the world economics, because it is located in the central of West Europe.
The gross domestic product (GDP) of Belgium, as of 2015, was 409.4 billion euros. The gross domestic product is the total production of goods and services of a country. The largest percentage of the GDP is the service industry supplies with 69.3%.
Belgium is technologically advanced, more than 90% of the people have access to the internet. The IT sector of Brussel is worth €4.5 billion and produces 30.000 jobs in the country. The people in Belgium would like to be more sustainable. This is an opportunity for new projects in Belgium, that support the sustainable movement.
3. Country culture profile of Belgium (Hofstede)
Geert Hofstede did a research when he was employed by a company named IBM. IBM is a multinational organization which conducts business over 170 countries. The culture model of Hofstede is based on those countries. One of the countries is Belgium, the country culture will be analysed by using the theory of Hofstede.
Power Distance and Individualism
Belgium scores 65 points on the ‘Power Distance’ scale which means that they have a high score compared to other countries (Geert-Hofstede, 2016). The society of Belgium accept the inequalities. Hofstede expected in the future more differences between the Walloons and Flemish.
Belgium has a high score on the individualism index with a rating of 75. This means they favour individualism and private opinions, taking care of themselves and family.
People in Belgium can voice their opinion, towards power holders a less direct style is preferred. The high score on the ‘Power Distance’ and ‘Individualism’ has his effect on the management style. The managers need to have personal contact with the employees. The employees would like to know how the work is done, what they need to change or what they have done well. According to Hofstede (2016) the managers need to show the employees how important they are.
Masculinity and Uncertainty Avoidance
Belgium score 54 points on the ‘Masculinity’ dimension. The country has an intermediate score on this dimension (Geert-Hofstede, 2016). A high score on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven by achievement, competition and success. This value system starts in school and continues throughout organisational life. This means that they care more about society, family and friends. They do not look to the achievement of people or the success of a person.
They are interested in the personality of the person. That is more important than the achievement, competition an success.
The dimension ‘Uncertainty Avoidance’ has to do with the fact that the future can never be known. On this dimension is the next question important: Should we try to control the future or just let it happen? On this dimension scores the Belgium 94 points, this is the highest score on the ‘Uncertainty Avoidance Index’ of Geert Hofstede. The employees prefer some level of expertise. Certainty is often reached through academic work. The academic work can respond for the need of detail, context and background. The North and South share this score on the dimension.
Long Term Orientation and Indulgence
Belgium scores 82 points on the ‘Long Term Orientation’ scale what means that they like a pragmatic approach (Geert-Hofstede, 2016). The truth is based on the situation, context and time. The people in Belgium show an ability to adapt traditions easily to changed conditions.
The Belgians score 57 points on the dimension ‘Indulgence’. This score means that the culture in Belgium is indulgent (Geert-Hofstede, 2016). The Belgians prefer enjoying life and having fun. They show a positive attitude in their life’s.
4. Culture profile analysis (Trompenaars)
Fons Trompenaars is an advisor from the Netherlands. He designed a culture model with Charles Hampden Turner to define the organization culture. This model will help the HR-professional to make a culture analysis, this model contains seven dimensions (Mulder, 2015). Trompenaars learned a lot from Hofstede, that is the reason why Trompenaars also works with dimensions.
Universalism vs Particularism
According to the scale of Trompenaars, Belgium is a ‘Universalist’ country (Trompenaars, 1998). The culture in West Europe is an ‘Universalisme’. The most important thing in Belgium is talking and discus before making a choice. The people do not like to make choices before knowing what is going on. This is because in Belgium are three different regions. They need to comprise with each other to work together. If you doing business in Belgium, than you need to talk and explain before the people will make a decision. The people would like to know who you are, before doing business. This is the reason why universalism fit in the culture of Belgium (Smit, 2015).
Individualism vs Communitarian
Individualism is a Western culture, according to Trompenaars theory (Smit, 2015). The biggest influence for individualism is the economy of the country (Smit, 2015). The most important thing is that a culture change always, because the globalisation. People can communicate with each other from a big distance. The countries are doing international business, so there work different cultures in an company. Working with different cultures can be difficult. To success the business in other countries, you need to know the culture of the country.
Specific vs Diffuse
In an specific culture you have an open space communicating with each other. The working culture is an informal communication, they communicate with each other like friends do. The people like an formal communication in an diffuse culture, this is the opposite of the specific culture (Smit, 2015).
Neutral vs Emotional
In an neutral culture, people do not show the emotions. In Belgium people do not like to talk directly and also they think before they say something. It is not done when you show your emotions in public, this is also important for the Dutch people (Smit, 2015). If you are doing business with an emotional culture, than the communication can be a shock. Good preparing can be a solution for this problem. When you know the culture of each other than you are prepared to the reactions (Smit, 2015).
Achievement vs Ascription
In an achievement are the performance of an employee important, you make an achievement based on the performance. In an ascription culture the people get the position based on the person. When you doing business with an ascription culture, than you need to communicate with an older person or an person with the biggest experience (Smit, 2015). The culture of Belgium is based on the achievement of a person.
