I have been in an excellent course for two days, Intercultural communications.  I'm just thrilled what I have learnt during the couple of days and it was also fun.  Well I need to get over the depression of knowing what I've done wrong during the past years working with people all over the world.  But maybe after that I can be really happy about the new knowledge I have gained.  I would like to higly recommend this course to anyone anywhere!

The training was based on a model developed by Professor Geert Hofstede and it's called 5-D model.  The dimensions are Power Distance (PDI), Individualism-Collectivism (IDV), Masculinity vs. Femininity (MAS), Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI), Long-term Orientation (LTO).  For each there's a scale from 0 to 100 and countries can be put to the scale for all these dimensions. Of course there's also variance inside a culture or country but the number represents the majority of people. 

E.g. Finland gets numbers PDI 33, IDV 63, MAS 26, UAI 59, LTO 41 and compared to Britts  PDI 35, IDV 89, MAS 66, UAI 35, LTO 25.  A difference of 10 points can be felt so in this example the differences in Britts individualism being higher as well as masculinity but uncertainty avoidance is lower as well as long-term orientation.  Now you need to get to the definitions of all the terms, don't jump into conclusion you have in your mind.  And there's no right or wrong. 

Dealing with people from other cultures is difficult and learning takes time.  Growing or developing happens in phases from Denial - Defence/Reversal - Minimisation - Acceptance - Adaptation - Integration.

Literature can be found from here.