Cultural Differences between Switzerland and America

Cultural Differences between Switzerland and America
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Cultural differences play a major role in international business. Doing business in another country requires a good understanding of the business culture existing in the country wants to do business. This piece of writing attempts to bring out cultural differences between Switzerland and America. It highlights the Hofstede’s model of cultural dimension in explaining the cultural difference between the two countries.
By looking at power distance, Switzerland are slightly lower than the United states unlike in individualism where the difference between the two countries is quite huge. However, Switzerland scores high in masculinity and uncertainty avoidance compared to the U.S (Varvouzou & Zasepa, 2013). This therefore implies that Switzerland and the U.S value equal rights and decentralization of power with encouragement of direct communication among business partners. Considering power distance, it is easier for an American to carry out business in the U.S since both countries consider equal rights as an important culture (Martin & Chaney, 2012).
America has a high individualism score compared to Switzerland meaning that America has high independence characterized with a huge focus on personal goals. This means that the United States encourage an open door policy where employees can also make decision on their own and enjoy freedom of expression (Varvouzou & Zasepa, 2013). The United States encourages directness in communication and open door policy compared to Switzerland. However, because Switzerland also leans towards individualism, it may not be very hard to carry out business in the country. There may only be a slight difference because America scores higher than Switzerland (Martin & Chaney, 2012). Values and self-construal are more or less the same because both the countries have similar focus with Americans having a straight-to-the point with more extreme response style compared to Switzerland.
Looking at masculinity, Switzerland scores higher than the U. S implying that Switzerland experiences a higher degree of differentiation compared to the U.S. Switzerland has more assertive kind of communication and tend to look for the strongest opinion with less modesty a...