¶ … environment host country chose study. Discuss briefly political, economic, legal environment focus culture. Make present deeper levels culture, artifacts. HOFSTEDE'S DIMENSIONS .ID Germany: Country analysis

Political environment

Germany is a parliamentary democracy. It is a multi-party system, which means that political parties must often share power to govern. It is currently led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, who became Germany's first female chancellor in 2009. Merkel is the leader of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU). Merkel won a close election and serves as "chancellor in a 'grand coalition' involving the CDU, its Christian Social Union (CSU) allies and the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD)" ("Germany," BBC, 2012). Merkel has faced recent resistance from the Germany populace, who are growing increasingly discontented with the feeling that Germany is being forced to 'bail out' financially undisciplined members of the European Community, to preserve the EC in the wake of the meltdown of the Greek economy and the near-economic meltdown of other Southern European nations. "As one of the richer countries in the EU, Germany was faced with the prospect of having to make huge contributions to bailouts for debt-ridden countries such as Greece, and popular resentment over this triggered a political backlash at home" ("Germany," BBC, 2012). "Now that Greece is on the verge of defaulting, its monetary partners will have to hand over huge loans to help keep the country solvent -- all in order to prevent the euro from going into a free fall and becoming mere Monopoly money.... 53% of [the German] people want Greece tossed out of the euro zone if it can't resolve its deficit dilemma without outside funding -- a financial helping hand that a full 71% of Germans don't want their government to extend" (Crumly 2009).

Economic environment

Ever since its economic recovery after World War II, Germany has had one of the strongest economies of all of the European major powers. It is Europe's largest and most heavily-industrialized nation. Its economy is export-dependent, but technological innovation and a strong sense of fiscal discipline enabled it to rebound after the recent global recession. Concerns about the...

There is also a debate about how to improve integration of the many post-war immigrants whose labour helped fuel the economic boom" ("Germany," BBC, 2012).
Legal environment

Germany has an inquisitorial system of justice. This means that judges, rather than juries engage in fact-finding. "In minor cases there may be only a single judge presiding. Or, if the charges are severe and the accused faces heavy penalties, there may be five persons hearing the case; three professional judges and two lay judges" ("German law and the German legal system," How to Germany, 2012). Germany is a member of the EU and bound by the legal restrictions of membership. "The differences between German and American laws are particularly obvious when it comes to contracts. In the U.S. It is common, and usually necessary, to spell out everything in a contract. The rule in German law, on the other hand, is: 'a short contract is a good contract'" ("German law and the German legal system," How to Germany, 2012).

Culture

According to Geert Hofstede, all nations' cultures can be analyzed according to the following dimensions: power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation. For example, in terms of power distance, which "measures the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally," Arab nations have a very high power distance index rating of 90 where there is an expectation that individuals will dominate based upon wealth, rank or gender ("Power distance index," Clearly Cultural, 2009). The power distance index "represents inequality (more vs. less), but defined from below, not from above. It suggests that a society's level of inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders" since presumably leaders everywhere feel they have an absolute right to govern ("Power distance index," Clearly Cultural, 2009).

Germany, in…