Maria del Socorro Vieyra Cabrera

MEXICAN
CULTURE AND
PRODUCTIVITY

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
TEACHER: CARLOS ANTONIO RAMÍREZ GALLARDO
DATE: 30/09/2022
REACTION PAPER

 Introduction
Mexico becomes one of the countries that
works the most in the world, but produces
the least. Let's be honest, we are a country
full of values and culture, admired by many
others in the world, but not because of
manufacturing or productivity, in this case,
for traditions, archeology and history. In
recent years we have had large rates of
tourism in the country, according to the
urban center page it mentions that, in
2021, “Despite the drop in indicators since
the start of the pandemic, a recovery has
been reflected, with the arrival of 19 million
400,000 international tourists. Attached to
the receipt of income of 9,332 million
dollars, with which Mexico rose to third
place in the most visited countries in the
world " (VALLE, 2021).

For this reason, Mexico requires increasing GDP rates in terms of productivity.
Each worker who works in large companies established in industrial ports must
have the perspective of advancing and learning every day. But the big question is
why do Mexicans not want to work? Is it necessary to increase salaries? Is the
work environment too overwhelming? These and many others are the
uncertainties that senior management has regarding the work that is done in the
plant. But beyond developing improvement strategies, new work methodologies
or investing in incentives, there must be a greater focus on organizational culture.
It may be the company that invests the most in these three factors, but if people
do not truly commit to following the organizational culture out of conviction,
surely their lifetime in the company will not exceed two years.
The present analysis aims to explain how Mexican culture affects a person's
productivity, following Hofstede's six cultural dimensions, which represent a
model of factors that condition the behavior of a society.

Hofstede's six dimensions

The six dimensions of national culture are based on

extensive research by Professor Geert Hofstede, Michael
Minkov and their research teams. The country's scores on
the dimensions are relative, in the sense that we are all
human and simultaneously we are all unique. In other
words, culture can only be meaningfully used in
comparison (Hofstede-Insights, 2022). Each dimension is
rated on a scale from 0 to 100, according to the
characteristics of the society.

1. Power distance
This dimension represents the hierarchy of powers, with zero being an equitable
way of distributing power and one hundred being an unequal way in which it is
carried out. Mexico obtained a score of eighty-one, which means that it has an
unequal hierarchy, despite the fact that we are a country that trusts and believes
in democracy, the majority of the votes that are had in an election are null, that is
to say, despite the fact that Mexicans are given the opportunity to exercise their
right to vote, they do not, the reason being that most people have seen vote-
buying in campaigns. The candidate who has the most funding in an election is
the one most likely to get elected. But the saddest part of the case is that every
Mexican is satisfied with this. Every six-year period the people spend their time
complaining about the president-elect, but from there their voice does not
spread to the elders. Each person knows that Mexico suffers from a hierarchical
power, the boss is the one in charge and despite the fact that the decision is not
well argued, we abide by it, we cannot make any improvement or innovation if the
leader is not consulted. For this reason, this soft skill is not developed in Mexico,
given that they only teach us to be collaborators and follow orders, without being
able to acquire the ability to create new things and make decisions.
For this reason, in organizations, the Mexican culture does not want to learn
about leadership, because we are conditioned to settle for what the boss
decides, despite the fact that it opposes our argument. If each of us had the
conviction to raise our voices and be heard, we would achieve greater efficiency
in the way we work and improve the country. The great revolutionary movements
arose from a person who had the initiative to convince others, in order to acquire
power and his ideas would be heard. Let's be a country which does not require
large numbers of people to be heard, but rather that we have the attitude and
power to influence others.

