Comparing Brazilian Culture to American Culture Research Paper

Comparing Brazilian Culture to American Culture - Research Paper Example These segments include ‘Power Distance’, ‘Individualism’, ‘Masculinity’, ‘Uncertainty Avoidance’, ‘Pragmatism’, and ‘Indulgence’ (The Hofstede Center, 2014). The discussion henceforth will give an elaborative account of these cultural segments as observable in the prospective market of the Canadian company, i.e. in Brazil. Power distance exhibits the acceptance of power hierarchy and the inequalities among people residing within a given society. Observably, Brazil scores 69, where Canada scores 39 as per the Hofstede’s model when examining this factor (The Hofstede Center, 2014). This further reveals that where Canada believes in egalitarianism, Brazilian communities believe in power hierarchy and accept the inequality as a part of their culture (Ferguson, 2007). It is thus necessary for the Canadian company to understand the power distance of Brazil and formulate their organizational decision-making structure accordingly. Individualism, another facet of the Hofstede’s cultural model, indicates whether people prefer group oriented lifestyle practices or individualism. Brazil scores 38 in this section according to Hofstede’s model analysis, where Canada scores 80 (The Hofstede Center, 2014). This implies that Brazilian people are group oriented where Canadians are highly individualistic in nature. Certainly, in the business world, group orientation attitude among employees and customers can create the difference of opinions as well as communication gap. Due to the huge difference of nature, it is better for the company to use Polycentrism to connect with the culture of Brazil (Ferguson, 2007). The paradigm of masculinity in the Hofstede’s model replicates whether the cultural backbone of the country is success oriented, achievement-oriented or it is based on the quality of life.