The role of Brazil in the modern international cooperation

 

 

Norway’s indexes

Indicator	Place	Index	Level of Index
Indicators of social development
Rating of human development	1	0.955	very high level
Rating life expectancy	13	81.3 (years)	high level
Rating of population growth	104	1.1	lower-middle level
Rating of education	2	0.99	very high level
Rating prosperity	1	Economy  1 Entrepreneurship 6 Management  12 Education  4 Health 5 Security 6 Personal freedom 2 Social capital 1	very high level
Rating of happiness	29	51.429	medium level
Rating of health care costs	15	8.0	medium level
Rating of education costs	15	7.3	medium level
Rating of ecological efficiency	3	69.92	very high level
Gender equality rating	5	0.065	very high level
Rating of infant mortality	11	2.6 (per 1000 births)	high level
Rating of charity	11	48	high level
Rating of globalization	20	81.99	high level
Rating of urbanization	36	79.8	medium level
Rating level intentional homicide	8	0.6	high level
Rating of the quality of life of older people	2	89.8	very high level
Indicators of political development
Rating of the quality of public administration		Consideration of the population’s opinion and public accountability 100 Political stability and absence of violence 97 Government effectiveness 96 Quality of legislation 91 The rule of law 98 Control of corruption 97	medium level
Rating democracy	1	9.93	very high level (total democracy)
Ranking of global disability	175	21.5	above-average level of stability - low level of risk
The rating of stability of the company	5	6.38	very high level
Rating of peaceful disposition	11	1.359	very high level
Rating of terrorism	21	5.03	lower-middle level
Press freedom index	1	10	total free
Rating of perceived corruption	5	86	high level
Indicators of economic development
Rating of gross domestic product	23	499667 ($ million)	very high level
Rating gross national income	4	98860 ($)	very high level
The rating of economic freedom	31	70.5	high level  (freest economy)
Ranking of global competitiveness	11	5.33	high level
Rating of doing business	9	Registration of enterprises 53 Dealing with construction permits 28 The electricity connection 17 Registering property 10 Lending 73 Protecting investors 22 Taxation 17 International trade 26 Enforcing contracts 4 Liquidation of enterprises 2	high level
Rating of property rights protection	6	8.2	high level
Rating of international trade	12	5.17	medium level
Rating of electricity consumption	2	25175.221 (kWh per person)	very high level
Indicators of scientific and technological development
Rating of the knowledge economy	5	Index economy knowledge 9.1 Index knowledge 8.99	very high level
Innovation index	16	55.6	medium level
Rating of patent activity	39	1 776 applications	medium level
Rating research activity	27	4440	medium level
Rating of R & d expenditures	22	1.69 articles	medium level
Indicators of information and communication development
Rating of the development of information and communication technologies	6	8.13	high level
Rating of network readiness	5	5.66	high level
Rating of the development of telephone communication	55	149 users (per 100 people)	medium level
Rating of the development of the Internet	2	94.0 users (per 100 people)	very high level
Rating of the development of e-government development	8	0.8593	high level

 

 

Conclusions about the opening/closing of the selected countries for international Business.

 

As we can see, Norway is a leader in many respects, but Brazil also shows good results, occupying the middle position on most of the indicators. Although these countries have different economic structure and different indicator levels, we can’t say that Brazil is far behind Norway. Both countries are open to international business, but Norway looks more prepared for international integration, and Brazil maintains its national peculiarities, if we may say so. It means that Norway has more flexibility and can adapt to the rapidly changing market conditions. It also means that Norway and Brazil have different culture, including business-culture. Norway is more European country and Brazil typical Latin American country. Due to this for Norway it’s easier to do international business than it is for Brazil. Also the important fact is that Norway has the higher level of KOF Globalization Index that means the country is more integrated into the global community. In summary we can say both Brazil and Norway have great opportunities in the global market, but Norway has already made ​​a big step towards this and now it is one of the most successful countries in the world.

 

 

2. Identification of the effect of cross-cultural characteristics of selected countries in the style of management

 

2.1 Formation of cultural profile of the selected countries

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions. Brazil.

If we explore Brazil´s culture through the lens of the 5-D Model, we can get a good overview of the deep drivers of Brazilian culture relative to other world cultures.

