International Management Spain\'s Culture Will Be Different

International Management

Spain's culture will be different from the U.S. culture in almost every way, but particularly in three of these areas. First, Spain's culture is diffuse, as compared to the U.S. specific type of relationship between individuals. Spanish individuals tend to be more generous in blending their personal space with the working environment, while in the U.S. these are generally better separated.

Second, Spain's culture favors particularism to the U.S. universalism, by which we understand that, in Spain's case, relationships are more important than rules and regulations. In the case of the U.S., obviously, rules and regulations form the backbone of the system and are part of the success of the American society. Finally, according to figure 4-5, Spain is neutral, while the U.S. has a more emotional culture, which means that the Americans tend to display their emotions more often than Spanish people.

I believe that some of the assumptions that Trompenaars makes here are not necessarily valid today. Spanish individuals are known for their emotional behavior and for their society based on the relationship between individuals (which is obviously an emotional one). At the same time, the Americans tend to show their emotions less and I think this is more in line with the assumption that they tend to keep the personal and working spaces separate. I would also see, contrary to Trompenaars's assumptions, Spain more inclined towards communitarianism than towards individualism.

2. According to Trompenaars, Italy and Spain are different on all five dimensions that he includes in his model. I would argue rather differently and towards the fact that the two countries that share so much of their culture, origin of their language, traditions etc. cannot be as different as he implies. There are two different specific arguments to be presented here.

First, both Italy and Spain are Mediterranean countries and, as a consequence, there are similarities in the way these countries do business, from the fact that, because of the warm weather, there is a 2-3 hours break in the afternoon to the fact that the dinner hours tend to be late in the day (which is relevant if the dinner is a business dinner).

Second, as mentioned, Spanish and Italian are related languages, but there are significant other similarities that would tend to show that if someone has done business in Spain, he would be able to adapt in Italy as well. Certainly, this does not take into considerations additional elements, such as existing legislation, political and economic climate etc., but these are not considered in Trompenaars's model either. I think that the two cultures are not as different as Trompenaars is trying to argue.