Cultural Differences Between India And UK: A Comparative Study Using Hofstede's 6D Model

Culture in India

Question:

Discuss about the Cultural differences between India and United Kingdom.

Every country, society and community has more or less different cultures. Diversity in the cultural field can be seen in both the countries India and UK. There is a need to be aware of the cultural differences between the two countries. Being familiar with the culture of the other country enhances ones awareness for distance powers, respect, institutional and in-group collectivism. All these reflect on the future performance and its humane and personal orientation might cause a problem. In this report, these cultural differences between India and UK will be elaborated.

A cross cultural study was made by Hofstede that shows almost 76 countries has been identified as having four different independent components. These dimensions include Collectivism vs. Individualism, Femininity vs. Masculinity, Power Distance and uncertainty avoidance (Pennycook 2017). According to his theories, United Kingdom and India were regarded as one of the explored countries.

India is regarded as one of the mysterious and unique civilizations that are diverse with rich cultural traditions (Oyserman 2017). This diversity in the fields of culture can highly affect ones spheres of life. Some of the factors like religion, caste and language needs to taken into consideration while studying the culture of India. Indians has made a significant change of the different advances in the Indian culture that includes labelled versions even. The country is rich in diversity that includes behaviours with the different customs and ideas that they are usually a part. Various arts, handicrafts, religions, food habits, dance and music are parts of their almost regular culture. The culture may be varied as well as unique and is in such a section that contains its information on the varied aspects. The culture is a pure reflection that needs to be dressed on the way of their life and entails more on their speaking, eating and every manner. There is hardly any country unlike India, which has a diversified range in their culture.

The people of UK are famous for their love for different types of their tradition that are diverse and rich in prosperity. They have a tendency to become conservative and always prefer similar types of things (Narooz and Child 2017).  They are a part of the Western country and reflect a full change that takes place from year to year. The culture of UK has been influenced by their history and their liberal democracy that has the major power on which the Christianity dominates the most. There are distinct customs and cultures throughout the different regions in United Kingdom. The British people their society, language, social and the business etiquette has some of the useful protocol, manners and information.

Culture in UK

As per the theories of Hofstede, there is a need to explore the cultural differences through the 6D model that requires a good over view of the British culture as well as their Indian culture .

Hofstede model of Cultural difference

(Source: Moran, Abramson and Moran 2014)

Through this dimension, there is a need to deal with the different individuals in a society that might not be equal in expressing through their attitude. The power distance is expressed to such an extent that has to be defined as the less powerful members in every organization or institution. The UK ranks at 35 that is one of the lower rankings as per the PDI, whereas the India ranks 77 (Thelwal and Kousha 2015). This PDI shows that a society needs to believe on the different inequalities amongst the people so that it can be minimized. Further from the research it can be concluded that the PD index is somewhat lower in the higher class of Britain than the other working classes. The score at first seems incongruent but can be established as the historical British class systems and that exposes the inherent tension that is found in the British culture. There is a need to understand the importance of the birth rank at one stage and a deep seated belief on the other (Ting-Toomey and Dorjee 2017). It reflects where a person is born and their limitation is not based on how far they can travel. There is a drive of the fair play that every individual should be treated in an equal way. India is at a far motivated state than that of UK, when it comes to power distance.

There is a need to address the different fundamental dimensions that is required for the degree of the interdependence in the society that requires to be maintained amongst their members. There is a need to understand the self image of the people that is defined in terms of We. The individualists in the society are required to look after themselves and needs to be directed with the family only. In society, full of collectivists the people needs to talk in group and take an utmost care while exchanging with the loyalty (Ross et al. 2017).

UK has scored 89, it ranks the highest amongst the different individualist’s score that has been beaten by one of the commonwealth countries, and Australia is one of them (Hepper et al. 2014). The fundamental issue is addressed by the degree of the dimensions that is based primarily on the intermediate score of 48 and hence proves that it consists of both the individualists and the collectivists test. The collectivist side has a high preference that shows that a large framework is required in order to make the individuals expect that the act be made accordingly. The individualist aspect in the Indian society is a result of the dominant philosophy or religion that is obviously the Hinduism (Morrice 2017). The focus in Individualism is primarily based on the collectivist tendencies that are found only in Indian society that will lead to bring the intermediate score.