 
Power distance 
At a score of 69 Brazil reflects a society that believes hierarchy should be respected and inequalities amongst people are acceptable.  The different distribution of power justifies the fact that power holders have more benefits than the less powerful in society. In Brazil it is important to show respect to the elderly (and children take care for their elderly parents). In companies there is one boss who takes complete responsibility. Status symbols of power are very important in order to indicate social position and “communicate” the respect that could be shown.

 
Individualism 
Brazil has a score of 38 which  means that in this country people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive groups (especially represented by the extended family; including uncles, aunts, grandparents and cousins) which continues protecting its members in exchange for loyalty. This is an important aspect in the working environment too, where for instance an older and powerful member of a family is expected to “help” a younger nephew to be hired for a job in his own company. In business it is important to build up trustworthy and long lasting relationships: a meeting usually starts with general conversations in order to get to know each other before doing business. The preferred communication style is context-rich, so people will often speak profusely and write in an elaborate fashion.

Masculinity / Femininity 
Brazil scores 49 on this dimension, really in the middle. The softer aspects of culture such as leveling with others, consensuses, sympathy for the underdog are valued and encouraged. Conflicts are avoided in private and work life and consensus at the end is important. Status is shown, but this comes more out of the high PDI.

 
Uncertainty avoidance     
At 76 Brazil scores high on UAI – and so do the majority of Latin American countries. These societies show a strong need for rules and elaborate legal systems in order to structure life. The individual’s need to obey these laws, however, is weak. If rules however cannot be kept, additional rules are dictated. In Brazil, as in all high Uncertainty Avoidance societies, bureaucracy, laws and rules are very important to make the world a safer place to live in. Brazilians need to have good and relaxing moments in their everyday life, chatting with colleagues, enjoying a long meal or dancing with guests and friends. Due to their high score in this dimension Brazilians are very passionate and demonstrative people: emotions are easily shown in their body language.

 
Long term orientation 
At 65 Brazil places itself amongst the long term oriented societies as the only non-Asian society. The "jeitinho brasilero" is really to look for alternatives to do what in a Western eyes could be regarded as impossible. Like Asians the Brazilians accept more than one truth. Brazilians easily accept change as a part of life.

 

 

Hall's cultural factors. Brazil.

 

Time 
Brazil is the polychromic culture. Brazils are people, who can run several tasks simultaneously; perceive time perspective as a circle, a spiral line, or a number of intersecting curves. When planning their day and having to deal with tasks A, B, C, and D, they often run A late into the time period intended for B. They might then decide to postpone B till the end of the day, and combine C and D (for example, inviting a colleague to join their tennis practice and to discuss a contract in the meantime), remembering to drop in for E, although it wasn’t planned for another week. Polychronic way of dealing with time is associated with orientation towards the past that provides valuable experience for analogous situations in the future, or the present generally managed on a daily basis. Great importance is attached to emotional contact among people, rather than to social norms and regulations, as if the time frame was enveloping people within it. In Polychronic cultures, human interaction is valued over time and material things, leading to a lesser concern for 'getting things done' -- they do get done, but more in their own time.

 

Context 
Brazil is the high-context culture.  There are many contextual elements that help people to understand the rules. As a result, much is taken for granted. This can be very confusing for person who does not understand the 'unwritten rules' of the culture.  Relationships depend on trust, build up slowly, are stable. One distinguishes between people inside and people outside one's circle. High use of nonverbal elements; voice tone, facial expression, gestures, and eye movement carry significant parts of conversation.  Knowledge is embedded in the situation; things are connected, synthesized, and global. Multiple sources of information are used. Thinking is deductive, proceeds from general to specific.

 

Message speed 
Brazil is the fast message speed culture.  High use of nonverbal elements; voice tone, facial expression, gestures, and eye movement carry significant parts of conversation. Verbal message is implicit; context (situation, people, nonverbal elements) is more important than words. Verbal message is indirect; one talks  around the point and embellishes it. Communication is seen as an art form—a way of engaging someone. Disagreement is personalized. One is sensitive to conflict expressed in  another's nonverbal communication. Conflict either must be solved before work can progress or must be avoided because it is personally threatening.

 

Space 
Brazil is the high territorially culture. Space is communal; people stand close to each other, share the same space. In Latin America, the spatial bubble less than in Western Europe, North America and Australia. In Brazil, the conversation takes place at such close range that the West European or American begins to experience significant discomfort. It compels him to automatically fall back or try to hide behind a chair or a table, while the Brazilian will always try to cut it away and fix the road with her any obstacles. Thus, social distance in Latin America at least partially corresponds to the intimate area of a western European.

