Changes in The Brazilian Culture

Changes in the Brazilian culture
and their implications on the future Brazilian management culture
Licence Thesis
by
Michle Glauser
University of Applied Sciences Nordwestern Switzerland University of Cooperative Education Lrrach University of Haute-Alsace
International Business Management

Supervisor Date of Submission Course Melanie Martinelli 06.04.2011 IBM 2008b
Authorship Statement
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the qualification of any other degree or diploma of a University or other institution of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment is made in the acknowledgments.
Basel, April 2011
Michle Glauser
Length of the Work

This work from the introduction to the references sections (excluding) comprises 13 901 words.
Management Summary
As a vast growing emerging country, Brazil has considerably gained political and economic importance on the international field during the last few years. Brazil is the fifth largest nation of the world in terms of territory and population and already the 8th biggest economic superpower of this planet. It has established an important role in todays global economy, which leads to increasing interactions between representatives of the Brazilian and other, foreign cultures and therefore a need for a fundamental understanding of the Brazilian culture.
However, culture may change due to different internal and external causes, especially in fast growing developing countries. Therefore it is crucial to understand not only the current Brazilian culture, but also the on-going changes which transform traditional culture values into new ones and so influence the Brazilian society as well as the Brazilian management culture.
Based on international and Brazilian studies about the Brazilian culture, the fundamental Brazilian culture values were defined as person-orientation, flexibility, hierarchy, collectivism and persistency. The analysis of the validity of these values was realised with an online survey conducted with management students of four Brazilian state universities, representing a wide regional coverage. The results, completed with qualitative interviews, showed the prevalence of the two values person-orientation and flexibility as well as the trend towards a less hierarchical, more equalised society and the introduction of an individualistic mind-set.
The identified changes raised the question about the causes of these cultural changes; its answer was investigated during fifteen qualitative interviews with university professors and experts of the Brazilian culture. Dividing the multiple forces into groups of internal forces, coming from politics and economic growth, and external forces, like the process of globalisation and the influence of other foreign cultures, we can see the complexity of the factors stimulating cultural change.
As culture values drive the attitudes and behaviour of every individual, changing culture values influence also the members of an organisation and therefore the management culture. The Brazilian management culture is therefore expected to become less hierarchical, to increase performance-orientation and to introduce individualistic mind-sets.
The on-going changes and its causes are likely to persist also in the future, continuingly influencing and transforming the Brazilian culture. However, many culture experts are convinced that a unique Brazilian model of traditional and new values will be established and will act as a role model also for other cultures.
Table of Contents
Authorship Statement .............................................................................................................................................1 Management Summary ...........................................................................................................................................2 Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................................................3 Index of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................................6 Index of Figures and Tables .....................................................................................................................................7 Figures .................................................................................................................................................................7 Tables...................................................................................................................................................................8 1 Introduction .....................................................................................................................................................9 1.1 Motivation ..................................................................................................................................................9 1.2 Research field ...........................................................................................................................................10 1.3 Research Objectives .................................................................................................................................10 1.4 Methodology ............................................................................................................................................10 1.5 Structure of the thesis ..............................................................................................................................12 2 The Concept of Culture..................................................................................................................................13 2.1 Definition of Culture .................................................................................................................................13 2.2 Types of Cultures ......................................................................................................................................14 2.3 Cultural Changes.......................................................................................................................................14 2.4 Influence of Culture on Management ......................................................................................................15 3 Analysis of the Brazilian Culture ....................................................................................................................16 3.1 Origins of National Culture .......................................................................................................................16 3.2 Studies about the Brazilian Cultures ........................................................................................................18 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.2.3 3.2.4 Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions .................................................................................................... 18 Tropenaarss Cultural Dimensions................................................................................................. 19 GLOBE-Study .................................................................................................................................. 21 Selected Intercultural Studies........................................................................................................ 23 The World Values Survey .......................................................................................................23 Cultural Detective ..................................................................................................................23
3.2.4.1 3.2.4.2 3.2.5
Brazilian Studies............................................................................................................................. 24 Mottas Brazilian Traces ........................................................................................................24 Further concepts of the Brazilian culture ..............................................................................25 3
3.2.5.1 3.2.5.2
3.3 Defining Brazilian Culture Values .............................................................................................................26 4 Changes in the Brazilian Culture....................................................................................................................28 4.1 Stable Brazilian Culture Values .................................................................................................................29 4.1.1 4.1.2 Person-Orientation ........................................................................................................................ 29 Flexibility ........................................................................................................................................ 31
4.2 Changing Values .......................................................................................................................................32 4.2.1 4.2.2 4.2.3 Hierarchy ....................................................................................................................................... 33 Collectivism.................................................................................................................................... 35 Persistency ..................................................................................................................................... 36
4.3 Interesting Findings ..................................................................................................................................38 4.3.1 Regional Differences ...................................................................................................................... 38
4.4 Conclusion of Changes in the Brazilian Culture ........................................................................................40 5 Causes of the Cultural Change.......................................................................................................................41 5.1 Theoretical Analysis of Cultural Change ...................................................................................................41 5.1.1 5.1.2 Influence of Economic Development on Cultural Change............................................................. 41 Intervention form Outside ............................................................................................................. 42
5.2 Forces Causing Cultural Changes in Brazil ................................................................................................43 5.2.1 Internal Causes .............................................................................................................................. 43 Stable democracy and social politics .....................................................................................43 Economic Stability and Growth .............................................................................................44
5.2.1.1 5.2.1.2 5.2.2
External Causes.............................................................................................................................. 46 Globalisation and international integration ..........................................................................46 Influences of foreign cultures ................................................................................................46
5.2.2.1 5.2.2.2
5.3 Conclusion of the Causes of Cultural Change ...........................................................................................47 6 Implications of the Future Brazilian Management Culture ...........................................................................48 6.1 Influences of Changes in the Culture Values ............................................................................................48 6.2 Intercultural Management .......................................................................................................................49 7 Conclusion and Outlook ................................................................................................................................51 7.1 Summary of the major findings ................................................................................................................51 7.2 Outlook .....................................................................................................................................................52
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Bibliography ...................................................................................................................................................53 Appendixes ....................................................................................................................................................58 Appendix 9.1 Appendix 9.2 Appendix 9.3 Appendix 9.4 Brazilian Map .........................................................................................................................58 Questionnaire ........................................................................................................................59 Survey Evaluation ..................................................................................................................63 Qualitative Interviews............................................................................................................94
Index of Abbreviations
BRIC IBGE CCEB e.g. GDP IDV IFIM IMF LTO MAS OECD PDI PISA UAI UNDP UNB USP UFBA UFRGS WTO Brazil, Russia, India, China Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica) Classification Criteria for the Brazilian Economy (Critrio de Classificao Econmica Brasil) for example Gross Domestic Product Individualism Institut Fr Interkulturelles Management International Monetray Fund Long-Term Orientation Masculinity Organissation for Economic Co-Operation and Development Power Distance Index Programme for International Student Assessment Uncertainty Avoidance Index United Nations Development Programme Universidade de Braslia UNB Universidade de So Paulo Universidade Federal da Bahia Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul World Trade Organization
Index of Figures and Tables

Figures
Figure 1.1 The five regions of Brazil (IBGE) ...........................................................................................................11 Figure 1.2 Structure of the thesis ..........................................................................................................................12 Figure 2.1:Cultural characteristics (adopted from Adler, 2002)............................................................................13 Figure 3.1 Major culture-building factor (Tayeb 2003) .........................................................................................16 Figure 3.2 Brazilian scores in Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions (Hofstede 2010) ..................................................19 Figure 3.3 Trompenaars Relationship Orientations on Cultural Dimensions (Hodgetts ad all. (2006) based on information found in Trompenaars 1994) .............................................................................................................20 Figure 3.4 Brazilian scores in the GLOBE study (House, 2004) ..............................................................................21 Figure 4.1 Agreement to statements related to the value Person-Orientation (survey 2011).............................29 Figure 4.2 Importance in life of a few topics (World Values Survey question) survey 2011.................................30 Figure 4.3 Agreement to statements related to the value Flexibility (survey 2011) ............................................31 Figure 4.4 Changes of the Brazilian culture values (survey 2011) .........................................................................33 Figure 4.5 Agreement to statements related to the value Hierarchy (survey 2011) ............................................34 Figure 4.6 Agreement to statements related to the value Collectivism (survey 2011) ........................................35 Figure 4.7 Agreement to statements related to the value Persistency (survey 2011) .........................................36 Figure 4.8 Values and their frequency of mentioning (survey 2011) ....................................................................40 Figure 5.1. Internal and External Causes of Cultural Change in Brasil ..................................................................43
Tables
Table 2.1 Some conditions for foreign intervention causing cultural shift (Mean 2010) .....................................15 Table 3.1 Importance in life of a few topics based on the World Values Survey, Brazil 2006 ..............................23 Table3.3 Features of the Brazilian culture with its key-characteristics (Motta 1997) ..........................................24 Table 3.2 Brazilian Culture Values .........................................................................................................................27 Table 4.1 Survey Example: value Person-Orientation and the three corresponding statements .....................28 Table 4.2 Statements to the value Person-Orientation .....................................................................................29 Table 4.3 Importance in life of a few topics (World Values Survey question) survey 2011 ..................................30 Table 4.4 Statements to the value Flexbility ......................................................................................................31 Table 4.5 Statements to the value Hierarchy .....................................................................................................33 Table 4.6 Statements to the value Collectivism .................................................................................................35 Table 4.7 Statements to the value Persistency ..................................................................................................36 Figure 4.8 Regional Differences (survey 2011) ......................................................................................................38 Table 5.1 Globalisation fulfilling the conditions for foreign intervention causing cultural shift (model adaptad from Mean 2010)...................................................................................................................................................42
Introduction
In this introductory chapter the context of my Licence Thesis is explained by firstly highlighting the importance of the research topic as well as my motivation of elaborating the chosen subject. Secondly, the research field is defined and then the objectives of this work are outlined. The methodology provides an understanding about the used approach and at the end of the chapter the reader is given an overview of the structure of the present paper.
1.1
Motivation
Being part of the BRIC countries, Brazil is one of the vast growing emerging countries and has considerably gained importance during the last few years. As upcoming economic superpower the former Portuguese colony is already at the 8th place of the worlds biggest powers. With its vast territory of the size of a whole continent and a population of 193 million inhabitants Brazil is the fifth largest nation of the world in terms of territory and population (IBGE & IMF, World Economic Outlook Database, 2010). These facts clearly show the importance of Brazil in todays global economy. Also in the international trade Brazil clearly plays a crucial role, showing an export growth rate of two digits over the last few years. However, Brazils share of the worldwide exports is only about 1.22% (WTO, 2010); this fact indicates the remaining huge potential of this economy on the global market, especially with the recently found oil reserves which may transform Brazil into one of the largest oil exporters of the world. Moreover, the growing political importance of Brazil in the global society as active member of important international organisations may not be neglected. As Brazil is gaining economic and political importance, interactions with Brazilians may get increasingly frequent. Brazils growing middle class is becoming an attractive market, which attracts many foreign businesses and investors. The growing intercultural negotiations between Brazilians and foreigners imply a fundamental understanding of the Brazilian culture. As already seen in other fast growing or developing countries, such as Japan and India, culture may change due to different internal and/or external causes and lead to a modification of cultural values and social behaviour (Rothlauf 2006 / Mean 2010). Therefore it is important to not only get an understanding of todays Brazilian culture but also of the currently happening changes which transform traditional values into new ones. Especially, when taking in consideration that Brazil has got a huge potential on the world market. So it is crucial to pay attention to the changing values when trying to get an understanding of the Brazilian culture, especially when dealing with young professionals whose values may have shifted from the traditional ones.
During my exchange semester in Brazil I got the possibility to immerge into the Brazilian culture and to get a deeper understanding of its values, traditions and customs. The feeling of change intensified my interest in the Brazilian culture and motivated me to realize this paper.
1.2
Research field
The present research is conducted in the field of intercultural studies, in which an understanding of other cultures is targeted. Within the globalized world interaction between representatives of different cultures is common not only in business settings, but also in personal life. Especially in these intercultural encounters it is crucial to possess a comprehension for cultural differences, which may lead to different perceptions and behaviours, in order to prevent misunderstanding and conflicts. Multiple economic, political or other kinds of reasons may influence or even change the culture of a society and so also the behaviour of its members as further explained in chapter 2. The causes for change may be economical as observed in the example of the strong English cultural shift during the process of industrialisation in England. Economic growth interlinked with other internal and external reasons led also to a transformation of the Japanese culture values (Steffen (2003), Hodgson (2000)) Another famous example are the current culture changes in India which is already a well-studied subject (Martinelli 2009).
1.3
Research Objectives
The objective of the present paper is firstly to identify how todays Brazilian culture is changing from its core values, defined on the basis of existing studies. Hence, the target is to understand how the Brazilian culture values are changing and in which directions these trends are going. Additionally, the remaining strong values of the current Brazilian culture are outlined. Secondly, after analysing the on-going changes, the objective is to determine the reasons causing these transformations. The forces influencing and accelerating the process of cultural change are evaluated. Furthermore, the target of the paper is to describe the implications of the observed culture changes on the Brazilian business and management culture. The aim is to transform the gained information into useful knowledge for those dealing with representatives of the Brazilian society.
1.4
Methodology
The present paper is based on extensive literature research of books, publications and articles as well as a survey realised within four Brazilian universities and conducted interviews with professors and experts of the Brazilian culture. The choice of applying interactive methodology was driven by the necessity of getting very up-to-date information about the Brazilian culture. During the whole research process I tried to simultaneously
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include a Brazilian as well as an international focus on the subject, by realising a considerable part of the study in Brazil. Firstly, the Brazilian culture values were defined based on existing national and international studies about the Brazilian culture. Secondly, the validity of these values was analysed with the help of an online survey (see appendix 9.2) conducted with management students of the following four state universities: Universidade Federal da Bahia UFBA (Salvador) Northeast Universidade de Braslia UNB (Braslia) Central-West Universidade de So Paulo USP (So Paulo) Southeast Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul UFRGS (Porto Allegre) South The exact location on the Brazilian map is shown in the appendix 9.1. Each university represents a geographical region, covering four of the five regions defined by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (visualized in figure 1.1), neglecting only the northern region which is the largest region of Brazil, but also the least inhabited and the one with the lowest contribution to the national GDP. The four universities were chosen in order to assure regional coverage as well as to analyse if strong regional differences may occur.
Figure 1.1 The five regions of Brazil (IBGE)
Students of Management were selected in order to focus on the on-going changes within the culture values of business settings, indicating future implications on the Brazilian management culture. State universities are perceived as being the best higher education institutions in Brazil; therefore the admission procedure is very selective, which may lead to an unequal socioeconomic representation of the Brazilian population among the students. However, the absolvents of state universities are mostly expected to get an important role in the Brazilian economy and therefore likely to have an influence on the future Brazilian management culture. Not fulfilling the requirement of being representative, the conducted survey has a rather explorative role and may not be used to generalise to the whole Brazilian society.
After analysing the results of the survey, additional information was gained through qualitative interviews with university professor of different areas and Brazilian culture experts in order to get a multifaceted view. Subsequently, the different sources of information are linked together and form the present paper.
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1.5
Structure of the thesis
The present licence thesis is divided into seven parts. After the introduction mentioned above, the conceptual framework is outlined in the second chapter concentrating on the concept of culture. In the third chapter the Brazilian culture is analysed based on existing studies and the Brazilian culture values are defined. The findings of changes of these culture values are then presented in the fourth chapter based on the conducted survey and additional interviews. Subsequently, the causes of the presented cultural changes are highlighted in chapter five and the paper concludes with the implications on the future Brazilian management culture in the next chapter. Finally, the major findings are summarised together with the outlook in the last chapter. The structure of the thesis is visualised in the following figure.
Introduction
The Concept of Culture Analysis of the Brazilian Culture
Cultural Changes
Causes of Culture Change Implications on Management Culture
Summary & Outlook

