french business culture

                

2.4 Food

Food and the associated socialising are also common in French Business culture just as in French culture, and lunches are a common business function in France.  This can be expressed to the extent that l’exapansion, the French business magazine devoted entire articles centring on the best restaurants for clinching deals.  Concluding the huge effect that la gastronomie has on French Business culture. This association between food and business in other EU countries for example, in Germany does not exist.  The Saying ‘Schnaps ist Schnaps und Dienst ist Dienst’ implies business and pleasure (socialising) should be divorced.  However internally in French organisations the distinction between cadre and non cadre override the French love of mixing business with pleasure. ‘It is not uncommon to see separate canteens for workers and management in French companies’ (Barsoux & Lawrence, 1997) The same situation is seen in England, but is unusual in Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavia.

2.5 Parlez-vous Français?

 

The French language is highly important in France, and perhaps no other country views its language so highly.  France is seen as being the diplomatic and interpreting centre of Europe, and perhaps the world.  The world’s top conference interpreters trained at the Sorbonne, and communication is well reflected in French academia where Semiotics is a core subject.  Politeness in the French language with regards to ‘vous’ and ‘tu’ mean that familiarity with people is a gradual process. The term compartmentalisation refers to the separation of public and private spheres (Schuch, 2009) Note that in Germany whom could be said to lead complete compartmentalised lives (Schuch, 2009)also have this linguistic feature.  (Hall E. T., 1959), offers guidance on dealing with the French from an American viewpoint. He writes: ‘the French insist on politeness and respect in business. They do not like informality, ‘first-naming’, or anything that smacks of familiarity or lack of respect. They expect people to dress properly and to observe all the social amenities. In particular the French object to hearty backslapping, joking or teasing behaviour, or any kind of phony chumminess’.  In contrast the social semiotic is said to be highly important in French culture.  The air kiss or ‘faire la bise’ is a more sociable greeting than found in the rest of Europe.   Thus leading to the question, should we take the advice of  anthropologist against our own inititive?

                

2.6 Punctuality

Or rather the lack of it. Although Business hours are quite long punctuality is not vitally important in France, and turning up fifteen to twenty minutes late to work is almost acceptable. (Barsoux & Lawrence, 1997) suggest that the ritual of long working days are partly a knock on effect of the proceeding ritual of long lunch breaks.  A recent survey in Le Monde (20/03/03) showed that half of the cadre population worked over 46 hours a week with over 26% working between 51 and 60 hours a week. If we compare this to a monochronic culture like Germany where they are said to work sequentially, they have shorter working hours, they keep appointments and appointments are required for everything. (Schuch, 2009)

2.7 Government

 

For a long time France was ruled by a socialist government.  In 1982 a large part of the banking sector and industries of strategic importance to the state were nationalized under the new president François Mitterrand and the PS-led government.  (Wiki 2009[online])) Many of those companies were privatized again after 1986 when Jacques Chirac came to power.  Although France was still serving under a socialist President, Mitterrand, Chirac became the right wing head of a right wing government.  This saw a dismantling of supply side rigities (Gordon, 1996) and France experienced tax reductions, freedom in price settings and traditional French firms were allowed to pass into foreign ownership. (Barsoux & Lawrence, 1997)

2.8 European Union

The EU, which France was instrumental in creating, has also helped it to reduce government intervention in economic affairs by privatizing several industries. In 1992, the Treaty of Maastricht was signed, which brought France into political and economic union.  Below shows the effects of a new right wing government and the creation of a single European market on trade in France.

The creation of the single European market, the shift to globalisation, increased Foreign direct investment , and cross border acquisitions means that businesses are now seeking to apply frameworks and standardisation on the slippery subject of culture(Holden, 2002). The creation of the EU also brought with it the guarantee of freedom of movement of people, goods, services and capital between members. Randlesome in his book ‘Business Cultures in Europe’ states from the onset that there is ‘no such thing as a single homogeneous European Business Culture’.  Member states now total 27 and Europe now contains as many business cultures as it does countries.

3. Chapter 3

If French business culture is said to derive from its business climate (Gordon, 1996), then an analysis of its relationship between governments, financial institutions, economy and EU movements can be used along with frameworks to evaluate if this is true? The most common frameworks in international business literature are those usually written from a scientific or Universalist viewpoint.

3.1 Hofstede’s 5 dimensions

One well-known example of this way of analyzing human culture is that of the Dutch anthropologist, Geert Hofstede.  His theories of cross-cultural communication in the 1970’s came about through interviews with international business persons in IBM (Hofstede, 2001). Based on a study of over 50 countries Hofstede was able to quantify what common problems he thought existed within societies. These national cultures are described in appendix.  Please refer to (appendix figure 2.)

Hofstede’s ‘culture 1’ and ‘culture 2’ theory see (appendix figure 3.) is used to examine the correlation between his theory and the reality in France.

