Taking it like a Greek: How national culture informs your organisation’s response to crisis

The Babushka of Culture

Culture shapes our frame of mind, guides our behavior, defines our expectations, and (ultimately) forges our capabilities. It is also much like a Babushka doll: it works through overlaying layers – with each layer affecting and interacting with both its higher and lower tiers. This is because no social ecosystem, however big or small, is isolated from its surroundings and the culture of its habitat.

Your company may have its own organizational culture, but that is informed by the dispositions, beliefs, expectations, and values of a broader social unit, namely the state, the prevalent ethnic group of its members or the international alliance where it operates.  Therefore, since your company is based in Greece, Greek national culture does play a significant role in shaping its distinct cultural characteristics – both through the effect of general environmental factors such as legislation, taxation etc., and through the input of your human capital that bear (albeit in varying degrees) their country’s cultural norms.

Dimensions of nations

National culture has been thoroughly examined by Geerd Hofstede and his research team. According to Hofstede’s insights, there are six dimensions that shape culture: i) the extent to which power is expected to be distributed unequally (Power Distance), ii) the degree of independence among individual members (Individualism), iii) the prevalent motivational paradigm (Masculinity), iv) the extent to which people are comfortable with change and uncertainty (Uncertainty Avoidance), v) the tendency to value future prospects over past traditions (Time Orientation) and vi) the extent of control people exert over their desires (Indulgence). Hofstede ran a series of extensive studies to identify the cultural profiles of nations based on the fluctuation of these six dimensions, creating a cultural profile for most of the world’s countries.

The case of Greece

Perhaps the most interesting characteristic of the Greek cultural profile lies in the dimension of Uncertainty Avoidance. Greece scores a whopping 100 /100 on this attribute, meaning that in general, Greeks have an extremely low tolerance to uncertainty and are repelled by ambiguous situations. Societies with a high Uncertainty Avoidance score tend to be more bureaucratic and depend on strict laws and regulations to keep things safe and predictable. A sense of security and stability are very important to the Greek psyche, and that is not surprising given the nation’s turbulent history throughout the centuries. As long as strong institutions and firm leadership provide a sense of safety, things can indeed go smooth and organizations can prosper – given the remarkable ingenuity and pathos that Greeks can demonstrate. But in times of uncertainty, such as this spring’s COVID-19 crisis and the multiple upheavals it produced, a culture that is allergic to uncertainty may not fare well.

Another cultural characteristic that comes into play is Power Distance, where Greece scores a moderately high 60/100. This means that Greek people have a tendency to expect inequalities in power and respect those high in hierarchy. This preference for vertical organization within social groups, combined with high Uncertainty Avoidance, creates what may be labeled a “Pyramid Culture”, where power is highly concentrated, and people’s activities are strictly structured and scrutinized. Within the OCI framework by Human Synergistics, this broad cultural tendency gives way to the emergence of less adaptive and effective organizational styles such as Conventional and Power styles. Fostering less adaptive cultural styles as described above may hinder your organization’s resilience in times of crisis when versatility is key. In such times, research shows that organizations with more constructive cultures are better equipped to face adversity.  (for more on the Organizational Culture Model, see here).

How to cope

In Constructive cultures, members are more independent, more self-motivated, and more involved in decision making – thus being much more versatile and better equipped to face transitional times, as they can draw on their own strengths to keep pushing forward and metabolize change.

The thing is that you cannot force-feed a constructive culture to your people, even if you want to. Much less so, when the surrounding culture is one that, when turbulence ensues, tends to turn to strong leadership and strict procedures to retain a sense of safety. When attempting to implement more self-actualizing or affiliative policies and norms, leaders should take this characteristic seriously into account. Cultural shift is not similarly easy around the world and cultural identity should play a significant role in making such decisions.

The good news lies on another prominent cultural characteristic of Greeks, namely their low Individualism scores. This makes Greece a collectivist culture, which means that dependence on and loyalty to a peer system tends to be more important than individual achievement and success. The social unit to which Greeks are closer to is their (extended) family, but there is room for more close interdependencies. When provided with a family-like social environment, one that values, respects and most importantly takes care of the individual, members of collectivist cultures will most likely feel connected and invested on it.

Is that to say that the way to more constructive Greek organizations passes through team membership and organizational citizenship? Well, maybe. The sure thing is, that in order to help Greek people change, one must provide them with a sense of safety and dependability. If leaders can convincingly demonstrate that they have their employees’ backs, then Greek employees will probably return the favor. And this mutual trust is the foundation upon which a much-needed shift to more constructive cultures may occur.

What is your Organization’s culture?