Category: Happy At Work

It’s obvious that business culture is different in different countries – but different how? How much is myth and prejudice and how much is fact? Are Americans really brash and superficial? Are the Germans really punctual and humorless? Or as I heard one stand-up comic say once: “Laughter is a wonderful thing. Where would we be without laughter? [pause]. Germany!”

Gerd Hofstede to the rescue. Hofstede is a Dutch Sociologist who has been analyzing business culture in different countries for over 40 years.

He also quantifies the prevailing business culture in 4 dimensions:
Power Distance Index (PDI). This is the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.

Individualism (IDV). The degree to which individuals are integrated into groups. On the individualist side we find societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after him/herself and his/her immediate family. On the collectivist side, we find societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families (with uncles, aunts and grandparents) which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.

Masculinity (MAS). Masculine cultures are very assertive and competitive, feminine cultures are modest and caring.

Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI). This deals with a society’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. It indicates to what extent a culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations.

Here, for example, is Denmark:

As you can see, Danish business culture has a very low power distance. This is typical for Danish workplaces, where employees will always call managers by their first names and you rarely see a manager giving a direct order. The Culture in Denmark tends towards the individualistic rather than collective and is very feminine. This means that even though Danes don’t see themselves as integral parts of a collective, there is still a huge focus on other people’s emotional state. Finally, uncertainty avoidance is very low, meaning Danish workplaces can take uncertainty. Indeed, a typical Danish attitude would be “Don’t tell me how to do my job, I’d rather figure it out for myself.”

Let’s compare that to the US:

Power Distance is higher and the culture is more masculine but what really sticks out is individualism. As you might expect, American workplaces are characterized by high levels of individualism and less of a sense of belonging to a collective.

Finally, the reason I’m writing this blog post: Guatemala. I’m writing this in my hotel room in Guatemala City, and tomorrow I’m keynoting at a conference for 200 HR managers. So of course I wanted to know what the business culture here is like. Take a look at this:

Check out that Power Distance! As Hofstede writes:

Guatemala has the highest Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) Hofstede Dimension ranking of all Latin countries, indicating the society’s extremely low level of tolerance for uncertainty. In an effort to minimize or reduce this level of uncertainty, strict rules, laws, policies, and regulations are adopted and implemented.

Guatemala is tied with Panama for the highest Power Distance (PDI) ranking among Latin countries with a 95, compared to an average of 70. This is indicative of a high level of inequality of power and wealth within the society.

The question I have to ask is (of course) this:

What business culture is most conducive to happiness at work.

Unsurprisingly, my answer is: The Scandinavian (which is almost identical to the one shown above for Denmark). Indeed, when you look at studies comparing happiness at work in different countries, the Scandinavian nations are always at the top (and #1 is usually Denmark).

And I think that Hofstede’s work gives us part of the reason why this is so:

• Low power distance means employees typically have control and influence over their own work situation.
• A tendency towards the individualistic means that each individual is free to pursue their own happiness, but is still connected to the group.
• A feminine culture means that people care about each other.
• Low uncertainty avoidance is a must in an ever-changing world.

So I believe that companies who pursue a culture and a set of core principles that are in line with this will be happier workplaces – and, as studies show, happy companies make more money. On the other hand, companies that go for masculine cultures with high power distance will end up being very unhappy and will ultimately have their butts kicked by their happy competitors!

Your take

What’s the culture like in your country? You can look up your own country’s culture here. Let me know what you find and whether or not you agree :o)

This is it – today is the day that I can finally announce our international newsletter about happiness at work.

We’ve had a thriving and highly popular newsletter in Danish for years, but somehow never got around to doing one in English. Well, no more procrastination – here it is :o)

When you sign up for it you can expect:

• About one email a month.
• Tips, links, inspiration and ideas about happiness at work.
• Articles and videos about happiness at work.
• The occasional thinly veiled attempt to get you to buy some of our stuff :o)
• At least one belly laugh per newsletter.
• No spam what so ever – ever!