Figure 1.2 Structure of the thesis
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The Concept of Culture
This chapter provides the reader with fundamental background information in order to get a clear understanding of the concept of culture, which will be discussed intensively in this work. Hence, in this conceptual framework the widely used notion of culture is defined for the purpose of this paper and the different elements that make up the concept of culture are explained. Culture can be encountered on many levels, therefore the differences between dominant cultures and subcultures in a nation are shown. Furthermore, changes in culture are analysed which will be the main focus of this study and finally, the influence of culture on management is highlighted.
2.1
Definition of Culture
Many different definitions of the concept of culture exist and apply in the diverse scientific disciplines and variable contexts. Already in 1952 Kroeber and Kluckhohn revealed 164 different definitions of the word culture. Since then culture has gained even more importance due to the progressing globalisation and the increased interaction of different cultures. Many intercultural experts (Hofstede (1984) House (2004) Samovar(2010)) characterise culture as learned (acquired by learning and experience), shared (within a community), passed over generations, represented in symbols and structured in culture patterns. This leads us to the definition of culture by House (2004) as shared motives, values, beliefs, identities, and interpretations or meanings of significant events that result from common experiences of members of collectives and are transmitted across age generations, which is the valid definition for this paper. Behaviour
According to Tayeb (2003) cultural characteristics of a society are manifested in terms of values, behaviour and attitudes displayed by its members. Adler (2002) explained that the individuals express culture and its normative qualities through the values they hold about life and the world around them. These values affect their attitudes towards the choice of the most appropriate and effective behaviour in any given situation, as visualized in figure 2.1.
Attitudes
Values
Figure 2.1:Cultural characteristics (adopted from Adler, 2002)
Values reflect the innermost layer of culture. Adler defined a value as something that is explicitly or implicitly desirable to an individual or group and which influences the selection from available modes, means and ends of action. Values therefore reflect general beliefs about wrong or right and also specify general preferences.
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In the literature of intercultural management the elements of culture are often presented with a visual metaphor of an iceberg, whereas only a small part can be seen above the water and most of the mass is below the surface. The top of the iceberg refers to the visible part of culture (attitudes, behaviour) that is carried by the expanded base of the invisible culture (values) beneath the water. This study concentrates on the values of the Brazilian culture in order to understand the deeper guidelines of the behaviour of the Brazilians.
2.2
Types of Cultures
Speaking about culture we often refer to the national culture, more specifically to the dominant culture found in a nations society. However, complex societies such as the United States, India or other large nations are made of a considerable number of groups that form their own distinctive values, norms and rules of behaviour. The so-called subcultures are defined by Jandt (2007) as resembling a culture in which they usually encompass a relatively large number of people and represent the accumulation of generations of human striving. Unlike the dominant culture they exist within a dominant culture and are often based on economic or social class, ethnicity, race or geographic region. Especially in nations with extended surface and geographical diversity such subcultures play an important role. In Brazil as the worlds fifth biggest country and with its multiple immigrations of different nationalities, subcultures may be an often encountered concept which has to be kept in mind while analysing the Brazilian culture. However, this research tries to concentrate its analysis on the dominant, national culture.
2.3
Cultural Changes
George England (1978) found that personal value systems are relatively stable and do not change rapidly. However, many cultural changes have been observed in the past (e.g. the cultural shift due to the industrialisation in England) and also in the rather recent history; the value transition in Japan (Rothlauf 2006 / Mean 2010) or the on-going change of the cultural values in the Indian society (Martinelli 2009) are only some examples among many. Many factors can influence a national culture and the difficulties arise in recognizing significant movements in the culture, which are not only short lasting trends or superficial movements of eventually only a small subculture of the nation. Often cultural changes are influenced by the interventions of foreigners. After examining case studies in Japan and Saudi Arabia Mean (2010) defined some conditions under which foreign intervention can cause cultural shift, shown in Table 2.1.
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OBJECTIVE LOCAL LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITY
The outsiders aim to cause a shift in values; The local leadership is sympathetic to the intervention; The local leadership seizes the opportunity posed by the intervention to support or lead the change process;
RESPECT CONTACTS TENURE
The outsiders are respected; The outsiders have regular friendly contacts with influential locals; The foreigners make a long-term commitment.
Table 2.1 Some conditions for foreign intervention causing cultural shift (Mean 2010)
By summarizing the conditions for effective causes for culture shift Mead explained why the immigration of foreign business and individuals caused a movement in the Japanese culture as the foreigners wanted to influence the Japanese values and the preconditions where advantageous for such a change. Also Hofstede (1984) was concerned with changes in culture and stated after repeating his research after four years the cultures shift, but they shift together, so that the differences between them remain intact. This shows that a movement in culture has to be comparative, which means that a culture only changes if it moves more in one direction than all the other cultures.
2.4
Influence of Culture on Management
As already explained, culture values drive the individual attitudes and behaviour. This concept is also applicable in business settings where members of an organisation are influenced by their culture values. National culture has hence an impact not only on how individuals in an organisation make decisions, design communication and personal interaction, but also on the organisations structure and environment. Therefore we can see that national cultures largely influence management by having an impact on the members of an organisation as well as on the organisational design. Especially while managing across cultures the awareness of intercultural differences is crucial and has to be respected by adapting the management style. As the international markets are approaching each other and hence globalisation is progressing, some theories say that this internationalisation is creating a worldwide common culture. Trompenaars (1997) responded to this eventual evolution by pointing out that it is important to consider what things mean to the people in each culture instead of only analysing the adopted behaviour, as the meaning reflects the deeper cultural values and can hence show cultural differences also within a globalised world.
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Analysis of the Brazilian Culture
In this part of the paper the Brazilian culture is analysed by firstly giving a brief overview of the origins of the national culture. Secondly existing international and Brazilian cultural studies are examined, in order to define the core values of the Brazilian culture which will serve as the basis for this research, as these values will be further analysed within the present paper with reference to cultural changes.
3.1
Origins of National Culture
Various factors influence a national culture and it is not only challenging to identify the origins due to their infinity but also because they are interconnected with various sources and factors which are themselves influenced by the culture. Tayeb (2003) defined the major factors which together shape national culture as visualized in figure 3.1. These four groups will now be explained and applied on the Brazilian culture in order to provide a rough overview of the factors influencing the Brazilian culture, which facilitates a deeper understanding of this culture.
Geography / Climate
Major culturebuilding institutions Major national and supranational instiutions
History
National culture
Figure 3.1 Major culture-building factor (Tayeb 2003)
History
Tayeb explained that the history of a nation plays a significant part in creating and shaping the values of its members.
Brazil was inhabited by different tribes of natives until it was colonialized by the Portuguese in 1494. For the flourishing sugar production the Portuguese imported in the middle of the 16th century millions of African slaves. In 1822 Dom Pedro declared the independence of Brazil and himself as its first emperor. In 1889 the monarch was dispossessed by a military coup and the first republic with Deodoro da Fonseca was born. Numerous presidents spelled each other at the Brazilian government until the military took over the force in 1964. Over 20 years the military regime governed the country with a harsh dictatorship up to the election of Fernando Collor de Mello in 1989 who led the country back to democracy but also into several economic crisis.
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The introduction of the economic program REAL in 1994 by Fernando Cardoso cut the high inflation rates and led the country in the direction of economic growth. Todays Brazilian population is consequently formed of three main roots, the indigenous inhabitants, the immigrated Portuguese and the imported African slaves. Each of them has made its particular contribution to the Brazilian culture. Additionally, the numerous inflows of European immigrants also influenced the culture (Stubbe 2001).
Geography / Climate
th
Climatic and other physical conditions of the environment influence the cultural evolution of the group which lives within.
As the world 5 largest country Brazil disposes of a huge territory with a large geographical and climatic diversity. Its climate shows a wide range from temperate to subtropical. The environments vary consequently in the different regions from temperate hills to tropical coastal area and deserts to the huge rainforest of the Amazonas. It can be observed that the regional differences are also reflected in the unequal economic development. The Brazilian economic power is for instance concentrated in the southeast, whereas the northeast is denominated as Brazils poorhouse.
Major culture-building institutions
Through the socialisation process members of a society are brought
together within a framework of social institutions such as religion, education and family which have an impact on the national culture. Family is very high valued in Brazil and its members are very attached to each other. Kwinesential (2010) supported this by defining the Brazilian family as the foundation of the social structure and forming the basis of stability for most people. Most of the Brazilians are following Roman Catholicism (73.8%)(Censo Demogrfico 2000), followed by Protestantism (15.4%). There is also a considerable part without religion (7.3%) and in some regions the by the African religion influenced Candombl has an impact on peoples rituals and beliefs. A religious liberalisation can be assumed in the last years, for example towards the acceptance of homosexuality pointed out by the growing popularity of gay parades. The Brazilian education system is based on a multilateral system of public and private education institutions. The weak results of the Brazilian students in the PISA study (OECD, PISA 2009 Database) and an adult illiteracy rate of 10.0%( Human Development Report 2009 UNDP) highlight the lack of a reliable national education system, available to the whole population.
Major national & supranational institutions The state is mainly influencing its society with its political direction, economic and social policies and the legal framework. Supranational institutions may also be important, especially during weaknesses of the local government.
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The government of Luiz Incio Lula da Silva (2002 - 2010) was very popular and perceived as successful. Especially the economically weaker part of the population profited of the introduction of social programs for the poor such as the expansion of the successful Bolsa Familia. Economically Brazil can look back at a favourable GDP development from 645 Bio.USD (in 2000) to 1577 (in 2009). In 2011 Dilma Rousseff took over the Brazilian presidency and is expected to continue with the popular politics of Lula. In the Brazilian financial crisis in 1999 the International Monetary Fund had to largely intervene in the Brazilian economy. However the 2004 introduced economy policies have proved to guide in the right direction and led to a considerable reduction of debt towards IMF and even international currency reserves were built. As an active member of the WTO, Brazil is gaining international importance, among other reason because of its leading position within the developing countries (e.g. G20).
3.2
Studies about the Brazilian Cultures
Many intercultural studies tried to classify nations by their cultural characteristics. In doing so they defined several dimensions on the occurrence of which the national culture can be defined and hence be compared with others. Three international studies were selected due to their primary reference to cultural values, the determination of which is the aim of this chapter. Therefore this part will deal with the approaches of Hofstede and Trompenaars as well with the more recent GLOBE-study. Furthermore, other sources of international and Brazilian culture experts are selected to complete the image of the Brazilian culture; taking into account the point of view of Brazilian nationals. 3.2.1 Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions
Geert Hofstede (1980) wanted to explore the differences in thinking and social action that exist between members of 40 different modern nations therefore he conducted a survey with around 117 000 participants in the multinational company IBM between 1967 and 1973. Hofstede distinguishes cultures according to five dimensions that are presented together with the Brazilian scores in figure 3.2. PDI describes the extent to which the less powerful members of organisations and institutions accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. Brazil scored with 69 rather high in the PDI, which shows the Brazilian acceptance of unequally distributed authority, which can be seen not only in the business world but also in social inequalities. IDV shows the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups. With a score of 38 Brazil can be described as a collective culture, which means that ties to strong groups, such as families, are very important and impose a high loyalty. Hofstede presented that Brazil is slightly more individualistic compared to the average Latin population score of 21, which may be explained by historical and political differences.
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Power Distance Index (PDI) 38
69
Individualism vs. Collectivism (IDV)
Masculinity vs. Femininity (MAS)
49
Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) 65 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
76
Long-Term Orientation (LTO)
80
90
100
Figure 3.2 Brazilian scores in Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions (Hofstede 2010)
MAS refers to the distribution of gender roles and explains if a society has a more feministic or masculine character. Brazil scored with 49 very equalized between masculine and feminine values, which shows balanced assertive and nurturing socialization patterns. UAI is the extent to which members of a culture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations Brazils UAI score of 76 shows the highest of the 5 Hofstede Dimensions indicating a low level of tolerance for uncertainty. Hofstede explained that in an effort to minimize or reduce this level of uncertainty, strict rules, laws, policies, and regulations are adopted and implemented which can be seen in Brazil with its complicated and strict law system. LTO shows the difference of long-term orientation and short-term orientation. Brazil ranks on position 6 of the 23 studied countries1 and shows hence a peculiarity of long-term orientation. Hofstede characterised long-term-orientation with the values of perseverance and respect of hierarchy (among others) that can be found in the Brazilian society.
3.2.2
Tropenaarss Cultural Dimensions
Another important culture study was conducted by Fons Trompenaars who analysed differences between national cultures within 7 different dimensions. Tropenaars administered research questionnaires to approximately 15 000 managers from various multinational companies. The research was conducted over a long period and firstly published in 1994.
The number of countries are different because this dimension was added later.
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Trompenaarss seven cultural dimensions consist of five relationship orientations that address the ways in which people deal with each other and the attitudes towards time and environment (Hodgetts 2006). 23 selected home countries of the large number of surveyed national representatives are compared based on the Trompenaarss Relationship Orientations in Figure 3.3.2 Brazil seems only slightly more orientated towards Universalism than Particularism which means that the focus is slightly more on rules than relationships. This score is also reflected in the high UAI score in Hofstedes cultural dimension and Brazils strict law system. In the dimension Individualism vs Communitarianism Brazil scores balanced between the two characteristics. A small preference towards individualism may exist and show that Brazilians see themselves slightly more as individuals than as part of a group.3 Brazils position in the dimension of Neutral vs. Emotional shows that the Brazilian society is more emotional/affective than neutral. Emotional nations show immediate reactions, expressive face and body signals and extensive physical contact. In the fourth dimension of Specific vs. Diffuse Brazils position is more specific-oriented, and hence a faint separation between work and private life is made. In a specific culture individuals have a large public space which they openly share and a small private space they guard closely to their close friends and family.
In the Achievement vs. Ascription dimension, Brazil scores slightly more ascription-oriented which may be explained by the importance of established status and hierarchy in Brazil.
In Trompenaars dimensions Attitude towards time Brazil seems to have a short-termism (time horizon) and in the Attitude towards
Figure 3.3 Trompenaars Relationship Orientations on Cultural Dimensions (Hodgetts ad all. (2006) based on information found in Trompenaars 1994)
nature Brazil presents a manager society that believes in controlling their own environment (Trompenaars 2002).
2
3
Please take into account the difference between numeral scores of Hofstedes dimensions and a country comparison. Trompenaars derived these two relationships differently than Hofstede, which may explain the different score, although the basic meaning of the
dimension is congruent.
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3.2.3
GLOBE-Study
The Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness project is another important and more recent research program measuring cultural differences. The GLOBE project is very valuable for intercultural studies as it is extending and integrating previous analyses of cultural attributes and variables. Over a period of ten years (1994-2004) the research program studied the societal culture, organizational culture and attributes of effective leadership in 62 cultures. The results are primarily based on the results of the survey of more than 17 000 middle managers of local companies of different countries (House 2004). The GLOBE project identified nine different cultural dimensions that are described and explained on the example of Brazilian scores, as seen in figure. 3.4. A difference between practices (society as is) and values (society should be) is made in the GLOBE study, however as this part wants to determinate the Brazilian cultural values the focus is laid on the value scores of the Brazilian society and the practice scores are only presented as additional information.
Uncertainty Avoidance Humane Orientation
4.99 5.68
Power Distance In-Group Collectivism
2.35 5.15
Institutional Collectivism 5.62 Assertiveness Gender Egalitarianism Future Orientation Performance Orientation 0 Practices Values 1 2 4.99 5.69 6.13 3 4 5 2.91
Figure 3.4 Brazilian scores in the GLOBE study (House, 2004)
Uncertainty Avoidance
= extent to which individuals seek orderliness, consistency, structure, formalized procedures, and laws to cover situations in their daily lives.
As already seen in the corresponding Hofstede dimension Brazilian values score rather high in Uncertainty Avoidance, standing for a tendency towards formalizing interactions by policies and procedures and relying on a strict law system.
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Humane Orientation
= degree to which individuals are encouraged and rewarded for being fair, altruistic, friendly, generous, caring, and kind to others.
With a score of 5.68 Brazil ranks on the 6th highest position of the societys values in Human Orientation, this indicates the importance of personal and family relationships as well as the need for belonging and affiliation. Power Distance = degree to which society members expect and agree that power should be stratified and concentrated at higher levels of an organisation or government. The Brazilian score of 2.35 shows a rather low desired power distance, however a considerable difference between this result and the practices (5.33) can be observed, showing that Brazilian society prefers a less hierarchical structure than the existing one. In-Group Collectivism = degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty, and cohesiveness in their organisation or families. Institutional Collectivism = degree to which institutional practices encourage and reward collective distribution of resources and collective action. In both Collectivism dimensions Brazil presents a high score standing for a collective society, highlighting the value of the group above individuals. Assertiveness = degree to which individuals are assertive, confrontational, and aggressive in social relationship. With a low score of 2.91 Brazil tends to be relationship oriented, to emphasize more the person than the work and to view assertiveness as socially unacceptable. Gender egalitarianism = degree to which a society minimises gender role differences while promoting gender equality. Brazils society seems to be a society wanting to treat women and men equally and accord them the same right and possibilities with a high score on Gender Egalitarianism (4.99). Future orientation = degree to which individuals engage in future-oriented behaviour such as planning, investing in future and delaying individuals or collective gratification. Brazils values show to be rather future orientated taking into account the future and adjusting actions towards prospective rewards. Performance orientation = extent to which a society encourages and rewards group members for performance improvement and excellence. In this dimensions Brazils values scored high with 6.13, indicating business performances as an important value. A significant difference between the practices and the values may show that Brazilians want to improve their current low competiveness (Global Competitiveness Index 09/10 Rank 56 of 133)
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3.2.4
Selected Intercultural Studies
Additionally, the findings of the World Values Survey and the core Brazilian values of the Culture Detective as international studies about the Brazilian culture are presented to complete the analysis.
3.2.4.1
The World Values Survey
The World Values Survey is a project intended to provide a better understanding of the values and beliefs of people in different societies and political systems. The database is continually expanded and revised. The latest data available for Brazil is from 2006 and consist of many different aspects concerning values affecting the Brazilian society. As a selected part figure 3.5 shows the importance of some topics in Brazilian life:
Importance in life: FAMILIY FRIENDS LEISURE TIME POLITICS WORK RELIGION
Very Important 86.4% 37.2% 27.2% 14.7% 65.4% 50.6%
Rather important 13.1% 50.6% 57.5% 40.4% 33.4% 40.4%
Not very important 0.2% 10.4% 12.9% 26.3% 0.9% 6.2%
Not at all important 0.3% 1.8% 2.5% 18.7% 0.2% 2.7%
Table 3.1 Importance in life of a few topics based on the World Values Survey, Brazil 2006
The figure shows clearly the high importance that the Brazilian society ascribes to the family and to some extend also to religion and friends. The importance of work, however, also scores high but seems to come behind family.
3.2.4.2
Cultural Detective
Aiming for intercultural training and consulting, Culture Detective establishes culture-specific training packages about many national cultures in which its core values are defined, based on the knowledge of local and international cultural experts. In the Culture Detective: Brazil the core Brazilian values are defined as the following: Multi-Directional Attention refers to a flexible perception of live with personal relationships coming before strict plans and schedules. Behaviour and punctuality depend on the particular circumstances, which may also lead to a negative interpretation of this value as irresponsibility and unreliability. Flexibility describes the Brazilian attitude towards exceptions and disrespect of rules through the use of personal networks. The famous jeitinho brasileiro embodies the value of flexibility by using adaptation, creativity and informality, which may be interpreted positively and negatively.
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Relationships show the high importance of personal networks and the essential socialising before closing any deals. Brazil tends to have a very diffuse culture, building strong relations of trust within private and professional life. Status and Hierarchy refers to the hierarchical structures in social and personal life, as well as to the importance of ascribed status and the respect of inequality. Face describes the importance of maintaining a persons good image and may also be reflected in the Brazilian sensuality and the high esteem of the physical image. Charisma and maintaining good relationship with everyone are therefore important characteristics in the Brazilian society. A negative interpretation of this value may be unreliability, as for example in the case of mistakes no one will take the responsibility in order to maintain a good image.
3.2.5
Brazilian Studies
In order to complete the analysis of the Brazilian culture the points of view of Brazilian culture experts are integrated in this part, starting with the by Motta defined traces of the Brazilian culture, concluding with some further concepts of the Brazilian culture. 3.2.5.1 Mottas Brazilian Traces
In his work about organisational and Brazilian culture Fernando Motta (1997) defined the following five Brazilian features together with its key-characteristics as tracing most accurately the Brazilian society. He stated that these culture features to some extent have got an influence on the organisational culture. Features of the Brazilian culture Hierarchy Key-characteristics Humanism / Person-Orientation Malandragem = swindle/cheating Sensuality Adventurer Tendency towards centralization of power within social groups Detachment in relation between different social groups Passiveness and acceptance by the inferiors groups Society based on personal relations Need of proximity and tenderness within relationships Paternalism: moral and economic dominance Flexibility and adaptation as social navigation tool Jeitinho Enthusiasm of the sensual and exotic in social relations More dreamer than disciplined Tendency towards the aversion of manual or methodical work
Table3.3 Features of the Brazilian culture with its key-characteristics (Motta 1997)
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Furthermore, Motta highlighted the paradox between the orientation towards collectivism and the existing high power distance; leading simultaneously to near and distanced personal relationships. 3.2.5.2 Further concepts of the Brazilian culture
The following values and concepts are perceived as fundamental in Brazil: The concept of the cordial man and the related ethical model in which the behaviour is influenced much more by emotions than by universal rules was already sited by Buarques de Holandas in 1936 in which he also highlighted the importance of the adaptation to the tropical environment. The historian did explain the concept of putting personal, familiar relationships over the public, professional ones, creating an intermixture between professional and private life. The focus on relationship rather than task highlights the importance of social interaction and the need of trust in business deals (Ferreira 2010). According to Ferreira personalism and personalised social relationships are expressions used to describe how a person is present in the Brazilian society, standing for the importance of social networks and personalised interactions with individuals in respect of different hierarchical status. The acceptance of hierarchal structures may be seen in the centralization of power in many organisations and the expectance and acceptance of unequal distributed power. The anthologist Lilia Schwarcz (2009) explained the existence of inequality and high importance of hierarchy with the long history coexisting social classes; the long inequality results in the acceptance of this misery. According to the high score in Hofstedes UAI Brazil has got excessive regulations; however, DaMatta (1997) points out that flexibility is an important value in the Brazilian society. As exactly in a society overwhelmed by rules and laws an intermediary path between what is allowed and what is prohibited has to be found. This may be reflected in the frequently used Brazilian expression of jeito which can be defined as the ability to find a way, fix it, pull strings, figure out a solution (Dictionary of Informal Brazilian Portuguese). Roberto DaMatta further highlights the importance of the social network with family members and friends, which may be helpful in getting an exception and special treatment within the rigorous law system. Another interesting term (coming from the football scene) within the Brazilian society is the lei de gerson (Gersons Law), which is an unwritten law saying that a person is trying to take advantage of everything and everyone. Negatively interpreted this is the attempt to make profit of every situation only for individual benefit, without importing about ethics and morals. The project Brasilidade realized by the Repblica Opinio dos Brasileiros (2010) describes the modern Brazilian as optimist, fighter with high self-esteem and proud of being Brazilian. In the realized extensive research Brazilians show traces of being happy, emotional, musical, living in the present in which adaptation and flexibility are important values.
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3.3
Defining Brazilian Culture Values
After getting an understanding of the origins of the Brazilian national culture and the different analysis of the Brazilian culture, the Brazilian culture values (which will be further examined in this paper) are defined reflecting the multiple mentioned sources of inputs. Table 3.1 explains the five defined values with the associated characteristics, referencing to the mentioned cultural studies.
Value
Person-Orientation
Characteristics
Placing more importance on maintaining relationships than task commitment Putting social satisfaction over pure economic objectives Importance of personal network Business deals are based on trust Influence of emotions rather than purely rational behaviour
References: Trompenaars: Emotional and Specific society / GLOBE: high Human Orientation low Assertiveness, high Gender Egalitarianism / WVS: Importance of Family, Friends and Leisure Time / CD: Relationships / Motta: Humanism
Flexibility
Perception of time as flexible, abundant and less important than relationship Changes in priorities and procedures may occur Belief in external control many things cannot be influenced by the individual Personalized problem solving and different interpretations of rules Creativity in solving problems or task achievements
References: GLOBE: high Human Orientation/ CD: Flexibility and Multi-directional attention / concept of jeito / Motta: Malandragem
Hierarchy
Acceptance of hierarchical status Adjusting behaviour towards the ascribed status of a person Acceptance of inequality Expectance of hierarchical structures within organizations
References: History of class differences / Classification in social classes / Hofstede: high PDI / GLOBE: Power Distance Practice / CD & Motta: Hierarchy
Collectivism
Priority of the group interests over individual concerns Importance of the family and personal relations Referring and goal achieving through social network (Nepotism) Group coherence Always being friendly and courteous towards others
References: Social direction of the government / GLOBE: Society Institutional and In-Group Collectivism / WVS: Importance of Family, Friend
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Persistency
Need of a basic, reliable structure (family & stable hierarchical structures) Organization of the society and business by a legal frame Standing for the external framework (internal existing Flexibility) Acceptance of existing hierarchy and social differences
References: Hofstede: high UAI and LTO / GLOBE: high Uncertainty Avoidance / WVS: Importance of the family as the base social structure /
Table 3.2 Brazilian Culture Values
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Changes in the Brazilian Culture
In Chapter 3 the Brazilian culture was analysed based on national and international studies, subsequently, five values were defined as the core Brazilian culture values. In a next stage these five characteristics of the Brazilian culture were further reviewed and their validity in the current Brazilian society verified, in order to find out more about the on-going cultural changes. The examination was realized with the help of an internet survey conducted with Management students of four state universities in different regions of Brazil. A total of 237 answers were taken into account for the following analysis. More details about the methodology of the conducted survey may be found in the detailed survey evaluation in the appendix 9.3. The questionnaire (see appendix 9.2) was divided into three parts, the first part analysed the defined Brazilian culture values by the degree of agreement to statements related to each value. The students were asked to indicate to which extent they agree or disagree with the following statements, putting the importance on how they think it should be rather than how things are. For example the value Person-Orientation was evaluated with the following three statements: Value Person-Orientation Statements Personal circumstances may be more important than a work commitment. An important characteristic of a manager should be caring and motivating his staff. A reliable personal network is fundamental to be professionally successful
Table 4.1 Survey Example: value Person-Orientation and the three corresponding statements
The five ranking options for each statement were: Strongly Disagree/ Disagree / Neutral / Agree and Strongly Agree. The three statements to each Brazilian value are indicated in the evaluation under each value. In order to simplify the presentation of the survey evaluation, the results of the three statements of each value were accumulated and visualized in the following analysis of each culture value. The second part integrated the question of the World Values Survey about importance of some aspects in life (compare with 3.2.4.1) and in the final optional part three open questions gave the respondents the opportunity to express their ideas in more depth. The hereafter mentioned data is an accumulation of the results of the different questions, whereas the most importance was given to the rating of the respectively three statements to its culture values. Although not fulfilling the requirement of being representative this form of research was chosen in order to get an updated view of the Brazilian culture and so being able to determine on-going changes. The data of the internet survey was useful for the exploration of the current cultural trends which were then further discussed in depth interviews with cultural experts and Brazilian university professors of different study fields(see appendix 9.4).
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The results of the realised survey are presented in the following, starting with the values that seem to be continuingly prevalent in the Brazilian society. Then at the core of the chapter the focus is laid on the observed trends in the cultural values, before concluding in a separate point of interesting regional differences that were explored as the survey purposely took into account four different regions of Brazil.
4.1
Stable Brazilian Culture Values
The values Person-Orientation and Flexibility are continuously two strong values in the Brazilian society. This was strongly confirmed in the conducted survey. 4.1.1 Value Person-Orientation Person-Orientation Statements Personal circumstances may be more important than a work commitment. An important characteristic of a manager should be caring and motivating his staff. A reliable personal network is fundamental to be professionally successful.
Table 4.2 Statements to the value Person-Orientation
The results of the survey show a clear confirmation of the value Person-Orientation in the Brazilian culture. This agreement with the values is demonstrated in the following figure accumulating the reactions to the three statements representing the culture value Person-Orientation, presented in table 4.2.
Person-Orientation
50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 7.2% 10.0% 0.0% Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree 0.6% 8.6% 46.3% 37.2%
Figure 4.1 Agreement to statements related to the value Person-Orientation (survey 2011)
It seems that also in todays society the focus is laid on personal relationships rather than task commitment and purely economic interests. More importance is given to the personal, social life than the professional life and so personal circumstances may come before completing work commitments. Business seems to be based
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continuingly on trust and strong personal interaction. The answers did also strongly confirm that social skills are fundamental in the business world and that management consist of social interactions of people in which every person is valued. Furthermore, social networks remain being crucial in personal and professional life.
The fundamental role of the Person-Orientation in the Brazilian society was further confirmed in the answer structure to the question of the World Values Surveys (compare with 3.2.4.) in which the respondents were asked to indicate how important the following in their life is. The answers of the conducted survey are shown in table 4.3 and visualized in figure 4.2.
Importance in life: FAMILIY FRIENDS LEISURE TIME POLITICS WORK RELIGION
Very Important 90.43% 51.20% 40.67% 12.56% 44.02% 26.44%
Rather important 9.57% 46.41% 55.02% 39.13% 54.55% 27.40%
Not very important 0.00% 2.39% 4.31% 43.96% 1.44% 24.52%
Not at all important 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 4.35% 0.00% 21.63%
Table 4.3 Importance in life of a few topics (World Values Survey question) survey 2011
100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% FAMILIY FRIENDS LEISURE TIME POLITICS WORK RELIGION Very Important Rather important Not very important Not at all important
Figure 4.2 Importance in life of a few topics (World Values Survey question) survey 2011
Showing very similar numbers compared with the existing data of the World Values Survey conducted in 2006, the results clearly show that the family still plays an important role in the Brazilian life. Over 90% valued family as very important, placing the loyalty to their relatives above all other mentioned aspects in life. Friends also have an important role, scoring second place on the items valued as very important. These two results
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confirm the importance of the value Person-Orientation in Brazil, as social relationships with family and friends are given more importance than work or other less socialising points of life.
4.1.2 Value
Flexibility Statements There is always a possibility (jeito) to solve problems. Flexibility, adaptation to changes and creativity should be enhanced in todays business world. Being late in a business meeting or not respecting deadlines does not have negative consequences.
Table 4.4 Statements to the value Flexbility
Flexibility
Flexibility as a Brazilian culture value is standing for adaptation to every situation, use of personalised solutions, creativity, informality and change, which may lead to a flexible perception of time and working tasks.With the help of the survey the current agreement with the value could be evaluated and is shown in figure 4.3.
Flexibility
50.0% 45.0% 40.0% 35.0% 30.0% 25.0% 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0% 43.7% 41.7%
7.0% 0.7% Strongly Disagree Disagree
7.0%
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Figure 4.3 Agreement to statements related to the value Flexibility (survey 2011)
Flexibility seems to be a consistent, strong value in the Brazilian culture, not only in personal but also in business settings. It was strongly confirmed that flexibility and adaptation to change are crucial in the Brazilian business environment, which surely is in line with the process of globalisation and on-going worldwide changes.
