“Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster”, said world-famous cultural anthropologist Geert Hofstede.
Cultural intelligence that allows you to navigate this complex landscape can become a precious asset in the uncertain global business world.
While you probably agree that adapting to local culture and identifying insights about cultural differences can help you grow your business, it can also be challenging to do this in practice when you truly work globally. For example, suppose your business comes to contact with over a hundred cultures daily. In that case, it becomes nearly impossible to study the cultural values affecting business strategy, employees, customer service, and marketing, looking at each culture individually.
To reduce the complexity and quantify the impact of culture on businesses working with many cultural backgrounds, we want to introduce a cultural model developed by Huib Wursten. The 7 Mental Images of National Cultures model is based on the Hofstede 6D-model and can provide evidence-based analysis of cultural differences of the around 200 cultures in the world through clustering them.
In this blog post, we will go through the 7 Mental Images model and explain how it can help businesses capture the essence of each culture more simply and practically. We will also discuss how cultural clustering helps companies discover solutions for cultural issues and has helped them achieve better results in different practical business applications globally.
We divided this article into two parts:
- The 7 Mental Images Model: an explanation of the model with a summary of each cultural cluster.
- Enhancing international business performance with cultural clustering: a discussion on where you can apply the model in practice to gain valuable insights and measurable results.
Let’s start by looking at the model in more detail.
The 7 Mental Images model and the different mindsets (clusters)
Huib Wursten is a Dutch management consultant internationally recognised for his experience working with Fortune 1000 companies and private companies in 85 countries and on all continents. He is especially known for translating international and global strategies and policies into practice in management.
After helping large multinational clients solve cross-cultural problems for decades, Huib started identifying gaps in the Hofstede 4D model (later 6D-model). As a result, he began combining the model’s dimensions while working with groups of talents from all over the world and delivering monthly workshops and seminars in Washington with IMF.
We met Huib through Hofstede Insights, where he and our very own InCultures experts are all Associates.
He says the reaction he used to hear often was:
“Am I supposed to memorise the scores on the five dimensions [of Hofstede 6D model] of all these countries? There are over 400 different bits of information…”
A cultural cluster model for multinational organisations and international businesses
To solve the problem, Huib set to find a more straightforward and less complex solution that would work by combining the first four dimensions of the Hofstede 6D model into a model that would be more convenient for businesses and organisations dealing with a large number of cultures.
The patterns that emerged resulted in the first 5 of the model’s Mental Images or cultural clusters and mindsets. The work was recognised in 1998 with an award by the Neyenrode University in a competition on the topic “What is the influence of culture on the economy”.
Subsequently, the complete model was born out of consultation with Geert Hofstede.
Since developing the model, Huib has become known as the intellectual father of the “mental images”. He describes them as “the value-based game rules, the unconscious ways of dealing with others and making decisions in a society“.
The model introduces six cultural clusters that describe how people in those cultures think about society and organisations. The 7th Mental Image is an outlier: Japan does not fit in with any of the other cultural clusters and stands on its own.
The benefit of the model that most stands out is that it reduces the complexity of working with so many cultural backgrounds. It helps you understand the cultural similarities and significant differences without considering each dimension for each country. Huib developed it together with clients and consultants specifically to serve as a practical tool.
The Mental Images help you understand different ways of working in international business:
- The thinking and behaviour of individuals from a particular cultural background
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The average professional attitudes in business and the game rules that different
professional groups share. The Mental Images influence both of these too.
The 7 MI model lays the groundwork for finding solutions to cultural issues and bridging cultural differences. It makes the essence of culture simpler to capture, remember, and apply in practice.
So, what are the 7 Mental Images or mindsets in these cultural clusters?
Contest (‘winner takes all’)
- Competitive cultures with a low Power Distance (PDI), high Individualism (IDV), high Masculinity (MAS), and relatively weak Uncertainty Avoidance.
- Examples include Australia, New Zealand, UK and US.
Network (‘consensus’)
- Highly Individualistic (IDV) and Feminine cultures with a low Power Distance (PDI), where everyone is involved in decision-making.
- Examples are Scandinavia and the Netherlands.
Well-Oiled Machine (‘order’)
- Individualistic societies with a low Power Distance (PDI) and strong Uncertainty Avoidance have carefully balanced procedures and rules but not much hierarchy.
- Examples are Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and German-speaking Switzerland.
Solar System (‘hierarchy and standardised job descriptions’)
- Hierarchical (high PDI), but Individualistic societies (high IDV).
- Examples are Belgium, France, Northern Italy, Spain, Poland and French-speaking Switzerland.
Pyramid (‘loyalty, hierarchy and implicit order’)
- Collectivistic (low IDV) cultures with high Power Distance (PDI) and strong Uncertainty Avoidance.
- Examples are Brazil, Colombia, Greece, Portugal, Arabian countries, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand.
