Agenda

Topics for todays Presentation

Interactive Exercise - Icebreaker
Understanding Canadian Culture
Wrap Up & Assignment

Icebreaker

Connect ALL the dots using 4 straight lines without

lifting your pen from the page

The dots may appear to form a box, and your instinct

may tell you to stay inside the box.
However..

To find the solution that works, we

may Sometimes, have to go outside the
box

.When we change the

way we look at things,
the things we look at
begin to change .
(Wayne Dwyer)

DEFINING CULTURE
Culture is the collective programming of
the human mind that distinguishes the
members of one human group from
those of another. Culture in this sense is
a system of collectively held values.
Hofstede also describes culture as
the software of the mind
Hofstede, Geert and Hofstede, Gert-Jan. Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind.
New York: McGraw-Hill U.S.A., 2004

Aboriginal
Peoples

Immigrant
Group A

Immigrant
Group C
Aboriginal
Peoples
Group E

Immigrant
Group B

Immigrant
Group D

Canadian Culture
Key Elements
1. Time
2. Family
3. Individual vs. Group
4. Power Distance

Canadian Culture
Time
Time is like money

can be spent, saved or wasted

is precious
Has a $$ value
is budgeted

Time is a commodity.

Canadians tend to follow schedules and think about what

their next move will be, what they will be doing tonight,
tomorrow, next week.
8

Canadian Culture
Family
only 21% of Canadians belong to
extended families
the majority of families are nuclear

Other Dimensions of Culture

Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner
Riding the Waves of Culture 2nd Ed. 1998

Based on over 15 years of research through

30 different multinationals across 50 countries
and a data base of over 30,000 participants

Dimensions of Culture
.
Studied the ways in which people from different
cultures solve problems and reconcile dilemmas.
They found that there were three different
categories.
Relationships with people
Attitudes to time
Attitudes to environment

Cultural Dimensions
Relationships to People
This category has 5 sections that asks the following
questions.
1. What is more important rules or relationships?
2. Do we function as a group or a set of individuals?
3. Do we display our emotions?
4. How separate do we keep our private and our
working lives?
5. Do we have to prove ourselves to receive status
or is it given to us ?

Cultural Dimensions
Relationships to Time
This category has 1 dimension and asks the
following question.
Do we do things one at a time or several
things at once?
Dimension: Sequential time vs synchronous time

Cultural Dimensions
Relationships to Environment
This category has 1 dimension and asks the
following question.
Environment Category
Do we control our environment or are we
controlled by it.?
Dimension: Internal direction vs outer direction.

Questions & Answers

Research Project