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Especially the famous jeito brasileiro, interpreted as always possible response to every kind of issue embodies the Brazilian flexibility. This was impressively expressed in the answers to the open question about Brazilian culture values as shown in the following statement which also implicates the meaning of the jeito brasileiro: The values are: jeitinho brasileiro (The Brazilians consider themselves experts and think that there is always a possibility for every kind of problem, also if the solution is not very lawful) and ().
Translated from Portuguese, answer of a student of the University of So Paulo
Concerning the jeito brasileiro the respondents further highlighted its positive side as flexibility, creativity and adaptation but also its negative perception as creating corruption, illegality and socially incorrect behaviours. A third provocative statement of Coming late in a business meeting or not respecting deadlines does not have negative consequences was also integrated in the survey in order to analyse how the often known prejudice towards Brazilians is perceived by themselves. However, the strong disagreement to it was neglected due to the fact that the answers seem to be rather idealistic and no society likes to confirm characteristics that may be seen as a weakness.
Together with the Person-Orientation the value Flexibility embodies stable characteristics of the Brazilian society with no significant change.
4.2
Changing Values
Before analysing the changes happening in the three other Brazilian culture values, attention is drawn to the question if changes in the culture values are even in progress. Therefore the answers to the second of the open questions, which asked if the Brazilian culture values have changed over the generation, more specifically if the respondents have got a different perception of the values compared to their parents and grandparents, are presented in figure 4.4. Dividing the textual answers into three categories of Change, No change and Some values changed others not shows a clear majority of almost 70% agreeing that the values did change over the generations, as visualized in the following pie chart.
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11% Change No Change Some values changed others not
20%
69%
Figure 4.4 Changes of the Brazilian culture values (survey 2011)
After seeing this clear agreement with on-going changes in the Brazilian culture, the question is now what is changing and how it is changing. In the following the three values Hierarchy, Collectivism and Persistency are analysed in more detail based on the conducted survey.
4.2.1 Value
Hierarchy Statements A well-functioning organisation needs a centralised and hierarchical structure. Showing respect to a person of a hierarchical higher status is compulsive. In the Brazilian society people should be treated equally and given the same rights and possibilities.
Table 4.5 Statements to the value Hierarchy
Hierarchy
The analysis of existing studies has shown that hierarchy has historically had a strong influence on the Brazilian society. With the help of the survey the todays occurrence of hierarchy as a Brazilian culture value was verified.
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Hierarchy
50.0% 45.0% 40.0% 35.0% 30.0% 25.0% 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0% 41.6%
22.3%
19.7% 13.9% 2.4%
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Figure 4.5 Agreement to statements related to the value Hierarchy (survey 2011)
The reactions to the statements (see table 4.5) showed a change towards a less hierarchical, more equalized society. It seems that centralized, hierarchical structures are losing their importance and are getting obsolete in the Brazilian economy. A clear disagreement towards the need for centralized, hierarchical structures was evident in the results, which may be interpreted as a general aversion towards hierarchy in todays business settings. Moreover, it was stated that the respect towards hierarchical status is less important and that everyone should be treated equally, which somehow contrasts with the current system, which consists of still existing inequalities. However, it could be - as already seen in the considerable difference between practices and values of the Power Distance Value of the GLOBE study - that there exists a remarkable gap between how it should be and how it is.
In some statements of the survey participants clearly support the findings mentioned above, such as the following answer, underlining the movement towards a less hierarchical, more equalised society (of meritocracy): Yes, in the past the respect for the social position of the older and richer persons was more important. Money and age imposed respect. The new generation does not allocate the same amount of value to it, they rather reward expertise.
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4.2.2 Value
Collectivism Statements In business, group achievement should be more appreciated than individual performance. The commitment to a group should not force you to change your personal interests. Family loyalty should be higher valued than business obligation and interests of other (family-extern) groups.
Table 4.6 Statements to the value Collectivism
Collectivism
The reaction to the three statements related to the value of Collectivism, presented in table 4.6, did not show a clear structure. A balancing between individualist and collectivistic orientation was exhibited, which may indicate a trend from collectivism to an integration of individualistic interests. To some extent the collectivism of the Brazilian society was already confirmed in the high importance of social structures shown under the value Personal-Orientation. However, the hereafter shown answer structure of the survey clearly indicates the introduction of individualistic values into the Brazilian nation.
Collectivism
50.0% 45.0% 40.0% 35.0% 30.0% 25.0% 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0%
31.7% 27.5% 24.0% 10.6% 6.1%
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Figure 4.6 Agreement to statements related to the value Collectivism (survey 2011)
The introduction of individualistic oriented interests was stated in the following answer about on-going changes in the Brazilian culture: Yes, a conflict or dilemma of the values can be observed. Work and its intensive rhythm fostered the introduction of individualism. This idea of personal benefits brakes with the social welfare.
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The statement does not only confirm the implementation of an individualistic mind-set but also the possible conflict between individualism and the distinctive Personal-Orientation of the Brazilians.
4.2.3 Value
Persistency Statements The productivity (of a business) should be enhanced by the introduction of rigorous working processes. An organisation should consist of rules that define the behaviour of its members. Business contracts and agreements should be built on a strict and reliable law system.
Table 4.7 Statements to the value Persistency
Persistency
Based on existing studies persistency was defined as another Brazilian culture value, its current validity was analysed within the conducted survey. Persistency stands on one hand for the importance of strong, reliable social structures as for example the family; on the other hand it represents rigorous rules and regulations, strictly regulating the individuals behaviour within personal and social life.
Persistency
50.0% 45.0% 40.0% 35.0% 30.0% 25.0% 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0%
34.3% 24.0% 10.3% 5.0% 26.4%
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Figure 4.7 Agreement to statements related to the value Persistency (survey 2011)
The analysed statements showed that there is not much agreement with persistency, embodied by rigorous rules and laws in the Brazilian society. The value of flexibility, which was strongly confirmed as already shown before, responds more to the Brazilian culture values and somehow conflicts with the persistency. This phenomenon may be explained by understanding persistency as rules and organized structures that constitute the external framework of the society, in which internally flexibility prevails. For example, the existing system
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of the Brazilian society is based on strict bureaucratic laws (persistency) but leaves space to avoid the limiting rules by using the jeito brasileiro (flexibility).
The results of the survey showed that somehow the value of persistency is changing; showing less validity as a cultural value. However in the depth analysis and the qualitative interviews no clear direction of this value was identified. Paradoxically the importance of strong, reliable social structure was highly confirmed as shown under the value Person-Orientation. Showing many different aspects the value persistency seems to undergo transformation, which should be studied more in depth in an additional examination. For this reason the following study about the causes of the on-going changes will only concentrate on the observed trends of the values Hierarchy and Collectivism
To conclude, it can be stated that a trend towards a less hierarchical, more equalized society is happening in todays Brazil, creating changes not only within personal interaction but also in professional organisations. Additionally, individualistic interests are entering this collective society.
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4.3
Interesting Findings
In this subchapter the focus is laid on regional differences, as the surveys was purposely conducted within four universities of differing regions of Brazil. With the separate evaluation of each answer group I tried to find out if regional differences exist and how their occurrence is.
4.3.1
Regional Differences
Generally it may be said that the answer structures were very similar to one another and only slight differences between the agreement and disagreement of the four universities may be found and often the small identified differences compensate one another throughout the multiple statement. Detailed results are presented in the complete survey evaluation in the appendix 9.3. It is very interesting to see how similar the reactions are, even as the regional cultural diversity of Brazil is famous. The congruence of the answers may results from the very similar characteristics of the respondents (young management students of state universities). In an additional study it would be interesting to analyse this point further, as it exceed the framework of the present thesis.
In the survey findings regional differences did also not appear very evidentially as the answer structure mostly showed a similar structure within the different regions of Brazil. However, the answers obtained in the last of the three open questions are very interesting as they confirm the contrary. The question wanted to know if there are regional differences in the Brazilian values or if a strong national identity leads to an everywhere acceptance of common values. In figure 4.8 the textual answers were divided into three categories, showing with 74% a clear affirmation of the existence of regional differences.
12% 14% Regional Differences National Identity National Identity and Regional Differences
74%
Figure 4.8 Regional Differences (survey 2011)
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How does this clear agreement with the existence of regional differences go together with the consistent results obtained in the evaluation of the value related statements? One reason might be, as already mentioned, the homogeneity of the respondents. However, the difference could also be explained by the existence of intensive prejudices, which makes the population think that there are very distinctive values in the different regions although they are rather identic and only their occurrence in attitude and behaviour varies.
The most mentioned regional differences were the definition of the Southern population as work-orientated, organized and therefore also stressed and serious, whereas the Brazilian of the Northern region are perceived as very relationship-orientated, valuating social life over work commitment, being less reliable and always friendly. Exactly these well-known differences may strengthen the perception of a regional diversity in culture values.
The discourse about regional cultural differences is a historical, vast topic already explored by many authors, such as Skidmore (2010), Ortiz (2009), Maia (2006) among many others. Regional distinctions largely result from the interaction between the native indigenous, the multiple immigrants and the imported African slaves, as it is discussed in depth in the famous work of Darcy Ribeiro (1995) about the formation of the Brazilian population. Differential economic development is another cause of differences.
The topic of regional differences is a very interesting and large topic in the Brazilian culture, especially as authors like Nitschack (2010) and Costa (2010) imply a revaluation of the influence of the different subcultures. It would however exceed the framework of this work to analyse this subject in detail, which should be done in additional future studies.
In a nutshell, the results did not show significant regional differences and so justify the analysis of the changes in the Brazilian culture as a whole nation. However, it has to be born in mind that there may exist considerable differences within the Brazilian society, not only between geographical regions, but also within different social classes or more or less urbanised areas.
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4.4
Conclusion of Changes in the Brazilian Culture
In the first of the open questions the respondents were asked to indicate which values of the Brazilian society have a bearing on personal and business life. The gathered answers to this question were very multifaceted, but showed some interesting patterns.
In the following table I sorted the multiple mentioned values by the five defined Brazilian culture values together with the frequency of mentions. Some values were not possible to allocate to one of the values and built a few separate values. The value of Person-Orientation was for example confirmed by the frequent mentions of social networks, the importance of family and other personal relationship oriented values. Observing the frequency it can clearly be seen that the values Person-Orientation and Flexibility are undoubtedly important culture values in the Brazilian society, whereas the values Collectivism, Persistency and Hierarchy were also mentioned in the answers, but with a lower frequency, corresponding to the found on-going chances in these values. Of a special interest is the occurrence of the value of Collectivism AND individualism indicating the already seen trend of integrating individualistic values in the Brazilian society. Value Person-Orientation Respect / Ethics Flexibility Collectivism Individualism Persistency Hierarchy Religion Education Frequency 82 80 69 34 20 12 11 6 5
The most important of the remaining values are the statements related to respect and ethics, but no further focus is laid on these values, as they contain values which should be presented in every society and do
Figure 4.8 Values and their frequency of mentioning (survey 2011)
therefore not present values which distinguish the Brazilian from other societies. This justification also applies to Religion and Education.
In conclusion, the presented findings of the open questions and the interviews correspond with the highlighted changes currently occurring in the Brazilian culture. Person-Orientation and Flexibility are unchanged very strongly integrated characteristics, whereas Persistency loses weight but without showing a trend towards a clear direction. Two interesting on-going changes in the Brazilian values were observed: The value of Hierarchy seems to undergo a change in the direction of a less hierarchical, more equalized society. Moreover, the rather collective-oriented Brazilian society started to introduce more individualistic interests.
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Causes of the Cultural Change
After the presentation of the observed cultural changes in chapter 4, the following chapter wants to find out why these changes are happening. The objective is to find the explanation why the Brazilian culture values evolve in a new direction. Certainly, transformations of cultural values always happen slowely over time, but certain forces may accelerate this process; exactly these factors will be examined in this chapter. Firstly, an abstract of the relevant theory dealing with worldwide cultural changes will be given. Secondly, the focus will be laid on the causes of changes in the Brazilian culture values.
5.1
Theoretical Analysis of Cultural Change
In the first part of this theoretical subchapter a short excursus of the modernisation theory4 will be given in order to discuss the relationship between economic development and cultural change. In the second part foreign interventions as altering forces, especially the globalisation are highlighted. Hofstedes (1980) famous theory about the kind of causes which change culture5 was purposely not included as he integrated the dimension of age in his analysis, which was not examined in the conducted study.6 5.1.1 Influence of Economic Development on Cultural Change
Modernization describes a socio-scientific theory which characterises social change and serves to interpret and explain fundamental societal transformation. Many modernisation theorists, of whom the most influential was Karl Marx, have argued that economic development brings pervasive cultural change. However, other theorists, like Weber and Huntington, have claimed that cultural values are an enduring and independent influence on society. Inglehart (2005) tested the assumption that economic development is coupled with systematic changes in basic values, based on data of the World Values Surveys (see 3.2.4.1). The results showed evidence of both massive cultural changes and the persistence of distinctive cultural traditions. According to Thompson (2001) the relation between culture and economic development during the past fifty years may be seen variably as causal, correlative or relatively autonomous, showing the complexity of analysing the influence of economic development on cultural change. To sum up, it can be said that economic development does empirically and theoretically have an influence on cultural change, but is not an absolute cause for explaining changes in the culture values. Additionally, while studying the change of culture, Hofstede (1980) also argued that there is a correlation between national wealth and individualism.
4 5 6
A more profound integration of the modernization would exceed the scope of this thesis but would be interesting for a future study. Compare with Hofstede, 1980 An integration of cultural changes over aging would be definitively interesting to analyse more in depth in an additional study.
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5.1.2
Intervention form Outside
Mead (2010) explained that intervention by an outside power may cause a major shift in a national culture. In table 2.1 some conditions for foreign intervention being successful in causing cultural shift are presented, showing the importance of the willingness to change of both the internal and external actors. Foreign culture values may also be introduced into a culture if there is a welcoming environment. A crucial intervention from abroad - fulfilling the in table 2.1 mentioned conditions - is the process of globalisation. The conditions for a successful foreign intervention drawn up by Mean explain why globalisation causes cultural shift and are summarized in table 5.1. OBJECTIVE The outsiders aim to cause a shift in values; The actors of globalisation want to influence culture values towards a global culture promoting international interactions by new technologies and greater mobility. Globalisation seems to be a long-term involvement that enters in every economy of the world. The local leadership is sympathetic to the intervention; Hardly any country may resist against the processes of globalization. Local leaders are open for its intervention as they want to profit of the positive effect of globalisation. The local leadership seizes the opportunity posed by the intervention to support or lead the change process; With the liberation of trade and investment many opportunities for the whole economies, but also for its members, are created. The outsiders are respected; Globalization shows positive and negative effects for the societies. However, the economic and political forces boost the international integration. The outsiders have regular friendly contacts with influential locals; Every member of a society is exposed to the effects of globalisation in both professional and personal life. The foreigners make a long-term commitment. Globalisation is a long-term process with increasing speed and diffusion all over the world.
Table 5.1 Globalisation fulfilling the conditions for foreign intervention causing cultural shift (model adaptad from Mean 2010)
LOCAL LEADERSHIP
OPPORTUNITY
RESPECT
CONTACTS
TENURE
Technological Innovation, trade and investment liberation and intensified competition boost the globalisation processes which in turn have an impact on jobs and wages, labour, the environment and the market (Wild 2010). Moreover, globalisation has a strong influence on culture, affecting every human in personal and private life as already mentioned in the context point 2.3. Whether globalisation eradicates cultural differences between groups or people or even reinforces cultural uniqueness is an extensively discussed topic. Proponents of the convergence theory are convinced that there exists a global culture and that society members around the world will become more and more alike. However, many theorists and practitioners oppose the concept of Valuing Diversity (Kiechl 1997). According to the American Psychological Association valuing diversity is what institutions and members of communities do to acknowledge the benefits of their differences and similarities. (see also 2.4)
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5.2
Forces Causing Cultural Changes in Brazil
The information of this subchapter is based on the conducted qualitative interviews with Brazilian University professors and experts of the Brazilian culture (more details in Appendix 9.4). The chapter is divided into the internal causes, highlighting the forces within the national territory and the external causes, about factors from abroad influencing the Brazilian society.
Internal Causes:
Politics & Economy
External Causes:
Globalization & foreign cultures
Cultural Change in Brasil
Figure 5.1. Internal and External Causes of Cultural Change in Brasil
5.2.1
Internal Causes
The two main internal forces come from the Brazilian government and its economy. 5.2.1.1 Stable democracy and social politics
Since the end of the military regime in 1985 Brazil experienced political stability within a democratic system. With the increasing democratization of the Brazilian public system its society started to realize the value of democracy and feeling like citizens. Corruption still seems to be a common, but the increasing institutional stability and introduced controls improved simultaneously transparency. The recent development of the idea of democracy is developed in the following quote: The evolution of a more sophisticated democratic system is leading to more equality, less corruption and more transparency, which impulses the perception of the state and its population as an identity by the Brazilians. The population is starting to respect and appreciate public service and feeling themselves as citizens.
Quote translated from Portuguese, Prof. Gilberto Almeida, UFBA
Mainly during the Lula government (2002-2010) many social politics were successfully integrated, leading to a shift of millions of people form the lower social classes D and E to C7. (IBGE, 2010) This did not only increase the purchasing power of these people but also lead to an integration of these popular classes into economic life, creating new opportunities and a movement of protagnosim (transformation toward more self-confidence and auto-esteem).
Please consider the classification criteria of the Brazilian economy: CCEB Critrio de Classificao Econmica Brasil
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With the integration of the lower social classes through social programs, this part of the population is integrated in the existing Brazilian economic system, which creates more equality among the Brazilian population and boosts the internal economic demand; leading to the experienced economic growth.
Quote translated from Portuguese, Prof. Gilberto Almeida, UFBA
Additional initiatives were undertaken to foster the integration of underdeveloped or excluded parts of the population, such as racial quotas at universities reserving study places for ethnics with lower socioeconomic status. With these strategies the government fights against the existing inequalities while integrating excluded youth in a higher education. Access quotas for state universities and governmental stimulation of the opening of new private universities did increase considerably the number of person with low income within the higher education. However these students lack a fundamental school formation; that leads to their entrance and graduation on a low educational level, for example, an engineer who has an education level of a technician. At the same time a lack of well-educated technician exists on the job market, because now one wants to complete the apprenticeship as a technician, everyone prefers the status of a university education.
Quote translated from Portuguese, Ines Meneses, United Globe Consulting
The changing perception of the role distribution within the social hierarchy is also strongly influenced by the medias especially by the Brazilian television programs, also called telenovelas, explained by the professor of communication: Telenovelas have a strong influence on the perception of role distribution and are leading to a change of existing prejudices.
Quote translated from Portuguese, Prof. Mauricio Tavares, UFBA
These developments help to foster the movement towards a more equalized society with equal rights, possibilities and treatment, which was described by professor Conceio as increasing consciousness that Brazil not only belongs to the riches, withes and elites.
5.2.1.2
Economic Stability and Growth
Since the introduction of the economic program REAL in 1994 and the adjustment of the macroeconomic model by the Cardoso government Brazil experienced an economic stability, compared
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to the experienced hyperinflation and numerous catastrophic economic interventions in the past. As exhibited in figure 5.2 Brazils GDP showed a positive trend, resulting in a real GDP growth of 7.8% in 2010 and according to the UBS Wealth Management Research the forecasts for 2011 and 2012 are 5.4% and 5.1% respectively. The economic growth was boosted by high foreign direct investments, external demand (Brazil experienced an export growth of two digits) and the growing internal market, boosted by the mentioned social programs and the simplified access to credits. The growth of the Brazilian economy created multiple job opportunities, enriching the possibilities for the Brazilian work force which is realising this development and therefore slowly changing its values, towards more self-esteem, less loyalty to the company and more individualistic values. The influence of the economic growth on the perception of work is described in the following quote: Due to the economic growth, the access and opportunities of employment were increased, leading to a change in the perception of work, aspiring personal growth and professional success through careers, which leads to the creation of a culture of efficiency.
Going together with the economic growth Brazil has experienced one of the worlds most drastic processes of socioeconomic and territorial reorganization as a result of a rapid urbanisation since the 1930s: 83 per cent of the total population live in urban areas and there is a very high concentration of population and economic activities in a very small part of the national territory. According to Edsio Fernandes (2007) Brazil has accumulated grave social, urban and environmental problems over decades of rapid urbanisation and governmental neglect and is now in the uncomfortable position of having to change the wheels with the car moving, which means that urban polices have to be introduced during the continuing urbanisation process in order to face the problems related with urbanisation. Moreover, the urbanisation leads to an alignment of traditional culture towards the urban culture, which seems to be more individualistic, less cordial and with weaker social relations, as described in the following quote. The process of urbanization with its social and economic aspects is creating another form of life, leading to an alignment of the traditional culture towards the urban culture which introduces individualistic values by the increased importance of economic success, with less cordiality and more self-orientation.
Quote translated from Portuguese, answer of University professor of Management, UFBA, Prof. Genauto Filho da Frana
The economic development with its improvement of opportunities, mobility and economic situation clearly has an influence on the transmission process of the Brazilian culture values, confirming the under 5.1.1 discussed ideology of the modernisation theory. However, there are simultaneously values like flexibility and person-orientation that persist as traditional values.
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5.2.2
External Causes
The processes of globalisation have an influence all over the world; leading to an international integration. The globalisation doubtlessly influences national culture as well as other foreign cultures may have an impact. 5.2.2.1 Globalisation and international integration
As already discussed under point 5.2.1 globalisation is a foreign influence that has a considerable impact on cultural changes. The introduction of new technologies, especially within communication, the gained access to information and enhanced mobility transform social interactions within the whole society. Brazils political and economic opening towards the rest of the world intensifies the process of globalisation, introducing the culture of capitalism and consumption, also described by an economy professor as the culture of time schedules and efficiency. Participating in the global market place, Brazils organisations are forced to integrate international standards, having an impact on labour market, work conditions and quality requirement of products. Globalisation introduces new global values into the Brazilian culture, such as the observed integration of individualistic interests and a more equalised society. Increasing intercultural interactions enforced by the economic opening and increasing international trade, stimulate the alignment of the Brazilian culture with the international culture values.
Quote translated from Portuguese, Prof. Jos Pinheiro, UFBA
5.2.2.2
Influences of foreign cultures
Since the end of the Second World War the American culture has had the most influence on the Brazilian culture. Previously the strongest influence came from the European culture which was considered as superior. The recent diminution of the North American power in the world economy and within Brazil (e.g. USA lost its position as main export partner of Brazil to China in 2009) may lead to a future decline of the influence of the American culture, as its integration not directly adapt due to the differences between the two cultures: The Brazilian culture experienced a very distinguish development to the American one, the European immigrants immerged with the indigenous population and created an ethical mixture. Due to the historical different development it is not possible to adapt the American models directly in the Brazilian society.
Moreover, Brazil was - as already mentioned in the origins of its national culture (3.1) historically influenced by multiple immigrations. The recent movement towards a more equalised society leads to a revaluation and better integration of the immigrated, partly still excluded, part of the society whose values may merge more intensively with the traditional Brazilian values.
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5.3
Conclusion of the Causes of Cultural Change
In this chapter about causes of cultural change two theoretical convictions were highlighted, firstly the intensively studied relationship between economic development and cultural change was described, showing its complexity and ambiguity. Secondly the impact of foreign influences, especially of the process of globalisation and international integration is analysed. The case of Brazil shows that economic development, experienced through economic growth and stability as well as the introduction of social politics accelerating the development and economic integration of the popular classes, have a strong influence on cultural change. The observed cultural transmission in the Brazilian society confirms the modernisation theory, showing that economic development brings cultural changes, as clearly seen in the Brazilian culture values of hierarchy and collectivism, changing towards a more equalised society with the integration of individualistic values. However, the persistence of traditional values was also affirmed by the unchanged strong culture values of person-orientation and flexibility. In conclusion, there is evidence that economic development leads to both massive cultural change and the persistence of distinctive cultural traditions. The process of cultural transformation is also strongly influenced by the globalisation and foreign cultures, leading to changing work habits, consumption behaviour and social relationships, as confirmed by all the interviewers in the case of Brazil. Globalisation changes the Brazils international role and its culture values: The process of globalisation and the international integration of Brazil led not only to a changed external image of Brazil, but also to cultural changes in the Brazilian society.
Quote translated from Portuguese, Prof. Tnia Fischer, UFBA
The factors causing cultural changes are numerous due to the economic and political development as well as the considerable influences by different cultures and globalization as described in the following statement: Brazil as a country of immigrants is an intercultural melting pot with a huge dynamic. The happening changes are continuous, enforced for example by the globalisation and the internet technology ().
Quote translated from German, Gnther Beck, IFIM
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Implications of the Future Brazilian Management Culture
The in chapter 5 described causes for cultural change in Brazil may continuingly have an important impact on its culture values, as it is likely that the forces persist also in the future. Within this chapter the impact of transformation of the culture values on the Brazilian management culture will be discussed, as well as put in the context of intercultural management.
6.1
Influences of Changes in the Culture Values
The observed changes in the Brazilian culture values have an impact on the whole society within professional or private settings, as already explained in context 2.4. Therefore the Brazilian management culture undergoes a change by implementing the transformed culture values. The trend towards a lower agreement of hierarchy indicates a movement towards a less hierarchical management model, however this change will be introduced very slowly and it is likely that a basis of hierarchical structure will remain.
Brazilian employees are starting to participate more in the organizational life, using a more direct communication to express their opinions more openly and expecting their integration in the management process within the organization. As participation increases, the staff is more likely to take on responsibility and be more performance orientated, while still respecting the importance of personal relationships. The future changes in the Brazilian work environment are described in the following quote: The Brazilian work force will express their opinions with more liberty and taking on more responsibility; their communication style will be more direct; and they will be more task-orientated (always in a historical comparison).
Quote translated from Portuguese, Fernando Lanzer Pereira de Souza, LCO
Furthermore, the already mentioned increase of job possibilities due to the economic growth leads to a decrease of loyalty towards the employer companies, which have to adapt therefore their working conditions in order to retain their qualified work force.
However, only few organisations seem to have already adapted to the on-going cultural changes. Especially in the smaller companies the traditional system of centralisation and hierarchy persists, causing conflicts between the work force and the management. This indicates that the management culture is forced to adapt to the changing culture values, a process which seems to be very slow, but successful.
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Brazilian organisations are not ready for the on-going transformations within the Brazilian culture. Only very few multinationals adapted to the changing culture, due to internal (changing values within the familial business) or external (fulfilling international requirements) factors. The majority has still not adjusted and the adaptation process is very slow, compared with the faster changing society. Especially small companies remain stable as this transformation is not equally required on the local market. However, in order to support the transformation of Brazil in a world economic power the organisations need to fulfill the high expectations of the international market and respecting the on-going cultural changes.
Quote translated from Portuguese, Prof. Andr Chamusca, UFBA
As seen in this quote the adaptation to the on-going cultural changes of the Brazilian organisation and so also of the management culture is fundamental for the future successful development of Brazil.
6.2
Intercultural Management
According to Thomas (2008) the future challenges of cross-cultural managers will be the changing business environment of globalisation, uneven development of the economies, the influence of economies in transition (like Brazil), the further improvement of information and communication technologies and the pressure on the natural environment. The unpredictable future may bring discontinuous rates of change in the legal, political, economic and cultural aspects of the environment of international management. From an economic and political point of view Brazil experienced a considerable growth of international importance and many factors indicate the further potential of the South American BRIC country. Intercultural interactions with Brazilian management are therefore likely to increase in the near future. For cross-cultural managers it is (and will be) crucial to understand and respect the on-going changes within the Brazilian culture, especially when dealing with young professionals whose values undergo a transformation from traditional to new values. Due to the in chapter 4 described on-going changes in the culture values it can be driven that the Brazilian management culture will become less hierarchical and more individualistic in the future, which has to be taken into account in interaction between foreign and Brazilian culture representatives.
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However, it is important to see that cultural shifts may happen within all cultures with remaining differences between the different nations, due to the fact that all nations are undergoing changes and are being interlinked with each other. Therefore, as Hofstede stated (1980) it is important to understand the relative cultural changes, which leads to a differential evolution of the particular culture. In his study about culture change Hofstede (1980) indicated the increase of individualism, the decrease of the Power Distance as long as national wealth increases as some possible longer-term trends; which are congruent with the on-going changes in the Brazilian culture. So, in a further study the relative culture changes between the Brazilian and other cultures should be further analysed and determined, as this exceed the scope of this thesis.
The following quote states the future of the Brazilian culture respecting other cultures. Its possible that hierarchy will be less valued and the importance of performance and individual responsibility increased, but the Brazilian culture will continuingly be hierarchical, collectivistic and less performance-oriented in the comparison with the Anglo-Saxon and German culture. However, its possible that well have a more equalized society, but still hierarchical (like the examples of France, Italy and Spain.)
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Conclusion and Outlook
To conclude, this last chapter summarized the present study, focusing on the major finding. Additionally, the use of the study is highlighted and a future outlook of the Brazilian culture is given at the end of the chapter.
7.1
Summary of the major findings
Firstly, based on the existing studies about the Brazilian culture the five Brazilian culture values were determined as: Person-Orientation, Flexibility, Hierarchy, Collectivism and Persistency. Secondly, with the help of an online survey and additional research the cultural changes were determined and the strongest changes were the transformation from a hierarchical to a more equalised society and the integration of individualistic mind-set within the collective Brazilian society. In a further step, based on the conducted interviews with Brazilian culture experts and University professors the reasons for these cultural changes were evaluated, which showed the existence of internal forces, coming mainly form the Brazilian democracy and the positive economic development, as well as external forces, such as the globalisation and the influence of foreign cultures. At the end the implications of the identified changes on the Brazilian Management culture were presented as less hierarchical, more participative and more performance-orientated. The main points of the paper work are summarized in figure 7.1.
Brazilian Culture Values

