France Vs.

Germany
Countries dont have the same culture, each of them got their own norms, values, habits. In a
professional context, it become important to study it and looking for information before get in touch
with foreign colleagues. Indeed, person will have a different vision of time, leadership, business, or
more depending of their country. Here, Im going to compare both country and try to find out what
could have been the important point to know before working abroad or with foreign colleague. This
will be helpful worked in a better way together. It will compare France and Germany, both European
countries but with different way to describe work.
Following the different cultural Dimension by Hofstedes, some of them differs from France to
Germany. Ive choose to talk more about Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance and Time
Orientation.
In France, the Power Distance is very high which mean that in companies there are a precise
and specific hierarchy. Each employee is in a specific level and have specific task and power. There
are a kind of inequalities among everyone. All this is due to the education: children are raised to be
dependent of the parent until a certain age and then the children enter to school and should follow
what the teacher said during all the education period. Teachers are considered as superior, as someone
who need to be respected and who is obviously better. After, all this superiority keep following the
adult at work, the boss is the person who must be respected, its the one who give the directive, what
have to be done and if its done right. Most of the time the superior came from high business school
and is not showing in the company, he is not often around employees.
In Germany, the Power Distance is much lower than in France. This country believes in
equality between citizen, between the status and the position. It wasnt always like that, Germany
became more aware of equality and view peoples as person who can have a role in the society, not
only power and money like it used to be. In Germany, in contrary of France, being the boss doesnt
mean being better than other and not depend of the degree of diploma, its more about if the person
can plan, control and lead the company. People in Germany have a different view of the respect inside
the companies, they respect the person who work effectively not only the person with a high position.
Which mean that compared to France, once again, the respect isnt given depending of the position,
the age, the status but more depending of his result, work and participation.
France got a high index about Uncertainty Avoidance, its a country which want to avoid risk
at the first place. In France, everything is always planned, for example, people like to know about
what they are going to be asked, how things are going to happened, meeting and events are always
planned with a specific schedule with only a small place for unexpected action. There are strict
regulations and tasks are centralized in companies. French people dont like the change. They try to
stick with something and not try to go for a new plan. If something doesnt go as they planned it can
be unfortunate and it can become out of control. However, in the daily basis life, French can take more
risk, French are known to be grumpy about the organization of the society, they sometime do a little
bit like they want.
Germany got a middle-high index of Uncertainty Avoidance. Its lower than France but
German also like to planned things and avoid risk. But maybe we can find some difference with
France because German relies on rules, laws and regulations, its very important for them. They obey
to the laws for everything, not only inside the company but also in the daily basis life (driving for
example), the organization is very organized, everybody respect what the laws say to do.
Time Orientation in France coincide with the fact that they avoid risk. France is not futureoriented, the country is more short-term oriented. Taking risk, talking about the future is not very
welcomed in companies, French want quick result and managers are judged on short-term result.

France is a country proud of their values, norms and history, its a very important part of the country
maybe its one of the reason why France dont look forward in the future.
Germany is a country which is more focus on the present and the future. Its a culture where
they think about now at the first place and considered than the future will be better than the present.
When they are working on something they always think about how its going to be in the future, what
will be the (positive) impact. It follows with what we said before that German people like to have
schedule, they do step by step, one by one. Germany is not looking back (especially due to history)
this is a country who always want to look forward.
While cultural dimension is not the same in both countries, its the same about the communication and
the behavior. Each country act differently and have their own customs.
When French people talk its in an elaborate way, they talk a lot and said plenty of things
which can be the same but saying in a different way. French can use English at work so its not bother
them to talk English with foreign colleague, however its appreciate to know some word in French
especially the polite formula. In France, each meeting start with a handshake and French tend to be
punctual, arrived on time at a meeting is important. However, before starting a meeting French people
take the time to talk to each other before starting. With French people, privacy is a very important
point, its better to announce a meeting and not coming by without notice it. About the dress-code, its
well appreciate when men and women are dressed properly with tie, black and white suit in a very
professional way.
Notice that behavior, customs can slightly be different depending of the region and city your
co-worker is. For example, in Paris everything is about being on time, being efficient while in the
South of France it can be more informal, people take more time. Though it can be very different
following the company, the location therefore its important to check out the particularity of the
region.
In Germany, there is a strong preference for a direct communication style, remarks are made
straight to the person and the person dont expect to be praised about his work, its considered as good
unless the responsible said otherwise. However, when praise is given to a worker, which is rare, its
more word like good than perfect the fact that its not given often its very positive when it is. To
keep in the direct-oriented, German are fact-oriented and deal with solving problem directly. Same as
meeting, its scheduled only if its necessary, the meeting need to bring something new, something
result-oriented and should be only about the topic, no time for something else. Even if two people
known each other since couple of years, the still shake they hands like if its the first time they met.
Regarding the language, German known and speak English very well, its very often used in
companies.
Emotions is not something which is shown in a professional way, its go with the formal way to do
things. Knowing the rules, following protocol is the most important for them. The relationship with
customer, the trust is created based on the high-quality and reliability of the services or products. If the
quality is proved to be high, then it can be above the price.
Like French, Germans do not like surprises and sudden changes, they want to be informed before to
have time to study the case. Also like the French the way peoples are dressed is a very important point.

To sum-up, while looking at the index of the cultural dimension we might think that France and
Germany are similar, which is true but in some points, German insist more on it and are full
professional. German are result-oriented and direct-oriented they do things one by one and make it
done, nothing is standing by. France also do that but are tend to give and find explication for
everything and not everyone got the same opinion unlike Germany where they trust the fact and are
not emotionally involved in it. They solve problem right away unlike France where problems became
an important matter that take time to fix.

However, both are punctual and schedule everything they do. Privacy is also an important point in
business for both culture.

PART 2: After you have researched the culture and made comparisons with yours, image that you are
either working in the country or you have to work with a manager (or colleague) coming from that
culture.
Knowing what you know now - will it be easy or difficult? Are there things that you would need to be
more careful about? How would these cultural differences affect how you would work?