Geopolitics Magazine November - December 2015 | Page 82
That struggle of bringing new characteristics into the
culture automatically has become a very slow
process, as long as existing political leadership fails
to lead changes. New leaders will appear out of the
blue and the process of creating a new “National
Culture” that will bring about Greek society will
cease, only when the members of the group will feel
successful. Just then the new culture will be
disseminated via the society’s communication
channels to all of its members and it will define the
new leadership’s characteristics that are acceptable.
The existing Greek National Culture
Hofstede into his latest online study (as reached by
his website) offered for the Greek Culture an
excellent example of mutually contradicting culture characteristics within the same context. Truth is
that Greek culture has lost its orientation as it neither belongs to a Western kind of approaching reality
nor an Eastern. The Dutch HR expert applies a model that tests six different dimensions that define a
national culture. Those are:
Power Distance
Individualism or Collectivism
Masculine or Feminine
Uncertainty Avoidance
Long/Short term Orientation
Indulgence
Power Distance (PDI) refers to the extent that the less powerful members of the society expect and
accept that generally power is distributed unequally. At 60% Greece has an intermediate score with a
slight tendency over the power. Unfortunately though during the past Greek society had shown more
respect to hierarchy, while in the late years leadership took advantage of the opportunity nad denied
the accountability of its decisions.
In terms of the second factor, which is related to the way people perceive the degree of
interdependence a society maintains among its members, Greek culture has scored only 35% and as
such it reveals a very slow pace in accepting changes that affect large groups. On the other hand
leadership based its continuation in the loyalty that had been earned ,which in occasions can become a
destructive factor when it is been given to the wrong side.
Masculinity is related to the motivation factor that drives people willing to be the best or instead
preferring liking what they do(Feminine).Greek Culture scored 57% proving that is neither not caring
for others ,not proceeding in business success without any interest in quality of life.
The worst though performance had been earned on the factor of Uncertainty Avoidance as Greek
nation is not at all comfortable in ambiguous situations. A score of 100% can fully explain all reasons
that deprive Greek people from feeling anxiety, stress and even depression during those days of
financial crisis.
Things might have been better in case older glory days and the characteristics they had imposed into
the Greek culture previously, would have been kept alive, but as Long/Short Term Orientation factor
had scored (only 45%) we have the proof Greeks lack a pragmatic and realistic approach when they
face life and therefore they suffer from an inability to efficiently prepare for the future. Undoubtedly
the opposite had always been the cultural characteristics of older eras.
Geopolitics.com.gr all rights reserved 2015
Page 80