Family (‘loyalty and hierarchy‘)
- Collectivist (low IDV) cultures with a high Power Distance (PDI), where we can observe powerful in-groups and paternalistic leaders.
- Examples are China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore.
Japan as the Seventh Mental Image (‘dynamic equilibrium‘)
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- The only country in this ‘cluster’ due to the unique combination of dimensions not found in any of the other Six Mental Images.
- Mid-Power Distance (PDI), a mid-Individualism (IDV), a very strong Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) and a high Masculinity (MAS) score.
Interestingly, the early model clustered France and Northern Italy in the Pyramid cluster due to the hierarchy in these countries. However, the group was then divided into two due to their significant differences in Individualism and Collectivism dimensions. The Pyramid cluster became the cluster for collectivistic cultures with high Power Distance. The new 6th cluster, the Solar System, was created specifically for individualistic cultures with a considerable Power Distance.
If you are wondering about Japan, the country did not fit with any other cluster. Therefore, it became the 7th Mental Image with the help of Japanese colleagues. Japan is simultaneously collectivistic but not very collectivistic and hierarchical, yet not that hierarchical. Therefore, separating it into its own Mental Image was a practical choice that allows people and businesses to grasp its unique combination of dimensions better.
If you are not familiar with the language of the Hofstede 6D-model, we have written about the dimensions in more detail in our article 6 measurable factors Nordic exporters and vendors in Russia can leverage to “unlock” their true competitive advantage.
Want to understand how to apply this model to solve cultural challenges in your own business? Drop us a line.
Enhancing international business performance with cultural clusters: What do companies use the 7 MI model for?
The key point here is that in our hurry to be more efficient and adapt our business strategy in a globalising world, we should not walk into the trap of thinking that best practices and management theories that stem from one culture carry a universal value that applies in others.
Huib explains that the consequences of doing this might be that people partly adjust to this new ritual because they tend to act according to others’ expectations. If we take management practices in organisations as an example, this might mean flexible reward systems, career-oriented management development systems, or management by objectives, to mention a few.
“However, this does not mean that this is corresponding with people’s own inner motivation and values”, he concludes.
But, knowing this, how do companies apply the cultural clustering model in practice, and what for?
First, it’s worth pointing out that the model has been validated over the years. After completing the model, Huib tested it in practice with various long-term clients like IMF, IBM worldwide, Vodaphone, 3M, ABN Amro-Bank, and JP Morgan Chase, to mention a few.
Secondly, it is good to understand that the 7 Mental Images manifest themselves across various types of situations. Their use is not limited to management or business strategy.
For example, let’s look at the example Huib gives on the characteristics of effective leadership focusing on the Contest cluster and Network cluster (both individualistic and non-hierarchical):
| Contest (Anglo-Saxon countries) | Network (Nordic countries, Baltic countries, Netherlands) |
| Decisive | Coordinator, colleague |
| Selling the decision in a consultative way | Consultative |
| Hero: “walk on water” | Supportive |
| Have data available to inform and instruct people | Decisive as a last resort |
| In control | Negotiating decisions |
| Accountable | Recognises and involves all the stakeholders |
Similarly, when applied using the information on each relevant cluster, the 7 Mental Images model is instrumental in helping you understand cultural differences in a variety of different practical business applications globally. These include, but are not limited to:
- Management and Leadership
- Customer service
- Marketing
- Sales
- Negotiations
- Transfer of knowledge
- Cooperation
- Human Resources
- Innovation
- Projects
For one example case on this topic, you might be interested in reading our article Globalisation & localisation for a worldwide business: a complicated love story.
In this article, we go over the challenges global companies face when they understand the importance of adapting locally but want to effectively meet the business demands of a global approach.
Next steps: handling specific situations with cultural competence
Cases and examples can help you understand how you should take culture into account to increase the effectiveness of your global business. The solution often depends on the specific individual situation or question you ask and the cultural backgrounds involved.
To help you do this, Huib has written an excellent leadership book about the 7 Mental Images with the help of InCultures’ Pia Kähärä and another Associate Partner of Hofstede Insights, Erika Visser. In the book, you will find examples and cases from Huib’s 30-year career on topics such as:
- How the Mental Images play into how meetings are run in different cultures
- Different outlooks on delegation
- Decision-making
- Managing change
- Organising customer service
These will be interesting reading for anyone working in international business and eye-opening for those who have never considered the importance of cultural competence or heard of cultural clustering. You can get your copy of the book here.
“Culture is a complex topic. Running a global organisation is therefore by definition complex. Huib combines his decades worth of experience in strategic cultural training, consulting and coaching with our research based approach to culture, resulting in concrete case studies enabling you to simplify global business complexity while retaining maximum local impact.”
Egbert Schram, Group CEO, Hofstede Insights
If you are interested in applying this model and finding solutions to your global business challenges, book a free strategy call with our CEO and editor of the book, Pia Kähärä. Let’s discuss your specific case and find out how our experts can help.