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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Rome, Italy...................................................................................................................................3
Religion........................................................................................................................................3
Demographics..............................................................................................................................3
Economy......................................................................................................................................4
Climate.........................................................................................................................................4
Government Structure..................................................................................................................4
Hofstedes Work on Italy.................................................................................................................4
Italys Comparison with Saudi Arabia.........................................................................................4
Power Distance............................................................................................................................5
Individualism...............................................................................................................................5
Masculinity...................................................................................................................................5
Uncertainty Avoidance.................................................................................................................6
Pragmatism...................................................................................................................................6
Indulgence....................................................................................................................................6
Analysis of Business and Management Culture in Italy..................................................................6
Religious Difference....................................................................................................................7
Meeting Etiquettes in Italy...........................................................................................................7
Cultural Values.............................................................................................................................7
Business Dress Code....................................................................................................................8
Business Contacts........................................................................................................................8
Teamwork.....................................................................................................................................8
Decision Making..........................................................................................................................9
Negotiating and Communication.................................................................................................9
Business Meals.............................................................................................................................9
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................10
Accepting the Acceptable Norms of New Culture.....................................................................10
Ignore the Norms That Are Not Acceptable...............................................................................10
Try to Learn New Things of New Culture.................................................................................11

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Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
Culture is one of the most important things when it comes to employees performance. Various
factors of culture impact the performance of employees (Primecz, Romani and Sackmann, 2011).

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The purpose of this report is to identify the important factors of the culture of Rome, Italy. This
demonstration will help the female manager of DaVinci Apps to get knowledge of Italys culture
which is very different from her local culture of Saudi Arabia. It will include various norms and
values of the culture of Rome that will help the manager to adjust in a different environment
easily.
Rome, Italy
Rome is a 14,000 years old city. Rome is the capital of Italy, with population of 2.7 million and
area covering 1,285 square kilometers. It is ranked the 4 th most populated city of EU
(Infoplease.com, 2014).
Religion
Interestingly Italy has no official religion; however Christianity is the prevalent religion of
Rome. The Rome surrounds the Vatican City that is known as the hub of Christianity. However
there are some other religions which are prevailing in Rome for example Judaism and Islam
(Harvey and Schultz, 2006).
Demographics
The latest figure of Romes population according to 2011 census is 2,617,175. Slightly more than
9% of total population is Non-Italians. About 50% of immigrants in Rome are Europeans that
consist of total population of 4.7%. The remaining 4.8% are non-Europeans which include
immigrants from Bangladesh, China, and Philippines etc (Ness and Ciment, 1999).
Economy
Rome generates more than 6% of total GDP of country. In 2005 the total GDP of Rome was 94
billion. The unemployment rate dropped to 6.5% in 2005. This unemployment rate is considered
lowest among capitals of all EUs countries. The annual average GDP is over 4%. Talking on a

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global paradigm, like other countries of EU, the currency in circulation in Rome or Italy is Euro
(Ness and Ciment, 1999).
Climate
Since the city of Rome is near to Mediterranean Sea, so it enjoys beautiful Mediterranean
weather. The winters in Rome are very humid and mild while the summers are very hot and dry.
Government Structure
There is a local government of Rome that is run by Mayor in association with city council. Rome
has been divided into administrative areas back in 1972. These administrative areas are called
municipi. Originally there were 20 minicipi that has been reduced to 15 now (Ness and Ciment,
1999).
Hofstedes Work on Italy
It is a framework developed by Greet Hofstede that explains the relationship between the culture
of society and the behavior of its members. It is done through a factor analysis. These factors
include Power distance index, Individualism, Uncertainty avoidance index, Masculinity, Longterm orientation or Pragmatism, and Indulgence (De Mooij, 2010).
Italys Comparison with Saudi Arabia
Following is the graph for the Hofstedes framework for comparison between Italy and Saudi
Arabia.

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Power Distance
As compared to Saudi Arabia, the score of power distance is more favorable in Rome. The
decisions-making is more decentralized. This makes the management styles easy and business
environment flexible to individuals (Geert-hofstede.com, 2014).
Individualism
This score is high in Italy. This shows that the people in the society of Italy are more I centric
instead of WE centric. They like to live alone and follow their personal objectives and ideas.
Family system is not much supported in the society if Italy (Geert-hofstede.com, 2014).
Masculinity
The score of both countries on masculinity is not much different. The scores show that society of
Italy and Saudi Arabia both, are highly success sloping. The young generation is told from the