Person-Orientation Flexibility Hierarchy Collectivism Persistency
Cultural Changes
Less Hierachy / More equality Less Collectivism / More individualism
Causes of Cultural Changes

Internal: Politics / Economy External: Globalization / Foreign cultures
Implications on Management culture
Figure 7.1 Summary
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The present paper wanted to give interested people a deeper understanding of the Brazilian culture and its ongoing changes. I hope my work will be of interest not only for the Brazilian students how participated in this research but also for everyone interacting with the Brazilian culture, as it is crucial to pay close attention to the changing values of a culture, especially while dealing with the new generation of young Brazilian professionals.
7.2
Outlook
It is very difficult to predict the future development of the Brazilian culture; however, five of the interviewed persons stated a very optimistic view of the Brazilian culture, as a combination of the traditional Brazilian values of person-orientation, collectivism and flexibility with new values of efficiency, individualism, higher productivity and less hierarchy. Somehow it would be an integration of the existing Brazilian values and the newly introduced values of the globalised world. The Brazilian culture would therefore be based on the existing orientation towards relationships, embodied by its humanism, cordiality, respect and socialism with an increase of efficiency, productivity and time-orientation; integrating only the positive values of the foreign cultures. The model of the Brazilian culture would be a unique model in the world, combining the positive values necessary for a positive future development. The idea is well-developed in the following quote by a Brazilian culture expert: (...) the Brazilian culture should maintain its particular identity and differencing form all other cultures in the world. It could even be more effective and efficient in the quest of a fair, productive and gratifying society. The Brazilian model would be unique and valid as any other culture, insofar permitting that our nation is happy and productive. ()
With this positive outlook of the future development of the Brazilian culture, which in turn will influence the Brazilian management culture I conclude my thesis and thank you for your interest.
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Trompenaars F. & Hampden-Turner C. (1997) United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) (2009) Wild J., Wild K. & Han J. (2010) Wirtschafts Woche (2010)
Riding the waves of culture : Intercultural Management Publishers NV, Understanding cultural diversity in London business Human Development Report 2009 http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2009_ EN_Complete.pdf accessed December 2010 International Business - The Challenges of Globalization (5th edition) Neue Weltmarktfhrer, vernderte Sprache, anderer Alltag. Ihre Zukunft. Die grossen Trends in Wirtschaft, Technik, Management, Geld, Politik. Pearson Education, New Jersey
WirtschaftsWoche Nr. 040 vom 04.10.2010, accessed over DHBW Lrrach: wiso
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Appendixes
Brazilian Map
Appendix 9.1
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Appendix 9.2
Questionnaire
The questionnaire was conducted in Portuguese and is available on http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CulturaBrasileira.
In my thesis about changes in the Brazilian culture the opinion of current management students is very important and therefore I thank you for participating in this survey.
Personal data: Age / Place of birth / Gender / University
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Please indicate to which extent you agree or disagree with the following statements. The importance is laid on what you think rather than how things are: Personal circumstances may be more important than a work commitment. An important characteristic of a manager should be caring and motivating his staff. A reliable personal network is fundamental to be successful professionally. Being late in a business meeting or not respecting deadlines does not have negative consequences. There is always a possibility (jeito) to solve problems. Flexibility, adaptation to changes and creativity should be enhanced in todays business world. A well-functioning organisation needs a centralized and hierarchical structure Showing respect to a person of a hierarchical higher status is compulsive. In the Brazilian society people should be treated equally and given the same rights and possibilities. In Business group achievement should be more appreciated than individual performance. The commitment to a group should not force you to change your personal interests. 60
Family loyalty should be higher valued than business obligation and interests of other (familyextern) groups. The productivity (of a business) should be enhanced by the introduction of rigorous working process. An organization should consist of rules which define the behaviour of its member. Business contracts and agreements should be built on a strict and reliable law system.
Please indicate how the following items are important in your life:
Family Friends Leisure Time Politics Work Religion
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As my work is mainly dealing with the change of cultural values and regional differences I would like to know your point of view to the following questions. (Please note that this part is optional, so if you do not have time just press the continue bottom.):
In your opinion, what are the values of the Brazilian society having an important influence in personal and business life? (Examples) Did these values change over the generation? Do you have different perception of them compared with your parents or grandparents? Do you think there are regional differences in the Brazilian values or a strong national identity leading to an everywhere acceptance of the Brazilian values? If there are differences please explain how the values change.
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Appendix 9.3
Survey Evaluation
Questionnaire Brazilian Culture on SurveyMonkey.com