The Three levels of uniqueness in Human Mental programming (Hofstede, 2001) see (appendix figure 4.) is a framework to categorise the indentified predominant characteristics of France.

(Please see appendix Figure 5. for this part of text)

Analysis of Hofstede’s perception of French culture suggests that they are regimental in organisations. France is one of the countries here displaying a high power index. According to Hofstede this means there is an unwillingness of subordinates to disagree with superiors. In France, the Hierarchy is a predominant feature in business culture.  Its rigidity only allows a top down flow of communication. This further enforces Hofstede’s identification of France having a high power index. The level of education accords status and this intern accords salary. According to (Barsoux & Lawrence, 1997) the higher the league position of the university the higher the signing-on fee commanded by its graduates. The French are said to follow ‘classic principles of management’ (Barsoux & Lawrence, 1997). There is a distinction between thinkers and doers. The majority of Institutions in France do not designate their own leaders for the fear that this would give rise to ‘une hiérarchie parallèle’ which might undermine the so called ‘hiérarchie naturelle’. (Barsoux & Lawrence, 1997) 

Hofstede’s framework (appendix figure 5.) suggests the individualistic ethic in France is high. There is a lack of group collaboration, and the employee - employer relationship, further strengthen Hofstede’s analysis.  It is said that everybody within a French organisation has an individual respect for authority. (Barsoux & Lawrence, 1997)

It’s difficult to enforce Hofstede’s Masculinity notion and the justification of Frances score. The masculine characteristics such as assertiveness and competitiveness are apparent in French culture as well the so called feminine traits such as stress upon the quality of life. The Grande écoles are founded on values attributed to both masculine and feminine notions. Caring, decisiveness, and camaraderie. Perhaps the French have managed to strike a balance here.  They on one hand take family duties seriously (reflected in family run business) and on the other they are hard working at work (reflected in the long office hours).

From the results it is clear that France having a high uncertainty avoidance score means they likes situations to be spelled out in order to limit surprises.  This is clear when we see the heavy presence of rules and regulations within French corporations.

The time orientation scores France as relatively low. Meaning the living for the day value prevails over thrift and industriousness. In our previous identification of national culture most countries that display high uncertaincy avoidance index usually have a long term orientation see (appendix 5.) But this is not the case with France.

However one must be critical of Hofstede’s cross cultural framework. It is important to resist the temptation of stereotyping, because these dimensions are not concrete descriptions of French people’s behaviour. They may predict actions of groups and nations but, perhaps useless in predicting the behaviour of individuals. Hofstede’s Five Dimensions has also been criticized on the grounds of being too static, (Holden, 2002) or being based on a weak theoretical foundation. (Dahl, 2004) Additional concerns of Hofstede’s studies are whether nation states can be seen as homogeneous cultural entities and whether someone from one culture can write objectively on another culture as mentioned in the reports limitations.

3.2 Hall’s High and Low Context

Another cultural model widely accepted by intercultural business studies is that of Edward T. Hall.  His ‘high context’ and ‘low context’ (Hall E. T., 1959) model is taken from his 1959 work.  For Hall, a high context culture is one in which most of the information is in the person, while every little is in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of the message. On the other hand, in low context cultures, most of the information is in the explicit code. See appendix figure 6.

‘The French are much higher on the context scale than either the Germans or the Americans. This difference can affect virtually every situation and every relationship in which the members of these two opposite traditions find themselves’ (Hall & Hall, 1990)

We can further make use of Hall’s identification of polychromic and monochromic in order to analyse France. Typically, high context cultures follow the polychromic time system and low context cultures the monochromic. The French are said to not always adhere to schedules or appointments, delivery dates, or deadlines, suggesting France follow a polychromic pattern.  In a polychromic system there are bound to be many interruptions and emergencies. If the telephone rings as a Frenchman is going out the door to an appointment, he must stop and speak to the caller. Like all polychromic people, the French have elaborate information networks which include clients, friends and family, and these networks must be maintained scrupulously if they are to function effectively. For this reason promptness is not always to be expected (Hall and Hall 1990).

Like Hofstede, Hall’s analyse of ‘another’ culture from an American perspective may seem to be biased.  His model is useful in offering business people a logical way of making sense of why their foreign partner does things differently, but his Universalist bias is apparent.

4. Chapter Potential intercultural business issues

Racism is definitely a massive part of French culture, and this racism causes repercussions in the French business world

There are many potential areas for conflict in France.  Possibly the most visible is caused by the significant Islamic minority in France. These Muslims came to France after world war two, and were used by the French to rebuild the country as French labour was insufficient (Randlesome, 1995).  Many of these Muslims bare a grudge against the French state and feel mistreated.  Islam has changed the face of French business culture with one university instituting an Islamic finance degree. Within Islam there are distinctions as well in particularly between the Sunni and Shiite Muslims.  Although the Islamic world is often portrayed as being one, particularly by the right wing government there are conflicts within it.