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beginning of their lives that the aim of their life is to win the competition. This makes the
business environment more competitive and result oriented (Geert-hofstede.com, 2014).
Uncertainty Avoidance
With a high score for both countries, the people of both countries are more passionate about their
future. They are very emotional and thus need to work hard in order to compete for their futures.
With a high degree of masculinity and uncertainty, the life in Italy becomes more stressful.
However a person living in Saudi Arabia will not face much difficulty to adjust in Italy because
of the similar scores on both scales of masculinity and uncertainty (Geert-hofstede.com, 2014).
Pragmatism
People in Italy are more concerned about the outcomes of an action than Saudi Arabia. In Saudi
Arabia people are mostly concerned about the explanation of an action rather than the outcome.
In Italy the business styles are more concerned with the outcome of a situation. This is due to the
high result of masculinity because people are more tending towards competition and
achievement (Geert-hofstede.com, 2014).
Indulgence
With a high score of indulgence, Italians have more control over their desires and wishes. People
in such society have less time to spend on leisure. Their focus is to work and work continuously
(Geert-hofstede.com, 2014).
Analysis of Business and Management Culture in Italy
This section will encompass the analysis of business practices, norms, values of business culture
in Italy and their comparison with Saudi Arabia. There are certain differences between the
society and culture of Italy and Saudi Arabia. The first and foremost difference is the religious
difference which leads to other differences like food, clothing, meeting styles, and thus

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leadership and management styles (Aldhuwaihi, 2013). Following are the main aspects of
differences between these two societies which are common and important to discuss.
Religious Difference
The religion that is prevailing in Italy is Christianity while the religion of Saudi Arabia is Islam.
There are many differences between these two religions and this leads to the differences in living
habits, eating orders, and clothing styles. The worship styles and timings are also very different
between two religions (Stek, 2009). Due to these differences in the religions the management
practices may also differ between two countries. The male and female relationship is also very
different between two religions and thus two countries. In Saudi Arabia the relationship of an
unknown male and female is strictly prohibited (Alietti and Padovan, 2013).
Meeting Etiquettes in Italy
The meeting etiquettes in Italy are very important to understand. In order to keep yourself safe in
business meetings in Italy, you need to understand the local culture. The people in Italy are
relationship-oriented. They like to make direct relationships and contacts with persons in the
meetings before discussing the meeting agenda. For a female manager from Saudi Arabia, it
might be difficult to deal with every person in the meeting personally, but as this is a culture of
Italy so it must be dealt in the same way (Business Culture, 2014).
Cultural Values
Various cultural values have to be taken care of when working in Italian business environment.
Making contacts with male colleagues, shaking hands with them, going out for business parties,
celebrating business goals etc, all these have to be followed. These cultural values are entirely
different from Saudi Arabia, for example females are not welcomed at business parties,
handshake with male colleagues are totally prohibited etc. Thus the female manager has to adopt

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few things from Italian business culture in order to perform efficiently (Neyer and Harzing,
2008).
Business Dress Code
Italians are very famous with their business dress code. The Italian suiting is known as the
standard for the whole world. Some of the high famous brands of Italy include Prada, D&G,
Armani, and Marni. In Italian business culture dress code plays a very significant role.
Businesswomen in Italy wear 2 piece during the business hours. Sometimes shirts with miniskirts
are worn. However this dress code is totally different what it is in Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia
the females are required to wear a complete Abaya with their head and face covered with scarf
(Business Culture, 2014).
Business Contacts
In Italy, business contacts are given much importance when it comes to relationships with
colleagues or clients. Females are preferred to talk and negotiate with clients in order to put
positive impact over clients. Use of social media is not prevailing when making contacts with
clients. Managers need to talk over phones, meet individually, and be in continuous contact with
clients in order to maintain a healthy relationship. Females from Saudi Arabia might find it
difficult to have a continuous relationship with clients (Business Culture, 2014).
Teamwork
Since the power distance in Italys society is more so there is a need to work in teams. While
working in teams you need to cooperate and communicate with team members. As the society of
Italy has not drawn much difference between male and female so in one team there might be a
mixture of both, males and females. Thus a female manager needs to negotiate and accommodate
the male team members to gain the effective output of teamwork.