 

 

R.Lewis’s Model of Culture. Brazil.

 

Brazil is multi-active culture, people are much more extrovert, rely on their eloquence and ability to persuade and use human force as an inspirational factor. They often complete human transactions emotionally, investing the time to developing the contact to the limit. Such people are great networkers, working according to people-time rather than clock-time.  The second encompasses individuals who are unpunctual, impatient, extrovert, and talkative. Multi-active persons, on the other hand, are the opposite of those in the first category. They are gregarious, emotional, and people-oriented, besides being inquisitive and virtually unpredictable when it comes to timetables. Individuals in this category do several things at once, often change plans, and generally don’t mind pulling strings and seeking favours in order to get what they need. Multi-active people make use of unrestricted body language, and frequently interrupt others, which is usually frowned upon by the other groups. They confront with emotions and always have a ready excuse to explain their mistakes. Latin Americans, Arabs, Africans, Indians, Middle Easterners, Southern Europeans, and Mediterranean peoples are the most representative embodiments of this type of culture.

 

 

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck Framework. Brazil.

 

•Relationships to nature.  
People have a need or duty to control or master nature (domination), to submit to nature (subjugation), or to work together with nature to maintain harmony and balance (harmony). Second type of relationship, when a man blindly obeys the nature, character is typical for Brazil

 

•Relationships between people. 
The greatest concern and responsibility is for one’s self and immediate family (individualist), for one’s own group that is defined in different ways (collateral), or for one’s groups that are arranged in a rigid hierarchy (hierarchical). Relationships between people in Brazil are missed but more individualistic. Individualistic orientation as a form of value orientation is typical for industrial countries. The dominant feature of this relationship is the autonomy of the individual, regardless of the group, the priority of individual goals over group interests.

 

•Nature of human activity. 
People should concentrate on living for the moment (being), striving for goals (achieving), or reflecting (thinking).  Brazils are “being people”. Focus on being manifested in the spontaneous expression that is inherent in every person. Development is unlikely to occur. It is sufficient to have just very existence. The meaning of life in such an approach does not depend on achievements cases.

 

•Orientation to time. 
People should make decisions with respect to traditions or events in the past, events in the present, or events in the future. The authors emphasize the theory that in reality all countries and peoples are constantly confronted with a focus on the past, present or future. However, in every culture, one type dominates the rest of the time; only one orientation in time occupies the top rank in the hierarchy of values. Brazil is a country focused on the present, here are paying relatively little attention to the past and what might happen in the future. Brazilians live on the "here and now".

 

 

 

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions. Norway.

If we explore the Norwegian culture through the lens of the 5-D Model, we can get a good overview of the deep drivers of Norwegian culture relative to other world cultures. 
 
Power distance 
This dimension deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal – it expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us.  
Power distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.

Norway scores low on this dimension (31) which means that the following characterises the Norwegians style: Being independent, hierarchy for convenience only, equal rights, superiors accessible, coaching leader, management facilitates and empowers. Power is decentralized and managers count on the experience of their team members. Employees expect to be consulted. Control is disliked and attitude towards managers are informal and on first name basis. Communication is direct, participative and consensus orientated.  
 
Individualism 
The fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members. It has to do with whether people´s self-image is defined in terms of “I” or “We”. 
In Individualist societies people are supposed to look after themselves and their direct family only. In Collectivist societies people belong to ‘in groups’ that take care of them in exchange for loyalty. 
Norway with a score of 69 is considered an individualistic society. This means that the “Self” is important and individual, personal opinions are valued and expressed. Communication is explicit. At the same time the right to privacy is important and respected. There are clear lines between work and private life. Job mobility is higher and one thinks in terms of individual careers. The employer-employee relationship is based on a contract  and leaders focus on management of individuals. Feedback is direct and nepotism is not encouraged.  
 
Masculinity / Femininity 
A high score (masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven by competition, achievement and success, with success being defined by the winner / best in field – a value system that starts in school and continues throughout organisational behaviour. 
A low score (feminine) on the dimension means that the dominant values in society are caring for others and quality of life. A feminine society is one where quality of life is the sign of success and standing out from the crowd is not admirable. The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best (masculine) or liking what you do (feminine). 
Norway scores 8 and is thus the second most feminine society (after the Swedes). This means that the softer aspects of culture are valued and encouraged such as leveling with others, consensus, “independent” cooperation and sympathy for the underdog. Taking care of the environment is important. Trying to be better than others is neither socially nor materially rewarded. Societal solidarity in life is important; work to live and DO your best. Incentives such as free time and flexibility are favoured. Interaction through dialog and “growing insight” is valued and self development along these terms encouraged. Focus is on well-being, status is not shown. An effective manager is a supportive one, and decision making is achieved through involvement. 
 
