Cross-Cultural Management; Germany

Introduction

Germany’s cost-effective freedom score is 73.4, making its economy the 18th freest in the 2014 index. Its overall score is 0.6 point better than the recent year, reflecting modest improvements in investment freedom, labor freedom and trade freedom. Germany is ranked 8th out of 43 countries in the Europe region, and its score exceeds the world and regional averages.

Over the 20-year history of the index, Germany’s economic freedom advanced by nearly 4 points. Its 2014 score is its highest ever. Double-digit gains have been achieved in the areas of market openness and limited government. High levels of trade freedom and investment freedom continue to underpin Germany’s competitiveness in global trade and ensure dynamic economic growth.

During the first half of its history in the Index, Germany was rated one of the “moderately free” economies. Though its overall progress has been good, labor freedom remains significantly below world averages, and business freedom has slipped a bit from previous highs (heritage.org).

Germany is a country that has the potential to doing business based on the details above. Economy improves in a number of years show that the opportunities of success in Germany is very substantial if the industry is prepared for the chosen market. For this paper, I will explore each of the theories of individualism/collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation and masculinity/femininity. The most important focus is to gain more perceptive and gratitude towards the culture of the country. Germany is a very well-established culture with an authoritarian individualistic nature. It is my desire to enlighten the business dealings and behavioral analysis on cross-cultural perspective when doing business with Germans.

Universalism/Particularism

Universalism is the belief in rules or laws that can be applied to everyone; agreements and contracts are used as the basis for doing business; rules are used to...