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Decision Making
Decision making in Italys business environment is mostly done by the top leadership while the
input in decision making is asked by all the stakeholders too. The employees are also made the
part of decision making. The decisions making process is very decentralize unlike Saudi Arabia
where the decision making is very centralized and a decision made by top management has to be
followed by the employees. So the managers participation is required in decision making
process (Hofstede, 1983).
Negotiating and Communication
As the Italians are very careful and passionate about the outcomes, so they are very slow when
negotiating. The negotiating process in Italys business environment requires lots of
communication as they are very careful about the conclusion. The communication is required
between each party of the communication and negotiation process. So in order to negotiate
successfully, female manager has to work closely with their partners whether male or female.
This might be difficult for a female manager from Saudi Arabian culture to work closely with
unknown males of business (Negri, n.d.).
Handshake is required on the start of all business meetings. Whether male or female manager, it
is deemed to have a handshake with everyone attending the meeting. Although this could be a
difficult situation for a Muslim female manager but it has to be in this way.
Business Meals
Meal is another difference between the society of Italy and Saudi Arabia. The concept of Halal
food is very important in Saudi Arabia, and when people of Saudi Arabia are travelling to other
countries they try to get food that is Halal for them. In Italy this concept of Halal food is not very
much prevailing. People of Italy can have a little wine in their business meals which is totally

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prohibited for Muslims. So it could be difficult for a female manager from Saudi Arabia to have
every kind of meal in business meetings, rather she has to be careful when choosing something
to eat.
Recommendations
It might be difficult for female managers to get adjusted in a totally different culture abroad for
business purpose. However by adopting various measures she can handle the difference between
two cultures. Some of them are discussed below.
Accepting the Acceptable Norms of New Culture
When entering new cultures, you may face difficulties adopting new things; however there are
certain new things that suit your personality or mind. First try to accept those things. The female
manager of DaVinci can accept the decentralize decision making theory of Italy. New
opportunities to make effective contacts will help the manager to broaden her knowledge,
learning new business meeting etiquettes, and enjoying new meals. By accepting these new
things the manager will be able to adjust in the new environment because all of these new things
of the culture are acceptable (Kawar, 2012).
Ignore the Norms That Are Not Acceptable
The manager of DaVinci should ignore the norms humbly which are not acceptable to her. For
example when it comes to business dressing, she may continue to her own dress code by
formally informing the companys executives that she cannot change her dress code as it is not
religiously acceptable. Another example is having wine during the business meetings. She may
simple ignore having wine and can have another drink during meals. She can adjust with shaking
hands with males but can simply ask her colleagues not to have kiss. So in this way she can

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softly and humbly ignore those norms of the new culture which are not acceptable to her (Kawar,
2012).
Try to Learn New Things of New Culture
Although this is very difficult to get adjusted in a very different culture, however every culture
has something new to learn. Try to find out what new is there to learn that can put a significant
effect on the personal growth of the manager. She must identify the new learning points from the
new culture. The norms, the culture, the way of doing the things must have something to learn
new. New learning could be the history of new culture, their norms, human psychology, trends
and traditions etc. Instead of hating the cultural differences, we must try to learn the new things
of the new culture; this will definitely help the manager to get adjusted soon and easily (Levy,
2007).
Conclusion
Cross cultural differences are hard to manage however it is important to learn the differences and
learn from new cultural values. Businesses need to cope up with cultural differences in their
operations around the world. Cultural differences affect the employee performance. If these
differences are managed efficiently, it may lead to high employee productivity and morale. But if
these differences are not managed or tackled efficiently, then it may result in low employee
productivity. Companies need to train and help their employees in order to cope up with cultural
change and differences at workplace.

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References
Aldhuwaihi, A. (2013). The influence of organisational culture on job satisfaction, organisational
commitment and turnover intention: a study on the banking sector in the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia.
Alietti, A. and Padovan, D. (2013). Religious Racism. Islamophobia and Antisemitism in Italian
Society.Religions, 4(4), pp.584--602.
Business Culture, (2014). Italy. [online] Available at: http://businessculture.org/southerneurope/business-culture-in-italy/ [Accessed 16 May. 2014].
De Mooij, M. (2010). The Hofstede model. International Journal of Advertising, 29(1), pp.85-110.
Geert-hofstede.com, (2014). Italy - Geert Hofstede. [online] Available at: http://geerthofstede.com/italy.html [Accessed 19 May. 2014].
Harvey, P. and Schultz, C. (2006). Religion in republican Italy. 1st ed. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press.
Hofstede, G. (1983). The cultural relativity of organizational practices and theories. Journal of
international business studies, pp.75--89.
Infoplease.com, (2014). Italy: History, Geography, Government, & Culture | Infoplease.com.
[online] Available at: http://www.infoplease.com/country/italy.html [Accessed 17 May.
2014].

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Kawar, T. (2012). Cross-cultural Differences in Management. ternational Journal of Business

and Social Science, 3(6), pp.105--111.
Levy, M. (2007). Culture, culture learning and new technologies: Towards a pedagogical
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Negri, S. (n.d.). Advance care decision making in Germany and Italy. 1st ed.
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Armonk, NY: Sharpe Reference.
Neyer, A. and Harzing, A. (2008). The impact of culture on interactions: Five lessons learned
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