Uncertainty avoidance     
The dimension Uncertainty Avoidance has to do with the way that a society deals with the fact that the future can never be known: should we try to control the future or just let it happen? This ambiguity brings with it anxiety and different cultures have learnt to deal with this anxiety in different ways.  The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the UAI score. 
Norway scores 50 and thus becomes a fairly pragmatic culture in terms of uncertainty avoidance. This means that both generalists and experts are needed. There is focus on planning, and they can be altered at short notice and improvisations made.  Emotions are not shown much in Norway, people are fairly relaxed and not adverse to taking risks. 
 
Long term orientation 
The long term orientation dimension is closely related to the teachings of Confucius and can be interpreted as dealing with society’s search for virtue, the extent to which a society shows a pragmatic future-oriented perspective rather than a conventional historical short-term point of view. 
Norway scores 44  making it more of a short term orientation culture. This is evident in that leisure time is important, absolute truths needed and there is concern for stability. Quick results are expected and there is a focus on the bottom line and people spend for today.

Hall’s Cultural Factors. Norway 
Edward T. Hall was an anthropologist who made early discoveries of key cultural factors. In particular he is known for his high and low context cultural factors.

 

Context

Norway is a low-context culture, very little is taken for granted. Whilst this means that more explanation is needed, it also means there is less chance of misunderstanding particularly when visitors are present. 

 

Factor	Low-context culture
Overtness of messages	Many overt and explicit messages that are simple and clear.
Locus of control and attribution for failure	Outer locus of control and blame of others for failure
Use of non-verbal communication	More focus on verbal communication than body language
Expression of reaction	Visible, external, outward reaction
Cohesion and separation of groups	Flexible and open grouping patterns, changing as needed
People bonds	Fragile bonds between people with little sense of loyalty.
Level of commitment to relationships	Low commitment to relationship. Task more important than relationships.
Flexibility of time	Time is highly organized.  Product is more important than process

 

A person from a LCC usually: 
a. Relies on explicit or lateral communication 
LCC prefer that messages be explicitly stated rather than simply understood by the parties involved.  
b. Emphasizes verbal communication over non-verbal communication  
The phrases “what you mean” and “what you say” is often repeated to children from LCC as they are growing up. Parents pay far less emphasis on communicating indirectly or non-verbally and ask their children to “speak up”. So, by the time they enter business, people from LCC have learnt to rely on words to convey exactly what they mean.

c. Separates job tasks from relationships 
People from LCC usually prefer to keep their job tasks separated from their relationships. Indeed, relationships are seen as outside the trust rather than an integral part of it. Even if a key person on a project leaves the company, another person can easily take his / her place, since the business transactions are considered to be between companies and not learned on relationships between people.

d. Emphasizes individual initiative and decision making 
Those whose cultures are low in the context tend to value individual initiative, decision making and achievement making, etc. American proverb states “Look out for number one”. Even when they work in groups individuals from LCC try to think of ways to distinguish themselves as individuals. In business a group award is valuable and desired but an individual award is more highly prized.

e. Views employer or employee relationship as mechanistic 
In LCC the view of employer or employee relationship tends to be more mechanistic (The term originates from the belief that the business can be run like a “well-oiled” machine). Indeed employees tend to view themselves as a marketable commodity, and will make decisions to change jobs if they can improve their circumstances. Employers can terminate an employee because of negative performance reviews. Likewise, employees feel justified in leaving a job for a better paying one even when they really like their managers and colleagues.

f. Relies on facts, statistics and other details as supporting evidence 
People from low context culture tend to require facts, statistics and other reliable data in a business presentation. They trust numbers over intuition as in American proverb “Numbers never lie”. There presentations will be heavy with charts, graphs from experts in their particular field and they will often expect the same level of detailed statistical analysis from others.

g. Uses direct style in writing and speaking  
People from LCC prefer to get right to the point of their message. Doing so will help them stay on their time schedule and accomplish the task. Therefore those from low context cultures usually state the reason for the call, letter, e-mail or face-to-face meeting at the beginning and then follow with details of asked.