Diversity and Cross Cultural Management (HR) - Essay Example

London is among the most diverse: It is only 65% White (Dunnell, 2009). Immigration both internal to the former Commonwealth and current Commonwealth nations such as from India, Bangladesh, and Hong Kong, and from the Middle East, is changing the ethnic background of the country. Against this backdrop, it is vital to understand the United Kingdom from a Hoftstedian framework of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism and collectivism, masculinity and femininity, and long-term orientation.

The United Kingdom has a middling power distance ranking (Kwintessential, 2010). Power distance is an indicator that looks at the way that people at the bottom of organisations or structures perceive both the fact and the justice of unequal arrangements. Kwintessential (2010) states, “The UK's score in this dimension is 35. This indicates that rank, status and inequalities between people are reasonably low” Legislation at the macro level is designed to protect minority rights from majoritarian intervention.

At the micro level, office relationships among peers, superiors and subordinates is relaxed, with plenty of ability to question and give input up the chain. Ceremony is at kept at a minimum. This matches the Gini index being 34%, but unfortunately, inequality at least in strictly economic terms in increasing in the UK: During recessions, such as the one that the UK is currently coming out of, the Gini index and inequality tend to increase (Office for National Statistics, 2010). Acceptance of social distance has to be paired with a reduction in individualism.

People who are too individualistic are socialized not to tolerate too wide a variation in power or distance, since that steps onto their autonomy. Unsurprisingly, then, the UK is also highly individualistic. “The UK scores 89 for Individualism. This is high and therefore points to that fact that British culture values and promotes individuality” (Kwintessential, 2010). The nuclear family trumps other more collectivist kinship structures, and individuality is highly valued at a personal level.

However, the United Kingdom does certainly have collectivist trends. The dole and other social welfare policies are protected and respected, and the idea of loyalty to the Commonwealth is still popular. Uncertainty avoidance in the UK is relatively low. The UK scores at 35, which indicates that British culture is open to risks and change. Laws are constantly revised and experimented upon and with by Parliament. Conflict between equals, peers and even inferior-superiors is healthy and accepted.

Masculinity is ranked at a 66 (Kwintessential, 2010). Gender bias is certainly real in the United Kingdom, and traditionally masculine values still dominate. However, it is an important fact to bring up that it is important not to be culturally deterministic or monolithic. The construction of what masculinity is certainly has changed in the United Kingdom. Segal (1997) points out that there are many types of masculinity that are key to the ascribed and self-expressed social identity of men: Tough, camp, gay, super-macho, classy, “metrosexual”, sophisticated and refined, rough-and-tumble.

men view their masculinity in dozens of ways as there is a changing gender battlefield in the UK. The UK, like many Western countries and like its Anglo-Saxon descendants the US and Canada, is transaction-focused