Sequential time vs Synchronous time
Time is money, is the best way to explain an sequential time culture. An employee change his work hours in an salary, time is money. In an synchronous culture is time a rhythm of a group or nature (Smit, 2015). When the people look at the word ‘time’ than the think about the past, present day and the future. In an ‘Sequential time’ culture, people will do their work step by step. They do not like the friends politics, the people will not give more priority to help friends before doing there work.
Internal direction vs Outer direction
The way people experience environment it dependent on the culture profile of the country. The Western culture is more outer direction (Smit, 2015). They would like to have an influence in the environment. By using all the seven dimension of culture, it creates more respect and more empathy toward other cultures, their habits and their rituals. This is important to know before doing business in other countries. The people in Belgium believe they control the environment.
Own Examples
The people in Belgium like to enjoying the life. They care about family and friend. The Belgium people are also modest, they do not communicate directly to other people. The country would like to be more sustainable, they use the technology and experience of other countries, like the Netherlands. The sustainable project can be a successful ventures in Belgium. They just started with the sustainable project, the Netherlands has more experience with sustainable project.
5. Ideas on possible successful ventures based on theory
This paragraph contains the possible ideas of successful ventures. The ideas are based on the theory of Hofstede and Trompenaars. This paragraph describes culture profile of the Belgians, it is important to know that before starting a ventures in another country. Also it is important to look at the DESTEP- analyse of the country. This analyse will show the possible successful ventures of the country.
The sustainable project in Belgium are very important to the people and organizations. They would like to be more sustainable. Belgium is a country in the centre of West Europe. This is also an opportunity for organizations, they can make a profit of the other countries like the Netherland, Germany, Luxemburg and France. The people in Belgium speak also three different languages, Dutch, France and German. This is also an advantage for those three countries.
Based on the theory there are not many differences between the Netherlands and Belgium. The people form the Netherlands will say things what they think. The people in Belgium do not prefer the direct communication.
The people in Belgium are also high educated, this is an opportunity for the companies from other countries. Only if you need high educated people, the IT section in Belgium is the biggest section of the country.
6. Cultural comparison with the Netherlands
This paragraph contains an comparison with the Netherland and Belgium. The Dutch people are more direct in communication. The people from the Netherland can say ‘NO’. The people in Belgium say ‘YES’ because they do not want to be disrespectful.
The Dutch companies try always new things, they use social media for recruiting. The companies in Belgium are investing to make a process perfectly work. This is a big different between the Netherlands and Belgium. The people in Netherlands use more the technology, this is also why the Netherlands is more sustainable.
The people in Belgium are proud of their culture and country. In the Netherlands, people are also proud, but they do not show it. The nature of the Dutch people is to be calm and easy. The people in the Netherlands and Belgium do not show how reach they are. They do not buy cars, with money that they do not have it. Other cultures like to show their possession, this is not done in Belgium.
7. Conclusion
If you would like to make a success of your venture in Belgium than you need to learn the county and culture profile of Belgium. The DESTEP-method is also important to know. In the DESTEP-method you can find information about the demographic, economics, socio/culture, technological, ecological and political.
The conclusion on this paper is that there is a different between the Netherlands and Belgium. Before starting to research the country profile of Belgium I did not know what the different is between the Netherlands and Belgium.
To make a successful venture in Belgium it is important to discuss the business before making a decision. The people in the Netherlands make choices and evaluate them. The people in Belgium think carefully before making a choice. The other important thing is that the people in Belgium are proud of their culture and country. They like food and drinking their own beer. If you want to make a fast decision, than you need to make a lunch appointment. According to Bot, people in Belgium like to talk about business when they are enjoying their food.
The organization and people in Belgium would like to be more sustainable, this is an opportunity for the companies from the Netherland. It is important to have a lot of experience, before doing business in Belgium. The people in Belgium are high educated, this means there are enough employees with an high education. The IT section of Belgium is the biggest section of the country.
8. Bibliography
Geert-Hofstede. (2016). Opgehaald van Belgium: https://geert-hofstede.com/belgium.html
Labour Laws. (2017). Opgehaald van Brussels: http://be.brussels/working-and-doing-business/labour-laws
Mulder, P. (2017, juni 12). Trompenaar cultuur model. Opgehaald van Toolshero: https://www.toolshero.nl/communicatie-modellen/trompenaars-cultuur-model/
Smit, C. (2015). Wat Zijn de Belangrijkste Cultuurverschillen Nederland België? culturematters, 8.
Statistic Belgium . (2017, mei 18). Opgehaald van http://statbel.fgov.be: http://statbel.fgov.be/nl/statistieken/cijfers/arbeid_leven/opleiding/niveau/
Trompenaars, F. &. Hampden-Turner, C. (1998). Riding the waves of Culture: Understanding cultural diversity in global business. New York: McGraw-Hill.