Hofstede’s framework provides valuable insights that enable an organization intending to venture into a foreign market to modify its operations to reflect local preferences. Grigorescu and Zaif contend that successful cross-border businesses are those that adapt and tailor their processes, policies, and standards to the specific attributes of the local market. Furxhi affirms this view and illustrates that transnational firms have to recognize inter-country cultural differences by paying close attention to such aspects as power distance, masculinity, individualism, uncertainty, and term orientation. This implies that before the firm ventures into Mexican, it should analyze the country’s cultural dimensions using Hofstede’s framework.
Analysis of Mexican Culture Using Hofstede’s Framework
Among the prominent cultural aspects of Mexican culture is the relatively high-power distance. This implies that the investment firm should operate a centralized organizational structure with clearly demarcated positions of authority. Additionally, the managerial staff should ensure that they always guide the subordinates since, in the Mexican culture, individuals expect to be directed and told what to do by a higher-ranking person.
In this regard, the failure to adopt and implement such management practices could lead to business failure. Similarly, Mexican society’s inclination towards collectivism apportions great weight to interdependence, harmonious coexistence, and group activities. As a result, the organization intending to invest in the Mexican market should develop its operational policies to foster strong interpersonal relationships and reflect a commitment to team spirit.
Further, Mexican society is highly masculine and is characterized by its predisposition to such values as materialism, competitiveness, success, achievement, and differentiation of sexes. In this regard, this culture assigns paramount importance to such issues as the attainment of goals, high earnings, prominent social status, and engagement in a decent job. Additionally, the Mexican socio-cultural context elevates assertiveness and decisiveness while promoting admiration for the strong.This differs sharply from the preferences of a feminine society, which values such aspects as quality of life and gender equality.
This implies that a firm venturing into Mexico should pay greater attention to employees’ earnings, the successive ascension of workers to the higher levels of the organizational hierarchy, and formulate attainable business targets. Moreover, Mexico has distinctively high levels of uncertainty avoidance, implying the society’s inclination towards rigid behavioral and belief codes while manifesting intolerance to orthodox ideas. Consequently, Mexicans favor practices that minimize ambiguity, which explains their fondness for rigid rules and norms. Therefore, organizations considering venturing into this country should formulate policies that reduce uncertainty and unpredictability.
The application of Hofstede’s framework in the analysis of the Mexican culture reveals that Mexico is a highly masculine society that favors assertiveness and decisiveness. It also values collectivism, relationships, and team spirit. The high-power distance indicates the inclination towards centralization of authority and the essence of the people who rank prominently in the social hierarchy to provide directions and instructions to the subordinates.
In this regard, a business entity considering investing in Mexico should formulate organizational policies that advance teamwork, define positions of authority, and provide clear instructions on every aspect of operations. The failure to recognize these definitive cultural factors will generate such challenges as ineffective leadership, expatriate failure, poor or negative return on investments, and lost competitive advantages. Therefore, Kaizer Consulting’s client should modify its market entry strategies to reflect the specific cultural preferences of the Mexicans.