2. Individualism
This dimension represents the union of a society or state of individualism, being
zero a collectivist society and one hundred an individualistic society. Mexico
obtained a score of thirty, which represents that we are a collectivist society. This
is best explained with the family, each Mexican considers the family something
sacred which cannot be touched or affected. This value is one of the most
important in the life of each person regardless of the country they belong to, but
a very important point must be understood, when the Mexican creates a total
dependency of the family on him, he becomes extremely useless. It is a factor
that does not allow him to face the challenges and problems that may arise in his
life. What happens when a problem arises in the life of an adult person, he
immediately goes to his parents to vent about it, affecting the growth and
independence of the person.
Despite the fact that we live in the 21st century, there are some Mexican families
who continue to have the ideology of setting aside their youngest child so that
they can take care of them for the rest of their lives. The future of these people
from a young age begins to turn negative, since they do not have aspirations,
goals and desires in life, only their happiness is conditioned to that of their
parents. For this reason, Mexicans lose many opportunities for growth. Likewise,
in the organizational sphere, each leader becomes a head of the family instead of
a team leader, for this reason it is not possible to advance or face challenges,
given that the Mexican takes the orders and direction given to him very
personally.
3. Femininity and Masculinity
This is a factor which allows us to identify competitive companies or those that
enjoy their work. The zero represents the societies that enjoy what they do and
the one hundred those that are based on competitiveness. Mexico obtained a
score of sixty-nine, which means that people live to work, around an environment
of competition in each individual. These societies resolve conflicts by fighting over
them. Each Mexican person thinks that the strongest, the richest or the most
intelligent is the one who can make relevant decisions in the country. A clear
example, but very tragic, is drug trafficking. Every Mexican child and adolescent
grows up with the idea that this profession will give them power in their lives. For
this reason, Mexican thought regarding competition has great economic and
social relevance for people, since if you acquire great influence you will have the
opportunity to make important decisions in the future of the country. Likewise, in
each of the organizations, the Mexican wants to work more and more to improve
his economic condition, thus managing to impose authority on the other
collaborators, and the work groups show respect towards them. They do not
enjoy the work at all, therefore there is only mental and physical fatigue, in
addition, the period of life of these people in an organization is very short. Most
likely, the individual will no longer continue working in the organization since he
was only collaborating to obtain greater economic gains and not to pursue the
mission of the organization.
4. Avoid Uncertainty
One of the most important dimensions for Mexico, given that it represents the
capacity of a society in the face of the unknown, for this reason they develop
stories and intuitions to avoid worrying about the unknown. The zero represents
a society which is not afraid of the unknown and the hundred on the contrary to
a society that is afraid of it. Mexico obtained a score of eighty-two, which
represents that we are a country that fears the unknown and therefore we prefer
to take refuge in our past in order to explain the new cases. Every time the world
innovates and improves ambiguous things, but Mexico has not presented a good
advance in this matter, being our presidents the ones who reject these
opportunities just because they are new, wishing that our culture be preserved
despite the fact that it goes very against morality and human rights. A clear
example is how in Mexico it is considered that women cannot occupy high
command in the decision-making of the country. There has never been a female
president as a leader, given that the people themselves fear to experience what
would become of Mexico in her charge, for this reason in each election campaign,
if a woman presents herself as a candidate immediately, the people discard her
from their voting options.
If every Mexican faces these new trends and innovations, we would become one
of the most resilient countries, because we would learn from mistakes and our
ability to face challenges would be greater. We need to have a change of
perspective towards the new, as mentioned in one of the five disciplines, on the
risks which must be taken as an area of ​opportunity instead of a circumstance of
fear or danger. As mentioned before, the collaborators of an organization must
understand that what is new is an opportunity for growth. Of course, initially it
can be something that causes us a headache, given that we do not understand
one hundred percent, but if we change our perspective and motivate ourselves
to learn from the new, we will be able to adapt to any technology and work
method.
5. Long term orientation
It is the capacity that allows societies to maintain ties with the past or face the
challenges of the future. Zero symbolizes that society faces challenges through its
past and one hundred is one that faces challenges through the future. Mexico
obtained a score of twenty four in this dimension, which means that we face new
challenges through the customs and habits of our ancestors. Mexican society
considers that the only truth is that which continues to prevail in history despite
how ambiguous and contrary to human rights it is. A clear example is when an
indigenous community is given the opportunity to integrate into civilization, the
options they are given are very good because the doors to new jobs, education
and infrastructure are opened. A person of this century would not refuse to
reject this great opportunity, but the harsh reality is that these people, despite
living in deplorable situations, decide to stay, since they are afraid of the new and
prefer to remain in the past. Similarly, in an organization when new processes
and ways of working arrive, the Mexican is afraid of making mistakes and
therefore returns to his past to create new outlets that allow him to accomplish
tasks, despite not following the correct sequence of the process. We know that
everything.

The individual fears challenges,

but if the areas of opportunity to
learn and improve were truly
seen, it would be very difficult to
return to our past and the
perspective would be based on
continuous education to
improve, in this way each
collaborator will be a key piece in
time of company training.
6. Indulgence or Restraint
This dimension reflects the degree of people who make up a society to try to
control their desires and impulses. Being zero is a society that controls its
desires and impulses and on the contrary the one hundred that does not.
Mexico obtained a score of ninety-seven, which means that we cannot control
our desires and impulses, we have a dominant character towards emotions and
feelings in our life in decision making. Every day Mexicans use our reasoning
combined with the sentimental, this emotional part being more dominant than
our arguments. Our hearts are constantly affected by what we see and hear, but
more when we act. One of the most famous phrases of the Mexican is "Enjoy life,
because life is only one", Mexico defines this phrase as unbridling your life and
letting yourself be carried away by your emotions, knowing that feelings are a
way in which people vent without matter that their actions affect the health and
integrity of others. Similarly, this attitude has been greatly affected in
organizations because employees address high-sounding words and challenging
attitudes to senior managers, when there are problems they are not aware of
their failures and let pride invade them, therefore they waste the instruction of
leaders only because they cant control their impulses. We have to become
people who listen, analyze and act, leaving aside our pride, to improve.

Conclusion
Hofstede's six dimensions are a clear reflection of
the behavior of a society, since each one
represents a way of acting members in the face
of life circumstances. The productivity of Mexico
is highly affected by culture, clearly each
dimension explains a special case of the way of
acting and thinking Mexican people. We are a
country that is guided a lot by past and old
ideologies. Despite the fact that we live in the XXI
century, some regions do not want to abandon
their ambiguous customs and this affects the life
of each member, since their fear of disappearing
or suffering damage is greater.
It is necessary to sacrifice something to
improve and advance, but Mexico does not
want to do it, they prefer to stay in their
comfort zone so as not to be affected by
what happens. For this reason, in
organizations, each collaborator does
everything possible to not follow the work
methods, because they fear adapting to a
new culture that is not the Mexican one. Let
us be people who do not change their
culture but rather improve their way of life
through learning about the improvements
of other countries in order to be more
productive in the future.

Bibliography
Hofstede-Insights. (February 24, 2022). Hofstede-Insights. Obtained from
Hofstede -Insights: https://hi.hofstede- insights.com/national-culture

VALLE, J. (December 10, 2021). centrourbano. Obtained from inner city:

https://centrourbano.com/actualidad/mexico- ascendio-al-lugar-3-de-los-paises-
mas-visitados-del-mundo-sectur/