Within the framework of the licence thesis about Change of the Brazilian culture and its implications on the future Brazilian management culture the questionnaire Brazilian Culture was realised during the first two months of 2011. The questionnaire was distributed to four state universities representing four different regions of Brazil. The survey was facilitated with the tool of Surveymonkey.com and the questionnaire can be accessed online on http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CulturaBrasileira. The link was sent to management students of the following universities with the support of the respective professors and personal contacts. The answers of the period from 11.01.2011 to 04.03.2011 were taken into account for the following analysis.
Participants
The numbers of management students of the participating universities are shown in the following table.
Universidade Federal da Bahia UFBA Universidade de Braslia UNB Universidade de So Paulo USP Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul UFRGS Total 53 32 136 16 237 22% 14% 57% 7% 100%
The proportions of the four universities are unequally distributed (see in the following figure) due to more or less sophisticated communication systems within the universities, also respecting the fact that during the research period the students were enjoying the semester break.
Participating Universities
14% 22% Universidade Federal da Bahia Universidade de Braslia 7% 57% Universidade de So Paulo Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
The distribution of female and male respondents was rather balanced with a percentage of 43% and 57%, respectively, as exhibited in the following figure: The age structure and place of birth vary among the respondents. In order to facilitate the analysis the study was made on the assumption that the students represent the respective university and its region, although it could be possible that a student does not study in his or her region of birth.
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Besides the personal data, the questionnaire was divided into three parts, the first analysed the defined Brazilian culture values, the second part integrated the question about importance of some aspects in life and in the final optional part three open questions gave the respondents the opportunity to express their ideas in more depth. In the following survey evaluation the results are firstly analysed as a whole,
Distribution of the Gender