And you can sign up right here:

One of my most popular posts is still the one about The Cult of Overwork and it just got another great comment from Dee:

I work in retail, and it’s true, some enjoy spending all their time at work, and that’s fine. If you want to spend 60 hours at work, that’s your prerogative. What I don’t like is the judgmental attitudes surrounding work hours– the unsaid expectation that if you don’t work 9-9, you’re a failure, or letting your team down.

No, working 12 hours, five days in a row makes me miserable AND a failure– a failure at my job. I work to live, I don’t live to work, as the old saying goes and, when I first started and was eager to fit in, I bent over backwards keeping a similar schedule. I felt ashamed that my ‘meager’ 12 hour day contribution wasn’t enough, and I felt in ‘awe’ of the woman that habitually came in at 6am and leaving at 9pm. Then one day, about a year into the job, I remember wondering why I had gotten the flu yet AGAIN, (the fourth time in two months!) when it hit me. I was working way too much and almost killing myself. Life is going to get me in the end. I don’t need my job to speed up that process.

Now I work less, work better, and win more accolades, get more sales, and get sick less, all because I don’t conform to the cult of overwork. I’m in the minority, but I’m happy. And that lady? Well, she still works her heart out, and complains the whole way.

That’s the way to do it, Dee! Read the rest of the comment here.

Yesterday I spoke to 200 people at Umbraco Codegarden 2010, an annual IT developer conference for web developers who use the open source CMS system Umbraco.

Niels Hartvig, the founder of Umbraco, has a clear vision that focuses on both a good platform (so that the actual product is great) but equally on creating a great community, so that people want to be actively engaged in sharing knowledge, developing code and helping each other.

I kicked the conference off with a high-energy presentation on happiness at work and how these 250 coders, consultants and evangelists can create a happy community and it was very well received.

Then Niels gave his keynote in which he also celebrated the people who have gone above and beyond in their work on Umbraco.

Before I went on, Niels told me that here was one person in particular, that they wanted to celebrate for his excellent work and energy. So this is what they gave him:

They bough him a really fancy espresso machine and had his name and award engraved on it. Not only did it make him happy, it will also keep him caffeinated and highly productive :o) The only problem is that the damn thing weights 18 kilos (35 pounds) and Shannon will have to lug it home to Australia.

This is an excellent way to celebrate a person in front of 250 of his peers because it’s fun, personalized, quirky and relevant – all the hallmarks of a good reward.

Have you ever been rewarded in a similar way? How does your organization reward people who go the extra mile? Please write a comment – I’d love to know your take.

I just had a great interview with executive coach Lisa Pasbjerg about a wide range of topics from happiness at work to what happens to people who have all the outward signs if success but still hate their jobs.

You can hear the whole interview here.

The New York Times has a great article about the talent school at Dutch football (ie. soccer) club Ajax, where young players are discovered and train to be the stars of the future.

But how do you know who’s got it? How can you tell if this or that 10-year old kid will be a football legend? Interestingly, the biggest talents are not necessarily the ones who score the most goals. One coach says:

I am never looking for a result — for example, which boy is scoring the most goals or even who is running the fastest. That may be because of their size and stage of development. I want to notice how a boy runs. Is he on his forefeet, running lightly? Does he have creativity with the ball? Does he seem that he is really loving the game? I think these things are good at predicting how he’ll be when he is older.

At our conference in Copenhagen on May 20, the head of talent development of FC Copenhagen, Denmark’s leading football club, said essentially the same thing: He looks for young players who enjoy the game for itself. Playing football should be the coolest thing ever – even if you’re just practicing on a rainy Monday evening. This means that they also focus on making training sessions and games fun.

I like that approach and I think it translates well into business (unlike a lot of other sports concepts). Essentially, this is what Southwest Airlines does when they “hire for attitude and train for skill.” British food chain Pret a Manger also emphasizes happiness. Jay Chapman, their head of communication says:

You can’t hire someone who can make sandwiches and teach them to be happy, so we hire happy people and teach them to make sandwiches.

What about your organizations? Do you look for talent based only on performance or do other factors count?

I was recently interviewed for an article in Call Center Magazine and they liked my blog post on The Top 5 Reasons Why “The Customer is Always Right” is Wrong so much that they’ve turned it into a wall chart that is waaaaay more colorful and attractive than my original post. Download it here.