American companies must respect the French culture's strong uncertainty avoidance, high individualism, centralized power structures and lower masculinity scores.

Professor Geert Hofstede® has developed a cultural dimensions model that scores the differences that arise when a home culture does business in a host culture.

The following analysis compares Hofstede’s cultural dimensions for America (the home culture) against those for France (the host culture).

Uncertainty Avoidance Index

Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) is a cultural dimension that scores the degree to which people feel threatened by ambiguity. Countries with high UAI scores create beliefs and institutions that safeguard their high need for security.

France’s UAI score is 86, 34% higher than the world UAI average. The French strongly resist changes to their traditional beliefs and institutions.

In 1992, Disney opened Euro Disneyland park in Marne-la-Vallee 20 miles east of Paris on what was previously French farmland best known for producing sugar beets and Brie cheese. Euro Disneyland was designed to mirror the American Disney theme parks back in California and Florida with very few concessions to French culture. French people found this highly ambiguous, and only 29% of visitors to Euro Disneyland in its first year were from France. If the French want a U.S.-style Disneyland experience, they will go to Disney parks in America.

America’s UAI score of 46 is 38% lower than the world average. Americans tolerate much more risk and are more comfortable with ambiguities and rapid change.

Individualism Score

Individualism is the cultural dimension that measures to what extent people to look after themselves and their immediate family members only.

America’s individualism score of 91 is the highest in the world. France’s score of 71 is also high, 65% more than the world average.

American executives at Disney imposed a strict dress code at Euro Disneyland that required extremely short hair and banned beards and moustaches. Disney’s dress code was based on Walt Disney’s highly individualized, squeaky clean American family values.

By imposing the Walt Disney appearance code, the Americans insulted French family traditions. Many of the highly individualistic French refused to work at Euro Disneyland, including a 28-year-old Parisian trumpet player who insisted on keeping his pony tail hairstyle rather than join the closely cropped Disney brass band.

Power Distance Index

Hofstede’s Power Distance Index (PDI) measures the extent to which less powerful members of organizations and institutions accept unequal distribution of power.

The United States has a PDI score of 40 which is 27% lower than the world average. A lower power distance society like America is decentralized with a flatter organization structure, a smaller proportion of supervisors and employees empowered to make their own decisions.

France scores 68 points on the PDI, 24% higher than the world average. Higher power distance societies are more centralized with tall, hierarchal organization structure featuring a high proportion of supervisors who give orders at the lower levels. The French were confused when Disney appointed mostly American-born managers into the front-line supervisory positions at Euro Disneyland - many of whom were not fluent in the French language.

Masculinity Score

A high masculine society places greater value on success, money and material possessions. Americans score 62 on the masculinity, 24% higher than the world average.

A country with a lower masculinity score places more emphasis on caring for others and quality of life. France has a relative low masculinity score of 43 which is 14% below the world average.

Clearly, French culture was not a priority for Disney during the first year of Euro Disney. Back in America, Disney CEO Michael Eisner expressed America’s overriding focus on monetary success when he said "What we created in France is the biggest private investment in a foreign country by an American company ever. And it’s going to pay off."

Yet in its first six months of operation to September 1992, Euro Disneyland had lost over US$34 million.

Like the other cultural dimensions in this analysis, Disney executives should have adapted to France’s need for low masculinity values like cooperation, friendly atmosphere, group decision making, more employee freedoms and environmental conservation.

References

This article presents independent calculations and insights based on geert-hofstede.com and research from International Management, Culture, Strategy and Behavior (6th edition, Hodgetts-Luthans-DOH).