Male 57% Female 43%
secondly regional differences are analysed between the different universities. The answers to the open questions are analysed at the end.
Brazilian Culture Values

According to the defined Brazilian culture values three statements per value were drawn up as shown in the following table.
Value
Statement
Person-Orientation
Personal circumstances may be more important than a work commitment. An important characteristic of a manager should be caring and motivating his staff. A reliable personal network is fundamental to be professionally successful. Being late in a business meeting or not respecting deadlines does not have negative consequences. There is always a possibility (jeito) to solve problems. Flexibility, adaptation to changes and creativity should be enhanced in todays business world. A well-functioning organisation needs a centralised and hierarchical structure. Showing respect to a person of a hierarchical higher status is compulsive. In the Brazilian society people should be treated equally and given the same rights and possibilities.
Flexibility
Hierarchy
Collectivism
In business, group achievement should be more appreciated than individual performance. The commitment to a group should not force you to change your personal interests. Family loyalty should be higher valued than business obligation and interests of other (family-extern) groups.
Persistency
The productivity (of a business) should be enhanced by the introduction of 64
rigorous working processes. An organisation should consist of rules that define the behaviour of its members. Business contracts and agreements should be built on a strict and reliable law system.
In the survey the respondents were asked to answer to which extent they agree with the statement, given the following choices of answers: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, and Strongly Agree. In the following each value and its corresponding statements are analysed.
Person-orientation With the following statements, which positively correlate with the value Person-Orientation, the occurrence and its extent of the first of the Brazilian culture values is analysed.
Personal circumstances may be more important than a work commitment.