Hofstede Model of Cultural Differences

The masculine dimension indicates that the society is driven by a competition to achieve the success that needs to be defined by the winner of the field. That also has a value system that needs to be continued in order to maintain it throughout the country (Banks 2015). The low score in the feminine dimension means that the value in the dominant society includes caring for the quality of their life. The feminine societies will eventually standout as the success sign that needs to be admired in the crowd. The fundamental issues include what is motivating for the people and that has a want to become the best in the masculinity (Katz-Gerro et al. 2017). In this dimension, India scores 56 whereas UK is at 66. This proves that the Indian society is more of the masculine society and there is a need to make a visual display of the power and the success. UK is mainly a masculine society that makes it a high drive. There is a need to make a critical understanding of the different understandings that will be useful to read between the lines. In comparison to India, the feminine cultures that are found will help in the order that has a clear ambition of the clear performance (Föbker and Imani 2017).

There is a need for another dimension that is the avoidance of the uncertainty and that should be within low to medium preference level. The ambiguity of the anxiety and the culture has to be dealt with in various forms (Rose-Ackerman and Palifka 2016). There is a need to extent on the cultures that is threatened by the different unknown situations and their ambiguity that will help them to analyze the different created and the institutional beliefs. In this case, India scores 40 and United Kingdom has a far low score of 35. The low score of UK means that the nation is quite in a happy state that does not need a waking call that will make them happy and that might bring a changing plan that becomes known with new information (Guo and Reinecke 2014). UK is considered as a low UAI country that will eventually become more comfortable with the muddling through expression in it. India in this case ranks 40, which is eventually a medium low preference that is used to avoid the uncertainty. In India, the acceptance of the imperfection is that it will never be as perfect as it is supposed to be as in the different planned cases. The tolerance power of India is unexpectedly and excessively high, that needs to be welcomed from the monotony break. Usually the people do not feel generated that can be driven or compelled so that the initiatives takes place in the actions and that will settle the roles comfortably. Unlike UK, everything is possible in India, when there is something called the adjustments.

Power Distance

There is always a need to describe some of the links that is found in the society that has some relation with the past and that eventually describes with the different challenges of the future and the present. The priority of the society is that there are two different types of the existential goals (Abdullah 2017). Some of the normative society score low in this dimension, like for example the need to prefer as well as maintain the different time honored norms and traditions that will be helpful in cases like social and suspicion change. The high score reflect that the approach taken is more pragmatic and there is a need to encourage the different thrifts and efforts that can be used in the modern education system (Vernon 2014). UK in this dimension has a score of 51 that is an intermediate one is regarded as the dominant preference in the UK culture. India too has an intermediate score of 51 that shows that the dominant preference in the Indian culture cannot be determined. There is a unique concept that prevails in India that is the Karma and this dominates the philosophical and the religious thoughts. The tolerance power of India is far more than the other countries and not even UK. The high score on the pragmatism eventually forgives the lack of the punctuality and the changing plan of the game that is not in a comfort zone while discovering the fated path as its exact plan (Contractor et al. 2014).

This is such a challenge that deals with the confrontation of the humanity that is now present as well in the past. None can become human without socialization. This can be described as the extent rate that the person needs to control by their impulses and their desires. The weak control is known as the indulgence and that can be relatively be a strong called the Restraint (Baylis, Owens and Smith 2017). In other words, the cultures can be termed as the restrained or the indulgent. The UK culture has indicated a score that is 69 and is regarded as the one of the classified indulgent whereas India in this dimension has a score of 26 (De Mooij 2013). The score that India has gained is quite a low one in the cultural restraints. The low score of the society shows that it has a tendency towards the pessimism and the cynicism. At the end, there is a need to make a contrast so that the restrained society does not emphasis on the control and the leisure time that has their gratification so that the desires can be mediated (Varela, Thompson and Rosch 2017). There is a need for orientation between the people that has a clear perception of the different actions so that it can be restrained by the social norms. People in the different society in UK have a tendency to exhibit their willingness so that it can be easy to enjoy their life to the fullest in order to have fun. They possess a positive attitude towards their tendency to work towards optimism. There is a need to place at a higher degree on their leisure time so that they can easily act and spend their money as per their choice (Fisman, Paravisini and Vig 2017).

Individualism vs Collectivism

Conclusion

From the above research, it can be concluded that a brief introduction to the cultural differences between India and United Kingdom has been discussed. A critical analysis has been mentioned with the use of the Hofstede academic theory that helps in clear understanding of the two national cultures. The graph on the different dimensions of the Hofstede analysis between India and UK has been mentioned and explained as well that will enlighten ones views over the contrast

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