Anti Semitism is another major problem in France and attacks on Jewish business are a terribly common occurrence, which obviously causes these businesses to lose capital.

Traditionally French anti Semitism was carried out by the French far right personified by Marie le Pen, but in this modern era there has been a swift rise of anti semiotic attacks perpetrated by French Muslims, and this obviously isn’t good for business. These attacks will probably rise with the current situation in Gaza which will proselytise Muslim youth.  This is the most visible of all intercultural issues as actual businesses are being destroyed.

Less visible issues include elitism and the conflict between the working class and the elite university educated managers.

Issues around colonialism are also predominant in France blacks were long treated as being a different species.  All of France’s top statesmen are white and in 2006 Chirac was accused of being racist in a business deal.  (2009[online])

Garnier which is a part of l’Oréal was publically described as being racist in an infamous 2007 case where the company colluded to hire only white saleswomen. This case cost Garnier customers amongst the French left and amongst minorities.

Close personal contact causes problems for many non French people doing business in France.  Many English people are unfamiliar with this close personal contact and it can be disorientating for them.  This causes even greater problems for Islam in France as Muslims very rarely make intimate personal contact.  If we take Hofstede analysis, further intercultural problems may occur if two countries with different index scores for example (please see figure 2) America and France as they have opposite Uncertainty Avoidance scores.

Today Islamic banking is becoming an issue in France, (2009[online]) as well as the rest of the world. The Quran forbids Islam to pay or receive interest on loans. Because of this most Muslims choose to use Islamic banks which don’t charge interest.   Islamic banking is popular in London at this time, and also in many other European cities, but in France Islamic banking is unavailable.  Islamic organisations have long put pressure on the French administration to bring it in.  However Lagarde has stated that she will ‘take steps to make Islamic banking welcome’. French businessmen of Algerian origin are also having a tough time in France.  There are of course, many flashpoints between Islam and traditional French culture.  There is much discrimination against Muslims at both ends of the job market.  The BBC argues that the recent rioting in France was due to business discrimination against maghrébins. (2009[online])

5. Chapter Conclusion and Recommendations.

Two thirds of France’s capital was invested in the EU and the United States in 1998. (Barsoux & Lawrence, 1997) Why are the French reluctant to invest such amounts into the Asian markets?  Perhaps it because Hofstede’s analysis concludes stark contrasts in for example china’s national culture and that of France. Or perhaps it’s because as Hall suggests in his context theory, whereby china is relatively higher than France?

Can we really trust these frameworks when they are written by another culture other than the one in question? This report has seen the increasing research pointing to failures in international business, stemming from a lack of cultural understanding we have seen a trend of cultural understanding being a prerequisite to international business.

 (WendyHall, 1995) Suggest simple prerequisites that before according to her can cause confusion if not addressed first. See (appendix figure 7.)

From the evaluation of France we can conclude that the national cultures entwine with its business culture and are not easily separated.  Dig deep enough into a sour Joint Venture and inter cultural misunderstanding aren’t far from the surface.

We have concluded that the swing of the government, and the economic makeover of the EU have impacted upon French Business Culture.

The models mentioned in the report are useful but should be taken with a pinch of salt.  No individual is the same, and we conclude therefore no national culture can be derived from such a variable in a population.

To conclude we have given a quote from (Gesteland, 1999) Describing the ‘French Negotiator’, Gesteland writes: French negotiators belong to a class by themselves. A product of Teutonic influences from the north of Europe combined with Latin infusions from the south, France’s business culture is unique.

Recommendation

We recommend that when the situation arises for intercultural relationships, familiarise yourself with cultural literature but be sure not to conjure up stereotypes.  We recommend using tactfulness and initiative if found in cultural cobwebs and remember that if a foreign national came to England would you be offended by their unintentional cultural faux pas?

Reference List

Works Cited

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Barsoux, J., & Lawrence, P. (1997). French Managment. london and new york: Taylor and Francis.

Boaz, F. (1911). The Mind of Primitive Man. 

Dahl, S. (2004). Intercultural Research, the Current State of Knowledge. middlesex University press.

Gesteland, R. R. (1999). Cross-Cultural Business Behaviour: Marketing,. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press.

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Hofstede, G. (2001). sAGE PUBLICATIONS.

Hofstede, G. (2005). Cultures and Organisations; Software of the mind. Harper and Collins.

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Schuch, D. E. (2009, March). German Business Culture.

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Wikipedia article, François Mitterrand[ONLINE]

[accessed on 21st Febuary 2009]

Available at:

[accessed on 28th Febuary 2009]

Available at:

 

Appendix

Figure 7. W. Hall’s model

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