55.3%
60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral 1.4% 16.8% 18.3%
8.2%
Agree
Strongly Agree
Description: The participating management students agreed with a percentage of 55.3% that personal circumstances may be more important than a work commitment. However, only 8.2% of the respondents valued the statement as strongly agree. The rest answered with disagreement or neutrally. Explanation: The clear agreement shows the preference of personal relationship over work engagement. It shows the importance of the personal, social life which may come first before the work life. The fact that the most agreement was not strong could be explained by the feeling of responsibility towards business and create some kind of conflict between personal and professional life when it comes to negative interactions.
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An important characteristic of a manager should be caring and motivating his staff.

58.4% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree 0.0% 0.5% 3.3% 37.8%
Description: With a sum of agreement of 96.2%, the students agreed that caring and motivating are important characteristics of a manager. Explanation: The personal-orientation is even more clearly expressed in the answer structure to this statement. The clear majority confirms that social skills in the business world are fundamental and that management consists of social interaction of people and furthermore, that the person itself is of a considerable importance.
A reliable personal network is fundamental to be professionally successful.
45.9%
45.0%
Agree
Strongly Agree
Description: Over 90% agree that a personal network is fundamental to be successful in the business world. Only a few respondents disagreed with the importance of a social network. Explanation: The answers show the importance of personal relationships in the personal and professional life. It shows again the importance of the person, above purely economic orientation.
Conclusion Person-Orientation: The results of the survey show a clear confirmation of the value PersonOrientation in the Brazilian culture. It seems that the focus is still laid on personal relationships rather than task commitment and purely economic interests. Business seems continuingly to be based on thrust and
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personal interaction. Social networks remain crucial in personal and professional life. However, despite the strong orientation towards social interaction, work engagement seems to have its importance in the Brazilian community, shown in the reactions to the first statement.
Flexibility With the following three statements the survey wants to understand to which extend flexibility is important as a value in the Brazilian society.
Coming late in a business meeting or not respecting deadlines does not have negative consequences.
60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0%
45.5% 37.8%
3.8%
6.2%
6.7%
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Description: The majority of the respondents disagreed that being late in business setting does not have negative consequences. However a few answered with an agreement of the statement. Explanation: This provocative statement wanted to analyse how the often known prejudice about the Brazilians is perceived by themselves. The clear disagreement shows that there is no place for coming late in the Brazilian Business world. Nevertheless business meetings in Brazil hardly ever start punctual and deadlines may be flexible. This gap between the answers and reality may be explained by the difference between practises and values as already encountered in the GLOBE study. Also may the interpretation of late vary; arriving 15 minutes after the scheduled start of a business meeting may be still on time. However, the answer shows that the students value organised, well planned business dealing over flexible time perception.
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There is always a possibility (jeito) to solve problems.
47.6%
26.4%
Agree
Strongly Agree
Description: Almost half of the participating students agreed that there is always a possibility to solve problems. 26.4% agreed even strongly whereas around 12% disagreed with the statement or responded neutrally. Explanation: The famous jeito brasileiro still seems to be of a great importance in the Brazilian society and represents a strong cultural value. This fact was also confirmed in the answers to the open questions as discussed later in this survey evaluation. There are two perception of the well-known jeito, a positive one which stands for flexibility, spontaneity and creativity, but also a negative one which embodies corruption, egoism, and adaptation due to selfishness.
Flexibility, adaptation to changes and creativity should be enhanced in todays business world.
56.9% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree 0.5% 1.0% 1.9% 39.7%
Description: The answer structure shows clearly that flexibility, changes and creativity are fundamental in the current business world and should be enhanced. Explanation: The results confirm the importance of flexibility and adaptation to change in the Brazilian business environment, which is surely influenced by the process of globalisation and on-going worldwide changes.
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Conclusion flexibility: Flexibility seems to be a consistent, strong value in the Brazilian culture, not only in personal but also in business settings. Especially the famous jeito brasileiro, interpreted as always possible respond to every kind of issue, embodies the Brazilian flexibility. The disagreement with the acceptance of delays in business may be seen as less important, due to the fact that the answers seems to be rather idealistic and the fact that no society likes to confirm its own weaknesses.
Hierarchy The analysis of existing studies has shown that hierarchy has historically had a strong influence in the Brazilian society. The survey tried to verify the status of hierarchy as a Brazilian culture value.
A well-functioning organisation needs a centralised and hierarchical structure.

52.6%
60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Strongly Disagree 15.3%
19.6% 11.5% 1.0% Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree
Description: Almost 70% of the respondents disagreed that a well-organised company needs a centralized, hierarchical structure. Only a minority of 12.5% agreed with the statement. Explanation: The answer structure shows a clear disagreement towards the need of centralised, hierarchical structures, which may be interpreted as a general aversion against hierarchy in todays business setting. However it could be that - as already seen in the considerable difference between practices and values of the Power Distance Value of the GLOBE study - that there exists a remarkable gap between how it should be and how it is. This movement of values towards a less hierarchical society may lead in the future towards a more equalized business environment.
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Showing respect to a person of a hierarchical higher status is compulsive.
60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree 5.3% 3.8% 32.7% 32.2% 26.0%
Description: The reactions to the statement Showing respect to a person of a hierarchical higher status is compulsive. vary greatly between disagreement and agreement. Only a few respondents did strongly agree or disagree with the need of showing respect to hierarchical higher persons. Explanation: The heterogeneous answer structure indicates some movement in the valuation of hierarchy in the Brazilian society. Whereas respecting the hierarchical rang of a person and showing the according respect was compulsive in earlier generations there seems to be a shift towards a more equalized society where hierarchy does not play the same important role.
In the Brazilian society people should be treated equally and given the same rights and possibilities.
60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree 2.4% 4.3% 7.2% 39.6%
46.4%
Strongly Agree
Description: The participating students did clearly agree that every participant of the Brazilian society should be treated equally and be given the same rights and possibilities. Explanation: The positive agreement with the statement seems to enforce the movement towards a more equalized society. However, also here a difference between practises and values may be of considerable importance, as equal treatment is not yet attained in the Brazilian society and it contradicts the famous jeito brasileiro of customized actions depending on socioeconomic status and personal network.
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Conclusion Hierarchy: The reaction to the statements showed a change towards a less hierarchical, more equalized society. It seems that centralized, hierarchical structures are losing their importance and are getting obsolete in the Brazilian economy. Also it was stated that the respect of hierarchical status is less important and that everyone should be treated equally, which somehow cuts across the current system, which still comprises discrimination and socially differing treatment.
Collectivism Whether Brazil is a more collective or individualistic society will be analysed with the following three statements.
In business, group achievement should be more appreciated than individual performance.
60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree 3.9% 23.8% 28.2% 34.0%
10.2%
Description: Over a third of the respondents agreed that group achievement should be valued over individual performance in business environment. However no real answer structure may be defined as almost 30% responded neutrally and some did even answer that individual interests should come before the team commitment. Explanation: The heterogeneous answer structure shows that there is no clear direction toward collectivism or individualism in the Brazilian business life. To some extent individual performance as well as group achievement should be valued and both interests respected.
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The commitment to a group should not force you to change your personal interests.
Description: With a total of 51.4% the participating students agreed that the commitment towards a group should not force the individuals to change their personal interests. However, almost a third disagreed with the statement, putting collective interests over the individual ones. Explanation: The agreement with the statement shows to some extent a trend towards individualism. As the statement did not result in a clear defined answer structure it may be that the Brazilian society is currently balancing between the values of collectivism and individualism, showing a change towards the integration of individualistic orientation.
Family loyalty should be higher valued than business obligation and interests of other (family-extern) groups.
Description: Over half of the students see family loyalty as more important than business obligation and issues of other (family-extern) groups of interests. A remarkable part of the respondents did, however, disagree with the prevalence of the family. Explanation: A rather agreement with the statement shows that the family takes an important place not only in personal, but also professional life. This was also confirmed in the answers to the importance of life issues as shown later in this evaluation. The flat answer structure shows, however, that the prevalence of the family
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is not absolute above the other interests in life. Somehow family loyalty may also conflict with the modern business environment, which demands a high commitment to the working task.
Conclusion Collectivism: The reaction to the three statements related with the value of collectivism did not show a clear structure. A balance between individualistic and collectivistic orientation was exhibited, which may indicate a trend from collectivism to an integration of individualistic interests. The shift towards a more individualistic orientated society may lead to a conflict with the observed strong person-orientation in the Brazilian society.
Persistency Based on the knowledge of existing studies persistency was defined as another Brazilian culture value, its occurrence was analysed with the following statements.
The productivity (of a business) should be enhanced by the introduction of rigorous working processes.
60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Strongly Disagree
47.6%
21.6% 15.4% 13.5% 1.9% Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree
Description: A rather clear disagreement shows that the majority of the respondents do not think that the productivity should be enhanced through the introduction of strictly organized work processes. However a few students (of 13.5%) agreed with the statement. Explanation: The answer structure shows that rigorous working structures are not appreciated and not seen as productivity enhancing. It seems that flexibility without strict rules is more appreciated, as already seen in the explanation of the flexibility value.
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An organisation should consist of rules that define the behaviour of its members.
Description: The students responded very heterogeneous to the statement that an organisation should consist of rules which define the behaviour of its members. Almost a third agreed, whereas more than 40% disagreed, 11.1% of them even strongly. Explanation: The flat answer structure may come from the trade-off between the need for rules to organise social and professional life and the importance of flexibility and spontaneity in the Brazilian society.
Business contracts and agreements should be built on a strict and reliable law system.
Description: Accumulated 46.1% agreed that business contracts and agreements should be based on a rigorous law system. However over a quarter of the respondents did not agree that a strict, reliable law system should be the base for any business accords. Explanation: Only slightly more than half of the respondents are convinced that a system of persistency in which everything is organised by rigorous laws is fundamental for business agreement. It seems that there is still a preference towards a less organised system in which there is place for flexibility.
Conclusion Persistency: The analysed statements showed that there is not much space for persistency, embodied by rigorous rules and laws in the Brazilian society. The value of flexibility, which was strongly
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confirmed in the survey, responds more to the Brazilian culture values and somehow conflicts with the persistency. The persistency embodying rules and organised structure constitutes the external framework, whereas internally flexibility prevails. The existing system of the Brazilian society is therefore based on strict rules (persistency) but leaves space to avoid the limiting rules and laws by using the jeito brasileiro (flexibility).
World Value Survey

In the next part of the survey one question making part of the World Value Survey was integrated. The respondents were asked to indicate how important the following in their life is. The table shows the answers of the conducted survey.
Importance in life: FAMILIY FRIENDS LEISURE TIME POLITICS WORK RELIGION Very Important 90.43% 51.20% 40.67% 12.56% 44.02% 26.44% Rather important 9.57% 46.41% 55.02% 39.13% 54.55% 27.40% Not very important 0.00% 2.39% 4.31% 43.96% 1.44% 24.52% Not at all important 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 4.35% 0.00% 21.63%
100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% FAMILIY FRIENDS LEISURE TIME POLITICS WORK RELIGION Very Important Rather important Not very important Not at all important
The results clearly show that family plays an important role in the Brazilian life. Over 90% valued family as very important, placing the loyalty to their relatives above all other mentioned aspects in life. Friends also play an important role, scoring second place on the items valued as very important. These two results confirm the importance of the value Person-Orientation in the Brazilian Culture and to some extent also Collectivism, as social relationships with family and friends are given more importance than work or other less socialising points in life.
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The answer structures of leisure time and work show a similar structure, indicating that they are valued equally in the Brazilian life, which leads to the assumption that a good work-life-balance exists in the Brazilian society. The low importance score of politics is impressive, indicating that the participants do not really care about political issues even as management students of state universities and after electing a new president only a few months ago. This disinterest in politics may be explained by the lack of transparency and the still existing problems of corruption in the Brazilian governmental affairs. Furthermore, the respondents may think that they do not have the possibility to influence the politics and do therefore not really care about it. Another interesting point are the heterogeneous answers about the importance of religion, indicating that there is a huge diversity in religious practises.
100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% FAMILIY FRIENDS LEISURE TIME POLITICS WORK RELIGION
Items valued as very important In the following the results of the current survey are shown in comparison to the data of the existing World Value Survey conducted in 2006 (blue, described with WVS).
100.00% 80.00% 60.00% 40.00% 20.00% 0.00% Very Important Rather important Not very important Not at all important FAMILIY WVS FAMILIY
The very similar structure of the importance of family confirms the continuing fundamental role of the family in the Brazilian society.
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60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Very Important Rather important Not very important Not at all important FRIENDS WVS FRIENDS
In both surveys friends were valued as important; in comparison to the WVS 2006 they were given an even more crucial role in the current survey.
60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Very Important Rather important Not very important Not at all important LEISURE TIME WVS LEISURE TIME
Also a similar structure shows the comparison of the importance of leisure time. In the current survey the free time even scored more important than in the existing study of 2006.
50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Very Important Rather important Not very important Not at all important POLITICS WVS POLITICS
As already shown politics are not valued as very important in the current survey. However, in the existing study of 2006 politics did even score worse with a not at all important percentage of almost 20%.
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70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Very Important Rather important Not very important Not at all important
WORK WVS WORK
Work seemed in both results generally important, showing only a shift from very important towards rather important which may indicate a movement towards a better work-life balance in which work comes after other more crucial elements in life.
60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Very Important Rather important Not very important Not at all important RELIGION WVS RELIGION
The greatest difference between the two studies may be seen in the importance of religion. Whereas in 2006 more importance was placed on religion, the more heterogeneous structure of the current survey shows that religion has lost importance in the Brazilian life. Interesting is as already mentioned the wide spread answers which may indicate a very differing perception of religion and which is confirmed by the variety of existing religious practises.
Regional Differences?
In the second part of this survey evaluation the results are analysed in terms of regional differences, assuming that the four participating universities as representing the four different regions of Brazil. Person-Orientation
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Personal circumstances may be more important than a work commitment.

80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree
Total UFBA USP UNB UFRGS
Generally the same structure may be encountered in the answers of this statement about person-orientation. Small differences may be seen on one hand in the stronger agreement of the students of the UFBA and on the other hand the UNB seems to be slightly more neutral. Indicating a stronger occurrence of the orientation towards social relationships in the region of the Northeast and a weaker one in the region of Brasilia.
An important characteristic of a manager should be caring and motivating his staff.

Very similar are the answers to the second statement, agreeing about the importance of social skills in management. The slightly different answers of the UNB are balancing themselves out when accumulating both degrees of agreement.
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A reliable personal network is fundamental to be professionally successful.

Also here the answers of the different universities are quite identical, showing a clear agreement about the importance of a reliable social network. Interestingly, only a few students of the UFBA did strongly agree with the statement and some of them even disagreed or remained neutral. In the answers to the statement related to the value Person-Orientation very few differences may be observed between the different regions. Slight divergences between the participant universities compensate one another, as for example the UFBA students responded in the first statement more human orientation but then showed less agreement with the importance of social network in the last question.
Flexibility
Being late in a business meeting or not respecting deadlines does not have negative consequences.
A similar structure may be seen in the first statement concerning the value flexibility in the illustration above. Counting together strong disagreement and disagreement the answers are even more congruent, so there are only slight differences between the strength of disagreement, showing the UNB as more and the UFRGS as less disagreeing.
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There is always a possibility (jeito) to solve problems.

Similar were also the answers about the jeito brasileiro, showing an overall agreement that there is always a possibility to solve problems. The students of the UFBA showed slightly more agreement whereas the other universities had more respondents answering with disagree or neutral.
Flexibility, adaptation to changes and creativity should be enhanced in todays business world.
The agreement with the importance of flexibility, adaptation to changes and creativity in the current business world was expressed similarly by the different universities. Accumulating both categories of agreement its extent seems to be equal, a bit strange is the amount of disagreement showed by some students of the UNB, compared to the very clear strong agreement score. The answers of the four universities are very similar to the statement regarding the Brazilian culture value of flexibility. No significant difference was recognised and the famous jeito brasileiro maybe found in every region, standing for the creativity and spontaneity of the Brazilian society.
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Hierarchy
A well-functioning organisation needs a centralised and hierarchical structure

80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree Total UFBA USP UNB UFRGS
The general answer structure seems to be similar regarding the statement about organisational structure. The students of the UFBA responded with the highest agreement compared to the other universities, a fact which may be explained by the considerable existence of traditional structures, due to the slower economic development of the Northeast. However, the percentage of strong disagreement by the same students shows that there seems to be a transmission process towards less centralised structures. The Southern region represented by the UFRGS shows an even stronger disagreement which may be related to the strong economic power of this region.
Showing respect to a person of a hierarchical higher status is compulsive.

80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree Total UFBA USP UNB UFRGS
Very heterogeneous are the answers about the obligation of showing respect to a person of a hierarchical higher status. All regions seem to balance between agreement and disagreement, varying only by the extent of each characteristic. The UFBA seems to answer with a slightly higher disagreement, seeing people more equally. Whereas the UFRGS agree on one hand with over 30% and on the other hand to almost the same extent disagree, indicating differences on perception of hierarchical structures.
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In the Brazilian society people should be treated equally and given the same rights and possibilities.
Also in the third statement regarding hierarchy the answer structure seems similar, agreeing strongly with the equal treatment of all members of the Brazilian society. The answers of the UNB seem to be more dispersed and slightly less agreeing, showing that there exists more acceptance of inequality, which may be linked to the political importance of the region of Brasilia. The regional differences are not outstanding concerning the reactions to the statements related to hierarchy. However, some divergences may be encountered, especially in the question about centralised, hierarchical organisation structures, which may be due to the different economic development of the regions.
Collectivism
In business, group achievement should be more appreciated than individual performance.

The differences in the answers about the valuation of individual or collective performance are small and may be neglected. Of interest is the flat heterogeneous structure trough out the different regions.
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The commitment to a group should not force you to change your personal interests.
More differential are the results about the conflict between group and personal interest. The UFRGS shows a high percentage of agreement on one hand but also disagreement on the other hand, however, balancing the answers, it may be that this Southern (economically strong) region is slightly more individualistic orientated than the other regions, in which the answers are more dispersed and flatly distributed.
Family loyalty should be higher valued than business obligation and interests of other (family-extern) groups.
Family loyalty seems to be high valued overall in Brazil, to an even stronger extent in the Southern region, represented by the UFRGS. To sum up, the reactions of the different regions to the statements regarding collectivism seem to be once again very similar. The Southern region seems to be slightly more individualistic orientated, shown by the higher valuation of personal interests over the commitment to the group the reason for which may be the strong economic development of this part of Brazil.
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Persistency
The productivity (of a business) should be enhanced by the introduction of rigorous working processes.
The disagreement towards the necessity of rigorous work processes for high business productivity seems to be generally similar within the different regions. The UFBA and the UNB show some outstanding results of disagreement, showing their rejection of strictly organised processes in business, leaving more space for flexibility.
An organisation should consist of rules that define the behaviour of its members.
A congruent heterogeneous answer structure may be seen in the question about the rules defining the behaviour of the members of an organisation. The stronger agreement of the students of the UFBA shows a greater wish to clearly define peoples behaviour within an organisational framework.
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Business contracts and agreements should be built on a strict and reliable law system.
A similar, heterogeneous structure may be seen in the reaction to the necessity of a reliable law system. The UFBA and the UFRGS agree slightly more with the importance of a firm law system as base of business negotiations. As already seen in the analysis of the total answers the reactions to the persistency related statements are not going in a clear direction, which leads to the assumption that the value is undergoing a transmission process. Regional differences may be encountered but compensate one another throughout the different statements.
Conclusion Generally it may be said that the answer structures were very similar and only slight differences between the agreement and disagreement of the four universities may be found and often the small differences found compensate one another throughout the multiple statements. However, it is very interesting to see how similar the reactions are, even as the regional cultural diversity of Brazil is famous. The congruence of the answers may results of the very similar characteristics of the respondents (young management students of state universities).
World Value Survey Regional Differences?

In the following the different answer structures of the participating universities to the questions from the World Value Survey about the importance of some aspects in life are presented: Average Structure
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100.00% 80.00% 60.00% 40.00% 20.00% 0.00% FAMILIY FRIENDS LEISURE TIME POLITICS WORK RELIGION
Very Important Rather important Not very important Not at all important
UFBA
Generally congruent with the average reaction structure; the UFBA shows only a slightly higher valuation of religion in live. USP
The answer structure of the USP shows a structure that is very similar to the average structure of all universities. UNB
The UNB shows to some extent a different structure, according less importance towards religion and political affairs. Contrastingly, in the capital work is given more importance in life.
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UFRGS
The structure of the Southern region of Brazil seems very congruent as well. Very Important Items
100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% FAMILIY FRIENDS LEISURE TIME POLITICS WORK RELIGION Total UFBA USP UNB UFGRS
Comparing the items valued as very important in life, the overall similar structure within the regions is evident. Only small differences, such as the higher valuation of family and friends by the UNB or the slightly smaller extent of importance accorded towards friends by the students of the USP, may be seen. Politics seems generally not very important especially in the economic capital of Sao Paulo and the Southern region of the country. The reactions to the importance of work are very similar showing the national congruence of appreciation of work. The differences within the aspect of religion are slightly greater and may be explained through regionally different practises of religion. (ex. Northeast influence of African religions)
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Open Question Responses

In the third part of the survey three open questions were asked in order to get more detailed responses about the Brazilian culture values, the on-going changes and about regional differences. This section of the survey was optional and responded by 156 students. Brazilian culture values In the first question the respondents were asked to indicate which values of the Brazilian society have an important influence on personal and business life. Many different answers were gathered to this question, some of them allocated rather positive values to the Brazilian society, some other responded rather negatively. In the following table the most mentioned values are represented together with the respective number of mentions. Value Social Network Family Respect Creativity Ethics Flexibility Honesty Jeito Brasileiro Solidarity Compromise Gerson Law Persistency Collaboration Cordiality Happiness Adaptation Hierarchy Individualism Religion Education Status Character Humility
Number of Appearance 33 28 24 23 22 21 16 15 10 8 8 8 8 7 7 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 89
Allegiance Dignity Briskness Willpower Responsibility Love / Passion Humanism Professional Growth Financial Independency Loyalty
4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3
In the following table I tried to relate the multiply mentioned values to the five defined Brazilian culture values. Some values were not possible to allocate to one of the values and built a few separate values. As it can be observed easily the value of Person-Orientation is confirmed by the frequent mentioning of social network, the importance of family and other personal relationship oriented values. So it can clearly be seen that the values PersonOrientation and Flexibility are undoubtedly important culture values in the Brazilian society, whereas the values Collectivism, Persistency and Hierarchy were also mentioned in the answers, but with a lower frequency, corresponding to the found on-going changes in these two values. Of a special interest is the occurrence of the value of Collectivism AND Individualism indicating the already seen trend of integrating individualistic values in the Brazilian society. Value Person-Orientation Respect / Ethics Flexibility Collectivism Idividualism Persistency Hierarchy Religion Education
Value Social network Family Respect Creativity Ethics Flexibility Honesty Jeito Brasileiro Solidarity Compromise Gerson Law Persistency Collaboration Cordiality Happiness Adaptation Hierarchy Individualism Religion Education Status Character Humility Allegiance Dignity
Number 33 28 24 23 22 21 16 15 10 8 8 8 8 7 7 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3
Number 82 80 69 34 20 12 11 6 5
Briskness Willpower Responsability Love / Passion / affection Humanism Professional Growth Financial Idependency Loyality
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The most important of the remaining values are the nominations related to respect and ethics, but no further focus is laid on these values, as they contain values which should be present in every society and do therefore not present values which distinguish the Brazilian from other societies. This justification also values for Religion and Education, although it is interesting that religion was still considerably represented in the answers, taking in account the rather differing answers to the importance of religion in the question of the World Value Survey. Two other aspects were of additional interest; the repeated mentioning of the concept of jeito brasileiro and the law of Gerson. The two concepts are very well explained in the following answer: The values are: jeitinho brasileiro (The Brazilians consider themselves experts and think that there is always a possibility for every kind of problem, also if the solution is not very lawful) and the law of Gerson (Everyone wants to take the most possible advantage of the relationship with others, in the society and in business).
Concerning the jeito brasileiro the respondents highlighted its positive site as flexibility, creativity and adaptation and also its negative perception as creating corruption, illegality and social incorrect behaviours. To sum up, it can be said that the presented finding of the open questions correspond with - and so confirm the before presented data.
Culture changes
The second question asked whether the in question 1 defined values changed over the generation, more specifically whether the respondents have a different perception of the values compared to their parents or grandparents. Dividing the answers in three categories of change, no change and some values changed others not shows a clear majority of almost 70% agreeing that the values did change over the generations, as visualized in the following graph.
11% Change No Change Some values changed others not
20%
69%
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Some statements support the before shown findings, such as the following answer, underlining the movement towards a less hierarchical, more equalized society (of meritocracy): Yes, in the past the respect of the social position of the older and richer persons was more important. Money and age did impose respect. The new generation does not allocate the same amount of value to it, they rather reward expertise.
The introduction of individualistic oriented interests was stated among others in the following statement: Yes, a conflict or dilemma of the values can be observed. Work and its intensive rhythm fostered the introduction of individualism. This idea of personal benefits breaks with the social welfare.
Another point of interest was the multiple mentioning of the loss of importance of work in life, confirming the observed shift form very to rather important in the World Value Survey.
Regional differences
In the before shown findings regional differences did not appear very evidentially. The answer structure mostly showed a similar structure within the different regions of Brazil. However, the answers obtained in the last of the three open questions are very interesting as they confirm the contrary. The question wanted to know whether there are regional differences in the Brazilian values or if a strong national identity leads to an everywhere acceptance of common values.
12% 14% Regional Differences National Identity National Identity and Regional Differences
74%
How does this clear agreement towards the existence of regional differences go together with the consistent results obtained in the evaluation of the value related statements? One reason was already mentioned after the analysis of the regional differences as the survey had a very homogenous group of respondents. However, the difference could also be explained by the existence of intensive prejudices, which makes the population think that there are very distinctive values in the different regions although they are rather similar.
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The most mentioned regional differences were the definition of the Southern population as work-orientated, organized and therefore also stressed and serious, whereas the Brazilians of the Northern region are perceived as very relationship-orientated, valuating social life above work commitment, being less reliable and always friendly. Exactly these well-known differences may strengthen the perception of a regional diversity of values. A few students answered that the regional difference exists due to different economic development and the influence of regional different immigration flows. But it was also stated that difference occurs between different social classes and between the rural and urbanised area.
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Appendix 9.4
Qualitative Interviews
The qualitative interviews consisted of a discussion about the following four questions: 1. Which culture changes are currently happening in the Brazilian society? The realized research did show (under others) two considerable changes: (in private and professional settings) : Hierarchy: Diminution of hierarchy, Movement to a more equal society Collectivism: Integration of individualistic values 2. What are the forces creating these changes? (The changes you mentioned and the changes observed) Examples: economic development / social programs / economic opening / international influence / technological progress / globalization / influence of other cultures / 3. How could the future development of these changes be? 4. How will the discussed changes influence the (future) Brazilian Management Culture?
The list of the interviewed persons their their function is presented in the following table: Name Prof. Henrique Tom Prof. Livio Andrade Wanderley Prof. Gisele Ferreira Tiryaki Prof. Plnio Moura Prof. Jose Pinheiro Prof. Andr Chamusca Prof. Maurcio Tavares Prof. Fernando Conceicao Prof. Gilberto Almeida Prof. Genauto Filho de Frana Function UFBA Economics Professor/ Head of the Faculty of Economics UFBA Economics Professor UFBA Economics Professor UFBA Economics Professor UFBA Management Professor UFBA Management Professor / Consulting UFBA Communication Professor (Master Program Culture & Society) UFBA Communication Professor (Master Program Culture & Society) UFBA Management Professor UFBA Management Professor / Ncleo de Estudos sobre Poder e Organizaes Locais UFBA Management Professor / Centro Interdisciplinar de Desenvolvimento e Gesto Social CIAGS 94
Prof. Tnia Fischer
Fernando Lanzer Pereira de Souza Ines Meneses Gnther Beck
Leadership and Change in Organizations United Globe Consulting - Mundo Unido IFIM Institut fr Interkulturelles Management GmbH: Senior Consultant Brasilien
The eleven first mentioned interviews were conducted personally in Salvador da Bahia, whereas the others respondents were additionally contacted by mail.
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Changes in The Brazilian Culture

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Changes in the Brazilian culture

and their implications on the future Brazilian management culture

International Business Management

Basel, April 2011

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